Dub Squad Liquid Room

The recently launched Sunpower house party is being hyped by Liquid Room as the best thing to hit clubbing since ecstasy, and with two of Japan' most imaginative DJs involved they might just be right.

At the top of the bill for the second installment next weekend is Kaoru Inoue (chari chari), a DJ/producer whose eclectic grooves combining jazz, Afro, tribal and deep house have provided the soundtrack for many a party over the past few years. Inoue has also been active as a recording artist, offering a fine mix album on the Guidance label and contributing tracks to the Emigration Japan Disco Classics CD.

Kaoru Inoue Liquid Room

Joining Inoue will be DJ Mitsuru (bayaka), whose February release, Irradiation, on the Flower Records imprint - hailed as an original creative vision of the "Tribal Tokyo Urban Jungle" - threw everything from free jazz and world music to poetry into the mix.

On the live front, breakbeats trio Dub Squad will chip in one of their uplifting sets, as will percussionist Genta and his group Jive Jamboree. Genta used to play with Japan's salsa superstars Orchesta de la Luz and has also backed jazz diva Monday Michiru.

Meanwhile, the outdoor rave season gets underway in earnest as trance promoter Equinox gets back into gear with Smile, set for the mountains of Gifu on the last weekend of May. The lineup will include DJ Domino - one of the few women DJs on the scene - who began spinning in the legendary party mecca of Goa, India and has been with Equinox since 1996. Also providing a female presence will be Space Gathering's ever-dependable Tokyo-based Ree K and DJ Betty, who will fly in from Holland to make her first appearance in Japan. Things will additionally be enlivened by a live performance from percussion group Gocoo, and Equinox's own Kotaro, who will be chilling things down at the ambient space.

Sunpower: Liquid Room, 6/1, 10:30pm, JY3500 (adv), JY4000 (door). Tel: 3200-6831. www.liquidroom.net 

Smile: Nenouekogen Campsite, 5/26, starting at sunset (gates open at noon), JY4500 (adv), JY5500 (door). Info: Equinox 090-9298-1767. www.equinox.nu/smile