Time to get into a "Romantic Mode"...
ROmantic Mode (or "ROM", to fans...) is, undoubtedly, my favorite Jpop group. They became famous after recording two OPs for the TV series After War Gundam X, one of the many installments in the long running Japanese animated science fiction saga Gundam. "Dreams", the first one of them, was taken from their self-titled debut album, which was released in August 21st 1996. Only four months later, profitting from the hype that their collaboration with a Gundam project entailed, ROM would release a second album -"Vision of love"- that included the other OP song, "Resolution". Take a look at that OP clip here, courtesy of juggernit @ YouTube:
Their style is unique. It is basically a kind of techno that avoids strict categorizations. Their songs usually leave plenty of room for great electric guitar solos performed by member Masaki Suzukawa and this feature has contributed to them having a sound of their own that is very recognizable. The trio is complete with producer extraordinaire Joe Rinoie on keyboards and, on main vocals, the incomparable Akira Asakura. Akira's voice is very distinctive; it doesn't sound like anything you may have heard elsewhere in the Jpop scene. 
I love her voice, because it is as singular as ROM's music is inside Jpop. Akira could rock the house with her power vocals for a crazy uptempo number, then purr for a funky midtempo or even serenade us throughout a slow track, always with the same easiness and great control.
The trio released a third album called Dimensions in October 22nd 1997, and a compilation album two years later, in March 25th 1999, shortly before breaking up as a group. I decided to post today "Romantic Pleasures: The best of ROmantic Mode" for you to have a sample of the quality of their work in such short space of time.
You have some tracks from their debut album (tracks 3, 5, 6 & 8), from their sophomore album (tracks 1, 4, 12 & 14) and from their third CD (tracks 2, 7, 9 & 10). Tracks 11 & 13 -"Quest for the future" & "Runner"- were recorded specially for this compilation & the latter was released as their final single with c/w song "Garasu no Ai".
The reason behind their splitting is rumoured to have been Akira's marriage and her decision to abandon her musical career for a housewife's life... In any case, they left behind 34 songs and a cult following that found in them an alternative to other techno groups such as TwoMix or move. Check them out performing "Eien ga Owaru made Atsui Kiss wo Shiyou" live on Japanese TV show "Music Park" in this very rare clip courtesy of doctone @ YouTube:
Akira -who had a music career throughout the 80's under her real name, Saori Saitoh- has officially changed her name by now. Fortunately, she has slowly surfaced once again on the music scene for singing "Mayonaka no Niji", the ED song to the critically acclaimed anime Saishu Heiki Kanojo (a.k.a for Western audiences as She, the Ultimate Weapon). I sincerely hope she keeps on singing and can only dream of a ROM reunion someday ! ^_^
Once again, enjoy the music and let me know your opinions on what you hear. Here's the album:
Labels: Compilation Album, Jpop, ROmantic Mode
posted by AOI at 11:57 PM
4 Comments:
I actually love this group to pieces and have had little exposure beyond their singles from the Gundam X series. Thanks so much for sharing, it's a very good album, and certainly worth the listen.
Thanks so much for your feedback, rose. I will never understand how "Precious love" from "Vision of love" didn't make it to the compilation, but anyway it's a great album, as you say. I will post some more ROM eventually, so watch this space ! ^_^
I hope it's not asking too much for you to reupload ROM's album; there are a few friends I wanted to share the album with who wanted to listen to ROM's music as well.
Done! Remember the pass is at the end of the post.
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