Alek Szahala – Live @Blacklight 2010, 30th October

Posted by PlasmaDancer on December 23, 2010
Posted in: Canadian, Events, Finnish, Mixes. 10 comments

Just when it was turning into one of those weeks for freeform, here we have a brand new set from Alek Szahala to keep us going into the new year. This one was recorded during Alek’s recent gig in Canada, and there’s plenty of new/updated material along with staples like Maruuk and Iron Squid. Listen out for the slightly Nomic-esque breakcore (?) track in the second half – it stands out a little in amongst all the freeform, but it’s a very nice experimental tune. The excellent Starcrossed and what I think is a reworking of his Baldur’s Gate II remix are other new tunes, while Phobos is sounding as incredible as ever.

You’d have to be mad not to give this a listen – here’s a tracklist of what I recognise so far, thanks to Jiipez for the help!

  1. Alek Szahala – Ascend to the Stars
  2. Alek Szahala – Astraia
  3. Alek Szahala -Deimos
  4. Alek Szahala – Maruuk
  5. Alek Szahala – Lagash
  6. Alek Szahala – Iron Squid
  7. Alek Szahala -Wraithverge
  8. Alek Szahala – Starcrossed
  9. Alek Szahala – Vengeance (2007 edit)
  10. Alek Szahala – Pax Eranae
  11. Chanel 5 – Never Forget (Alek Szahala remake)

Download here

Betwixt & Between – Nanosecond Eternity

Posted by PlasmaDancer on December 19, 2010
Posted in: Finnish, Japanese, Releases. 6 comments

Some people have already picked up on what must be the biggest news for a long time, but if this isn’t worth a full post I don’t know what is – Betwixt & Between’s first solo album. Titled Nanosecond Eternity, the CD includes 12 tracks, most of which are brand new material. The tracklist starts of with the now-classic Hesotarou Tankobu, finishes with Proteus’ new remix, and also includes City of Solitude and an extended mix of hydra.

It looks like the release is set for early next month, and will be available via Hardcore Tano*C’s webstore and even Amazon Japan. Massive congrats to Betwixt on what has been a long process to get this finished – make sure to show your support once it launches!

Guld – Madarosis

Posted by PlasmaDancer on December 19, 2010
Posted in: Japanese, Releases. 4 comments

Time for a real blast from the past via a post on Guld’s new blog – this is a rare and very old tune called Madarosis (not Macarosis as the video title has it). Very dark and nasty, Guld came up with a few tunes in this style before the original Hannya was released. This reminds me that I’ve got a couple of them on CD somewhere…that might be enough of an excuse to play a ‘retro’ set on ustream soon..

Betwixt & Between – The Wander of Hesotarou Tankobu (Proteus remix)

Posted by PlasmaDancer on December 16, 2010
Posted in: Finnish, Japanese, Releases. 4 comments

Betwixt & Between – Hesotaro Proteus Remix – Preview by Proteus Official

Proteus is really on top form these days, and still manages to do more than anyone to support what goes on here in Japan. Here’s another example, a fantastic remix of Betwixt & Between’s Hesotarou Tankobu – atmospherics over heavy drums and filters are now a Proteus trademark, but it’s from the breakdown on that this one gets into its stride. Very different feel to the classic original, but I like this a lot.

Tokyo Hardcore Construction vs Rainbow Devil, 27th December

Posted by PlasmaDancer on December 16, 2010
Posted in: Events, Japanese. Leave a Comment

No news yet on NRGetic Romancer, but we’ve got another tasty event coming up before the end of the year. I’m guessing that this versus affair between THC and the brilliantly-named Rainbow Devil will be on two floors of Cube, as the list of DJs seems to go on forever.

>T.H.C.Crew
Lunch (T.H.C./Rejection Records)
Redd (D.I.E.)
LALA (LoveScreamTerror)
Caress128 (HARDCORE NITRO)
TAK666 (Cradle to Grave)
A10 Divece (T.H.C.)
DJ enshu (HARDCORE NITRO/KGB)
DJ Myosuke (Solidbox Records)

>Rainbow Devil Crew
Kanon (Party Pill)
Betwixt & Between (NRGetic Romancer)
KA-NA (HELLS GATE/JP)
ac-key (Lunatic Sabbath)
TETRA.
MAH (FREE☆MIND)
MyoU (HARDCORE NITRO)
mattu123 (B.D.G.)
DJ yawarakabeef (Premium dining)

suge @Nitro X, 10th December

Posted by PlasmaDancer on December 12, 2010
Posted in: Events, Japanese. 3 comments

I managed to get down to Shinjuku at the very last minute for this one, and it was worth it just to see suge playing for the first time. His set was supposed to be a Live PA, but he was mixing from one CDJ to the other too – only using his own tracks though, from what I could tell. There were a fair few from the Chimera album, but I don’t recognise the tune in the video above. As usual, my camera doesn’t do it justice, but that build-up really sounded amazing.

The rest of the event was pretty hit and miss, with some very weird timetabling, and for once I left early. The Hardcore Regiment set (featuring Azsa, Kanon and Betwixt & Between) turned out to be 40 minutes or so of quality hardcore/gabber anthems – I was hoping for some TOTAL DISCOMMUNICATION tracks mixed in with some THC classics, but Betwixt was on MC duty (!) this time, leaving Kanon and Azsa to play the tunes.

New blog from Guld

Posted by PlasmaDancer on December 10, 2010
Posted in: Japanese. 1 comment

After Matt England’s Freeform Sound comes another blog to support the scene, this time from Guld himself. The idea behind this one seems to be to make people in Japan a bit more aware of what’s going on in the NRG world, but I bet there’ll be plenty of interesting stuff up there for hard NRG/freeform fans, wherever they may be. The blog will be in Japanese, but for those who can manage (or can use a translator), make sure to check it out here.

After all the excitement of last week things have quietened down again here, but there’ll be a couple of ‘feature’ posts coming up before too long (I hope), plus some news from Nitro X.

November Top Ten

Posted by PlasmaDancer on December 6, 2010
Posted in: Top Tens. 3 comments

The darker/deeper side of the scene might be suffering a bit this year, but full credit to the artists who are still pushing the sound; there have been some amazing tracks in the last couple of months. The combination of All of Us and Aurora is a perfect example of where I think freeform should be going – dark and nasty one moment, beautiful and melancholy the next. High fives all round to Epyx & Cyrez, Heathen and Aryx.

That actually links in nicely with this month’s random video, as the other day I finished playing through LIMBO (an Xbox Live-only game),  and it absolutely blew me away. This trailer hardly does it justice – if you haven’t come across it before, it’s an incredibly beautiful/disturbing/emotional experience, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. High fives for Playdead studios too, then.

  1. Epyx & Cyrez meets Heathen – All of Us
  2. Aryx – Aurora
  3. Betwixt & Between – Point Of No Return
  4. Dye In Sound – The Storyteller
  5. Alabaster – lolite
  6. Betwixt & Between – Inexistenz
  7. Proteus – Fist of the North Star
  8. Alabaster -Hellion
  9. Nomic – Walking In The Air (live edit)
  10. Aquanox – Killer Loop