Dancemania EX × Trance Paradise

Exit Trance presents Speed Anime Trance Best The Final
Release Date: 1/7/15
Price: 2000 yen

Any hopes of SATB ending with a bang were dashed with the reveal of the final tracklist. There are 18 tracks in all, with 7 of those being random repeats ranging from the first SATB to bitter (!?), and even one from the most recent SATB, 22.

plazma gets the distinction of having the most new tracks with 2 arrangements. Hommarju, Mars, MK, Dizzi Mystica, and Flash back Dominant get one each. Icon also returns with a single new track after missing SATB 22. And for some reason the DJ Sa9 alias returns with a new track, even though it hasn’t been seen since 2009’s SATB 7.

Here’s the curious thing: there are also two new artists, Motion Combat and Tsukemen Prince. So odd and random to introduce new producers instead of bringing back Ryu* or Starving Trancer for new tracks. I know Ryu* is busy with the new album, but to have 3 Ryu* tracks only for none of them to be new seems awfully cruel.

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Seventh Heaven
Artist: Ryu*
Release Date: 2/4/15
Price: 2500 yen

Seventh major album from prolific Bemani artist, Ryu*. This is part of Exit Tunes’ Hyper RMX project, RMX being an acronym of Ryu*, Mayumi, and Xceon, three artists who have been quite prominent in the Bemani world. Exit Tunes are charging a premium for these albums, however, with each selling for 400 yen more than usual. Bonus items include a logo charm.

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Tsumi to Batsu
Artist: Xceon
Release Date: 2/4/15
Price: 2500 yen

First major album from prolific Bemani artist, Xceon. This is part of Exit Tunes’ Hyper RMX project, RMX being an acronym of Ryu*, Mayumi, and Xceon, three artists who have been quite prominent in the Bemani world. Exit Tunes are charging a premium for these albums, however, with each selling for 400 yen more than usual. Bonus items include a logo charm.

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Din Don Dan
Artist: Mayumi Morinaga
Release Date: 2/4/15
Price: 2500 yen

Oh, wow, it feels like forever since Mayumi’s last album. And, no, the MAYU releases don’t count. This is part of Exit Tunes’ Hyper RMX project, RMX being an acronym of Ryu*, Mayumi, and Xceon, three artists who have been quite prominent in the Bemani world. Exit Tunes are charging a premium for these albums, however, with each selling for 400 yen more than usual. Bonus items include a logo charm.

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Exit Trance presents Speed Anime Trance Best The Final
Release Date: 1/7/15
Price: 2000 yen

Well, here we are at the end of an era. The writing has been on the wall for a while now, but it’s still sad that the Speed Anime Trance Best series will be ending after 8 years and 23 main entries. Sales have been quite low since SATB 20, and it seems that the new management at Exit Tunes can no longer justify the expense of keeping the series going.

Amazon’s description seems to imply that there’ll be repeats of the best tracks from throughout the series, but there’ll also be new songs. Hopefully they’ll bring back even more classic artists to give the series a proper send-off.

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Back to Basics
Artist: Overhead Champion
Release Date: 1/14/15
Price: 1852 yen

Update (11/13/14): I got a mention on OHC’s twitter o_O Apparently the collaboration info is incorrect, so the label was probably just talking about his previous collaborations. Also, in another tweet it’s mentioned that there are 20 songs planned.

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Sound Drive -Driving Sound Art-
Artist: N.O.-SYO
Release Date: 9/15/14
Price: 2000 yen

New DVD from N.O.-SYO featuring pictures and videos of cars with his music playing in the background. It appears that it will only be available for sale on his website. The DVD comes with your choice of 1 of 4 stickers, or you can pay 340 yen more for all 4 stickers. The preview video kind of creeps me out. It’s like the soundtrack to a horror movie.

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Exit Trance presents Speed Anime Trance Best 22
Release Date: 10/1/14
Price: 2000 yen

Final list and cover art are out for the 22nd release in the SATB series. Only 17 tracks, but I guess that’s better than the pathetic 15 that SATB 21 had. Plus, at least they’re using up the whole CD this time. The total length of the album is a little under 80 minutes.

It’s a pretty balanced album, as Hommarju, Booing Day, Dizzi Mystica and plazma get 3 tracks each. MK gets 2, while Flash back dominant gets a single track. One of the big surprises here is the return of the Mars alias, last seen only on SATB 14. Also surprising is the return of Ryu*, who hasn’t been on an SATB album since SATB 15. Icon gets left out completely for the first time since SATB 11.

