KANA-BOON Brings Honey to Their Darling With Upcoming Album!

Three-member rock band KANA-BOON announced that they will be releasing a brand new album, Honey & Darling, March 30. This will be their latest album since NAMiDA back in September of 2017 and will be their fifth album overall. It will be released with fifteen tracks total, eleven of which being newly created works for the album. Two editions will be made available: a CD-only standard edition and a limited edition which will come with a bonus Blu-ray. The Blu-ray will feature footage from KANA-BOON’s Re:PLAY TOUR 2021-2022 that took place at Zepp DiverCity TOKYO in January.

As we look forward to the upcoming release, be sure to check out the band’s latest music video “Re:Pray” along with the pre-order links for Honey & Darling below!

Standard edition

Limited edition

Honey & Darling Standard Edition Jacket Cover

Honey & Darling Limited Edition Jacket Cover

KANA-BOON「Honey & Darling」

CD

01. Re:Pray
02. 21g
03. Dance to beat
04. Torch of Liberty
05. マイステージ
06. 夜が明ける
07. 橙
08. イコール
09. alone
10. 天国地獄
11. HOPE
12. いないいないばあ
13. ひかり
14. スターマーカー
15. メリーゴーランド

Blu-ray

KANA-BOON Re:PLAY TOUR 2021-2022 Live at Zepp DiverCity(TOKYO) 2022.1.21

ないものねだり

盛者必衰の理、お断り

フルドライブ

ディストラクションビートミュージック

結晶星

街色

ターミナル

Wake up

Torch of Liberty

シルエット

MUSiC

まっさら

オレンジ

ネリネ

Re:Pray

メリーゴーランド

スターマーカー

YaYuYo Turns to A Brand New Day With Upcoming Album!

Four-member rock band YaYuYo announced that they will be releasing a brand new album, 日日爛漫 (Hibi Ranman), March 9. This will be their latest release since their EP THE ORDINARY LIFE back in June of 2021 and will be their first album overall. The work will drop with a CD-only standard edition and fifteen tracks. To hype up the release, YaYuYo dropped a teaser for the album which features scenes from several music videos, including those for “さよなら前夜” (“Sayonara Zenya”), “七月” (“Shichi Gatsu”), and “おとぎばなし” (“Otogi Banashi”).

Be sure to check out the teaser in question along with the pre-order links for Hibi Ranman below!

Standard edition 

Hibi Ranman Jacket Cover

YaYuYo「Hibi Ranman」

01. あばよ、
02. futtou!!!!
03. おとぎばなし
04. ユー！
05. 雨
06. キャンディ（飴ちゃんver.）
07. 七月
08. ピンク
09. テイク・イット・イージー
10. うるさい！
11. 一度きりの夢
12. 君の隣
13. 前夜前夜
14. さよなら前夜
15. 世界のなかみ

The Music Video of the Cover Song ‘Muscles Please!’ from the anime “How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift?” by Nakayama Kinni-kun and Singing Cosplayer Hikari has Finally Been Released on YouTube

“Muscles Please!” Digital Jacket Cover

Japanese comedian and bodybuilder Nakayama Kinni-kun has released the music and video of a cover song “Muscles Please!” worldwide on the 26th of January across all digital music streaming platforms. He made this cover song video as a collaboration with cover singer, Singing Cosplayer Hikari, who is active internationally.

Nakayama Kinni-kun is known as a popular Youtuber who has over 1.4 million subscribers on his YouTube channel called, “The Kinniku TV【The Muscle TV】”. Singing Cosplayer Hikari is also famous with her activity as a YouTuber who has been releasing her activity to the world. She has released 25 cover songs in total and her songs have been viewed over 8.1 million times.The cover song of “Yume To Hazakura” was ranked No.1 on the J-POP charts of 14 countries.

In the music video of the cover song of “Muscles Please!” they showed the pair muscle training and dancing humorously and this music video has been released on both of their YouTube channels. The original song “Muscles Please!” is the opening theme song of the TV anime “How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift?”. This anime song is very popular both inside and outside of Japan and has been viewed over 240 million times on YouTube. This music video, which is a collaboration between Nakayama Kinni-kun and Singing Cosplayer Hikari, is on air every Saturday as the ending theme song of the TV program “Doyou wa nani suru?” till the end of March.

This nationwide TV program, Doyou wa nani suru? is on both Kansai Telecasting corporation and Fuji Television Network from 08:30 to 09: 55 AM (JAPAN TIME). Also this song is on air through FamilyMart’s inside shop radio program called Mix Fam with your voice, from 23:00 till 04:59 AM until the end of January. Family Mart is a Japanese convenience store franchise chain and has 16,000 stores in Japan.

With their appearance in the media their cover song has been getting interest and the number of people who have viewed the TikTok with the two of them dancing together for practice, and also them on YouTube Shorts, has been increasing. By the way, Singing Cosplayer Hikari herself created the choreography. Their humorous dance has been gaining attention.

