Pizzicato Five -- Romantique 96

The always chic Ms. Nomiya

I bought Pizzicato Five's "Romantique 96" for a couple of reasons: 1) I knew about P5 since watching their impressionable appearance on "The New Music" when the Toronto music program highlighted the latest in Japanese music and then hearing stuff about their inherent coolness filtering in when I was in Tokyo, and 2) a couple of the tracks were used as themes for a couple of late-night TV shows I viewed on TV Asahi in the mid-90s. And frankly speaking, I knew I had to get at least one P5 album for my collection. In this case, their 12th album.

When I buy an album of enka songs, my imagination focuses on one particular neighbourhood in Tokyo....perhaps Asakusa or Ginza or Shinbashi. When I get an Anri or TUBE album, it goes to the beaches of Shonan or Hawaii. But with "Romantique 96", it's as if Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴） and Yasuharu Konishi（小西康陽） are tempting me (and succeeding) to hop on their pink and flower-covered chartered jet to travel the globe to make the Mother of All World-Hopping Tours of Fun, Fun, Fun. The album starts quietly with "Mezame"(めざめ...The Awakening)....almost like a gentle push out of bed, a warmup stretch, a grab for that java, before Pizzicato Five makes a rousing invitation to join them in the next track, "Sekai de Ichiban Funky na Band"(世界でいちばんファンキーなバンド....Welcome to the Circus)....and we are off! The next song is the one above, "Jet Ki no House"(ジェット機のハウス....Flying High), a riff by Fantastic Plastic Machine in which our flight attendant cheerfully gets us ready and going for that trip from New York to San Francisco, although the feeling throughout the album is far more far-reaching.

Our next stop seems to be in warmer climes as we get into "Ice Cream Meltin' Mellow", hip-hop and Shibuya skippy pop mixing in like that puddle of Neapolitan strawberry, vanilla and chocolate forming on the sidewalk. Listening to this track, I can imagine people just galloping under the summer sun to get that soft cone. This was one of the songs that was a late-night theme for the brief CNN nightly report of all things. Back in those days, Ted Turner's network apparently wasn't all that readily available in Japan, and TV Asahi, being the Japanese affiliate of the network, created this 5-minute segment at 12:55 a.m. with an English-speaking announcer. Still can't see Wolf Blitzer strutting to this one....Anderson Cooper I can, though.

The other track to be made into another late-night theme on TV Asahi was "San Gatsu Umare" (３月生まれ...Nata Di Marzo), a flirty French Latin tune about getting dragged out by a whimsical buddy onto the dance floor. Those opening strings started up the show which followed the CNN report; it was some kind of 15-minute sitcom featuring tarento RanRan Suzuki and actress Naoko Iijima.

Somehow with "Good", we're back into my old stomping grounds....in a Tokyo English conversation school with Maki as my congenial student and the score from any of a dozen 60s Hollywood romantic comedies as the background music. No, it's not quite that hellish, actually. Fantastic Plastic Machine was also behind the arrangements here, and he creates a rather comically breezy soundscape, and even the P5 catchphrase makes its presence known here. The clip of this song being performed at a concert was shown on "The New Music" where Maki is doing her loopy repetition drill....the first time I saw it, I just thought, "Ohhhhhhhhhkay........"

The last song here is "Kanashii Uta"(悲しい歌...Triste) which brings back memories of 70s soul along with some of what British acts like Swingout Sister and The Style Council came up with in the 80s. I really like the piano and the brass which gives out that urban groove. The single cut of the song came out in October 1995, about a month after the album's release.

Pizzicato Five kept the musical travelogue going with "Romantique 96", and like any good tour guide, never made it boring. And I'm sure their other albums were very representative of the Shibuya-kei genre, but if there were a leader among equals in their discography, I can bet that this album would be a nominee.

Pizzicato Five -- Romantique 96

Fubuki Koshiji -- Rokudenashi （ろくでなし）

This is the one other song by Japanese chanson singer Fubuki Koshiji（越路吹雪） that I've known for years, "Rokudenashi"(Good-For-Nothing). Although I've got little knowledge on the chanson genre per se, I don't think this song quite fits the chanson mold...it's a bit too frenetic. And Koshiji, as you can see above, is shaking it up quite a bit on the stage.

