I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
Credits
I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.
I should have figured it out by now especially since singer-songwriter Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子）has displayed different sides in her music career whether it be helping in creating those very summery tunes for the band TUBE and then coming up with her own urban contemporary delights throughout the 1980s to the extent that I consider her to be one of the pillars in City Pop. However, especially after listening to her BEST compilations including the recent "Warner Years '81-'87", Aran has also given us her fair share of more eclectic fare such as more New Wave numbers.
Case in point is her "Noah no Hakobune"(Noah's Ark), a song that was written by Aran and composed and arranged by saxophonist Yasuaki Shimizu（清水靖晃）. It's in "Warner Years '81-'87" but was originally a track on her very first album, "Shinkei Suijaku"（神経衰弱...Nervous Breakdown） from July 1981. Starting out with a stately piano passage that comes across as a mix between a calisthenics song for NHK's"Radio Taiso"（ラジオ体操）and a musical accompaniment for ballerinas, Aran begins singing at around 20 seconds sounding very much like fellow contemporary Chika Ueda（上田知華）for another 20 or so seconds before a somewhat enigmatic Beatles/Elvis Costello/Billy Joel melody flows out.
It's all very nostalgic, intriguing and different, especially for someone like me who's been weaned on her singing City Pop tunes. "Noah no Hakobune" is kinda like the actual Noah's Ark having to sail for 40 days and 40 nights, not knowing what it and its passengers will end up because the two melodies of piano passage and New Wave/pop keep interweaving throughout the song's 4 1/2 minutes. Another track from "Shinkei Suijaku" is "Kanzen Hanzai"（完全犯罪）which is featured in my article for "Warner Years '81-'87", and I also identified that as being New Wave. So one day, if "Shinkei Suijaku" ever gets re-issued again, I'd love to find out some more about it.
Another one of those singers whose information is sparse at best, but Seiichi Neda（根田成一）is a folk singer-songwriter who had entered the Yamaha Popular Song Contest in 1976 along with many other acts and artists including Tatsushi Umegaki（梅垣達志）, Off-Course（オフコース）and Junko Yagami（八神純子）.
The song that he contributed at PopCon was "Kanashimi no Ballad" (Sad Ballad) which became a single for him (I even couldn't find out how many of those he released). Written and composed by Neda, it's indeed a sad and poignant ballad with perhaps even some bitterness as a couple of friends part, perhaps forever. According to the lyrics, one of the buddies may be heading back home north while the other remains in the city.
The melody by Neda in the beginning reminds me slightly of Bobby Vinton's "Mr. Lonely", and that harmonica also there along with the emerging strings makes "Kanashimi no Ballad" the quintessential Japanese folk ballad. Hopefully, the song wasn't autobiographical.
Not only is it Hump Day today but it's the final day of March 2021. Can't say that the news has been great for the last number of days here when it comes to COVID but I personally encountered something nice earlier this morning. A USB that I'd assumed lost forever containing many photos of my last few years in Japan suddenly popped up again after spending almost a decade in the far corner of a dusty drawer in one of the rooms in my home. Nice to go over the old pictures again.
One photo that was contained in the USB was the above. It's a cup of Viennese Coffee which I used to drink whenever I met a student at a small café in Funabashi for his weekly lesson. In Japanese, it's called wiener coffee so before I made its acquaintance all those years ago, I'd crazily assumed that it was the java with a sausage poked into it. I knew that the Japanese were more than capable of some gastronomically insane notions but with some relief, I came to realize that wiener coffee was actually Viennese Coffee, coffee with a good dollop of sweet whipped cream on top.
For me, it was never a difficult decision on whether to stir in the cream with the coffee below or just eat my way through that top layer. I always went with the latter option. Nope, having Viennese Coffee every Friday wasn't a wise course of action in terms of any potential entry into Type 2 Diabetes, but dang was it tasty!
Instead of this being a re-discovery though as was the case with my formerly lost USB, this song was just a plain discovery last night. Titled "Café Noir de Hitoiki" (Taking a Break at Café Noir), I knew that I had to dig up a photo of a Japanese coffeehouse or a cup of java so what wonderful timing to find all those photos from over a decade ago again.
