Beatnation Records

beatnation Records

Overview

beatnation Records was the name of the in-house recording label of KONAMI's BEMANI music branch. It was created by dj TAKA in 2006 and it's focused on beatmania IIDX-related releases and events; it has regular BEMANI artists, both in-house ones and commissioned ones, as members.

The label was temporarily closed down in late 2010, though its name was still mentioned in live events. In early 2012, a note on the beatnation Records website mentioned that new artists would be recruited through the SOUND VOLTEX FLOOR contests. This eventually happened at the JAEPO 2014 event when a new group was formed, dubbed beatnation RHYZE. It consisted of artists who extensively participated in the SOUND VOLTEX FLOOR contests, as well as new artists that were appearing regularly in other BEMANI games. Activities resumed until 2017 with the release of beatmania IIDX 24 SINOBUZ song crew, which was composed, arranged, and remixed by all seven members of the original beatnation Records group.

While its logo still appears on the boot-up screens of beatmania and SOUND VOLTEX, beatnation Records is, for all accounts and purposes, retired. No new activities involving the group have surfaced following KONAMI's infamous 2017 BEMANI Sound Team rebranding.

Members

In June 30th, 2006, beatnation Records started out with dj TAKA, DJ Yoshitaka, L.E.D. and Tatsh. However, Tatsh, who was an in-house composer at the time, quickly left the label due to the same reasons behind his disappearance after beatmania IIDX 13 DistorteD. (While he would return to songwriting in beatmania IIDX 18 Resort Anthem, he was by then a commission artist and no longer part of the label.) In February 2007, Sota Fujimori, kors k and Ryu☆ joined. Together with dj TAKA, DJ YOSHITAKA and L.E.D., the label group was finalized. It would accompany the period of time when the beatmania IIDX series had Yoshitaka as its head sound director; after the release of beatmania IIDX 18 Resort Anthem, the label was put on hold.

beatnation Records' revival happened at JAEPO 2014 in February 15th, 2014, with 猫叉Master joining the group. The primary team now consisted of:

• dj TAKA
• DJ Yoshitaka
• L.E.D.
• Sota Fujimori
• Ryu☆
• kors k
• 猫叉Master

The "new generation" beatnation Records group was also announced the same day. Its members were progressively revealed until May 28th, 2014, with each one of them being chosen by the first team's members as their successors:

• DJ TOTTO - chosen by DJ Yoshitaka and revealed on February 15th, 2014.
• Hommarju - 'chosen by kors k and revealed on February 15th, 2014.
• P*Light - chosen by Ryu☆ and revealed on February 15th, 2014.
• かめりあ - chosen by Sota Fujimori and revealed on April 10th, 2014.
• OSTER project - chosen by dj TAKA and revealed on April 10th, 2014.
• RoughSketch - chosen by L.E.D. and revealed on April 10th, 2014.
• PHQUASE - chosen by 猫叉Master and revealed on May 28th, 2014.

On the July 30th, 2014 BEMANI Namahousou (kari) stream, the new group's name was revealed to be beatnation RHYZE.

Features

Being a member of beatnation Records gave the following advantages to the artists, especially in the case of newly commissioned ones:

• Possibility to contribute indefinitely to all the BEMANI series.
• Possibility to appear in BEMANI-related live events.
• Possibility to appear always as a remixer in solo albums.
• Possibility to release albums under the beatnation Records label. This also simplifies very much the process for artists who want to put their KONAMI original tracks into their albums.

Releases

The following list shows all the products that were released under the beatnation Records label. Other releases were mentioned on the website even if they weren't sold throughout the label, such as DJ Mass MAD Izm*'s first album I AM NOT A DJ, and Arata Iiyoshi's first album FANTASCAPE - Act.1.

Game Soundtracks

• beatmania IIDX 13 DistorteD ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK
• beatmania IIDX 14 GOLD ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK
• CARDINAL GATE conclusion
• beatmania IIDX 15 DJ TROOPERS ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK
• beatmania IIDX 16 EMPRESS ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK
• beatmania IIDX CS Collection～GOLD,DJ TROOPERS,EMPRESS～
• beatmania IIDX -SUPER BEST BOX- vol.1 and beatmania IIDX -SUPER BEST BOX- vol.2
• beatmania IIDX 17 SIRIUS ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK
• beatmania IIDX 21 SPADA ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK VOL.2

Albums

• cyber beatnation 1st conclusion
• milestone by dj TAKA
• 電人K by L.E.D.
• SYNTHESIZED by Sota Fujimori
• Rewind! by Keiichi Ueno
• milestone -Re Edition- by dj TAKA
• SYNTHESIZED -Re Edition- by Sota Fujimori
• starmine by Ryu☆
• SYNTHESIZED2 by Sota Fujimori
• Ways For Liberation by kors k
• cyber beatnation 2 -Hi Speed conclusion-
• beatnation RHYZE vs HARDCORE TANO*C
• SYNTHESIZED5 by Sota Fujimori
• 斬 -ZAN- by SOUND HOLIC
• follow slowly by 猫叉Master

Others

• beatnation Records' official T-Shirt
• beatnation summit's special goodies
• SELECTED TRAXX from milestone EP
• beatnation summit -beatmania IIDX premium Live- DVD
• puzzle MAYA TAKAMURA's Pieces
• beatnation 10th Anniversary 「crew」 EP

Trivia

• cyber beatnation 2 -Hi Speed conclusion- is the only beatnation Records album released during the time period when the label was put on hold.
• beatnation RHYZE vs HARDCORE TANO*C and the beatmania IIDX 21 SPADA ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK VOL.2 album are the only beatnation Records releases to be sold on HARDCORE TANO*C's TANO*C STORE.
• kors k and Ryu☆ were not included on the beatnation Records artist list on the BEMANI Fan Site's artist page until April 3rd, 2015.
  • Since late June/early July 2017, all artist pages have been blanked except for DOLCE's.

External Links

• beatnation Records Official Web Site - no longer updated since November 2010.