Let the Countdown Begin!

It's New Year's Eve, well down to single-digit hours left in 2006. I've been back from New Caledonia for 11 days and I've still not managed to get my feet back on the ground at Tokyo's torturous frozen pace. Hoping I'll find my groove at the Solstice Countdown party in Shinjuku.



2006 was something else. And we will go deeper into what that something else was later. What's important is that a part of me changed forever in the middle of December.

New Caledonia is a magical place, and the Kozmix tribe (http://www.kozmixspace.net/) is an amazing group of people doing wonderful things to bring hope into the lives of children. Excess monies from their parties support several different programs throughout the year. Kosmix prides itself in its use of recycled materials and promotes an Earth-friendly environment. I watched them turn a paddock into a party zone and then return to it's original condition, save some tire tracks.



Kosmix is culturing a psychedelic trance flower garden amid a jungle of overwhelming raggae popularity and getting approval from local authorities and the communities where they make their parties.

It was one special honor to play at the same party as Divina of Sirius Issness and the mad French genius Talamasca, and another to be the first American DJ to play full-on psychedelic trance on the last stop to paradise.

Best Regards for 2007.
DJO

Saturday, Dec. 16


A.P.A.P. in New Caledonia presents "Fluomania" on the Tontouto River basin. Live acts Talamasca and Sirius Issness, plus local crew DJs Nova, David, Kosmix Drewid and The Second Room's own DJO. (Yeah, it's me. Hi, Mom!)

Party tickets are 3,000 francs, which is equal to 3,000 yen. Counting air fare, it seems a bit much for a weekend getaway, until you remember that it's summertime in the Tropic of Capricorn, around 33 degrees during the day.

The Association for the Promotion of Art in the Pacific, also known as the Kosmix Tribe, is a not-for-profit organization that donates all excess monies from its events to children's charities on the French-administered island -- around $ 20,000 in less than three years. All artists at A.P.A.P. parties donate their sets and many of the DJs from nearby Australia pay their own fares to get to this paradise.
"Fluomania" will be the biggest effort yet for Kosmix. It will also be the most full-on party experience ever in the still-infant scene there. French immortal Talamasca has been itching for months to play in New Caledonia, which is incidentally the birthplace of Divina of Sirius Issness, who is making her second appearance with Kosmix. A good turnout will mean a happier Christmas for some kids who really need one.

Saturday, Dec. 23
Vision Quest presents "Vision Power" at Makuhari Messe in Mihama, Chiba Prefecture.
Live acts Skazi, Astrix, Domestic, Shanti, Void, Pop Stream, and Cyrus the Virus, plus DJs Ami and Roger Jordan.

Vision Quest is doing this Christmas weekend extravaganza at Makuhari on its own this year. V.Q.'s traditional yearend holiday partner at the massive Messe, Solstice Music, is putting together a double New Year's Eve party (in Shinjuku and Yokohama) that we will detail next time. Over the years, V.Q. and Solstice have developed an excellent model for "indoor raves" at Makuhari that favors the large crowd expected for Skazi and Astrix especially. Domestic, Shanti, Void, Pop Stream and Cyrus are the icing and candies on a very sweet yuletide cake.

"Vision Power" starts at 9 p.m. No one under 20 years old admitted. Advance tickets are 9,000 yen (or 11,000 yen at the door.) See the Web site and mobile site for updated info.

Saturday, Dec. 23

Extra Music presents "Ground Of Darkness" at Studio Cube326 in Shibaura. Live acts CPC (Manic Dragon), FarEastGhost (Trip Records) plus DJs Keiki (Extra Music), Enko (Extra Music) and Ko-Zi (Brain Busters).

For Manic Dragon artist CPC, you can expect a minimum dancefloor speed of 145 bpm, averaging out around 147. Cube326, once the weekend home for a long-gone underground psy-trance following, is actually better suited for a dark manic lineup like this. Advance tickets are 3,000 yen (or 4,000 yen at the door). Find more information at the Extra Music mobile site.

CD Case -- Full-on

"On and Off -- S.O.S. (Space Of Sound)," compiled by DJ Ta-Ka (Mother Records)


Nothing amazing that Japan's best psychedelic trance DJ does will surprise me any more. I have no doubt that Mother Record's AnR DJ Ta-Ka will continue to amaze me for a long time to come, but surprise me? No. Not after what I witnessed Nov. 3 at ageHa.

Playing a DJ set as superbly as Ta-Ka would be difficult enough with two fully functional hands. Watching him lay down one of his best indoor mixes of 2006 one-handed pretty much pegged out my personal surprise meter. Ta-Ka's right arm was injured in a traffic accident a couple months ago. But even with his right wrist immobilized with vertical pins, Ta-Ka mixed superbly in front of a capacity crowd at ageHa. Left-handed, mind you, and preserved on digital tape for study by future beings. How can anything else amazing that Ta-Ka does possibly surprise me? I'm now convinced that he could mix using just his toes if he wanted to.

"On and Off" is also no big surprise. And it's not supposed to be. Ta-Ka's second double-compilation with Mother -- a 14-track pure mix on one disc with of 10 of those in full on the second disc -- is a musical memory book of an exceptional year for Mother Records.
This well-rounded anthology at Mother's progression in 2006 includes Atomic Pulse, Protoculture, their collaboration Atomic Culture, Wrecked Machines' and Pixel's housey-bouncy smash "Face It," Psycraft, Xerox and Illumination vs Magnetica, who did a title track "S.O.S." for Mother's signature summer party, plus Astrix, Space Cat, and Pop Stream and a few more. To be perfectly honest, I haven't even removed the second CD from the case because the mix disc is so good.

The cast is now off Ta-Ka's surgically scarred wrist, and he told me Dec. 9 that he was as good as new and had no lingering pain or stiffness. Then he backed that up with an immaculate extended set before a record crowd for Mother at Differ -- around 1,800 people.