Boom Boom Satellites

Boom Boom Satellites were a Japanese electronic rock duo formed in 1990 by guitarist and vocalist Michiyuki Kawashima and bassist and programmer Masayuki Nakano. They made their recording debut in 1995 with a track for the first UNTITLED RECORDS compilation. A 1997 single released by Belgium's R&S Records brought them wider attention in Europe. Around the same period, they signed to Sony Music Entertainment Japan, which would release all of their Japanese albums, and issued the major-label mini album JOYRIDE in November 1997. In 1998 they released a debut album through R&S Records, then made their full domestic debut with the maxi single Push Eject and the album OUT LOUD. Their sound blended big beat, electronic, and electronic rock with guitar-driven rock, breakbeats, techno, and dense studio production. Their recordings combined distorted guitars, pulsing bass lines, layered samples, and rhythmic programming, and their career moved between live-band performance and electronic experimentation. In 2004 they contributed music to the soundtrack of Appleseed and performed its main theme. Their anime work also included "Back on My Feet" and "Shut Up And Explode" as opening themes for "Bounen no Xamdou" and "LAY YOUR HANDS ON ME" as the opening theme for "Kiznaiver". Kawashima underwent surgery for a brain tumor in 1997 and again in 1999. The illness was made public in 2012, and a third operation followed in 2013. After a fifth recurrence, the duo announced in 2015 that live activity would pause. On May 31, 2016, Nakano stated that the release of their final single "LAY YOUR HANDS ON ME" would mark the end of the group's activities. Kawashima died on October 9, 2016, and Boom Boom Satellites gave their final concert, "FRONT CHAPTER THE FINAL SESSION～LAY YOUR HANDS ON ME SPECIAL LIVE～", on June 18, 2017.