Miharu Koshi -- Keep On Dancin'

Last week, I wrote my first profile on Miharu Koshi（越美晴） via her debut single, "Love Step"(1978), a City Pop tune. And for the first three years of her career, she was releasing jaunty songs of that genre.

However, after 1981, she went away for a couple of years. I was reading some of her comments from the liner notes of her 2009 album, "Epoque de Techno", which was a re-release of the first two albums from her new era as　コシミハル, "Tutu" and "Parallelisme". And those two years seemed like an existential struggle for Koshi as she tried to find a new sound for herself with the help of the synthesizer. Apparently studio after studio flatly rejected her new sound, until YMO member, Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）, gave her some rave reviews about the demo tape that she had let him listen to.  And with that, Hosono produced "Tutu".

The starkness of the album cover with Koshi looking very different starting with a short Audrey Hepburn-type haircut was just the beginning. One of the tracks on the album (none of them were ever released as singles) is "Keep On Dancin'", a strangely New Wave/Old Jazz concoction written and composed by Koshi....kinda reminds me of some of the stuff Taco, the Indonesian-born Dutch singer, when he had a hit with his synthesizer version of "Puttin' On The Ritz" in 1982. And her voice sounded as if it had been boosted up an octave or so...a bit more on the coquettish side.

Overall, Koshi was on a new avenue of musical possibilities, away from her City Pop roots and into something more interesting. Just my opinion here, but I think by doing so, she was able to keep her career going for far longer, and according to her notes, she's had no regrets.

Left: Miharu Koshi RCA Years (her City Pop stuff)
Right: Koshi Miharu Epoque de Techno