Dancemania EX × Trance Paradise

Run to the Future
Release Date: 4/30/12
Price: 800 yen

It’s RTTF week here at Dancemania EX, where I’ll be placing a spotlight on the indie/doujin Japan label, RTTF.

Quite a bit of epic trance on the follow-up to RTTF’s first release. This 2-disc set is separated into a “Ground Shake Side” and a “Mighty Wings Side.” There’s a pretty good mix of epic trance, J-core and electro spread across the two discs.

Notable tracks on disc 1 include heric’s chiptune song, “Bittune Space,” and the epic trance masterpiece from Yunyun, “Archiving the memory.”

Disc 2 starts off with 4 J-Core tracks ranging from 167-175 BPM. Takahiro Aoki’s “Break Out” is the best of the bunch, with a really catchy melody and great hardcore sound. Disc 2 also has some EDM/electro tracks for fans of those genres.

You can visit RTTF’s official website for a crossfade demo. If you’re interested in ordering, DJ Hyuji speaks English and is willing to ship overseas. You can contact him here: http://rttf.eternalbreeze.net/contact.html Just make sure to turn your ad blocker off if you have one installed, otherwise the form won’t appear.

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Toho R&B House Party Vol. 0
Artist: Halozy
Release Date: 4/29/13
Price: 750 yen

Mini-album from Halozy featuring R&B House renditions of Toho songs.

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ZIP Hot 100 1993-2013 All Time No. 1 Hits
Release Date: 9/18/13
Price: 2190 yen

The 20th anniversary festivities don’t end with ZIPmania All Best Mix. In addition to the ZIP Dance Hits 20, ZIP-FM also have a more general ZIP Hot 100 chart with music from all genres. This release will focus more on the pop side of ZIP-FM, and includes artists like Eminem, t.A.T.u, and Black Eyed Peas. It’s unclear whether this will also count as a Dancemania release.

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Vocal Vitality
Release Date: 4/30/12
Price: 1429 yen

It’s RTTF week here at Dancemania EX, where I’ll be placing a spotlight on the indie/doujin Japan label, RTTF.

Vocal Vitality is a special release from RTTF featuring vocal tracks only. The highlight of the album, at least for Dancemania Speed fans, is easily the new Nancy and the Boys track, “Shine a Light on You,” which also features a rap from Sami. I wish Nancy got a few more lines to sing instead of just repeating the same thing over and over again, but it’s a fun, original tune.

Another guest DJ on the album is DJ Genji, who contributes a fun hardcore song, “Promise.” Meanwhile, the fastest song on the album is DJ Hyuji’s “Stars,” which comes in at 180 BPM and features the lovely vocals of Sanahara.

Also of note is the funky “Miami Booty” song, “Sweet Chocolate.” Hyuji captured the Dancemania Bass sound perfectly. And much like a Dancemania album, Vocal Vitality unfortunately has some repeats. “Night Queen” is a straight repeat from Classical Candy, while “Feel the Sky” from Classical Candy 2 is labeled here as “Ver1.1,” though to be honest I can’t really tell the difference. ^^;

You can visit RTTF’s official website for a crossfade demo. If you’re interested in ordering, DJ Hyuji speaks English and is willing to ship overseas. You can contact him here: http://rttf.eternalbreeze.net/contact.html Just make sure to turn your ad blocker off if you have one installed, otherwise the form won’t appear.

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J-Pop charge ~Summer Hits~
Release Date: 7/10/13
Price: 1714 yen

A new series from Akiba Koubou featuring J-Pop summer hits. Features a lot of repeats from the similarly themed Natsu Euro.

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ZIPmania All Best Mix
Release Date: 9/18/13
Price: 2190 yen

ZIPmania lives!!! Holy crap, EMI/Universal are really pumping out some unexpected releases this year. After reviving the Speed series after a 6-year hiatus, they’ve gone ahead and revived ZIPmania, which hasn’t seen a release since ZIPmania 7 in 2004.

