Here’s some video from last week’s Karma, courtesy of Soham. I can’t seem to find any video of KA-NA, which is really a shame – sadly she’s had to stop DJing (hopefully temporarily), so it was probably the last chance to see her play for a long time…
It looks as if there was still some good sets though, and this first one has Minagi playing Alek Szahala’s Pink Magic.
There might be some photos/video from NRGetic Romancer vs ever free and Operation Karma coming soon, but to keep us going in the meantime here’s my freeform tune of the year so far, Betwixt’s Point Of No Return. I’m sure everybody has heard it by now, but it definitely deserves a post of its own – it might not be a floor-destroyer when played live, but the scene desperately needs a few more tunes with this kind of depth and originality…
Seems like the scene is comatose right now, so while it resuscitates itself here are a few other bits and pieces I’ve been listening to lately. I missed out on a lot of the Goa scene in the mid-90s as I was already into hardcore/drum & bass, but lately I’ve been trying to find a few older tunes and check out some artists who’re trying to keep the same style going these days. Dark psy is all well and good, but when Goa is done properly its hard to beat those trippy melodies…and really inspiring now that I’m trying to get back into ‘tune writing’ myself.
Anyway, I’m no expert, so if anyone has any recommendations I’d love to hear them. One of my current favourites is E-Mantra’s Praying Forest – hang in there until the final third, it’s one of the most stirring tunes I’ve heard for a long time.
Castlevania II – Simon’s Quest – Bloody tears (RAF Remix) by R.A.F.
I came across this tune earlier in the week – a real nostalgia trip for anyone familiar with the Castlevania games. Bloody Tears is one of the most well known tracks in the series, and this is a really nice remix from hard techno/schranz producer RAF, complete with some chiptune-style synths humming along in the background. I was thinking about playing it tomorrow, but we’ll see….The full version is available to download, by the way.
NRGetic Romancer is coming up this weekend, and now the timetable is all announced too. With Kanon, Lunch and Guld all playing towards the end of the night, you couldn’t ask for a much better second-half lineup – though it’s actually a really nice mix of styles right from the start. I’m on pretty early again, but with some of the set being post-midnight there might be a slightly bigger crowd.
23:00 DJ WILD PARTY
23:40 PlasmaDancer
0:20 Kaz-B
1:00 Inugami
1:40 COGI
2:20 Kanon
3:00 Full Circle DJs
3:40 Lunch
4:20 GULD
Another few days of not much happening in the world of Finnish/Japanese freeform, but here’s a nice looking event, at least. This edition of Karma is once again being held on a subfloor of Studio Cube while hard trance/dance event Extrema uses the main floor.
Technorch is the guest this time, and as well as the regulars there’ll be a special b2b set featuring MT and AT (as S.T.A.R.S). Looking like a great event then, but even though the 19th is a national holiday I’ll be heading into work…This one’ll be impossible for me, but hopefully we’ll get some video after it’s all done.
A couple more videos from Ilegrrrls here, this time from Soham. His camera is obviously much nicer than mine, so you really get a better idea of the atmosphere. First is Kanon, bringing the house down as usual with her 4am set, and next is KA-NA playing Epyx & Cyrez’s 4th Dimension.
Time for the final flyer design/lineup for next month’s NRGetic Romancer vs ever free, and you have to say it’s looking like another special event. With Lunch, Inugami, WILD PARTY, Kanon and Kaz-B joining the Romancer crew, this is going to be dark and hard all the way, just the kind of atmosphere that Romancer does best.
Something else you’ll notice is that Betwixt & Between isn’t playing this time – it’s a real shame, but means that I’m probably going to go for a no-holds-barred ‘BTW vs FINRG’ set. It’s been a long long time since I used a lot of Betwixt’s tracks and I’m really looking forward to it, even if the set times will be a bit shorter with so many DJs playing.
NRGetic Romancer vs ever free!!!!
2010.7.10(SAT)
@ARK STUDIO CUBE326(http://
ENTRANCE FREE!!(*Only Drink Fee)
OPEN 23:00
■DJ
GULD
Full Circle DJｓ
COGI
PlasmaDancer
■VJ
VX PASTA
コケカキイキイ
■ever free DJ
Lunch (TOKYO HARDCORE CONSTRUCTION)
狗神 (TOKYO HARDCORE CONSTRUCTION)
DJ WILD PARTY(赤線企画)
Kanon (TOKYO HARDCORE CONSTRUCTION/ever free)
Kaz-B (ever free/Karma-業-)
Support by FINRG, Full Circle Recordings, Kreatrix Recordings, Guhroovy and Anarchy
Last night was the first installment of Kanon’s new event, Illegrrls, and it was probably one of the best events so far this year. The whole concept is fantastic (only harder genres, with a girl-only lineup), so to see such a big crowd supporting it was really encouraging. The scene here’s been a bit disappointing recently, but Kanon managed to bring together ravers from all kinds of different groups for this one. I met a few DJs for the first time, as well as a lot of really nice people from events I don’t usually go to.
Anyway, I decided to go to the event at the very last moment, so after catching the last train and getting lost in Kabukicho (again) on the way to the club, the first couple of DJs had already played. I arrived just as Siki was playing her dark psy set. It was excellent stuff, if a bit more mainstream than Cogi’s style.
Epyx – The Eidolon of the Blind (Dj Set) by Epyx
You might remember Epyx’s excellent industrial/NRG set from last year? Well here’s more of the same, another very well chosen selection of tunes that goes all the way up from industrial to gabber. Once again I was really impressed – the first half of this set is in particular is about as well-constructed as I’ve heard for a long time. The second half doesn’t quite match up, but the choice of tunes is great, with some recent and not-so-recent dark freeform working well together.
Check it out at Epyx’s SoundCloud, along with a remix of Rammstein’s Ich Will.