I don’t suppose you remember me mentioning the upcoming X-Treme Hard Compilation Vol. 1 launch party? Well, a month has passed in the blink of an eye, and so I’ll be staggering along to DESEO after work this Saturday. More interestingly, the CD tracklist has already been announced, and includes Betwixt & Between’s Skybreak.

Make your own minds up, of course, but to be honest I’m not that interested in the rest of the tunes - aside from some happier efforts from Joshka, DJ Shimamura and Buzzmasta, the majority of the tracks are various degrees of gabber/speedcore (along with the obligatory ’squeeze-in-a-hilarious-profanity-in-any-way-possible’ antics of the last tune), which is all a bit too much for home-listening, at least for me. The tracklist, then:

1 DJ SHIMAMURA - SPACESHOWER
2 Joshka - Unforgotten
3 DJ DEPATH&M-Project - Satisfaxtion
4 DJ SHARPNEL - XTREMEPOLESTA
5 DJ CHUCKY - RUSH DA SOUNDZ
6 DJ TECHNORCH - Carck Work
7 RoughSketch - No Force
8 BUZZMASTA - Rockin’ Jelly Devotion
9 Betwixt & Between - Skybreak
10 C-TYPE - MONEY MAKE A CRAZY
11 CARDOPUSHER - 25YEARS FOR MURDER
12 m1dy - WANI
13 AKIRA DEATH - Sleeper
14 Bokusatsu Shoujo Koubou - COME TO MY GIG AT FUCKOKA

If you haven’t already noticed, over at Finrg a new batch of T-shirts/sweatshirts have hit the online shelves. A lot more colourful than the typical Finrg offerings, the Rx and Swoosh shirts in particular are pretty adventurous designs (in a good way, mind) - although having said that, my favourite might be the classic Epyx & Cyrez logo on a black shirt.

Head this way to have a look at them all.

Another event that’s quite some way off, but definitely worth postponing the summer holiday for. The Bootek series of CDs are, as you might imagine, generally schranz/techno/hard house bootlegs of older tunes (one of which, Underworld’s Born Slippy, was played by Zio at an NRGetic Romancer not so very long ago), and the purpose of this event is to showcase some of those releases.

Anyway, aside from the Bootek Showcase and Mix CD ‘present’ for 100 lucky folk, the line-up at this one really is something. Headliners are Nish and Munetica/Stripe, but Remo-con, Overflow and our man Guld are all playing too. If that wasn’t enough (and not even noted on the flyer), DJ Yousuke and Buzzmasta are playing on the second (’Hardcore’) floor.

This isn’t new, by any stretch of the imagination, but for some reason I completely forgot to post about it back when it was released. Shame on me, because Hardcore Syndrome is quite possibly the best Hardcore Tano*C release yet.

I must admit that I usually feel a sharp pain in my wallet upon buying a Tano*C CD, as aside from the occasional Technorch/Alabaster tune I’m usually paying out 1500-ish yen for a single Betwixt & Between track. This release, however, has got plenty to keep NRG/Freeform fans happy, even without including any Betwixt tunes. How is that possible, you cry? Well, this one includes Hase’s absolutely excellent ‘intelligent NRG’ track, Meditation, alongside some typical kenta-v.ez madness and some nice tunes from Alabaster and Technetium. Even the ‘happier’ efforts are a bit harder than normal here, with DJ Champ and RED ALiCE’s Warp Attacker joined by umbrella’s Optical Force. Finally, we get some extremely hard schranz-esque hard NRG courtesy of Beserk+Haste. If the synths sound a little familar, then you might have picked up on the fact that this is actually one of Betwixt & Between’s pseudonyms - used mainly for experimental/harder tracks. This is one of the more listenable B+H tunes, and definitely worth checking out, as is the whole CD.

• 01.Joshka / Cascading Emotions
• 02.源屋 feat.野宮あゆみ / BLUE SKY (ORIGINAL MIX)
• 03.DJ SHIMAMURA / DOCUMENTAL (DIGITAL REMASTER MIX)
• 04.DJ CHAMP vs REDALiCE / Warp Attacker
• 05.EVOL / BRIGHT FUTURE (M-Project Remix)
• 06.DX PASTA / Perky Pat (320000msec Mix)
• 07.Thanatos / Lovely Lovely Lovely (Cutie Mix)
• 08.テクネチウム / Tc-ma_007
• 09.Next Tribe / August 31
• 10.umbrella / Optical Force
• 11.HASE / Meditation
• 12.Alabaster / Forgotten Ancient
• 13.Berserk+Haste / Quicksand
• 14.kenta-v.ez. / rE-LibErAtioN pLus+
• 15.t+pazolite / Ofcourse you Need and nEed and neEd and neeD and NEED ME?

