Gray's Ongaku Go For January 2024

January is already behind us and we here at OTY would like our readers to know what has been filling our ears for the past month. Each track is available across all digital music streaming platforms, with Apple Music featured on this site, along with our Spotify playlist here!

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“Your eyes, Your Voice”  by tonun

What a song tonun has dropped for January. Talk about starting the new year on the right foot. The composition is on the next level the way he layers in all the instruments is done to expert perfection. I’ve been listening to this amazing track on repeat and won’t stop for a while.

Check out “Your eyes, Your Voice” here and in the video below!

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“Raise Me Up” by lol

I've been enjoying lol’s new album since it dropped.“Raise Me Up” reminds me of that “Trigger” energy with this high electronic dance number. It’s nice to hear this from lol since 2023 was a quiet year for them. I’ll be listening to their new album for a while. 

Check out “Raise Me Up” here and in the video below!

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“Lemonade” by White Jam

“Lemonade” is a fun track that has me thinking of a warm summer day, and it’s been a really cold January. “Lemonade” is the second track on White Jam’s latest album, Hourglass, which just dropped. Per usual, White Jam is at the top of their game, and “Lemonade” is a great addition to their discography. 

Check out “Lemonade” here and in the video below!

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“Time Paradox” by VAUNDY

VAUNDY kicks off the year release “Time Paradox” which goes to show how much of a workhorse this man is. I was not expecting him to release anything for a while but to my surprise, this song dropped this past month and for someone who has so many releases it is amazing how he can maintain the quality that he does. 

Check out “Time Paradox” here and in the video below!

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“Aiai” by chilldspot

chilldspot is a new band I’ve been listening to recently, and this is off of their “Madaramoyo EP”. “Aiai”  has a nice quiet opening and stays that way until the mid-point of the song; then it begins to build up to this great explosion before dropping back down. Hiyune is the vocalist for the group and I really enjoy her performance in this song.

Check out “Aiai” here and in the video below!

Luna's Ongaku Go For January 2024!

As the cool Winter breeze of January has passed us by, that means it’s time for this months Ongaku Go! We at OTY would like our readers to know what was filling our ears for the past month. Each track is available across all digital music streaming platforms, with Apple Music featured on this site, along with our Spotify playlist here!

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“Yellow.” by 7co

7co is an artist who jumped on my radar last year with the track “lonely nights” and ever since then I’ve been keeping track of her music. I’m glad I did too as her latest track “Yellow.” that released mid-December 2023 is fantastic. “Yellow.” is more of an upbeat track than “lonely night” as it’s filled with more energy vocally and in terms of composition. The composition showcases an extremely high energy beat that gets you pumped up. “Yellow.” easily could translate into a dance track or even used to just pump you up in general. 7co has shown that she knows how to utilize her vocals no matter what type of composition. I’m looking forward to seeing what is in store for 2024 for her.

Check out “Yellow.” by 7co here and the lyric video below!

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“puzzle” by NAQT VANE

When NAQT VANE announced their latest album, Dispersion, I had it as my most anticipated album of 2024. Dispersion did not disappoint as being anticipated, NAQT VANE hit it out of the ballpark. The new tracks on this album all stuck out and hit hard, but “puzzle” was the one that really resonated with me. Hiroyuki Sawano’s masterful composition pulls you in instantly with its edgy beat, HARUKAZE’s vocals fit perfectly with each verse, chorus, lyrics resonating with my soul. I love how HARUKAZE knows how to intertwine English and Japanese into the lyrics seamlessly.

Check out “puzzle” by NAQT VANE here and the music video below.

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“Vroom” by Koda Kumi

Koda Kumi released the digital single “Vroom” back on December 20, 2023 with a promotion of her Driving Hits -Tokyo Auto Salon 2024- Music card. “Vroom” does not disappoint with its high energy composition that hits with bombastic sounds. The versus’ pulled me in more than the chorus as I love the vocal work Koda Kumi displays in them. The chorus is way catchier, but meshes so well with the versus’. This is such a perfect dance song and has been on my playlist since its release. Crossing my fingers this will end up on a physical release as I was not able to secure the music card.

