Wanted to take another look at commenter Michael's own Happy Songs list and there is this solo project that had originated as a whole group called Gentouki（ゲントウキ）, named after an object used in manga artist Oji Suzuki's（鈴木翁二）"Toumei Tsushin"（透明通信...Invisible Communication）.
Although it has been a solo act consisting solely of singer-songwriter and founder Jun Tanaka（田中潤）from Hyogo Prefecture since 2006, Gentouki had started out in 1995 under the initial name of Everyday Flowers（エブリデイフラワーズ）before switching to its current moniker with a lineup that had its changes. After an indies period which lasted from 2000 to 2003, the band made its major debut in February 2003 with "Nibiiro no Kisetsu" (Dark Grey Season) with Tanaka joined by bassist Kenta Ito（伊藤健太）and drummer Kyosuke Sasai（笹井享介）at the time.
Despite the foreboding-sounding title, "Nibiiro no Kisetsu" strikes me as a pretty sunny song which hearkens to some of the pleasing jazzy pop that I had heard back in those early 2000s such as Tomita Lab（冨田ラボ）and early Kirinji（キリンジ）material. I do love that rich melody led by the guitar and piano and Tanaka's vocals remind me of a slightly lower-pitched KAN if that singer-songwriter had started his career about 15 years later. Wikipedia has a pretty detailed account of Gentouki's history and some of the other singers to whom he has contributed his material and of course, there is his own website.
'Nibiiro no Kisetsu' is one of those wistful, laid-back pop songs which never wears out its welcome. Perfect songwriting, performances, vocals. Every part gels together seamlessly, from the understated piano passages to the floating Hammond organ, jazzy guitar riffs and smooth-as-butter bass lines and drumming meld together seamlessly for pure organic listening satisfaction. This is easily one of Jun Tanaka's best compositions (I'm pretty sure he wrote it).
ReplyDeleteI could listen to this song on repeat for hours and never tire of it. A masterpiece of modern pop songwriting. Hope everyone enjoys it as much as I do. Great post as always J.
Evening, Michael. I guess that I can see that the Hammond organ is to that jazzy-pop sound of recent years as the Fender Rhodes was to 70s/80s City Pop. Always nice to hear.
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