About T.M.Revolution

T.M.Revolution (real name: Takanori Nishikawa; born September 19, 1970) is a Japanese pop singer originally from Shiga Prefecture. Nishikawa's stage name stands for Takanori Makes Revolution (Japanese: Takanori ga kakumei wo okosu). He was originally signed under Antinos Records until its collapse in 2002, and is currently represented by Epic Records Japan. TMR is also the first artist to be signed under Tofu Records, a Sony-owned label promoting Japanese pop music in North America. Nishikawa officially debuted as T.M.Revolution with his single Dokusai -monopolize- (Dictatorship -monopolize-) in May 1996. Nishikawa-san's first band was originally Luis-Mary, an indie music coordination featuring him as the lead vocalist (with the pseudonym "Haine"). Asakura Daisuke signed on with Nishikawa-san in 1995 under the record label FunHouse to release the first compiled single "BLACK OR WHITE?" (Daisuke Asakura expd. Takanori Nishikawa: Black or White). The selection process and the decision to work with Nishikawa-san was a long, hard choice for Asakura, as he was looking at producing either Katsurayama Shingo or Nishikawa. As it turns out, Nishikawa failed miserably with his first chance to sing for Asakura, and on a second chance, he took the yearning musician under his wings. Dokusai -monopolize- was welcomed by thousands of fans, and his performance on Pop Jam with Asakura as the synthesist in June 1996 propelled an additional amount of unexpected sales, making the single sell out of its original printing. Months later, Nishikawa-san followed with another hit, Hesoshukujo -Venus-, and by August of that year, his first album Makes Revolution was released to the Japanese fans with a warm reception. By the release of his third single for the anime Rurouni Kenshin, Heart of Sword- ~Yoake Mae~ (Heart of Sword- Before the Dawn), Nishikawa-san had assured his success among Japanese fans. T.M.Revolution incorporates many styles and genres of music. Each album differs greatly from one other, but the feeling of dance, techno and excellent vocals mixed with lyrics from Akio Inoue are present in all of his songs. In March 1999, T.M.Revolution cut The Force, his most successful album to this day. In it, he released characteristic songs and fan favorites, among these being HOT LIMIT, Burnin' X'mas, THUNDERBIRD, and WILD RUSH. A special performance in 1999 at Tokyo Dome with producer Asakura was released, making the original dream of T.M.Revolution become a reality. Later that year, he teamed up with Asakura closely to reinvent the idea of T.M.Revolution, renaming the project the end of genesis T.M.R.evolution turbo type D (T.M.R.-e, for short). Working closely with each other, they slated the album Suite Season, mostly comprised of beautiful ballads incorporating heavy classical piano and really bringing Nishikawa's voice out as the center of the music. However, the two have grown apart since T.M.R-e, and the album Progress restored the band to its original namesake. This doesn't mean, however, that the sound or style of the music changed one bit. Songs like LOVE SAVER and Madan -Der Freischütz- were part of this post T.M.R.-e era. Since then, Nishikawa has self produced his music (Starting with the single Out of Orbit -Triple ZERO- in February of 2002. Asakura still composes and arranges much of T.M.Revolution, the only exception being the most recent compilation (UNDER:COVER, but Nishikawa-san has directed and arranged some of the tracks on vertical infinity). His albums coordinate (March 2003), SEVENTH HEAVEN (March 2004), and vertical infinity (January 2005) have been released by Tofu Records and are available for purchase in the US, along with the DVD's Summer Crush '02 and Sonic Warp: The visual fields Since the release of the ending song Web of Night for the movie Spiderman 2, Nishikawa has sung several songs completely in English, facilitating to his international audience. Nishikawa-san has made 2 appearances in the US: Otakon 2003 in Baltimore, Maryland and Pacific Media Expo 2004 in Anaheim, California. Thousands of fans of anime piled into the convention arena, waiting to hear T.M.Revolution live, singing his songs from familiar shows as Rurouni Kenshin and Mobile Suit Gundam SEED. The reception by an American audience left him speechless, making him an international success. Some fans today argue over the direction of T.M.Revolution. He has been involved with hosting the musical show Pop Jam, producing the band abingdon boys school, and doing the cover Silver and Gold Dance for the 90s hit dance band TRF (Tetsuya Rave Factory). From the album SEVENTH HEAVEN onward, the music has taken a more heavy feeling, incorporating more guitar, bass, and drums than the usual synthesized feeling fans can recall from hits like HIGH PRESSURE. The live band has become more involved with the actual recording of the music. Even his voice has taken a different direction, fine tuning the raw talented vocal spread from his early career to work with the melodious ballad sound of T.M.R.-e. UNDER:COVER (January 2006), TMR's so-called "self-cover best album", took liberty in rearranging 15 of the fans' most favorite songs, all done by election. The result was controversial: bringing songs like HIGH PRESSURE and WHITE BREATH under a more edgier sound, while Twinkle Million Rendezvous featured orchestral instruments (similar in style to Shiroi Yami ["White Darkness"], a ballad from vertical infinity). Asakura's only contribution to that album was on the instrumental version of the Gundam SEED song Meteor (which he also performed on keyboards). His recent work includes the release of 10000000000 -billion- (June 2006), the two disc compilation all his singles from Dokusai -monopolize- to his latest, vestige, and DVD of all of his PVs made to date. He has also stepped out of the music industry and into fashion, debuting DEFROCK, his own clothing line. The term is a combination of the word differential lock (automobiles and turbine engines being a heavy theme for the clothing line) and the word rock. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the concept creation of T.M.Revolution and has been anticipated with much nostalgia for the old, and new, T.M.R. T.M.Revolution, however, is still a project for everyone in Nishikawa-san's following. He wants to reach fans of every age, all over the world, bringing the revolution into the hearts of all. The line between vocalist and fan can only be separated by a sheet of music.