BLU-SWING -- Kurage（クラゲ）

 

I can honestly now state that I found the ideal song to match the above thumbnail.

In recent years, it's been standard operating procedure for me to pay attention to the musical output of any Japanese band of the 21st century that starts with the first three letters BLU. Therefore, that would mean Blue Peppers and BLU-SWING. I actually made a reference to the main vocalist of the latter in my last article.

Ah, BLU-SWING did put out a digital download single in May 2020 but apparently the official music video for it wasn't put out on YouTube until last month. Titled "Kurage" (Jellyfish), I haven't quite deciphered the lyrics by vocalist Yu-ri Tanaka（田中裕梨）but the video pretty much tells the story of a tiny jellyfish who is so in love with a guitarist (the band's Show Kojima/小島翔) that for 24 hours, she takes on human form (played by Moka Kodama/小玉百夏) and enjoys the bright lights and big city of Tokyo. That is, until that full day and night are up and perhaps she and the target of her love evolve into a glowing whale over Tokyo Bay. Maybe we can call this "2021: A Sky Odyssey".

The music for "Kurage" by BLU-SWING keyboardist Yusuke Nakamura（中村祐介）sounds slightly different from what I've heard from the band recently in that it's jazzier. I believe that when BLU-SWING first started out, they were more into the jazz vein and I did start thinking (perhaps because of that trumpet performance by Atsushi "Charanpetter" Suzuki) that I could make comparisons with Ego-Wrappin' through "Kurage". All in all, the band has once again provided another lovely and elegant night on the town through the flying instruments and the sinewy bass rhythms.