Mother: Aug. 13-15

Mother Records presents "Space of Sound (S.O.S.)" at Hakuba Tsugaike Kougen in Nagano Prefecture. Tickets are 14,000 yen at the gate. Live acts include Atomic Pulse, Beckers, Logic Bomb, Midimiliz, Pop Stream, Protoculture, Xerox and Illumination, X-Noize, X-Dream and more, plus DJs Ta-Ka, Daijiro, Messie, Ryo, Nate Raubenheimer, Arturo and more. Music starts at 5 p.m. on the first day. (Last year, the gates were open by noon.)

This is the party that established that the Japan psychedelic trance scene was back on its feet last summer. Coming together in the mountain mist, we found both solace and the strength to dispel the demons of Kandatsu and push through to October and beyond. What is it about a Mother party that lets us feel like innocent kids again?

Hakuba Tsugaike is a spacious resort with wide ski runs (read: not much shade) and lots of setup options. The S.O.S. Chill Village in 2005 had the flattest and most shaded tent sites, although the vendor-lined path to it was paved in mud-covering cardboard by the second day. A gondola ride (in a decent size, enclosed car) is required to get up to the venue from the parking area. Access to this lift was not too difficult last year and the gondola staff are used to moving tourists.

"Arcana," compiled by Naasko (Interchill Records, Mariko Music)

"Gathering the Tribe," compiled by DJ Neerav (Interchill Records, Mariko Music)

"Journey to the Sun," by Adham Shaikh (Interchill Records, Mariko Music)

When I first started going to open-air parties, you could always count on finding the both of them there. They were never too close together, but also never competing for each other's attention.

Back in 2001 and 2002, I remember, he took her everywhere, carefully selecting and preparing a special place just for her, even boasting that she would be there, doing her own beautiful thing. He didn't care so much about the cost of bringing her along, or that most of people hanging out with her just needed a break from him. Being proud to say that she was with him was enough. And they raved all summer long.

Then in 2003, times started getting tough. Things were going wrong and opportunities fell straight through the cracks. There wasn't enough money coming in and the extra expense of bringing her along to parties became a problem. He, of course, had to go -- he was essential to the party. Before long, he popped the question: "Honey, would you mind staying home this time?"

Understandably she didn't understand. She too had many friends who were also counting on her to be there. And people were still talking about how wonderful she was at Solstice 2001 and 2002. What kind of a rave would it be without little Miss Ambient? "What are they going to think about you when they can't find me?"

He tried to let her down easy: "Sorry, Darling, just this time, and maybe the next, if we're still not making enough money. Or maybe I could find something for you to do in the vendor area."

The relationship between full-on psychedelic and ambient trance has always been a weirdly distanced love affair. This year, she -- the ambient stage -- has been to a few more events than last year, but she still hasn't regained the magical attraction that she had at Lake Motosu.

It's a fact that setting up a second stage comes at a cost -- manpower, equipment, decorations, rope, cables, tape and more. Then you need DJs willing to play for a couple of hours to almost zero people for almost no money. Or compromises are made, like naming it a "freestyle stage" or some other moniker that looks exotic but means nothing. (Freestyle stages are not a bad idea, but some DJs take the tag too literally and decide it's a good time to try something new or weird, like a sweet reggae tune on one deck and drunk alley cats fighting over catnip inside a cardboard box on the other -- "just to freak 'em out!")

It's also a fact that when a chill zone is done beautifully, people will remember it in surprising (and sometimes embellished) detail even if they are only there for a few minutes. And this is because most people don't go to the chill to listen. They go there to not listen. They go there to get away from all the movement, to get out of the human corn-popper for a while, to fix their vision on stationary objects. They go there in search of a soft spot under a shade tree where they can stretch out their legs, light up a cigarette and let the forest breeze gently rinse the angry ringing out of their ears. But actually listening? Not so much.

But, hey, it depends. At "Earth Energy" back in May, one of the more tribal open-airs of the year, I begged for a morning block on the freestyle stage because those DJs were playing ridiculous non-chill most of the night, and because it was my birthday. Within 15 minutes of the start of my first-ever ambient DJ set, people started coming over. Honestly, my set wasn't all that good, having brought only eight new downtempo CDs, but at the end I had two "poi" twirlers twirling and almost two dozen "shanti" folks lounging about. They seemed to appreciate it. (Except for two people who were locked into an evil glaring contest. Who knows what that was about.)

If ambient stages could hold more of their own at a party -- attract enough extra ticket buyers to help cover the aforementioned expenses and a decent size crowd -- then we might see a rise in mini or sub-organizations specializing in creating the perfect chill zone. In that alternate universe, the organizer makes a call and contracts it out, just like they do now to arrange lighting, sound and decorations. (As of this writing, both www.chillzones.jp and www.chill-zones.com are not being used.)

Lest you dismiss this as merely an overlooked lucrative business opportunity, I am preaching here for the good of the party. A chill stage is a place where we can reconnect with the shanti roots of psychedelic, or for the wide-eyed batch of new ravers, a place to connect in the first place. The ambient music getting to record stores and chill floors has been excellent this year, especially from British Columbia-based Interchill Records and Chillosophy Music and people are coming back to the scene and bringing friends.

I'll see some of you in the Chill Village at "S.O.S." this weekend! See Mother's official guidebook for the lineup.

Psychedelic Radar will return Aug. 25. All parties are in Tokyo unless otherwise noted. For information about a "secret" after-hours on Sept. 10, send mail to: [email protected]