Check out “Vroom” by Koda Kumi here and the music video below.

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“Poison” by Miliyah, MUD, & Neetz

Miliyah Kato is an artist I’ve been following since her debut single (Never let go/Yozora) back in 2004. I always loved her R&B style she started out with and hearing “Poison”, it feels like she’s once again going back to her roots. Miliyah has the perfect voice for R&B with its smooth and sultry sound, so “Poison” just immediately sunk its way into my playlist. The composition is that chill R&B that I just love, plus this song introduced me to MUD and Neetz, whom I’ve only heard by name until now. I thought MUD’s rap fit it with Miliyah’s vocal quite nicely and like what he brought to the table. Neetz’ beats just fit perfectly with both artists, which is no surprise as he’s collaborated with MUD before and also has done many other renowned collaborations in the hip hop scene.

Check out “Poison” by Miliyah, MUD, & Neetz here and the music video below!

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“Together” by Sala & Shin Sakiura

With the release of Sala’s latest digital singles, “Gacha Gatcha” and “Lazy”, I started to dive further into her discography and discovered the track “Together” that she collaborated with Shin Sakura on. “Together” is an amazing track; Shin Sakiura knows how to compose a track and fit it to that artists strengths with ease. Sala’s vocals are brought out, showing her range as an artist and how veritile she can be. “Together” has more of an upbeat sound but it has that city pop feel with some R&B mixed in. If you are a fan of Shin Sakiura’s other collaborations, such as “Blue Bird” with Maika Loubte, you will love “Together” just as much.

Check out “Together” by Sala & Shin Sakiura here and the lyric video below!

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Vicke Blanka's First North American Tour

Acclaimed artist, Vicke Blanka has started his North American Tour and has a full list of dates across the nation. Vicke Blanka began his tour on January 31st with Vancouver and will be ending it in New York on February 20th.

Vicke Blanka is an acclaimed artist, who was recognized in 2012 when he won an event called Minami Wheel with his song “Wake up sweetheart”. In 2016, he made his major debut with avex trax with the mini album Slave of Love. Vicke Blanka is known for his songwriting capabilities along with his talent for the guitar and piano. Due to Vicke Blanka’s talent, he was chosen to perform several themes, “Black Catcher” and “Black Rover” to the popular anime Black Clover. That is just a small portion of his achievements as an artist.

The tour dates for ‘Vicke Blanka North American Tour 2024’ are listed below. You can also check out Vicke Blanka’s official website for ticket information

★ Tour information
Vicke Blanka North American Tour 2024

• Jan 31 (Wed)
Vancouver - Biltmore Cabaret
• Feb 2 (Fri)
Denver - GOTHIC THEATER
• Feb 5 (Mon)
 San Francisco - GREAT AMERICAN MUSIC HALL
• Feb 6 (Tue)
Los Angeles - THE BELASCO
• Feb 8 (Thu)
 Dallas - THE STUDIO AT THE FACTORY
• Feb 9 (Fri)
Houston - Scout Bar
• Feb 13 (Tue)
Chicago - PARK WEST 
• Feb 15 (Thu)
Toronto - Adelaide Hall
• Feb 18 (Sun)
Montreal - Foufounes Electriques
• Feb 20 (Tue)
New York City - PALLADIUM TIMES SQUARE

Atarayo follow ‘The Dangers in My Heart’ anime theme song with first tour of Asia!

Rock band Atarayo are gaining global recognition for ‘I am...’, their opening theme song to Season 2 of the anime series ‘The Dangers in My Heart’. Billed as “A band that feeds on sadness,” Atarayo have now announced their first ever tour of Asia, which will include shows in five cities.

Atarayo First Asia Tour 2024 kicks off in March with a performance in Taiwan, where Atarayo played last year at the ISLAND’s LA RUE Music & Arts Festival, followed by dates in Guangzhou, Hangzhou and Shanghai, ending with a fifth and final concert in Tokyo. Pre-registration is now open for the Tokyo performance.

Don’t miss this chance to see Atarayo’s next brave step as they reach out to music fans in Japan, Asia and the rest of the world and be sure to check out their latest release, ‘Atarayo’ here!

