() is a song by Japanese band

Sakanaction are a Japanese rock band from Sapporo, Hokkaido. Their music is a fusion of alternative rock, electronic, pop, and new wave styles. The band consists of five members: Ichiro Yamaguchi, Motoharu Iwadera, Ami Kusakari, Emi Okazaki, and Keiichi ...

. Originally released as the B-side of the band's single "

Identity Identity may refer to: * Identity document * Identity (philosophy) * Identity (social science) * Identity (mathematics) Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Identity'' (1987 film), an Iranian film * ''Identity'' (2003 film), an ...

" in 2010, the song was remixed for inclusion on the band's fifth album '' Documentaly'' as a bonus track. In 2015, the song became the leading track for Sakanaction's compilation album '' Natsukashii Tsuki wa Atarashii Tsuki: Coupling & Remix Works''.

Background and development

In March 2010, Sakanaction released their fourth album '' Kikuuiki'', after which they wanted to release an "easy to digest" song in a similar vein to the album's lead single " Aruku Around". Due to ''Kikuuikis success, the band felt that it was an opportune time to quickly release new material after the album. The band toured Japan in April and May, promoting ''Kikuuiki''. During the post-album release period, the band worked on the song "

", which they unveiled at the end of the tour, performing it at their concert on May 28 at Zepp Tokyo and announcing the single's August release on the same day. "Holy Dance" was recorded in June 2010, after the "Identity" single had already been announced. It was produced straight after the band had been working on "Magic Time", a composition written by band vocalist

Ichiro Yamaguchi , is a Japanese musician. He is the vocalist, guitarist and songwriter for the Hokkaido rock band Sakanaction. Biography Ichiro Yamaguchi was born in Otaru, Hokkaido in 1980. He grew up listening to a wide variety of music, as his father ran a ...

for

Johnny & Associates was a Japanese talent agency formed by Johnny Kitagawa in 1962, which managed groups of male idols known as The company had a significant impact on pop culture with male idols and boy bands in Japan since the 1980s. Until 2019, the company w ...

boyband

SMAP was a Japanese boy band, composed of Masahiro Nakai, Takuya Kimura, Goro Inagaki, Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, and Shingo Katori. The group was created in 1988 by music producer Johnny Kitagawa, founder of Johnny & Associates, originally as a six-p ...

, for their album ''We Are SMAP!'' (2010). The song was released as the second B-side of the band's "Identity" single on August 4, 2010. Conceptually, Yamaguchi thought of the single as a piece of fruit, with the lead track "Identity" acting as the skin, "Holy Dance" the flesh and the final track, "Yes No (

Aoki Takamasa (sometimes stylized as AOKI takamasa) (born 1976), is a Japanese people, Japanese electronic musician and producer. Biography Aoki Takamasa was born in Osaka in 1976. He began experimenting as a musician in 1993 when he was 17, when he rec ...

Remix)", as the pit.

Writing and inspiration

The song was inspired by Yamaguchi's feelings he had when he wanted to go fishing, but was unable to. Yamaguchi felt that the song was produced in contrast to "Magic Time", which had been themed around love. The lyrics describe a dusk scene, of a person at a river, feeling that their pain is like a "dancing lure with a whispering laugh". They decide to throw all of their anxiety into the river, and fly into the sky. Yamaguchi felt that "Holy Dance" had become an important song for the band, and it often made the band's concert setlists. "Holy Dance" was the only song by Sakanaction released in their career that did not feature a live

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

sound. Ami Kusakari instead performed synthetic bass sounds for the song. In 2011, a remix of the song was compiled on their fifth studio album '' Documentaly'' as a bonus track, "Holy Dance (Like a Live Mix)", almost identical to the original version, except for the addition of a live bass guitar to the mix.

Promotion

Two live performances have been released commercially by Sakanaction. The first was on the ''Sakanaquarium 2011 Documentaly: Live at Makuhari Messe'' (2012) video album, followed by a performance on their ''Sakanaquarium 2013 Sakanaction: Live at Makuhari Messe 2013.5.19'' video album. Though not performed at the concert, a vocal-less remix of "Holy Dance" was used for the end-roll of their performance at the

Nippon Budokan The , often shortened to simply Budokan, is an indoor arena in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It was originally built for the inaugural Olympic judo competition in the 1964 Summer Olympics. The Budokan was a popular venue for Japanese professional wres ...

on October 8, 2010 was released on DVD as ''Sakanaquarium (B)''. As the leading promotional track from ''Natsukashii Tsuki wa Atarashii Tsuki: Coupling & Remix Works'', the song was sent to radio stations across Japan in August 2015. In its first week of radio airplay, the song reached number 62 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' Japan Radio Songs sub-chart, and in its second week fell to number 83.

