Dakota Star (ダコタスター)

(tags music, artist, group, game, PlayStation 2, Japan, English)

I found (a/yet another) box of CDs (audio) in my room. Yes I ripped them to MP3 when I bought them back in 2005, but I totally forgot where they were. One of them was the Gran Turismo 4 Original Game Soundtrack.

I actually tried to write down the lyrics (2004/05/17) to one of the vocal tracks called "What To Believe" in anticipation for this game (2005/01/10). Since I still on a MusicBrainz wiki contribution kick, I checked if this CD was entered. Thus started my descent into finding Dakota Star.

(begin busy Internet searching: on the right: Sleipnir browser's hierarchical tab browsing feature helps immensely)

Dakota Star (Japanese sort name: ダコタスター) only debuted in Japan this year, but the trio of Alan Brey (bass, guitar, vocal), Chiaki (vocal) and Tasuku (guitar) debuted in Australia in 2004, and in Germany in 2005.

I wonder if this is the same Alan Brey that has been in Japan for a while doing a solo track for Daiwa Bank, collaborating with Japanese video game composer Daiki Kasho (はてな検索) on games such as Wangan Midnight (湾岸ミッドナイト, PlayStation 2), Gran Turismo 4 (PlayStation 2), F-Zero GX/AX (Gamecube, arcade), and other popular entertainment works like the movie Shimotsuma Monogatari (下妻物語, 2004).

Tasuku also seems to be a guitarist in the Japanese pop scene, scoring a guitarist role or two with a couple of Ayumi Hamazaki (浜崎あゆみ) songs, "July 1st" and "independent".

And finally vocalist Chiaki sings in English, but seems to also speak Japanese (interview). They describe her as a "(poignantly, hauntingly) sad singing voice, different from other Japanese" (「日本人離れした切ない歌声」) It's interesting to note that Chiaki also goes by the alias "Ch" in the Gran Turismo 4 songs and in the Japanese film Memories of MATSUKO (嫌われ松子の一生, 2006). The group's name comes from Chiaki's stay in South Dakota, U.S. during her high school years, according to the profile page (en, ja). Since they debuted in Australia I though she stayed over there.

Their first full album, Dakota Star was just released last month (2006/10/04) and includes the full album versions of those two Gran Turismo 4 vocal songs "What To Believe" and "Soul Surfer", plus "Never Fall From Grace" (movie HINOKIO, 2005), their Japan debut single "Together Alone" (image song for television drama ジョーイ2, Joey), other songs for movie Evening Picnic (夜のピクニック, 2006). No Japanese, all English. I'm going to pick this up real soon like. The official site has samples, go check it out.

BTW, I mentioned Wangan Midnight. Check out the swiped Youtube clip to the start of this PlayStation 2 game. The music rocks.