Momoko Kikuchi -- Mystical Composer (ミスティカルコンポーザー)

Momoko Kikuchi（菊池桃子）has turned out to be quite the fascinating aidoru for me. Sure, she came out with the usual cutesy tunes such as "Say Yes!" but at the same time, she also released songs that were surprisingly adult contemporary in nature...right into City Pop or J-AOR.

Case in point: "Mystical Composer" which was a track on Kikuchi's 3rd album, "Adventure" from June 1986. Somehow those whispery/breathy vocals blend in well with Tetsuji Hayashi's（林哲司）mellow music; that melody sounds just tailor-made for anything in the discography of Omega Tribe, another Hayashi client (the fellow was also behind "Say Yes!"). And yet, this was an 80s aidoru taking care of this song and a number of other similar tunes. Marcos and I were talking about the current group Especia as this aidoru crew tackling the genre but I'm starting to think whether Momoko was the ultimate progenitor of marrying City Pop and aidoru.

Junko Sato（佐藤純子）wrote the lyrics about the young lady who has fallen head-over-heels for this wonderful weaver of music while seemingly surrounded by the environment that would make up a cover for a City Pop compilation album: a turning turntable and being on that roof of a sports car with the wind blowing by. Considering the title and lyrics, I kinda wonder how Hayashi must have been feeling.

Although I couldn't find any information on J-Wiki indicating it as so, I also wonder whether the powers-that-be had always wanted to mold the singer into this unique teen idol of adult contemporary music. I mean, the titles for her first 3 albums were "Ocean Side", "Tropic of Capricorn" and "Adventure". Those titles practically scream City Pop, Resort Pop and AOR. It's a wonder that there was no image of a soaring plane (the unofficial symbol of City Pop) not-so-subtly pasted on any of those albums.

When I decided to post up this song, I had also been surmising that someone like Artzie Music would have arranged "Mystical Composer" into a piece of Future Funk. Well, the above remix isn't by him but by someone called FauXFaX.