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Midnight Highway (Single)
Artist: Miya & N.O.-SYO
Release Date: 2/10/10
Price: $3.96
Miya made numerous appearances on various Exit Trance albums, and even released a mini-album in late 2008. She’s back in 2010 with a new collaboration with N.O.-SYO. The song, titled “Midnight Highway,” will be available in both English and Japanese versions worldwide. Hooray for piano rock trance! It’s currently available on Amazon MP3 for $3.96, but I believe it will also be released worldwide on iTunes.
Hime Trance 4 EP – DJ Sampler
Release Date: 2/3/10
Price: $10.32
First a sales update. Hime Trance 4 debuted at #71 on the Oricon charts, with 2,439 copies sold. By comparison, Hime Trance Anime*Mix! debuted at #24 with ~6,000 copies and Hime Trance Best moved 16,000 units in its first week. So, yeah, not that great. I’m thinking that those numbers are decent enough for at least one more release, but even then I’m not so sure.
Still no word on whether EMI will release a download selection, but in the meantime, Shohei Matsumoto has released an EP on iTunes featuring 3 of his original songs from Hime Trance 4. The best news is that it appears to be available worldwide! It’s $1.29 per track, and unfortunately there’s no discount for buying the whole EP, so it’s $10.32 total. Remember, you don’t need a credit card to buy from your local iTunes. Just walk on over to the nearest supermarket and grab an iTunes gift card. This is your chance to support Hime Trance! Now let’s hope he releases a Hime Trance 3 EP so we can finally get the full version of MA*GI*CA*.
Sound Drive
Artist: N.O.-SYO
Release Date: 1/19/10
Price: 2.49 USD
Sound Drive is a new mini-album from N.O.-SYO that will be available worldwide. It’s actually already available on 7digital, but you’ll have to wait until January 27 to purchase it on Amazon or iTunes. 7digital is probably the best way to go, however, since you’ll get all 5 tracks in 320k mp3s for only $2.49.
“Swan Lake” sounds like the track from TranceMaster 02, yet the version here is about 15 seconds shorter than the full version.
House Nation -Diamond- (Digital Version)
Release Date: 1/20/10
Price: 1800 yen
Digital version of House Nation -Diamond-, which came out last December. Includes full versions of 16 of the album’s 23 tracks. 1800 yen is pretty steep for 16 tracks, and I’m still not sure if Avex have switched to iTunes Plus.
Pachi*Dance Collection ~Ichi no Mai~
Release Date: 12/16/09
Price: 2000 yen
A new collection of anime theme covers from the makers of P-Trance. It appears to be a digital only release. And yes, it has “Zankoku na Tenshi no These.”
Black Out
Artist: Overhead Champion
Release Date: 10/28/09
Price: 300 yen
OHC is back with another digital only release. It actually came out in late October but I kept forgetting to post about it. ^^;
Black Out / Overhead Champion
Overhead Champion | MySpace Video
01. [7:11] Black Out (Extended ver.)
02. [3:44] Black Out (Radio Edit)
The single is now available for purchase on iTunes and various other Japanese download services. Keep in mind that Avex still haven’t made the switch to iTunes Plus, so if you grab the single from there you’ll get saddled with DRM and likely a low bit rate as well.
Natsu Monogatari presents Wa Euro Best 2 -Download Selection-
Release Date: 12/9/09
Price: 1200 yen
In a surprise move, EMI have released Wa Euro Best 2 -Download Selection- a week before the CD is set to come out. It includes full versions of the all the songs from the CD except the two Pachislot tracks.
For those outside of Japan, you can grab the album from the Japanese iTunes store (where it’s listed as “Wa Wuro Best 2”) or Music Ocean. Thankfully, this time you can buy the entire album on iTunes for only 1,200 yen, which is a heck of a deal.
I’ll have track reviews up after I get the CD, but so far I’m very happy with most of the songs, “Para Horrible” aside (I think it may be worse than the Rina cover). There’s a good deal of variety, and the fact that most of these songs are actually new this time really makes it worth the money. “Hana” in particular turned out wonderfully.
In the meantime enjoy the TV commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1Mt291pcyA
Mega Trance presents Glutton Boyz Selection Vol. 1
Release Date: 10/14/09
Price: 1800 yen
A digital only album featuring selections from Mega Trance chosen by the Glutton Boyz. It’s pretty much all repeats, though there is a new Glutton Boyz remix of Caribbean’s “Charisma.” For 1800 yen you get 20 full versions plus a bonus non-stop mix. Not a bad deal if you like these songs.
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.
Around 40 Eurobeat -Download Selection-
Release Date: 8/12/09
Price: 1200-2700 yen
Wa Euro Best isn’t the only recent EMI release to receive the digital treatment. Around 40 Eurobeat also has a selection of tracks up for download. Once again, iTunes or Musico are pretty much the only choices for those outside of Japan.
Interestingly, Around 40 Eurobeat has been selling very well, with almost 20,000 copies sold after four weeks of release. And much like Wa Euro Best, it’s actually been selling more copies each week it’s out. Could Eurobeat be on the verge of a comeback?
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.
The 2009 remake of “Butterfly” is finally out! Featuring Veronica and Malin on vocals, it’s a complete reworking of the original. Okay, maybe not so much. Vocals aside, it’s mostly the same as the original, with a few added flourishes. For instance, they definitely took some cues from the Delaction remix.
Anyway, the song is up for download on a variety of digital download services:
lala
iTunes
Only a radio edit is available for now. I’m assuming a longer edit will appear on the rumored remix album.
01. [3:07] Butterfly ’09 (United Forces Airplay Edit)
Ready for Take Off
Artist: Overhead Champion
Release Date: 4/29/09
Price: 300 yen
Avex haven’t been doing much with trance lately, so it was a surprise to see a brand new digital single from Overhead Champion.
01. [7:22] Ready for Take Off (Extended)
02. [3:44] Ready for Take Off (Radio Edit)
Starts off electro-ish, but transitions into classic OHC, which is very much a good thing. Hopefully this is a sign that Avex haven’t abandoned the SBT series yet. The single is now available for purchase on iTunes and various other Japanese download services. Keep in mind that Avex still haven’t made the switch to iTunes Plus, so if you grab the single from there you’ll get saddled with DRM and likely a low bit rate as well.
Exit Trance presents UmaUma Dekiru Trance wo Tsukutte Mita 3 – Samune de Yoyuu de Shita (Digital Version)
Release Date: 1/7/08
Price: 1800 yen
The CD is now out, and full versions are available on various download services. It looks like Quake encountered some licensing problems, however, so full versions of tracks 1 and 20 on the CD are not available online. To make up for this, they put two bonus tracks on the iTunes release. For no reason at all, one of the bonus tracks is Cascada’s “Bad Boy.” Slightly more interesting is “Caramelldansen (Special Christmas Remix).” It’s not the Christmas version that I wrote about before, but an altogether different remix with English vocals. o_O
But it at iTunes. For Japanese iTunes cards, check out Gateway to Japan.
Smile.dk have just put up a brand new, free download of “X-mas Party” on their official website. “X-mas Party” is a Christmas version of “Summer Party,” one of the best tracks off Party Around the World. In addition to sleigh bells and electric guitars, the remix also features slightly different vocals to make for a truly festive eurodance song. It’s just a shame they didn’t replace the “acting naughty” lyric, as it sounds completely out of place in a song that features Santa. I thought naughty kids get coal in their stockings?
While you’re in the holiday spirit, why not check out Me & My’s “Too Much Christmas,” which is available digitally on iTunes.
DanceMaster | 
02 11th, 2010| 
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