Wink -- Manatsu no Tremolo（真夏のトレモロ）

From YouTube

I'd been noticing it for a while but the Labels on the right had been showing 1,990 articles under the Aidoru tag. Well then, I decided (having that little bit of whimsy inside me) that the next article regarding an aidoru wouldn't only be the 1991st article but also an article about an aidoru with a song from the year 1991.

Well, when I think of aidoru from 1991, my first thought will always concoct the duo Wink. And sure enough, I found their 11th single from June of that year, "Manatsu no Tremolo" (Midsummer Tremolo). It's a song that I hadn't heard in so long and yet when I made my reacquaintance with it yesterday, the memories came back and I gave myself a Gibbs slap for forgetting about it in the first place.

First off, I'm not a musicologist or a musician, so I had to find out what a tremolo is. According to Wikipedia:

Tremolo: "trembling" or "quivering". In music, it describes a wavering effect created either by repeating a single note very quickly, rapidly alternating between two different notes, or quickly varying the volume of a sound.

Now, as to how a tremolo fits into a Wink single, I'm not sure. Perhaps Neko Oikawa's（及川眠子）lyrics refer to a young lady quivering herself over some sort of love affair. Takashi Kudo's（工藤崇）melody with Satoshi Kadokura's（門倉聡）arrangement is right along the Wink formula of synth-heavy Eurobeat (although I could use a confirmation or denial on whether "Manatsu no Tremolo" would be considered Eurobeat), and again I'm not sure if any tremolo effect had been employed in the music. 

The music video above was also one of a number of such Wink videos that employed a ton of computer graphics. The effects company staffers probably didn't have to worry about their kids' tuition for college during the Wink heyday. In any case, "Manatsu no Tremolo" hit No. 2 on Oricon, going Gold. By the end of 1991, the song was the 63rd-ranked single of the year. It was also placed as a track on Wink's 6th album "Queen of Love" which was released in July that same year.

Masahiro Kuwana -- Limelight（ライム・ライト）

From Rakuten

Just by coincidence, I noticed that yesterday would have been singer-songwriter Masahiro Kuwana's（桑名正博）73rd birthday. Unfortunately though, the native of Osaka had passed away at the age of 59 in 2012 from heart failure.

I came across this track from his 5th album titled "Kuwana No. 5" from June 1979. "Limelight" is a cool and strutting number that has been classified as blues-rock and I can also throw in City Pop and New Music into the mix. With lyrics by Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）, "Limelight" was composed by Kuwana while its arrangement was handled by the singer and Canadian-American composer and arranger David Campbell. Noting how TOTO-like the song felt, I tried to search whether Campbell had anything to do with the legendary American band. I couldn't find anything definitive but the man has worked with artists on both sides of the Pacific including X Japan, Chika Ueda（上田知華）, Jackson Browne and Carole King.

Anri -- Sentimental Express

 

When it comes to Anri's（杏里）albums, I've devoted articles to them such as her 1981 "Kanashimi no Kujaku" （哀しみの孔雀）and her 1988 "Boogie Woogie Mainland". And then there are times when I cover individual tracks from an album through individual articles over many years. I think her "Mystique" from June 1986 is one such example and I'm going with the most updated version with the bonus tracks from 2011. Thus far, I've done "Innocent Time", "Morning Squall/Evening Rain"（モーニング スコール）and "Honeymoon Shuttle"（蜜月船）. 

From what I've read of "Mystique" on J-Wiki (which peaked at No. 6 on Oricon), it seems as if Anri had wanted to once more have a clean slate with a new album with help from new songwriters and new sounds, without any assistance from Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）who had been producing and writing for her for several years prior. In a way, it reminds me of the aforementioned "Kanashimi no Kujaku" which was also quite a different project for Anri which involved her trying out different things there as well.

I have here her second track from "Mystique", "Sentimental Express". And although this is not a Kadomatsu-penned number per se, it is still City Pop with that crystalline synth, boppy bass, a good bouncy rhythm and a nice battery of horns. What's interesting is that "Sentimental Express" may have been the first collaboration among composer Anri, lyricist Yumi Yoshimoto（吉本由美）and arranger Yasuharu Ogura（小倉泰治）. Getting into Japan in 1989, it became a tradition for me to buy up new Anri albums at the CD shops. Starting with "Boogie Woogie Mainland", I saw that songwriting triangle of Anri, Yoshimoto and Ogura becoming the main engine behind the next few albums of hers leading from the late 80s into the early 90s as the singer adopted more American R&B dance pop. If "Sentimental Express" had been an audition of sorts for Yoshimoto and Ogura, then they passed swimmingly.

Crest Four Singers -- Elise

 

I still don't know a lot about the vocal group Crest Four Singers aside from the fact that they had started out in the 1970s with Tsunehiro/Norihiro Uchida（内田典宏）as a folk/Mood Kayo group before female vocalist Kazumi Kaai（かあいかずみ）joined. Then, the group went more into the jazz and urban contemporary.

