Brief respite here before I get back into more music-related busyness, and time for a belated look back at the last edition of CODEX. The biggest draw was the return of Alek Szahala after seven years away from Tokyo, but the whole event was a massive success, uniting the enthusiasm of the original CODEX crowd and the darker style of NRGetic Romancer’s ravers.

With arguably the strongest CODEX lineup so far, Raqhow unselfishly stepped up to play the opening warm-up set, before NONAKA+CHIN’s typically high-bpm mix of UK and Finnish freeform. I actually made my excuses and left for some lunch (not sure I’ll ever get the hang of time management for these afternoon events), and so I missed most of Raqhow’s opener. By the time I returned NONAKA+CHIN was doing a fine job of keeping the already decently-sized crowd dancing with some hard, uplifting anthems.

Alabaster played another interesting set, this time going back to the old days with some very early UK tunes. Track titles escape me at the moment (and did at the time, let’s be honest), but there were a few Bonkers releases represented, and a range of genres from semi-gabber to early freeform and UK hardcore. As expected there were some excellent transitions across the different styles, while Alabaster even sneaked in Fairy Tale as the set reached its peak.

ASAHI was next, with an excellent set of twisted, melodic NRG. Featuring everything from Lab 4 to Pain on Creation, the uplifing elements were provided by some older Hybridize releases and the surprise choice of Rob O.T.T’s Children remix to finish the set. I was very impressed with ASAHI’s selection, and some nice smooth connections were obviously very thoughtfully planned out. A great warm up for Alek Szahala then, and you can check a re-recording of the whole set up above.

After its upload to the FINRG SoundCloud (above), Alek’s excellent set will be familar to anyone with even a passing interest in freeform, and just as you’d imagine, the ‘live’ version went down a storm. The intro sequence of tunes absolutely nailed the CODEX style, heavy on the uplifting melodies and just enough of the harder stuff to keep the old school brigade moving. The veterans were going demented as Dryad Machine came in, and that sudden (and brutally effective) cut into Deimos is a sign of the careful thought Alek put into this one. Special kudos to Alek as he moved into the midsection, with far and away the best use of Mageslayer I’ve heard in a set so far marking the entry of some very welcome darker sounds.

Fuji was the big new surprise, featuring some wonderfully emotive melodies in an unusually repetitive, addictive style. After the uplifting diversion of the Alanamra remix there was a superb sequence from Iron Squid to Anmitzcuaca, including the great selection of Darkstar, one of the biggest Alek anthems at NRGetic Romancer all those years ago. Some more surprise cuts and well considered bpm shifts led into the big finale, which mercifully for me (playing next) ended with the relatively calm Erana’s Peace.

A predictably top-class set, then, that did a really impressive job of crossing a decade’s worth of tracks and a good few of the freeform styles that Alek has drifted into more recently. From the size and composition of the crowd it seems he also single-handedly revitalised the Tokyo freeform scene, which is about as high a compliment as I can pay.

To be honest I was very worried about playing immediately after Alek, as Tokyo crowds (even at harder/underground events) tend to immediately thin out the moment the headliner has finished. Absolutely huge respect to the CODEX crew then, for sticking with me and the style I was going for, from the opening track to the very end. This is becoming a bit of a habit, but unfortunately I won’t be sharing the tracklist here just yet – as usual these days I treat event sets the same way as a ‘studio mix’, both preparation-wise and in terms of trying to create a cohesive whole that flows for the whole hour, and parts of this one have gone into the ‘possible’ category for the TYFTH mix I’m sporadically working on at the moment.

The general idea was inspired by the way Guld used to build the crowd back up after the headlining sets at NRGetic Romancer, and so I decided to begin with some very aggressive NRG, throwing in some deeper tracks as things moved into freeform. One early section featured the Illuminati and Biomechanoid combo (see the video above),  a long connection courtesy of a sneaky beatjump that some might notice towards the end of the transition. Extra Freeform Nerd points to anyone who recognises the next track being (clumsily) cut in at the very end of the video.

Probably one of my best sets for a while, there were actually a few promos and unreleased tunes that took up most of my prep time before finding their places in the mix. The final section was a bit different though, as I decided to use the City of Solitude – Reincarnation – Decalion Catastrophes sequence from my Betwixt & Between set, but hopefully surprising some by following it with the last third of Nemesis. Guld still needed some prep time before his set, so I couldn’t resist finishing things off with a 180bpm burst of Eternal Cannon.

From my vantage point in the booth it was brilliant to see the impact that a few NRGetic Romancer ravers had on the floor, while there was a fabulous group of CODEX regulars going mad up the front. Extra special thanks to the one and only Bern, who came all the way from Portugal for this one (landing at Narita and hurtling to Shibuya a few minutes before Alek started) and was joined by jmbt0 to make for a real TYFTH meetup.

Moving on, Guld was next with a pretty spectacular set of his own productions. Anyone who caught our Hardcore Summer Bash set last week will have a good idea what it sounded like, as he ran through a raft of promos and recent releases. With my set also finishing at a high bpm, Guld started again with a buildup that immediately grabbed the darker crowd. It’s really great to see Guld’s constant improvement these days, with his selection as good as always, combined with his very solid production style and some interesting, more subtle mixing. By the end things were back to freeform pace, and he also ended with some ThermalForce in the shape of al Megiddo.

Finishing the event was Le Dos-on, with yet another impressive, technical set. He has a nice knack of throwing in some FINRG classics or newer UK freeform to freshen up his sets – quality though his tracks are, they threaten to sound a bit samey at times. Saying that, the biggest successes were definitely his own tunes, with Stance continuing to be a massive anthem along with Qygen’s remix of Yksisarvinen. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if promoters in the UK had any sense they’d take a very close look at Le Dos-on – his sets are becoming the perfect meeting ground between the UK, Finnish and Japanese sounds, and would do a fine job of introducing people to the more thoughful side of the genre.

With that the event was over, and huge respect must go again to raqhow for the best CODEX so far. Alek has definitely made his mark again, and I’m really hoping that this’ll remind those who’ve drifted away from the scene post-Romancer of what they’re missing. We’ll see what happens when CODEX6 makes an appearance in November, but I’m really hoping there’ll be some more freeform represented at other events, too.