Tokyo Dark Castle vs Rituals The Head Shop, 12th November @Shinjuku MARZ

Posted by PlasmaDancer on November 14, 2011
Posted in: Events, Japanese. Leave a Comment

Another non-hardcore event (before Destroyed High next weekend), yet again including the Rituals crew, but this time in collaboration with infamous goth event Tokyo Dark Castle. With DJs and bands alternating on stage, it was very different to what I’m used to, but there was plenty of interesting/inspiring stuff to listen to.

The video at the top was actually the penultimate set, from a Prodigy-inspired/tribute group somewhat painfully called The Kusogigy –  ‘kuso’ usually translating most gently as ‘damn’ or something similar. They were surprisingly good, even if their original tunes weren’t a patch on the ‘tributes’. The video was taken right at the end of their set, and is obviously their version of Smack My Bitch Up.

Click below for all sorts of other madness…

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Zio – Hell’s Gate (Afagddu remix)

Posted by PlasmaDancer on November 14, 2011
Posted in: Japanese, Releases. 10 comments

Anyone who follows mixu’s (aka pocketpool1000) YouTube channel might have noticed already, but there’s an extra artist name floating around from now on. PlasmaDancer was never even supposed to be a DJ name, and so for a while now I’ve been planning on using something else for any tracks I manage to come up with. Listening to the edit of my Hell’s Gate remix the other day, I decided that it’s just about dark enough to warrant the first use of my alias, Afagddu.

I’ve been reading Welsh myths for inspiraton for a while now (I already have a few unfinished tracks with a variety of unpronounceable Welsh names), and decided on Afagddu as it derives from the ancient Welsh for ‘utter darkness’. The whole story behind this pleasant fellow can be found on the Celtic knot-tastic Nemeton, while Beezee might be the only Horser with an idea of how to pronounce it – in Welsh one ‘f’ makes a ‘v’ sound, while ‘dd’ is more like ‘th’.

That makes it the most horrendous word imaginable for Japanese speakers, but I’ll still be PlasmaDancer for everything here/when DJing, so it’s not as if we’ll be seeing it often…

Anyway, many thanks to mixu for the upload – I still have some space on my PlasmaDancer SoundCloud account, so a wav version will be online to download sometime this week.

Pearsall – Rampage Turbo 8

Posted by PlasmaDancer on November 10, 2011
Posted in: Mixes, UK. 67 comments

I’ve finally had a chance to check out Pearsall’s newest mix, and it’s an absolute must-listen for anyone interested in the roots of freeform. Concentrating on the earliest of early tracks from the late 90s/early 2000s, the tunes from this era have a really nice feel, replacing the happy melodies of the mid-90s with trance/NRG-style acid and hoovers. Pre-internet and trapped in darkest Wales, I still managed to hear a few of the tunes in this set via pirated event mixtapes and the occasional trancecore set on Radio Cymru…the majority are new to me though, which made it a another fantastically educational listen.

Pearsall has done some fine work on the set itself, structuring it brilliantly, while the mixing is of course top class. Once again he has gone beyond the call of duty in his original post, taking the time to write a genuinely interesting summary/history of each and every track.

The tracklist is down below, but check the post on Sonicrampage for the download link.

01. Miss Nic & DJ Swoon – Der Sturm (GBT)
02. M-Zone – Into The Future (Jon The Dentist Future Mayhem) (Boscaland)
03. Lab 4 – Psychoactivated (Trebleate)
04. Tripswitch – Ram Raider (GBT)
05. Citadel Of Kaos – Aux 5 (xy2)
06. Eruption – Let The Music (Bang The Future Remix) (United Dance)
07. AG Systems – Active Tekno (Stompin Choonz)
08. Teknotyx – Time Becomes A Loop (Acid Test)
09. DJ Energy – Raver’s Revenge (Nu Energy)
10. Bang The Future – A Tardis To Brooklyn (GBT)
11. Brisk & Trixxy – Back To The Top (JAL Platinum)
12. Simon Apex – Time For The Sale (No Trix)
13. G.S.I. – Twister (Krafty)
14. Apollo & Burst – Drop That Beat (Space Race)
15. Distressed Frequencies – Victimised (Nu Energy)
16. DSU – The Dawn (Digital Beats)
17. Energy & DNA – The Bastard (Remix Records)
18. Marc Smith – Encounters (Nu Energy)
19. Trixxy – Here To Invade (Bonkers)
20. Sharkey – Hard Life (React)

Epilim – Windup

Posted by PlasmaDancer on November 9, 2011
Posted in: Finnish, Releases. Leave a Comment

Just a quick post today (more to come tomorrow, though), for those who haven’t seen mixu’s recent upload of another older Epilim track. You can really hear the influences from hardcore, trancecore and early freeform in Windup – once again it must have been well ahead of its time, and is still a nice example of how doing the simple things well can make a great track.

