Archive for March, 2010

Mar 18 2010

Ninth ParaPara Anniversary Mega-Media Post!

Posted by Maggie in Media

I started dancing parapara in March of 2001, so that makes this month my paraversary! I realized just how difficult (err, impossible) it is to find a lot of my original choreography online, so I decided to upload a massive batch. Consider this my almost-complete para video discography to date! Enjoy and spread the love ♥

2003

2004

2005

2006

Yeah, 2006 was a bit of dry year video-wise…

2007

2008

2009

2010

I promise to show you all a good time in 2010! :)

Other Features

  • ParaPara Nine 1
  • ParaPara Nine 2
  • Avex Rave 2005 Special Performance feat. American Dream
  • A-kon 2006 Special Performance feat. American Dream
  • A-kon 2007 Special Performance feat. American Dream & Disco-NRG
  • Disco-NRG Maniac Fiesta v.2
  • Sakura-con 2009 Special Performance feat. Smile.dk & EKS-D

~let’s dedicate to love this magic moment~

Comments

Mar 09 2010

Event Advertisement: Kenya Matsuri in Nagoya 3/14/2010

Posted by Heather in Event Reports

Hi everyone, I know most of you are not in Japan, but there’s a big parapara event happening this Sunday called Kenya Matsuri, and Disco NRG is one of the offical supporters of this event. In case you don’t know, Kenya is a techno legend who was one of the pioneers of the techno scene about 10 years ago, and even today he’s a very active and respected member of the parapara community. Every couple of years he puts on his event called Kenya Matsuri to celebrate techno and parapara.

The great thing about Kenya is that he is the number one supporter of overseas parapara that I’ve met. He believes that the future of parapara is in the overseas scene. Parapara is dying out in Japan and he believes we need to expend globally to keep the scene alive. He’s interviewed me about overseas parapara and even included a section on it in the book that he is writing. I’m really grateful that he treats us like equal members of the scene.

And this is why he decided to include overseas para teams in the sponsors for this years event. There are three foreign teams on the sponsor list: Disco NRG, Euro Elite, and Diamond 7. Unfortunately none of us will be able to be at the event in person, but let’s support it from afar!


Comments

Mar 05 2010

Event Report: Starfire 10th Anniversary event

Posted by Heather in Event Reports

Hi everyone, Heather here. Last Saturday was the big Starfire 10th Anniversary event so I figured I’d contribute by writing an event report.

The event was held at Pasela in Ginza as usual, and a total of 400 people participated according to Ryohei. That’s easily twice as many people as usually come. The line to get in was huge. People from all over the country, and people who haven’t been to Starfire in years came out for the event. It was great to see so much support for Starfire and for parapara. The club was packed as you can imagine, but it was so cool to see that many people dancing parapara at one time.

There were a lot of special touches for the big event. They had a video camera set up at the front desk and they asked everyone to give a congratulatory message to the camera. I said “10shuunen omedetou gozaimasu” but I stuttered, dammit. There were bouquets of flowers donated from various people who support Starfire – Farm Records, DJ Yosshi, etc. They were selling Starfire goods at the door too – t-shirts, DVDs, CDs, towels and lighters with the Starfire logo. The tshirts were pretty cool and Max bought one. They gave out gift bags, which had a Starfire 10th Anniversary strap, Starfire vol. XVII dvd, and a condom haha.

The tracklist for Starfire vol. XVII:
Best of Both Worlds
Super Super Man
It’s a Party
Shake that Thang
Fire it Up
Stomp da sh*t out
Yoko
Dream Lover
Monokuro no kiss

My picture is on the cover of the dvd case! The case is a montage of pictures of people downing bottles of Cafe de Paris, which is an amazing idea by the way, and my picture is on the bottom row on the front. Max’s picture is technically on it as well, but it’s hidden by the logo. On the dvd they showed footage from the para contest last August at Differ Ariake, and you can see Max and Jasmine in the background when they are announcing the winners ww.

There were special performances as well of course. J-euro singer Miwa gave a live performance with the Starfire dancers dancing in the back (but she really wasn’t very good live…). There was a special appearance by Hustle Spider – Shintaro wearing his suit from the DJ Ozma Spiderman music video. They taught a euro lesson and a techno lesson as usual. All three members of T-rrex danced the euro lesson, and the techno lesson was danced by Ryuuichi, Buta and Tomoki. There was a euro special performance danced by Kotomin, Ke-tan, Hitoshi, Kazupyon and Hide. It was a high quality performance, but you wouldn’t expect anything less from Starfire. Ryuuichi, Buta and Tomoki did a techno special performance, and it was soo hot. They used mostly old techno, and they did a couple of songs with fans. It was incredibly hot. They did a prize raffle again, and each member of the Starfire staff gave out a present. It was mostly stuff like fragrance candles and Starbucks mugs, but I still want to win something once!