The full version of the music video of  “Muscles Please”’ has been released as a song and video on the 26th of January, which has been longed for by the fans of Nakayama Kinni-kun and Singing Cosplayer Hikari. Please check it out! Also try copying their dance with their cover song “Muscles Please!” on TikTok!

Be sure to check out the music video below, along with the streaming link here!

Interview: WARP's UP

WARPs UP is a four-member multi-national boy idol group from Japan and China formed in 2019.  “WARPs” is an abbreviation of “Wind Assemble Radical People-syndicate” with the concept of “creating a wind of innovation”. Rather than forming groups with fixed lineups, its members work together in different permutations. As one, this group of talented individuals is stronger than the sum of their parts. They aim to create a new world that reflects their values, transcending existing genres and boundaries.

For this interview we had the opportunity to talk to Chinese members LANGYI and MINGJUN.

---

LANGYI

MINGJUN

Ken: First of all, thank you so much for letting us conduct this interview. We are big fans and love what you bring to the Japanese music industry.

LANGYI & MINGJUN Thank you so much for having us!

We try to be as open and free as possible, and make/choose the songs based on the thoughts and emotions that are related to our feelings at the second.

Ken: Do you have a process or certain mindset when creating your songs? If so, would you like to share that process?

MJ: We don’t have a certain set process or mindset; in fact, we try to be as open and free as possible and make or choose the songs based on the thoughts and emotions that are related to our feelings in the actual moment.

LY: This time we were able to listen to a very big amount of demos and picked the one that fit WARPs UP most at this stage.

Ken: Your song “Pleasure” was used as the opening for the anime Fruits Basket. Was it a fun experience to turn on the TV and hear your song playing?

LY: I was just very happy and shocked, so I had my friends along with me, cheering for hearing my voice on TV. 

MJ: I have always been a fan of anime since I was very young, so it was new to hear my own voice coming with the anime, and it made me feel very proud.

Ken: How did the pandemic affect the way you approach your beats and composition for your music?

LY&MJ: The pandemic did not affect much on the composition and making music part, but instead it had an extremely big impact on our live shows. Because of the pandemic we were not able to perform on any stages yet. It also has an impact on little things; for example, we mostly recorded all together in the studio back in the days, but now we mostly go one by one. 

Ken: What song(s) had an impact on you growing up?

LY: For me, it’s “One hundred Degrees”. It has been with us all the way since 2018 and I feel like it is a song that grew up along with WARPs UP. 

MJ: For me, it’s “Pleasure”. We did two versions of it: one is the Japanese original version and the other is the acoustic Chinese version. I think it has also shown two very different sides of WARPs UP and the growth of WARPs UP as well.  

Ken: What are some challenges you have faced as an artist? How have you overcome them?      

LY: Me, personally right now, I really miss my family. Going through the fact that I have been apart from my family living abroad is the biggest difficulty for me. 

MJ: For an artist, the biggest challenge was when all our work almost stopped for awhile at the beginning of the pandemic, but later I figured that it was a very good time to think about the future; to be patient and wait for the right timing.

Ken: What made you choose a path in the music industry? Who had the most inspiration on you and led you to choose this path?

LY: When I was in middle school I liked Jay Chou's songs a lot, so I wanted to be a singer-songwriter myself. Later I turned my interest to a boys group, which gave me the idea of being in a boys group myself. Although my parents didn't support me going into this industry, they were bar singers when I was a kid, and I often saw them being themselves shining on the stage, so I wanted to shine on the stage myself too.

MJ: I really liked Michael Jackson when I was a child, which made me fall in love with dancing. Dance is also the opportunity for me to embark on this industry, which gave me the most influence and made me determined to go behind-the-scenes.

Ken: As your group has multicultural backgrounds, how many languages do you speak? Are there any you'd like to learn in the future?

LY: As the group, our members know Chinese Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, and Portuguese.  And when we communicated when we first met, it was mostly in English. But now we can all communicate in Japanese and Chinese. And I think French is a very beautiful language so that would be something I want to learn in the future if I have the chance.

MJ: I know Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and English. And if I have the chance to learn more languages, it would be Vietnamese and Spanish. You know, it’s never too much to know. 

It’s always fun to learn about different cultural backgrounds from other members. 

Ken: What is the most interesting part of being a multicultural group?

LY: We can share the fun from our own backgrounds and compare with each other. It’s always fun to learn about different cultures from other members.

MJ: For me it is the blend of Chinese and Japanese culture and the difference between idols and dancers as a career path. 

Ken: Which artist would you say is your biggest inspiration? Also, are there any international artists that inspire you guys as well?

LY: I actually think the biggest inspiration is from the members of WARPs UP. When we make things together we can always come up with something creative when we talk about WARPs UP ourselves. 

MJ: I say it would have to be Justin Bieber. 

Ken: For international fans, how they usually find out about J-pop is through anime. Do you guys watch anime, and if so, which would you say is your favorite?

LY: The most memorable anime are probably from my childhood, such as Doraemon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, etc. 