ZIP-FM is a popular radio station in Nagoya, Japan that happens to be celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Their influential ZIP Dance Hits 20 chart used to be full of Dancemania artists back in the late ’90s and early ’00s, and they had a close relationship with EMI for years.

A few artists have been revealed, and the sad reality is that Dancemania will forever be changed by EMI’s sale to Universal. Misa and Pandora do make appearances, as does Katy Perry, but the rest of the list is populated by Universal artists like Lady Gaga, LMFAO, Jennifer Lopez, and Rihanna. One of things I used to love about Dancemania was that it focused more on European artists, so I can’t help but be disappointed that more mainstream artists are showing up. And unless EMI license the tracks from Warner, we might be missing tracks like “Dub-I-Dub” or “Butterfly” that would truly make this an anniversary release.

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Classical Candy 2
Release Date: 10/30/11
Price: 1000 yen

It’s RTTF week here at Dancemania EX, where I’ll be placing a spotlight on the indie/doujin Japan label, RTTF.

I’ve covered RTTF’s follow-up to Classical Candy before, but it’s worth revisiting the album now that I’ve listened to it in full.

Of course, Dancemania fans would be most interested in the new track from Chris Bucknall (a.k.a the “C” part of CJ Crew). It’s a 170 BPM arrangement of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” and it doesn’t disappoint. It’s quite lengthy at about 5:52, so he gets a chance to cover a lot more ground than the painfully short edits from classical Speed. There are pianos abound in the track, as well as some nice synth interpretations of the melody.

Speed Synth Symphony is also back with two tracks that lovingly recall the Dancemania SPEED sound. Seriously, if you listen to them you’ll realize that this guy knows and understands Dancemania Speed. DJ Hyuji also has a vocal(!) trance arrangement of “Pomp and Circumstance” on the album, as well as a trance cover of “Polovtsian Dance.”

Hommarju gets the final track on the album, a rousing trance rendition of Mozart’s “Requiem K.626 Dies Irae.” It’s absolutely amazing and makes me mourn the death of non-anime Exit Trance albums even more. It has everything you could possibly want from a trance song: a hard, galloping beat, random vocal samples, epic trance synths, and CHANTING.

Dancemania fans will also be interested to know that the booklet contains an interview (in Japanese) with Chris Bucknall. DJ Hyuji also posted parts of the interview online: http://rttf.eternalbreeze.net/works/rttf_0004/chris_interviews_web.html

You can visit RTTF’s official website for a crossfade demo. If you’re interested in ordering, DJ Hyuji speaks English and is willing to ship overseas. You can contact him here: http://rttf.eternalbreeze.net/contact.html Just make sure to turn your ad blocker off if you have one installed, otherwise the form won’t appear.

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Vocarock collection loves IA
Release Date: 7/3/13
Price: 1619 yen

New release in the Vocarock series, this time with IA providing all vocals. There are lots of retailer-exclusive bonuses, the most impressive of which is an 18-track karaoke CD and can badge from Animate. Visit the official website for more info.

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Classical Candy
Release Date: 5/1/11
Price: 1000 yen

It’s RTTF week here at Dancemania EX, where I’ll be placing a spotlight on the indie/doujin Japan label, RTTF.

RTTF’s Classical Candy releases are probably my favorite from the label. As the title suggests, the album contains new dance arrangements of classical songs, similar to classical Speed or Exit Trance presents TranceMaster.

The opening track, done under DJ Hyuji’s pseudonym, Speed Synth Symphony, is like a love letter to Dancemania Speed. At a staggering 200 BPM, “The Comedian’s Gallop” perfectly encapsulates the SPEED sound and sounds like mix of CJ Crew and Saifam. Also recommended is Hyuji’s “Night Queen,” a cover of Mozart’s “Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herze” that comes complete with vocals and hyper techno elements!

Exit Trance fans will be delighted to know that Hommarju and MK both make appearances on the album. Hommarju does something delightfully different with a speed trance cover of the ragtime tune, “Pine Apple Rag.” I officially want a Ragtime Trance album now. Meanwhile, MK contributes a fantastic ethereal trance arrangement of “Jupiter.”

