Featured are 42 second clips of:

• flyaway (Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2 OP)
• where is the future? (Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2 ED)
• flyaway 『テイルズ オブ』Remix (Special remix of the title track available as an extra in the special [Tales of] edition of the single)

To summarise, flyaway is just as good as we expected from the original 30 second preview of the song; where is the future? seems reminiscent of one of BACK-ON’s previous title songs flower, but the biggest (and best) surprise imho is probably flyaway 『テイルズ オブ』Remix or flyaway [Tales of] Remix!

For fans of dance or game background music, this is a must listen, but the preview is alas so very short! Teeda‘s voice is electronically altered, and with thanks to BOO forum member Sok for this information, apparently the singer of the main chorus (at least in this preview clip) is the female seiyuu of Kanonno, the main character in the Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2 series!

In addition to clips of the 3 songs (sadly missing Re:Start) BACK-ON have also posted a much longer video clip of the flyaway PV on their official Myspace as well! :) I think it is pretty safe to say that everyone on the Forums who has seen the PV preview so far likes it.

You can watch it after the cut (as usual) at the end of this post, or you can:

watch the PV preview on BACK-ON’s Myspace by clicking here!

Last but not least, for fans and visitors who do not have access to Myspace, you can also listen to the clips of all 3 songs after the cut as well! Either way, please enjoy and let us know what you think! :)

BACK-ON – flyaway (Myspace audio)

1. flyaway
2. where is the future?
3. flyaway[Tales of]Remix
   

BACK-ON – flyway PV preview (Myspace video)

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Click on the screenshot of the player below to visit their official Myspace and listen to the songs yourself! If you don’t have access to Myspace, keep on reading for a special treat that we have for you :)

The chorus of the new song 果てなき道へ [LA mix] (Hatenaki Michi E) feels a little more pop than rock, but as the clip tails off, there seems to be a promise of some heavy rock coming up… and possibly Teeda‘s signature rapping? Definitely an upbeat song and I have to say I really do like it! I can’t wait to hear the full song at least :)

As for the other songs, it will certainly be interesting to hear what everyone thinks; I heard from the grapevine that apparently the [LA mix] versions should be a little heavier and emphasise the ‘rock’ aspect of each song. Unfortunately Myspace are not doing BACK-ON any favours as they convert the original songs to very low bit/sample rates (96kbps and 22kHz apparently) so the songs sound rather unclear and somewhat hollow to me, but I think the bass and guitars are definitely a lot more pronounced! What are your thoughts?

To add icing to the cake, BACK-ON have also updated their profile photos on their website, and you can see thumbnails of their brand new look below, but I would highly recommend clicking on the thumbnails to visit our fan photo gallery for the full size photos! I actually want to do a bit of a fangirl scream here for ALL of the band members (Kya!?) but just to pick out one band member, doesn’t Icchan look so much more mature?

And last but not least, for people who can’t access BACK-ON’s Myspace, fear not, because we have recorded all the 4 [LA mix] song clips into one long mp3 (3:15) that you can download or listen to online below!

p/s: Good news for fans of gangangan03‘s videos! :) He now has a brand new account which you can visit here: http://www.youtube.com/user/MONSTERSNITE

Meji, who provided us with the initial review of the new songs from the single – message for kidz and fifty/50, has setup a Myspace profile where you can listen to all the songs. The url is below:

http://www.myspace.com/backonsandsoftime (UPDATE 20/06/2008: Sadly this account is now off-line. With thanks to EJ for the news. You can still listen via the Radio on the Music page!)

So if you haven’t heard the new songs yet, head over to one or both places and listen in! For more opinions of the new single, you can read the reviews posted by Aoi and Sesshy on the BOO forums. At least one of the reviews, and other random ‘Back-on‘ keywords can all be found on the dedicated Back-on dictionary created by ichi!

Let us know what you think of Back-on‘s latest musical experiment! :)

p/s: I received my copy of the new CD in the post a few days ago! :) Do I think it was worth the wait? Definitely!

We also get to hear the first verse+rap, and I have to say, I love the introduction to the song! If you haven’t heard it already, you really seriously must. I demand kindly request it. :p Incredibly catchy imho!

In addition to the preview, the band have also posted the titles of the other two tracks that will be released along with Sands of Time on May 21st 2008, so the final tracklisting for the single is as follows:

1. Sands of Time (ED for “Keitai Sousakan 7“)
2. message for kidz
3. fifty/50

And before I forget, for those who can’t access their Myspace, we have of course done the usual mp3 rip for you to download which you can find below. Enjoy! And let us know what you think of the preview too! :)

Sands of Time [Myspace Rip] (1.86 MB, Zipped)

p/s: If you’re interested in a mash-up between the Myspace preview + TV Size version of Sands of Time, please take a look at the dedicated “Sands of Time” + Keitai Sousakan 7 discussion thread on the Forums! (Hint: post #102)

The design was actually quite different to what we had expected on the discussion thread on the forums, where members kindly (and enthusiastically) threw in their suggestions :) What do you think of it? The general consensus so far that people really like it!

