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Album: The Anthology (Buy Album)

Artist: ジブラ / Zeebra

Release Date: September 17, 2008

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Review By: blummer

Review

The Japanese hip-hop scene is technically one of the oldest and possibly one of the most established ones on the globe, but sadly it also remains one of the lesser known ones despite this fact. Although J-pop, J-rock, and pretty much all other forms of J-something have blown up in America and a bunch of other countries in recent years thanks to the “OMFG JAPAN IS SO KEWL” movement, J-hip-hop remains fairly unknown outside of Japan. There are many good artists out there, however, and Zeebra (real name: Hideyuki Yokoi), happens to be one of the more successful ones. He’s an interesting fellow that’s been accused about a million times in Japan’s hip-hop scene for “selling out,” in other words, appearing in more and more pop-oriented songs throughout the years, dumbing down his rhymes, and losing a lot of the edge and hunger that he had in his early years. Despite this, however, most Japanese hip-hop heads take the time to recognize Zeebra’s earlier contributions, stating that in his early days, at least, he was dope. Therefore, he’s sort of like a Japanese Snoop Dogg, if you will–an artist appreciated and respected by many for his early catalogue, but at the same criticized by just as many for his later works.
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• Single: Perfume - Love the World
• Album Review: 安室 奈美恵 - Best Fiction / Namie Amuro - Best Fiction
• Album Review: m-flo - Award SuperNova ~Loves Best~
• Album Review: 宇多田 ヒカル - Heart Station / Utada Hikaru - Heart Station

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Album: RED CLIFF ~心・戦~ / RED CLIFF ～Heart, War~ (Buy Album)

Artist: 阿蘭 / alan

Release Datectober 15, 2008

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Tracklisting:

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Blurb

alan, is a Chinese-Tibetan singer who’s recently been gaining the eyes of observant music industry watchers, and thanks to a reader email/comment, I’ll post something about her.

First off, I hadn’t even heard of her before this (I went back and checked the other three singles of her five-element series), but I really like her voice and style - fans of trashy Japanese music (which is also good..) like ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION will probably fall asleep, but other people who appreciate soulful, slow ballads will like it. There’s a time and place for everything. Best of all, she has NO ENGLISH in her songs - you can’t believe how much of a relief that is for me, listening to a J-Pop song. Furthermore, Jay Chou should hire her album cover designer, considering how beautiful it is (and she is)!

Lastly, she sings in both Japanese and Chinese, and sounds perfectly natural in both, an amazing feat. Take a listen!

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• Album Review: Zeebra - The Anthology (Deluxe Edition)
• Single: Perfume - Love the World
• Album Review: 安室 奈美恵 - Best Fiction / Namie Amuro - Best Fiction
• Album Review: m-flo - Award SuperNova ~Loves Best~
• Album Review: 宇多田 ヒカル - Heart Station / Utada Hikaru - Heart Station

Info

Album: Love the World (Buy Album)

Artist: Perfume

Release Date: July 9, 2008

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Blurb

Coming straight from Nippon comes Love the World by Japanese girl-group Perfume. This superbly techy and upbeat techno/electronic single, is simply fun to listen to. Their voice sounds so electronic though and impossibly high, but they sound like that in their other albums as well, so that’s not too bad. Their music video is supremely interesting as well, shot in all black and white. Take a listen, and check out the music video after the break.
Read the rest of this entry »

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• Album Review: Zeebra - The Anthology (Deluxe Edition)
• alan - RED CLIFF ~心・戦~ / alan - RED CLIFF ～Heart, War~
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• Album Review: m-flo - Award SuperNova ~Loves Best~
• Album Review: 宇多田 ヒカル - Heart Station / Utada Hikaru - Heart Station

Info

Album: Best Fiction (Buy Album)

Artist: 安室 奈美恵 / Namie Amuro

Release Date: July 30, 2008

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Review By: sky

Review

Namie Amuro has survived in the Japanese music industry for the longest time, seeing Avex Trax grow from a small private recording label to one of the largest music labels in all of Japan. Of her 13 years on the music industry, she has never released a greatest hits cd, but that has changed with the release of the R&B based greatest hits album: Best Fiction. The album was released on 30th July, and is mainly a compilation cd, but also features two new songs, namely Sexy Girl and Do Me More.
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• Single: Perfume - Love the World
• Album Review: m-flo - Award SuperNova ~Loves Best~
• Album Review: 宇多田 ヒカル - Heart Station / Utada Hikaru - Heart Station

