June 2021 – Strider’s Web

Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra 2021 Update

I thought it was time I posted again about TOKYO SKA PARADISE ORCHESTRA, since they continue to release song after amazing song. All of these were uploaded to You Tube in 2021, in celebration of this year’s Together Again tour and their new album SKA=ALMIGHTY. The first track is Mede Tashi Song feat. Muro Tsuyoshi, posted on June 11th and currently sitting at just shy of 160K views. That’s followed by I want to meet you Feat. Hasegawa blank paper uploaded in March, and we finish up with a live version of Paradise Has No Border recorded at the Great Conjunction 2020 event. If the crowd looks a little less dense than you were expecting it’s because the show happened on December 3rd of 2020, so it is set with Social Distancing seating (not that anyone is actually sitting down), and the audience are all wearing masks.

Mylène Farmer: Déshabillez-moi, Sans Contrefaçon

Mylène Farmer is not just a world class singer, she also has some of the best choreography ever seen on stage, and her music videos have always been cinema grade. That last is no surprise to anyone, considering she was an actress before she got into music, and her long running collaboration with filmmaker Laurent Boutonnat for those videos. I am including two of her tracks, Déshabillez-moi, and Sans Contrefaçon, but you can find more on her official web site, and on her You Tube Channel. For those who don’t happen to speak French but still want to follow along with the songs, you can turn on Closed Captioning and select Auto Translate if the CC is not already in English.

Wagakki Band

Wagakki Band continue to create amazing music using their blend of traditional Japanese instruments (the literal translation of the word Wagakki) and modern rock tools. The first track is Aria of Life, their theme song for the Anime series Mars Red, while the second, Starlight, is the theme for the Japanese TV drama “Ichikei no Karasu”. Their music certainly lends itself to TV and Movie production with its unique sound, so they have been getting a lot of work in between recording albums and doing world tours.

Man With A Mission: Into The Deep

Man With A Mission‘s latest tune Into The Deep was posted on June 1st, and is just shy of 300,000 views as I write this. It is the starting track on their new EP Perfect Clarity, and was the theme song for the Godzilla Vs Kong movie. The second track was posted in March to celebrate their 10th anniversary.

Hikaru Utada: PINK BLOOD, One Last Kiss

Hikaru Utada posted her new song Pink Blood three days ago, and it already has over 2 million views. It is the theme song to the excellent anime To Your Eternity, currently airing in Japan and streaming on Crunchyroll. In comparison, her song One Last Kiss was posted on March 8th, and is fast approaching the 36 million views mark. If you don’t already know who she is, you have a couple of decades of her world class music to catch up on.