Back-on then followed up this ‘sneak-peak’ by officially announcing the release of their new single on their official website, where they confirmed the May 21st 2008 release date. They also posted that the single (in line with their other single releases to date) will have 3 tracks, but so far, the only known title is the title track Sands of Time.

In addition, the band have also changed their Myspace profile picture for the occasion, which features Teeda wearing a necktie! :) You can see the image itself after the ‘cut’ (click on Read more…) but it is unfortunately a little small, so we can’t see much detail as yet, which is a pity! Hopefully they’ll release some larger pictures soon!

p/s: The news release regarding the new cover design and Myspace picture (see below the cut) has come courtesy of Sesshy via the Sands of Time + Keitai Sousakan 7 discussion thread! Thank you! :D

p/s2: Don’t forget you can download the TV Size version mp3-rip of Sands of Time from BOO!

Behold! The brand new Myspace profile picture!

This breaking news was first spotted by Sesshy on Back-on’s official blog, and it was subsequently posted onto their official Myspace in English. They were both accompanied by a picture of the band with the cast and Hitomi Shimatani at the press conference that was held by the production team of Keitai Sousakan 7 to launch the show.

We will be covering the drama in more depth in another post. For a quick low-down of the facts (info courtesy of August Ragone, The Good, The Bad, and Godzilla 続・夕陽の呉爾羅):

The 51-episode series revolves around Kieta, a high school freshman who joins “Anchor” (the digital-crime-fighting organisation) and is given the transformer-phone, Phonebraver 7, to help thwart the plans of an internet-based crime organisation.

The main role is played by 19 year-old Masataka Kubota, and is supported by actors Mickey Curtis (Agitator), Yuko Ito (Bubble Fiction), Kanji Tsuda (Japan Sink), Natsuki Okamoto (Arch Angels), Satoshi Matsuda (Kamen Rider Ryuki), and Nao Nagasawa (Hurricanger).

From left: Takashi Miike, Nao Nagasawa, Yuko Ito, Masataka Kubota,
Kanji Tsuda, Satoshi Matsuda, Natsuki Okamoto (Source: Nippon Cinema)

Some big names are involved with the project, including:

• Takashi Miike (三池崇史), the supervising director for KS7 who is famous for directing Great Yokai War and the Alive or Dead series.
• Mamoru Oshii (押井守), the director behind Ghost in the Shell.
• Shusuke Kaneko (金子修介), a well known director who most recently worked on the live movie version of Death Note.

In addition to the ‘all-star’ director group, TV Tokyo also recruited Hitomi Shimatani to sing the opening theme song. Apparently the new song is called WAKE YOU UP. There are reports that the singer may even guest-star in the series as well. (Author’s note: Will Back-on guest-star too?)

Alas we can’t see very much of the band from the photo posted on their blogs, but with a big thanks to bebekjelek, we can share some really good closeups of the band from the press conference that you can see below:

As a super-special bonus, we’ve kindly been given permission to post even more photos from the event that were taken by David Michaud of LeJapon.fr, a freelance photographer who hails from France and is based in Japan. The full-sized versions of the thumbnails (and more photos) can all been seen in the BOO Gallery – KS7 Press Conference, and aside from the excellent group photos, there are also individual pictures (closeups!) of Kenji03 and Teeda! I would really encourage everyone to view the photos in full, since thumbnails really don’t do them enough justice!

The commercial ‘tie-in’, or the transformer-robot-phone(s) Phonebraver (the Toshiba 815T PB) is actually receiving a tonne of attention in its own right, as it is probably the first ‘hybrid’ toy transformer and phone. The initial report on Gizmodo Japan was swiftly picked up by the US Gizmodo, before Akihabara News posted their report from the press conference.

With all this promotion going on, it is quite unbelievable that all the blogs and news site (such as Variety Japan, Tokyograph etc.) never actually mentioned that Back-on are singing the ending theme for the drama. I’m guessing that this is because of all the big names that have dominated the headlines, but as a fellow fan, I’m sure you find this rather disappointing as well!

However, (even if I am biased!) I think their music will speak for itself when the drama is premiered on April 2nd 2008. This is the second time that Back-on‘s music will feature as main theme for a J-drama (the first being Shinjuku Swan) but given the wide ranging publicity given to Keitai Sousakan 7 and the fact that it is a prime-time kid-friendly show (contrasting especially with Shinjuku Swan) it is more than likely to be a major breakthrough for Back-on reaching the mainstream. Let’s keep our fingers crossed! :)

This is particularly in response to the original blog post by Back-on‘s staff asking for feedback and comments, where I believe Back-on staff promised that comments would receive replies if they posted within a certain timeframe, and Teeda for instance, has made an amazing effort to say hi to everyone!

