THE SECOND ROOM PRESENTS:
CD Case – Full-On

“Spaced Out,” compiled by Gataka (Noga Records)
“Absolute Translucent,” compiled by Homsy (Noga Records, Trancelucent Productions)
“Over Beat – Plug & Play Vol. 2,” compiled by Visual Contact (Noga Records, Com.Pact Records)

Score the year’s first hat-trick for Ziki Bar, head of Japan’s next-generation psychedelic trance label Noga Records. Tracks from these three compilations have been setting Tokyo dancefloors alight all winter long.

Noga Records, which was born out of Tokyo-based True Trance, has been steadily expanding its catalog by way of licensing deals with Israeli labels Com.Pact, Utopia, Trancelucent and a few others. The Second Room has often praised this strategy as brilliant. There are now 46 releases in the Noga book. Six are from Noga/True Trance, including two of Ziki’s excellent “Tokyo-Tel Aviv” CDs since 2001.

“Spaced Out” was compiled by Gataka -- Matan Kadosh, part of the world-famous Sesto Sento (Com.Pact Records). This is Gataka’s third compilation overall but his first for Noga. The little Noga emblem on Gataka’s cartoon body on the cover is telling of the confidence Ziki has in this February release.

At the moment, “Spaced Out” stands to be the Compilation of the Year for 2007. Yes, it is that solid. Nine killer tracks listed plus a bonus remix by Gataka and Indra of Analog Pussy's “Sound of Soul.”

Favorites here are: “In my mind” by Gataka vs. Apoclypce vs. Gilix; “Different (Gataka rmx)” by Star-X; and “Kick The Base” by Vibe Tribe, who is on the bill for Saturday’s TPE Records party at Differ Ariake.

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“Absolute Trancelucent” is the first release from Trancelucent Productions in 2007 and puts Homsy’s (Omri Harari) label talent on the radar for this year.

The Trancelucent sound is a bit brighter and plays very well in the morning. This was made perfectly clear last summer with the System Nipel debut album “Deep Into Matter.” Youngsters Rubi Yacobov and Anton Lunev, both 22, contributed the title track, a brilliant emotional ride that’s going into my next DJ set – somewhere near the end because I want to send them to tears.

Rounding the tracklist are Cosmic Tone with Noga, Etic, Electro Sun with Bizzare Contact, Etic, Quantum, The Misted Muppet, Insomnia, Loud, and Visual Paradox (DJ Bog). I was strangely disappointed that the Electro Sun vs. Bizarre track (No. 4) “I’ve Got the Power” did not steal the lyrics from the pop song with same words. Don’t ask me why.

My only real off mark on “Absolute Trancelucent” is about something that I actually applauded for the System Nipel album – the translucent cover effect, which means no DJ sleeve. It was cool for an artist album, but a compilation really needs something that can be read in the dark.

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I am a pretty level-headed guy, but every time I take this CD out I am tempted to bite off a piece. No kidding, it looks good enough to eat. The color reminds me of the sweet babaloa toppings that you see on the cakes at Cozy Corner. (It’s OK to chime in with a great big “Ne?”)

Compiled by Visual Contact -- Bizzare Contact and label head DJ Bog – “Over Beat – Plug & Play Vol. 2,” has nine unreleased tracks that have been test-proven to generate grins and smiles. A good number of these, and from the above two CDs, were HUGE hits at last summer’s TPE Open Air.

The first two tracks, one by Visual Contact vs. Electro Sun and two by an interesting trio of Bizzare Contact, Black & White and Perplex, are kind of like the box and plastic wrapper on the Cozy Corner cakes.

Then it just gets sinfully delicious with heavenly spoonfulls by Aquatica, Bizzare Contact, Sesto Sento, Visual Paradox vs. Insomnia, Ultravoice vs. System Nipel, Visual Contact vs. System Nipel and a final sweet bite of a Freq track remixed by Lish (134 BPM).

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Tokyo psy-trance history is going to be made on Sunday morning at the after-hours party for TPE’s “Spaced Out” – Japan’s very first VDJ set!

A year in the making, the Calderon DVJ live set will be the first DJ set involving the mixing of music video clips and other visuals.

DVJ machines are identical to the professional CDJ players that most DJs use, except that they also play the video on DVDs. Party visuals producers are using these machines more and more, and it’s starting to show up on the graphics screens with better synch of the visuals and the beat.

Sharon of SGK Studio has been making video clips for some time now. You can see his recent work in “The Beach 2006,” the upcoming TPE Open Air DVD, and a soon-to-be-released DVD/CD of his own.

The after-hours will be at Cube326 in Tokyo’s Shibaura district with DJ sets by Gataka, Altom, Ziki Chabo&P’N’O and D@J vs. Gocchi. Start time is 7 a.m.; 3,000 yen at the door. The Calderon show starts at 10 a.m.

THE SECOND ROOM:
Domestic, hallowed be thy name!

This is “Noga Records Week” here at Tokyo Psy-Blog ahead of the TPE “Spaced Out” party this Saturday at Ariake Differ.

But first, a short flashback to Differ last Saturday night and the best live set I’ve heard this year, especially at Differ Ariake. Funny thing is, it was not according to plan. By the providence of divine screw-up, about 400 of us got an extra long dose of the Domestic live experience – 90 minutes – and it was righteous to the point of pure rapture.

