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[SUPER STAR MITSURU]

I'm planning to write a bunch of these and stick them up here. This thread'll be locked and updated and it's intention is to be a quick reference. Here's the lowdown so far...

- The Guide to kors k (added 2008/03/02)
- The Guide to Ryu* (added 2008/04/15)
- The Guide to DJ YOSHITAKA
- The Guide to xx (coming soon!)

All text (C) Kanna Nishimura, so don't steal and don't claim as your own or else I will enlist Ryuko's killer bunnies to help me find you.

[SUPER STAR MITSURU]

The Guide to kors k

kors k aka Kosuke Saito is a comissioned artist who has (so far) been exclusively for the beatmania IIDX series. He started composing on the tails of the J-pop remix wave, drawing inspiration from Tetsuya Komuro. With his synthesizers in hand, he began composing and won a musicianship competition held by Bemani with his song Clione; a dutch trance inspired that debuted in IIDX 4th Style along with Ryutaro Nakahara aka Ryu☆. Both kors k and Ryu☆ go on a short hiatus but come back again in 9th Style with remixing older songs - kors k coming back with his remix of TaQ's traces called traces -tracing you mix-, a 2 step take on the trance song with vocals that caused some people to complain that it sounded nothing like the original. (Or so they say, I can hear traces.)

From that point on, kors k has been a mainstay in IIDX; coming out with the trance tune Love is Eternity in 10th Style which is a favourite; producing HORIZON with known happy hardcore songstress LIA for IIDX RED, the highly popular SigSIg which he wrote for the female IIDX players (well, he managed to get me into IIDX with that song) and the rave song Get 'em up to R.A.V.E. under the name Disconation. He also collaborated with teranoid for 2 songs in IIDX DistorteD - tripping contact, a freeform hardcore piece and tripping contact (teranoid & MC Natsack mix), a nu style gabba take on the original with famed hardcore MC, MC Natsack and Power of Love, kors k showing that he really knows how to 2 step.

In the latest reincarnations of IIDX, kors k shows his versatility yet again by exploring more and more genres and how good he is at them with the shadow (schranz), heaven above (house, and kors k showing that he can sing... really well.) and FIRE FIRE (buchiage trance). In IIDX DJ Troopers, he shows yet again his versatility with wildly different songs - the house-y evergreen, the UK Hardcore-esque Rising in the Sun (original mix) with his girlfriend Rie and the energetic trance song Now and Forever with known hardcore artist Munetica.

During the time of IIDX RED, a new composer called teranoid appeared with the song gigadelic that makes even the seasoned IIDX player cry with it's horrendous hyper and another charts (the normal makes me cry too). The song itself was subjected to a number of jokes, including that of gigadelic sounding oddly like a washing machine off balance (it's actually a hoover sound from a Roland Alpha Juno). It had people wondering "Who is teranoid?"

Riding on the success of gigadelic on IIDX RED (people liked it despite the horrible chart) teranoid released an album called teranoid underground edition. This had a long versions of SigSig, gigadelic and even a remix of the original SigSig done by RaverRose in addition to a Ryu* vs teranoid song and other tracks featuring known hardcore artists. This begged the question of course, who was teranoid?

When asked upon who teranoid was, MC Natsack would reply that teranoid took the form of whoever you invisioned it to be and was dangerously evasive on the subject. Other hardcore artists were just as reluctant, saying the same thing or claiming that they were teranoid. Which didn't help people too much.

Then there was the live events. Some people thought that teranoid was a pretty hot lady while others thought that teranoid was a pretty hot guy, judging from whoever was playing teranoid songs at live events. But people let the issue slide just a bit, because teranoid was pumping out incredible nu style gabba stuff including several albums - teranoid overground edition, teranoid overground edition 1.04, teranoid overground edition - KOJA YUKINO which featured up and coming vocalist Koja Yukino and teranoid anthems live@underground that featured well known names in hardcore club music - kors k, Ryu*, MC Natsack, DJ Shimamura, LIA, Naoki Atsumi, good-cool, kenta-v.ez, Sakakibara Yui, DJ Tekka... you get the drift. A teranoid album was more of a compilation of the best hardcore you can find, with kors k sound producing it along with MC Natsack and Naoki Atsumi. And these albums were popular. It basically revived interest in the hardcore club scene, tapping the interests of music game fanatics.

It wasn't only until recently that kors k revealed himself to be the one behind the teranoid sound, being the sound director of the whole teranoid project (the explanation of which is in the expert guide to kors k). Then the floodgates opened. People praised kors k for being a genius, or utterly utterly mad. All I can say on the issue was that I was pretty shocked (nil can tell you this when he told me) but after seeking out kors k himself, it actually made sense considering what goes on in that head of his.

So kors k was teranoid. That meant that he was versus-ing himself when he composed tripping contact. teranoid is actually more akin to a kors k alter ego, kors k referring to teranoid as his 'business partner' and was dangerously evasive about who it was. But it still doesn't change the fact that stuff composed under the teranoid moniker is most likely Kosuke Saito.

[SUPER STAR MITSURU]

The Beginner's Guide to Ryu*

Ryu* or 中原龍太郎 [Ryutaro Nakahara] was the other winner of the musicianship trial alongside kors k when he was 20 years old, needless to say the two are the best of friends. While kors k's style was more geared towards trance, Ryu* was composing in straight up Happy Hardcore with his winning song starmine which people recognize by its distinctive Tran fan dance video which has the potential to cause seizures if one isn't careful. Just as kors k did, Ryu* disappeared for a few years and came back in 9th Style with a trancecore/happy hardcore remix of dj TAKA's Abyss - Abyss -The Heavens Remix- (which is a damn hard song). From then on, Ryu* has been a mainstay in beatmania IIDX and has been trying his hand out at a variety of styles but still recognizably Ryu* by the production values. Keeping to his trademark happy hardcore style, Ryu* came out with the very happy and very hardcore song rainbow rainbow, instantly recognizable by the vocal sample and high energy opening. He surprised many fans that same style by also producing the song 雪月花 [Setsugekka], a hard house song with Japanese elements combined with a driving bassline to produce a popular club track.  He surprised many fans once again with the artcore track Narcissus at Oasis which showed off Ryu*'s characteristic piano  and indeed, people have drawn parallels between this song and kors k's Love is Eternity.

