Late last week, I received an e-mail from Eamonn at the University of Glasgow who hosts "chOOn!!" on Subcity Radio. His monthly program covers a wide variety of music from all over the planet including some of the more eclectic material from Japan, and so he wanted to let me know how much he enjoyed the works by singer-songwriter Mioko Yamaguchi（山口美央子）. His next show, incidentally, will be broadcast this Saturday (October 6th, 11-1pm GMT) and then available for streaming afterwards.
Eamonn's message reminded me of Ms. Yamaguchi, so I wanted to put up another song by her once more, and I'm going with one of her tracks on her debut album "Yume Hiko"（夢飛行）which I had written about in February this year. And as I had remarked for that 1980 release, Yamaguchi was trying all sorts of genres, which has been a boon for me, certainly, and I hope for the rest of her fans.
A track that I didn't cover in the "Yume Hiko" article is "Itsuka Yurarete Tooi Kuni" (A Distant Country to be Shaken Someday) which starts off right from Note 1 with a pleasant synthesizer hook. It's happily trippy and skippy and rather takes me off to YMO land to a certain extent, and there's indeed an underlying layer of being taken to some futuristic place in Asia for a whirlwind tour. The song definitely doesn't overstay its welcome at a shade over three minutes. In fact, I would say that it almost acts like a song for a montage scene of exploring the megalopolis in some cute Tokyo-based sci-fi/adventure movie.
I came upon this song last night- a lucky recommendation from the streaming service I use- and immediately went to look more up about her music and her fabulous style! It’s so interesting to hear about- especially from your other post focusing on more of the Yume Hiko album and her other songs- how the music “morphs” over time because I think it’s such a beautiful thing to witness throughout the course of music. I loved listening and reading about how she tried out all sorts of different genres, she’s a catchy artist. A very lucky find for me! I’m glad to see people posting online about her work (even if it is from 7 years ago now, LOL)!
ReplyDeleteHi, Chloe. Yamaguchi may not be the most well-known singer in Japan but I've liked her in the same way that I've enjoyed Akiko Yano and Taeko Ohnuki. She has also provided quirkily catchy pop tunes while shifting among genres.
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