Fishmans Celebrate their 30th Anniversary With Vinyl Editions of First Three Albums!

Fishmans debuted their single “Hikouki” on the 21st of April in 1991. To commemorate their 30th anniversary, Fishmans announced the release of their earlier albums as heavyweight vinyl LP remastered with high-resolution audio on the 4th of August.

The albums include their first album Chappie, Don’t Cry, their second album King Master George and their third album Neo Yankees’ Holiday. They are also all 180g vinyl LP for the first time.

Fishmans is a very unique and distinctive band in Japan. Their music is influenced by reggae, dub and rocksteady. They blend elements of rock, funk and hip hop as well. The result is very special and the sounds are uniquely hybrid.

Lead singer Shinji Sato was the group’s principal songwriter and he was an amazing front man and vocalist like no other, but he unfortunately passed away in 1999.

After his death many famous artists in Japan covered their signature song “Ikareta Baby” and many other musicians, creators and listener’s of new generations keep loving their music now in the 21st century.

Kin-ichi Motegi as an original band member and the current drummer of Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra has been playing the songs made by Shinji Sato. 

Fishmans’ music is spread inside and outside of Japan and gains more new fans through music video distribution and subscription services.

As a result of growing popularity, a 172 minute long documentary film Movie : Fishmans was made after being crowdfunded and it will be released in Japan from the 9th of July.

At the same time, PONY CANYON Inc. and UNIVERSAL MUSIC JAPAN

are releasing Fishmans’ whole body of work left in their less than 10 years of producing. Their new and old fans can see their journey.

Famous sound engineer “zAk” who was the key person in creating Fishmans’ sound and a popular technically skilled engineer KIMKEN (Kentaro Kimura) remastered those albums and made high-resolution audio in 2016.

This time this sound source was used as the master for the vinyl record. It is also a heavyweight 180g vinyl for the first time.

Be sure to check out the trailer for Movie : Fishmans along with the pre-order links for the albums below!

Chappie Don’t Cry

King Master George

Neo Yankees’ Holiday

---

Chappie Don’t Cry Jacket Cover

Fishmans’「Chappie Don’t Cry」Kazufumi Kodama produced and recorded in Australia. (remastered by KIMKEN)

LP

01 Hikkurikaetteta Futari 

02 Hikouki 

03 Special Night 

04 Good Morning 

05 Natsu no Omoide 

06 Future 

07 Inago ga Tonderu 

08 Go Go Club de Surechigai 

09 Chance 

10 Piano

---

---

King Master George Jacket Cover

Fishmans’「King Master George」Produced by Haruo Kubota (remastered by KIMKEN)

LP

01 Ii Kotoba Choudai 

02 Dareka wo Sagasou 

03 Seafood Restaurant 

04 Kage Dorobou 

05 Diving 

06 Mineral Water 

07 Nantettano 

08 Hamburger Steak

09 mm Chotto no 

10 Tayorinai Tenshi 

11 Reindeer 

12 Kimi Dake ga Diamond 

13 Ameotoko Nikumareru 

14 Doyoubi no Yoru 

15 Kyokumoku Syoukai 

16 Kyouiku

---

Neo Yankees’ Holiday Jacket Cover

Fishmans’「Neo Yankees’ Holiday」First self-produced album (remastered by zAk )

LP

01 Running Man 

02 Ikareta Baby 

03 Smilin’ Days, Summer Holiday 

04 Everyday, Everynight 

05 Tsukarenai Hito 

06 Just Thing 

07 Taiheiyou 

08 Paradise 

09 Umaku Arukenaiyo 

10 1、2、3、4 、

11 Walkin’ 

12 Su・Pa 

13 Ikareta Baby (Glittering Rewinder Mix)

Kenshi Yonezu Shows His Shade of Blue With Latest Music Video!

“Pale Blue” Jacket Cover

Ahead of his upcoming release, vocalist Kenshi Yonezu released the music video for his track “Pale Blue” on his YouTube channel. Set for release June 16, this will be the vocalist’s latest release since his very popular album STRAY SHEEP back in August of last year and will be his eleventh single overall. With this track currently being used as the theme song for the romance drama RicoKatsu, Yonezu looks to shake up the music industry once again with his unique style. The single will include three tracks and news zero’s new theme song “ゆめうつつ” (“Yumeutsutsu”) and “死神” (“Shinigami”). It will also come with three editions: a CD-only standard edition and two limited editions lovingly called Puzzle edition and Ribbon edition. Puzzle edition will only come with special packaging and will be CD-only while Ribbon edition will come with a bonus DVD. The DVD will include several music videos from previous releases along with footage from Kenshi’s FORTNITE concert event STRAY SHEEP in FORTNITE which took place last year.

