I got back from NRGetic Romancer this morning, and after a sleep my feet are still killing me. I definitely overdid the ‘dancing’, but it was a great event. I’ll write up a bit of a report once some pictures/video show up, but Android Lime did really well, suffice to say for now.

Anyway, while I was at NRGetic Romancer I finally received issue 3 of the UK’s Core magazine, via DJ Swoosh in Finland and then Guld. As part of my job with Hybridize I do some writing here and there, and for the FINRG section of Core I was asked to give a quick introduction to the new label, that sort of thing. I was expecting it to be just some background info for the staff on the magazine, who would then go on to write their own article - but my version was printed in full! Not quite what I was expecting, and I’m even given credit for it at the end of the article. If you’re in the UK, it’s worth seeking out a copy - there’s a pretty lengthy interview with Proteus in the same section as my Hybridize blurb.

The headline pretty much says it all - it’s a real bolt from the blue, but tonight Zio has decided to stop Hell’s Gate, as of now. There seem to be a few reasons, but one is that there will be too few DJs from next year. Kana is taking a break from DJing, and Stanfield wasn’t going to be on the lineup for January’s event, leaving Zio, me, and Minagi (plus perhaps MKT/take-de-x).

Rather than bring in other DJs and risk changing the Hell’s sound, Zio has decided to call it a day… I’d hazard a guess that the financial side of things is another reason, as Hell’s has been doing no more than ‘ok’ with regard to attracting punters recently. The scene isn’t really big enough to get more than the couple of hundred that tend to turn out for this and NRGetic Romancer though (especially with both events being held on the ‘wrong side’ of Tokyo in Tamachi), so it’s difficult to see how that would have improved next year.

Of course, I’m really disappointed - the DJs and regular attendees at Hell’s were a brilliant crowd, and the atmosphere was really one of a friendly group of people who really love this kind of music. I’ve only played at two events, but my sets were (if I’m allowed to say so) very well received, and it’s really a shame not to keep developing that ‘relationship’ with the Hell’s crowd. I’ve suggested to Zio that one more ‘final’ event might be a good idea, but we’ll see…there seems to be a small chance.

So - it seems that I’ll be on the lookout for a new event to DJ at….although as there are only 2 or 3 in the whole of Tokyo, it might prove tricky. I have a few contacts in each though, so there’s still hope. In the meantime I’ll have more time to get some mixes out and concentrate on Hybridize projects, which is a good thing. Finally, massive thanks to Zio for giving me the chance to play at Hell’s, and to all the people who came to support/check out my sets this year.

Just added to Trackitdown is the Full Circle DJs remix of one of my favourite new tunes, Invader & Nightforce’s Auferstehung. The Full Circle version is a brilliant remix, with some particularly Buzzmasta-esque goings on in the breakdowns. DJ Yousuke has said tonight that it’ll be played at this week’s NRGetic Romancer, and you can buy the tune here.

A couple of nice events are not far away at all - the first is Cradle to Grave on the 4th January, where the standout artists are Alabaster and a very rare Beserk & Haste set. It’s to be held at Heavy Sick in Nakano, so pretty close to home, and is another Tano*C-style afternoon event.

The following weekend (the 11th) sees the next Tokyo Hardcore Construction at Studio Cube. I’ll definitely be at this one, but there doesn’t seem to be a lineup announced yet.

Alabaster has just announced his newest mix album, and it looks very very good indeed. Future Sight features tunes by Alabaster himself, Umbrella, a surprisingly freeform-ish tune from Minamotoya, and two Betwixt & Between tracks, War Monger and Tankobu Hesotarou no Hourou (The wandering of Hesotarou Tankobu). War Monger is a pretty old tune, but a real classic…incredibly hard, with a brilliant break and vocal sample (”We’re going to die now“, she says). THnoH is brand new (Betwixt completed it on the day of the last Hell’s Gate), and one of his best for a good while. It has a hard trance feel, but is more ‘traditional BTW’ than some of his recent experiments. Really excellent track.

Anyway, all of the other tunes on the mix CD are very nice, and the atmosphere is completely different to UK or Finnish freeform - it seems like Japanese Hard NRG is really starting to build up its own identity. Incidentally, two unmixed tracks are also included, Alabaster’s The Clairvoyance (Distortion Girl) and Ziggurat. The CD will be released on the 29th of this month, at the Comiket (Comic Market) event for doujin (fan-produced) manga and related stuff. I’ll try to find out if it’s available from abroad, as this release looks like a definite must-buy.

Here’s a really interesting interview that Guld drew my attention to - it’s connected to the Hard Dance Awards, and Proteus runs through the best bits of his year. The highlight might be that when asked about his label of the year, he’s gone for Hybridize! It’s hard to argue, even if I am outrageously biased…FINRG itself has been a bit too quiet to qualify this year.

