EXILE VOCAL BATTLE AUDITION 2006 〜ASIAN DREAM〜

After SHUN departed from EXILE, it was necessary to find a new vocalist to replace him, so that the harmonization would still be there to carry on EXILE’s unique sound.

For the first VBA, the songs Lovers Again (written by Jin Nakamura, with lyrics by Kiyoshi Matsuoka) and Giver (written by h-wonder, with lyrics by ATSUSHI) were used to test the contestants.

The finale for this competition was held at Nippon Budokan (often shortened to Budokan). The six finalists (TAKAHIRO, NESMITH, TAKA, Yuichiro Maeda, JONTE and WARNER) showed off their skills to the audience in order for one of them to become the new singer of EXILE.

TAKAHIRO won the last round whilst the remaining five finalists released a single under the name Dreamers. The single ~Ashita no Senshi~ (Tomorrow’s warrior) contained solo versions of the title track sung by each finalist, a main version featuring them all plus the instrumental track (March 7^th 2007).

This audition helped recruit new talents for LDH. Not only for the five finalists, who would later go on and enter other groups under the company/agency or in JONTE’s case debut as a soloist later. From the other contestants we can find the likes of Ryouta Maeda and Keisei Amou (whom would go on to become COLOR’s new members), SHOKICHI (who would later go on to become one of the vocalists for the second generation unit of JSB), Shou Aoyagi (who would join Gekidan EXILE), SHIN (member of THE ROOTLESS) and Ryouji Imaichi (who would later go on to become one of the vocalists for the third generation unit of JSB).

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Sources:

http://ameblo.jp/lazytoyz-oga/entry-11193056326.html

http://jpmediablog.com/tv-show-exile-vocal-battle-audition-2006-%EF%BD%9Easian-dream%EF%BD%9E-9-22%E6%9C%80%E7%B5%82%E6%B1%BA%E6%88%A6-%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E6%AD%A6%E9%81%93%E9%A4%A8-2007-03-07mkv3-05gb/

http://rhythmzone.net/dreamers/index.html

http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/takahiro_love_yokoma/7625333.html

LDH

Since the beginning of EXILE’s life, concretely in 2002, the members decided to establish the company EXILE Entertainment so they could be in charge of their own activities as well as produce other acts (some of them were already in their same music label, Rhythm Zone, from AVEX). Later on, the company grew bigger to become LDH (Love Dream Happiness) as it is now known as, as well as become some sort of sub-label of Rhythm Zone. Mostly the acts of the company are R&B singers, Hip-Hop acts or Pop acts and not all of the groups are Performance ones. Within the years the agency widened its fields, signing musicians, actors, models, dancers & even professional athletes; some of them having past ties with HIRO or the rest of EXILE members. That was the case with one of the original members of ZOO whom didn’t stay that long with the group but ended up having a career in the same TV show, CLUB DADA. This being the singer RIKACO that nowadays has a career as a model, an actress and a producer. There was also the group COLOR and the group RATHER UNIQUE, as well as some other EXILE side projects conducted by some of the members. Even SHUN stayed until 2008 being also one of its founder members, with his new stage name: Kiyokiba Shunsuke.

A lot of these acts, especially the groups, ended up having a closer relationship with EXILE. Though not all of the LDH music acts are considered as part of the EX FAMILY (EXILE’s family) or promoted as such. There’s also the use of the agency models and actors in the different activities EXILE and its members have.

To name a few examples, since the time LDH had been existing, they had solo acts (NaNa, CEYREN) to Hip-Hop groups (NEVER LAND, warp-generation) that although they did collaborate with EXILE, aren’t strictly considered members of their family (containing the same DNA) in the way it happens today with some of the LDH acts.

COLOR part 1

Let’s start with one of the groups that are directly related to EXILE and LDH, the company that was founded in 2003 with the pretext that EXILE members could become their own bosses as well as to fulfill their other dreams and aspirations, such as producing other acts. One of these first acts they produced was the group COLOR.

In 2004 in order to give ATSUSHI more field to develop his creativity, he decided to recruit an old friend called KIKURI, an old classmate from when he studied music at school; another boy named YORK and TAKA, whom was selected through an audition process, to create the vocal quartet COLOR. This group of R&B/Soul music remained active until 2006 when ATSUSHI, KIKURI and YORK decided it was time to leave. But far from it being the end of the group, the remaining and last member TAKA would continue with COLOR (as we’ll see soon).

