Aike Band -- Confusion（困惑）

 

I actually first encountered this song through New J Channel earlier this afternoon and found it fun enough to get onto it.

Very little information on this Aike Band but I did glean some material on the founding member, Yoshihiro Ike（池頼広）through Wikipedia. He is a composer, arranger and bassist and he's gained fame from creating music and soundtracks for TV dramas including the long-running detective drama "Aibou"（相棒）along with anime such as "Tiger & Bunny". But in 1985, he, keyboardist Kousei Miyazaki（宮崎好生）, saxophonist Koji Shiokawa（塩川光二）, guitarist Akihiko Sujino（筋野明彦）, and drummer Tomoo Tsuruya（鶴谷智生）formed Aike Band with their debut album "In The First Sense" coming out in 1987.

One of the tracks, "Confusion", grabs me with that bass and drum start which reminded me a tad of TOTO's "Rosanna". Then comes some gentle and comforting keyboard and guitar work. "Confusion" isn't confusing at all...it's really quite smooth, actually. As we go deeper into the song, it becomes quite jazzy with the entry of Shiokawa's sax and then Miyazaki's keyboards. I feel like ordering that Orange Mimosa. And it looks like I've found myself another shiny new J-fusion band to play with. To activate a groanworthy pun from decades back, I like Aike!