"Café Noir de Hitoiki" is a track from Yuki Kato's（加藤有紀）1983 debut mini-album"Love Potion", and there are a few articles on the singer-songwriter already on KKP. "Nazo wa To-ka-na-i-de"（謎はと・か・な・い・で）starts off the album and that is an interesting mix of New Wave and ska. Kato's "Café Noir de Hitoiki" is also a nice blend, but this one has more of the AOR and bossa nova and although I don't think it has enough of the styling to deserve a place in Labels for this song, I couldn't help but hear some Miharu Koshi（コシミハル）New Wave in there, especially in the first several seconds and that high-pitched background chorus later on. For that matter, the keyboard in use for this number also seems to predict some of the mellow music that Miki Imai（今井美樹）would interpret a few years down the line into the late 1980s. The overall effect is truly like taking a break at that Café Noir. While Kato wrote the lyrics, Yasuo Kosugi（小杉保夫）provided the music.
For the record, according to the website Idol.ne.jp, Kato released two singles and two albums including "Love Potion", all in 1983, followed by a BEST collection which was released in 2019. BTW, I couldn't help but also throw in a Royal Host parfait below. Don't lick the screen!😋
When I think of singer-songwriter Takako Okamura（岡村孝子）, soft and fluffy and tenderhearted love songs come to mind. The following is no exception.
Mind you, this particular ballad is of the crying variety. Her "Shio no Kaori no Naka de" (In the Fragrance of the Tides) is not a celebration of love but the mourning of it. Specifically, her lyrics talk of a lost opportunity as she has to say goodbye to a good friend who's going away for some reason without ever knowing her feelings for him since, gosh darn it, she just couldn't pucker up the courage to say them. Her melody is also very poignant, too.
The above version comes from her November 1986 album of self-covers "Andantino". But the original as shown below was performed under her time with partner Haruko Kato（加藤晴子）in the duo Aming（あみん）. "Shio no Kaori no Naka de" was a track in their April 1983 debut album"P.S. Anata e..."（P.S. あなたへ…P.S. To You）, and it was actually a solo performance by Okamura. There isn't much of a difference in the arrangements for the 1983 and 1986 versions but the original was arranged by Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）, the same person who took care of Aming's most famous hit, "Matsu wa"（待つわ）. "P.S. Anata e..." managed to peak at No. 2 on Oricon and eventually become the 42nd-ranked album of the year.
All the way back in 2013, I profiled versatile band Sing Like Talking's second BEST album"Second Reunion" which was released in September 1998 and showed off their love for the genres of R&B and AOR among others. With their very first BEST album, "Reunion" from December 1992, there was already some of that wide range there although I think in the early years, Chikuzen Sato（佐藤竹善）, Chiaki Fujita（藤田千章）and Tomohiko Nishimura（西村智彦）were really enjoying their funk and perhaps some New Jack Swing.
Unfortunately, I won't be profiling too many songs here since a number of the tracks have already had their own articles written about them and can be accessed through the appropriate links above.
"Find It (In Your Heart) ~ Shoka no Image" (Early Summer Image) is actually SLT's 5th single from April 1990, and it's an interesting one to listen to from their early days since there's a mélange of influences in there, I think. I hear a Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）bass, a wailing rock electric guitar solo, an Omega Tribe synthesizer in the intro and even some Airplay AOR. The overall effect is quite 80s despite the release date of the single, and the song is a track on their 3rd album"III" which came out in the same month as "Find It". The above version is a live take.
I was kinda surprised that I hadn't featured "City On My Mind" on its own since it's been a title that I have heard over and over again for Sing Like Talking. Ah, well, my bad. The single is SLT's 3rd from June 1989 and the title track from their 2nd album which was released a month later. For me, "City On My Mind" has that band style of cool-and-groovy that I've always associated with Chikuzen and company.
The final track that I've got here is "Livin' For The Beat" has that early SLT R&B sound that would have made Bobby Brown smile somewhat. For those neophyte Sing Like Talking fans who've known the band for their mellow AOR numbers, "Livin' For The Beat" may be a bit of a revelation since Sato and the music funk pretty hard. The song also got onto "III", but the first time I heard this one was through the full album "THE REMIX OF SING LIKE TALKING" which came out in February 2000.
Sing Like Talking's"Reunion" hit No. 10 on the Oricon weeklies.
Early in 2020, I discovered this really cool and snazzy number by singer-songwriter Yoshinori Monta（もんたよしのり） of Monta & Brothers fame titled "Aisarenai Show Time"（愛されないShow Time） that was the second track of his 1987 solo album "Bitter". It was quite the perky City Pop song, and I've found that "Bitter" does have a good dollop of variety.
