ALIEN SEX FRIENDS - Aesthetics of Play (Interview ①)

September 30, 2024

Night in Shibuya, Tokyo.

Just outside the center of this city, where glittering hustle and bustle intertwines with the desires of the people and where colorful human dramas constantly unfold, there is a club called "MITSUKI" in the basement of a tenant building at the top of Dogenzaka. It is no exaggeration to say that this place, which has attracted attention among young people who are sensitive to music, fashion, and art, is the new epicenter of Tokyo youth culture, but did you know that a party called "ALIEN SEX FRIENDS" is held on weekends every even-numbered month?

Contrary to the unusual name of the party, which could be interpreted as a light -hearted and witty humor or a frivolous and vulgar joke, the music played at "ALIEN SEX FRIENDS" (hereafter referred to as ASF) is undoubtedly representative of the cutting edge of the current Shibuya/Tokyo/Japan club music scene.

From serious techno to stripped-down minimal house, from upper electro to hip 2-step, a variety of dance music mixes throughout the night, and the dance floor is lit up with orange neon lights. There, music lovers, club dancers, and unidentified creatures drawn in by the gravitational pull of the Shibuya night swirl around, directly reflecting the desire to dance of people who truly love to party. If you go to this party, surrender to the flow of the floor, dance lightly with a glass in hand, and joke around, you can be sure that you will enjoy all the fundamental fun, surprises, and joy that come with the experience of "having fun at a party."

The masterminds behind ASF are five popular DJs who grew up hanging out in the Shibuya and Nishi-Azabu areas since their teens, have had long careers as DJs, and are now booked into many high-quality parties and raves both in Japan and abroad: P-yan and Ryokei, as well as Nzz , Peta, and Ryosuke Tsuchiya.

In this issue of TEQ Magazine, we welcomed three resident DJs from ASF, P-yan, Ryokei and Nzz, as guests, and asked them about how ASF was formed, their musical careers, and their memories of Berlin, where they spent their youth.

- Thank you for your time. I heard that this is the first time you have been interviewed as ASF, so first of all, can you tell us how ASF got started and how you ended up starting a party at MITSUKI?

Nzz: MITSUKI opened just before I moved to Berlin, and my senior Yoshiro (YOSHIROTTEN) was in charge of the logo and interior design, and he said, "I opened a new club, so why don't you hold a farewell party for me?" So I invited Madteo from NY to hold a party, and that's how it all started. After that, I occasionally held parties when I returned to Tokyo.

Ryokei : I met MITSUKI at Nzz's Madteo party. After that, I was invited to DJ there, and it was a really nice party. At that time, I was doing a party called How High, and I was thinking about the style of the party as the organizer, and at that time I thought about whether I could do a party at MITSUKI, so I asked Nzz about it.

P-yan: The first time I was at the MITSUKI booth was when Madteo and I DJed together for one night. It was the second Friday after MITSUKI opened. It was a time when the parties I had been doing up until then had become less active, but I was the opposite and became more active on my own (laughs).

Nzz: When I decided to move back to Tokyo, Yamachan (DJ YAMARCHY) told me about a regular party. So I asked P-yan and Ryokei and that's how ASF started.

P-yan: The first ASF was in the summer of 2021. Kotsu helped me with the DJing. He really got the crowd excited.

Nzz: Then I thought, "This is it, this is it." I think there were a lot of factors that were contributing to the gloomy mood caused by the lockdown, but the floor was filled with amazing energy.

P-yan: The SOMEWHERE IN TOKYO period was crazy! The second time was with Otsuki-san (Satoshi Otsuki) and Tsuru-kun's live ( LUVRAW) as guests, and we had a relaxing time in the middle of the lockdown summer, and the third time was DJ Masda's first appearance at MITSUKI. Looking back, I think there were no other parties at MITSUKI that had alien sounds like ASF at that time, and I think that helped everyone enjoy it. The people I met in the early days of ASF became super close friends, and they still hang out at ASF a lot now.

Ryokei: After we started throwing parties at MITSUKI, the young people who got to know us were surprised and said, "So this is what a party is like." Our DJ style and what we do hasn't changed much from before.

Nzz: There are a lot of people I've met through MITSUKI. DJs from all genres, customers, and everyone became friends across boundaries, and it's all thanks to MITSUKI. I think it's a miracle venue.

- MITSUKI was the starting point for many connections, which led to the three of you doing what you do now. Before that, how did the three of you become friends and start hanging out at clubs?

P-yan: I started going to clubs when I was around 20 years old and started going to Yellow. The girl I liked at the time was hanging out at Yellow, so I often went there to see her. It's a bittersweet memory (laughs).
I liked FPM's " Gran Tourism" at Yellow and used to go there often. I went there on weekends and weekdays. I often went to Womb, ageHa and other big clubs as well as Yellow. I discovered Francois K and got hooked on him, and Yellow completely awakened me to the charm of underground clubs and the fun of house music. Yellow closed and Eleven opened in its place, and around that time I started hanging out at Chaos and gradually became interested in minimal house and techno. The first record I bought after that was Audio Warner's ASAPEP released by Minibar , which was probably the record that got me into minimal! I started DJing around here, met Nzz and hung out with Junki, made more DJ friends, tried throwing parties and realized that playing small clubs was fun too.