Also there’s this gem re. the Ground Zero festival (with Grady G) in the Netherlands:

“We played at the main stage and the stage was floating at the lake! It was the craziest show ever and during the last track we threw each other to the lake and we basically had to swim back to the stage to finish the set!!”

Eh? Floating in a lake? Anyway, click here to read the whole article. Shame on them though, in the stats box in the corner they forget to list Japan among Proteus’ visited countries…

This isn’t a brand new mix, but Yousuke recently uploaded it while he tries to come up with another one. Not every track is my sort of thing, but it’s a great example of Yousuke’s mixing style, and his ridiculously wide knowledge of hardcore/drum and bass. It’s generally UK Hardcore/Freeform style, but drifts into harder tunes and amen-style jungle tracks too. It’s the first time for me to hear Ephexis and Oli G’s Enchanter, very nice tune…but a lot of the tracks are a few steps away from what I usually listen to, and it’s a mix well worth checking out.

01. Think You Really Missed Me (Smoothjam Mix) / Digital Tekniq & Sparky
02. Diva Beaver / DJ Stormtrooper
03. Gate Crasher / Full Circle DJs
04. Warehouse (Cube::Hard Remix) / Jon Doe
05. Enchanter / Ephexis & Oli G
06. Velvet Heaven 2006 / Sparky
07. I Wonder Why (Darwin Mix) / Adam L feat Ant Johnson
08. Free Fallin (Hard Mix) / Attention Seekers
09. Stand Back / Idealz
10. Elastoplast / Kinematic
11. Twice Around The Moon / Rampant & Obie Vs Darwin & Ant Johnson
12. Sybratis Part 1 / Kev Willow
13. Shadow Of A Memory / Arkitech
14. Pack Of Wolves (Pendulum Remix) / Nightbreed
15. Release Me (Darwin Remix) / CLSM feat Niki Mak
16. Love Me Habibi / The Panacea
17. In Kontrol / Nu Foundation
18. Pumpin / Sean Apollo
19. When The Rain Comes (Remix) / The Acolyte feat Amy
20. Fantasy Island / Darwin & Ant Johnson
21. Heads Burst Rewind / Hattrixx
22. Dreaming Of Another Way (Oli G Remix) / Contraption

Download here

Ah, now this is disappointing - I was looking for news on the next Hardcore Tano*C event, and it turns out that it’s this coming Saturday afternoon, at Shibuya’s Amate-raxi. Once again, work will make that impossible…I was especially hoping to catch Betwixt & Between, Alabaster and USAO’s sets. No Umbrella this time, which is a shame after he played at the last event in Osaka. Perhaps I’ll check if any of the sets get recorded, they always seem to take a ton of video at these events, so it’s possible.

Betwixt & Between was playing yesterday afternoon in Shibuya at the KONTON event. I was meaning to go, as this was a DJ set by Betwixt (mostly using tracks from other artists) and I was really keen to hear what he’d chosen. Sadly I didn’t know what time he was playing until too late, and to tell the truth I wasn’t keen enough on all of the other artists to be there from the very start. Anyway, there was also a compilation CD produced in fairly limited numbers (500, I believe), featuring Betwixt’s new track, Matter of Fact (which I played at the the last Hell’s Gate). Here’s the full tracklist, but I’ve had to translate a couple of tracks quite literally - I’ve no idea if that’s what the English title should really be. Bear with me, eh?

[edit: Seems like Matter of Fact will only be released on this compilation, rather than also on a Hardcore Tano*C CD, which is what I was thinking at first..]

1. Betwixt & Between - Matter of Fact
2. IOSYS - ボーダー戦隊ミソジンジャー [Border Corps Miso Ginger]
3. 源屋 [Minamotoya] - Solitary Hero
4. Technetium - tc-ma-010
5. エコロちゃん／とろ美 [Ekoro-chan/Toromi] - 自然派戦士 [Nature Clan Warrior]
6. REDALiCE - Solidus
7. SHITAGI☆PROJECT - Fighting Girl

For some reason I thought I’d already posted about this, but for anyone (like me) who couldn’t catch Proteus’ Dark Side radio show with Guld, it has been recorded by Jiipez. Let’s all be grateful to him for that, and you can download it here. It’s a brilliant show, and Guld picked some blinding tunes to give some airtime. Maybe most exciting is that you can hear Hase’s first two new tunes for a very long time, but there are plenty of other excellent tracks:

1. Fields Of The Nephilim - Shroud
2. Black Light Discipline - For All You Heavy-Hearted
3. Hase - Attacker
4. GULD - Requiem
5. Betwixt & Between - City Of Solitude
6. GULD - Solid State Scouter
7. Hase - Disintegration
8. Black Light Discipline - Tides
9. GULD - Jupiter
10. Rx - Hellfire (Betwixt & Between Remix)
11. Android Lime - Robot Noize (Dj X Lab4 Remix)
12. RR-ThermalForce - Al Megiddo
13. Popeda - Elän Itselleni
14. GULD - Hannya 8000