BoA, [dream, SweetS, aiko kayo], EXILE, AKFG, ART-SCHOOL, Dragon Ash, Koda Kumi, MIYU
Hello!! I've recieved a few requests in last week's entry which I couldn't fulfil this week, been busy. Managed to get some new December releases for this entry nevertheless, along with a few personal picks.
I also wanted to announce that next week the founder of J~melody, ie: the original uploader from July to September before I was here to run the site whilst she was away, is coming back!~ So you'll be seeing her updates again =)
AudioScrobbler -Want a song that I've been listening to? Request it!~
Any requests are to be left in your comments. Please leave a comment if you take any mp3s.
Enjoy!!~
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BoA
Meri Kuri (Korean) ~ SNATCH
MEGA STEP (Japanese) ~ SNATCH
Single - Meri Kuri
Style - Festive / Pop, R&B
Language - Korean / Japanese
Release - 2004.12.01
Quality - High
Rating - ★★★★☆
Official Website
♪ Profile
Kwon BoA (보아 ) first made her Korean debut at the tender age of 13 back in 2000 with the release of the album 'ID;Peace B'. The marketing strategy of BoA's record company was to produce an artist who could represent the whole of Asia fiting the criteria of both singer and dancer.
BoA made her debut in Japan with hit single 'ID; Peace B' in 2001, May 30th, followed by a chain of consecutive major hits including second single 'Amazing Kiss', third single, 'Kimochiwa tsu ta waru', and the forth, a charity hit single for songanation with Koda Kumi 'The meaning of Peace' on December 19th, all occurring in the same year.
First album 'LISTEN TO MY HEART' released in 2002, March 13th, debuted at number one with a record millions in sells.
Showing unique talent for someone so young, BoA rose to become one of Asia's biggest stars.
♪ Notes
Nice to hear a Korean release from BoA's as well as just Japanese, I chose to upload a Korean version of 'Meri kuri' which is just as nice as the Japanese if not better, along with the Japanese version of the B-side to this single 'MEGA STEP' , a mid-tempo Pop/R&B tune.
dream, SweetS, Aiko Kayo
希望の歌 ~Merry Christmas to you~ SNATCH
Single - 2nd X'mas
Style - mid-tempo, Festive
Language - Japanese
Release - 2004.12.01
Quality - High
Rating - ★★★★☆
Official Website
♪ Notes
The 2 female groups, 'dream', 'SweetS' and artist Aiko Kayo [嘉陽愛子] all of avex release a second edition to last year's Christmas single.
A harmonious festive ballad by the 13 girls, complete with bells and even a ~hallelujah! XD
The title translates as 'Song of hope ~Merry Christmas to you~'.
dream will be releasing an album next month with covers of songs by avex artists including Do As Infinity's 'Oasis', Ayumi's 'M', BoA's 'Every Heart' and so on~ sounds kindda interesting. The album is titled 'dream meets Best Hits avex' and is due to release soon on December 8th.
EXILE
HERO ~ SNATCH
Single - HERO
Style - Pop
Language - Japanese
Release - 2004.12.01
Quality - High
Rating - ★★★★☆
Official Website
♪ Profile
The vocals and dance unit of 6 members: HIRO, MATSU, USA, MAKIDAI, with the two vocalists, ATSUSHI and SHUN.
Before EXILE existed they were the 'J Soul Brothers'. The J Soul Brothers formed in 1991, they were ultimately who EXILE were before. The members included USA [performer], MATSU [performer], SASA [vocal], HIRO [performer] and MAKIDA [performer].
HIRO had actually joined in 1998 after his former group ZOO had split in 1995, ZOO's most popular hit single was 'CHOO CHOO TRAIN'.
JSB's debut single 'J Soul Brothers' released in 1999 October 20th, however it wasn't before long until the group came to an end, this was due to vocalist SA SA's announcement of his resignation in Spring 2001. Soon towards the end of the year EXILE was formed with the recruitment of the two new members ATSUSHI and SHUN. EXILE's debut single 'Your Eyes Only' released in October 7th of the same year and became their first major hit.
♪ Notes
HERO' is their 17th single, the B-side 'FIND YOU' is a track by COLOR, a new band led by one of EXILE's vocalist 'ATSUSHI'
'HERO' debuted at number 1 on ORICON, currently holding at second place.
Although 'HERO' is a nice new song from EXILE I kind of feel I like their pre-2004 releases more =/
★EXTRA★
B-side to EXILE's new single, 'HERO', by COLOR, a new J-Soul/R&B band featured in also their recent album.
COLOR
FIND YOU ~ SNATCH
[Requested]
ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION
LOOP & LOOP [ループ&ループ] ~ SNATCH
Album - Sol-Fa [ソルファ]
Style - Rock
Language - Japanese
Release - 2004.10.20
Quality - High
Rating - ★★★★☆
Official Website
♪ Profile
The band was formed in 1996 by Masafumi, Kensuke and Takahiro. Ichiji, their drummer, joined later. Their first works were sold exclusivley online and their debut album released in the year 2000 was entirely in English.
In 2001 the band began self promoting by sending tapes to radio stations which finally led them onto some success, 'Konayuki' was Asian Kung's first aired song. In the same year they released their second album with Japanese lyrics.
In 2002 mini album 'Houkai Amplifier' was released ranking no. 1 on the 'High Line Record Sales'. During the same year the song 'Haruka Kanata' became the opening theme tune for anime NARUTO. Their success and popularity steadily began to rise along with increasing record sells.
Their single 'Rewrite' released on August 4th became the opening theme for the anime 'Full Metal Alchemist'.