They celebrated Bancho’s birthday, typical Starfire style with a cake smashed in his face and a bottle of Cafe de Paris to down. Cafe de Paris was on sale for the anniversary event so we had reserved 3 bottles, but they didn’t last long. Starfire also has started selling “Tequila balls”, which are basically jello shots. They sell them for 500 yen a piece which is ridiculous.

There were people there that I haven’t seen in a long time. Harumi was there for the first time since she’s had her kid. (by the way in the credits for Starfire vol. XVII, Harumi and Satomi are listed as members of SFA mamas haha). I was really surprised to see Sekai no Yoshikazu there. I almost didn’t recognize him at first. That was really cool seeing him and Ryuuichi dancing techno on stage together. They played some old Yoshikazu songs – 1 2 3 4 Rico, and Bandido. Kyohei was there working as staff, but he’s been coming to events a lot lately. He got really really drunk and fell down and split his lip ww.

It was a really fun night and it was great to see so many people coming out and supporting Starfire and parapara.

pics!

Comments

Mar 01 2010

Report: Eurobeat!

Posted by Phil in Reviews

Hey everyone, I thought I would kick off my first DiscoNRG post with some Eurobeat gushing/news/etc! First off, I’ve been doing fine – life has been super busy but thankfully I’ve still had the time to sit down and follow the Eurobeat and ParaPara scene. Though I don’t have much to report from ParaPara land, hopefully my input in the Eurobeat side will be fulfilling to some of you!

Chozen Parapara presents D-1 Grand Prix 2010

This was a compilation album released on the 27th of January – hopefully some of you bought your copy and got it by now, and if you have you’ll notice a great GoGo’s Music track “I WANNA TRANCE / VIRGINELLE” – track 15 to be precise! Here is some interesting information on the song: Alessandra and Sandro got together with Elena Gobbi to create an English version of I Wanna Dance / Domino for last year’s Revival Hits (SEB193). Unfortunately, AVEX didn’t pick up the song. Though, Sandro had the idea of re-working the song into a Trance song and rename it “I Wanna Trace” which AVEX loved, and decided to release on this compilation!

If you’ve heard the song, comment and let us know what you think of it – do you like Virginelle’s Trance/English rendition of this song or do you prefer the original Eurobeat/Japanese version sung by Domino?

Super Eurobeat 201

SEB 201 is released this month (March) and there are some interesting tracks on there. If you haven’t been paying attention, you can see the track list here: http://avexnet.or.jp/eurobeat/discography/

I’ve heard the samples and they all sound really good, and after such a long wait for new tracks the excitement of having new songs to listen to is coming back – so my hopes are high for this album! A few things I would like to point out; a “Mirka” track from 1993 is being released on here – “10,000 Lovers” – It has the same ‘vibe’ as her older Juliet/Mirka tracks from the same era, which in my opinion were great! Though, it sounds dated from today’s standards, it’s a welcoming addition to this album especially since a lot of Eurobeat fans started out around this time and sound. Also, Travis, aka zoupzoup2, aka Odyssey – an American ‘indie-Eurobeat’ artist is making his debut through the Delta label with the track “Ken Blast / When The Sun Goes Down” – I just wanted to say that I hope for the best for this song and for his future career as a Eurobeat singer! Delta has brought the Canadian dance/Konami duo Melody and Mezzo to SEB with the Eurobeat remix of Nightshade, and now an American musician, and more importantly, Eurobeat fan; has broken through and has a song on a SEB release. Congratulations! Give your full support here guys, this is huge stuff!

The future of Eurobeat?

AVEX recently met with Contini in regards to GoGo’s Music, SCP and Sinclairestyle, and although the details are fuzzy, I’m told that there are some great things to come in regard to the future of Eurobeat! I will fill you all in when I first get the news, but the hype and energy around what’s to come is apparently really huge within these labels – so it’s going to be something big, I’m sure!

ParaPara

I’ve recently moved to Downtown Vancouver, and my apartment is about a block away from the beach (jealous? hahaha) so whenever I’m out back for a smoke, I look down at the beach and the water and envision myself recording some ParaPara there someday (by the water, not in it!)

The end!

That’s all I really have to mention – I hope you’re all following the new releases for Eurobeat and following what’s going on within the world of ParaPara! Keep at it and see you next time!

Comments