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Exit Trance presents Speed Anime Trance Best 22
Release Date: 10/1/14
Price: 2000 yen

Final list and cover art are out for the 22nd release in the SATB series. Only 17 tracks, but I guess that’s better than the pathetic 15 that SATB 21 had. Plus, at least they’re using up the whole CD this time. The total length of the album is a little under 80 minutes.

It’s a pretty balanced album, as Hommarju, Booing Day, Dizzi Mystica and plazma get 3 tracks each. MK gets 2, while Flash back dominant gets a single track. One of the big surprises here is the return of the Mars alias, last seen only on SATB 14. Also surprising is the return of Ryu*, who hasn’t been on an SATB album since SATB 15. Icon gets left out completely for the first time since SATB 11.

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We’re so Happy
Artist: Ryu*
Release Date: 9/17/14
Price: 2000 yen

Ryu*’s 6th album drops this September with more extended versions of his Bemani productions plus new tracks. 15 tracks are planned. Bonus items include a cell phone strap and sticker. Retailer-exclusive bonuses include remix CDs or an alternative jacket art. Meanwhile, Konamistyle have a deluxe set featuring a can badge, muffler towel, and special bonus CD. Visit the official website for more info.

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Hime Trance 4
Release Date: 1/27/10
Price: 1886 yen

Well, here we are at the end of an era. After the release of Anime*Mix in January of ’09, all was quiet on the Hime Trance front until EMI’s surprise decision to finally release Hime Trance 4 in 2010. Keep in mind that Hime Trance 3 had been released in 2007. Was the wait worth it?

In a word, hell yeah. Okay, that was two words, but one wouldn’t have been able to describe my love for the album. Most of it came down to Delaction, who produced 4 new incredible songs for the album, but there’s a lot of awesomeness to be found overall, which you can read about in my review.

This marked the end of Trance Paradise, unfortunately, but at least it went out with a bang. I hope you guys had a fun time going down memory lane. If there’s any interest in a similar series on Mega Trance or Super Best Trance, let me know.

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Hime Trance Anime*Mix
Release Date: 1/21/09
Price: 2171 yen

After three relatively disappointing releases in a row, the Hime Trance series finally got back on track with Anime*Mix. EMI finally stopped being cheap and commissioned a lot of new songs, and it made all the difference. The album was fresh, fun, and varied, with nary a bad track in sight. I did a full review a few years ago, and I still consider it a favorite. Sadly, as with Hime Trance Speed, it would never end up getting a sequel.

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Hime Trance Tsukasa Mix
Release Date: 11/12/08
Price: 1886 yen

After a Best release and a Speed off-shoot, it was certainly time for a proper Hime Trance 4, right? Whelp, we got another spinoff instead. Tsukasa was often labeled as the “queen of Hime Trance,” so she got a mixed album featuring pretty much all of her songs up to that point. It’s not a bad selection, but the nonstop mix is only 40 minutes, and there are only 3 or so new tracks. That said, it was worth it for an epic rendition of “Eternal Blaze,” which would end up shaping Delaction’s sound for the next few albums.

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Hime Trance Speed
Release Date: 7/30/08
Price: 1886 yen

I was so excited when this was first announced, thinking that it would bring about a resurgence of the Dancemania Speed series. Well, it brought back repeats from the series, at least. Most of the songs still held up well, but “Butterfly” was in desperate need of an updated remix and “Willy…” still has the outro from “Smile” for some reason. The only new Dancemania remix was “Girlfriend,” which I thought was fantastic. It’s a shame they never identified the remixer, though it sounds almost as if Saifam remixed the DJ Ten remix.

The album also includes a few new J-core remixes of Hime Trance tracks. “Paya Paya” and “Doubt” ended up great, but the DJ 92 tracks sound oddly hollow.

Unfortunately, EMI never moved forward with more Hime Trance Speed releases. The album just serves as a painful reminder that we never got a Jenny Rom trance remix.

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Hime Trance Best
Release Date: 5/14/08
Price: 2171 yen

Okay, so after Trance Paradise Best, EMI were surely out of repeats, right? Nope, instead of giving us the long-awaited Hime Trance 4, they decided to do a best-of album for Hime Trance instead. And, since they had already used the best tracks (the EMI remixes) on Trance Paradise Best, they went with another angle and collected only the Japanese-language tracks.

It’s a decent collection of songs, with about 7-8 new tracks thrown in, but the reliance on repeats was getting ridiculously tiresome. I will say, however, that it has my favorite “Zankoku” trance remix ever.

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