Singles:

Special Love – December 1^st 2004

Move So Fast – March 9^th 2005

Summer time cruisin’ – August 24^th 2005

Neiro – December 7^th 2005

Album:

RED ~Love isa ll around~ - September 21^st 2005

ATSUSHI was the producer of this group, collaborating with other lyricists and musicians in several occasions, basing all the songs in the four voice harmonies, with an R&B/Soul smooth style that differed from EXILE.

http://www.jpopsuki.tv/video/COLOR---Neiro/17694c49f37805286d7cc212a3c0fcb6

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Sources:

http://www.generasia.com/wiki/DEEP

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEEP_(%E6%AD%8C%E6%89%8B%E3%82%B0%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BC%E3%83%97)

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATSUSHI_(%E6%AD%8C%E6%89%8B)

RATHER UNIQUE

RATHER UNIQUE is the name of USA’s and MAKIDAI’s group, which they started in the year 2003 with members SOHJIN, AKIRA and DJ SHIBUCHIN. USA, MAKIDAI and SOHJIN aside from dancing, were the MC’s for the group songs, whilst DJ SHIBUCHIN produced the tracks and AKIRA only danced.

Load video

The group was first introduced in the remix compilation album The other side of EX Vol.1, in 2003 and later had a major debut under Rhythm Zone’s sub-label Rhythm REPUBLIC, with the single ARather Train launched on May 5^th 2004.

Singles:

ARather Train – May 5^th 2004

Winter Bell – December 29^th 2004

Start Spurt – April 20^th 2005

Tsutsumicomu you ni… ~R.U.WRAPPING~ - June 8^th 2005

The only album:

R.U. Party – July 6^th 2005

In 2006 after AKIRA joined EXILE, the group disbanded because they couldn’t balance the activities for both groups.

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Sources:

http://rhythmzone.net/ru/index.html

http://www.eastaudio.com/rather/

EXILE part 1

With SASA leaving JSB, a new vocalist was needed because the remaining members were all performers. Instead of one new singer, they ended up with two new vocalists joining the group:

·         Shunsuke Kiyokiba (SHUN) had won a TV audition and was already signed up with the label AVEX. This way he ended up recording with HIRO’s group and becoming one of the newest members. The first song he recorded with them became EXILE’s first single.

·         ATSUSHI had also participated in a TV audition show (Asayan) and EXILE decided to recruit him. In the Asayan TV show where he was discovered, ATSUSHI met for the first time with a later future member of the second generation of JSB (and nowadays member of EXILE): NESMITH.

From 2001 to 2006, the group was formed by HIRO, MATSU, USA, MAKIDAI, SHUN and ATSUSHI. They released a total amount of 20 singles and 4 studio albums.

Singles:

Your Eyes Only ~Aimai na Boku no Katachi~ - September 27^th 2001

Style –December  12^th 2001

Fly Away (versión del tema que SASA compuso para JSB) – February 20^th 2002

Song For You – Abril 17^th 2002

Cross ~never say die~ - August 7^th 2002

EX – STYLE ~Kiss you~ - Novembre 13^th 2002

We Will  ~Ano basho de~ - February 5^th 2003

Breezin’ ~Together~ - May 28^th 2003

LET ME LUV U DOWN – July 9^th 2003

Choo Choo Train (versión del éxito de ZOO) – November 6^th 2003

Eternal… -November  12^th 2003

Ki·zu·na – November 19^th 2003

O’ver – November 27^th 2003

Carry On/Unmei no HITO – May 12^th 2004

Real World – June 30^th 2004

HEART of GOLD – August 18^th 2004

HERO – December 1^st 2004

EXIT – August 24^th 2005

Tada… Aitakute –December 14^th 2005

YES! – March 1^st 2006

Albums:

our style – March 6^th 2002

Styles of Beyond – February 13^th 2003

EXILE ENTERTSINMENT – December 3^rd 2003

ASIA – March 29^th 2006

During this period, EXILE’s style kept evolving following the changes that US’ Hip-Hop and R&B were going through back then (early 2000’s), without excluding the influences of their contemporary J-Pop. EXILE’s songs were always distinguished by their strong R&B/Soul vocal melodies and their harmonies between their two vocalists, something that set them apart from ZOO (female main vocalist, male and female sub-vocals) and the first JSB’s generation (single male vocal). Both ATSUSHI and SHUN as well as the remaining members had their side activities but this time we would like to highlight the group, RATHER UNIQUE, where USA and MAKIDAI danced and that we’ll see soon.

We would also put a special mention to their collaboration song with the Rock group  Glay,  Scream (July 2005), that would later inspire a new project for LDH. This particular song reached # 1 at the Oricon charts, selling more than 500.000 copies.

On March 29^th 2006, after promoting their last single, YES!, SHUN left the group to go solo (and he also left LDH). He appeared one last time at the TV show Music Station (April 21^st) for a last performance of their hits to bid him farewell.

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Sources for photos:

http://bombarrow.com/blog/music/exile/

http://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/hironosekai/2000/