Towa Tei -- Nothing Else 2

Well, maybe it's a little early in the week to feature something avant-garde but I couldn't quite help it here. It does bring here some of the old with some of the new.

I'm writing about Towa Tei's latest single from August this year, "Nothing Else 2", which is this cute little technopop piece by the Japanese DJ and musician with help from Bose from the rap group Scha Dara Parr（スチャダラパー）and Oto Fukuhara (福原音). Perhaps Tei's lyrics and their delivery may be enough to get listeners into a trance-like state but the blippity-bloppity music can still poke one into full wakefulness. And then there is the music video which looks like a crazed AI collage of 1960s Japanese rom-com movie scenes instructed to have full fun by themselves. Generally speaking, I think the setting is some sort of onsen somewhere. "Nothing Else 2" is also a track on Tei's latest album "Zambient" from September.

Eri Nitta -- WHO?

 

I was watching a shortened version of "Asaichi"（あさイチ）last night (it was the usual thing that parliamentary deliberations truncated the coverage) and I noticed one of the guests. She was a cheerful young-ish middle-aged woman with a dirty blonde short cut, and then one of the hosts introduced her to the audience: Eri Nitta（新田恵利）! 

Good heavens! I hadn't seen Nitta anywhere on television for decades. The only footage was through old coverage of her time when she was a part of Onyanko Club（おニャン子クラブ）in the 1980s. The lady has obviously aged in the last thirty years but then I recognized those eyes and that smile.

Well, I figured that I just had to begin this business week of KKP with a Nitta song. But not being a huge fan of hers, I had to think about that one. In the meantime, I looked at Marcos' article for her No.1 hit, "Fuyu no Opera Glass" (冬のオペラグラス), and then I saw one comment at the bottom. Though the commenter stated that he/she wasn't a huge fan of hers either, he/she had to admit that there was an affinity for Nitta's January 1988 8th single "WHO?". The commenter even provided an URL to a YouTube video showing her performing it on stage...although the video has since been deleted.

But I've got the recorded version above. Although it's an aidoru tune, "WHO?" also has some Eurobeat pumping blood in there as the lass sings about being rather cynical toward love on the outside but still feeling quite vulnerable and open on the inside. Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）wrote the lyrics while the song was composed by Ken Nishizaki（西崎憲）; he's not only a composer but also a translator who has taken care of the works of Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle (maybe the song title should have been "WHODUNNIT?"). In any case, "WHO?" made it up to No. 21 on Oricon.

Mariko Ashibe -- Hodou no Ballerina（舗道のバレリーナ）

Yahoo.jp

The above is a shot of one of the photos inside Mariko Ashibe's（芦部真梨子）1984 album "Street Scandal ~ Machikado wa Kiken ga Ippai"（ストリート・スキャンダル –街角は危険がいっぱい...The Street Corners are Filled with Danger）. It's nice to get the full title at last. Regardless, I guess Ashibe, which was the name that the Hyogo Prefecture jazz singer was adopting at the time, enjoyed a bit of perilous intrigue back then.

I've already spoken on a couple of other tracks from "Street Scandal": "Highway Dancer"（ハイウェイ・ダンサー）and "Private Friday"（プライベート・フライデー）. For today, let's go with "Hodou no Ballerina" (Ballerina on the Pavement), and maybe that's what Ashibe was trying to attain with her photograph. Considering that the song was written by Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）and composed by Takao Kisugi（来生たかお）, the high-falutin' suspense was most likely guaranteed. The background strings give "Hodou no Ballerina" a touch of elegance and the overall arrangement makes the song feel like a pop adventure among the bright lights of Paris.

City Craft -- Shiroi Ame（白い雨）/Omoide Tsuzure Ori（想い出つづれ織）

 

I started the file on the folk duo City Craft（シティ・クラフト）back in 2021 and I'm still none the wiser on who these guys were although a few of their records have shown up on YouTube in the last little while.

But one thing is true. A lot of their activity happened during the year of 1981, including the revelation of their song "Niji wo Kakete Miseru"（虹を架けてみせる）which was one track on their album released in the same year "Kisetsufuu"（季節風...Seasonal Winds）. Two other tracks on "Kisetsufuu" were flip sides from an 1981 single.

That single was "Shiroi Ame"（White Rain）. I recall posting something on the 1977 "Gin no Ame"（銀の雨）by folk singer-songwriter Chiharu Matsuyama（松山千春）a few days ago. Well, this is the white variety and it depicts a bossa nova rhythm written and composed by Shunichi Tomori（戸森俊一）with Motoki Funayama（ 船山基紀）handling the arrangement. I gather that this is another example of a folk singer of those times pushing past genre boundaries and trying something more cosmopolitan although I think Tomori and partner still manage to retain their folksy delivery.

The B-side, "Omoide Tsuzure Ori" (A Woven Tapestry of Memories), handled by the same songwriter and arranger, is more of a return to folk although one of more dramatism and classical influences. I even hear a bit of Pachelbel and perhaps a bit of The Eagles in there. 

BLU-SWING -- We'll Be Right Back

 

It wasn't too long ago when all of these visual memes were popping out of the woodwork like crazy. One example was "We'll Be Right Back" when certain scenes suddenly stopped just when things were about to get really interesting.

So I was a little amused when I saw this January 2023 single by New Jazz and Neo-City Pop group BLU-SWING with the very same title of "We'll Be Right Back". There's no cute flute-and-piano riff to signal a potential crazy effect stopped at the critical moment. Instead BLU-SWING keyboardist Yusuke Nakamura's（中村祐介）brief words and music provide an unstoppable groove and guitar churning like an engine to showcase a scenario of a potential romantic effect stopped at the critical moment. What is next to come? Enquiring minds want to know.

Juice=Juice -- BLOODY BULLET

 

If I'm not mistaken, this song came out on a recent episode of "Uta Con"（うたコン）as performed by the aidoru group Juice=Juice. I've been paying a bit more attention to them because of their occasional predilection for the old City Pop stuff like "Downtown".

Well, Juice=Juice released their first official EP titled "MORE! MORE! EP" in June 2026 and one of the tracks is "BLOODY BULLET". With that title, I get images of flicks from Quentin Tarantino or Guy Ritchie, and to be honest, the music video above reminded me of "Thelma & Louise". But as written by Konnyaku Nishino（西野蒟蒻）and composed by Sho Hoshibe（星部ショウ）, "BLOODY BULLET" keeps the blood away and instead brings in the disco and some of the lively discography that I remember Morning Musume（モーニング娘。）doing a couple of decades ago. Some of the members go on a road trip and become tough gals (or as tough as a Hello Project idol is allowed to get) while the cops are hot on their tail. Someone in the gang has to toughen up if they're gonna make it.

Shozo Ise -- Nagisa Yuku（渚ゆく）

 

Initially, I'd decided to post an article on the B-side of singer-songwriter Shozo Ise's（伊勢正三）scintillating February 1981 2nd single "Moonlight", just to see how it was like. Unfortunately, I could only find an empty karaoke version of "Portugal Keel" on YouTube and I did want to have Ise's voice in there. However, I was able to find the title track from his 2nd album "Nagisa Yuku" (Going to the Beach) which was released a month later.

Also, the first track of the album, Ise took care of words and music for this relaxing mid-tempo song that hovers between City Pop and J-AOR. It really does feel like an aural version of that barefoot stroll along the beach as the sun dips below the horizon. There's nothing like the lovely inclusion of Fender Rhodes and shimmering strings. Incidentally, the album also includes "Moonlight".