D.A.T – “NOCTURNE -drastic dance-/Blue moon” (review)

D.A.T.

With a more polished look and improved sound here come D.A.T with their newest single “NOCTURNE -drastic dance-/Blue moon“.

NOCTURNE -drastic dance-” is featured as the opening theme for Takayuki Kondo and Daisuke Ono’s radio show “Dragon & Tiger 夢冒険”, on the other hand “Blue moon” is featured as the ending theme. Although those tracks are already completely known for those who listen to their radio show, the hype around it was the same as always. What is the full track like? How is the promotional video? Obviously there’s a new dance routine but dressed like 18th century european nobles? How will it all work out? From what we’ve seen the music fits incredibly well with the new dance routine and the whole “noble” act goes really well with both Takayuki and Ono. This has turned out to be even more addictive than “VS” was/is. For this and other things, here it is our look into D.A.T’s newest release.

More information regarding the single:

Single: NOCTURNE -drastic dance-/Blue moon 
Release date: 23/04/2014 
Label: Marine Entertainment
Genre: Dance / J-Pop

Tracklist:

1 - NOCTURNE -drastic dance- 
2 - Blue moon
3 - NOCTURNE -drastic dance-  (off vocal)
4 - Blue moon (off vocal)

Track by track analysis:

1 – NOCTURNE -drastic dance-

NOCTURNE -drastic dance-” is the opening track for this single and what a way to kick of! D.A.T are slowly being known for their choreographies linked to their heavy danceable tracks and this one is another one to add to their repertoire. NOCTURNE shows us a not so heavy electronica oriented sound like on D.A.T ‘s first single “VS“, that resorted to a lot of voice manipulation, heavy synths and a little, really little bit amount of what you’d call live instruments (drums, guitars, bass). This one is still a dancefloor oriented track but get’s a little bit loose of those electronica chains giving us a taste of live playing instead of programmed instruments.Still there’s a little bit of voice manipulation here and there but nothing really worth criticizing since it really goes well with the whole instrumental. The bass, piano and drums are showing signs of starting to be part of D.A.T’s polished pop sound. Taking our focus from the instrumental and putting the focus on the vocal track we are, once again, impressed. Daisuke Ono and Kondo Takayuki have shown us that they can sing, and sing well enough to blow our minds away when they reach those almost unreachable high notes in unison. This track is as catchy as it could be. From start to finish this track simply grabs your attention, be it for the instrumental, for the vocal performance or for the whole package. On another note: go watch the PV if you can. Daisuke Ono’s moves are simply mesmerizing. Such smooth, sexy dancing from a seiyuu is almost impossible to even think about but he simply throws away all our doubts (if you had any in the first place) with this performance. OnoD just seems like he’s floating during the whole dance performance (in the dance shot version). Kondo Takayuki also shows us that he’s also able to be on par with OnoD dancing wise on this one, although his individual parts are a bit less aggressive and more static than OnoD’s. Still an interesting PV in its two versions (Story and dance only). 5/5

2 – Blue moon

The romantic, seductive slow song in this single. “Blue Moon” shows that sweet side to D.A.T already starting to get known for their heavy electronica oriented singles with VS and now NOCTURNE -drastic dance-. A complete change of pace when comparing with the previous track. Takayuki Kondo and Daisuke Ono once again put their singing skills to good use hitting those high notes without sounding off key, which makes us think. Where have we heard this kind of singing before? Well they had already tried this approach on their previous single with “Sweet nest“. Once again the duo resorts to the whole one high throttle dancefloor anthem and one mellow, seductive, sweet track to patch everything nicely. And this works well. This is a constant reminder that this duo is not only focused on the danceable pop tracks but also has their sweet, mellow side that many people love. On this one there’s not a hint of voice manipulation, which is, in comparison with the last track, a breath of fresh air, setting the perfect place for Takayuki and Ono to showcase their now, polished singing skills. And we couldn’t be more satisfied about it. They sound great and the instrumental fits and sets the mood for this romantic track, all thanks to the acoustic guitar that, from the very beginning leads the way for the rest of the instruments. 4/5

Final rating: 4.5/5

A single that easily surpases “VS” in terms of how addictive can a track be. D.A.T are starting to slowly show what are made of and for our ears and eyes content, the have more than ever, make us want to hear and watch more of them. They singing incredibly well in comparison with some seiyuu units out there (won’t mention the names, you can judge it as you want) and their dance skills are top notch, especially Daisuke Ono’s moves. When we talk about seiyuu that dance well we almost instantly think about: Mamoru Miyano, but Daisuke Ono never seems to come to people’s minds which is odd. Of course we won’t discuss how great of a singer/dancer Mamoru is, because there’s no discussion: he’s good, period. But Daisuke Ono seems to absorb the dance routines so fast and makes those moves sound so fluid and smooth, that at times we at the THTF HQ’s noticed that everyone just automatically started to follow OnoD’s moves, not caring about the music or even about Takayuki’s amazing performance, which has happened before with Mamoru’s pv’s, hence the comparison out of nowhere. All this to show our point that OnoD’s is starting out to be a good dancer.

Overall this duo sounds and looks sharp, more polished than before, still delivering us tracks made for the dancefloor as well as those seductive slows. We look forward for new releases, hoping that those can be on par or even surpass the previous ones.

For media, PR, and business enquiries, please email me at: info@handthatfeedshq.com

Vanessa Silva
Vanessa Silvahttps://www.handthatfeedshq.com
The Hand That Feeds HQ founder, content creator, and music reviewer. Basically, the only person managing everything at The Hand That Feeds HQ. Stumbling upon Mamoru Miyano's "Orpheus" in 2011 was the start of this journey. If music is thought-provoking or deep, you may find her writing almost essays (not limited to, but it happens a lot with Soma Saito's music). She's the producer and host of the male seiyuu-centric podcast, SEIYUU LOUNGE (see Spotify link in this profile).

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