Substanced – Obsessed

Posted by PlasmaDancer on May 25, 2011
Posted in: Finnish, Japanese, Mixes, UK. 8 comments

I gave this set a listen a few days ago, and as you’d expect from Substanced, it’s another nice collection of uplifting/melodic freeform. As usual with these UK-style sets there are a few tunes I’m not too familiar with (as well as some real classics), but it’s all tied together with some new Finnish tunes, including Substanced’s recent Aphrodite and Shadows of Tomorrow. Invitation is also here, and isn’t it amazing how it still seems on another level to most other stuff, quality-wise? A set well worth a download, then – hit kuuntele over on the Klubitus page.

  1. Transcend – So Obsessed
  2. Nick 235 – Fundamental Darkness
  3. Substanced – Aphrodite
  4. A.B – Outburst
  5. Nish – Sagittarius (Kors K Remix)
  6. Douglas – FM-200
  7. Eufeion – Megaman Blast
  8. Substanced – Shadows of Tomorrow
  9. Kevin Energy & Dj Rx – Translate Replicate
  10. Sc@r – Defiance
  11. Lost Soul ft. Dark Angel – Sacrifice
  12. Alek Szahala – Invitation
  13. Kevin Energy – Veti Levu

Thank You For The Horse Live, tonight @11.30pm (Japan time)

Posted by PlasmaDancer on May 20, 2011
Posted in: Events, Japanese. 6 comments

Short notice again, but I’ll be playing some freeform this evening from 11.30pm Tokyo time. I’ve noticed that I’ve been overusing some tunes/mixes lately, so the plan tonight is to only play tunes that I’ve never used in a set (or very rarely, if that turns out to be a bit too difficult). Time for a quick look through the old hard drives, then…

Who knows what’ll happen, but feel free to stop by and say hello!

Cyanide Project – Bloodlust

Posted by PlasmaDancer on May 18, 2011
Posted in: Finnish. 3 comments

There’s not a huge amount going on at the moment, so here’s an unsigned classic from a few years ago that some might not have heard before. Cyanide Project has been (and still is) coming up with some great stuff, but Bloodlust has always been my favourite. I’ve quite often used the lower quality version in practice sets at home, but don’t want to risk it through a PA – what a shame that the 320kbps version seems to be extinct these days.

It’s a lovely tune, anyway – like some of the recent Dye In Sound material it’s short but sweet, and considering its age it still does a decent job of standing up to other tracks in a mix. Thanks to pocketpool (aka mixu) for the YouTube upload!

Technorch – Beginner’s tutorial, 17th May @8pm (Japan time)

Posted by PlasmaDancer on May 16, 2011
Posted in: Events, Japanese. 5 comments

I’ve been meaning to mention Technorch’s Ustream for a while now, and this latest event (via HARDCORE TECHNORCH) is nicely timed to coincide with the little batch of beginner’s tips from last week. This time, Technorch will be giving a production crash course to Tranthica, who apparently has never tried making a tune before…

It’s a great idea, and sounds like the perfect tie-in to what we were talking about recently. I’ve got nothing but admiration for the variety of Technorch’s tracks (especially his reworking of oldskool sounds with modern production), and while Japanese speakers/listeners will obviously get more out of this, anyone interested in track-making should pay a visit to Technorch’s page tomorrow evening.

Goa Chill Out Corner 3 – E-Mantra

Posted by PlasmaDancer on May 15, 2011
Posted in: Releases. 4 comments

As we’re in the middle of one of those quiet spells, how about another Chill Out Corner? When it comes to Goa, unmixed playlists are almost as listenable as DJ sets, so here’s a little sequence of the tracks I’ve been listening to by Romania’s E-Mantra. His melodies are always something special, and combined with the acid and generally dark atmosphere there’s plenty to inspire us in the freeform scene, I reckon. First up is an amazing slice of dark ambience called White Lights. I’m having trouble finding this tune, but it’ll be opening one of my sets if I ever do…

