Akina Nakamori -- Aishuu Majutsu（哀愁魔術）

For all of the tango-like rhythms that I've associated with some of Akina Nakamori's（中森明菜）songs in recent years, I think there was a certain sound that characterized her music way back when she first started off as an aidoru in 1982.

I'm still in the midst of exploring Akina-chan's earlier material since until recently I had only known her singles and not the rest of her album-based tracks. So I went into YouTube and checked to see if any of her music from her 2nd album "Variation ~ Hensoukyoku"（変奏曲）was there.

Lucky enough, I did find "Aishuu Majutsu" (Sorcery of Sorrow), one of those tracks from that album released in October 1982. And indeed, it still does serve as an example of that early Akina sound. I think compared to Seiko Matsuda's（松田聖子）girlish innocence imbued into her music, Nakamori's songs had that certain urgency in an urban setting. The instruments that I often heard in her music including "Aishuu Majutsu" were those alternately sweeping/cutting strings signifying some sort of crisis matched up with some soft keyboards perhaps representing an innocence going lost in the young teen.

That's about as far as I can go as a musicologist, I'm afraid. As an Akina fan and overall Japanese music enthusiast for the 1980s, I simply enjoy the nostalgia of the music which was composed by Yasuo Kosugi（小杉保夫）. Speaking of which, "Aishuu Majutsu" has a pretty snazzy guitar solo as well. Yukinojo Mori（森雪之丞）took care of the lyrics which speak of the giddiness and pathos of a love affair as seen through the prism of a Hollywood romance.

As for "Variation", Akina's 2nd album did hit No. 1 on Oricon. Most likely, it will be a Xmas target for me...provided that Canada Post settles its labour problems by November. I also have a postscript in that another song that I've already written about about Akina is also from "Variation".