Kamen feat.

Tatsuya Ishii , also known as Tatuya Ishii (born September 22, 1959) is a Japanese singer-songwriter, artist, and industrial designer from Ibaraki Prefecture. Biography In 1985, he debuted as vocalist in the band . In 1992, their single won the Japanese r ...

(仮面 / ''Mask'') (stylized as ''KAMEN feat. 石井竜也'') is the tenth single of

Koda Kumi , known professionally as , is a Japanese singer from Kyoto, known for her urban and R&B songs. After debuting with the single "Take Back" in December 2000, Koda gained fame in March 2003 when the songs from her seventh single, "Real Emotion ...

's ''12 Single Collection'' and featured

Kome Kome Club is a Japanese pop rock band formed in 1982 which achieved commercial success by blending soul and funk musical styles. They also use the style of ''rakugo''. History 1982–1997: Commercial success Kome Kome Club was founded in 1982 by vocalist T ...

's frontman

. Like many of the other singles released in the collection, ''KAMEN'' was also limited to 50,000 copies. The song debuted at No. 3 on

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...

and charted for six weeks.

Information

''Kamen'' is Japanese singer-songwriter Koda Kumi's tenth single in her ''12 Singles Collection.'' It featured

(also known as Tatuya Ishii) from the famed group

, who had written the lyrics to the song alongside

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

Kazuhito Kikuchi is a Japanese composer. From 2001 to 2005 he was a member of the J-pop duo Breath. He has been one of the main song composers for Ayumi Hamasaki and has also written songs for Kumi Koda, Every Little Thing, Ami Suzuki and others. He won the Bes ...

. At the time, Kazuhito Kikuichi had just separated from the rock duo

Breath Breathing (or ventilation) is the process of moving air into and from the lungs to facilitate gas exchange with the internal environment, mostly to flush out carbon dioxide and bring in oxygen. All aerobic creatures need oxygen for cellular ...

. As with most of the other singles in the collection, the single was limited to 50,000 copies. Each single in the ''12 Singles Collection'' had unique

cover art Cover art is a type of artwork presented as an illustration or photograph on the outside of a published product such as a book (often on a dust jacket), magazine, newspaper ( tabloid), comic book, video game (box art), music album (album art), ...

based on certain cultures in various countries. The back cover of each single was a piece to a puzzle, which could only be completed by purchasing all twelve singles. The same was done for the

obi strip An is a strip of paper looped around a book or other product. This extends the term ''obi'' used for Japanese clothing; it is written with the same ''kanji''. It is also referred to as a , or more narrowly as . Obi strips are most commonly foun ...

s, which contained a full image when arranged together in order. However, the obi strip image was omitted on the Hong Kong versions. Unlike usual singles, ''Kamen'' carried three different

karaoke Karaoke (; ; , clipped compound of Japanese ''kara'' "empty" and ''ōkesutora'' "orchestra") is a type of interactive entertainment usually offered in clubs and bars, where people sing along to recorded music using a microphone. The music is ...

versions of the title track: one for men, one for women and a full instrumental. The "with your darling version" omitted Kumi's voice, but kept Tatsuya's. The "with your honey version" omitted Tatsuya's voice, but kept Kumi's. The final track was the full instrumental, omitting both artists' voices. Though limited to 50,000 copies, ''Kamen'' still managed to sell 46,971 copies as of 2006.

Music video

"Kamen" feat. Tatsuya Ishii was not part of the story-themed music videos. The music video carried a

Phantom of the Opera ''The Phantom of the Opera'' (french: Le Fantôme de l'Opéra) is a novel by French author Gaston Leroux. It was first published as a serial in from 23 September 1909 to 8 January 1910, and was released in volume form in late March 1910 by Pierr ...

theme, but with the female lead, played by Kumi, falling in love with the masked man, reciprocating the Phantom's love and affection. The video carried many visual themes that Kumi would later use in her videos for '' Unmei'' and '' Aishou.''

Cover

As with the other singles in this collection, the cover of the single represents a stylized version of a traditional dress from a culture; this time it draws its inspiration from Hawaii and the costumes of

hula Hula () is a Hawaiian dance form accompanied by chant (oli) or song (Mele (Hawaiian language), mele). It was developed in the Hawaiian Islands by the Native Hawaiians who originally settled there. The hula dramatizes or portrays the words of t ...

dancers. This is the third single that draws from the United States of America, the others being ''

you In Modern English, ''you'' is the second-person pronoun. It is grammatically plural, and was historically used only for the dative case, but in most modern dialects is used for all cases and numbers. History ''You'' comes from the Proto- ...

'' and ''

Birthday Eve ''Birthday Eve'' is a limited edition single by Japanese R&B-turned-pop artist Kumi Koda. It was the second release in her ''12 Singles Collection'' and charted No. 6 on Oricon, remaining for four weeks. The single became the first release to b ...

.''

Track listing

(Source)

References

#Avex Network (2006)
Koda Kumi Official Web Site
#Well Come Voice (2006)
T-Stone.com
{{authority control 2006 singles 2005 songs Koda Kumi songs Rhythm Zone singles Songs with music by Kazuhito Kikuchi