If, like me, you have spent the COVID crisis bingeing chika idol livestreams from Japan, then you have probably come to be familiar with Dan te Lion. When I started keeping The Calendar back in mid-July, they had just hosted Volume 35 of their Diffusion Φ Brightness Twitcast performance series featuring agency mates Chu Kiss RIP, KANARIA and recurring guests like ZOMBIE POWDER and (personal favorite) Lil na Valley. This past weekend, they broadcast Volume 61, which is a remarkable pace made all the more impressive by the fact that they typically perform two-to-three other shows each week on top of that.
Dan te Lion took a break from their relentless live schedule to drop a new MV on Tuesday that serves as the first single from their new album, [GO], which they then proceeded to drop on Wednesday.
“Little Braver” delivers an excellent example of Dan te Lion’s core aesthetic of Hip-Hop and R&B influenced vocal and dance delivered over a solid, hard rock base. The strutting guitar riffs and synth-driven power chorus are built for the live performance as is the bridge which channels Queen for a full-on “We Will Rock You” moment.
The full album is available on various digital platforms including Spotify.
https://twitter.com/Dan_te_Lion/status/1349126628635394048?s=20
It is definitely worth a listen and includes a number of gems including last year’s groove rock anthem, “Hakanashi”.
Since one gig delivering high energy IdolRock apparently isn’t enough, Dan te Lion’s YURIA is also one-half of, KANARIA, (my pick for 2020 Debut of the Year) along with Kanata of Chu Kiss RIP. They describe the group as a “vocal unit” which is entirely apt as they may possess two of the strongest voices in chika idol.
While the next Diffusion Φ Brightness Twitcast hasn’t been scheduled yet, you can catch Dan te Lion this weekend for free on YouTube as part of the latest IDOL LIVE JAPAN broadcast. If you can’t wait until then, you can always watch the archive of last weekend’s free one-man live, appropriately entitled, “We Won’t Stop”:
