Re-form – Walking in the Air (bootleg remix)

Posted by PlasmaDancer on October 25, 2009
Posted in: Finnish, Releases. 2 comments

How about this for a surprise? Added to the five Hybridize releases this weekend is a FINRG track from the vaults – Re-form’s 2004 bootleg of Walking in the Air. I heard this one for the first time about 10 minutes ago, and wow….what an awesome choice of track to bootleg. Of course I know the original from the ancient animation The Snowman, and this is pretty much exactly the kind of tune I like best….melancholy melody? High bpm? Nasty filtered synths? It’s all in there. Of course, being a 2004 track it’s lacking some of the complexity of the later releases, but there’s no way I’m going to complain.

Get over to the FINRG site again to download this one ASAP

Operation Karma 3rd Revolution @Kawasaki Tsukiakari Yume Terasu, 29th November

Posted by PlasmaDancer on October 25, 2009
Posted in: Events, Japanese, Mixes. Leave a Comment

The next edition of Operation Karma is coming next month, in Kawasaki once more. For the 3rd edition THC’s Kanon will again be making a guest appearance, along with Gothic Bar Heaven’s TETRA (who I haven’t seen play before). Get on the guest list and entrance is only 1500yen, which is very reasonable for an event that is usually 90% freeform – though of course most people have to factor in the trip to Kawasaki, too.

Another thing worth mentioning is the newly up-and-running Karma site. It’s looking very pro already, and has some video, profiles, and also a promo mix by (I’m guessing) DJ MT. I haven’t got a tracklist yet (I forgot some of the track titles, to be honest), but it’s the perfect showcase for the Karma sound. Very melodic freeform with a strong anime theme, it starts off with Operation Stardust and Endstille (the classic mix combination), before going into the most melodic end of the Finnish sound. There are a lot of anime samples added during the long breakdowns etc, which does a very good job of tying the set together. If you don’t understand Japanese it should sound very cool, but I forgot how incredibly corny the dialogue is in a lot of these things… Still, it’s very well chosen/mixed, and highly recommended.

New Hybridize releases from Guld, Tyranoid/Strongstream and Jnks

Posted by PlasmaDancer on October 24, 2009
Posted in: Finnish, Japanese, Releases. 1 comment

Five more free releases on Hybridize today, including Guld’s remix of Unhola! It’s one of my favourite tunes recently, and hopefully it’ll now get a lot of play from DJs in other parts of the world. Tyranoid & Strongstream also get their first releases for a long time, with three acid-suffused tracks. My favourite might be Saturn – that vicious filtered intro is really nice, and might have been quite a good tune for my set last night, actually. The last track is another remix from Jnks, this time Code of Silence – of course we’ve all heard a lot of CoS remixes before, but this one has more of a UK feel that might fit in well with that sort of set.

All five tunes can now be downloaded from the FINRG site.

LSO Radio, 4th November – Android Lime vs Proteus

Posted by PlasmaDancer on October 22, 2009
Posted in: Events, Finnish, Japanese, Mixes. Leave a Comment

A couple of weeks away, but Android Lime’s next LSO radio show is definitely worth mentioning early. Following on from Guld and BRK comes Proteus himself! I’m really looking forward to this, any set from Proteus is guaranteed to inspire, and he’s on fire with his recent production, too.

Android has also announced a few of the upcoming guests on his recent FINRG topic – they include Alek Szahala, DJ Rx, Hellraiser….and yours truly! What an honour to be in that sort of company – even if it’s a good way off yet, hopefully we’ll come up with some real NRG madness when the time comes. Big thanks to Android!

NRGetic Romancer, 23rd October – Timetable

Posted by PlasmaDancer on October 22, 2009
Posted in: Events, Japanese. 4 comments

No need to explain the topic of this post, so here we go:

23.00 – PlasmaDancer

00.10 – COGI

1.30 – Full Circle DJs

2.50 – Betwixt & Between

3.40 – GULD

So, I’ll be opening an event for the first time – the plan for my set is to start off relatively slowly, but it’ll be full-on freeform by the end, I think. Still a bit stuck about what sort of thing to play, but having too many ideas is better than none, I suppose…

Don’t forget, it’s free entry this time!

Alabaster – Rust World

Posted by PlasmaDancer on October 19, 2009
Posted in: Japanese, Releases. 1 comment

The newest release from Alabaster, Rust World shows how far his production has come recently. Getting closer and closer to the Finnish sound while keeping his original style, there are some blinding tunes on this compilation – most obvious is Aether Storm, the track I first heard in his Operation Karma set a while back. Since then I’ve played it at NRGetic Romancer, and it’s an incredibly hard tune. A lot of other tracks just can’t live with it, and I found it quite tricky to find a decent mix, but the crowd definitely appreciated it. There are plenty of other quality tunes on there though, take a look at Alabaster’s site for the full tracklist.

Good news for people outside Japan too – it’s now available via the HardRave store.

Enough x Hell’s Gate Mixi community

Posted by PlasmaDancer on October 19, 2009
Posted in: Events, Japanese. Leave a Comment

I’m happy to say that it’s looking like the recent Trance Enough vs Hell’s Gate event might become a regular thing in the medium-to-long term. For the time being though, we’re trying to round up members for the mixi community – depending on how many people join, that’ll determine which venue to use (or whether to hold the event at all). If you’re on mixi somewhere, feel free to join up. Zio posted a topic on there tonight asking for interested potential DJs/staff, so that’s reason enough to get involved.

Hard Dance Ravers

Posted by PlasmaDancer on October 17, 2009
Posted in: Events, Japanese. Leave a Comment

A couple more videos of the very talented Hard Dance Ravers – above is Miran (the double mask face, you might remember?) and Natsun glowstringing to Hatral. This one was taken at my first NRGetic Romancer as a DJ, but here Guld’s the one in the middle of some nice mixing.

Next is a 3-person ‘Box’, with I think Detch at the front (although it looks like it could be Silva, another of the Romancer ravers), Deb-4 behind him, and no idea who’s at the back…. Not too sure where this was filmed either, I’ve missed a few events lately, after all. Anyway, imagine the effect on a dancefloor when the HDR crew are in full flow – they’re definitely one of the reasons why guest DJs are always amazed by the atmosphere at events here.

Kevin Energy live @Energy Cocktail 2008

Posted by PlasmaDancer on October 14, 2009
Posted in: Events, Japanese, Mixes, UK. Leave a Comment

Another mix from Nu-Energy, this time Kevin Energy’s 2008 set at Energy Cocktail. Over at the Nu-Energy site you can download or stream this one too, but to be honest it’s very much on the happy side…if that’s your kind of thing, then this set’ll be perfect. Others might be better off waiting for the 2009 set, which featured some much harder tunes at the start.