Nzz: I was in a band when I was a kid, and I started DJing as a sideshow, and I got really into it (laughs). Then electro music started coming along. Justice, Ed Banger, and stuff like that. So I went to DEXPISTOLS. I started going to clubs, I started throwing parties myself, and that's when I started hanging out with Junki and P-yan.
I think the first time I met Ryokei was at Womb. I went to Womb with P-yan. Sam Proper was there with Sterne as a guest, so... (searches) Wow, it's already 2010. Love Baby Love was a big hit with my family.

Ryokei: It was when I was working at WOMB. Looking back, I think working at WOMB was a big part of making all the connections I have in music today.
I got into dance music because of psychedelia. I think I was about 18 years old. Unlike P-yan, I wasn't bittersweet, and I was dancing at psychedelic festivals, getting pushed around by other guys (laughs). Then I started to like clean progressive house music like Satoshi Tomiie, Sasha, and John Degweed, and I joined WOMB. Around that time, I wanted to see the best clubs in the world, so I went on a backpacking trip to Ibiza by myself. I went to a party at Cocoon in Amnesia, and Sven Vath was playing as the main act and Marco Carola was playing as the sub act, and they were super cool. That's when I decided to become a DJ (laughs). When I came back from Ibiza, I bought records by Sven Vath and Ricardo Villalobos from Cadenza, and practiced on the turntables at my friend's house. It's been more than 15 years since then, and I still have the opportunity to DJ at WOMB, so it's very moving.

Nzz: The three of us first started hanging out together was through Cabaret, which we did with Unit/Saloon.

Ryokei: That's right.

P-yan: Everyone definitely went to Cabaret.

Nzz: I lived for the weekend. (laughs)

Ryokei: I feel like I learned all the ways to have fun there. I admired DJ Masda, Kabuto, Yone-ko, and other cool adults who were throwing parties and having fun themselves. So, as I said earlier, as time passed, young people around our age came to ASF, just like we did when we were playing at Cabaret, and said, "I didn't know that having fun at a party was so much fun," and it reminded me of how I felt back then, and made me really happy.

P-yan: That's true! And I'm also really happy that the kids who hang out at ASF are starting to DJ with records because of Cabaret, just like we were influenced by it. We love records (laughs).

- Thank you for sharing your valuable story. As a record retailer, TEQ is happy to hear that young DJs started going to parties because of ASF, and then started buying vinyl to play. I've heard that the members of ASF have experience moving to Berlin, the home of parties. Can you tell us about that experience? If you have any memorable experiences, please let us know.

P-yan: I lived in Berlin for a year from 2012, so it's been 12 years already.
2012 was the year that Andrés released New For U and Paranoid London released Paris Dub 1 , both unforgettable songs that remind me of Berlin. And Ricardo's album ( Ricardo Villalobos – Dependent And Happy ).
As for clubs, I was also making comments at Club der Visonare, Panorama Bar, Renate, and various other places. George from Nagoya told me that Berlin was fun. I first saw George's DJ at Womb after he had just come back from Berlin, and I was so into it... I went with Yone-ko for about a month in 2011 when he was touring, and it was so much fun. I was able to dig up early Cab Drivers for 5 euros, and there were so many records I'd never heard of, it was like heaven. I was listening to some Bass at Hardwax and feeling overwhelmed, and there was Prosumer at the register. Yone-ko was playing at Renate, and even though my stay was short, the atmosphere was perfect and the kebabs were super delicious. I was blown away by the Berlin I had always dreamed of and fantasized about. So I came back and worked part-time for a year, and then I moved there on a working holiday visa.

Ryokei: After P-yan came back, I went there for a year from 2013. Berlin is the home of parties, so I got a working holiday visa without saving any money, just grabbed a 10,000 yen bill I had, and got on a plane. I ran out of money 4 days after arriving though...

Nzz: I don't recommend taking Ryokei's route (laughs).

Ryokei: Young people who are going to go should save up money beforehand (laughs). But I managed to get there. I think there may have been other ways to do it, but I just wanted to go there right away and absorb as much as I could. Momentum, power, and energy were the key. In Berlin, I just partyed a lot and had more fun than eating!

P-yan: I was always at the club.

Ryokei: My best memory of a party in Berlin would be the first time I went to Get Perlonized at Panorama Bar.
I was so impressed that there was a place where such cool songs were playing all the time, and I still can't forget the impact I got at that time. I saw Zip having fun going around the different floors and talking to the customers, and it really made an impression on me that at a good party, the DJ also plays close to the customers.