At this point, Crest Four Singers released two albums with their debut being the 1978 "The Crest Four Singers" (the definite article, you might say? Sorry, that was a "Doctor Who" joke), and I've yet to hear the entire album (as provided above) but it seems as if the group was fully in thrall to their jazzier side by this point. At 4:15 of the video is the second track, "Elise", a rum punch of a song with influences that seemingly fly in from Santana, Henry Mancini and disco. Kaai shapes her vocals like a seen-it-all and done-it-all heiress in the lap of luxury while Uchida and the rest of the Singers provide some French in some funky harmony. Listening to the coolness of "Elise", I just kinda wonder why I never heard about Crest Four Singers at the same frequency of fellow vocal acts Hi-Fi Set and Circus.

Michiru Kojima -- Haruka naru Rakuen（遥かなる楽園）

 

For some reason, YouTube's "kojima michiru -- Topic" placed this song and album as 1996 productions when they actually come from the year (September) 1986. But to be honest, listening to the cool and crystalline "Haruka naru Rakuen" (Distant Paradise), I probably would have believed the 1996 dating. There's just something about the certain synths or other keyboards in the song that also has me thinking the 1990s.

But let's not stray from my observation that this is a pretty good tune by Michiru Kojima（児島未散）. Written by Chiroru Yaho（谷穂ちろる）and composed by Masaki Matsubara（松原正樹）with Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）as arranger, I was hovering between City Pop and regular pop for at least half the song until certain urbane chords punched their way through and that saxophone at the end finally convinced me that we had another City Pop tune. I guess on the pop side of things, we can consider "Haruka naru Rakuen" a pop tune of sophistication. Incidentally, this song belongs to the album "Michille".

Ken Shima -- Misty

 

Yup, I still have the latest Seizo Watase（わたせせいぞう）calendar hanging up in my room. If I can't have the good life, well, at least, I can watch it vicariously.

According to YouTuber Marty McFlies v2, there was a manga by Watase known as "Hurricane" which lasted all of one volume, and jazz pianist/arranger Ken Shima（島健）created an image album of music based on it. Released in 1989, this album, also known as "Hurricane", looks awfully classy on its cover...almost like an old movie poster of some thriller movie starring Bogie and Bacall. Shima is no stranger to Watase projects since he had also been helping out on the anime form of the illustrator's "Heart Cocktail" through songs such as "Cool Lunch Time"（クールランチタイム）.

The first track on "Hurricane" is a cover of the 1954 jazz standard "Misty" by jazz pianist Erroll Garner. Shima's take on it is very refined and romantic...somewhat Mancini-esque in arrangement. I start remembering the more tender moments in the detective dramedies "Moonlighting" and "Remington Steele" when I hear this one. Very expensive dinners under moonlight also come to mind. 

Cunimondo Takiguchi's Personal Selection for His Top 10 City Pop Albums of the 1980s ~ Part 2

 

Last week, I started posting a 2-parter translation of an article that I'd found in the April 2018 issue of "Record Collectors" titled "Cunimondo Takiguchi ga Erabu Shiteki Hachi-juu Nendai City Pop Best 10"（クニモンド瀧口が選ぶ私的80年代シティポップベスト10）. Part 1 contains the Ryusenkei（流線形）leader's first five albums for his Top 10 City Pop list and I'll be wrapping up here with Nos. 6-10. Again, although he doesn't go into great detail about his choices, I will still leave what he said about each one. One more point is that except for No. 6, I was able to bring in whole albums for the other entries. (Part 1 of the article is here.)

6. Baker's Shop with Haruko (Kuwana) -- Hot Line (1980)

I got to know Baker's Shop when they performed as Ruriko Ohgami's（大上留利子）backup band on "Yoru no Hit Studio"（夜のヒットスタジオ）. I thought that their playing was just so cool and reminiscent of a bunch of foreign studio musicians. It was through my discovery of Haruko's "Akogare no Sundown"（あこがれのSundown）in the 90s that I found out about this album. Their wonderful performance was able to bring back some distant memories to me.

7. Harumi Ohzora -- VIVA (1983)

The tropical impressions I got from the savannah band kayo of "VIVA" led to some exciting metropolitan vibes even within all of that nostalgia. 

8. JADOES -- Free Drink (1987)

I bought "Free Drink" because Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）was the producer.

9. Toshiki Kadomatsu -- Gold Digger ~ with true love ~ (1985)

As for "Gold Digger", my buddies and I sang "Tokyo Tower" while driving through Roppongi back in our high school days. We really got that urban vibe.

10. Kyosuke Kusunoki -- Just Tonight (1985)

The AOR and soul here felt just right and I couldn't get enough of its urbaneness. Hiroshi Narumi's（鳴海博）guitar and arrangement were the best.