Courtesy of CDJapan, the new release date for MELL’s first album MELLSCOPE is now August 20.
Also, master groove circle is available for pre-order via CDJapan. The site says it is a “Limited Release” as opposed to “Limited Edition” which means the compilation may not be available for as long as the regular edition of other Geneon releases, though considering how CDJapan still has First Press copies of SAVIA lying around, you might be able to risk not buying it until after it releases (i.e., what I should have done with Special Life, et al).

In other upcoming release news, reader Same has found a trailer for Toaru Majutsu no Index which confirms I’ve Sound’s involvement with the music, as well as a taste of what the theme might sound like.

I guess Hyper Yocomix 3 was the last straw. Note to Yoko Ishida and whoever arranges these albums: If your “Hyper” remix of, say, JOINT, sounds slower than the original, you’re probably doing something wrong.
Anyway, Amazon.co.jp has announced preorders for a proper I’ve-only remix compilation album titled “master groove circle”, currently set to be released on September 24, though the release date was originally in August, according to little slow step. Geneon is producing this album, so keep that in mind. It will consist of 14 remixes on 2 CDs of I’ve themes, including Re-Sublimity, Hishoku no Sora, Red Fraction, and Higurashi, BLAZE, Chasse, no vain and Wheel of Fortune. In another stroke of genius, Kazuya Takase and Tomoyuki Nakazawa will be the only ones arranging on this album, though I wouldn’t be surprised if Takeshi got his contribution in.
The limited edition will come in a special container with a random sheet of I’ve logo stickers. Other goods will probably be added later.

愛撫 edit - according to I’ve Sound Explorer, the list of songs remixed also includes the brilliant title track from KOTOKO’s 2006 album UZU-MAKI. So it won’t all be anime themes, apparently…

The title is To Aru Majutsu no Index (とある魔術の禁書目録), and it’s a series of light novels that’s getting the anime treatment thanks to Geneon’s RONDO ROBE division (same guys who did the recent Kamen no Maid Guy series, just for reference). We don’t know what exactly I’ve’s role will be in the music for this new show, but given the fact that this isn’t a property I’ve has any previous connection to it’s likely that the opening and/or ending theme(s) will be the extent of our favourite producers’ involvement. Updates will be posted as soon as news is available, and thanks go out to faithful reader Same for mentioning this news bite in the comments thread for the last post.

I would like to give due praise to the folks down at FiRSTRoN, from which the majority of the news I relay to you guys comes from. With that in mind, Boys Love eroge producer Spray has announced their upcoming eroge “STEAL!” with I’ve’s lovable boy-toy C.G Mix set to sing the theme song. No word yet on even a release date at this point, but we’ll keep you posted.

Minato-soft has announced the possibly 18+ eroge “真剣で私に恋しなさい！” (”Maji de watashi ni koishinasai!” or “Please love me seriously” or if we are to take the “Maji” to mean “Magic,” then “Please magically love me!” not to be confused with “My new wife is a magical girl” or “I need Magic ~tokenai maji kyun~”)
Of the three ending themes, at least one is done by I’ve and of course, poor overworked KOTOKO gets the nod to sing “茜空.” (”akanesora” or “burning red sky” though “茜さす空” means “glowing sky”)
There will be plenty of time to discuss the meaning of the titles, as the anticipated release date will be sometime in 2009.