Anzen Chitai -- No Problem

"No Problem" comes straight out of Anzen Chitai's（安全地帯）6th album, "Tsuki ni Nureta Futari"（月に濡れたふたり...Moon-Bathed Couple） which I profiled a little over a couple of years ago. As I mentioned in that posting, Koji Tamaki（玉置浩二）and his band were trying out various new sounds in that 1988 album, and "No Problem" was one of the more notable tracks for that reason.

I recall back in the early 80s this singer from Holland by the name of Taco who put on his synthpop version of Irving Berlin's classic "Puttin' On The Ritz" which subsequently became that one hit for him. "No Problem" has a similar feel except for the fact that the song was originally by Tamaki and Goro Matsui（松井五郎）. It's got that synthesized jazz sound that would make me wonder if this could have been played at that famed Tatooine cantina from "Star Wars". 

Whatever the case, Koji just takes the song and runs with it. He probably would have looked very debonair in a tuxedo back then while he was twirling around the microphone stand as it was playing. "No Problem" is certainly not in the Top 10 list of Anzen Chitai songs but it's a fun little musical diversion.

Just for the heck of it, here is that Taco version of "Puttin' On The Ritz".

And since I'm at it...I just wanted to relay something brief. Some years ago while I was doing a bit of browsing at the Tower Records by Shinjuku Station, Apparently, there was some sort of mini-fad out called Electro Swing which involved taking some of the ol' Big Band classics and putting them through the modern DJ equipment. I actually ended up buying a compilation album representing the genre but the one song that still stands out among the tracks is Café Des Belugas' tribute to "Puttin' On The Ritz". And I gotta say the video (sorry it's been taken down) does Fred Astaire proud!