Dancemania EX × Trance Paradise

Dance Dance Revolution X & FuruFuru Party Original Soundtrack
Release Date: 3/11/09 (Retail Version), 1/29/09 (Konamistyle Version)
Price: 3048 yen

The Japanese version of DDR X is out now, and someone graciously uploaded “A Geisha’s Dream” to YouTube:

Ahem. Let’s go back to what I said in my Party Around the World review:

And will someone please tell Smile.dk to stop using the words “samurai” and “butterfly”? It was cute in Doo-Be-Di-Boy, but it’s 2008, people.

It’s 2009 now. I like the song well enough, but it’s too lyrically, not to mention musically, derivative of “Butterfly.” There’s absolutely no reason for that. We’ve had at least one “Butterfly” retread per album, and it’s way past time for Smile.dk to move on. “Tokyo,” “Koko Soko,” and other songs have shown that it’s possible for them to do Japan-themed songs without resorting to cheap “Butterfly” callbacks, so please let “A Geisha’s Dream” be the last one.

Anime*Dance presents Anican Hit Chart
Release Date: 2/25/09
Price: 2190 yen

Yet another anime release from FARM. This one is a collaboration with Anican, an anime newspaper in Japan.

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Quake Trance presents Quake News #01
Release Date: 3/4/09
Price: 951 yen

A new series from Quake. And it’s not about anime! Years ago, Quake News was a series of promo vinyls released to promote Quake Trance Best CDs. The vinyls typically contained 4 full-length tracks, but this new CD series will have 8 tracks per release. It appears that the CDs will be released monthly for the low price of 951 yen each.

Pre-order at CDJapan.

Exit Trance Best #09
Release Date: 3/4/09
Price: 1905 yen

Here we go again. More repeats taken from Exit Trance albums released in the past year. That means tons of anime, “Caipirinha,” and other random songs from their other series. Mixed by DJ Yoshinori.

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

Album of the year! Okay, it may be a tad early to make such a bold claim, but Hime Trance Anime*Mix! is at least the best trance release to come out of Japan in quite a while. Unlike the last 3 or so Hime Trance releases, Anime*Mix! has a very good ratio of new songs to old. And while there are a few repeats, almost all of them are exceptional and are worthy of being repeated. If you’ve soured on trance because of the constant repeats, then Anime*Mix may well reinvigorate your love of trance.

Anime*Mix! brings together some of the best trance producers Japan has to offer. Delaction and Dank-One once again bring their A-games, while newer artists such as Redalice and CMS help to add a dose of freshness. Unfortunately, the booklet is light on credits, so it’s hard to tell who produced some of the tracks.

Not only does Anime*Mix! have a wide array of producers, but it also has an equally diverse set of vocal talent. Hinax and Mepomi are among the artists making their Hime Trance debuts. Meanwhile, Tsukasa and Kei, both reigning trance queens, return with awesome new material. The only “hime” missing is Misa. 🙁

Interestingly, while the first half of the album is a standard 145 BPM, the second half speeds up significantly. At first it goes to 150, but soon reaches around 165 before ending at 180 BPM. Methinks that if there’s a Hime Trance Speed 2, a good chunk of the second half will be repeated.

Sales have been decent so far, though from what I can tell it’s tracking slightly below Hime Trance Speed. I certainly hope sales improve so that we can guarantee a sequel. EMI are pretty much out of anime songs to repeat, so a potential sequel would be 100% new material.

Order at CDJapan. First-press copies come with stickers, but all copies will come with a lyrics booklet.

Full track-by-track review after the jump.

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Exit Trance presents Zenbei No. 1 Cinema Trance
Release Date: 3/4/09
Price: 1905 yen

SFX Trance. Zenbei (All-American) No. 1 Cinema Trance will have nothing but covers of American movie themes. Half of the tracks announced so far were also covered on EMI’s Speed SFX, so you should have an idea of where this album is headed.

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Exit Trance presents R25 Speed Anime Trance Best 3
Release Date: 2/4/08
Price: 1905 yen

Ponyo Ponyo Ponyo sakana no ko… Get ready to hear those lyrics. A LOT. “Ponyo” is set to be this year’s “Sousei no Aquarion” in that it’s sure to be covered a million times and appear on every other Japanese dance compilation. It’s no surprise, then, that it’s the lead track on Quake’s tribute to the films of Studio Ghibli.

ET R25 SATB 3 ~GS~, quite possibly the longest acronym ever, does include a few repeats, including the aforementioned “Ponyo.” Most of the covers are new, however, so this should be a treat for Ghibli fans.

