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The Best Hot Shots!! -2013 1st Half Hits- mixed by DJ Roc the Masaki
Release Date: 7/10/13
Price: 1500 yen
Third in the series of Tsutaya-exclusive compilations produced by Manhattan Records. All of the tracks are licensed from Power Music. You can listen to samples on Manhattan Records’ web store.
No.1 Party Mix -World Famous R&B- mixed by DJ Satoshi
Release Date: 6/19/13
Price: 1714 yen
House compilation from VillageAgain. Sequel to No.1 Party Mix -R&B House Best-. The music is mostly by Power Music, but unfortunately it doesn’t appear that there are any remixes by DJ Satoshi or DJ U*Hey?
Available digitally on iTunes Japan.
Dance! Dance!! Dance!!! mixed by DJ Satoshi
Release Date: 7/13/13
Price: 1714 yen
DELACTION ARE BACK!!! This is such a complete surprise, but this new dance compilation from VillageAgain is like Mega Trance × Dancemania. In addition to Delaction, who contribute a brand new cover of Smile.dk’s “Butterfly,” Threemason/DJ U*Hey? is responsible for tons of 90s dance pop covers including “Dub-I-Dub,” “Hero,” “Santa Maria,” and more! Whoever put this list together was clearly a big Dancemania fan.
The album also contains a lot of more recent dance pop covers produced by Power Music. The physical CD is only available for rental at Tsutaya Records, but it’s also available digitally on iTunes Japan. There’s also a very good chance that they’ll release full versions on iTunes in the future.
Update (8/3/13): The CD will also be available for purchase on September 9 from major retailers, including CD Japan.
Past and Future
Artist: Team Jyunjyo
Release Date: 6/22/11
Price: $9.90
Album from the girls pop duo, Team Jyunjyo. Includes two songs produced by Tsukasa “Rayto/Tks” Baba. There are also two tracks attributed to MK, but it’s unclear whether it’s the MK from Exit Trance, Masakazu Kageyama. The album is available on iTunes as well as lots of other digital download services.
Zutto…Agetai (Single)
Artist: Dance Pop Girls
Release Date: 10/15/11
Price: $1.99
Second and apparently final single from the dance pop girls group. Unlike their first single, only one of the two songs is produced by Akiba Koubou artist, Tsukasa “Rayto/Tks” Baba. The single is available on iTunes as well as lots of other digital download services.
Jyounetsu no Kanata / Dance Pop Girls (Single)
Artist: Dance Pop Girls
Release Date: 6/22/11
Price: $1.99
Interesting release from 2011. It features two songs from a Japanese girl group, Dance Pop Girls, but the interesting thing is that the single was released worldwide. Plus, both songs were produced by Akiba Koubou producer, Tsukasa “Rayto/Tks” Baba. Because of Rayto’s involvement, the songs have a fun rock/eurobeat sound. The single is available on iTunes as well as lots of other digital download services.
Many Complications (Single)
Artist: Hommarju
Release Date: 6/21/13
Price: $3.98
New single from Exit Trance artist, Hommarju. It seems he’s hooked up with the UK Hardcore Label, Relentless Digital!, and has been featured on some of their compilations over the past year. Available on Beatport and other digital download services. Also recommended is Hardcore Shockwave, which features his apparent BFF, MK.
Shine a Light (Single)
Artist: DJ Takuma feat. Angella Giustini
Release Date: 4/17/13
Price: 450 yen
New single from 20 music. Features an Overhead Champion remix, but it’s house/EDM. 🙁 Available on iTunes Japan.
RTTF Remixes
Release Date: 10/28/12
Price: 1000 yen
It’s RTTF week here at Dancemania EX, where I’ll be placing a spotlight on the indie/doujin Japan label, RTTF.
RTTF’s latest release, featuring remixes of RTTF tracks! East meets West on the lead track, as prolific UK hardcore producer, Jakazid, provides a remix of Hyuji’s “Huge Frontier.”
Maya Akai gives one of my favorites, “Archiving the memory,” a hot new J-core sound, while Tomohiko Togashi and Takahiro Aoki provide remixes for songs by the Exit Trance artists, MK and Hommarju. “Dies Irae” turned out great, but I feel that too much of the original melody was lost in “Jupiter.” Speaking of Hommarju, he appears on the album with a hardcore remix of RedOgre’s “3rd Raid.”
You can visit RTTF’s official website for a crossfade demo. If you’re interested in ordering, DJ Hyuji speaks English and is willing to ship overseas. You can contact him here: http://rttf.eternalbreeze.net/contact.html Just make sure to turn your ad blocker off if you have one installed, otherwise the form won’t appear.
Toho EDM
Artist: IOSYS
Release Date: 12/9/12
Price: 1365 yen
You know there’s a genre boom when they make a Toho release based on it. Visit the official website for more info.
Run to the Future
Release Date: 4/30/12
Price: 800 yen
It’s RTTF week here at Dancemania EX, where I’ll be placing a spotlight on the indie/doujin Japan label, RTTF.
Quite a bit of epic trance on the follow-up to RTTF’s first release. This 2-disc set is separated into a “Ground Shake Side” and a “Mighty Wings Side.” There’s a pretty good mix of epic trance, J-core and electro spread across the two discs.
Notable tracks on disc 1 include heric’s chiptune song, “Bittune Space,” and the epic trance masterpiece from Yunyun, “Archiving the memory.”
Disc 2 starts off with 4 J-Core tracks ranging from 167-175 BPM. Takahiro Aoki’s “Break Out” is the best of the bunch, with a really catchy melody and great hardcore sound. Disc 2 also has some EDM/electro tracks for fans of those genres.
