I Miss SAWA

Hey all!

So at the moment, I'm quite musically bored... What are you guys listening to?

I've mostly been listening to JASMINE and Mizca lately.

JASMINE's got a new single coming up next month, right after releasing a single(just two days ago!) titled This Is Not A Game. She's releasing a 'thrillogy' of singles for the next three months: March's being This Is Not A Game, April's will be new single JEALOUS.

I love her themed album photos, with a color for each single.. and I hope she continues with this pattern. It's what pulled me in in the first place! Seems a bit shallow now that I think about it... but I actually liked the music too so it turned out good, I guess, haha.. I've always been kind of drawn in by packaging and stuff, so it just seems kinda natural.











Seems like a lot of my favorite artists are in a 'work-in-progress' stage, and it's made me a bit restless.

Mostly at the moment I (of course) really miss SAWA, and Asobi Seksu. It's been kind of a strange year or so and their music has partially helped me get through it.. I've gotten a bit dependant on them maybe.. hehe..

I'd be happy to hear what everyone else is listening to.. I'm welcome to any suggestions!

Hope everyone's had a lovely start of March. Hang in there everyone, spring is around the corner!!!!!

New Stuff In April, あいにいくよ

SAWA's, naturally, been hard at work!

She played a new track on her radio station today called サイダー (Saidaa; Cider).. Pretty cool sounding.. slightly old-disco, shibuya-kei.. Very different from Swimming Dancing.

Anyway, I googled the new track and found this on neowing + CDJapan

Fifth Mini-album, titled: あいにいくよ.

Seems like four new songs, サイダー, the title track あいにいくよ produced by Hisashi Nawata (who's worked with artists such as Ryohei, Crystal K, BoA, Halcali, and Rie fu), ジェットコースター (Jet Coaster) produced by Jazzin'Park, and then an older song, called SuperLooper produced by RAM RIDER!

She performed SuperLooper back during TIME&SPACE, during a few lives. I think it's a cover, but I've never actually heard her performance myself, so we'll see!

A bonus track is being offered as well, a Takeshi Nakatsuka (produced メトロポリタン美術館 (Metropolitan Museum of Art) from TIME&SPACE)remix of Samba de Mar, a track she did for a compilation called Seaside Town.

*EDIT* TOWER has posted a tracklist of the new mini-album:

あいにいくよ [Fifth Mini-Album]: TBA 7 April, 2010
1. あいにいくよ ...Produced by Nawata Hisashi
2. ジェットコースター ...Produced by Jazzin'park
3. サイダー ...Produced by Junya Ookubo Zyun (ANA)
4. SuperLooper ...Produced by RAM RIDER
5. Samba de Mar（Nakatsuka Takeshi Remix） ＜BONUS TRACK＞

She's also going to be on the album of a debut artist, Anan Ryoko, a pianist and composer. The song's titled Dreaming. There's an English + Japanese version being released on it.

That's all for now! More info as it comes.

Calling All Long-Time SAWA Fans

I was reading through SAWA's old blog posts (Don't judge me, I've been snowed in! :P) and she mentioned a few tracks being posted on her myspace before the release of COLORS or before she'd even met FreeTEMPO!

















SAWA's blog

The tracks she mentions are titled メリーゴーランド (Merry-Go-Round), talking, happiness, and 坂道 (Sakamichi; Slope). There maybe another track titled in the music, as well, a blogger mentioned that the five tracks were used as background music on her homepage.

There's also a couple of dead ends on last.fm. It seems as though talking and メリーゴーランド had a few listens on there, but naturally, there's no listeners to contact.

I don't have a mixi account, so I'm not really sure if there's any info there either.

If anyone has heard these tracks, or has happened to have ripped them from her website or player.. it'd really be appreciated to share them with the rest of the SAWA fans out there!

Thanks in advance for any info, and also to the blogger I spoke with this morning. :)

SAWARecording?

Happy Late New Year SAWA Fans!

First off, here's a live vid of SAWA at a RYUKYODISKO show a few weeks ago. She performed SPLASH★ and 夢のFUTURE.



Another short live vid as well from her TV performance! This vid has short clips from Stars and Swimming Dancing. Thanks very much to Eight0008 for posting both videos on le tube!



SAWA appears to be in the studio recording! She's posted pics on her blog in the studio with Jazzin' Park (who remixed Stars on Swimming Dancing) and also a mystery producer who called her up and asked if she'd be interested in making music.

Wonder when the news will hit that we'll get getting SAWA's fifth mini-album? :P The suspense, the suspence.

She's set to have her live release part in February, hopefully some vids will surface on the net.

So with the lack of SAWA music at the moment, I've been more into d-topia's girls lately.


Aira's been a bit quiet; DJ'ing around and releasing rare tracks through special merch bags.