Originally written, composed and sung by Belgian singer-songwriter Salvatore Adamo in 1964 as "Mauvais Garcon", the lyrics were made into Japanese by Tokiko Iwatani（岩谷時子）. I'm just going by someone's Japanese blog here, but I think the Koshiji cover was also released later in that same year. The lyrics go into the life of an incorrigible bum who's content to drink away in his watering hole as his latest girl dumps him. As much as Koshiji is famous for the proud "Ai no Sanka"（愛の讃歌）, I've also remembered her for this short spicy number. In recent years, though, the song has mostly appeared on Japanese TV as a platform for parody by a comedian who dresses in drag and sings it while shooting peanuts out of his nose (yep, it's as "hilarious" as it reads).

Here is the original version by Adamo. It comes off as somewhat less spirited than the Japanese version, but I think it accurately reflects the state of mind of the so-called hero of the song..

courtesy of
Benjamin Lemaire
from Flickr

Keizo Nakanishi -- Starting Over

I mentioned back in my first posting on Keizo Nakanishi（中西圭三） ("Woman" ) that I hadn't been sure how I first got to know about the singer....whether it had been the CD single of "Woman" that my friend lent me or an audio tape that my cousin had kindly sent me. That audio tape was of his 4th album, "Starting Over"which was originally released back in March 1994. It got a lot of heavy rotation on my tape recorder. One of the reasons was the starting title track which is this gloriously happy tune originally made as the campaign song for that year for the Huis Ten Bosch theme park in Sasebo City, Nagasaki Prefecture. It may have been made for the re-creation of those Dutch buildings, but this musical orange juice kinda reflected my feelings about what was to be my upcoming return to Japan later that year. Nakanishi, by the way, composed all of the songs with Masao Urino（売野雅勇） taking care of the words for this track and the next song.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=A52hbkcMAHg

Track 3 is another fun and optimistic tune just from the title alone, "Ashita wa Kitto Ii Hi"(明日はきっといい日...Tomorrow Will Undoubtedly Be A Great Day) done in a somewhat of a doo-wop style. I also stated in the "Woman" article that Nakanishi reminded me vocally of Toshinobu Kubota（久保田利伸） but that he tended more towards the pop side of things. I think from listening to this song and his tribute to all things Yuletide, "Kiss, Merry Xmas", he also likes going back to the earlier days of R&B as well. "Ashita wa Kitto Ii Hi"was also a commercial song....this time for a Honda brand of car called the "Today"(man, where these guys get these names....).

Track 5 is an orchestral version of Nakanishi's 7th single, "Nemurenu Omoi"(眠れぬ想い...Sleepless Feelings) for which Kanata Asamizu（朝水彼方） provided the lyrics. She also wrote the words for Masayuki Suzuki's（鈴木雅之） "Shibuya de Go-ji" （渋谷で５時）.This was the first version I had heard of this ballad, and with its strings and harmonica, this would not have been out of place in the pilot episode of "Moonlighting", the old 80s detective series starring Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd (yes, she was lovely, and yes, he did have hair). I loved the banter between David and Maddie and the music that accompanied them.

This is the original version of "Nemurenu Omoi"released in July 1993. Enjoy!

Track 8 is the high-energy "Hijo Kaidan"(非情階段...Callous Stairway) created by Nakanishi and Asamizu with co-composer Takao Konishi（小西貴雄）. It starts off for the first several seconds as a bit of midnight jazz doodling before the music kicks into 80s R&B Dazz Band-like warp drive. This was also released in July 1994 as his 12th single some months after the album's release. On the same day, an extended version (single No. 13) with a guest appearance by Toshinori Yonekura（米倉利紀） was also released and that version is below.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4LgQc5Rt1w

I love all the tracks on "Starting Over" but one of my special favourites is one of the last entries, "Yume no Hate Made"(夢の果てまで...To The Ends Of The Dream). It's just another gallopingly fun uptempo song by Urino and Nakanishi, and again it reminds me of some of the funky pop I used to hear back in the 70s.

"Starting Over"hit the top spot on Oricon and became the 35th-ranked album of the year, selling about 434,000 albums. Some years into my Japan odyssey, I was finally able to procure the actual CD, I'm happy to say. And it's still always a pleasure to hear almost 20 years later.

Keizo Nakanishi -- Starting Over

Perfume -- GLITTER

A lot of great songs can be found in Perfume’s discography. “GLITTER” is one of them.

The first contact I had with “GLITTER” was thought a Kirin commercial featuring 15 seconds of the chorus. I remember that at the time, July 2011, I was not very patient with this kind of marketing plan, so I decided to wait until the song was released in its full form on a single or album. Time passed by and “GLITTER” was released as the b-side of Perfume’s “Spice” single in November of the same year. It was included some weeks later on the “JPN” album in a remixed version.