Be sure to check out the music video in question along with the pre-order links for “Pale Blue” below!

Standard edition 

Limited edition Puzzle

Limited edition Ribbon

Singing Cosplayer Hikari Covers 'Atai' with the illustration by Illustrator Tama Specially for Hikari!

Singing Cosplayer Hikari has been actively promoting Japanese culture by singing cover songs and cosplaying characters from Anime and Vocaloid. Hikari is releasing the cover song “Aitai/ I want to meet you” by Gumi to the world through both music and video distribution. This song is a Vocaloid song which was released on Nico Nico Douga in August 2010. This song is composed by Dios/Signal P and the lyrics were made by Deadman. Singing Cosplayer Hikari released a music video for the cover song “Aitai /I want to meet you” on the 30th of March this year. She wore a Japanese school uniform by LucyPop that carried a nostalgic feeling about the memories of her own school days. Which has been played over 350,000 times.

Illustrator Tama, who Singing cosplayer Hikari has been admiring since she was in junior high school, created a portrait illustration of Hikari in school uniform in 2D. She uses this beautiful illustration as her cover picture.

Singing Cosplayer Hikari’s last video of a cover song, “Yume To Hazakura” by Hatsune Miku (lyrics and music by Aoki Gekkoh) has been viewed over 1.5 million times on YouTube.

This cover song ranked in the J-POP chart on iTunes and Apple Music in 19 countries and ranked top in 8 countries. And she ranked in the top 10 on iTunes music video top song ranking on the 27th of May in Japan.

She also ranked the 6th in April and 7th in May on USEN CAN SYSTEM’s next break artists’ discovery ranking.

In addition to Hikari’s latest cover song “Aitai/ I want to meet you” and her last cover song “Yume To Hazakura”, she has also released “Soul’s Refrain” and “A Cruel Angel’s Thesis” on music streaming and downloading sites. With “Aitai/ I want to meet you” and “Yume To Hazakura” also been released on video streaming and downloading sites worldwide.

Okosama Brunch Brings Their Unique Style to the Forefront With Latest Music Video!

To hype up theirupcoming release, pop duo Okosama Brunch released the music video for their track “Oh Matte Sun” on their YouTube channel. Scheduled for release June 22, this will be the latest release by the duo since “おこさまブランチ” (“Okosama Brunch”) and will be their third single overall. Okosama Brunch is a self-produced unit by voice actor Masashi Igarashi and music producer michitomo. Featuring vocalist Junta Terashima, who co-stars with Igarashi in the anime series KING OF PRISM, this work features a soulful sound with Japanese ancient words as well as sadness and a melancholy feeling. The single will include a total of three tracks, including the ballad "Footsteps" and the audio drama "Oki Letter". Igarashi wrote the lyrics and michitomo was in charge of composition and production. Throughout the music video you can enjoy the comical performance of three people dressed as sushi clerks.

Unfortunately there are no pre-order links for the single at the time of reporting but be sure to check out the music video in question below!

billboard Japan Reveals Top Songs, Albums, and Artist for Top Half of 2021!

With the second half of 2021 starting, billboard Japan announced the JAPAN HOT 100 hits for the year so far. Surprising no one, vocalist Yuuri’s hit song “Dry Flower” has taken the number one spot on the HOT 100 Songs, with female vocalist LiSA taking second with her tune “Homura”, and Korean boy group BTS’s “Dynamite” taking third. Something else of note is that duo YOASOBI has placed in the top 10 with “Yoru ni Kakeru”, “Kaibutsu”, and “Gunjou”.

For the HOT Albums, popular six-member Johnny’s boy group SixTONES has taken first with their album 1ST, with THE BOOK by YOASOBI taking second and SOUNDTRACKS by Mr. Children taking third. Also noteworthy, Johnny’s Entertainment artists take up four of the ten artists list with Hey! Say! JUMP, Johnny’s WEST, and Sexy Zone placing on the charts as well.

Lastly, for TOP Artist, if you’ve been following the ORICON CHARTS then it is no surprise that the duo YOASOBI took the number one spot with 13 songs charted in JAPAN HOT 100. Of these, nine songs were ranked within the 100th place and five songs within the 10th place, demonstrating the duo’s strength in the digital domain through avenues such as downloads and streaming.

We at OTY would like to congratulate all the artists for their successes over the past six months and hope that the remainder of the year will end strong with amazing works.