Ritsuko Kazami -- Yoru no Subete（夜のすべて）

 

I got a message from KKP commenter YMOfan04 regarding a Ritsuko Kazami（風見律子）tune from her 1985 debut album "Kiss of Fire" via one of the tracks there, "Kon'ya mo Tanoshiku"（今宵も楽しく）. The song got my attention through its mingling of Latin, jazz and pop, and generally speaking, a multi-genre tune is something that I will always pay attention to. There is also my remark there that "Kiss of Fire" may be one of those releases which celebrates the merging of synthpop and jazz, something that was tried out a fair bit by other folks in the music industry back in the 1980s.

Well, that's even more of the case with another track on "Kiss of Fire", "Yoru no Subete" (Everything That Night). This time, the melodic cocktail by Haruo Chikada（近田春夫）, who also provided the lyrics for the song, is made up of funky City Pop, synthpop and even a tinge of exotic kayo (maybe that represents the Angostura bitters). Heck, that opening bass synthesizer thrumming through my ears like a tremor and the urban contemporary beat definitely give me a good wake-up call as I write this rare mid-morning article. Plus, Kazami plays the role to the hilt as this seductive siren in an exclusive and hard-to-find downtown nightclub.