Looks like we've got the electro trio helping out here. The most recent of these acts that I've talked about was tofubeats when I posted his "Angels on the Dance Floor" at the end of May this year. 80kidz and AAAMYYY were last visited back in 2023.
.jpg) |
| Nagoya Castle by Base64 via Wikimedia Commons |
Last week, I posted up "Sagamihara Singers" in tribute to the fact that my hometown of Toronto and the city of Sagamihara had a sister-city relationship. Tonight, I'm talking about "Nagoya Singers" but my inspiration isn't connected to any similar bond between Nagoya and a Canadian city. In fact, I don't think Nagoya has any sister-city relationships with any urban zones in my nation although it does have them with Los Angeles, Mexico City and Sydney.
Nope, the impetus for writing about singers or bands who come from Japan's 4th-largest city is today's edition of NHK's "Asaichi"（あさイチ）morning information show. It just so happens that the focus was on Nagoya and all of those scrumptious dishes that originate there and elsewhere in its Aichi Prefecture. When I saw that wonderful dish of grilled eel called hitsumabushi（ひつまぶし）on my screen earlier, I just went "OK...got my second article for Hump Day!". But have a look at hitsumabushi and some of the other famous local treats in the video above from Mui's Diary.
Anyways, I've got four acts here from Nagoya. Please enjoy!
(1983) Junko Yagami -- Jealous
Well, it's Hump Day so folks can usually get into the doldrums on Wednesday. Luckily, it actually feels refreshingly cool outside with a stiff breeze blowing all about. I would probably advise a lot of Japanese tourists to come over to our neck of the woods to escape all of the heat and humidity plaguing much of the archipelago...especially the residents of Nagoya.
Speaking about refreshing, maybe I can interest you in a glass of singer-songwriter Tomoharu Taki's（滝ともはる）discography. He's been known for some City Pop but I'm wondering if his "Toki" (Time) from his 1979 album "Taki Tomoharu II"（滝ともはるII）really fits the label. Not that there is anything wrong with it; in fact, I did refer to it as being rather refreshing in a sparkling way. It certainly begins in that manner, and we soon get to hear some laidback singing over a gently percolating Latin-esque rhythm that makes me think of a sunny inner city neighbourhood where everyone knows everyone else. And then comes the saxophone solo.😊Enjoy it with any drink you like.
I caught my first "Uta Con"（うたコン）in a couple of weeks, and not surprisingly, the theme of the episode this week was the summer song. So, of course, one of the ultimate J-Pop summery bands TUBE showed up, and I have to say that leader and vocalist Nobuteru Maeda（前田亘輝）did a great job with Tatsuro Yamashita's（山下達郎）"Ride on Time".
Veteran aidoru group Juice=Juice was also there and if I'm not mistaken, they took care of the finale. They sang their 20th single as a major act, "More! Mi Amore" (Look Hot! Mi Amore) which is actually one-half of a double A-side single accompanying "Shi no Go no Iwazu Satto Wakarete Ageta"（四の五の言わず颯(さっ)と別れてあげた...I Made a Clean Break of It Without Any Fuss）. I'd assumed that the single was their latest from this year but it actually got released in October 2025.
Another crazy assumption that I'd had was that looking at the title, I thought this was some sort of tribute to Akina Nakamori's（中森明菜）"Meu Amore" but that's further from the truth. Instead, the song was written and composed by singer-songwriter Aoi Yamazaki（山崎あおい）although both songs have got that frenetic Latin spice infused into their DNA. There's nothing like a Latin-arranged aidoru tune to get the group going all crazy with the choreography which will get the fans all into a lather at the concerts. The single managed to hit No. 2 on Oricon.
It's threatening rain out there as I type this now, but so far, any precipitation has held off. Plus, compared to some of the heat that was bombarding us last week, it's been quite pleasantly cooler today, and the wonderful thing is that the huge cloud of forest fire smoke from northern Ontario has largely stopped coming our way.
We have another obscure pop singer from the 1980s in our midst here. I could find little on Yuko Machida（街田祐子）aside from the fact that she released (only?) two singles in 1981 with the first one being "Yuuwaku Summer" (Summer of Temptation). Now, the songwriters here were lyricist/composer Ichiro Araki（荒木一郎）and arranger Akira Inoue（井上鑑）, both of whom have had their hands in the City Pop jar. However, aside from a few chord progressions that struck me as being City Pop, "Yuuwaku Summer" is really a cute pop ditty with Machida's twee vocals, although I don't think she was ever labeled as an aidoru. In addition, looking at the single cover with the singer wearing that particular dress, I'd expected something like a 50s/60s pop song but it actually all sounds rather contemporary to me (except for a boss sax blast).
.tiff.jpg) |
| Big Dipper Asterism by NOIRLab via Wikimedia Commons |
For all those very dedicated "Kayo Kyoku Plus" readers and fans of singer-songwriter Shozo Ise（伊勢正三）in general, it's probably quite well known that Ise has had appendages in both the folk and City Pop fields. I've often written on his urban contemporary material including "Heart Beat" which was the topic of the most recent article that I wrote about him back in January.
Well, this time around, I'm swerving back to his folk roots via his song "Omoide ga Tsukinai Yoru" (A Night of Endless Memories) which was not only his first single from April 1980, but also a track on his debut album "Hokuto Shichisei"（北斗七星...The Big Dipper） which hit the record store shelves on the same day as that single. It's quite the folksy tune, written and composed by Ise, albeit with a richer sheen of sophistication in the arrangement. Maybe this could have been a transitional song for him from folk to City Pop. I also have to admire the song being played with the backdrop of a sky-view Tokyo at night, thanks to uploader Taka Kash. Would be interested in hearing what the rest of "Hokuto Shichisei" sounds like.
Happy Monday! Well, the third Monday of July has already passed in Japan but they did celebrate a long weekend culminating in the national holiday of "Umi no Hi" or Marine Day (or Sea Day or Ocean Day). I was watching the NHK news footage of kids and grownups hitting the sea and having oodles of fun while the heat wave bombarded on them. And so I figured about whether I actually had done a tribute to the national holiday. As it turned out, I did do a tribute back in 2023, also on the third Monday of July.
But I still wouldn't let the idea of another Author's Picks go. So thanks to a J-Wiki entry called "Umi wo Daizai to Shita Gakkyoku"（海を題材とした楽曲...Songs Themed on the Sea）, I was able to find some more ocean-frolicking-themed tunes that I had already written about way back when. Without further ado then:
(1966) The Wild Ones -- Omoide no Nagisa（想い出の渚）
(1980) Seiko Matsuda -- Aoi Sangoshou（青い珊瑚礁）
(1984) Junichi Inagaki -- Ocean Blue （オーシャンブルー）
(1984) Kiyotaka Sugiyama & Omega Tribe -- Kimi no Heart wa Marine Blue （君のハートはマリンブルー）
(1985) Yukiko Okada -- Summer Beach
(1986) TUBE -- Season In The Sun
