Sony Office One

A pair of parties this coming weekend at Liquid Room will see leaders, respectively, of the UK progressive house and drum' scenes coming through town to deliver the goods to Tokyo's demanding clubbers.

On Fri Feb 23, top Tokyo progressive house/epic trance party The Ocean will be hosting one of the UK's most hardworking DJs, Dave Seaman of Renaissance fame, in a party entitled The Ocean: Renaissance World Tour 2001. Renaissance resident since its early days along with Sasha & Digweed, Seaman also makes up one half of the Brothers In Rhythm duo, notorious for their big house anthems, mix compilations and production work for pop artists like Kylie Minogue. Interestingly, he was also the first editor of Mixmag, which has gone on to become the Bible of clubland.

DJ Dave seaman Ocean

For the upcoming Liquid Room gig, resident Ocean DJs, DJ19 and Yoda, will provide backing for Seaman, along with a special guest appearance by German artist and self-styled purveyor of "percussive wet funk," DJ Timo Maas.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, another edition of the long-running Drum & Bass Sessions will see drum 'n' bass visionary LTJ Bukem come into town bearing the latest addition to his Progression Sessions CD series. This time around it's a double CD set consisting of two titles: LTJ Bukem Featuring MC Conrad & DRS and Makoto Instrumental Mix.

DJ Makoto

The 23-year-old Makoto has followed his drum 'n' bass dream to hook up with Bukem's essential Good Looking label, in the process becoming Bukem's man on the ground in Japan. An acoustic engineering major in college, Makoto describes how he linked up with Bukem on the Good Looking website: "I sent a demo to Good Looking and got a reply back from Bukem straight away. Bukem replied with a letter telling me to make the beat less frantic and to make changes to the arrangement. I was very pleased about it, and felt like I was dreaming. We then started to contact each other and discuss my music. This led to me signing to Good Looking."

DJ Timo Maas

Makoto will accompany Bukem in the DJ booth for the upcoming Japan tour, while longtime Bukem collaborator, MC Conrad, who has also just released his own debut album (see CD reviews), will man the microphone.


Protocol: Fura, 3/3, 10pm (check), women JY2500, JY2000 (w/flyer); men JY4000, JY3500 (w/flyer), w/1d. Info: 03-3770-9339.