Whatever frustrations there were backstage as Ido Ophir kept signaling for a couple more tracks and kept on blasting that superb Domestic sound can be comfortably replaced in the knowledge that the crowd on hand will never forget this one. Give this man 90 minutes every time, seriously. (Plus, four out of the five girls I asked think that Ido is now sexier than Astrix, and that is saying something. That's Domestic on the left and Timelock on the right, enjoying the last minutes of the party.)

There wasn’t enough time in the end for any kind of Goblin closing DJ set, which Sirius Records has built into kind of a tradition when Udi comes over. But there really wasn’t enough time before Domestic ran 30 minutes over. Math primer: Tokage played the last 15 minutes.

At the root of this are the problems facing every party organizer second-tier and below.

Sirius Records, ranked about #5 among Tokyo area psy-trance organizers and labels, booked Psysex, Timelock and Domestic for its “Sirius Generation” gig, which started at 11 p.m. and was set to end at 6 a.m. Factored into the timetable were DJ sets by Miki, Goblin (Psysex) and label head Tokage.

Sounds good so far, but let’s do some more math: 7 hours minus 3 live acts leaves only 4 hours for 3 DJ sets, assuming the party actually starts on time and there no delays in between. Which are two pretty big assumptions.

So, Miki played for a bit to open, then Tokage played for a bit. Timelock played a killer full-on set that started around 1:30 a.m. and finished roughly on time. But before Psysex started – and again after he finished – the stage crew needed at least 10 minutes to reconfigure the live stage, during which time Tokage got up and played a few tracks. It’s easy to see how this can snowball a timetable.

But how else is it to be done? Apparently, it is cost-prohibitive in an already risky venture to run the parties until 7 a.m. And with the norm being that the crowd won’t start streaming in until about 12:30, you’ve got less than five and a half hours to work with. What are you gonna’ do? You need three big live acts to justify the outrageous door prices these days at venues the size of Differ Ariake. Did anybody else notice the price slipped up another 500 yen?

The one thing that Tokage and Sirius can really be proud of is their decision to go hog-wild on the sound and visuals on this event, because it made the payoff possible for everyone on that dance floor during those 90 minutes. Righteous to the point of rapture. That was a special treat!

THE SECOND ROOM
Nagisa Music Festival breaks open 2007 season

The Nagisa Music Festival is one of the most interesting success stories to emerge from the Tokyo dance party scene. Held semiannually and in its fourth year, this psychedelic phoenix took flight during 2003, out of the rubble of our worst year ever.

2003 was the hangover from overdoing things the year before. Venue changes and event cancellations for lack of permit were all too common. The backlash affected affairs like Solstice Music Festival, The Gathering and incidentally, Harukaze, the legendary Yoyogi Park day raves that Nagisa has handily replaced. Noise, litter, congestion, confusion. Officialdom can always find a way to trump the party people.

It was beginning to look like our traditional equinoctial dances inside Tokyo were doomed to the past when three brilliant producers brought their monster networks of resources together. Takashi Ishihara, who founded clubberia.com and brand new made Inc., Masaru Morita of M.M.Delight, and “Nanbei” Suzuki of Earth Garden set out to make something different that would still fit within the strict requirements of the system.

The result is a constantly evolving open-air festival spread over two days that is grounded in Earth-friendly ideas fusing dance music from the house, techno, trance, reggae, jam, rock and ambient genres as close to the center of Tokyo with the lowest possible admission price.

This year, the electricity for all the stages at Nagisa will be generated by bio-diesel, created by refined second-hand vegetable oil. Past years have seen success in attempts to run the whole show on solar power.

Nagisa means “beach,” but Odaiba Open Court, which faces the impressive Fuji Television building on the man-made island has become the party’s home. This is thanks in large part to backing from Tokyo Waterfront City Development. Open court is more of a desert than a beach, but it has the space to set up seven stages and all room needed to feed, quench and relieve large crowds of ravenous young people.

Headlining Nagisa this year are progressive rock legends System7 on Saturday, and Detroit techno originator Derrick May and psychedelic trance pioneer Hallucinogen on Sunday. Supporting them on their timetables are names that represent the heart of Japan’s dance scene crop: Masa and Ree.K of Space Gathering, Ta-Ka of Mother Records Japan, Ryo of Solstice Music, Miki from Sirius Records and a host of others.

System7 is Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy, who released six albums together in the 1990s before forming their A-Wave record label in 2000. They have played in Japan every year since 1999.

Derrick May hasn’t released a track since 1992, taking a hard bent against the record industry, but his popularity as a DJ only seems to get stronger. The house and techno crowd will get plenty of Derrick this weekend, and you can find out where he’s playing at the clubberia Web site.

Down at the very base of the psychedelic trance family tree is Hallucinogen (Simon Posford), whose 1995 album “Twisted” is viewed by many as the start of the psy-trance genre. More of a Merlin figure than a hands-on father type, Posford’s influence is still the genius behind the best of what you are hearing today. Apart from the timeless magic of Hallucinogen, Posford’s base of revered fans grew exponentially when he formed Shpongle with psychelic godfather Raja Ram in the late 1990s.

Nagisa Music Festival will be held on Saturday (1 to 8 p.m.) and Sunday (9 a.m. to 8 p.m.) at Odaiba Open Court in Koto Ward. Day tickets at the gate are 4,000 yen. Complete information found on the Nagisa Music Festival Web site (www.nagisamusicfestival.jp/) or by calling (03) 5410-1470.