First, let’s talk about the single version, the one featured at the beginning of the article. As the reader must have acknowledged after listening to the song, the single cut of “GLITTER” is very straight-forward with few surprises in the arrangement. What you get at the beginning you’ll get thought the whole song. That being said, the song is quite addictive and very house-infused as well (the beat that starts after the 20 seconds mark is a proof of that). The arrangement, clearly built around the loud synth melody, makes me think of some great video-game music from the classic 16-bits era, like “Sonic The Hedgehog” and “Megaman”. The verses are very unique, which combined with the cheerful chorus just makes this song incredible. And we can hear some tribal drums in some moments as well. All in all this song is very epic, and it’s surely in my top 5 of Perfume’s songs.

As for the remixed album version, it brings all the sounds that were present in the single cut in a different way. Yasutaka Nakata (中田ヤスタカ) deconstructed the straightforward single version and built this remix with nice tensions in some areas (the high synth note that starts around the 4:02 or 4:03 mark is an example of this tension). And the long intro is a great addition to the song. Listen to it below.

The “Spice” single reached #2 on the weekly Oricon charts selling around 92,000 copies. The single version of “GLITTER” was included on the best album ‘Perfume Global Compilation “LOVE THE WORLD”’, released in September 2012. This compilation reached #1 on the weekly Oricon charts and sold around 181,400 copies. As for the remixed version, it was the third track from the “JPN” album, which was released in November 2011 reaching #1 on the weekly Oricon charts and selling 354,095 copies (source: generasia). “GLITTER” was written, composed and arranged by Yasutaka Nakata.

To finish, here are some photos of my own copies of the "JPN" album and the 'Perfume Global Compilation "LOVE THE WORLD'", respectively.

AKB48 -- Dear my teacher

It’s kind of hard to be serious about AKB48. I must confess that I really tried a couple of years ago, but couldn’t handle the overall bad quality of the songs they periodically release. On the other side, as they have a very big discography, some songs are actually good, or at least entertaining. “Dear my teacher”, in my opinion, is one of these songs.

It must mean something that my favorite song of AKB48 is the b-side of their first single “Sakura no Hanabiratachi” (桜の花びらたち), released in February 2006, while the group was still in an indie label. What I’m trying to say is that their earlier songs were quite good. I was never the biggest of the fans of AKB48, but I can tell that their earlier songs were more sexual, challenging and risqué than the safe and happy-go-lucky songs they tend to release nowadays.

“Dear my teacher” is famous because of its clear and direct resemblance to “Oyoshi ni Natte ne TEACHER” (およしになってねTEACHER), a song released as a single by Onyanko Club (おニャン子クラブ) back in 1985. The producer and lyricist of both groups is, as we know, Yasushi Akimoto (秋元康), and the thesis that AKB48 is nothing more (or just a little more, if you prefer) than a rehash from Onyanko Club is not a surprise to anyone either. But besides all of those common points between both groups and songs, “Dear my teacher” is an interesting number by itself.

The arrangement, built around a dance beat and some disco elements, like the brass and the synth melody, is very well combined with the sexy, although young, vocals that are in charge of the sultry lyrics about a forbidden romance between a student and her teacher. Even the way which the lyrics are sung evokes provocative feelings from the girl narrating the story. It’s a very “Lolita” way of singing.

All in all, I find “Dear my teacher” a very good pop song. Of course it’s strange to have some 13 or 14 year old girls (some were older than that at the time) singing about losing their virginity with their school teacher, but it's exactly the presence of this risqué theme that makes the song work so well.

The “Sakura no Hanabiratachi” single reached #10 on the weekly Oricon charts and sold around 46,300 copies (source: generasia). “Dear my teacher” was written by Yasushi Akimoto, while the music was composed by Mio Okada (実音 岡田). As for the arrangement, it was done by Ei Ieatsu (景家淳).

Arashi -- A-RA-SHI

www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5q02oqVDxI

I'm not a fan of the currently top Johnny's Entertainment group in terms of their music, but my family and I are enjoying watching the boys on Friday nights on TV Japan through their two variety programs: "Vs. Arashi" (game show) and "Arashi ni Shiyagare" (interview show). And we've even caught some of their serial dramas. Just for the record, Arashi（嵐...Storm） is led by the usually unassuming Satoshi Ono（大野智） with the other members being Sho Sakurai（桜井翔）, Masaki Aiba（相葉雅紀）, Kazunari Ninomiya（二宮和也） and Jun Matsumoto（松本潤）.