Info

Album: Award SuperNova ~Loves Best~ (Buy Album)

Artist: m-flo

Release Date: February 13, 2008

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Review By: sky

Review

For many years now, the Japanese hip-hop group m-flo ( which consists of vocalist VERBAL and producer/dj Taku) have worked on a string of projects that involved collaborations with various well-known artists in the Japanese music scene. These included names like Crystal Kay, CHEMISTRY, BoA, etc. These tracks were released in three different albums, under the m-flo loves… series. With the final m-flo loves… album COSMICOLOR released in late March 2007, fans began to wonder what would happen to the group. With the release of their newest cd Award SuperNova - Loves Best-, the band shows their fans that they are still active and working hard in the music scene. The album is a collection of greatest hits from previous m-flo loves… albums.
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• alan - RED CLIFF ~心・戦~ / alan - RED CLIFF ～Heart, War~
• Single: Perfume - Love the World
• Album Review: 安室 奈美恵 - Best Fiction / Namie Amuro - Best Fiction
• Album Review: 宇多田 ヒカル - Heart Station / Utada Hikaru - Heart Station

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Album: Heart Station (Buy Album)

Artist: 宇多田 ヒカル / Utada Hikaru

Release Date: March 19, 2008

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Tracklisting:

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Review By: sky

Review

Utada Hikaru is no stranger to anyone who listens to Japanese music, and she recently released her newest album Heart Station in March. This album is the fifth and latest consecutive number 1 album, and follows the success of her previous album Ultra Blue. It currently ranks as the fourth highest selling album of 2008, and also the highest selling album by a female artist in 2008. Prior to the release of the album, she released the single Flavor of Life, which became an immediate hit with fans. One certainly hoped her next album would be just as well-received as the single, and she has not disappointed.
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InfoAlbum: The Face (Buy Album)

Artist: BoA

Released: February 27, 2008

Review By: illuminance

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Blurb

It’s 2008, and Korean/Japanese singer BoA has come out with her sixth Japanese album, The Face. Like albums before it, it is mostly a combination of the last few singles that she has released since the last album Made in Twenty (20) - namely Sweet Impact, Love Letter, Lose Your Mind, and be with you - with new songs.

Overall, I felt that this album was much better than Made in Twenty, which didn’t really pique my interest and I never really liked. The Face has more songs (other than the singles which we’ve already covered) that in my opinion are more interesting and fun - take Hey Boy, Hey Girl (featuring Seamo) for example - I love the beat in the song. The music video, err, not so much. (Incidentally, this song is usually only obtainable by getting the “deluxe” version of the album.)

Take a listen and see.
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• Single: Perfume - Love the World
• Album Review: 安室 奈美恵 - Best Fiction / Namie Amuro - Best Fiction
• Album Review: m-flo - Award SuperNova ~Loves Best~

Info

EP: Lose Your Mind (EP) (Buy Album)

Artist: BoA

Released: December 12, 2007

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Blurb

Well, our name is azn.play after all, and it’s high time we covered more Japanese stuff, me thinks. I’ll surely try my best to try and gather and learn more about the Japanese music world. Meanwhile, BoA has come out with another EP ahead of her sixth Japanese album (still unnamed), due to be released in February of 2008.

Titled Lose Your Mind, it features Yutaka Furukawa from the Doping Panda, which happens to be a Japanese indie rock band that I’ve never heard of (they play the electric guitar in the music video). Also notable: You get to see how she looks with short black hair. (Not that good, is the answer).

Lose Your Mind is one of those crazy and fast songs, with an eclectic beat and rhythm. Contrasting it well on the same EP is Smile Again, a slow romantic ballad that would not seem out of place for slow dancing. Interesting - I actually happen to like both songs, more so than Love Letter, the last EP she came out with.

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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Read the rest of this entry »

Possibly Related Posts:

• Album Review: Zeebra - The Anthology (Deluxe Edition)
• alan - RED CLIFF ~心・戦~ / alan - RED CLIFF ～Heart, War~
• Single: Perfume - Love the World
• Album Review: 安室 奈美恵 - Best Fiction / Namie Amuro - Best Fiction
• Album Review: m-flo - Award SuperNova ~Loves Best~