Seri Ishikawa/Taeko Ohnuki -- Hoshikuzu no Machi de Dakishimete--(星くずの街で抱きしめて）

Seri Ishikawa（石川セリ）, a native of Kanagawa Prefecture, first debuted in 1971. I'm still getting to know her since I have only listened to her Best album just once. From my initial impressions, she started out with the conventional kayo kyoku pop before stepping out a bit into City Pop ("Japanese City Pop" was how I decided to get that Best album) and a bit of technopop. Then, into the 80s, she went into a direction that will have to grow on me after listening to some of her stuff from that decade.

But I came across this appealingly quirky little pop tune on YouTube, "Hoshikuzu no Machi de Dakishimete" (Hold Me On the Stardust Avenue). From the year and the twee little synthesizer, it's a Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）composition that was on Ishikawa's 6th album, "Hoshikuzu no Machi de" (On the Stardust Avenue).

Ishikawa also happens to be the wife of even more famous singer, Yosui Inoue（井上揚水）.

Ohnuki herself performed the song at a 1982 festival in Aoyama, according to the YouTube writeup. This is not meant as any slight against Ohnuki since I am a huge fan of hers (as you all have figured out), but the recording sounds as if she'd been singing with a taped instrumental backup instead of a real band behind her. But I could be wrong.

Also, I would like to say thanks to everyone who's come and visited the blog over the past 3 months. We just passed 4,000 views!