Still, having said that, I do like a couple of their songs including their debut, "A-RA-SHI" from November 1999, just because of that bouncy refrain, "You are my SOUL! SOUL!" Composed by veteran Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二） and written by Tsunetoshi Kikuchi（菊池常利）, under the stage name of J&T, the CD single hit the No. 1 spot on Oricon and quickly became the 23rd-ranked song of 1999, selling close to a million copies and still their best-selling song. The song was also part of their debut album, "Arashi No. 1: Arashi wa Arashi wo Yobu" （嵐は嵐を呼ぶ...The Storm Calls The Storm), which was released in January 2001 and also hit the top spot on the album charts. According to Wiki, though, the really big commercial success would take the better part of a decade.

At my last English school before returning home, I had a regular Wednesday-night student who was a huge Arashi fan, and most notably, an Aiba-kun fan. In fact, the first several minutes of every lesson was basically the weekly Aiba-kun report.....and she gave it in English. As long as she was using her 2nd language, I was game with it.

courtesy of Leo_mershoes
from Flickr

Mina Aoe -- Isezakicho Blues （伊勢崎町ブルース）

"Ahh....ahh..."

For paella, it's saffron. For the "Iron Man"franchise, it's Robert Downey, Jr. For this song, it's the late Mina Aoe's（青江三奈） throaty moans that spikes it. "Isezakicho Blues"is all about style over substance, but that's not a criticism...it's a compliment. The lyrics by Kohan Kawauchi （川内康範） aren't suggestive at all; the words only describe a night in the commercial district of Yokohama. But the music by Yoichi Suzuki（鈴木庸一） (who also composed Mari Watanabe's "Tokyo Dodonpa Musume") is sexy and flirtatious, and paired with Aoe's sultry vocals, the song is the kayo kyoku equivalent of a striptease that never goes all the way but still leaves the listener/customer happy.

When my brother and I were kids, and we just happened to hear this song, we started getting the case of the giggles (as was our immature right) which only earned a half-admonishment from Mom for developing dirty minds. Hey, she was the one singing it, not us!

When Aoe appeared on television to perform one of her biggest hits, I think her looks helped to sell the song as well. She had that face which suggested a knowing expression of what was what in the mizu shobai (水商売....the nightlife business)...friendly and enticing at the same time. I could've easily envisioned her working at some hostess club, tying some drunk salaryman into a knot around her finger...and yep, I'm sorry if that sounds somewhat insulting to her. But that face, that melody and that voice....

"Isezakicho Blues"was Aoe's 2nd single released in January 1968. Born in Tokyo's Koto Ward in 1941 as Shizuko Ihara（井原静子）, the singer took on her stage name from a character in a short story. Following her graduation from high school, she worked for a short while in a Seibu Department Store before starting her music career performing in clubs. Once she started recording, her career went into overdrive with her debut single "Koukotsu Blues"（恍惚ブルース...Ecstasy Blues). Her songs often had the name "Blues"in them....for example, her first four singles were "Koukotsu Blues", "Isezakicho Blues", "Sapporo Blues" and "Nagasaki Blues". Also, another trait in her titles were that they often gave a shout out to Japanese geography, but then again, back in those days, the names of cities and neighbourhoods were a treasure trove for enka/Mood Kayo songwriters. Yokohama was one of the big names.

The moaning certainly worked. "Isezakicho Blues" won Aoe a Japan Record Award (among other awards) and was a million-seller. In fact, her 4 singles in 1968 alone sold a total of 3.2 million records. This single peaked at No. 5 and eventually became the 11th-ranked song of the year.

Aoe did get an appearance on the Kohaku Utagassen of that year on top of all of the other accolades accorded her. However, those sexy moans (euphemistically referred to as "sighs") had to be cleaned up a little during the performance on the national network (the indication was that kids would definitely be watching the special), which meant using a kazoo (!) in place of her voice when those sighs were made. Not sure what Aoe thought of that, but apparently Kyu Sakamoto, who was the captain of the Men's White Team, remarked that the "revisions" sounded not unlike "an ostrich's sighs". Ouch! And strangely enough, even in the 1982 Kohaku when Aoe appeared to perform her trademark song, the moans were apparently cleaned up again! I gather that Aoe didn't mind things too much, though, since she ended up appearing a total of 18 times with her final appearance in 1990.

Regrettably, about a decade later, Aoe would pass away at the age of 59 in 2000 from pancreatic cancer.

Not Isezakicho, but a part of the old Tokyo setup
in the Ramen Museum in Yokohama. Still,
the sentiments are there!