GAL -- Magnet Joe ni Ki wo Tsukero（マグネット・ジョーに気をつけろ）

 

It was a dozen years ago that I first posted on the short-lived aidoru trio GAL（ギャル）. Lasting between 1977 and 1979, just to refresh folks' memories, GAL consisted of Mayumi Kuroki（黒木真由美）, Hitomi Meguro （目黒ひとみ）and Michiyo Ishie（石江理世）initially. Ishie left the group in 1978 with Akiyo Nakaseko（中世古明代）taking her place for the remaining time into 1979.

That article that I posted back in 2014 was for their debut single "Bara to Pistol"（薔薇とピストル）in October 1977. Well, for this long-awaited grand reunion on KKP, I have their second single "Magnet Joe ni Ki wo Tsukero"（マグネット・ジョーに気をつけろ...Watch Out for Magnet Joe） from February 1978. I had no idea who Magnet Joe was and I'd assumed that he was some sort of anime or manga character but actually I think he's just an especially charismatic cad who pulls the women in and repels them once they've served their purpose. Created by the same songwriting team behind "Bara to Pistol", lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）, composer Makoto Kawaguchi（川口真）and arranger Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）, the music is nice and disco kayo, and in a way, I think the ladies dressed the part as well. In fact, I could even say that they kinda hit a refined middle ground between the more girl-next-door types of Candies（キャンディーズ）and the hyperactive dancing duo Pink Lady（ピンクレディー）.

Teruhiko Aoi -- Epilogue（終章）

 

The songwriting sibling team of lyricist Etsuko and singer-composer Takao Kisugi（来生えつこ・来生たかお）is pretty much legendary through the annals of Japanese pop music. I don't quite know how far their history goes back. Brother Takao starts from 1976 but his elder sister Etsuko has it mentioned in her J-Wiki profile that it's sometime in the 1970s. 

This particular song recorded by Teruhiko Aoi（あおい輝彦）will probably go down as one of the Kisugis' earliest joint works. "Epilogue" (although the kanji is formally read as "shuushou") was arranged by Shunichi Makaino（馬飼野俊一）and it's appropriately the final track on Aoi's October 1977  2-LP BEST album "Aoi Teruhiko ~ Anata dake wo -- Johnny's wo Kikinagara"（あおい輝彦 – あなただけを～ジャニスを聴きながら...Only You -- While Listening to Johnny's）.

When it comes to the Kisugis, I've usually said that they can come up with some nicely lush ballads, and "Epilogue" is perhaps one of their earlier successes in this mold. It sounds proud and elegiac and there's a hint of Frank Sinatra's "My Way" in terms of the overall feeling as the protagonist seems to be looking back on a life well fed and well led.

Sandii -- Hey Rock-A La La

From deepsonic via Wikimedia Commons

I think I may have mentioned it before but one of my regrets was that I never learned how to play the piano. But then again, considering how much I struggled with the French horn and the clarinet, perhaps it was just as well that I didn't bother with keyboards. The number of piano teachers who would have ended up in a fetal position because of me scarcely bears imagining.

Still, I wonder from time to time about handling something like a synthesizer like the folks in Yellow Magic Orchestra and Kraftwerk did. Nope, neither of those two groups is directly involved here, but Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）, one-third or one-quarter of YMO, did produce Sandii's 1980 solo record "Eating Pleasure" and arranged this track "Hey Rock-A La La". Compared to the more technopop track "Idol Era" which starts the album off, this particular one, which has Sandii starting off like a squeaking dolphin, has more of a body-thrashing B-52s tribal rock vibe although I think we're still firmly within the New Wave. Ronnie Barron and Jim Nash were responsible for the songwriting here.

Satellite Young -- Shin Sekai Banzai（新世界Banzai）

 

The above photo by Basile Morin is of Maison Hermes in Ginza. Yup, it's the building for the Hermes company in Tokyo and I actually taught classes there for a while. The glass blocks used to create the exterior were all shipped over right from Italy. And one benefit from teaching there was that I could get a nice brand wedding present for my brother and his wife.

But the point that I actually wanted to make is that for newcomers to Tokyo, seeing architecture like Maison Hermes and a lot of other buildings can be really dazzling. And the Japanese megalopolis was just as dazzling to me back in 1981 when I was on that graduation trip for a month. Elevator girls, plastic food displays and the Toyota Asteroid (nope, it doesn't look as great as I remember it) concept car....got to witness all that and more. It partially explains why I'm communicating with you right now in 2026.

I think that's why the band Satellite Young is communicating with us through their June 2019 single "Shin Sekai Banzai" (New World Banzai) as they entice us to join the world of the digital and neon. The music video's setting is Shanghai, China and I've noticed that there are a few cities in the People's Republic that could be very enticing to futurists. Satellite Young's technopop style is perhaps the ideal music to get folks to escape from the gray and mundane to the colorful and exciting. My question is whether there is a soul within all that crystal.