This dualism would also be present in the following style (IIDX RED) in which he produced the happy hardcore song (that was swirling in macho, according to a friend and close collaborator Dai) AGEHA a possible hommage to the club of the same name. He also changed his name from Ryu★ to Ryu☆ (though to be honest that isn't too big of a difference. At the same time, he produced a harder hard dance track called Be quiet on the same style. Some people have likened it to a tougher Setsugekka without the Japanese elements. He also made his pop'n music debut at approximately the same time on pop'n music 12 Iroha with the song starmine -pop'n mixxx-, a remix of his debut song starmine that featured more j-core and trancecore elements but still sticking to it's happy hardcore roots.

Happy Sky featured Ryu*'s remixing skills as a cut version of L.E.D.'s 合体せよ!ストロングイェーガー!! (Ryu☆ remix) [The Strong Jaeger (Ryu* remix)] was placed in Happy Sky, Ryu* once again showing his proficiency in hard dance with another addictive dance-y video featuring the iconic Strong Jaeger. (N.B. This is one of Kanna's favourite songs in the Jaeger Series and will often play this song and dance the Jaeger Dance at the same time) He then produced a calmer, but still good song in Happy Sky called in motion which featured Ryu* dabbling in click house - a style featuring a house beat with clicks and pops with vocal samples to form melodies. He also produced the trancecore track Aurora which, aside from having a fiendishly hard chard, also featured a rather bizarre video.

DistorteD brought another side of Ryu* to IIDX as he teamed up with long time friend and collaborator Dai to form the unit HHH - a dance and music unit to come out with the horrendously gay buchiage trance song So Fabulous!! which along with featuring Dai's slick dance moves, featured Ryu*'s trademark high pitched, dubbed vocal sampling skills. This song, due to fans finding it horribly amusing, has been parodied several times over by both overseas and Japanese fans. (N.B. Kanna knows the dance to this song too. Vaguely.) It has also led to many fans questioning Ryu*'s sexual preferences (N.B. Kanna will not entertain questions on this mattter  :). Under the Ryu* name, Ryu* produced Harmony and Lovely a mellower progressive house tune containing many similar elements to in motion. He also composed the track waxing and wanding under the name 青龍 [Seiryuu] under the CARDINAL GATE boss song system that was used in DistorteD. Many people guessed that this was Ryu* from the start due to the irritating and amusing characteristic incomprehensible vocal sample (the exact words of which he forgot) which reminded many of Aurora from the previous style. The long version of this song appeared in the CARDINAL GATE conclusion CD which was the limited edition CD that came with DistorteD CS.

Ryu* then collaborated with wac on pop'n music 14 FEVER to bring a highly different track featuring spanish-inspired flamenco synths and a fast rhythm called hora de verdad (Cyber Flamenco) under the name Vandalusia改 [Vandalusia-kai] with Ryu* and wac each assuming the left and right hand of Vandalusia, keeping in line with the playful and mischievous nature of both composers. Then IIDX GOLD arrived with the song Second Heaven, a HANDZ UP track vaguely reminiscent of Cascada's work;  which many fans suspected kors k and Ryu* having some sort of joke between them as the same sample of "SOMEBODY SCREAAAAAAAAAAM!" was also featured in kors k's song FIRE FIRE.

The penchant that Konami has for giving Ryu* songs ridiculously hard charts came to fruition again as Ryu* collaborated with Sota Fujimori for DistorteD CS to give the trancecore song Go Beyond!! which featured Sota's synths, Ryu*'s rhythms and a backmasked "S-O-T-A, R-Y-U and COLLABORATION," with a chart that has made even the most experienced IIDX players cry and struggling to adjust the lags on their TVs.

DJ Troopers was a busy style for Ryu* as it featured four of his tracks and ported the happy hardcore song in the sky from HAPPY SKY's consumer version to the arcade system. Having collaborated previously with dj TAKA on his album milestone, the game version of Blue Rain appeared on this very style, a trance track with uplifting vocals. HHH made a comeback in DJ Troopers with it's current incarnation of Ryu*, Dai and VJ Halka to produce Dazzlin Darlin a flamingly gay song and video combo which features sparkles. No, I am not kidding. It has sparkles in it (and royalty free Kate Lesing vocals). Aside from the regularly selectable songs, Ryu* also came out with another Seiryuu song, making him the second Cardinal Gate artist to produce a song that was an extra stage on a style other than DistorteD (the first being Yoshitaka, under the Suzaku name). Time to Air featured more pitch bent samples (at least it was understandable this time) and similar structure to Go Beyond!! and waxing and wanding. Then, arguably Ryu*'s worst song was the sample heavy Military Splash song Do it!! Do it!!, which, while being amusing didn't quite have as much to it musically as his past songs.

He's also a member of beatnation records and has remixed Under the Sky in a happy hardcore fashion featuring Ryu*'s characteristic piano on the cyber beatnation 1st conclusion. Aside from his work in bemani, Ryu* is heavily involved in the hardcore scene, having collaborated with teranoid and various other peoples. The only problem is, he's a rather hard to track down artists, having done remixes here and there and releasing a few vinyls here and there but as side projects that feature different styles of Ryu*, musically.