I was flipping through the pages of the original "Japanese City Pop" once more and I came across singer Toshiya Igarashi's（五十嵐寿也）one-and-only album from 1983, "Lady Danger". Some years ago, I posted an article regarding the B-side, "Before We Say Good-Bye", to his one-and-only single from the same year, "Kanojo no Nikka" (Her Daily Routine).
Whereas "Before We Say Good-Bye" has this rather smoky and sunset-y City Pop atmosphere, the A-side "Kanojo no Nikka" has a bit more of a bouncy and upbeat AOR that brings back a lot of West Coast feeling to the ears. The verses also have its share of Latin rhythm and an echo of that old-fashioned disco. Norie Kanzawa（神沢のりえ）was the lyricist here while Koji Nishimura（西村耕二）took care of the melody.
More about Toshiya Igarashi: "He released a solo album in 1983 named Lady Danger, disappeared for a bit, returned to sing on theme tunes for Machine Robo: Battle Hackers, Transformers: Masterforce and Jungle Book: Shōnen Mowgli before becoming a producer for Nippon Columbia in late 1989[1]. Igarashi performed "Butchigiri Battle Hackers", the opening theme for all episodes of Machine Robo: Battle Hackers, as well as the insert song "You Are My Friend". The two songs were released on a single on the Futureland label on 5 July, 1987, and were included on the series' soundtrack."
ReplyDeletehttps://gbwiki.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Toshiya_Igarashi#cite_note-2012-04-02-1
I read about his collaborations for anime projects so something like "Lady Danger" may be rather interesting for those who hadn't realized that he was a City Pop crooner back in the day. Thanks for the information.
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