Sorry about the late start to the year – an especially busy/stressful January has meant that a few posts haven’t quite made it to the fully-written stage, but now things are calming down and the Top 3 Tracks of 2015 will be here in the next couple of days, along with a roundup of 2015 mixes. Lots of compilation stuff has been going on too, and the next week will be an important one. More on that soon then, but rest assured I’m doing my best.

In the meantime, let’s reach for one of TYFTH’s specialist subjects – misty-eyed nostalgic looks at bygone times. I’ve talked before about how much I miss Tokyo’s Studio Cube (home of NRGetic Romancer, Tokyo Hardcore Construction, and plenty of other harder/psychedelic events), and it only takes a quick YouTube rummage to find some examples that bring back lots of memories and atmosphere.

At the top of this post we Decchi doing his thing at THC, surrounded by plenty of the usual suspects. This video’s a brilliant example of what Cube was like during any big event, but happily Decchi himself and plenty of the other dancing crew here can still be spotted at harder events around Tokyo.

Next here’s another typical example of Cube’s atmosphere – Yumi and Soham with some coordinated glowing, during what sounds like one of Cogi’s sets.

Of course Cube was the home of Betwixt & Between, and a look back at the club wouldn’t be complete without him. Especially in the days of his hannya mask, stepping onto the main floor during one of Betwixt’s sets was like walking into another dimension. Here’s one of my old videos, taken from up on the balcony.

This THC preview starts with a nice guided tour of Studio Cube, as well as featuring some giants of the scene. From Betwixt to Lunch and Kanon, the lineups were always impressive – and a special mention of LALA, one of my favourite Tokyo DJs. He’s still active, and his mixcloud has some good examples of his oldskool gabber/hardcore sets.

Hard not to mention the classic NRGetic Romancer DVD in a post about Studio Cube, so here it is one more time.

Finally, Cube will of course be extra special to me as the place I played my first club set. Behold a fresh-faced me in 2008, on my debut at Hell’s Gate – note the awe-inspiring stage presence and the wipe of some nervous sweaty palms before the next transition.

I’m not sure we’ll ever see these sorts of atmospheres again, but R-Lounge is forging a decent harder-event reputation these days alongside the other Tokyo staples. I’ll try to get back into the habit of taking video, so we have more memories to bask in a few years from now…