Masumi Hoshi/Yuka Onishi -- Nagisa Douri no Disco House（渚通りのディスコハウス）

 

From Soundfinder.jp

Although this isn't the sharpest image of the above record cover, I think that there is something in the design that yells "Inspiration for Vaporwave". The cover is actually the one for the first of two singles that Masumi Hoshi（星ますみ）released in July 1976. Born in 1956 in Mito City, Ibaraki Prefecture, the only other information that I could dig up on her is at "Idol.ne.jp", and according to that information, she was scouted in Shinjuku as a high school sophomore after which she became a model and an assistant for an NTV music series.

Hoshi also had her time behind the mike but as indicated above, it was pretty short at just two singles and the time between the two singles was actually almost seven years with the singer going under a different name, Masumi Okada（岡田ますみ）. But getting back to that first single, it was titled "Nagisa Douri no Disco House" (Disco House on Beach Avenue). The song begins just like a 1960s Connie Francis love ballad before a fairly bouncy pop melody by composer Masaaki Hirao（平尾昌晃）and arranger Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）rolls on out, although I wouldn't really call it too disco. The lyrics were provided by Konosuke Fuji（藤公之介）.

The music is pleasant enough but I think Hoshi's delivery seems almost a little too tenderhearted for the happy-go-lucky melody concocted by Hirao and Makaino. Hoshi did release a third single even further down the road under the name Masumi Nakamura（中村ますみ）this time in 2006. And the name change is significant here since in 1992, she married famed composer Taiji Nakamura（中村泰士）who passed away around last Xmas.

A longer and oh-so-80s cover of "Nagisa Douri no Disco House" with a Eurobeat sheen was released in June 1988 as aidoru Yuka Onishi's（大西結花）9th single with Tatsumi Yano（矢野立美）behind the arrangement. In fact, to further show the passage of time, the title was even changed to "Nagisa Douri no Discotheque"（渚通りのディスコティック）I think that there was a better match between singer and material here, and the song goes by pretty swiftly. Although this particular song had nothing to do with it, Onishi was a part of the "Sukeban Deka"（スケバン刑事）cast and since there had been only one other KKP article including her, it's pretty nice to be able to write about her second song in the blog.