Dancemania EX × Trance Paradise

Harajuku Wander (Single)
Artist: Mademoiselle Yulia
Release Date: 8/28/13
Price: 250 yen

Lead single from Mademoiselle Yulia’s second album. Available on iTunes Japan.

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EDM.JP
Release Date: 8/21/13
Price: 600 yen

Digital EP from EMI featuring EDM hits from Japanese producers. I guess this is the new project that Tomo Hirata mentioned on his twitter.

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Asa kara 100-bai Genki ni Naru High Tension Song Best (Top Cheer Up Songs (Morning Edition))
Release Date: 5/22/13
Price: 900 yen

Sequel to Kaji ga 100-bai Hakadoru High Tension Song Best, a.k.a. Top Cheer Up Songs (House Keeping Edition). The track list mostly consists of pop songs from the ’00s and ’10s, but not much related to Dancemania this time around.

Available on iTunes Japan and other digital services.

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Drive ga 100-bai Tanoshiku Naru Girls Pop
Release Date: 7/24/13
Price: 1905 yen

EMI’s Drive ga 100-bai series continues with a new entry focusing on female vocal pop. Judging by the track lengths, this won’t be a non-stop mix and will instead collect full versions.

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Whatever Harajuku
Artist: Mademoiselle Yulia
Release Date: 9/18/13
Price: 1886 yen

Mademoiselle Yulia’s second album, following 2011’s Mademoworld.

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ZIPmania All Best Mix
Release Date: 9/18/13
Price: 2190 yen

ZIPmania All Best Mix’s companion release will feature songs from ZIP-FM’s Hot 100 charts. The early list has a few repeats from ZIPmania All Best Mix, which I hope isn’t the case on the final list.

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ZIPmania All Best Mix
Release Date: 9/18/13 ? Release Cancelled
Price: 2190 yen

Update (8/26/13): Sigh, I was afraid this would happen. CD Japan now lists ZIPmania and its companion release as cancelled. Fuck you, Universal.

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ZIP Hot 100 1993-2013 All Time No. 1 Hits
Release Date: 9/18/13
Price: 2190 yen

The 20th anniversary festivities don’t end with ZIPmania All Best Mix. In addition to the ZIP Dance Hits 20, ZIP-FM also have a more general ZIP Hot 100 chart with music from all genres. This release will focus more on the pop side of ZIP-FM, and includes artists like Eminem, t.A.T.u, and Black Eyed Peas. It’s unclear whether this will also count as a Dancemania release.

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ZIPmania All Best Mix
Release Date: 9/18/13
Price: 2190 yen

ZIPmania lives!!! Holy crap, EMI/Universal are really pumping out some unexpected releases this year. After reviving the Speed series after a 6-year hiatus, they’ve gone ahead and revived ZIPmania, which hasn’t seen a release since ZIPmania 7 in 2004.

ZIP-FM is a popular radio station in Nagoya, Japan that happens to be celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Their influential ZIP Dance Hits 20 chart used to be full of Dancemania artists back in the late ’90s and early ’00s, and they had a close relationship with EMI for years.

A few artists have been revealed, and the sad reality is that Dancemania will forever be changed by EMI’s sale to Universal. Misa and Pandora do make appearances, as does Katy Perry, but the rest of the list is populated by Universal artists like Lady Gaga, LMFAO, Jennifer Lopez, and Rihanna. One of things I used to love about Dancemania was that it focused more on European artists, so I can’t help but be disappointed that more mainstream artists are showing up. And unless EMI license the tracks from Warner, we might be missing tracks like “Dub-I-Dub” or “Butterfly” that would truly make this an anniversary release.

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Hyper Funkot ~ Mega Speed Dance Traxx
Release Date: 6/19/13
Price: 1886 yen

EMI’s first foray into the world of Funkot. One can only wonder why Enka Speed couldn’t be this fast. -_-

Update (6/27/13): Interesting article on DJ Jet Baron and the Funkot movement: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2013/06/27/music/sincerity-is-the-new-ecstasy-in-funkots-summer-of-love/ He lost me when he said “Scatman” was objectively awful. -_-

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Drive ga 100-bai Tanoshiku Naru Girls Pop
Release Date: 7/24/13
Price: 1905 yen

EMI’s Drive ga 100-bai series continues with a new entry focusing on female vocal pop. I’m assuming this won’t be a non-stop mix, and will simply be a collection of full versions.

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EDM ~Electronic Dance Madness~ 4
Release Date: 6/5/13 ? 6/26/13 ? Release Cancelled
Price: 2190 yen

Bad news for EDM fans. It seems that EDM 4 has been cancelled for the time being. I hope this isn’t a result of Universal meddling. -_-

Update! DJ Tomo mentioned on his Twitter that the EMI/Universal merger was indeed responsible. Parlophone, formerly part of EMI and home to David Guetta and Coldplay (basically half of EDM), was sold off to Warner as part of the merger, so DJ Tomo was no longer able to use their songs freely. I wonder if he was in the middle of mixing the CD when the sale was finalized, and he wouldn’t have been able to do an entirely new list in such little time?

He goes on to apologize to anyone who was looking forward to EDM 4. He does say that he’s considering a new project, which may be released in August. There’s no mention if the EDM series will continue in the future.

Unfortunately, this has bad implications for Dancemania as well. EMI subsidiaries in European countries like Denmark and Sweden were also sold off to Warner, so say good-bye to the likes of Me & My and Smile.dk 🙁

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Kaji ga 100-bai Hakadoru High Tension Song Best (Top 20 Cheer Up Songs (House Keeping Edition))
Release Date: 5/29/13
Price: 1905 yen

This was originally intended as a digital release only, but good sales apparently convinced EMI/Universal to release a physical version. The CD contains 20 tracks instead of the digital EP’s 16, and also swaps out some of the EMI tracks for more Universal songs. The lack of Smile.dk and Me & My on the CD version is a bit troubling, and could signal that EMI Japan no longer have the rights to their back catalogues.

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Enka Speed
Release Date: 5/29/13
Price: 1905 yen

The album is out, and samples are now up on CDJapan. I’m starting to think that no one at Akiba Koubou knows what “Speed” means. As with the disappointingly slow Utattemita Speed albums, Enka Speed never reaches the highs of a traditional Dancemania Speed album, appearing to peak at only 160 BPM. They would’ve been better off calling this Utattemita Enka instead of linking it to the Dancemania Speed series. -_-

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Summer Rising – Mini Album Funkot Panas
Release Date: 6/5/13
Price: 800 yen

Yet another Funkot album from EMI. This one is a physical release exclusive to HMV/Lawson.

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