Right before "Aisarenai Show Time" is Track 1, "Woman", which was also his 6th single from the same year. Not to be mistaken with Keizo Nakanishi's（中西圭三）breakthrough hit of the same name later in the following decade, this "Woman" by Monta is a contemporary turn on the type of old-time jazz that you would hear in some sort of tropical nightclub sometime in the middle of the previous century. Interestingly enough, "Woman" was used as the campaign song for a commercial selling soup spaghetti, because when one hears jazz, one always feels like pasta...apparently. All joking aside, the underlying rhythm does remind me of The Andrews Sisters' take on "Bei Mir Bistu Shein" from 1937.
Well, it's been quite the interesting trend over the past number of months in anime land when it comes to some of the shows that I enjoyed in the last several years. First off, the cute-as-all-heck "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?"（ご注文はうさぎですか）franchise returned late last year with a third season a number of years after their second season. But in the case of Cocoa and Chino and the gang, there were some fairly high expectations that they would all return once more with their coffee and rabbits.
Some other anime that I really liked such as the sweet "Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon"（小林さんちのメイドラゴン...Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid） and the hilarious "Gekkan Shojo Nozaki-kun"（月刊少女野崎くん...Girls' Monthly Nozaki-kun） seemed to be one and done. I'd assumed the same for another manga-turned-anime that came out all the way back in 2013 titled "Hataraku Maou-Sama!"（はたらく魔王さま!...The Devil Is a Part-Timer!）. My anime buddy had this on the screen during our old Sunday get-togethers years ago and it had its own moments of hilarity including the one up above.
Within a span of a few days, though, I got word that not only is "Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon" returning with a second season in the summer but "Hataraku Maou-Sama" also has the green light for a sequel. Good heavens! Eight years later?! Not sure when exactly it's going to come out this year or perhaps next year, but I'm interested in seeing how things have gone for the Demon Lord. Has he finally been promoted to manager of his own burger shop?
When it comes to singer-songwriter and seiyuu Minami Kuribayashi（栗林みな実）, my fellow blog co-administrator Marcos V. has done most of the heavy lifting, but I did write one article for a song that she was involved with, "Super Affection"（すーぱー☆あふぇくしょん）. Today, this is her second article by me and it's the theme song for the first season of "Hataraku Maou-Sama!", "ZERO!!".
Hearing the song again for the first time in so long was rather nostalgic. For the sake of full disclosure, though, "ZERO!!" isn't really anywhere near the top of my favourite anison but Kuribayashi's vocal intro has resonated, although those additional synthesizer notes at the beginning of the full version of the song caught me a little off-guard. At the same time, though, I did like the electric guitar solo. "ZERO!!" was written by Kuribayashi and composed by Tomohiro Nakatsuchi（中土智博）and the singer's 29th single from April 2013 peaked at No. 30 on Oricon. According to an issue of the Japanese anime fanzine, Anikan（アニカン）, via J-Wiki, the song was so titled because of Maou-sama starting from Ground Zero on entering his new home on Earth and beginning a career as a burger flipper.
Now, if we can only get a second season of "Nozaki-kun"...sigh.😔
A couple of months ago, I wrote about Atarashii Gakko no Leaders（新しい学校のリーダーズ）, the quartet of young women with the skill of fleet-footed song-and-dance folks and the heart of old-fashioned Japanese comedy troupes.
Well, along with "NAINAINAI", their 11th single from this January, I've also been drawn to their 8th single from almost a year ago in April 2020, "Otonablue" (Adult Blue). It has that funk but there's also a bit more of the technopop in there, and it's downright catchy, another repeated advantage for AGL.
The above is just a practice video but, dang, the group still brings it, and part of the charm of Atarashii Gakko no Leaders are their moves. Music for "Otonablue" is provided by yonkey and apparently Mizyu, Rin, Suzuka and Kanon came up with the lyrics about being on the precipice between adolescence and adulthood and worrying about the temptations and implications. My precipice was reached when I had my first of a series of Screwdriver cocktails in one night. Didn't end well.😖
Yesterday, KKP contributor HRLE92, aka Island Fantasia on YouTube, was kind enough to write up an article on various Omega Tribe offshootsof which Carlos Toshiki's 1993"Alquimist" was of particular interest to me. I never thought I would see the former lead singer of Omega Tribe looking so much like he was one of the cool-and-trendy citizens of Daikanyama in Tokyo.😮
Well, from his YouTube channel, HRLE92 has a just-as-cool song on there called "Kagami no Tsuki"(Moon in the Mirror) by relatively brief singer-songwriter Akiko Kohara（小原明子）in a collaboration with the mellow contemporary AOR duo paris match. Kohara who comes from Saitama Prefecture had started out creating songs for people such as Yuki Koyanagi（小柳ゆき）, Chemistry and Skoop On Somebody before debuting as a singer in 2001.
