One of the drawbacks about doing the blog is that for the more unsung singers, it's difficult to find videos of their songs to showcase, and eventually, those videos that are found will be taken down due to the inevitable copyright issues. Not that I blame the singers or the recording studios; they have to get their due. However, it just means that a song that I would have continued to enjoy introducing to the masses has now disappeared, possibly forever.
I start off this way because one prime example is here. Yui Murase（村瀬由衣）is not a well-known singer, especially in the world of J-Pop fans outside of Japan. However, I found out about her through one of the issues of "Eye-Ai" over 20 years ago and found the cover of her debut album "Suiyoubi no Asa, Mado wo Akeru"（水曜日の朝、窓を開ける...Open Your Windows on Wednesday Morning）so enticing that I ended up getting that album through the magazine's mail order shopping.
I did write my introductory article about Murase last year but unfortunately the videos have been taken down. However, I have decided to refrain from putting it into mothballs since there is that background about her in that article and I didn't want to repeat myself here about her bio. Scrolled through any videos of her on YouTube but it looks like a good chunk of them have been deleted. C'est dommage!
Keeping my chin up, I will re-introduce this singer of mellow and sometimes sophisticated pop through this lovely little bit of bossa nova titled "Shiosai" (Sound of Waves) that she sang on her 4th album "Yui Murase" from June 1994. Always a sucker for the Brazilian genre, I think Friday night makes for a nice time to bring this in. At my age, I haven't made it a practice to go out with friends on Friday nights for quite a few years now, but I would like to be in an appropriate supper club with this being performed on stage by the singer.
Yumi Yoshimoto（吉元由美）took care of the lyrics while Hidetoshi Yamada（山田秀俊）came up with the lovely music. Yesterday, I bought a couple of CDs of not-everyday artists from CD Japan; perhaps it's time to give Murase some more attention again.
Good morning - another 5am "too mellow to wake up" listen. I like bossa nova, growing up with Girl from Ipanema - and this slots in very well, thank you. It seems to me that the Japanese arrangements are a bit more lush (strings, chorus) than a lot of the Latin (more sparse), but they keep it mixed down so it doesn't overwhelm the inherent gentleness of the vocals. Or is that only sampling bias? My favorite is still "Ooki Neko" by Sayuri Kokusho; it suits her voice very well.
ReplyDeleteYou raise a very interesting point about vids being up and down; I'm curious - do you only link, or would you post something yourself that wasn't available but you had? Not a current record, but something out of print for 30 years ... I have a turntable that rips directly to mp3; originally to preserve my 400+ doo-wop singles. But also for songs difficult to find on YT, CD, or not on CD (e.g. All-Nighters チュッとセンセーション album - the 2nd album is readily available on CD, the first was issued in 2006, is OOP and now goes for $$$). I wonder if I'd get the knock on the door if I posted anything to FB for example .....
Hello, T-cat. I think "lush" would be a very good way to describe some of the material coming in for female Japanese pop singers in the late 80s and early 90s. I would say that it was almost a throwback to the standards from the 50s and 60s in the United States in terms of arrangement. To be honest, I wouldn't mind a return of that style again. Y'know...a nice bit of Quiet Storm.
DeleteI only link or import videos although I could put up a song through the software, and yup, my turntable can do the same thing with some effort. However, I think it would be a slippery slope if I were to do so and after 5 years, I think I would be naive in thinking that no one from JASRAC or the recording studios had at least heard the title of the blog. :)