Ongaku Cafe (The '90s): V6 (20th Century/Coming Century) - Since 1995-FOREVER (August 1996)

A fantastic debut album for V6. It’s important to note that the first three singles receive a brand new album mix on this album, but “Since 1995-FOREVER” does include the 20th Century and Coming Century tracks plus two cool, bonus remix tracks as well!

GROUP: V6 (20th Century/Coming Century)

ALBUM: Since 1995-FOREVER

LABEL: Avex Trax

CATALOG #: AVCD-11453

DURATION: 1:06:51

RELEASE DATE: August 5, 1996

逃亡者 -FUGITIVE-
MUSIC FOR THE PEOPLE (NEW ALBUM MIX)
BEAT YOUR HEART (NEW ALBUM MIX)
Hand in Sunshine
reprise…
Born to run
ロマンスじゃ全部を語れない
雨の夜と月曜日には
大丈夫 (LUCKY HANDBAG MIX)
MADE IN JAPAN (NEW ALBUM MIX)
いいじゃない。
Coming Century Singles non-stop mix
V6 Singles non-stop mix

Reviewed back in August 1996

V6 makes its debut with their first album “Since 1995-FOREVER”. The group consists of 20th Century Members Masayuki Sakamoto, Hiroshi Nagano and Yoshiko Inohara (which are the older members of the group) and the youngest members are known as Coming Century featuring Go Morita, Junichi Okada and Ken Miyake.

And similar to their Johnny’s Jimusho counterparts SMAP and Tokio, the group is quite popular, gracing many magazines, commercials and each of the members also partaking in dramas and movies and various television shows.

The first thing people should remember is that this is on the avex trax label and that means most of the music is synth pop, beat driven, dance music. So, you’re going to see a European influence in the dance music with various collaborations with Rodgers/Contini, Pasquini/Guio and Oliva, G.S.A.J. Project and you’re going to see remixes from TRF’s DJ Koo, Takeshi “Bunta” Matsumoto and Kohtaro Chuganji.

Fans of V6 will find their first three singles “Music for the People”, “Made in Japan” and “Beat Your Heart”. Also, included are 20th Century track “reprise…” and Coming Century tracks “Born to Run” and “大丈夫 (LUCKY HANDBAG MIX)”. Of course, like most Japanese album releases, if you want the original versions, you buy the singles, otherwise you get the album mixes of the songs on “Since 1995-Forever”.

But one of the coolest additions to this album are the two bonus tracks featuring the Coming Century Singles non-stop mix remixed by Takeshi “Bunta” Matsumoto for ETWAS and V6 Singles non-stop mix remixed by Kohtaroh Chuganji for MST.

The CD insert features lyrics to the songs, a few pictures of the group and production credits.

Overall, “Since 1995-FOREVER” is a fantastic debut album for V6! Definitely recommended!