Tadashi Yamamoto offers a serene piano arrangement of “Gymnopedie,” once again with a light dance beat. Meanwhile, DJ Croco’s rock-trance cover of “Amazing Grace” evokes memories of N.O.-SYO. There’s a fantastic amount of variety on this album, so if you’re at all a fan of classical Speed or Exit Trance, I highly recommend it!

You can visit RTTF’s official website for a crossfade demo. If you’re interested in ordering, DJ Hyuji speaks English and is willing to ship overseas. You can contact him here: http://rttf.eternalbreeze.net/contact.html Just make sure to turn your ad blocker off if you have one installed, otherwise the form won’t appear.

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Sweet Days ~Acoustic Melody~
Artist: Megg and Mary
Release Date: 7/10/13
Price: 1714 yen

New album from FARM Records, featuring acoustic covers of songs like “Gangnam Style” plus songs from One Direction, Taylor Swift, and Ghibli.

The album is also available on iTunes Japan.

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Beast Beats
Release Date: 5/1/11
Price: 500 yen

It’s RTTF week here at Dancemania EX, where I’ll be placing a spotlight on the indie/doujin Japan label, RTTF.

RTTF’s second release was a bit more experimental. DJ Hyuji’s own description describes it as “Club × Orchestra × Ethnic Music.” The opening track is a perfect example of this, being a mish-mash of speed trance, tribal beats and orchestral sections. Meanwhile, the title track, “Beast Beats,” sounds like a lost Re-Venge track for you DDR fans out there, while the similarly palindromic “Xotic Toxic” also has an ethnic feel.

Note that if you order the CD, 100 yen will be donated to WWF Japan, which is pretty cool. And just to be clear, we’re talking about the World Wildlife Fund here, and not the wrestling federation now known as WWE.

You can visit RTTF’s official website for a crossfade demo. If you’re interested in ordering, DJ Hyuji speaks English and is willing to ship overseas. You can contact him here: http://rttf.eternalbreeze.net/contact.html Just make sure to turn your ad blocker off if you have one installed, otherwise the form won’t appear.

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New Frontier of Tokyo
Release Date: 7/3/13
Price: 900 yen

Another random compilation from FARM Records featuring various re… Wait, no! This is brand new, original EDM from some of Japan’s top producers! DJ U*Hey?, Daiki × ZK, DJ Dragon, and DJ Satoshi are just some of the artists with original songs on this digital only compilation.

Available on iTunes Japan and Beatport.

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Run to the Future
Release Date: 10/31/10
Price: 800 yen

It’s RTTF week here at Dancemania EX, where I’ll be placing a spotlight on the indie/doujin Japan label, RTTF. Run by DJ Hyuji, RTTF has put out a lot of great dance albums over the past few years, with lots of different sounds ranging from trance to SPEED to house. DJ Hyuji is a HUGE (pun intended) fan of Dancemania, quite possibly one of the most dedicated I’ve ever met, and the influence of Dancemania, and Dancemania Speed in particular, can definitely be heard throughout RTTF’s albums. He’s also managed to round up a varied amount of guest artists for RTTF’s releases, including Chris Bucknall (of CJ Crew fame), JAKAZiD, Hommarju, MK, and many others.

You can visit RTTF’s official website for crossfade demos of both discs. Luckily, DJ Hyuji also speaks English and is willing to ship overseas. If you’re interested in ordering, you can contact him here: http://rttf.eternalbreeze.net/contact.html Make sure you turn your ad blocker off if you have one installed, otherwise the form won’t appear for some reason.

Impressions on the album after the jump.

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100% Summer Fes Party
Release Date: 6/26/13
Price: 900 yen

Another random compilation from FARM Records featuring various repeats. Available on iTunes Japan.

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Love EDM 2 Compilation
Release Date: 6/5/13
Price: 900 yen

Digital EP featuring full versions from Love EDM 2. Available on iTunes Japan.

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