This time, a day dreaming… and Kodou were the top favourites of our voters, and as usual, we have also put up two extra downloads for just one week only, including the much-requested Hikari Sasuhou (Survive ver.) as well as the runner up from the previous polls, forward.

Thanks to everyone who voted in the latest polls, and if possible, it would be great if you could vote again in the next one, where:

• Butterfly (Butterfly single)
• DRIVE (New World album)
• Believer (Chain single)
• Grab (Survive compliation album)
• Gaku-Ten (Baby Rock album)
• RAIN (New World album)

are all up for selection. It might be a bit more difficult to choose this time! :)

More updates will be forthcoming throughout the site, as well as more content from various contributors! And before I forget, we have updated the affiliate link with Sound EX from their Myspace to their official new website! The people behind the website are Nao and Sesshy, and I would encourage everyone to pay a visit, particularly as the graphics used for the site design really are fantastic! I’ve included a screenshot of the new site design below as a taster, but look out for the flash movie on the splash page – it’s worth the wait – and this is coming from someone who doesn’t usually take a second glance at splash pages.

In this particular update, the featured radio playlist is BLAZE LINE/a day dreaming…, Back-on‘s latest single release. This means you can listen to the two title tracks, their TV-size versions as well as EYES!

With regards to the featured downloads, nearly 45% of the 270 voters wanted BLAZE LINE (Eyeshield 21 OP), whilst 30% voted for the all-time favourite, Chain (Air Gear OP!) We’ve also had a special request for Hikari Sasuhou (Survive ver.) and Drive, so to show our appreciation to the kind supporters of Back-on Online, both these songs are now available for download for one week!

Please do continue to vote for your favourite songs, but please remember, if you LIKE the songs, try and support Back-on by buying their CDs/attending their concerts!

Even if you can’t do so at the moment, seriously don’t worry, you can also help the band by spreading the word about their music! So please try and name-drop Back-on to your friends, family and the internet! :D

If you’re wondering why this is so significant, this is Back-on wrote/performed the OP, which is a variation of their own release ﾋｶﾘｻｽﾎｳ (Hikari Sasuhou). The released track is undeniably one of Back-on‘s most popular songs, and the new variation is known as

ﾋｶﾘｻｽﾎｳ Hikari Sasuhou (fk Metal ver.)

The OST (AVCA26256) is set to retail at ¥3059, and will feature 43 tracks, most of which will be the anime’s BGM. Unfortunately (as with most anime OSTs) the CD will only feature the TV size versions of both the OP and the ED.

The ED, Naked Flower, is sung by Romi Paku (who voices Alita Forland, the main character) and the full version is already available on CD.

Alas to-date, Back-on have yet to release a full version of ﾋｶﾘｻｽﾎｳ Hikari Sasuhou (fk Metal ver.), which has slightly different lyrics to their album version. The closest release that we’ve been able to find was actually from a compilation album Survive, and you can find out more information about it in the First Glance: ‘Survive’ compilation post. We’ve decided to christen it as the

ﾋｶﾘｻｽﾎｳ Hikari Sasuhou (Survive ver.)

which BOO provided for visitors to download last week. In case you want to listen to the fk Metal ver. before June 27th 2007, you can download a video-rip of the song courtesy of Yakhobian, which you can find here.

We will be providing an OST mp3 of the of ﾋｶﾘｻｽﾎｳ Hikari Sasuhou (fk Metal ver.) in a few days courtesy of Nipponsei, so please watch this space! :)

p/s: Murder Princess OAV Volume 4 is also released on DVD on the same day!

So without further ado:

Hikari Sasuhou [Survive ver.] (8.76 MB, Zipped)	Grab (9.59 MB, Zipped)
Update 27.06.07: files are no longer available for download.

Hope you all enjoy the songs! :) They will be available for this week (until June 22nd 2007 ) and then become part of the monthly download rotation as usual. Don’t forget to vote for your most-wanted songs!

p/s: I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but you can actually subscribe to news updates, and receive an email everytime a news post is made on Back-on Online.

I thought I’d write abit more about these songs, since it’s hard to explain everything on the Music page itself! You may have read a previous post about recent updates to Back-on‘s Discography, and details about a CD compilation – Survive – were added, in which Back-on contributes 3 songs:

1. NUTS TRIBE
2. ヒカリサスホウ (Hikari Sasuhou)
3. GRAB

The CD compilation was released on June 8th 2005 with songs from Back-on, Airstrike and , and some fans will already know that both Nuts Tribe and ヒカリサスホウ (Hikari Sasuhou) are songs available from Baby Rock and New World.

Since Nuts Tribe has already been included in another album, I’ve decided not to write more about the song. However, the ヒカリサスホウ (Hikari Sasuhou) in Survive is very different from the version found in New World. The lyrics differ slightly, as well as the arrangement of the music, and is not unlike Hikari Sasuhou (FK Metal ver.), a new variation by Back-on for the OP of the anime, Murder Princess.

So for the sake of convenience, this version will be referred to in the future as Hikari Sasuhou (Survive CD ver.) or something like that, at least on this site!

How about Grab? I personally love the music from the verse(s) more than the chorus, and it seems to be a firm favourite by listeners, judging by the reponses so far. Oddly, this song hasn’t yet been included in any of Back-on‘s own releases so far, but it has been featured on another compilation – BASTA LA FESTA – sun face side - – which was released on October 25th 2005.

First thoughts on both songs?

Hikari Sasuhou (Survive CD ver.) is probably the closest (at the moment) to a full version of Hikari Sasuhou (FK Metal. ver.), which is one of my most favourite Back-on tracks, so it’s impossible (for me) to dislike! However, it’s quite clear that Back-on‘s music has improved since 2005 as the Survive CD ver. has quite a raw sound – ie. less polished. The introduction is a little long (58 seconds?), the singing is rather less polished than it’s recent counterpart and there are fewer ‘special’ effects. Nevertheless, it’s a damned good song which also provides an insight into Back-on‘s earlier work.

I also love Grab – it has an upbeat-intro and the underlying melody is fantastic. Alot of emphasis is made on the guitar work and the rap-part of the song, which really carries the entire song, even if the chorus doesn’t quite make the same benchmark in my humble opinion. So overall, the song is very strong in the sense that it’s just makes for great listening, and I hope that Back-on will consider re-recording it to include in their own album at some point.

If you haven’t already listened to the two songs, they are available for streaming from the Radio on the Music page. It would be interesting to find out what other people thought about these two songs in particular, and whilst I still maintain that we should all support Back-on by buying their CDs, one could probably make an exception for compilation tracks, so we at Back-on Online will be providing download links at some point for the songs!