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EXTREMA 1st Anniversary: EXTREMA caught YOJI, 27th May @Roppongi Studio FORUM

Posted by PlasmaDancer on May 12, 2011
Posted in: Events, Japanese. 2 comments

Time to emerge from stasis with news of an interesting event – EXTREMA is celebrating its 1st Anniversary, and there’ll be quite a lineup on show at FORUM. YOJI is headlining on the main floor, while Guld will be playing a set in the cupboard-sized Black Room, alongside Technorch, Champ and plenty of others. Quite why FORUM is such a popular venue these days is a bit of a mystery, but this one could be well worth the ordeal of a late-night trip to Roppongi.

EXTREMA & FORUM 1st ANNIVERSARY EXCLUSIVE PRESENTS EXTREMA caught YOJI  
 
MAIN FLOOR
SPECIAL GUEST : YOJI
RESIDENT : REMO-CON / YOSHIMASA / BEPPU
FRONT ACT : SIN / ARISA
VJ
MaL / GORIN
 
BLACK ROOM
GULD / DJ TECHNORCH / DJ Champ / Pandora / MARIA DON’T CRY / ni-21 /
ASSHI / WILD PARTY / glico
VJ
VX PASTA / アクア⇒

Technorch – 内閣総理大臣賞 〜HARDCORE TECHNO POP〜

Posted by PlasmaDancer on May 7, 2011
Posted in: Japanese, Releases. 4 comments

Thanks to BerN for letting me know about Technorch’s new album 内閣総理大臣賞 [Naikaku Souridaijin Shou]: HARDCORE TECHNO POP, which includes Mayakashi, a collab track with Betwixt & Between. There’s all sorts going on with the other tracks on the CD, with artists like Sharpnel and Remo-Con involved. Have a listen to the preview up above, and check out the tracklist on Technorch’s own blog post here.

Worth mentioning too that this is one of those rare things, a Japanese release that’s easily purchasable from abroad, via everything from Amazon to iTunes.

Production advice for beginners, Part 1

Posted by PlasmaDancer on May 5, 2011
Posted in: Finnish, UK. 11 comments

One of the great things about being involved in such a small scene is that one person can, with a bit of hard work/motivation/talent, have a really important part to play in the direction the music takes. DJing’s one thing, but we wouldn’t have a scene at all if it wasn’t for the producers, so here’s the first part in what might be a little series of tips from some of the best up-and-coming artists around.

This definitely isn’t meant to be a reference for established freeform folk – instead the idea is to give some of the TYFTH crew some absolutely entry-level beginner’s tips on the kind of stuff I always wondered (and often still wonder) about. A few people here have talked about producing one day, or taken some very early steps, so this might be another little motivating push in the right direction.

This time around there are tips from Aryx, Substanced and Matt England – enormous thanks to all three for coming up with some brilliant stuff, I’m really grateful. If you haven’t checked it out already, the video at the top of the post is a guided tour through Aryx’s TYFTH ‘release’, Galaxis, and is an awesome introduction to both Reason’s interface and Aryx’s production style.

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Thank You For The Horse Live, 4th May @11pm (Japan time)

Posted by PlasmaDancer on May 3, 2011
Posted in: Events, Japanese. Leave a Comment

Real Life is going to start getting busy again after the current national holidays, so tomorrow night I’ll be running through a few tunes from 11pm Japan time. Being a weekday, this might be more for the Japan crew than anyone else, but for anyone who can catch it I’ll probably play some slower Hard NRG (including some newer tracks) followed by the set from last month’s NRGetic Romancer. If all the moons are in alignment I might even remember to record it, you never know.

Incidentally, I’m halfway through a longer post that’s going to have to wait until tomorrow, but it should really be worth checking out…

edit: Thanks to everyone who came to have a listen, it was really nice to see a lot of the regular crew for the first time in a long while. Hopefully the mixing was generally ok too, I’ll give the recording a listen through later today…