♪ Notes
The song was requested and can be found in AKFG's 3rd and top selling album 'Sol-Fa' [ソルファ] released a couple of months ago.
ART-SCHOOL
foolish ~ SNATCH
Album - REQUIEM FOR INNOCENCE
Style - Rock, punk
Language - Japanese
Release - 2002.11.27
Quality - High
Rating - ★★★★★
Official Website
♪ Profile
ART-SCHOOL are Riki Kinoshita [Vocals, Electric and Acoustic guitars], Jun Oyama [Electric, Acoustic guitars and keyboards], Hidekazu Hinata [Bass, keyboards & acoustic guitars], and Yuichi Skurai [drums and percussions].
As with most Indies band ART-SCHOOL started by playing live at clubs and festivals. In 2002 after the band got a slot at the FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL they were offered a contract with major record label 'Toshiba EMI' and released first major single 'DIVA' on October 30th, followed by first full album 'REQUIEM FOR INNOCENCE' on November 27th.
In January 2003 they held a tour and played at the Shibuya Club Quattro, tickets were sold out on the day of sell!
After their second album 'LOVE/HATE' they went on yet another sell-out tour 'TOUR 03 -LOVE/HATE'.
ART-SCHOOL also appeared at this year's sold out ROCK IN JAPAN FESTIVAL 2004.
Riki Kinoshita is the man behind the band, the main vocalist, guitarist and song writer, all songs were written by Riki Kinoshita. -The guy who is nearly always seen with has his head down.
♪ Notes
I checked out their latest album 'Scarlet' released in August of this year, after hearing three of the previous albums I now understand why people have been saying 'Scarlet' didn't meet up to their expectations of ART-SCHOOL. So here's a song from their first album 'REQUIEM FOR INNOCENCE'. 'Foolish' is a personal favourite from the album.
Dragon Ash
Thousand Times ~ SNATCH
Album - MOB SQUAD
Style - Urban, Rap
Language - Japanese
Release - 2003.09.25
Quality - High
Rating - ★★★★★
Official Website
♪ Profile
The main members of Dragon Ash are Bots [turntables], Sakurai Makoto [drums], KJ [vocal, guitar], Ikuzone [bass].
The band was formed by KJ [Kenji Furuya] and Sakurai in 1995 as an alt/punk rock band. Their bassist, Ikuzone was chosen from an audition and in 1997 Bots, a local DJ, also KJ's high school friend added some originality with his input of the hip-hop sound to the band.
Their debut release was the mini album 'The Day dragged on' in 1997 February 21st. First full album 'Mustang!' released in the same year on November 21st.
Success was short until in 1998 when Bots became the official full time member of the band along with the release of their second full album 'Buzz Songs' in 1998, September 2nd.
Dragon Ash's major hit was 'Grateful Days' released on July 1st 1999 which shot straight to number one on the charts.
♪ Notes
MOB SQUAD is the private label for Dragon Ash and fellow fusion bands 'mach25' [麻波25] and SOURCE. Together the 3 bands compiled an album under the same title 'MOB SQUAD' in 2003, March 19th.
The album contained some songs taken from each band's own releases, as well as those recorded exclusively for the album, this includes Dragon Ash's 'Thousand Times'. The song sort of remind me of the m-flo collaboration 'Way U Move' but minus Verbal and the beats of m-flo.
Koda Kumi
SHAKE IT ~ SNATCH
Single - girls~Selfish~
Style - Pop/R&B
Language - Japanese
Release - 2004.11.25
Quality - High
Rating - ★★★☆☆
Official Website
♪ Profile
Koda Kumi first made her debut on 6th December 2000 after spending most of her life going to singling auditions. Kumi's mother wanted her to go to college, and told her if she didn't make a final audition just before she graduated, she would have to give up her dream for good.
Fortunately for her, she came 2nd at the 'Dream' audition by avex where around 130,000 people showed up, finally gaining the recognition she longed for.
Koda Kumi has attempted to break America, and her single 'TAKE BACK' reached number 18 on the US Billboard chart and the follow up 'Trust Your Love' reached number 1 in Billboard's Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles chart.
♪ Notes
~girls~Selfish~ is Kumi's 14th single complete with 3 new tracks.
Nothing too spectacular, 'SHAKE IT' is a nice R&B track.
Miyu Nagase [長瀬実夕]
hitoribocchi no tsuki [ひとりぼっちの月] ~ SNATCH
Single - Just 4 your Luv
Style - Pop/R&B
Language - Japanese
Release - 2004.12.01
Quality - High
Rating - ★★★☆☆
Official Website
♪ Notes
Miyu, vocalist and guitarist of girl pop rock band ZONE.
The talented 16 year old has finally released her solo debut single in the genre that she had always been just as fond of, R&B.
With a brand new image for the new style of her music MIYU releases 'Just 4 your Luv' on December 1st, the single did reasonably well on the charts debuting at number 12 on ORICON.
Second new single is already on the schedule, 'snowy love' is due to release on Dec15th.
Personally I'm finding the title track a little too repetitive and unfortunately nothing too exciting, but a nice attempt nevertheless, I'm liking the B-side 'hitoribocchi no tsuki' more.
P.S. This is my tenth and final full entry for J~melody, those who read the histroy in the 'info' page or who have discovered J~melody earlier than October will know that I'm only here temporarily to run this rotation for a friend whilst she was away. She's finally coming back next week! =D So she will be running J~melody once again, you may find a new version 3.0 layout and icon too lol!
To friends of J~melody before I came in, thanks for having me. Sorry if you found my taste in music to have been different.
To everyone else, it has been fun serving you all!~
=) bye!~