SPYAIR Release ‘BEST’ Album in the UK and Europe from 12 January

Japanese pop-rock squad SPYAIR will release ‘BEST’ on CD and digital formats in the UK and Europe, collating all 14 of their massive hit singles so far, plus two brand new songs! It’s also the first time many of the songs have been available outside of Japan.

Since smashing on to the scene in 2010 with their debut single ‘LIAR’, which also became the theme song to Japanese TV school drama Hammer Session!, SPYAIR have experienced a mighty ten top-40 singles in Japan and had many of their tracks become theme tunes in anime and film; including The Amazing Spider-Man, Bleach and Gintama. All are included on ‘BEST’.

Due to popular demand, SPYAIR were picked up by London’s JPU Records for European distribution, leading to the group’s YouTube channel being available outside of Japan for the first time. There, the official music videos to the songs included on ‘BEST’ have already racked up viewing figures upwards of 28 million.

‘BEST’ TRACKLISTING
01. GLORY (view music video)
02. Imagination (view music video)
03. JUST ONE LIFE (view music video)
04. Genjyou Destruction (view music video)
05. Niji (view music video)
06. Sakura Mitsutsuki (view music video)
07. WENDY ~It’s You~ (view music video)
08. Naked (view music video)
09. 0 GAME (view music video)
10. My World
11. BEAUTIFUL DAYS (view music video)
12. (Samurai Heart) Some Like It Hot!! (view music video)
13. Japanication (view music video)
14. Last Moment (view music video)
15. LIAR
16. Anokoro bokurawa onajimiraiwo

Download from: iTunes or Amazon MP3 in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain or the UK.
Pre-order the CD from: JPU Records Shop, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Season of Mist (France), imusic (Denmark), CD-soundtrack (Czech Republic), Plastic Head (UK), Fan (Poland).

Album teaser:

SPYAIR Sortiront Leur Album « BEST » En France Le 12 Janvier

Le groupe de pop-rock japonais SPYAIR sortira « BEST » en format CD et digital en France le 12 Janvier 2015. Il s’agira d’une compilation des 14 meilleurs tubes du groupe jusqu’à présent, avec l’ajout de deux nouvelles chansons inédites! En outre, ce sera la première fois que beaucoup de ces chansons seront disponibles en dehors du Japon.

Depuis les débuts du groupe en 2010 avec leur premier single «LIAR», devenu la chanson thème du drama japonais «Hammer Session», SPYAIR ont classé dix de leurs singles au Top 40 national et vu plusieurs de leurs titres devenir les chansons thème de films et d’animés tels que «The Amazing Spider-Man», «Bleach», ou encore «Gintama». Toutes ces pistes sont incluses dans «BEST».

En raison de la demande populaire, JPU Records (Londres) a choisi de distribuer la musique de SPYAIR en Europe, entraînant la visibilité de la chaîne YouTube du groupe en dehors du Japon pour la première fois.

Les clips officiels des chansons de « BEST » y ont déjà obtenu plus de 28 millions de vues.

LISTE DES TITRES

01. GLORY (music video)
02. Imagination (music video)
03. JUST ONE LIFE (music video)
04. Genjyou Destruction (music video)
05. Niji (music video)
06. Sakura Mitsutsuki (music video)
07. WENDY ~It’s You~ (music video)
08. Naked (music video)
09. 0 GAME (music video)
10. My World
11. BEAUTIFUL DAYS (music video)
12. (Samurai Heart) Some Like It Hot!! (music video)
13. Japanication (music video)
14. Last Moment (music video)
15. LIAR
16. Anokoro bokurawa onajimiraiwo

Download from: iTunes or Amazon MP3 in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain or the UK.
Pre-order the CD from: JPU Records Shop, Amazon.fr, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Season of Mist (France), imusic (Denmark), CD-soundtrack (Czech Republic), Plastic Head (UK).

Le teaser de l’album:

Les membres de SPYAIR:
IKE (chanteur)
UZ (guitariste)
MOMIKEN (bassiste)
KENTA (batteur)

SPYAIR en ligne:
http://www.spyair.net/
https://www.facebook.com/spyairofficial
https://www.youtube.com/user/spyairSMEJ
https://twitter.com/SPYAIRSTAFF

JPU Records en ligne:
http://www.jpurecords.com
https://www.facebook.com/JPUrecords
https://twitter.com/JPUrecords

SPYAIR and the GazettE Nominated in the JpopAsia Music Awards 2013

JPU Records is very happy to hear that two of its artists have been nominated in the JpopAsia Music Awards 2013! This year sees SPYAIR and the GazettE up for awards. Back in the 2012 awards, over one million votes were recorded, resulting in our first and only artist at the time walking away with an impressive six awards, winning 50 per cent of the awards available in the ‘rock’ category. The full details can be found in our article here.

This year’s awards sees our artists split over two categories, Jpop and Jrock. Click either category to see the nominations, and don’t forget to log-in (at the top of the page) to cast your votes. Here are the JPU Records artists and which categories they’re in;

Jpop

Best use of Social Media: AOI (the GazettE), RUKI (the GazettE)
Sexiest Male Singer: RUKI (the GazettE)

Jrock

Favourite Artist/Band: the GazettE
Best Rocking PV 2013: FADELESS – the GazettE
Best Single 2013: Niji [PV] (SPYAIR), FADELESS [PV] (the GazettE)
Best Album 2013: BEAUTIFUL DEFORMITY (the GazettE)
Best Rock Act: the GazettE
Best Use of Social Media: AOI (the GazettE), IKE (SPYAIR), RUKI (the GazettE)
Sexiest Rocker: KAI (the GazettE)

The albums the nominations come from are available now on CD and MP3 across Europe courtesy of JPU Records. Click each album cover below to order the CD direct from JPU’s HQ, shipping worldwide!

