HYPERNIGHT is a special group of people to me, as it comprises of a group of North American and European musicians that are closely intertwined with the Japanese rave scene that I’ve been following since ~2006. A number of people associated with HYPERNIGHT are people I’ve known through the internet for years and would consider some of them good friends. We all met through live streams from clubs in Tokyo that would stream on Ustream.tv as far back as 2009. I watched a lot of these people turn from fans into musicians themselves!

This was the first and only time I’ve been in Lounge Neo, which was accessible via an elevator to the 4th floor of a building that happened to be only about 10 feet away from the entrance to clubasia from the previous event I listed! Not a huge surprise since it was in the heart of the club and bar district of Shibuya but it was still funny to me. The club’s overall floorspace wasn’t massive, but had quite a high ceiling. The dance floor had an almost circular shape to it, with the bar and lounge located in the back, opposite of the front door relative to the dance floor.

The first set I’d like to mention is TANUKI’s. He is one of the friends I met through the online scene back in 2010 who used to post his WIP remixes in stream chats looking for critique. He really broke onto the Japanese rave scene, but hails from Scotland! He played an excellent Drum’n’Bass and Neurofunk set, and was a delight to see again.

Akira Complex was after, and while it wasn’t the first time I had seen them play, as they’re from the USA and has played events at conventions I’ve gone to in the past, I did not know this would be the last time I would see them live. They unfortunately passed away in June of 2023 after dealing with a chronic illness all their life. They played an excellent set, including their songs that were recently added to Dance Dance Revolution, which really got the crowd going!

The whole event had great energy, and there were even cameos from some Japanese rave scene legends Kors K and Sota Fujimori! They didn’t play sets, but they were just there to enjoy the show and support the international DJs who were in town! These two are idols in the music gaming scene, and it was really amazing to see them and the HYPERNIGHT crew. I managed to grab photos with most everyone, and we even went out to grab yakitori as a group of about 25 after the show had ended. An amazing night where I got to connect with some of my idols, as well as see old friends I had known for almost a decade.