SunCore – Hard NRG Wandering

Posted by PlasmaDancer on November 8, 2011
Posted in: Finnish, Mixes. 11 comments

SunCore – HardNRG wandering by suncore_music

I’ve been meaning to mention this set for a while now – SunCore hails from Russia, and looks to be another up-and-coming DJ with an excellent sense of how to arrange a set. Get past the ferocious bpm of the brutally pitched up Icy Clouds and this is an excellent half-hour of twisted/melancholy freeform. While the mixes might not always be the cleanest, there’s some really excellent stuff going on with the selection, suggesting that SunCore definitely knows his stuff. Hopefully we’ll hear more from him in the future, but for now this (non-downloadable, sadly) set is absolutely worth a listen.

Thank You For The Horse Live, 6th November @23:00 (JST)

Posted by PlasmaDancer on November 5, 2011
Posted in: Events, Japanese, Mixes. 4 comments

Thanks to early morning starts on Monday I haven’t been able to do a ustream set for a while, but as I’m off next week I think I’ll take the chance to play a few tunes tomorrow. I’ve got some new stuff to play, and will be rummaging through the Hybridize back catalogue for some tunes I haven’t used for a while.

It definitely won’t be playable tomorrow, but I finally had a bit of inspiration lately and have been working on a new tune. I don’t have much time for music these days, but as I’ve got at least one gig next month it’d be nice to have something new to play…

edit: Why do I ever promise anything? After checking the new tunes, it seems like I’ve got 6 or 7 Hard NRG promos here, so rather than Hybridize I’ll be using some/all of those tonight. Just time to make a restorative cup of tea, then I’ll be setting up…

Betwixt & Between – Tokyo CASE tracklist

Posted by PlasmaDancer on November 5, 2011
Posted in: Events, Japanese, Mixes. 4 comments

Betwixt & Between has just added the tracklist for his Tokyo CASE Live PA to the TOTAL DISCOMMUNICATION site. No download link at the moment, but as he mentiones in the original post he’s open to sending it to anyone interested. I heard bits and pieces of the set at the event last weekend, but sadly missed out on a lot of the newer/more unusual tracks.

01. Betwixt & Between – Out of Blue
02. Betwixt & Between – Tankobu Hesotarou no Hourou
03. Vice Tek Heavy Industry – 3m3sis3
04. Betwixt & Between – Ultraworld 6
05. Betwixt & Between – Point of No return
06. Betwixt & Between – So Sweet Bitter Days
07. Betwixt & Between – Zusammengehorigkeit
08. Rank 1 – Airwave (BTW bootleg remix)
09. Betwixt & Between – Tout est Bien (Sein zum Tode)
10. Betwixt & Between – Hydra (long edit)
11. Betwixt & Between – Nothing Compares 2 U

Rituals The Head Shop Vol.4, 28th October @Shinjuku MARZ

Posted by PlasmaDancer on October 31, 2011
Posted in: Events, Japanese. Leave a Comment

Last Friday I went along to the latest installment of Rituals, and had a great time meeting some of the crew of this super-niche fashion/music event. The early sets were pretty left-field, with a tribal set followed by a totally unexpected piano/synths live performance, but I was mainly there to see Siki and P.R.D. They both came up with some excellent stuff, and P.R.D’s set in particular was an awesomely atmospheric mix of slower but darker genres.

Designer/DJ/Vocalist Kenzo-A’s set was also great, leaning towards electro and rock, while the encore also had some quality tracks, like the demented Mario sound effect-ridden tune that I seem to be hearing everywhere these days.

I ended up spending the following night in a tiny visual kei (!) bar in Kabukicho, and at some point managed to commandeer the PC/sound system to play a few FINRG tracks from SoundCloud. I went for Private Demon, Maruuk and Voices of Babylon – the elegantly gothic decor of this fantastic little place fitted the tunes perfectly.