This is bad timing for most people west of Asia, but Hardcore Tano*C has just started in Shibuya. Brilliantly, they’ve set up a ustream feed for people who can’t make it – sorry I didn’t know about it earlier, but I’ll embed it here for the time being. No Alabaster this time (which is the main reason I haven’t gone), but Betwixt & Between is playing a B2B set with Technetium later in the evening, which’ll really be one to look out for. Looks like a pretty big crowd, with the kind of…special atmosphere you usually get at Tano*C.
Nazomix by TOTAL DISCOMMUNICATION
More from SoundCloud – this time it’s an amazingly creative DJ set from Betwixt & Between. The nazo part of the title means ‘mystery’, and the mix lives up to it with mashed up vocal tunes, hard(core) techno sections and some NRG/freeform towards the end. Most of these vocal tunes would be painful in the extreme at normal speed, but at this bpm and joined by a massive kick they work really well. The mixing’s impressive too, it feels quite similar to one of Betwixt’s NRGetic Romancer Live PAs.
Really worth checking out, then – and while you are on the TOTAL DISCOMMUNICATION page, why not have a listen to some much older Betwixt tracks that were recently uploaded too.
Tyranoid/Strongstream – Delta Green by FINRG Recordings
I’ve been playing some of Tyranoid / Strongstream’s older material on ustream, and here’s a long-awaited new release from them. Delta Green is a very hypnotic/psychedelic tune – I love that bassline, and wait for the gated vocal that comes in around halfway. Wouldn’t this sound nice mixed in with some of the Goa we’ve been talking about?
Aquanox – Killer Loop by Aquanox
Aquanox is back again with more new material, including Killer Loop, another awesome acid freeform track. This could be my favourite from him since Thunderbird, with plenty of freeform style filters and high speed melodies in amongst the now-familiar Aquanox acid.
449-Aquanox-The Unknown by Aquanox
The second track is also well worth posting up – The Unknown actually reminds me of some of Betwixt & Between’s recent tunes (thinking of Stairway to Solstice and Point Of No Return). It doesn’t quite reach those levels, but there are very, very positive signs from this one, with that lovely melody on top of the melancholy strings.
Dye In Sound – Extended by Nightforce
The latest track from Dye In Sound is well underway, this time with a real oldschool Twisted Freq sound. Built around a classic Kreatrix synth and breakdown, Extended definitely has one of the darkest atmospheres we’ve heard for a while.
A quick reminder that tonight I’ll be playing another live set on ustream, starting at 11pm Tokyo time once again. I’ve been rounding up a few tunes (still plenty of rounding to do before this evening, though) and there will be some brand new freeform and NRG this time (as well as the promos from last week).
Over on the Stand and Fight post’s comment section we’ve been talking about hard techno/hardcore and Betwixt’s high bpm tunes. It suddenly reminded me about WILD PARTY’s set last month at NRGetic Romancer vs ever free. He started off around 175bpm, and things just kept getting faster – a lot of the tunes were on the happier side of things, and not really hard techno, but he gradually darkened up the set as it went along, finishing with Unam Sanctum. I was really impressed with WILD PARTY – it was the most technical hardcore set I’ve seen for a long long time, and the preparation/practice that must have gone into it is something a lot of harder DJs could learn from. Just a shame that this is such a short clip…
This is a nice surprise – a compilation album (free, of course) from the COH crew that features a fair few Finnish tracks alongside some of the UK producers I look out for. Check out the tracklist below and you’ll see what a good job has been done with rounding up tunes.
In the freeform section, we all know about Sunray, Aurinkoon etc, but Jnks’ Skywalker shows how much he’s coming along as a producer, and it’s always nice to hear a new track from Matt England. Other tracks mostly fit into the breakbeat hardcore category, and I must admit that I quite liked Fuck Me Egyptian Style, a nutty jungle/happy/hardcore mashup.
Get all eighteen tracks in one file via the COH site.
I’m a couple of months late with this one, but the Operation Karma site has been updated with a new mix from my old Hell’s Gate co-DJ, Minagi. I’ll get a tracklist as soon as possible as there are a lot of tunes I don’t know, but it’s well worth a listen as an example of his style, running through hard house, NRG and finishing with freeform. Nice opening tune too…it sounds like an anime theme, but I’ve no idea what.
Check the mix out via the Operation Karma site, just click on ‘Promo Mix’ to listen.
Last Sunday’s set went surprisingly well, and ended up going on for a couple of hours before technical trouble started to ruin things. Huge thanks to Chip and Nisse for taking part right from the beginning, as well as to Twisted Freq and the mysterious Boddingtons (my younger brother back in the UK, in case anyone was wondering). Thanks too to the guests, whoever they might have been – we ended up with a show-record 12 people in there at one point.
Anyway, there’ll be another set this coming Sunday at the same time (11pm Tokyo time), same place (here). All are welcome!