EPO -- Akai Biyaku（赤い媚薬）

Fridays and Saturdays are customarily the big nights to carouse and party here in North America, but when I was living in Japan, it seemed as if the one night to Wang Chung (80s music reference) for the week was always Friday. Many was the time when I was invited out for a night out in Shibuya and I had to wade my way through other waiting hordes to reach everyone's favourite waiting spot of the statue of Hachiko. Not surprisingly, by the time I got anywhere near the famous dog, there were already two to three layers of folks waiting as well.

Perhaps singer-songwriter EPO, who is an expert in City Pop, may be more of a Westerner at heart since along with those Fridays, she's even sung about having great fun on Saturdays with her 1982 4th single, the boogie-woogie "Doyou no Yoru wa Paradise" (土曜の夜はパラダイス）. This time, though, I found this track from her February 1984 6th album "Hi-Touch, Hi-Tech", "Akai Biyaku" (The Red Love Potion).

EPO was behind both words and music here, and from what I've gleaned from her lyrics is that it's about a couple of people who are on that critical dividing line between buddies and lovers and it might take some of that titular intoxicating aphrodisiac, namely some red wine to tip glasses and them over. Now, compared to "Doyou no Yoru wa Paradise", the melody of "Akai Biyaku" is fairly slow and sultry as if some of that Cabernet Sauvignon is reflecting the dangerous if exciting path that the two are possibly taking. I especially note the way that the synthesizer does that controlled tumbling (perhaps even tipsy) riff at the intro, middle and end.

This track may have become known in 1984, but the melody feels like some of that champagne-and-caviar type of City Pop that I thought was the thing with urban contemporary in the late 1980s. Yup, indeed, it's got that sophisticated pop feeling in there. Moreover, when I first heard this song, the heightened sense of synths in it had me initially assuming Ryuichi Sakamoto's（坂本龍一）fingerprints on "Akai Biyaku", but apparently not. Still, I think this can be considered to be a synthpop and a City Pop tune. In any case, I found me a new great song by EPO!

Of course, Friday being the night of choice to have fun in Tokyo, I'm always reminded of "Friday Night" by M. TOSIKAZ.