Saori however, has been completely opposite! She's just released エスニック・プラネット・サバイバル, and her next single, Lonely Lonely Lonely, (HMV exclusive single) coming along in December, and a new full album soon to follow!

She's also done a PV for Birthday Everyday, which is being released through her Valentine's BAG. She's collaborated with galaxxxy (who've done the artwork sleeves for Ethnic + Lonely) for a t-shirt design as well, that comes with a download card of Lonely Lonely Lonely.

The previews for her new single Lonely Lonely Lonely are on youtube and her blog, check them out, they're definetely worth the effort!

Goldfrapp Are Back!

Popjustice has just revelead that they got a sneak peek of Goldfrapp's lastest, an album titlted Head First, out March 22. They describe the first single, Rocket, as a carefree disco tune about a "love-gone-awry number which appears to be about firing an unsuitable chap off into space". It also includes rocket sounds, which our SAWA is so very fond of.. :P

It's all so exciting..

















Goldfrapp is quite a unique band that have inspired many artists, including the J-pop world (Immi's クラクション is basically an Ooh La La 2! MEG's video for FREAK as well is FOR SURE inspired by it..) and if you've not listenened to them, DO IT! ...NOW! :D

Also today, Mizca has revealed info as well as samples of her debut electro single キラキラ☆, which is released this January. Cutesy covers, and the music sounds pretty good although heavily vocodered.. (Seems like everyone is tired of the vocoder!) It's actually quite trippy in sound though, as far as the b-sides Truly Lovely + United To The Sky! The a-side キラキラ☆ sounds very much like a Nakata-style track with Saori vocals. Keep an eye out for her, we'll find out soon enough if this is a serious attempt!

Updates an' Info

New episode of Sa-World Radio is up, check it out when you get a chance!

Second episode in a row to have Kentaro Takizawa as a guest.

A video from the last episode has surfaced (the one from her birthday), which is now posted up on PlanetSAWA's brand new youtube account, yay! Rewak has set that, and a new email account as well, for any news, videos, an' all that from you fellow fans.

YouTube Account
Google Mail Account

More from The Big Room.... SAWA was at the release party, performing and drinkin' it up with fellow members and fans. Here's a pic of her with Mika Sawabe.


















A live vid from that has surfaced as well (using that cringe-worthy Keep Love Together), and she shows up a few times.

SAWA's also been busy doing interviews apparentely. Her + Taku Takahashi will appear in an interview in the next issue of MARQUEE, as well as a couple other 'zines. She's also done some online interviews which you can check out here and here.

There's some sort of World Wide Tea Party-themed promo project she's planning on her mixi account, but I don't have one so I'm not really sure on the details (probably best I don't know anyway.. :P)

So there's some shtuff for you to check out as you enjoy her latest mini-album. :)

It's Out, Go Get It SAWAitians!

It's funny, there was so much negative feedback about Swimming Dancing in the beginning: it only had 2 songs, it shouldn't be called a mini-album, SAWA shout-sings.. Now that it's out however, it seems like everyone's really pleased!

Epic PV and artwork, remixes that aren't crap, and of course wonderful music.. I'm really glad that quite the little SAWA community has been created. Let's all hope for new music soon!

If you haven't got it yet, dooooo iiiit:

Swimming Dancing @ YESASIA
Swimming Dancing @ CDJapan
Swimming Dancing @ PlayAsia
Swimming Dancing @ Amazon.co.jp















..........................

In other electro-news, d-topia's Saori@destiny is finally releasing new music! She's releasing two limited (unfortunately!) singles in the new year, one exclusively through Tower Records and another through HMV (similar to Aira's Valentine Step and Darling Wondering Staring.)

The first release, out 20 Jan, is titled 『エスニック・プラネット・サバイバル』 (Ethnic Planet Survival) is being released through TOWER. Saori's lyrics are always awesome and with a title like that... sounds like it's gonna be good! :P













The second release, out on 17 Feb, is currently untitled and will be through HMV.

TOWER RECORDS・HMV 2ヶ月連続シングルリリース決定！ ネオ・サブカルチャー・ガールをコンセプトに 新たにバックキーボードを加え「cooljapan」を世界へ発信!!! 2010年1月20日（水）リリース タワーレコード限定シングル 『エスニック・プラネット・サバイバル』 DTJR-10012 LABEL：D-topia 2010年2月17日（水）リリース HMV限定シングル 『タイトル未定』 DTJR-10021 LABEL：D-topia

So, for me anyway, there's something to look forward to in between whatever SAWA's got up ahead for us. :P Aira's got something new up ahead as well, a song being used in an Ario CM titled HEAT MY LOVE. Whether it gets a single release, we'll find out soon I hope!

Have a happy Thanksgiving all US-SAWAitians! :D