“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 second CD single release showcasing music artists BoA and Maki Goto”
ARTIST: ravex
CD SINGLE: ravex: Believe in LOVE feat. BoA
LABEL: avex trax
CATALOG #: AVCD-31594/B
DURATION: 16:01
RELEASE DATE: February 18, 2009
BUY THIS CD SINGLE
- Believe in LOVE feat. BoA
- Golden LUV feat. MAKI GOTO
- MEGA ravex feat. ANNA TSUCHIYA, BoA, DJ OZMA, LISA, MAKI GOTO, MONKEY MAJIK, TOHOSHINKI, TRF & YUKO ANDO
DVD INFORMATION: Region 2, 16:9LB. Duration: 4 minutes
- Believe in LOVE
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.
The second single features “Believe in LOVE feat. BoA” and “Golden LUV” by Maki Goto and a third track “MEGA ravex” being a remix of various artists.
The first track “Believe in LOVE” is a mid-tempo synth pop track feat. BoA. If anything, of the three musicians of ravex, the song is definitely Shinichi Osawa-driven it would seem. Magical and dreamy synth.
As much as BoA has the title track on the front cover on this ravex CD, personally, the winning track goes to former Morning Musume member Maki Goto with “Golden LUV”. An upbeat, dance track that is just catchy, addictive and enjoyable compared to the slow moving “Believe in LOVE”. Since Maki Goto has moved to avex, I definitely like the direction she’s going musically but it will be interesting to see how production quality will be with her avex releases compared to when she was with King Records.
The third and final track “MEGA ravex” is a near seven minute track featuring a clips of various upbeat tracks by ANNA TSUCHIYA, BoA, DJ OZMA, LISA, MAKI GOTO, MONKEY MAJIK, TOHOSHINKI, TRF & YUKO ANDO.
As for the DVD, the DVD features the music video for “Believe in LOVE” showcasing classic anime video and manga clips of Osamu Tezuka’s work and CG effects. Personally, it’s not an exciting music video but just a compilation of clips with BoA’s track in the background.
Compared to the first ravex single which had four tracks (granted one was the music video and three were how-to-dance para para video tracks), I was disappointed that there was nothing but the single video on this CD+DVD release.
The CD insert features the lyrics of the two tracks and illustrations by Osamu Tezuka.
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.
I also find it interesting how the only include BoA’s name as the main track title and Maki Goto was left out. Granted, I’m sure that avex is banking on BoA’s name to sell CD singles but personally I felt that Maki got the second fiddle in this release, especially since Goto’s track is the better track on this CD single. (Note: In the first single, DJ OZMA is promoted on the front, LISA is promoted on the back and on the side, both are promoted equally.)
Overall, this is probably one of the first CD+DVD’s which I can probably say it’s not truly worth it. In fact, just the original CD version is good enough if you want to save money and focus on the music, recommending the CD+DVD are for those who are a hardcore fan of Osamu Tezuka but the music video is not exactly great and I wouldn’t be surprised if you just watched it once.
ravex’s “Believe in LOVE feat. BoA” is an average-at-best CD single band I’m hoping musically, the ravex album “trax” coming out in April 2009 is much better.
BUY THIS CD SINGLE