Dancemania EX × Trance Paradise

Kitchy Kitchy (Single)
Artist: Pandora feat. Bloom 06
Release Date: September 2009
Price: ???

Swedish eurodance queen Pandora makes her grand return in 2009 backed up by the Italian duo, Bloom 06, who are actually two former members of Eifffel 65. The song has a slight electro touch, but the lyrics are undeniably eurodance. Pandora has also mentioned on her website that she’s working on a new album, which would be her first original album since 2003’s 9 Lives.

Also check out her live performance of “On a Night Like This,” which was first recorded and released by Pandora but made famous by Kylie Minogue’s cover. As a bonus, it starts off with “Come on and Do It,” which was featured on Dancemania 3.

Dream a Dream (AATW Remixes)
Artist: Captain Jack
Release Date: ???
Price: ???

As mentioned on the Eternal Music blog, UK-based label AATW will be doing new remixes of the Captain Jack classic, “Dream a Dream.” Former Dancemania artists, Friday Night Posse and Flip & Fill, are among the remixers. Below is the remix by FNP, using their Handz Up! alias:

I’m assuming there’s a promo floating around since Helios has already reviewed the tracks. He gave no indication of when the single will be released, however, or whether the remixes have anything to do with the upcoming remix album, “Rewind to the 90’s.”

Update: The promo CD is up on eBay. It’s still unknown when/if a retail single will be available

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New details have surfaced about the upcoming album. In addition to remixes/remakes of CJ’s classics, there’ll also be new tracks, presumably also in the 90’s sound. Bruce Lacy has been doing quite a few live appearances recently, and many of those have been at 90’s throwback parties. There’s sort of a mini-renaissance of eurodance going on in Europe, mostly driven my nostalgia, and Udo Niebergall is ready to cash in. Besides, neither CJ Jr.’s album nor Captain Jack Is Back lit up the charts, so maybe a return to what made CJ so popular in the first place will be more successful.

Surprisingly, there seems to be yet another new female vocalist, Laura Pozo Martin. Check out her MySpace for a lovely cover of “Fields of Gold.”

New versions of “Give It Up,” “Volare,” and “Iko Iko” have been among the songs played during their live appearances, so it’s very likely they’ll be appearing on the new album.

WWW.Blonde Girl (United Forces Remixes)
Release Date: 9/09
Price: 2.97 Euro

This comes as a surprise. United Foces are composed of Dick Örnå, Jamie Thompson, and Dave Phaneuf, and most recently did a reworking of Smile.dk’s “Butterfly.” Well, the team are back together again to remix a Dancemania classic, Jenny Rom’s “WWW.Blond Girl.” No idea what the remix sounds like, but the group did a great job on “Butterfly” so I’m looking forward to these remixes.

01. [3:36] WWW.Blonde Girl (United Forces Radio Edit)
02. [5:24] WWW.Blonde Girl (United Forces Extended Remix)
03. [5:12] WWW.Blonde Girl (United Forces Speedy Mix)

The remixes should be available on Saifam’s site as well as Juno Download soon.

Natsu Monogatari presents Wa Euro Best
Release Date: 8/5/09
Price: 1886 yen

Yes, another Wa Euro Best post. Dancemania releases are so rare now that I can’t help but cover every single aspect of each release. 😉

Anyway, Densetsu13 previously mentioned in the comments that a video crew was present at the 9LoveJ release party, and now we know why. Someone has posted new promotional videos on YouTube (and Nico Video) with footage from the event. I’m still not entirely clear on when and where the videos are airing in Japan, or how Bulgarian user kkakbkb got a hold of them, but in any case it’s nice to see even more promotional push from EMI.

Videos 3 and 4 prominently feature gaijin which, again, I find ironic considering the album theme.

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CJ Crew featured prominently on the Dancemania Speed series, but are probably best known for their DDR appearances with the songs “Rhythm & Police” and “Ninzaburo (Furuhata’s Theme).” I recently contacted Chris Bucknall, who made up the ‘C’ half of CJ Crew, and asked him a few questions, the answers to which will be published soon in an in-depth feature on CJ Crew.

In the meantime, Chris has mentioned that he’s interested in working on new “Speed” tracks, but is looking for suggestions on what to cover. This is where you guys come in. What songs do you want to hear covered?

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Sex on the Phone (Single)
Artist: SEX Appeal
Release Date: 8/21/09
Price: 5.34 Euro

E-Rotic vs. SEX Appeal! As mentioned on Eurodancehits, SEX Appeal have done a fantastic new cover of the E-Rotic classic. The group features the vocal talents of Lyane Leigh, who was actually the original vocalist for E-Rotic, so she’s essentially covering herself. The rap is a little different since David Brandes isn’t performing it, but Lyane’s what really matters anyway and she knocks it out of the park as usual.