I heard a little while ago that Kevin Energy might be on his way to Tokyo, although I couldn’t imagine him playing a set at NRGetic Romancer. As it turns out, he’ll be joining Tekka, DJ Champ, T-Energy and KA->NA at DESEO’s Energy Cocktail (which isn’t the most spectacular event name I’ve ever heard, to be honest).

Anyway, Champ’s sets are always worth catching, and Kevin is bound to play some gems in amongst the, ah, slightly more generic UK stuff, but the highlight for me will be the chance to hear KA->NA play again, who hasn’t been very active at all of late.

It’s still a long way away though, and the main reason for posting this up was the just-released flyer design, featuring a surreal-yet-cool London/Tokyo hybrid scene.

今日Alchemiistというフィンランドのアーティストはかっこいい曲できました。Finrgフォラムで「日本の曲から霊感を受けた」と言いまして、Betwixt & Betweenな感じと思います。メロディーはフィンランドっぽいところがありますから、ちょっと新しいジャンルみたいですね。

ダウンロードはこちらです

Alchemiist has posted up a new track today, Winds of Yesterday - and apart from being a really nice tune, it’s interesting for the fact the he was very much inspired by Japanese tracks/Betwixt & Between. For a first attempt at this sort of thing it’s a really nice effort, and as the melody still has something of the Alchemiist/Substanced/Epyx & Cyrez feel about it, the tune sounds very fresh in an almost-a-new-subgenre kind of way. Looking forward to hearing a few more Japanese-influenced tracks in the future, it’s a promising start.

Download here

This is an interesting one - Betwixt & Between and Alabaster are playing alongside some less familiar names on the 18th, in Akihabara of all places. As for the other DJs - I won’t pretend to be too knowlegable, but apparently DJ 490 vs Luna Express are a Hardcore duo, while Clavia MAXXHEART leans more toward trance. This event is free, which makes it pretty tempting, although I’m already busy on Sunday, sadly (but looking forward to the following week’s Hell’s Gate, of course).

May 18th, 13.00 start @ ADst Akihabara

• Ered Nust (aka Asuka Sakurai)
• Alabaster
• Betwixt & Between
• DJ 490 vs Luna Express
• Calvia MAXXHEAR
• dust.c

Here’s yet another release on the ALiCE’S EMOTION label, this time two CDs of tracks based upon the manic shooting games under the Touhou Project banner, and created by amateur/hobbyist shoot ‘em up developer Team Shanghai Alice. As something of a shoot ‘em up fiend, I’ve often wanted to play the Alice games, but never seem to have gotten around to it - not to get into too much detail, but on the rare occasions I pop into an arcade/play a shmup these days, Cave’s games are the ones for me.

Sorry, where was I? As I’m not too familar with the games themselves, perhaps the most interesting news for freeform fans is the inclusion of two Betwixt & Between tracks - Dust to Dust, an Rx-style track with guitars and fantastic pacey main melody, and Wide Awake, a tune that Betwixt may have played at the last NRGetic Romancer (I’m not sure, but I’ve definitely heard it before somewhere). There are some other nice tracks too, particularly on the ‘harder’ Black Label CD presented by Technetium , and so it’s a release worth seeking out, if you can. For a disorienting sample of every track on the CD, a full look at the artwork, and the tracklist itself, check the release page on RED ALiCE’s site.

After DJ Yousuke’s Hardcore Baby’s Revenge, the Full Circling continues with another release, this time on Electronica Exposed! Anyone who downloaded the recent-ish Full Circle mix from February’s NRGetic Romancer will be familar with quite a few of these tunes, but look out for new tracks from Buzzmasta - my personal favourite is Eufonica, I think. As for the Full Circle tunes, Alchemy is a fabulous tune, and up there with Halcyon as one of their best so far (even if it is a bit slow…). For once, this a CD that’s probably easier to get hold of outside Japan, so rejoice if that applies to you.

Guld’s recent Hard NRG stormer, Requiem (RUA Remix) was released last Friday on Quake Records. As Guld himself recently said, all the other tunes on the Trancemaster CD are classic Trance - but his is definitely NRG. If you haven’t heard it already, get yourself over to Guld’s MySpace page, where you can hear both Requiem and his recent DragonBall Z remix, Solid State Scouter.

You might remember the Bouncy Techno event that was held in Shibuya last week? Well, I did make it after all - but I must admit that in the end Guld, Cogi and I made it (just) in time for Guld’s set at 7pm, and so I only caught the final few tunes of the previous set. Rather than going the happy-ish Nu-NRG route though, Guld ended up nearly killing the bouncy techno crew with a ferocious set that ran from Requiem, DJ Rx’s very hard Lab 4 style tune Singularity (which was played at NRGetic Romancer last month, after all), various Lab 4/Adam/Hase tracks, and finished with almegiddo! Very nice, and the few NRGetic Romancer regulars that were present certainly enjoyed it. Worth mentioning that, as with his old track Hannya8000, Guld’s new tunes really do sound great through a club PA.