Magic WANDS...

Ohayo! At least to me... ^_^ I'm having breakfast in the early morning and blasting the hell out of the CD I'm posting today. You know, just to get in the right mood to talk to you a bit about WANDS, one of the most successful pop/rock bands of the last decade, and another one of those acts that you HAVE to know. This blog will attempt to cover the essentials of Jpop and anime music of the past years and jump to more recent stuff whenever I feel the whole page is turning too much into a vintage Jpop shrine. In any case, even if some material may sound dated, be sure it is quality music and bare with me... I grew up listening to much of this stuff ! ^_-
So WANDS is a trio formed in 1991 by main vocalist Sho Uesugi, guitarist Hiroshi Shibasaki, and keyboardist Kousuke Oshima (the coolest looking guy behind the keyboards... ever! He looks like he was part of the original lineup of Pizzicato 5). The group disbanded in 2000, so there are no longer among us... but they made sure to leave behind a string of infectious hits to be remembered for.

Sho is a hell of a singer and performer, with a great voice for rock, though -truth be told- some of their songs are more on the pop side, dominated by Kousuke's keyboard rather than by Hiroshi's electric guitar. Just like B'z, they seem to have favored more agressive rock arrangements as years went by... and also as the musical taste of the masses switched to that kind of sound. The album posted below, "Best of WANDS History" is a true testament to the evolution of their music.

Their early material may easily be mistaken for B'z songs. The reason is simple: WANDS and B'z belonged to the same recording company -the BEING studio- who housed as well other immensely popular acts of the 90's in Japan, such as ZARD and DEEN. BEING was the most successful music company of the first half of the 90's in Japan, and counted among their ranks with producer extraordinaire Tetsuro Oda. This man was responsible for many of WANDS and B'z hits, and later devoted the last half of the 90's to model the sound of my girl Nanase Aikawa. Oda, to me, is a true music genius and a great musician himself (a guitarist that has released albums on his own) and I should put up one day a compilation of my favorite tracks produced by him.

Back to WANDS, they debuted on the music charts with their 1991 ballad "Sabishisa wa Aki no Iro", to which followed the single "Furimuite Dakishimete" in May 1992, just before putting out their debut self-titled album one month later. Both singles are mysteriously absent in the compilation you'll find below, but at least I can provide you with the music videos of them, courtesy of aleose 85 & YouTube. And before you start cracking up at their hairstyle and fashion sense, remember this was 15 years ago ! ^_^:


Poppy, right ? Just like a carbon copy of B'z first songs... After listening to the album, you'll let me know if you think they should've been there anyway. The compilation below at least includes all three of their songs contributed to anime series. The album kicks start with, undoubtedly, their most famous song in the fandom: the 2nd ED of the TV adaptation of the manga "Slam Dunk", "Sekai ga Owaru made wa" ("Til' the end of the world"). Such a brilliant song and performance by Sho... another instant classic in the fandom. Here is the clip, courtesy of jomarjerome @ YouTube, and if you didn't enjoy the previous two clips don't worry, the majority of the album below rather sounds like this:

Their other contributions to animation projects are the first ED to the Yuugi Oh TV series (track 11 of the CD below) and an ED as well for Dragon Ball GT. Oh, though not any ED... they had the privilege of recording the song (track 10) to match the very last images that the Japanese saw in the long, long, loooong saga that is the classic TV series of Dragon Ball. Those three tracks are among my favorites of this compilation, together with tracks 3, 4 and the great, amazing "Secret Night" (track 7). Track 12 in the original CD was a live, short version of "Sekaijuu no Dare Yori Kitto" performed with Miho Nakayama. I dared to replace that version in the tracklisting with the actual studio version of that song, for you to fully enjoy it.

After breaking up as a group, Sho continued in music performing solo and his first album ("Blackout in the Galaxy") came out last February. Can't wait to get a copy of that one... Here's "Best of WANDS History", a collection of songs taken from the five albums they released throughout the 90's... as always, I appreciate if you leave any comments on the music.

