First Impression -- Brand New Day

Welcome to another start to the weekend...with this one being the final one before summer leaves us for another year.

Earlier today, I was returning a comment to a fellow about how there are still many, many great singers or bands in Japan that I have yet to know about. Perhaps they never got onto the media radar but sometimes I don't think those artists and bands really needed the extra coverage. They are that good.

Found one of those bands last night. Once again, it was another random traipse into the wilds of YouTube when I discovered gold in the form of the short-lived band First Impression which merely lasted two years. According to one page, it was 1995-1997 but then on the J-Wiki article for one of the members, it was 1994-1996. In any case, it was brief.

A few years back, I wrote my first article on the wonderful Original Love, headed and then later solely represented by Takao Tajima（田島貴男）, in which I mentioned that a couple of the members left Tajima to his own devices. Well, those two were drummer Shigeo Miyata（宮田繁男）and guitarist Takashi Murayama（村山孝志）, and it didn't take too long for them to create a new unit by the name of First Impression with Reiko Tanaka（田仲玲子）who had become the vocalist of the group via an audition.

First Impression released two albums, "What's New" in 1995 and then "Supernatural" in 1996. "Brand New Day" is one of the tracks on the latter album and it's a winner. Murayama came up with the words and music, and with all of the Shibuya-kei that was booming at the time, I would classify the band's variety of what sounds like 80s British soul, Harajuku-kei or Omotesando-kei (my own names). Well, for those who know Harajuku pretty well, maybe that might be a stretch so I'll just cross Meiji-dori and go with Omotesando since that is the smoother neighbourhood. Perhaps, I can put Original Love and another band, Orange Pekoe in there as well. I just feel like that I can hear this in a stylish cafe in Omotesando and it would feel all right.

In any case, that's a really pleasant song to end a week on although the lyrics tell of how much someone is regretting the end of a romance although he/she knew it was coming up fast. It might be a brand new day but the old one is still clinging on like a bad habit apparently.

That J-Wiki article for one of First Impression's members was for drummer Miyata. Sadly I found out that he had passed away a couple of years ago due to illness at the age of 55.