Video embedded after the jump. Be warned: it’s NSFW!

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Natsu Monogatari presents Wa Euro Best
Release Date: 8/5/09
Price: 1886 yen

Wa Euro Best continues to make news! EMI report that the 9LoveJ release party for Wa Euro Best was a huge success, focusing in particular on the presence of gaijin: http://www.emimusic.jp/dancemania/news/?rssno=28

The ones in the picture below are, from left to right, Jason, Heather, and Alex.

Meanwhile, Wa Euro Best sold another 7,500+ copies in its fourth week of release. That’s not a bad drop-off from last week. Total sales are somewhere above 30,000 copies, which is absolutely phenomenal. I really have no idea how EMI pulled it off.

Order at CDJapan or HMV or Amazon.

Natsu Monogatari presents Wa Euro Best -download selection-
Release Date: 8/12/09
Price: 1200-2550 yen

Wa Euro Best -download selection- is now up for sale on most major Japanese download services. It includes full versions of most of the songs from the CD, with the exceptions of “Bacchikoi” and the two Pachislot songs.

For those outside of Japan, your best bet is either iTunes or Music Ocean. Unfortunately, EMI added Wa Euro Best as a “Partial Album” on iTunes, so you can only buy the individual tracks. If you want to buy all 17 tracks, it’ll be 2550 yen.

Music Ocean (Musico) does offer all 17 tracks as 320 kbps MP3s for only 1,200 yen. That may seem like a good deal, but I just had a horrible experience with them. In the past I’ve only downloaded single tracks from Musico and got ridiculously slow download speeds (5 kB/s). Luckily the downloads completed without cutting off. However, if you buy an album you get it as a freakishly large zip file, and you only get two chances to download it. Long story short: don’t buy full albums from Musico. You’re better off just getting the individual files that you really want.

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Natsu Monogatari presents Wa Euro Best
Release Date: 8/5/09
Price: 1886 yen

First, some corrections regarding the track list. Track 6 was previously listed as “Ginga Tetsudou 999,” but there was indeed a last-minute change and it’s been replaced by “Samishii Nettaigyo.” Also, “Sousei no Aquarion” had been listed as the Haruka version, but it’s actually the Nagisa version on the final release.

Also, EMI have put up the TV commercial on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsvWwuD9-VU
Eagle-eyed viewers will notice that the female dancer appeared as one of the competitors on the Natsu Monogatari 2009 DVD. A bit odd that EMI hired non-Japanese people to promote a release that’s specifically targeted at Japanese people, but maybe they were going for the irony.

As first reported at ParaParaStage, DJ Yossy/Yosshi/whatever claimed that his future in the business hedged on this release. Apparently the requirements were that Wa Euro Best either A) Sold 10,000 copies or B) Placed in the Oricon Top 100. Well, I’m happy — and quite frankly, shocked — to report that it has accomplished not one, but BOTH of those goals.

In its first week out, Wa Euro Best reached number 23 on the weekly Oricon Top 100, selling a little over 5,000 units. That’s an amazing feat for a dance compilation these days. What’s ever crazier is that in its second week it sold even better, with another 6,000+ copies sold. Keep in mind that Oricon don’t track sales from all retailers, so in all Wa Euro Best has probably sold somewhere around 15,000 copies. Hopefully that’s enough for EMI to release a 2010 edition of Natsu Monogatari, and perhaps even an Italo-Euro Best.

Update (8/26): In its third week of release Wa Euro Best sold a further 8,000 copies! That means a total of around 20,000, which is a phenomenal number.

Thanks to everyone who supported the release!

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Speed Revolution Vol. 1
Release Date: 7/7/09

Saifam released a compilation last month featuring an eclectic mix of songs from their Speed catalogue. They’ve got a few of the more recent one, including “Far from Over” and “Koko Soko,” but there’s also lots of older stuff from Jenny Rom and the Zippers. Actually, now that I think about it, “Go Speed Racer Go” technically wasn’t part of their Speed catalogue. O_O

Nothing new, but you can buy all of the songs at 192 kbps for only $8.55. If you bought these at Saifam’s website it would cost you approx. 14 bucks.

