Posted by: Derek

Bold, mainroom tunage inspired by Japan’s largest club.

Ride the wave:

Derek Ryan - Sake Flight 8 - Ageha
(right click and save-as to download)

Posted by: Derek

Contrary to what the usual suits and commutes image brings to mind for Japan, there’s a thriving club culture in the land of the rising tempo.

King of this has got to be Ageha - the largest club in Japan - out in the boonies of Tokyo in a place called Shin-Kiba (in fact, it has it’s own bus to get there).

Ageha is four rooms of madness - the pristine white house room, the dingy warehouse room, a Distrikt-esque pool area, and the massive main room. Huge, and the sound is solid everywhere, the crowd is ready to go, and the drinks are stiff.
Everything is top notch, and full of impact.

In hommage to that great space, this month’s flight features bold, driving, mainroom flavors that tend towards the techy side of trance, with some progressive hints as well. One of the the cuts is a great blogsphere remake of a timeless classic, and two of tunes are from a collaborative project of mine, Aureal, so keep an ear out.

Let’s go:

Derek Ryan - Sake Flight 8 - Ageha
(right click and save-as to download)

Tracklist after the jump:

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Posted by: Derek

So, I’ve had a melody in my head forever. It’s super simple, but by virtue of that it’s been stuck with me for months now without me having any clue what it was. Now that’s got some hookiness.

The melody, it turns out, is from a song by the venerable 4 Strings (known for “Take Me Away”), and it’s the one in the video up top. Thanks to local DJ and friend Ryan Russell for helping me locate it!

I love the sound of this tune - it’s super effective, emotional, and hooky, yet not cheesy. And once again, simple. Good lord. Way to go 4 Strings for doing it again.

Bonus:

Above&Beyond played a special super secret mashup of this tune with Morgan Page’s “The Longest Road” at Trance Around The World 350 in LA . Apparently you can’t find it anywhere, but thanks to the magic of the internets, you can enjoy it on the tube:

Posted by: Derek

In tribute to the place I’ve been living for most of my recent sojourns to Japan - here’s some prog flow that’s both comfortably rockin, but got some tech bite and edginess around the sides.
Enjoy the weather in Mishuku!

Posted by: Derek

Right along the 246 highway that connects half of western Tokyo together, there’s a little area called Mishuku. It’s a super cute residential neighborhood that’s at once quiet and easily liveable, and also retains some spunk with some killer restaurants and bars.

Though in Mishuku, almost none of the bars are ground level - you either go upstairs, even for music venues, or down into the depths under the street — which feels more natural for vampires like us.

So in tribute to the place I’ve been living for most of my recent sojourns to Japan - here’s some prog flow that’s both comfortably rockin, but got some tech bite and edginess around the sides.

Derek Ryan - Sake Flight 7 - Mishuku (right click and save-as to download)

Tracklist after the break!

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