Play it on a loop: Maaya Sakamoto

On the menu for today we have one of the most beautiful female voices that has ever graced anime music... ever ! ^_^ Many would agree with me on stating that any newcomer to J-pop and anime music must be acquainted as soon as possible with the talent of Maaya Sakamoto. This young woman initiated her career in a quite unusual way: in 1996, at age 16, she was an unknown girl in high school that was personally chosen by famous composer Yoko Kanno for performing songs for a project to which she had been hired to compose the soundtrack. The project in question was the TV series "Tenkuu no Escaflowne", marketed for Western audiences under the name of "The Vision of Escaflowne". Check the entry I wrote about the soundtrack to the movie made off this TV series by clicking the month of "March" in the Archives to your right.

"Escaflowne" became one of the most successful TV series of the last decade, gaining legions of fans in both the specialized media and the general public, and Maaya not only sang the opening to the TV series, but also was cast as the voice of the character Hitomi Kanzaki. This was a controversial decision, since Hitomi was the main character and it was being trusted to a complete unknown high-school girl with no previous work as a seiyuu ! Still, despite her inexperience, Maaya delivered a brilliant performance and captivated everybody with her sweet voice. This was the beginning of an intense career for Maaya as a singer, seiyuu and regular actress. Enjoy the clip that started it all, the opening of Escaflowne (the song is "Yakusoku wa iranai"):

After the Escaflowne project, Maaya & Yoko Kanno developed a friendship and professional relationship that would last to this day. Kanno produced her first album: 1997's "Grapefruit". It contained many songs from Escaflowne as well as new tracks that combined very well the voice of this young girl with the ecclectic sound Kanno is known for as an arranger. From then on, Kanno would involve Maaya each time she would be asked to compose the soundtrack to a new anime project. Thus, Maaya's voice graces the soundtracks of series like "Brain Powerd", "Wolf's Rain" and "Earth Girl Arjuna", but Maaya & Kanno songs have also been featured in TV series even if Kanno was not the composer in charge of the soundtrack. That is the case for "Card Captor Sakura", "CLAMP School Detectives" and "Rahxephon", for example.

Gradually, Maaya started to become more involved in her music by writing the lyrics of her songs while Kanno and frequent collaborator Yuuho Iwasato handled music and arrangements. Maaya kept on releasing albums with them on an almost annual basis: 1998's DIVE, 1999's Hotchpotch, 2001's Lucy (and later that year an EP called "Easy Listening"), 2003's albums Shounen Alice & Nikopachi. Both "Hotchpotch" & "Nikopachi" are in fact compilations of different single tracks that she recorded for anime or game soundtracks. In them we can find jewels such as "Kiseki no Umi" (opening of the TV series of Record of Lodoss War) and "Gravity" (ending of Wolf's Rain) that any person able to hear should treat themselves with ^_^. Check out the PV (Promotional Video) for the latter song, which is in English, courtesy of randymatsunaga @ YouTube:

Beautiful song, don't you think ?! :-) Finally, in 2005, Maaya decided to record an album without the supervision of Yoko Kanno. That is the post of today, the album "Yunagi Loop".

Maaya right now keeps herself extremely busy as a seiyuu in anime and videogames, and also dubbing famous female roles for the Japanese versions of many blockbusters. She's the voice of Padme Amidala in the Star Wars prequels, of Kate Brewster in "T3: Rise of the Machines", of Lisa in Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball, of Max in the TV series "Dark Angel"... The list is impressive and keeps being updated. She also debuted on theatre in the role of Eponine in the musical Les Miserables... there's nothing she can't do.
In the anime department, her latest contributions have been the endings "Loop" (included in the album below) and "Kazemachi no Jet" to the TV series of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles... yet another CLAMP creation !! (I swear I'm not making this on purpose... :-P).

For now, enjoy Maaya Sakamoto's 2005 album "Yunagi LOOP" ! I must admit that "Lucy" and "Easy Listening" are still my favorites, since I grow too used to the Kanno touch in her songs, but I thought of posting her latest offering to keep you updated on what her material is sounding right now... Let me know what you think !

