Album Review: ravex – trax
Welcome to the first post ever of The New Eccentric Girl where I attempt to bring you into my musical world… because I think it’s interesting and I find some interesting stuff that doesn’t get talked about enough.
Anyway, I thought I’d kickstart this blog with a review of the album which contains the song in which this blog gets its name from.
Lets start with the artist. Most of this description was cannibalized from the original entry I wrote for the livejournal J-tek community Stereo Night.
If you haven’t heard of ravex, it’s basically a unit made of Fantastic Plastic Machine’s Tomoyuki Tanaka, Mondo Grosso’s Shinichi Osawa and m-flo’s Taku Takahashi. Tagged with the line that the music they made was “21st Century J-Pop”, ravex is a unit to celebrate the 20th anniversary of avex trax and the 80th anniversary of Tezuka World. You know, Astro Boy. Marvelous Melmo. Kimba the White Lion, Princess Knight. Osamu Tezuka’s Star System and more make an appearance in the 20 minute special “ravex in Tezuka World” which was such a throwback to my childhood.
Their roster of vocalists is basically every single BIG artist on avex trax and its associated sublabels. Amuro Namie, Tohoshinki, LISA from m-flo, Tsuchiya Anna, BoA, Chisa from GIRL NEXT DOOR, Maki Goto, trf, Verbal from m-flo, Monkey Majik, Ando Yuko and DJ OZMA.
Star power aside, the music is electrohouse fused with J-pop and made with the whole spectrum of electronic dance fans in mind so it’s got something to appease hardcore electronic music meant to be played in clubs fans to people who like pop in general.
I think the whole concept of this project is key to understanding how this album is supposed to work.
Artist: ravex
Title: trax
Catalogue No: AVCD-23790/B | AVCD-23791
Tracklisting:
01. I RAVE U (Original)
02. ROCK U feat. 安室奈美恵 [Amuro Namie]
03. Just the Two of Us feat. 東方神起 [Tohoshinki]
04. HOUSE NATION feat. LISA
05. Bangalicious feat. 土屋アンナ [Tsuchiya Anna]
06. Believe in LOVE feat. BoA
07. NEWエキセントリックガール [New Eccentric Girl] feat. 千紗 [Chisa] (GIRL NEXT DOOR)
08. Golden LUV feat. MAKI GOTO
09. V.I.P.P. (Very Important Party People) feat. TRF & VERBAL(m-flo)
10. 1 more night feat. MONKEY MAJIK
11. 悪い子みつけた。 [Waruiko Mitsuketa.] feat. 安藤裕子 [Ando Yuko]
12. I RAVE U feat. DJ OZMA