Miki Nakayama -- Just Now

 

I'll be honest...when I first saw the thumbnail of the above YouTube video and that name of Miki Nakayama（中山美紀）, I wondered if this was some sort of AI construct. But as it turns out, the young lady here is a real flesh-n'-blood aidoru from the 1980s. And most likely, she is one of the rarest of the rare in that she only put out one single in March 1983 before her record label, Climax Records, collapsed apparently, according to YouTuber nothingmuch;). As did her singing career.

"Just Now" is a rollicking song that does have that 80s vibe of swinging synthesizers and a beat that reminds me of a lot of the more upbeat American pop songs that were coming out back at the same time. The melody was provided by veteran Katsuo Ono（大野克夫）but the interesting here is that the lyrics were written by none other than Leiji Matsumoto（松本零士）, the man behind the original manga of "Uchuusenkan Yamato"（宇宙戦艦ヤマト）and other classics. I had never heard of the legend ever writing song lyrics and so I'm now wondering if he worked with other singers.

Ayumi Amano -- Kakueki Teisha（各駅停車）

 

Although I can't take credit for the photo itself (which is provided by nesnad via Wikimedia Commons), it is a shot of my old subway station on the Tozai Line, Minami-Gyotoku Station, in Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture. When I started living in the area, I quickly learned that my station could only be served by kakueki teisha or local subways which stopped at every station. The station just west of Minami-Gyotoku is Urayasu and it has both kakueki teisha and kaisoku（快速...rapid express）. It was often the case that on my way home, I took the kaisoku as far as Urayasu, got off and then waited for the kakueki teisha to take me to Minami-Gyotoku. If I ended up sleeping on the former train, well, I'd end up several stations east of my home, much to my chagrin.

Some of my salarymen students have fallen prey to the kaisoku trap due to drunkenness or fatigue. They ended up all the way in the countryside by failing to get off at the right stop. One guy ended up on the final kaisoku of the night and by the time the train reached the terminus out in the dark woods, even the last local train had shut down. That was one expensive taxi ride back to civilization and then a confrontation with an angry wife.

About a couple of months ago, I introduced singer Ayumi Amano（天野歩美）who had once been part of the duo Kilala & Ulala (キララとウララ) in the 1980s. Well, going solo in the following decade, she released her first album in 1992, "Okurimono ga Aru no"（贈り物があるの...I've Got a Present For You） from which I introduced the track "Suki na Mono wa Suki"（好きなものは好き）. I found out about the album through  kinuzure's blog "Tamaranaku, AOR Kayo"（たまらなく、AOR歌謡...Irresistible, AOR Kayo）.

Well, another track from "Okurimono ga Aru no" is "Kakueki Teisha". Although kinuzure had indicated that the album was a hidden City Pop treasure, I didn't particularly find "Suki na Mono wa Suki" to be from that particular genre, being more straight-ahead pop in my estimation. However, "Kakueki Teisha" is closer to urban form. It starts out with a nice fresh riff that to kinuzure sounds reminiscent of Christopher Cross although I think it's more Pat Metheny. Written by Kumiko Yoshizawa（吉澤久美子）and composed by Amano herself, it's a bright and light 90s tune that definitely doesn't sound anything like the unfortunate incidents involving my students by not transferring to the local train.

Uwanosora -- Koi Suru Dress（恋するドレス）/Matenro（摩天楼）

 

It's feeling refreshingly cool in my room since I've had the windows open, so why not finish this edition of Urban Contemporary Friday with something mellower but still good for a night out? I've got Uwanosora's（ウワノソラ）debut single from April 2015, "Koi Suru Dress" (The Dress I've Fallen In Love With). Written and composed by Uwanosora guitarist Hirohide Kadoya（角谷博栄）, I do love the Fender Rhodes, the laidback horns and the tender strings accompanying vocalist Megumi Iemoto（いえもとめぐみ）. It's interesting to see the music video awash in black and white although I especially enjoy the evening street scenes. Nice touch with the chorus sounding like a cold wind.

Now, "Koi Suru Dress" shares double billing on that 2015 vinyl with their song "Matenro" (Skyscraper) with the latter song being the A-side. I figure that there are probably quite a few City Pop songs across the decades with "matenro" in the title since the tall office buildings are the architectural representatives of the uber-genre. So, why shouldn't Uwanosora come up with their own "Matenro"? The tempo picks up quite a bit here in a way that makes it feel like skyscraper-viewing should be an official urban hobby in Tokyo. Walking on the pavement or driving on the highway, this is another musical accompaniment for some high time in the metropolis. Kadoya was also responsible for words and music but he was joined on the composition side by former member Tomomichi Oketa（桶田知道）.