ZEN-LA-ROCK featuring Yomeiriland-- Space Dandy （スペース☆ダンディ）

Just before we left for Japan in October for that long-awaited vacation, my anime buddy and I finally wrapped up the 2nd season of "Space Dandy". I was slightly disappointed with the finale...there was a ton of action but at some sacrifice of the fun whimsy that the show had become famous for. Still, I'm hoping for a 3rd season, and at the very end of those end credits, there was a hint that my wish might come true.

When it comes to the show, I came for the fun but stayed for the music. I've already written up stuff on four songs from "Space Dandy" alone.... the last one being the slow-and-sultry LUVRAW's "Anatato" back in August this year. And once again, tonight I give you "Space Dandy" the song.

Man, shades of Bootsy Collins! Time to put on the silver platform boots! A couple of weeks ago, my buddy purchased the the second official soundtrack for the show with the hilarious title of "Boobies Wonderland", named after Dandy's favourite hangout and with the cover parodying good ol' Earth Wind & Fire. And yup, ZEN-LA-ROCK with rapping girl group Yomeiriland（嫁入りランド）bring back the funky dancelious sounds of the 70s. I got to hear the soundtrack on the stereo yesterday and this happened to be Track 1. It's one thing to hear the brief excerpt of the tune as part of the end credits for Episode 22, "Onaji Baka nara Odoranya Son Jan yo" (同じバカなら踊らにゃ損じゃんよ...We're All Fools, So Let's All Dance, Baby) , the big dance-off between Dandy and Ton Joravolta, and then it's another thing to listen to the whole thing through my buddy's huge airplane wing speakers. I almost felt like boogeying down myself, though my sense of good taste won out....it was darn close, though.

Nah, instead I'll let Tom and Dandy handle that department.

I've heard the name ZEN-LA-ROCK off-and-on over the years, and he is the one who wrote and composed "Space Dandy", but I couldn't find too much about him. There isn't any information about him on either Wiki or J-Wiki. However, he does have his own website in which it's described in English that he debuted as a Japanese hip-hop singer back in 2004. Along with the various singles and albums, he was also invited to help out with the "Space Dandy" show as part of a group of musicians loosely known as The Space Dandy Band.

I can only hope that the dance remixes start coming out on YouTube someday over the Holidays.