August has come in like a very welcome lion. It's sunny and warm and it's a good start to what is a holiday weekend here in Toronto. Unfortunately, the remaining days look to be rather wet and cloudy so Saturday is gonna have to be the one to celebrate. Ironically, the National Hockey League has begun the playoffs after several months of COVID-induced shutdown.
Back in September 2016, I wrote about this very snappy and soulful band called First Impression that had a brief two-year run in the 1990s, led by the late drummer Shigeo Miyata（宮田繁男）. Well, my first impression (pun definitely intended) was a good one, so I'm feeling a bit sheepish that it has taken me nearly four years to write about a second song by Miyata, guitarist Takashi Murayama（村山孝志）and vocalist Reiko Tanaka（田仲玲子）.
My second impression of First Impression is that their track "Taiyo ga Kureta Kisetsu" (The Season The Sun Gave Us) from their 2nd of two albums, "Supernatural" (1996) is another cool winner with that sensation of updated 60s British soul horns via Shibuya-kei and some R&B wacka-wacka guitar. Written by Takami/Sorami Akiyama（秋山空実）and composed by Miyata is an appropriately weekend song to greet the final full month of summer. Kinda too bad that First Impression didn't last too long, although I think in a way, the band microstar got passed the baton.
Good post. First time hearing this artist. Unfortunate how short-lived this band was as they definitely had a special spark. That funky arrangement is so Original Love - definitely a good thing.
ReplyDeleteMicrostar is like a time warp of sparkling retro sound with songwriting on par with P5 during their heyday. Definitely recommended listening.
Thanks. Yeah, agree with you there about the brevity of First Impression's existence. Maybe Miyata only saw it as just a project but it was pretty darn successful by my reckoning.
Deletedo you have the lyric of the second song?
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid that I don't even have the album.
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