Dancemania EX × Trance Paradise

Yoshiwara Lamento ~Utau Ban~
Artist: Asa feat. Kasane Teto
Release Date: 2/5/14
Price: 1905 yen

Second major album from Vocaloid producer, Asa, who is most famous for “Yoshiwara Lamento.” It’s pretty much the same as Asa’s first album, except instead of utaite this one will have vocals from Kasane Teto. Bonus items include a cell phone strap (1 of 3 designs), poster, and clear file. Retailer-exclusive presents have yet to be announced. You can visit the official website for samples and more info.

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Exit Tunes presents Kamikyoku o Utatte Mita 8
Release Date: 1/5/14
Price: 1905 yen

Eighth release in the Kamikyoku series, which features utaite renditions of popular Vocaloid songs. Bonus items include a cell phone strap, poster, and clear file. There are also expected to be retailer-exclusive bonuses. Visit the official website for samples and more info.

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Exit Tunes Academy Best 3
Release Date: 1/1/14
Price: 1905 yen

Another excuse for repeats from Exit Tunes. Bonus items include a ticket to an Exit Tunes Academy event, cell phone strap (1 of 10 designs, though DJ Uto’s is clearly the best), and poster. Retailer-exclusive bonuses include a calendar and ticket holder.

You can visit the official website for more details.

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Re:alize
Artist: Ryokun
Release Date: 1/1/14
Price: 1905 yen

Second major album from male utaite, Ryokun. Bonus items include a cell phone strap, poster, and clear file. There are also a few retailer-exclusive bonus CDs available, depending on if you get the album from Animate, Tsutaya, or Tora no Ana. Visit the official website for more details.

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Shingeki no Cover Anison Kamikyoku Max
Release Date: 12/11/13
Price: 1714 yen

Oh, I didn’t expect this to be an Akiba Koubou album. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that the album is almost all repeats. The only new track is the lead song, “Guren no Yumiya.”

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Love EDM -Party Queen- Compilation selected by DJ Yuria
Release Date: 12/18/13
Price: 900 yen

Digital EP featuring full versions from Love EDM -Party Queen-. Oddly, it leaves off the Japanese remixes. Available on iTunes Japan.

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So Wicked (Love EDM Club Edit) (Single)
Release Date: 11/27/13
Price: 200 yen

New EDM remix of The United’s “So Wicked,” which was featured on FARM’s Love EDM -Party Queen- compilation.

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Love EDM -Party Queen- mixed by DJ Yuria
Release Date: 12/11/13
Price: 1900 yen

FARM’s Love EDM series continues with a new entry mixed by DJ Yuria. Notable tracks include a new CTS remix of “Take Over Control,” an OMKT remix of “Where’s Your Head At?,” plus an EDM remix of a song by FARM’s recently signed boy band, The United. Samples of the new Japanese remixes are available on SoundCloud.

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ZIPmania Special

The end of the year is upon us, and that can only mean one thing: Toy Day (otherwise known as Christmas) is coming! As a special present for Dancemania fans who are supporting the releases, I’ve got something special for people who have purchased either ZIPmania All Best Mix, ZIPmania Super Greatest Hits, or both. Just make a post in the comments with a link to a picture of your copy of the album and a little piece of paper with your username on it, or take a screenshot of your iTunes receipt (make sure to edit out any identifying details). I’ll contact you via e-mail, hopefully by the end of the year, with details on how to claim your present. Please no photoshops or printouts of the ZIPmania cover in a CD case. Unless they’re really good, in which case I’ll send you something for trying, lol.

Piano Best -Ghibli and more- performed by Piano Master
Release Date: 12/11/13
Price: 1900 yen

This is kind of a surprise. Piano House was a pretty big genre back in 2009, but by 2010 the fad fizzled out. The last Piano Master album came out in June of 2010, so it’s odd that they’re releasing a best-of album 3 years later. As the title suggests, most of the tracks will be arrangements of Ghibli themes, though there are some classical arrangements and even a trance arrangement as well. The album is also available digitally on iTunes. You can visit the official website for more info on Piano Master’s previous works.

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House Flavor R&B -Best of 2013-
Release Date: 12/4/13
Price: 1200 yen

9th release in the digital series, which collects fulls versions of songs from various FARM compilations, though I’m not sure if this actually counts as Vol. 9 since it actually has quite a few tracks from previous volumes. Tracks in green have been featured on mixed CDs before, but are available as full versions for the first time here.

Featured artists include FARM mainstays like Daiki × ZK and Minimum Cox, as well as newer names like Countdown Groove and MST.

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Party Hits R&B -Hands Up!!!-
Release Date: 10/16/13
Price: 600 yen

Full versions from the Party Hits R&B series. Includes an exclusive DJ Hiroki remix, but it’s only available if you purchase the entire album.

Available on iTunes Japan.

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Party Hits R&B House ~Best Megamix~
Release Date: 12/4/13
Price: 1800 yen

Another Party Hits compilation mixed by DJ Hiroki. 50 tracks in all.

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Party Hits R&B Girls Style ~2012-2013 Best~ mixed by DJ Rina
Release Date: 10/23/13
Price: 1800 yen

A best-of Party Hits compilation mixed by DJ Rina. Features 50 tracks from the last two years.

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Dance! Dance!! Dance!!! mixed by DJ Satoshi
Release Date: 9/4/13 (7/13/13 Tsutaya)
Price: 4950 yen

I’ve been begging for full versions from this album to be made available, mostly for Delaction’s new arrangement of “Butterfly” as well as Threemason’s covers of other Dancemania classics. The other day, Doc-S mentioned a site (http://www.japan-codes.com/) that sells prepaid cards in the comments. I was surprised to see that they also sold Recochoku prepaid cards, so I went to Recochoku to see if they had anything worth purchasing and was even more surprised to find that they had full versions from this album! The edit of “Butterfly” is 4:40, about 2 minutes longer than the edits that it’s been given on nonstop mixes.

The only downsides (or possibly upsides) are that you can only purchase the tracks individually, and the digital edition only has 33 out of 35 songs from the CD. If you buy all 33 tracks at 150 yen, it’s 4950 for the whole album. However, if you’re only interested in the new Delaction and Threemason productions, it’s 1950 yen for the 13 tracks.

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