You gotta love the Japanese... (III)

Oh, God... It's been a while since I last laughed so much with a TV series, and I had to talk to you a bit about it because it deserves much more exposure than it originally had. I came across the following clip by chance in YouTube and the insanity portrayed in it was enough to catch my attention. See... the series is called "Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan" and initially you would think by the title that it is yet another Magical Girl series (these series just love to include the word "Tenshi" -"Angel"- in their titles). This first impression would be reinforced by the main character's design: a very cute girl drawn in typical shojo manga style that uses an asset for casting a certain spell. But then, looking closely, you realise that the tool she uses is a metal bat with creepy looking spikes and that "Bokusatsu" means literally "Club-you-to-death" !!

Enjoy the insanity that is "Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan" with this first look at its opening clip, and then I'll go on with my rant:

Amazing, ah ? This is proof that the Japanese produce animation for all ages and gender groups in whatever possible genre :-). Just reading the lyrics of the opening song I knew I was hooked ^_^ Well, it turns out she really is an Angel, sent from the future by God to kill a teenager that would cause many problems when he gets older. But instead of doing that, she decides to stay at his place and try to reform him. The problem is that she's very childish, moody and unstable, so whenever she's pissed she would grab her club and savagely kill him or whoever is around in the most gory and bloody way imaginable. Then, when she gets back to her senses, she sincerely asks for forgiveness and with her magical spell ("Pipiru piru piru pipirupi") (?!) she brings them back to life ! I hadn't seen so much blood on TV since "Elfen Lied" ! The series is full of parodies to magical girl series and other anime titles and of course has a rather sick sense of humour, but then again... so do I, so I strongly recommend the eight 15-minute episodes produced. You can watch them in YouTube by typing "Dokuro-chan" in the search bar. If you watch the first episode and laugh with what happens at the 1:22 minute, then go on... it's for you ! ^_-
Here is the full song for your hearing pleasure, performed by the talented seiyuu Saeko Chiba, who was cast as Dokuro herself.

I'll be back soon with a full album ! Pipiru piru piru pipirupiiiiiii ! :-P

Introducing: ayaka

Hi, peeps ! Last week, J was nice enough to share with us all a song by newcomer ayaka , and I found the song so good and her voice so beautiful, that I HAD to do some research on her and get more info and material of her just-starting career ^_^. Ayaka Iida (her full name) was born in 1987 in Osaka and debuted last February in the music scene with the ballad "I believe", which reached #3 in the Oricon Charts in its first week, making it the highest debut entry by a female singer since 1998, when Hikaru Utada kick started her career at #2 with her double A-side first single "Automatic/time will tell".

"I believe" was used as the theme song of Japanese TV drama "Rondo". This wouldn't be her sole contribution to a TV project, since, as J pointed out, her third and last single up to now ("Real Voice") is the ending song of TV drama "Supli".
Check her out performing "I believe", live @ Music Station TV show, courtesy of littlefairyfromnam @ YouTube:

Her first album ("First Message") is scheduled for release next month, and I can't wait to see if she delivers the goods that her three singles have been foreshadowing. Her style reminds me a bit of Chihiro Yonekura at times, but it has a more folksy/guitar-driven feel than the straightaway pop that Chihiro can come up with. Among her influences, she cites the likes of The Beatles, Sheryl Crow, Carole King and Dreams Come True... and I think their influence on her music is palpable.
Here is her single discography up to the moment !

Ayaka - I believe
Released on 02.01.2006
Tracks:
1) I believe
2) Yume no kakera
3) I believe (instrumental version)

Ayaka - Melody ~sounds real~
Released on 05.10.2006
Tracks:
1) Melody ~sounds real~
2) Blue days
3) Melody ~sounds real~ Live Version
4) Sha la la Live Version
5) Blue days Live Version

Ayaka - Real Voice
Released on 07.19.2006
Tracks:
1) Real Voice
2) Peace loving people
3) Real Voice (instrumental version)

Thanks again to J for the track, and the rest of you, keep those contributions coming this way ! :-)

Just Wild Beat Two-Mix Music !

Hi, everybody... This week we have another BEST OF compilation album by another group commonly associated with animation: Two-Mix. This duo have been putting out great techno/dance music since 1995, but in fact both members had known each other since early in the 90's and had previously worked as a group named "S Connection" and even released an album under that name. Two-Mix is composed of Nagano Shiina in lyrics and synths and Minami Takayama in vocals and composition. Their link to anime projects is not only the result of their energetic music being selected as openings of TV series, but also because Minami happens to be one of the best and most prolific seiyuus (voice actresses) of her generation...

