Kahoru Kohiruimaki -- Keep On Dreamin

I have to say that with all of the feisty, fun and funky songs that Kahoru Kohiruimaki（小比類巻かほる） has sung...for instance, "Hold On Me", "Dreamer", and "Mirage Mirror"..."Keep On Dreamin'" is the one song that really gets my blood going for some reason. It just sounds like the intro to a blockbuster action flick or a particularly ambitious cop show....in Japan, at least. The always dependably grand Jerry Hey horns, the 22-strong disco string section, and Kahoru in funk mode....they all got together and made a grand entrance. 

And what a way to start off Kohiruimaki's 11th original album, "KOHHY II", released in February 1995. I think the title was supposed to mean her 2nd album with her then-new studio Tokuma Japan, but I'm not 100% sure on that. I'd actually bought this several years after its initial release. My Kohhy fix had been severed for several years after getting her 9th album, "Frontier" via mail order in Toronto in the early 90s. I was basically going on the fumes of past glories via BEST albums. But then, one day as I was going through the racks at the one of the used CD shops in the Liberty franchise in Tokyo, I came across this album and bought it for about half-price....about 1,500 yen. I'd had no idea what she was up to over the many years.

Well, "Keep On Dreamin'" informed me that she was doing very well indeed in the R&B vein. Kohiruimaki wrote and composed the song with help from Kei-chi Ueno. There are also some other great tunes in the album as well such as "Super Hero", "Step By Step" and "You Got It", and hopefully if they are up there on YouTube, I'd love to cover them as well individually or as the whole album.