m.o.v.e. - Deep Calm 28 January 2004
On the 16th of March 2013 the group m.o.v.e. held their final concert, having announced their decision to break up and end their fifteen year career together.Move stylized their name in different ways throughout the years. I will use ‘Move’ for the rest of this post for simplicity and laziness.Move came together in 1997, the trio of vocalist ‘yuri’ Yuri Masuda, rapper ‘motsu’ Mototaka Segawa, and composer and producer ‘t-kimura’ Takashi Kimura. T-kimura brought the group together, a decision fueled by his stagnation with Favorite Blue, his duo with Maya Matsuzaki; Favorite Blue would continue to work until 2002, but Move became t-kimura’s focus. Move achieved decent success in less than a year when their second single, Around the World, appeared in the anime Initial D. Some of their later singles would appear in other anime and video games, helping to grow their popularity.Move was difficult to pin down into a single genre. Their albums featured a blend of hard rock, rap, hip-hop, electronica, trance, house, Eurobeat—Move never met a genre they didn’t like. Their energetic stage presence carried over wonderfully onto their studio albums. The beautiful, melodic pitch of yuri’s singing paired with the intensity of motsu’s rapid delivery encapsulated the passion they unleashed on live audiences. However, while t-kimura was the heart of Move’s musical composition he gradually faded into the background, much like Dai Nagano from Do As Infinity. In 2008 t-kimura completely withdrew from all of Move’s live performances.Deep Calm was Move’s sixth studio album. It is my personal favorite and that’s why I uploaded it, although I do not own their entire discography. The album demonstrates the band’s genre-roaming talent and ability to combine different influences into an explosive stereo sound. If you like Deep Calm then you’re going to enjoy anything from Move.And with that said, as always, I hope you enjoy the music!