ravex: I RAVE U feat. DJ OZMA/HOUSE NATION feat. LISA (a J!-ENT World Groove CD Single Review)

March 6, 2009 by Dennis Amith 

“A joint collaboration between entertainment company avex entertainment, inc. and anime production company Tezuka Productions Inc. for a joint anime and music project with this first CD single release featuring DJ OZMA and LISA”

ARTIST: ravex

CD SINGLE: ravex: I RAVE U feat. DJ OZMA/HOUSE NATION feat. LISA

LABEL: avex trax

CATALOG #: AVCD-31548/B

DURATION: 25:05

RELEASE DATE: December 17, 2008

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1. I RAVE U feat. DJ OZMA
2. HOUSE NATION feat. LISA
3. I RAVE U feat. DJ OZMA (延長ヴァージョン)
4. I RAVE U (ravex version)
5. I RAVE U (Karaoke)

DVD INFORMATION: Region 2, 4:3. Duration: 14 minutes

1. I RAVE U feat. DJ OZMA (Music Video)
2. I RAVE U feat. DJ OZMA (dance training – 2 men)
3. I RAVE U feat. DJ OZMA (dance training -2 women)
4. I RAVE U feat. DJ OZMA (dance training with all four)

In October 2008, entertainment company avex entertainment inc. and anime production company Tezuka Productions announced a joint anime and music collaboration together.

With avex now investing in live action and animated entertainment, the project being developed was “Ratom”, a character that looked like Tezuka Atom (aka Astro Boy) and a combining of Ravex and Atom.  In the music realm of ravex, the music is created by Shinichi Osawa (Mondo Grosso), Tomoyuki Tanaka (Fantastic Plastic Machine) and Taku Takahashi (m-flo).

The first CD single from ravex titled “I Rave U” feat. DJ OZMA was released in December 2008 along with coupling track “House Nation” by LISA.

With DJ OZMA leaving the EMI label for avex, he definitely makes a better fit with avex because of the para para music and they happen to release a lot of the para para dancing DVD’s in Japan.

But with ravex providing the music, you get a little of that old school avex hyper Euro Mix in this track but does it rank high among the classic DJ OZMA tracks like “Age Age Every Knight”?  Not really.  It’s a fun track and the music video that accompanies the CD+DVD version makes it more enjoyable but on it’s own, it’s about average.

As for LISA’s track titled “HOUSE NATION”, an all-English track and musically, much more enjoyable dance track.  Whereas OZMA’s track is more humorous, LISA’s track is definitely much more enjoyable and hip.

The third track is “I RAVE U feat. DJ OZMA (延長ヴァージョン)” is definitely much more of a homage to the classic avex hyper Euro Mix circa 1993 Juliana’s Tokyo era.

The fourth track is ravex’s version of “I RAVE U” and is an instrumental track that is very experimental and it does showcase the combined efforts of Osawa, Tanaka and Takahashi.  No background vocals, just straight up music.

The fifth track is the karaoke version of “I RAVE U” featuring the background vocals of DJ OZMA’s track.

As for the DVD, the DVD features the music video for “I RAVE U” feat. DJ OZMA with a pretty enjoyable dance track with DJ OZMA’s craziness with his female and male dancers donning overalls, different costumes and a mustache.  Of course, poking fun at visual kei bands, hip hop groups and even his NHK Kouhaku dance with dancers in nude suits and more.  Overall, a fun and maniacal music video.

The remaining three video tracks are “how-to-dance para para” videos.  The first with two men dancing para para, the next track with two of Avex’s para para girls and then the final with both men and women.

The CD insert features the lyrics and production credits plus illustrations by Osamu Tezuka (such as Kimba the White Lion, Black Jack, Tezuka Atom, etc.).  A flier is also included featuring a promotional for DJ OZMA’s December 31st album “I LOVE PARTY PEOPLE 3″ and MASURAO.

Personally, I found the ravex releases to be OK.  I definitely had high expectations with the collaborations between Shinichi Osawa (Mondo Grosso), Tomoyuki Tanaka (Fantastic Plastic Machine) and Taku Takahashi (m-flo) and so far, compared to the music that we know of each of these three individually, it’s been OK, nothing that would strike me as superb.

So, far it seems I’m digging the second tracks for the ravex CD single releases so far.  They are much more dance oriented, upbeat and enjoyable.  “I RAVE U” is a good, humorous track but where it benefits the most is watching the accompanying music video on the CD+DVD version.  “HOUSE NATION” was a pretty cool, catchy LISA track (which is all in English).

All in all, if you were planning to purchase this CD single, I recommend the CD+DVD version because the DVD is quite lengthy and DJ OZMA’s music video is quite fun to watch.  Also, if you want to learn some para para moves and dance with the track “I RAVE U”, then definitely get the version with the DVD.

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