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This news has been up for a few months now on the official Captain Jack website, but for those who missed it, it seems that the Captain Jack team is planning for another comeback this year. They have a notice saying that a new single featuring “Captain Jack (Remix 2009)” will be coming soon, followed by an album titled “Rewind to the 90’s.” I’m curious as to whether the “Captain Jack” remix will have the original vocals, or if Bruce and Jamie Lee will record new ones. Again, though, this news has been up for months, but there still hasn’t been any announcement on when the single or album will be released. Presumably the single will come out sometime this year. It would be a little awkward to have a “Remix 2009” released in 2010.

In more Captain Jack news, the remaining Captain Jack singes and albums are in the process of being uploaded to Juno Download. What’s really interesting is that they’ll also be putting up “unreleased” tracks from the 90s.

August 14: She’s Gonna Get You (’95 Unreleased Track)
September 10: Wolly Bolly (’95 Unreleased Track)
October 8: Dam Dam Dam (’95 Unreleased Track)
November 12: Falling in Love with You (’95 Unreleased Track)

Umm, yeah… It doesn’t sound like Franky Gee is on “She’s Gonna Get You” at all, and the rapper on “Wolly Bolly” doesn’t really sound like him either. Could it be the mysterious James Durbin? The female vocalist does sound like Liza, though.

Natsu Monogatari presents Wa Euro Best
Release Date: 8/5/09
Price: 1886 yen

The official Dancemania website has been updated with info on Wa Euro Best. The track list they have up has “Samishii Nettaigyo,” which appeared on Natsu Monogatari 2008, in place of “Ginga Tetsudou 999.” However, I think that’s a typo, as HMV lists “Ginga Tetsudou 999.” Other than that, not much new info, except for the announcement that the release will come with a lyrics booklet.

Actually, there is one bit of surprising news: DIGITAL DOWNLOADS! A Wa Euro Best “Download Selection” will be available shortly after the CD release. Judging by the title, not all of the tracks will be available, but this will still be the first time that EMI have digitally offered full versions of Dancemania tracks. No word yet on which tracks will be available for download. It’s just a shame EMI didn’t start doing this with Natsu Monogatari 2009 or Hime Trance Anime Mix.

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Natsu Monogatari presents Wa Euro Best
Release Date: 8/5/09
Price: 1886 yen

Somehow the final list looks even worse than the preliminary one. We’re only getting six new tracks. In fact, it’s really only 5 since the “Red Monster Hyper Mix” of “Banzai” is essentially the same as the Mocchi edit. Another one of the “new” tracks is an existing eurobeat remix of Nagisa’s “Come On.” There are three new anime covers that haven’t appeared anywhere else, though, plus the new Rumi Itabashi song.

There are only 20 tracks in all, so we should get fairly lengthy edits of each. A shame Misa’s “Natsu Monogatari” didn’t make it onto the final list. It would’ve been nice to hear the full second verse of the Eurobeat version.

The cover is looking pretty good, though they probably should’ve had a cartoon “Hime” version of Rumi on the cover to trick people into thinking it was part of the Hime Trance series. Heck, why not just call it Hime Euro?

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Natsu Monogatari presents Wa Euro Best
Release Date: 8/5/09
Price: 1886 yen

Interesting discussion going on at ParaParaStage. It seems that DJ Yosshi, the producer of the Natsu Monogatari series, may be forced to retire if Wa Euro Best doesn’t sell well. Seeing as how Natsu Monogatari is basically the only thing keeping the Dancemania brand alive, this is very dire news. If DJ Yosshi goes, then we can say goodbye to Natsu Monogatari 2010 and effectively to Dancemania as well.

According to the thread, Wa Euro Best either has to A) Sell 10,000 copies or B) Place in the Oricon Top 100. The first thing is pretty unlikely, especially if it’s true that he wants it to sell that much in a week. As for placing in the Top 100, let’s take a look at the history of Summer Story’s highest chart placements:

Natsu Monogatari 2007 – 82
Natsu Monogatari 2008 – 162
Natsu Monogatari 2009 – 215

Yeah, not looking all that great. Super Eurobeat hasn’t even broken the top 100 since SEB 190, and the last eurobeat FARM compilation to do well was VIP Hybrid (139th place). The latest Love Para didn’t even break the top 300. 🙁

What sales are necessary to get into the Top 100? Well, it varies. Last week, the 100th album sold a little under 1,500 copies. However, a few weeks ago #100 only sold 1,000 copies. So, somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 copies is the bare minimum for Wa Euro Best to reach the Top 100.

Remember, CDJapan has a coupon for 500 yen off a 3,000 yen order. If you have any interest in seeing Dancemania continue, please consider buying Wa Euro Best.

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