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Atarayo First Asia Tour 2024

Schedule:

March 24 (Sun) Taipei @Legacy Taipei

April 28 (Sun) Guangzhou (venue TBA)

April 30 (Tue) Shanghai (venue TBA)

May 17 (Fri) Hangzhou (venue TBA)

June 13 (Thu) Tokyo @Veats Shibuya

Tickets:

Taipei: details TBA

Guangzhou: details TBA

Shanghai: details TBA

Hangzhou: details TBA

Tokyo: June 13, 2024 (Thu) @Veats Shibuya, open 18:30 / start 19:30

■ Pre-registration (lottery)

Pre-registration period: Until 23:59 JST on February 12 (Mon)

Pre-registration URL: https://eplus.jp/atarayo/

Ken's Ongaku Go For January 2024!

As the cool Winter breeze of January has passed us by, that means it’s time for this months Ongaku Go! We at OTY would like our readers to know what was filling our ears for the past month. Each track is available across all digital music streaming platforms, with Apple Music featured on this site, along with our Spotify playlist here!

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‘15 minutes’ by LIL LEAGUE

What?! An Exile Tribe song included on my Ongaku Go. What am I Gray? All joking aside, my time with LIL LEAGUE was very enjoyable and no more was that shown with the track “15 minutes. “Upon first listen, I had to do a double take to make sure I was listening to them as it was a complete shocker in both tone and composition. Relying more on their vocal strength, the boys show why they won the competition that brought them together in the first place. The range they show is out of this world and I hope that they will do more styles of tracks like this to break that dance image that Exile Tribe groups usually has. While I know this was an outlier for LIL LEAGUE, I do hope to come back to songs like this in the future.
Be sure to check out the music video below along with the track here!

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‘2MANYTIMES’ by SIRUP, CODY JON, And Taka Perry

What is an OG for me without a reference to SIRUP. However, this time he is not alone as he has the vocalists’ CODY JON and Taka Perry with him on the front. What amazing collaboration this is as it shows how great all three artist are as a vocalist. While not the most impressive from a composition standpoint, the simplicity helps it out overall with minor tweaks from the saxophone through out; the sax made it become a song that I had to absolutely put in my rotation. While I’m not too sure that I’ll listen to Jon or Perry all too much in the future, I am happy to have such a wonderful introduction to them in this track.

Check out the lyric video for ‘2MANYTIMES’ below along with the song here!

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‘Soulsoup’ by OFFICIAL HIGE DANDISM

Going a completely different way, we have OFFICIAL HIGE’s latest release of “Soulsoup” to bring that energy back to my rotation. While not the best track that I’ve enjoyed from the band they’ve done, they do a great job of bringing me in as the listener with this high energy composition, which I feel would bring anyone back jumping. While I do hope that they do have releases like these sparingly, it still go to hear that the group can still bring ‘it’ when be.

Be sure to check out the music video for ‘Soulsoup’ below along with the track here!

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‘Hug’ by IRI

It’s been a while since I had an IRI track on my list and I’m happy to be able to highlight this. “Hug” had featured what I had loved about IRI in the first place, that strong vocal presence that really dictates the mood and is not over-powered by the composition. The overall slow tempo style that this release did was something that I really needed especially with everything that was going on this month. While I should be listening to more IRI this year, if is anything like “HUG”, I’ll gladly be the front of the line.

Check out the music video for ‘Hug’ below along with the track here!

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‘Can You Keep A Secret’ by Hikaru Utada

I blame the Kohaku for this pick, as they did a segment about popular drama songs on our times, and it made me immediately think of Utada’s virtue in this with ‘Can You Keep A Secret’. OG Utada is something that had to be listened to by people who are just getting into Japanese music, and aside from the big hits like ‘Hikari’ and ‘Sanctuary’ the next track would be this one that I would personally introduce newbies to. While I do know Utada’s style has changed significantly from this era, it is still nice to go back and take that nice bit of old school hits.

Be sure to check out the music video for ‘Can You Keep A Secret’ below along the track here!