I made a new friend on one of the J-Pop Oldies forum some hours ago, and he was interested in some of the more technopop-based stuff. Of course, he knew the Yellow Magic Orchestra but I also steered him to this other unit called PSY-S, which launched in 1985 and lasted about a decade.
My first few entries on KK Plus have been on singles and albums that have hit the Top 10 on Oricon, but I also wanted to introduce some of these other unsung heroes and heroines who (in my opinion anyways) have great voices and tunes. PSY-S is definitely one of these bands. The duo consisted of "vocal powerhouse"(quotes and other info via Wikipedia) Mami CHAKA Yasunori （康則まみ）, and instrumentalist/composer Masaya Matsuura. （松浦雅也）
The two of them carved out a popular niche for themselves with Matsuura's Fairlight CMI synth and CHAKA's unique delivery. Their sound had a bit more of a technorock feel to it, compared to YMO's pop/traditional Japanese approach. And certainly compared to what was on the Oricon charts during that time, they were very different.
According to Wiki, "Lemon no Yuuki"（レモンの勇気）is supposed to be the most famous release by the pair in the West...for anime fans, anyways. However, one of my favorite songs by PSY-S is "Fuzzy na Itami", a hauntingly beautiful tune about heartbreak (I'm really gonna have to find songs which don't deal with this theme all the time), which was released in the summer of 1989.
What ever happened to CHAKA and Matsuura? Well, CHAKA went full circle in her career....she had initially started out as a jazz singer in her native Osaka, and after her decade with PSY-S, she went back to being a chanteuse, releasing a number of albums. Matsuura went into producing video games, including PS 2's "PaRappa the Rapper".
Try some of the other songs by them on YouTube as well.
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