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| Wikimedia Commons from Marco Ober |
Although I think that J-R&B had a bigger boom at the turn of the century, I also believe that a decade earlier, there had also been a sizable upward trend in the revelation of the genre, partially fueling the transition from kayo kyoku to J-Pop. I was in Gunma when acts including Toshinobu Kubota（久保田利伸）, ZOO and Da Bubblegum Brothers were hitting it big on the charts.
However to be honest, I had never heard of the duo Darlin' before. Formed in 1987, they released three singles and two albums and have been categorized on J-Wiki as a rock and pop unit with Masato Ishida（石田正人）as the vocalist while Jiro Takada（高田次郎）was the guitarist. From their March 1991 2nd album "Love Education", I offer the track "Highway no Mukougawa" (Beyond the Highway), a cool-down urban ballad that sounds more soulful than rock or pop. Could make for the ideal midnight drive song. It was written and composed by Ishida with Katsuya Koga（古賀勝哉）being the co-lyricist.
There is no record of any other activity past 1992 under the Darlin' name, but in 1994, with the addition of bassist Keisuke Goshima（五島圭介）and drummer Tatsuya Suzuki（鈴木達也）, a new four-piece group named NONSTOP was formed with one single being released in November of that year. I'm assuming that's Ishida on the left of the "Love Education" album cover looking all sheepish after admitting to wearing a Jackson Pollock painting as his shirt.😎
I have never heard of duo Darlin' before, but they do remind me a little of Toshinobu Kubota's 「Missing 」.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's amazing discovering some of these acts decades after their time. Perhaps music archaeology and anthropology is a thing. :)
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