Unfortunately, today's round of KKP will begin with the announcement of another passing in the Japanese music industry. I found out through the Mixi news feed last night stating that singer-songwriter and bassist Nobuo Ariga（有賀啓雄）had died on February 27th this year from prostate cancer at the age of 58. Ariga had been involved with a number of bands including VIZION and SANISAI as well as providing support for many other artists ranging from Kome Kome Club（米米ＣＬＵＢ）to Kazumasa Oda（小田和正）to Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）.
Ariga was someone that I would never have heard about if it hadn't been for KKP contributor nikala's January 2014 article on his heady "Rain Dolphin". And although I had put up Masayuki Suzuki & Momoko Kikuchi's（鈴木雅之・菊池桃子）"Shibuya de Go-ji" (渋谷で5時）many months earlier, I eventually realized that the bassist had arranged one remix version of the 90s City Pop classic. He belongs to that 90% of the iceberg that's underwater when it comes to the unsung folks in the music industry, people that I have been grateful in encountering over the years of this blog.
I have here Ariga's own 6th out of 7 singles, "Kimi no Kanashimi no Kikasete yo" (Let Me Know Your Sadness) which was released in February 1993. Written and composed by him, it's a bouncy and upbeat tune with no small amount of Burt Bacharach influence although I wouldn't consider it Shibuya-kei. I've come to realize that there is something quite interesting about Ariga's relatively high and nasal vocals.
My condolences to Ariga's family, friends and fans.
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