Kyoko Furuya -- Harumi Futou（晴海埠頭）

 

Another person that I've been indebted to in terms of his contributions to "Kayo Kyoku Plus" has been JTM. About a week ago, I received "Pacific Breeze 2" from him, and the album is the second in another playlist of City Pop and AOR treats.

One such song on "Pacific Breeze 2" is Kyoko Furuya's （古家杏子）"Harumi Futou" (Harumi Wharf) which is named after the shipping facility by Tokyo Bay. It's close to the residential and commercial complex of Odaiba and though I've never been to Harumi, I think things were quite different in that area back in the time that "Harumi Futou" was released which was 1982 as a track on her album "Tsumetai Mizu"（冷たい水...Cold Water）. At night, it must have been quite the huge, dark and mysterious area. Maybe it still is.

Strangely enough, though it's included in "Pacific Breeze 2", I can't really admit that "Harumi Futou" is City Pop or AOR. In the liner notes for the compilation, the hints are quite clear that Furuya was more into the avant-garde and unusual flavours of pop, and though I won't even say that "Harumi Futou" is avant-garde (I think it's quite accessible), it's definitely a different type of pop music for the time. It sounds and feels like a modern film noir with the characters having the final late-night face-off in the titular wharf. The song starts off with a guitar scream that sounds like a plane going down in flames before Furuya gives a measured but sultry delivery with some heavy emphasis on the percussion provided by Shunichi Murakami（村上秀一）and Pecker.

To be honest, there have been other examples of "Tsumetai Mizu" on YouTube and I probably found out about them via New J Channel, but I think that those songs are probably more on the avant-garde side. May I also compliment the design of the cover for Furuya's original album?