Halcali article on Japan Today

Imagine my surprise when I saw this today! Looks like Halcali's recent international success has done wonders in terms of exposure.

For Japanese female hip-hop duo HALCALI, the world is their stage
By Natsuki Oka
NEW YORK —
HALCALI, a Japanese female hip-hop duo that performed in New York for the first time in early June, is eager to make further strides on the international music scene. The duo, consisting of two 20-year-olds from Tokyo, made their name when some of their tracks were used as theme songs for a popular TV animation series a few years ago.The songs soon reached the ears of anime fans abroad, and the pair made their overseas debut in Paris in July 2007.
In May 2008, HALCALI performed for the first time in the United States at a concert in Chicago.They followed this up with an appearance at New York’s Central Park on June 1 as part of a Japan Day cultural festival. "Our current goal is to release a new album in Japan, Europe and the United States," Haruka, one half of the duo, said in a recent interview with Kyodo News in New York.
Fellow hip-hopper Yukari added, "In the future, we’re hoping to perform all over the world."

Read full article

It's perhaps an inevitable result of them getting so much attention so quickly that people are just assuming their post Ongaku anime songs is where Halcali began, whereas in reality of course those songs sold relatively poorly compared to their early For Life days. What's become apparant though is there is a real buzz about the band now, a feeling of gaining momentum that hasn't been present since the OTF era.

A worldwide Japan-America-Europe release of album four is looking more and more likely now- and just in the nick of time. I can't be the only one who was worried that dreadful single sales might have resulted in their quiet departure from Sony. What we really need now is what Sony haven't really given Halcali yet in Japan- a solid marketing campaign and a real push towards top 20 chart success.