MJ: I really like anime so this is actually a tough question to answer because I have too many favorites. I guess I will choose Naruto and Sword Art Online. 

Ken: Is there a venue you performed at that you’ll never forget? Also, is there a dream venue you would like to perform at?

LY: For me it is from when I was in “Idol Trainee”, a stage called “Can’t stop”. I hope we can go on a world tour in the future. 

MJ: We haven’t been onstage unfortunately, but I really like the stage of Ai Otsuka which we visited back in the summer. 

Ken: Which tracks are your favorite to perform live and why?

LY: All of them!

MJ: It would have to be “Pleasure”.

Ken: What would you say is your group's most difficult song to perform?

LY: Actually I would say “POWER_Shin”. It is the first song for only two of us, so naturally I get more parts than usual but that also means that I have more responsibilities. 

MJ: “Cloud 9”, because it has a lot of high notes. 

Ken: Who is the one artist you would love to work with in the future?
LY: Various artists such as Jay Chou, Taylor Swift, etc. 

MJ: It would have to be Justin Bieber!

Ken: Which song have you created that you wish had a music video?  What type of music video would you film?

LY&MJ: More music videos that contain outdoor sightseeing, such as a desert, beach, sea of flowers, and snow-capped mountains.

Ken: Do you have a message for your international fans?

LY: Thank you all for liking us and supporting us from the other side of the screen! When the pandemic gets better we'll be sure to go to all kinds of places to meet you face-to-face and give you a show! And I hope you take care of yourselves and don't get sick! Be healthy and happy!

MJ: Thank you to all of our overseas fans who have been supporting us. Although we haven't been able to meet you and perform for you for various reasons, we are always beyond thankful for your existence and are proud of it. We will work harder to become a better WARPs UP and meet you in a better light.

Ken: Once again, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule and we look forward to your upcoming releases!

LY&MJ: Thank you, it was a lot of fun!

FEMM Announce Surprise New Album, ‘Tokyo Ex Machina’! Video for ’90s Revival Pop-Punk Track ‘We Got Each Other’ As Well!

Tokyo Girls Anthem Jacket Cover

Musical mannequin duo FEMM are famed for their girls’ anthem “Fxxk Boyz Get Money”, which quickly earned them a fan base in the United States, Europe and the rest of the world. Their debut album Femm-Isation reached the Top 10 of the Billboard World Albums chart in the US, and was picked as a Best Indie Album at HMV stores across the UK.

Their most recent album Tokyo Girls Anthem was released just last month, in December 2021, packed with a wide variety of rap tracks made in collaboration with globally active hip-hop producers such as Boys Noize and Star Boy. Now, FEMM have made the surprise announcement that their third album, Tokyo Ex Machina, has been released today, Friday, January 21 across all digital music streaming platforms. The music video for new song “We Got Each Other” was also released this past week.

The new album also features a selection of star collaborators from Europe, the US and Asia: Jenna Andrews, who worked on the smash BTS song “Butter”; John Ryan, who has worked on many songs with One Direction as well as Maroon 5 and Rita Ora; Doja Cat collaborator Kool Kojak; Danny L Harle, who is a cohort of Charli XCX and Rina Sawayama; and Woo Min Lee, who has worked on several songs for TWICE.

The jacket photo is by Liam Wong, who has been featured on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list and who previously created the music video and jacket image for FEMM’s single ‘Tic Toc’. The photo, titled ‘Neo Tokyo’, recalls the classic cyberpunk vibes of AKIRA and Blade Runner and will appeal to fans of concept artist Syd Mead.

The opening track of the album, We Got Each Other, incorporates the sound of the 1990s punk revival that has been hugely popular this past year in the United States and Europe. The sweet and sour lyrics in which the two singers comfort one another over broken hearts deliver an emotional message, reminiscent of the girls’ rock movement that was prevalent in the ’90s and ’00s. 

Directed by Julie Giesen, the video dares to be girly, and starts with the two members of FEMM touching down in Tokyo’s Shibuya district. As the mannequins are brushed by a wave of animated magic, their appearance transforms into something we have never seen from FEMM before. As they visit an arcade and a bowling alley, the members – who are known for their icy demeanor – actually crack a smile! Are they dreaming, or have we been transported to a world of fantasy?

In the near future, music videos for new album cuts “Outta The Clouds” and “Crystal Ball” will follow, as well as a video for “Crawl Away”, the song that reunites FEMM with their “Fxxk Boyz Get Money” producer Pat Lukens, and a video for popular track “Falling For A Lullaby”. Look out for each new announcement as it comes.

FEMM have attracted attention from many global media, and their videos have found great acclaim, with Venezuelan musician Arca praising the twisted avatars in a previous video made with Aphex Twin visual collaborator Weirdcore. As the world contends with the ongoing pandemic, FEMM are broadcasting their own 21st-century Japonisme to the globe.

Be sure to check out the music video for “We Got Each Other” below along with the streaming link for Tokyo Ex Machina here!