Music video

"Holy Dance" was the third song to be given a music video to promote the compilation album ''Natsukashii Tsuki wa Atarashii Tsuki: Coupling & Remix Works''. The video was released online on July 23, and was directed by Yamaguchi personally; the first time that Yamaguchi has acted as a music video director. The video features Yamaguchi facing 500 people, who are wearing headphones. Interspersed with these scenes are scenes of dancers from the dance troupe Elevenplay: first three dancers dressed in school uniforms, followed by scenes of a woman in a black dress dancing by herself. Other scenes in the video feature high speed camera footage of Yamaguchi

fly fishing Fly fishing is an angling technique that uses an ultra-lightweight lure called an artificial fly, which typically mimics small invertebrates such as flying and aquatic insects to attract and catch fish. Because the mass of the fly lure is in ...

in a black room, and reverse footage of fishing equipment on white pedestals covered in green liquid. Yamaguchi based the video on his hobby of fishing, and tried to create a video entirely themed around fishing. The video is inspired by the imagery that Yamaguchi had when he composed the song. He intended for the three dancers to be a metaphor for fishing lures, and for the single dancer to be a metaphor for the reel. The single dancer's actions were intended to imitate the action of casting a fishing rod. The reel used in the video is a

Shimano , originally and later , is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational manufacturing company for cycling components, fishing tackle and rowing (sport), rowing equipment, which also produced golf supplies until 2005 and snowboarding gear ...

Calcutta Conquest reel. On June 14, Sakanaction's management group Hip Land Music posted a request asking for 500 extras for a Sakanaction music video scene. These extras shot scenes for the video in a studio in

Kawaguchi, Saitama is a Cities of Japan, city located in southwestern Saitama Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 595,011 in 293,582 households and a population density of 9605 persons per km². The total area of the city is . It is the G ...

on June 18, 2015.

Critical reception

Yuichi Hirayama reviewing for ''Excite'' described the song as "an electro tune demanding an escape from anguish". Later, when reviewing the song for EMTG in the context of ''Natsukashii Tsuki wa Atarashii Tsuki: Coupling & Remix Works'' (2015), felt that it had all of the "power" of "Identity" and the other band's singles. Reviewing the "Like a Live" remix found on the band's fifth album '' Documentaly'' (2011), ''CDJournal'' reviewers praised the song's "rhyme-like wordplay and exhilarating sound".

Personnel

Personnel details were sourced from '' Natsukashii Tsuki wa Atarashii Tsuki: Coupling & Remix Workss liner notes booklet. Personnel *All Sakanaction members – arrangement, production *Keiichi Ejima – drums *Motoharu Iwadera – guitar *Ami Kusakari – bass guitar synthesizers *Emi Okazaki – keyboards *Masashi Uramoto – mixing, recording *Ichiro Yamaguchi – vocals, guitar, lyrics, composition Music video personnel *Kei Fujita – assistant cameraman *Mei Hashimoto – production manager *Nozomi Hiramoto – dancer *Akiyoshi Irio – lighting *Mikiko – choreographer (Elevenplay) *Shinichi Miter – stylist *Asami Nemoto – hair, make-up *Hideyuki Nomura – production *Yuka Numata – dancer *Makoto Okuguchi – director of photography *Taito Oyama –

digital imaging technician A digital imaging technician (DIT) was created for the motion picture industry in response to the transition from the long established film movie camera medium into the current digital cinema era. The DIT is the camera department crew member who ...

*Saya Shinohara – dancer *Shin Sugawara – key grip *Tokyo No. 1 – production company *Emi Tsuruta – production manager *Erisa Wakisaka – dancer *Ichiro Yamaguchi – director *Yasuyuki Yamaguchi – co-director, editing

Chart rankings

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Holy Dance 2010 songs Songs in Japanese Sakanaction songs Songs written by Ichiro Yamaguchi