Genki Rockets

from Wikipedia:

Genki Rockets (元気ロケッツ) is a virtual band. The group consists of Tetsuya Mizuguchi, Kenji Tamai and Lumi. The face of the group is 18-year old Lumi, a fictional girl who was born in space on September 11, 2037, and has never been to Earth. Lumi's actor is Rachel Rhodes.

Biography

2006-2008: Genki Rockets I: Heavenly Star

Most of the people behind Genki Rockets remain a mystery, but two known producers behind the band are Tetsuya Mizuguchi of Q Entertainment and musician Kenji Tamai of Agehasprings Corporation, who has produced other musicians and groups such as Yuki, Yuna Ito, Base Ball Bear, and TRF.

Tetsuya Mizuguchi co-produced and wrote the lyrics for the first song, "Heavenly Star", and directed the music video, which debuted in the video game Lumines II and was later used often in the exclusive Wii game No More Heroes. An AAC version of the song began selling on the iTunes Store in December 2006 and was eventually accompanied by several different remixes of the song from various artists such as Metalmouse, Headwaters, Techriders, and DJ Sodeyama (the "Count Down", "Glorious", "Love", "Space Walk", "Sunrise", "Aurora", "Floating", and "LnM Projekt" remixes).

"Heavenly Star" was nominated for the Best Song category at the 2006 Spike TV Video Game Awards. The original song, seven remixes, and the second song, "Breeze", saw release as a maxi single on July 4, 2007. The single peaked at number 24 on the Oricon charts and stayed on the charts for 15 weeks. In September 2007, "Breeze" received its own standalone single and video and was later remixed into several incarnations. In October 2007, a "Heavenly Star" trance remix single was released on 12" vinyl by Avex Trax's sublabel Rhythm Republic featuring remixes by Overhead Champion, Delaction and DJ Ten. Genki Rockets was also awarded with the Best New Artist (Electronic) Award in 2007 by iTunes. Starting off a period of new activity for 2008, the group released two new songs. The medium-tempo song "Smile" was released for download on March 23, 2008, and the rock-influenced song "Star Line" became downloadable on May 14, 2008. A music video for "Star Line" was also released.

"Smile" was used as a commercial song for the Menard Facial Salon and "Star Line" was used as promotion for the annual 4-day sale held by Parco. It was later announced that the two songs, along with three remixes, would be featured on Genki Rockets' second maxi single through Avex Trax, which was released on June 11, 2008. The single was followed a month later on July 2, 2008 by the group's debut album, Genki Rockets I: Heavenly Star.

On November 24, 2008 they participated in the YouTube Live Tokyo event, where they played a non-stop mix of their most popular songs. This time, however, they did not use a holographic setup like in previous performances, instead they used a bigger LED screen for visual effects.

2009-2011: Genki Rockets II - No Border Between Us -

A 15-second clip of a previously unknown song called "Reaching for the Stars" was used for Parco Japanese department store advertising a 4-day sale in January 2009. Throughout that year they did not release any original material, but performed at various live events such as House Nation. They did, however, remix two tracks for Japanese artists Crystal Kay and Floor on the Intelligence. These are "Koi ni Ochitara" (included in Crystal Kay's "The Best Remixes of CK" album) and "Fade" (included in Floor on the Intelligence's "Romaholic" album), respectively.

In 2010, Genki Rockets created the world's first 3D and full CG music video, and presented it at Sony's "make.believe" 3D event in Japan, making them the first band to ever host a live 3D concert in the world.

In June 2010, a remix of Genki Rocket's song "Star Line" was used in the reveal trailer of Child of Eden, a new music video game by Q Entertainment and published by Ubisoft for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Samples of "Fly!" can be heard in the last part of the interactive remix produced by the game demonstrated at the E3 2010 Ubisoft conference opening. In recent interviews Tetsuya Mizuguchi has referred to Lumi as the main character of Child of Eden. Her image and voice can, additionally, be spotted throughout the game.

At the IFA exhibition in Berlin 03-08/09/2010 Genki Rockets performed every day at Sony's "make.believe" stand in hall 4.2 it featured Genki performing four Songs all with a 3D music video played on the main screen. In January 2011 they performed their first live in the United States at the CES convention, where a preview of their new song "Curiosity" was first shown to the public. Throughout that year, additionally, Genki Rockets' new songs "Reaching for the Stars" and "Touch Me" were used for commercials in Japanese television. Commercial ringtones of these songs were made available for download through the Japanese ringtone store Chaku-uta. In June 2011, the 3D music video "Curiosity" was released, which showcases Lumi dancing in a Futuristic platform surrounded by holograms.

The third and last music video, "Touch me," was released with the limited edition of their second album in September of that year.

Genki Rockets announced the release of their second album, Genki Rockets II: No Border Between Us, on June 29, 2011, and was released on September 7, 2011.

Image and artistry

The band's music videos are almost entirely computer-generated, including the band's one and only lead fictional character, Lumi. The visual art style for the music videos are created by Japan's Glamoove, Inc., and was inspired by Norwegian band, A-ha's "Take on Me" music video. They are also unique in that their concerts are performed solely using a hologram-like effect (they are often incorrectly reported as using holograms, but this is technically untrue, as they use a technology known as Musion Eyeliner) for live performances, such as their performance at Live Earth.

It was recently revealed in the credits section of Genki Rocket's debut album, Genki Rockets I: Heavenly Star, that Rachel Rhodes and Nami Miyahara are the lead singers for the fictional character Lumi and a group of backup singers are also present. This is not entirely certain, since the producers have not stated whether or not these are the actual lead singers, or just people covering up for other voices combined, such as stated at the beginning of the article. Rachel Rhodes also seems to be the cover model in the "Heavenly Star", "Breeze", and "Star Line" videos, as well as being featured in the album art pages of the Genki Rockets I: Heavenly Star album. This is also uncertain, since there is no proof of the cover model's name on the CD case or booklet, so we are left to assume that she is only a motion outline, or 3-D model for Lumi.

Charity

The "Heavenly Star" pack was available for purchase for Lumines Live! on the Xbox Live Marketplace from June 27, 2007 to July 17, 2007. A remix of the song was available in the "SOS Campaign Charity Pack". A portion of the proceeds were donated to Live Earth.

Appearances in other cultures

"Heavenly Star" first appeared in Lumines II and can also be heard as a background song for a number of cutscenes and shop sections in the Wii game No More Heroes. It is the opening theme of the fictional anime "Pure White Lover Bizarre Jelly" that exists in the No More Heroes universe. The music video can also be viewed on Travis' television in the Japanese and European versions of the game. Mizaguchi's videogame, Child of Eden, features Lumi as a character, as well as music from Genki Rockets.

Japanese electropop singer Mitsuki Aira performed a cover of the song during concerts, and a rare CD copy of it was distributed during the live shows. A Cantonese version of "Heavenly Star" was recently introduced in Hong Kong, featured on pop singer Jill Vidal's new album Jillympics, released on August 8, 2008. It is the first track of the album, titled "Youth We Can Hear" in Chinese.