You can visit RTTF’s official website for a crossfade demo. If you’re interested in ordering, DJ Hyuji speaks English and is willing to ship overseas. You can contact him here: http://rttf.eternalbreeze.net/contact.html Just make sure to turn your ad blocker off if you have one installed, otherwise the form won’t appear.
Toho R&B House Party Vol. 0
Artist: Halozy
Release Date: 4/29/13
Price: 750 yen
Mini-album from Halozy featuring R&B House renditions of Toho songs.
Vocal Vitality
Release Date: 4/30/12
Price: 1429 yen
It’s RTTF week here at Dancemania EX, where I’ll be placing a spotlight on the indie/doujin Japan label, RTTF.
Vocal Vitality is a special release from RTTF featuring vocal tracks only. The highlight of the album, at least for Dancemania Speed fans, is easily the new Nancy and the Boys track, “Shine a Light on You,” which also features a rap from Sami. I wish Nancy got a few more lines to sing instead of just repeating the same thing over and over again, but it’s a fun, original tune.
Another guest DJ on the album is DJ Genji, who contributes a fun hardcore song, “Promise.” Meanwhile, the fastest song on the album is DJ Hyuji’s “Stars,” which comes in at 180 BPM and features the lovely vocals of Sanahara.
Also of note is the funky “Miami Booty” song, “Sweet Chocolate.” Hyuji captured the Dancemania Bass sound perfectly. And much like a Dancemania album, Vocal Vitality unfortunately has some repeats. “Night Queen” is a straight repeat from Classical Candy, while “Feel the Sky” from Classical Candy 2 is labeled here as “Ver1.1,” though to be honest I can’t really tell the difference. ^^;
You can visit RTTF’s official website for a crossfade demo. If you’re interested in ordering, DJ Hyuji speaks English and is willing to ship overseas. You can contact him here: http://rttf.eternalbreeze.net/contact.html Just make sure to turn your ad blocker off if you have one installed, otherwise the form won’t appear.
Classical Candy 2
Release Date: 10/30/11
Price: 1000 yen
It’s RTTF week here at Dancemania EX, where I’ll be placing a spotlight on the indie/doujin Japan label, RTTF.
I’ve covered RTTF’s follow-up to Classical Candy before, but it’s worth revisiting the album now that I’ve listened to it in full.
Of course, Dancemania fans would be most interested in the new track from Chris Bucknall (a.k.a the “C” part of CJ Crew). It’s a 170 BPM arrangement of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” and it doesn’t disappoint. It’s quite lengthy at about 5:52, so he gets a chance to cover a lot more ground than the painfully short edits from classical Speed. There are pianos abound in the track, as well as some nice synth interpretations of the melody.
Speed Synth Symphony is also back with two tracks that lovingly recall the Dancemania SPEED sound. Seriously, if you listen to them you’ll realize that this guy knows and understands Dancemania Speed. DJ Hyuji also has a vocal(!) trance arrangement of “Pomp and Circumstance” on the album, as well as a trance cover of “Polovtsian Dance.”
Hommarju gets the final track on the album, a rousing trance rendition of Mozart’s “Requiem K.626 Dies Irae.” It’s absolutely amazing and makes me mourn the death of non-anime Exit Trance albums even more. It has everything you could possibly want from a trance song: a hard, galloping beat, random vocal samples, epic trance synths, and CHANTING.
Dancemania fans will also be interested to know that the booklet contains an interview (in Japanese) with Chris Bucknall. DJ Hyuji also posted parts of the interview online: http://rttf.eternalbreeze.net/works/rttf_0004/chris_interviews_web.html
You can visit RTTF’s official website for a crossfade demo. If you’re interested in ordering, DJ Hyuji speaks English and is willing to ship overseas. You can contact him here: http://rttf.eternalbreeze.net/contact.html Just make sure to turn your ad blocker off if you have one installed, otherwise the form won’t appear.
Classical Candy
Release Date: 5/1/11
Price: 1000 yen
It’s RTTF week here at Dancemania EX, where I’ll be placing a spotlight on the indie/doujin Japan label, RTTF.
RTTF’s Classical Candy releases are probably my favorite from the label. As the title suggests, the album contains new dance arrangements of classical songs, similar to classical Speed or Exit Trance presents TranceMaster.
The opening track, done under DJ Hyuji’s pseudonym, Speed Synth Symphony, is like a love letter to Dancemania Speed. At a staggering 200 BPM, “The Comedian’s Gallop” perfectly encapsulates the SPEED sound and sounds like mix of CJ Crew and Saifam. Also recommended is Hyuji’s “Night Queen,” a cover of Mozart’s “Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herze” that comes complete with vocals and hyper techno elements!
Exit Trance fans will be delighted to know that Hommarju and MK both make appearances on the album. Hommarju does something delightfully different with a speed trance cover of the ragtime tune, “Pine Apple Rag.” I officially want a Ragtime Trance album now. Meanwhile, MK contributes a fantastic ethereal trance arrangement of “Jupiter.”
Tadashi Yamamoto offers a serene piano arrangement of “Gymnopedie,” once again with a light dance beat. Meanwhile, DJ Croco’s rock-trance cover of “Amazing Grace” evokes memories of N.O.-SYO. There’s a fantastic amount of variety on this album, so if you’re at all a fan of classical Speed or Exit Trance, I highly recommend it!
You can visit RTTF’s official website for a crossfade demo. If you’re interested in ordering, DJ Hyuji speaks English and is willing to ship overseas. You can contact him here: http://rttf.eternalbreeze.net/contact.html Just make sure to turn your ad blocker off if you have one installed, otherwise the form won’t appear.
DanceMaster | 
08 1st, 2013| 
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