Luna's Ongaku Go For September 2020

Continuing from Ken’s lead, we at Ongaku to You would like our readers to know what was filling our ears for the past month. Each track is available across all digital music streaming platforms with Apple Music being featured on this site.

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“XXKK” by Koda Kumi

With Koda Kumi celebrating her 20th Anniversary this year, she does not disappoint. “XXKK” showcases who Koda Kumi is today and that this is her style. The queen is here to stay and is not slowing down anytime soon. “XXKK” is a hot dance track that brings in elements from Koda Kumi’s music throughout her career with a new sound that she will be utilizing in the future. The chorus is catchy, especially when you hear “Crown on top”. The composition and music makes you want to dance and celebrate her milestone career.

Check out “XXKK” here along with the music video below!

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“Beautiful” by BENI

Earlier this month BENI released her mini-album Y/our song and last month she put out a slew of new digital singles. “Beautiful” was among both those releases and caught my ear immediately. It’s a powerful mid-tempo track that gave me empowerment and touched my heart. BENI’s vocals are on point and her voice matches perfectly with this song. Every time I hear her sing “You are so Beautiful”, it lights up my spirit. This song touched my soul with her lyrics, vocals, and composition. Everything about it speaks to me.

Check out “Beautiful” here along with the music video below!

“Love Story” by AISHA

“Love Story” is the newest digital single by AISHA and followes up her single “My Home” that released back in July. “Love Story” is exactly what the title sounds like and is also the perfect wedding song. The melody is beautiful and makes you melt when you listen closely to AISHA’s lyrics. The track is filled with love and makes me swoon. AISHA’s vocals are perfect as you can hear throughout the track and hits every note perfectly. The mixture of Japanese and English also adds a nice touch to it as well. When I hear “Will you marry me”, butterflies fill my stomach.

Check out “Love Story” here along with the music video below!

“Paralyzed” by Kat McDowell & MiChi

Earlier this year Kat McDowell & MiChi released a digital collaboration single and I immediately fell in love with the lyrics. The words used in this track brought me back to “Paralyzed” this month as they are very relatable and it helps you deal with hard times. The track is all in English, for those of you who don’t know Japanese. It’s about people struggling to get through difficulties in life and that’s something we all can relate to. This track gave me so much inspiration to get up and try and to never give up. Kat McDowell and MiChi make the perfect team with their harmonies matching perfectly and the composition is flawless. This is a great track to help get you through problems we all face.

Check out “Paralyzed” here along with the music video below!

“#Slapanese” by BananaLemon

As we recently revisited our past Music Corner, BananaLemon popped back up on my list. This time around “#Slapanese” caught my ear with its hip hop beat and fantastic rap skills. All the members get to showcase their skills at rapping with a hot bass that keeps your booty shaking. It does have some explicit lyrics, but don’t let that turn you off. Although this is a very western influcenced track, BananaLemon does a great job of adding in the Japanese music flavor and fusing both together. Not to mention, the lyrics are extremely catchy and it’s hard to get this one out of your head.

Check out “#Slapanese” here along with the music video below!

Music Corner 40: BananaLemon

BananaLemon is a Japanese R&B/hip-hop group who consider themselves “Neo J-pop”. They made their debut in 2016 with their first song “#SorryNotSorry”, released on iTunes. BananaLemon currently consists of four members: Nadia (main vocalist/leader), Mizuki (dancer/rapper), Saarah (lead vocalist), and the newest member of the group, Lety (rapper), who joined last April after original member R!NO left in late October 2018. Their name is derived from “the sweetness of a banana and the sourness of a lemon”. The group was formed through producer STY, who is well known in the industry for working with famous groups such as EXILE, Girls Generation, Koda Kumi, Daichi Miura, and many more.

BananaLemon’s style of music showcases their powerful vocals, rap expertise, and catchy compositions, geared toward the world. Not only do they have the vocal and rap skills, but impressive choreography capabilities. BananaLemon brings a special sound to the industry geared toward the international music scene with their 90s R&B flavor. Each member possesses a uniqueness and provides “that special something”, whether it be with vocals, rapping, or dance. BananaLemon provides a major support to the international community with their multi-cultural background and it shows in their music style. These girls can switch from Japanese to English fluidly in their tracks, plus their blending of Western and Japanese styles makes it even more seamless. Their sixth and seventh singles, “Girls Gone Wild” and “Look At Me, Look At Me”, gained much traction in the United States and Europe, which goes hand in hand with their East Meets West/Neo J-pop style. Due to all this traction BananaLemon has gotten overseas, they have performed many concerts and events all over, including in Korea, Taiwan, and the United States.

Through BananaLemon’s latest dance practice release “JOYRIDE (#SorryNotSorry pt2)”, the girls show not only their masterful choreography but the vocal capabilities of each girl. The composition of this track brings you back to the late 90s/early 00s with a heavy R&B dance beat and catchy chorus. In their song “Beautiful”, BananaLemon shows they can slow it down for an empowering ballad which sticks with you due to its powerful lyrics and vocals. Their latest digital single “Slapanese” shows an interesting side of the girls as it has a heavier hip-hop feel to it, featuring everyone rapping, and it brings a heavy Western vibe. Their 90s-00s Essential R&B Medley shows how much fun these girls have and their multicultural musical background as it includes a variety of both Japanese and English R&B tracks.

Currently, BananaLemon has 15 digital singles that can be all found on Spotify, iTunes, AppleMusic, and most digital streaming sites. Check out their official website, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.

BananaLemon Drops Special Dance Practice Video!

Japanese R&B fusion girl group BananaLemon dropped a special dance practice video for their song “JOYRIDE (#SorryNotSorry pt. 2)” February 13th. This dance practice video showcases their newest member, Lety, who joined the group last April and was not a member when the track originally landed on December 17, 2018. The lead rapper of the group, Lety made her debut in their song “#slayasian” which was released on April 29, 2019. This hot track puts her rap skills on full display.

Fittingly for a dance heavy track, the video for “JOYRIDE (#SorryNotSorry pt. 2)” showcases BananaLemon’s amazing choreography and gives Lety a chance to play a part in one of the older hits. You can check out this song, among other hits by the girls, on iTunes, Apple Music, and Spotify.