In fact, in Japan, seiyuus are true celebrities. Almost all of them (male and female) are also singers... with a varying degree of accomplishment... :-S Singing is an important part of their studies for becoming professional seiyuus, since whenever a TV series is successful and its characters become popular, they are invariably called to contribute their vocals for "character songs". These songs are either featured in the original soundtrack of the series, or in "character song collections"; that is, CDs that assemble songs sang "in character's voice" by the seiyuus. These albums can actually move a lot of copies ! Minami (whose real name is Izumi Arai) is actually one of the few seiyuus that managed to have a music career in a mainstream group and not only as a seiyuu singing anime music on her own (à la Megumi Hayashibara or Junko Iwao, for example). Minami is fondly remembered as the voice of lovely Kiki in Hayao Miyazaki's excellent movie "Kiki's Delivery Service", as the nutcase Dilandau in "Escaflowne" or the bitchy Nabiki in "Ranma 1/2". Her versatility and talent as actress is well proven by now, and can currently be appreciated in the role of Conan Edogawa in the mega-hit "Meitantei Conan" (a series I seem always to end up talking about, for one reason or another...).

Two-Mix became famous after contributing two opening songs for the TV series Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, as well as an ending song for its continuation in OVA format. In the fandom, they were embraced as soon as the first notes of the first of their opening songs for Gundam Wing aired for the first time ^_^. There is no anime fan in their 20's that doesn't recognize the opening music and lyrics of "Just Communication" ("Just wild beat communication/ Ame ni utare nagara..."). Here you have that milestone clip, courtesy of Darkhell @ YouTube:

Great, uh ? :-) Yeah, I thought so... Their music (just like Romantic Mode's) matched perfectly the imagery of a long-lasting science fiction series such as Gundam. After releasing the singles "Just Communication", "Rhythm Emotion" and "White Reflection" for the Gundam saga, Two-Mix released their first album entitled "BPM 132" in 1995, to which 3 (three!) others would follow throughout 1996 ("BPM 143", "BPM 150 Max" & "Two ->Re(Mix)"). In 1997, their first compilation album ("BPM Best Files", the post for today) was released but they wouldn't slow down their pace: two other CDs were put out that same year, three others along 1998, two in 1999... it was rather hard to keep track of the releases of these two ! Fortunately, if you want more information on them, you can find on the net places like this that should give you a hand with a (more or less) complete discography.

Knowing that their fan base was in its majority anime fans, Two-Mix attached a bonus CDRom to the album I'm posting today. It included an animated music video to "White Reflection" that boasted animation of OVA quality featuring animated versions of the members of the duo chasing a mysterious light all across the USA. Blink and you'll miss the World Trade Center Twin Towers there. I think that, besides being a nice gesture to fans, the clip is really well-made and synchronized with both music and lyrics. Here you have it, courtesy of Darki @ YouTube:

And what is of them right now ? Well, after 2003 they have vanished a bit as a group... Minami continues her acting career; most notably, still in the role of Conan after more than 450 episodes now ! But she also has slowed down a bit on her professional life after marrying last year... to Gosho Aoyama, the creator of "Meitantei Conan" !! That was new to me, I had no idea... Good catch, Minami !
In any case, here you have the album for a sample of their early work in the mid-90's. Enjoy it in a loud volume ^_^. My favorite (besides the Gundam tracks, which are the first three) is "Diving to Paradise"...

Chara: A sip of Caramel Milk

This week I finally reached 10.000 visitors... ^_^ I can't help but to be happy for this achievement, even though I'm perfectly aware that what took me 6 months, other music bloggers around managed to achieve in only 3 weeks ! Well, let's say that the idea behind this blog was never to become the most popular site for music around. I could have joined the community of blogs that provide you with the latest downloads of the most listened-to styles in music right now. But my intention for "Kanaete" was instead to introduce newcomers to anime/manga and Japanese culture in general through the great music that is produced in the island. If the subject matter I picked for my blog meant to sabotage its popularity from the start, then so be it... :-P But with an average of a hundred visitors a day, and a few comments from time to time, I'm more than satisfied. Specially if many in the process got to overcome the language barrier and learnt to appreciate music for what it is and what it is meant to produce in us. You know, this place hasn't really benefited from publicity other than the kind cross-references featured in the blogs of a group of people who have seen my work, liked it, and judged it merited further exposition... To those people (Toya, Etienne, Monica, Knotie, Aaryn, Jessica, Lee, OC Team and the rest), I'd like to express my gratitude ! :-)