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Exit Trance presents Kids Trance Land
Release Date: 3/4/09
Price: 1905 yen

From what I can tell, this is mostly trance covers of children’s songs. I suppose in a way that it’s a sequel to Akachan (Baby) Trance. Lots of anime songs will be included yet again, mostly from anime that’s targeted at younger audiences.

Seriously, Quake, enough anime stuff. Give us VGM Trance!

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Super Anime Remix Vol. 2
Release Date: 1/28/09
Price: 2286 yen

The sequel to Super Anime Remix includes 100% new material, a rare feat these days. Of course, a lot of the songs featured have been covered endlessly before, but at least they didn’t cover “Sousei no Aquarion” a third time.

As with the first SAR, disc 1 will be a non-stop mix. However, most retailers are reporting that disc 2 will have karaoke versions instead of full-length vocal versions.

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Quake Trance Best 20 ~Anniversary~
Release Date: 2/18/09
Price: 1905 yen

Quake Trance returns! Last year saw only 2 Quake Trance Best releases, whereas at the height of the trance boom there were 4 releases a year. I was starting to think that Quake Trance was down for the count, but it’s coming back this February with even more of the latest Handz Up tunes. Once again, it’ll be mixed by the legendary DJ Uto.

And yes, I love any excuse to pull that DJ Uto picture out.

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Dragon Quest Best Dance Mix
Release Date: 3/4/09
Price: 2190 yen

Well, this is a surprise. VGM dance remix albums have been a dime a dozen lately, with Space Invaders 2008, Konami Addiction, and Final Fantasy Remix all coming out within the past year. Up until now most of these remixes have been of the electro or techno variety. Avex are about to change that, however, with the release of Dragon Quest Best Dance Mix. Leave it to Avex to finally release what I’ve been dreaming of for so long: VGM trance.

Dragon Quest Best Dance Mix will be produced solely by the trance artist known as DragonFly. According to his profile, he first got a synthesizer when he was 18 years old. At the age of 21 he released an album on iTunes featuring eight original songs as well as two Dragon Quest remixes. You can listen to one of those DQ remixes, “Overture,” on his MySpace.

“Overture” sounds okay but I think his other tracks are more promising. “Yo! Kabuki” in particular is my favorite of the bunch. I’ve long been a fan of wafuu fusion (wafusion, if you will) styles, so I hope he also implements traditional Japanese instruments in his new DQ remixes.

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Dance Dance Revolution X & FuruFuru Party Original Soundtrack
Release Date: 3/11/09
Price: 3048 yen

It was previously announced that a collaboration between Naoki and Smile.dk would be appearing on the Japanese version of DDR X, and we now have a song title: A Geisha’s Dream. A Japanese-themed song from Smile.dk?! Shock!

A full version of the song will be appearing on the upcoming DDR X + FuruFuru Party OST. Check out the rest of the track list at Bemanistyle.

Unlike the last few OSTs, which were available exclusively through Konamistyle, this one will also be published by Sony Music Entertainment, meaning that it will be available at various retailers. You can pre-order the 3-disc OST at CDJapan. 3200 yen is a surprisingly good price for 3 discs.

Exit Trance presents CM Trance 2
Release Date: 2/18/09
Price: 1905 yen

CM Trance 2 will include songs featured prominently in Japanese TV commercials. Aside form “Kibun Jojo” (yay, Ouendan) I can’t say I’m familiar with the rest of the early track list, but that’s probably because I don’t follow J-pop.

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Exit Tunes presents Vocarhythm
Release Date: 2/4/09
Price: 1905 yen

A compilation of Vocaloid songs featuring Hatsune Miku.

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Exit Trance presents UmaUma Dekiru Trance wo Tsukutte Mita 3 – Samune de Yoyuu de Shita (Digital Version)
Release Date: 1/7/08
Price: 1800 yen

The CD is now out, and full versions are available on various download services. It looks like Quake encountered some licensing problems, however, so full versions of tracks 1 and 20 on the CD are not available online. To make up for this, they put two bonus tracks on the iTunes release. For no reason at all, one of the bonus tracks is Cascada’s “Bad Boy.” Slightly more interesting is “Caramelldansen (Special Christmas Remix).” It’s not the Christmas version that I wrote about before, but an altogether different remix with English vocals. o_O

But it at iTunes. For Japanese iTunes cards, check out Gateway to Japan.