You might be interested in knowing that both Teeda and Kenji03 have stopped writing in their own blogs, and that Back-on’s Official Blog is now their main blogging platform, so it’s a fantastic resource for interesting pictures and videos from the band!

We’ll try and give you more information about these posts in the future, but Back-on did include some photos of the singles in the shops (HMV for instance) that you can see below:

They also took pictures with some lucky CD staff member(s)!

Last but not least, if you’re wondering what the songs sound like, we’ve been able to listen to samples of each track on both CDs (courtesy of Hmv.co.jp) which we are now making available below as a mix-zip file below! So included 45 second samples are:

• flower (Myspace preview) – as it’s better quality
• ZERO
• Colors
• Butterfly (Myspace preview)
• Spark
• DRIVE (Shutokou Remix)

Please bear in mind that these are song samples so the quality is unfortunately not very good (aside from flower and Butterfly previews from Back-on’s Myspace, which were both made available in a previous post) but hopefully it is enough to give everyone a quick preview! Personally, aside from the title tracks, I’m loving the sample of ZERO and Colors! Which songs do you like?

Mixed Samples

• the CM (Commercial) on Back-on’s Myspace,
• which is also available on Youtube courtesy of blueblueblue
• and also the ending credits of 新宿スワン(Shinjuku Swan) first uploaded by gangangan03 and then blueblueblue on Youtube!
• we’ve also uploaded a trailer or preview video sourced from the official Shinjuku Swan website as well!
  

So in essence: 5 videos in one news post! You can click on the individual links above to watch the videos, or as usual, it is possible to watch the three different videos below (we’ve picked the best available formats where possible):

Butterfly (Single) – Commercial Message

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Shinjuku Swan (Ending Credits)

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Shinjuku Swan (Trailer/Preview)

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p/s: The video preview for 新宿スワン (Shinjuku Swan) is available for direct viewing via the official Shinjuku Swan website. I would recommend viewing the original video, as the resolution hasn’t been resized by Youtube.

p/s2: You can now see quick screenshots of some videos at Baidu, courtesy of the webmistress kenji03!

Despite continuing RL commitments, I will try and be as active as possible to make up for the lost time. Send me an email or something if you feel (at any point) that I need to be kick-started into action. ;)

Moving on to the planned updates for news, I am currently facing a small backlog of news posts about Back-on‘s activities that need to be written up, so they will be released over the next two weeks or so. This includes the new PV preview of Butterfly that is available on Back-on’s Myspace, some new videos on Youtube from Sound EX and blueblueblue, as well as some interesting news about Back-on‘s charity efforts and alot more!

However, one of the major works planned for September 2007 is to the main BOO site. Some of you may already have spotted a difference or two already, but I’ll try and summarise the changes below:

• Wallpapers – A brand new section of Back-on wallpapers for your desktop that has been created with the help of MJTheOne! All the fantastic work you’ll see was sent to me a few weeks back, but alas it’s taken me a while to work out the layout and actually post the content! The first wallpaper – Chain – is all ready to be released, and you can get a sneak preview thumbnail below!

  

  Please do show your support for MJTheOne by visiting his Deviantart account (to view his other work- I personally love the 3ds MAX designs!) and by leaving him your comments!

• Lyrics – This is definitely one of the most popular sections of BOO, and now that I’m armed with a bit more experience with WordPress template editing, the Lyrics section is now ordered alphabetically rather than chronologically! Hopefully this will make it far easier to view all the lyrics (that, and everything is now on the same page) Of course, feedback is always appreciated!
  Please also lookout for the release of more lyrics later on this month!
• Where to BUY Back-on’s CDs? – BOO have already made a brief stab at this information on the Music page, but with the forthcoming release of 2 singles on September 19th 2007, it seemed like a good time to write up a proper post. I would definitely welcome any input from other fans for this section, and will be making a post on the Forums in the next few days for people to post their suggestions too!
• And other ideas! – These are currently taking shape in my mind, so are not finalised per-se. I will be bouncing a few of these ideas off a few people this month to see if they will be suitable for BOO first, just in case ;)

Well, as Porky Pig might say at the end of each Looney Tunes episode – ‘That’s all folks!’ – but only for now! Please do let us know what you think of the new updates! :)

p/s: For visitors who are also looking for the next Music update, don’t worry – it’s coming soon!

So if you are experiencing the same kind of symptoms, and haven’t already recorded both previews (available from Back-on’s Myspace), fear not, because you can now download both clips from BOO as mp3s! They are a little quiet, so you might need to turn up the volume a little on your iPod equivalent, but hopefully they will be of some help whilst we all endure the wait!

flower [Myspace preview] (1.12 MB, Zipped)	Butterfly [Myspace preview] (1.26 MB, Zipped)