Only releasing 3 singles and 2 full albums, her second album is "AK-Note" from March 2003 and on it is where "Kagami no Tsuki" resides. Both Kohara and paris match'sMari Mizuno（ミズノマリ）provide the whispery vocals for this silky-smooth song of the city which grooves very nicely with the Chicago-esque (the band, not the city) horns and rhythm section. And hold the fort on that sax! Kohara provided the lyrics while Yosuke Sugiyama（杉山洋介）, the other half of paris match, came up with the music that may be some ideal accompaniment for a sunset walk through Daikanyama.
HRLE92 mentions just under the video on YouTube that the venture between Kohara and paris match here reminds him of Platinum 900, and his very first article for "Kayo Kyoku Plus" happens to be on that band. Feel free to take a gander of his story on one of the overlooked cool bands in Japanese pop music.
Not to accuse of the street in the above photo as being a sad one, but I put it up there for the atmosphere. It happens to be an area in Asakusa, by the way.
Indeed, the topic of this article is "Kanashimi Doori" (Street of Sadness) by singer-songwriter Naomi Nomoto（野本直美）. I had introduced Nomoto to the pages of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" last year, thanks to Scott's recommendation around the Xmas period since he has his own podcast based on J-Xmas tunes, and I first found out about her "Eve no Yoru"（イブの夜）.
As I also mentioned in that article, Nomoto's presence on the Internet is rather sparse in terms of historical information, but from one website, I did find out that she hails from Ishikawa Prefecture, and "Kanashimi Doori" happens to be her debut single from October 1981. Writing and composing this jaunty folksy tune, she actually had created "Kanashimi Doori" back in 1978 when she appeared at the 15th annual Yamaha Popular Song Contest to perform this very number.
Just from the bouncy melody, "Kanashimi Doori" is obviously not a love-done-me-wrong ballad. Looking at the lyrics by Nomoto, she plays what I think is a pretty crusty proprietress of a local watering hole (must be a Kansai lady) who practically berates a sad sack off the street of sadness where she works to lend an ear and make him forget the woes of the world which probably includes romantic troubles. Do love those guitars plucking away.
Had another pleasant talk with Rocket Brown of "Come Along Radio" earlier this afternoon, this time to review Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）"Variety" album from 1984, so hopefully within the next week or so, you'll be able to catch our podcast on his YouTube channel.
Although I can't say that I am as die-hard a fan of hers as I am Mariya's, there are a couple of songs by Tokyo singer-songwriter Kaela Kimura（木村カエラ）that I have enjoyed because of their catchy funky beat, and both of them were under Takkyu Ishino's（石野卓球）ministrations: "Jasper" and a cover of Lipps Inc.'s"Funkytown". Now, I can get add a third song under my belt.
"ZIG ZAG" leans into the funkier side of things as Kimura and rapper BIM worked together to come up with the song. Her 2nd mini-album with the same title was released in March 2020 with the title song written by singer and the music provided by the rapper. There's some nice snappy rap banter from the two with the refrain appropriately and funkily delivered by Kimura. May I also compliment the music video work, too?
"ZIG ZAG" the mini-album peaked at No. 21 on Oricon. As for BIM, he's a Japanese hip-hop artist who helped start the group THE OTOGIBANASHI'S about a decade ago, but has also released his own solo works in the 2010s. Up to now, he's made one mini-album and two full albums.
The singer Mami Ayukawa is undeniably known to many J-Pop fans from her anime songs, particularly the opening theme of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. In addition, similarly to other J-singers of the 1980s, she did a few covers as well. On her albums, you can find mainly Mami’s takes on Modern Talking hits, but I was surprised to accidentally stumble upon the cover of Patti LaBelle’s "Stir It Up" (1985).
The "Stir It Up" song is the tune that got 12-year-old me hooked on 80s American music. It was originally featured in Eddie Murphy's classic comedy Beverly Hills Cop (1984), and I vividly remember feeling the thrill when shabby cop Axel Foley was entering the world of glamour and uptown celebrities.
In all fairness, the soundtrack for Beverly Hills Cop is filled with many memorable songs ("Don't Get Stopped in Beverly Hills," "Do You Really (Want My Love?)," "Gratitude"), plus the classic "Axel F track" composed by Harold Faltermeyer. However, Patti LaBelle’s "Stir It Up" occupies a special place in my heart. Just to experience the brilliance of this song time and time again in the pre-internet era, I would hook up headphones to a VCR and repeatedly rewind the end credits to listen to "Stir It Up" in its full glory. Even though I was not extremely knowledgeable about English back then, I could phonetically recite lyrics from memory. That’s how deeply this song engraved itself on my mind.