Nzz: Come to think of it, we happened to run into each other in Shibuya on the day P-yan returned from Berlin. Apparently he had just come back from the Panorama Bar. He was wearing a really filthy T-shirt (lol)

P-yan: You came back to my parents' house and ate my mom's oden (laughs). People from all over the world came to Berlin to hang out, and everyone around me was around my age and had no plans for the next day (laughs). It was fun, so we hung out all the time. Matsu-chan (DJ Shake M) was also sharing a room with me and was nearby. Prices were really cheap back then, and the entrance to a party was only 5 euros, so you could stay at the club all day. The clubs stayed open for a long time, so the opening hours were extended. The bartender asked me, "How long are you staying?", so I decided to go home. I went back to the Sagai family (my parents' house in Berlin) and they gave me a meal.

Ryokei: It's a city where famous DJs who release music on weekdays play somewhere every day. Bihn also used to have regular parties with Margaret Dygas at Club der Visonare.

P-yan: I used to go to Binh's noon at Club der Visonare a lot. It was before he was famous worldwide. Even when Binh was DJing, there were times when there was no one on the floor. It can't be helped because it was a weekday afternoon! The discerning ears of Berlin all already knew Binh, and I think he was the one Zip loved the most at the time. I'm sure Zip would be happy to see how successful he is now after so much time has passed.

Ryokei: Binh later released an album on Zip's Perlon.

P-yan: When we were there, minimal house was at its peak or a little later, and it felt like there was no minimal house label that wasn't influenced by Perlon. My friends around me always had a PERLON record in their record bags that they thought was "this!"
The party that Ryokei and I both loved the most in Berlin was definitely Get Perlonized at Panorama Bar! We went there every month. We were total heads!
The resident DJ Zip is always special every time I go to see him, but he always does something completely different. There are times when he plays hard techno all the time, times when he plays acid house at a volume that makes the speakers explode, and times when nothing happens, and everyone follows him and the DJ responds. I can't really put it into words, but Zip's pano DJ always has a magic effect on the floor. I think this experience had a big impact on our DJing and partying. Just like what Ryokei said, the audience and the DJs were playing together and we were super Perlonized every month.

- So your days in Berlin were centered around "having fun." I think anyone who has been to ASF can tell that the experiences you were moved by and learned there became your formative experiences, and shaped your attitude toward parties.
I heard that after returning to Japan, P-yan and Nzz started new parties, and Ryokei started his own parties. How did you do after returning to Japan?

P-yan: After I got back, I joined the party called OSUSHI DISCO that I was doing with Nzz and others again. I think it was when we invited AKUFEN's HORROR INC. as a guest at Enoshima OPPA-LA.

Nzz: In the early days of OSUSHI DISCO, we held events at club WIRE in Shinjuku, where we would invite guests like Yone-ko and LUVRAW. As we continued, we started holding events at WOMB as a sort of traveling party, and then we moved to Oath (now Redbar) and I think it became a regular party. Probably. After we started at Oath, we merged with a party called Be Your Freak, which was run by Yasu, Nehan, and Iori Wakasa, and became Artemis. We continued to invite people from Europe, like Lowtec, Vincent Lemieux, Sammy Dee, and Jan Krueger, but back then we would lose hundreds of thousands of yen at Artemis, and all the members would have their heads in their hands after the parties were over (laughs).

P-yan: We were always in the red (laughs). Even though it was always like that, we somehow thought that the next time we wouldn't be in the red (laughs). When it was time to settle the bill, we all looked apologetic to our member Nehan and borrowed money (laughs).

Nzz: I still can't sleep well after talking to Nehan.

Ryokei: Thinking about it now, it was really crazy (laughs). I also started my own party How High right after I came back from Berlin. First, I invited Kabuto and Yasu as guests at WOMB. That was when I first got involved with Kabuto. Then we moved the venue to Circus Tokyo and invited Nekes and Birds Making Machine from the Oslo label as guests. I also spent a lot of money on inviting DJs from overseas, so the party itself was in the red (laughs).
But when I think back now, I was doing what I liked and what I wanted to do, and I never once thought it was bad.

P-yan: That's exactly what happened to me. Even if we ended up losing hundreds of thousands of yen, it was just a matter of money in the end. I just had to work hard and pay it off. Everyone came and had fun, I made a lot of new friends, and I had a lot of fun.

After that, P-yan and Ryokei booked each other for parties, and built their careers as DJs while competing with each other, which led to the formation of ASF at MITSUKI at the beginning. Next time, we will talk about ASF's party activities so far and the label ASF RECS that was launched in 2023, focusing on your current activities.

*The photos of the ASF party in this article were provided by Peta .

ASF (P-YAN + Ryokei)

Alien Sex Friends aka P-YAN + Ryokei. The resident DJs of Alien Sex Friends, which is held every even month at Shibuya's "MITSUKI".
In the 2000s, they were heavily influenced by the minimal + deep house scene that spread around the world from Berlin, and after working in Tokyo, they each moved to Berlin. In 2021, they started Alien Sex Friends, and while being aware of global trends, they are Together with the music lovers, club dancers, and unidentified creatures who gather at "MITSUKI", he creates his own unique sound and party style, heating up a corner of the city every night. In 2023 , he launched the vinyl label "ASFRECS".

Alien Sex Friends VOL.23
10.19 (sat) ALIEN SEX FRIENDS with KINO (PHONOTHEQUE / UY)