Monday, July 20th, 2009 by Victoria Goldenberg
Trip-hop and electronica artist ACO will release a limited edition single, her first new recording in more than three and a half years, on Sept. 2. The CD, My Dearest Friend, will be followed by another single before the end of the year and an album at a future date.
ACO usually takes years to release new music, but when she does, she puts out something excellent. Her last original solo work was Mask, a mini album released in February 2006. A retrospective, ACO Best ~Girl’s Diary~, came out in December 2007. ACO is also a member of Golden Pink Arrow, a band that has played live but has not released any CDs.
Credit: http://natalie.mu/news/show/id/18871
ACO’s Official Site
Golden Pink Arrow’s Myspace
Tags: aco, aco best~girl's diary~, Electronic, electronica, golden pink arrows, mask, my dearest friend, new album, new releases, new single, news, trip-hop
Posted in Electronic | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 by Victoria Goldenberg
Nearly two years after her last single, authentic and eccentric music talent Cocco will release her first digital EP. The currently unnamed collection is a conceptual one consisting of four songs connected to the seasons. It will go on sale August 15, the same day Cocco releases her new book, Cocco-san no daidokoro, and performs a mini-live at the Shibuya Tower Records.
The tracks are:
(Spring) Kinuzure
(Summer) the end of Summer
(Autumn) Bye Bye Pumpkin Pie [performed in the Cocco KiraKira Live Tour DVD]
(Winter) Ai ni Tsuite
A number of digital stores will sell the EP. If you live overseas and want to buy it, your best bet is to buy a Japanese iTunes card. ITunes also carries some other Cocco works not available physically, like the “Dugong no Mieru Oka” music video and audio from the Live Speedstar Express DVD.
Cocco’s also collaborated on three tracks for Curly Giraffe’s self-cover album, Thank You For Being a Friend, on sale October 21. Curly Giraffe is a solo project by the former Great 3 bassist, Takakuwa Kiyoshi. A limited edition preview EP came out in May, but the album will include all its songs and more.
Tracks:
1. Water On featuring Arai Akino
2. My Dear Friend featuring Cocco
3. Forbidden Fruits featuring Kimura Kaela
4. Run Run Run featuring Bonnie Pink
5. Chaos featuring Chara
6. Mood featuring LOVE PSYCHEDELICO
7. Fountain Of Youth featuring Ando Yuko
8. You Just Swept Me Off My Feet featuring Hiraoka Keiko
9. Stand featuring Cocco
10. Spilt Milk featuring Bonnie Pink
11. Gentle Tree featuring Arai Akino
12. On Cloud Nine featuring Chara
13. Tricky Adult featuring Cocco
On July 10, C-pop and J-pop singer alan will release a Chinese album including the Mandarin version of “Gunjou no Tani,” the song Cocco wrote for her. The album is called Xin De Dong Fang and “Gunjou no Tani” is retitled “Ai Kan De Jian.”
Last winter, Cocco was the subject of Daijoubu de aru you ni – Cocco The endless journey - , a documentary by acclaimed director Koreeda Hirokazu (Nobody Knows).
Cocco official site:
http://www.cocco.co.jp
Curly Giraffe:
http://www.myspace.com/curlygiraffe
alan:
http://alan-web.jp/index.html
Tags: ai kan de jian, ai ni tsuite, alan, albums, ando yuko, arai akino, bonnie pink, bye bye pumpkin pie, CD, chara, chinese, cocco, cocco the endless journey, cocco-san no daidokoro, concert, curly giraffe, daijoubu de aru you ni, dare mo shiranai, digital ep, downloading, dugong no mieru oka, girl rock, great 3, gunjou no tani, hiraoka keiko, itunes, j-pop, j-rock, kimura kaela, kinuzure, kirakira love tour, koreeda hirokazu, love psychedelico, new ep, new releases, news, nobody knows, shibuya, speedstar live express, takakuwa kiyoshi, thank you for being a friend, the end of summer, tower records, xin de dong fang
Posted in pop, rock | No Comments »
Sunday, April 12th, 2009 by Victoria Goldenberg
- Photo by Nakagawa Haruka (TBS)
This news is over a week old, but “I believe” singer ayaka announced her marriage and upcoming hiatus on April 3. She revealed she had married actor Mizushima Hiro in February, and that she has had the autoimmune disorder Graves’ disease since 2006. Next year, she will take time off to deal with her worsening symptoms.
I never got into ayaka’s music, despite being a huge fan of female singer-songwriters. Still, ayaka’s a talented lady with a good ear for melody, and she comes off as a nice person. I wish the best to her.
Tags: ayaka, hiatus, news, pop
Posted in pop | No Comments »
[News] Utada Hikaru postpones Best Buy appearances
Monday, May 11th, 2009 by Victoria GoldenbergPhoto by Y. Kikuma from Utada.com
An acute case of left relapsing peritonsillitis forced Utada Hikaru to cancel a series of nationwide appearances at Best Buy this week. These were meant to coincide with the pop singer’s domestic release of This Is The One tomorrow.
Utada’s official site says the promotion will be rescheduled. You can read the full news release here.
The timing is unfortunate for Hikki, but it sounds like she’ll recover. And it’s not like cancelled promotion will keep This Is The One from racking up decent first-week sales from hardcore fans, who probably would have made up the majority of the Best Buy attendees anyway.
It’s also embarrassing that the Utada.com news release claims incorrectly that the singer is Japan’s best-selling artist ever.
Tags: cancellation, commentary, event, j-pop, new album, news, throat, utada, utada hikaru
Posted in pop | No Comments »