Enough of my rants ! ^_^ Today I have the privilege of introducing you to another great artist: Chara. Chara (whose real name is Miwa Satou) is a singer/songwriter born in 1968 that plays a variety of instruments but masters in particular both guitar and piano. She became famous in Japan in the early 90's, thanks to the success of her first album ("Sweet") released in 1991. Her style is certainly difficult to classify, as it is frequently the case for artists fully compromised with their music and their artistry. Chara has toyed with indie pop, alternative rock, folk and even trip-hop. What is characteristic of Chara is her voice and singing style. I'll be the first to admit that because of her childish-sounding voice her music is not for everybody, but if you let yourself get carried away by the musicality of her compositions and dig her lyrics, you're in for quite a great ride !

After "Sweet", Chara put out albums on a yearly basis up to 1995, year of release of her first BEST OF compilation entitled "Baby Baby Baby XXX" (?!). In order, those CDs were "Soul Kiss", "Violet Blue" and "Happy Toy". In 1996 she joined briefly the Yen Town Band as a vocalist and released an album with them, but this period in her life was rather characterised by her incursion into acting. She starred in "Swallowtail", an indie movie directed by Shunji Iwai, in which she played Glico, a cheerful prostitute who takes care of an orphan girl. She got good reviews for her performance and later that same year she starred as Coco in another Iwai project: the short film "Picnic". On the set of this latter production, she met actor Tadanobu Asano, who would later become her husband and father of her two children.

After the hiatus that filming, marriage and motherhood meant for Chara, she would resume her solo music career in late 1997 with the album "Junior Sweet", to which followed "Strange Fruits" (1999), "Madrigal" (2001) and "Yoake Mae" in 2003. What you have below is "Caramel Milk: The Best of Chara", her second BEST OF album put out in 2000 for compiling songs from this second stage of her career. You'll find below the tracklisting of the album in the comments section, because I forgot once again to edit the tags before uploading (gomen, gomen... :-S).

Chara is not an artist that has collaborated with anime projects at all. But you are probably going to see her name associated with the song "Himegoto", the first ED of the TV series "Vandread". Be careful, though ! That is not Chara singing that song, but another artist that goes by the name of SiLC and that -let's put it this way- must be a huge Chara fan because she sounds almost identical to her... Chara has indeed her share of followers inside music, and has influenced the likes of Bonnie Pink, Cocco and a whole generation of other female singer/songwriters in the Jmusic world.

Credit for the photos and some of the info included in this article goes to Project J, a now defunct site that used to feature the profiles of many Jpop & Jrock acts and that shares the goals of "Kanaete". It's a pity it's not around anylonger... It was a great place for getting some more info on Chara, specially about her complete discography.

Enjoy the album and let me know your views, dammit ! :-P

You gotta love the Japanese... (II)

This is the section conceived to show to you the weird and the funny... and for today's offering I found something really special ^_^. First, it is important, absolutely necessary, that you see this clip:

That was the first OP of beloved TV series Card Captor Sakura, another CLAMP creation and arguably the most successful they ever had in both paper and animated versions. It has been aired in most Western countries, so I guess many of you know it at least by seeing the TV ads for it. It's one of my all-time favorites. It's really great and worth checking out. The song is "Catch you, catch me" by GUMI, and it's already a classic in the fandom...
Anyway ! Now... well, take a look... AT THIS !!! :

Words that come to mind include "scary", "hilarious", "disturbing", "embarrassing", "brave", "awesome"... the list goes on and on. I don't know who the hell that guy and his friends are, but this goes beyond an otaku hommage to achieve status of crime against humanity... :-P Like I said in the previous post for this section, if this doesn't motivate you to leave comments, then nothing will !!
I'll be back soon with some music ^_-