JPU Tom’s Top 5 Albums of 2013

If you’ve been following Japan Underground this month, you’ll have seen we’ve been talking to the staff at JPU Records on their favourite albums of the year, Japanese or otherwise. Today’s the last of these features as we check out the five biggest albums of the year according to JPU and Japan Underground founder and head honcho, Tom Smith. Any words on the selection, Tom? “Circles and triangles were in this year when it came to cover design, weren’t they? Anyway, a number of people ask me what kind of stuff I listen to outside of ‘work’ – this should give you an idea! I had to be careful not to fill this list entirely with JPU releases… so I’ve been good and only included one… and it’s also my favourite album this year.”

Ling tosite sigure – i’mperfect
“This album. It’s not only at the top of my personal five favourite albums of 2013, it’s also in my top ten albums this side of the millennium. It took me well over a year for the LTS sound to click with me, but once it did, I was HOOKED. I’mperfect reminds me a lot of another favourite album of mine; Relationship of Command from At The Drive-In (listen on Spotify) – yet Sigure sound nothing like ATDI, but the energy of that album is present here too. Scratch that, imagine Relationship of Command condensed to 4 minutes and you have Ling tosite sigure’s ‘Sitai miss me’. My only problem with this album is that it’s over far too soon.”
Outsanding tracks: abnormalize, Beautiful Circus.
Buy from Amazon: Regular Edition, Digital Edition
Buy direct from JPU Records (worldwide shipping)

Bring Me The Horizon – Sempiternal
“BMTH first appeared on my radar years back when friends were going crazy over ‘Pray for Plagues’ and ‘[I Used to Make Out With] Medusa’. I didn’t really get the fuss, but that didn’t stop them ramming BMTH down my throat for the next few years… as a result I never really looked into the band much, which, looking back, is a shame. It was thanks to a different force shoving BMTH my way that I did eventually get into them; Youtube, with its barrage of Sempiternal ads earlier this year. I decided to listen on Spotify, and then buying the album after my month’s listening limit was used up just from playing it over and over. It still gets a lot of play today too.”
Outstanding tracks: Can You Feel My Heart, Shadow Moses.
Buy from Amazon: Regular Edition, Vinyl Edition, Digital (Deluxe) Edition.

Enter Shikari – Rat Race EP
“Much like Bring Me The Horizon, Enter Shikari are another band my friends have been going bonkers about for years, especially as they’re local boys. I’d seen more than my fair share of human pyramids at Shikari shows over the years  but never felt the need to buy an album. That was until I heard RADIATE on BBC Radio 1’s Rock Show. In fact, RADIATE is probably my favourite song this year, from anyone. I love it and it always lifts my mood. From there I worked backwards, and a month later I was the proud owner of all of Enter Shikari’s studio albums. Now they’re one of my favourite bands, and if this was a list of top 5 albums listened to during 2013, Enter Shikari’s A Flash Flood of Colour would be number one by a long way.”
Outstanding Tracks: RADIATE, Paddington Frisk.
Buy from Amazon: Digital Version

Crossfaith – Zion EP
“Yep, the EP and not APOCALYZE, their newest album. That’s not to say APOCALYZE isn’t  a lot of fun – it’s just too much for me. It’s like eating chocolate cake, with a side helping of chocolate cake, with extra chocolate cake on top. Sure, I live chocolate cake but in moderation, man… Zion, is just the right length, and full of nothing but killer tune after killer tune. I’m listening to it while I write this and I want to go out and jump around.”
Outstanding tracks: Jagerbomb, Monolith.
Buy from Amazon: Regular Version, Digital Version, +1 Import Version

NOISEMAKER – DOUBLE COLOR SHEEP
“I went to a live show severely hungover while in Tokyo, just to see my mate’s band Silhouette from the Skylit support the amazing JAWEYE. Except, for some reason JAWEYE was on first and I totally missed them from rolling in late… instead NOISEMAKER were headlining, and despite hurting from the night before, their live set brought me back to life and rocking down the front with everyone else. They gave me their album, and I haven’t stopped listening to it since. They remind me a bit of what would happen if SPYAIR went heavier… mixed with the stuff I used to listen to as a teenager. Anyway, awesome band, and now I’m seriously thinking about releasing this album in Europe – so do tell me what you think and have a listen to the tracks I link below. Plus their cover of Rhianna’s Rude Boy is also genius.”
Outstanding tracks: THE NEW ERA, platinum shoes.
Buy from iTunes

Japan Underground and JPU Records’ Artists Nominated for NEO Awards 2013

Don’t click these.. it’s just a picture.

Woo ha! We’re very happy to announce that Japan Underground has been nominated for an award in NEO Magazine for the second year in a row! Last year we were lucky enough to walk away with the award for Best Specialist Company 2012 for our efforts promoting Japanese rock, punk and alternative music  in the UK. Our sister company JPU Records also had one of their artists, the GazettE, voted Best Music Act of 2012 too.

Now, 12 months on we’re in the finalist list once more! Plus! We’re joined by no more than five of JPU Records’ artists! Yep, the likes of the GazettE, SPYAIR, BOOM BOOM SATELLITES, POLYSICS and the mighty Ling tosite sigure are up for ‘Best Musical Act 2013’ alongside VAMPS, Crossfaith, FACT and more! Who wins is entirely in your hands.

We’ve had an extremely busy year, from organising sold-outs shows in London for FACT and N’SHUKUGAWA BOYS, to releasing some of the biggest Japanese albums of the year through JPU Records. We just want to thank you for reading this, supporting us, and continuing to buy music and attend shows. Cheers everyone!

Voting ends 18:00 GMT on Friday 13 December, and winners will be announced in NEO Magazine #120, out 23 January 2014!

Make your vote count!