Consequently, I was pleasantly surprised to find Mami’s cover on her Fifty Fifty album. The track is called "Who is it?" so, as I presume correctly, the song is about knocking on a door. The original melody and tempo from Patti’s original are preserved, but the synthesizer arrangement seems a bit low-key, almost as if Mami did not have as much resources at her disposal as Harold Faltermeyer.
All in all, "Who is it?" seems like a great choice to serve as a theme for some light-mellow 80s OVA. I don’t mind coming back to it ever once in a while, but it does not function well as a cover. Mami does great stuff with "You’re My Heart, You’re My Soul" disco stuff, but when we’re talking about "Stir It Up," there is only one proper version which everyone should hear.
Here’s Mami’s "Who is it?" It has taken me quite a while to track this song on YouTube, so that Kayo Kyoku Plus readers could enjoy it. Thankfully, some kind soul posted in a fan compilation (timestamp- 1:55:52).
Hi, I am HRLE92, a new author of this blog. I run a Youtube channel called "Island Fantasia" to upload music. If you like city pop, AOR, or jazz, you might find something interesting there.
Omega Tribe is probably one of the most well-known city pop bands. However, its offshoot bands are lesser-known. This article introduces some bands and projects that are related to Omega Tribe. The works by S. Kiyotaka & Omega Tribe, 1986 Omega Tribe, and Carlos Toshiki & Omega Tribe are not introduced, as these bands are considered collectively as the original“Omega Tribe” Works by Kiyotaka Sugiyama are also not introduced, because they are pretty well-known.
Each album/single will have these under it:
My personal review
Audio Sample (if available)
Rarity: How many copies were sold in the last 120 days on Yahoo Auctions by the time this article was written. So the lower the value is, the rarer the album/single is.
Recommendation Rate: Range From 1-5. This value reflects my personal opinion on whether you should listen to the musical work if you like Omega Tribe. 1 means that you can totally skip this album and it would be a waste of your time if you are trying to find Omega Tribe vibes. 5 means that it is a must-listen.
Price: based on how much a physical was sold on Yahoo Auctions. This is merely an estimation and it may not reflect the actual price it will go for by the time you are reading this article.
Please note that all of these are very personal and you might find some of them not true for you.
1. Carlos Toshiki - Lucia/哀愁のイパネマ (Single, 1982)
From Yahoo.jp
Carlos Toshiki released this single before joining Omega Tribe. However, in terms of music and style, this single is nothing like Omega Tribe. It is more kayo-inclined. It does not feature any Omega Tribe composers/arrangers and does not have that resort vibe. Even the album art does not have any Omega Tribe feeling.
Rarity: 1
Recommendation Rate: 1
Price: around 4000 JPY
2. きゅうてぃぱんちょす (Cutie Panchos) - Live 1982 (Album, Presumably 1982)
Image from Discogs
Cutie Panchos is basically Omega Tribe before being officially called Omega Tribe. According to Wikipedia, the band consisted of many more members than its successor, S. Kiyotaka & Omega Tribe, did. Although I did not find any audio clip from this tape, I did find some materials that may indicate what Cutie Panchos sounded like:
I like it. I think the band sounds really good.
Rarity: 0
Recommendation Rate: 3
Price: N/A
3. Jackie Lin & Par Avion - Strangers Dream (Single, 1987)
Image from Discogs
This single sounds and looks incredibly like what Carlos Toshiki & Omega Tribe would release in the late 80s. I think if Carlos Toshiki was on Vocal of these two tracks, they can be included in one of the Omega Tribe albums. The two tracks on the disc are written by people who worked on Omega Tribe songs: Hiroshi Shinkawa, Tetsuji Hayashi, Motoki Funayama, and Kiyotaka Sugiyama. The 7-inch vinyl version is easy to come by, but the 8cm CD edition is much rarer.
The main style of this album is Boogie and Synth-pop. It is very similar to later omega tribe albums and it features many musicians who composed and arranged for Omega Tribe. The producer is also the same. However, I feel that this album is just a little bit weaker than real Omega Tribe albums.
Rarity: 2 (vinyl)
Recommendation Rate: 4
Price: <600 JPY (vinyl)
5. Carlos Toshiki - Emotional (Album, 1991)
From Discogs
The first track is extraordinarily good, but the rest of the album is kind of average. All tracks are composed by either Tsunehiro Izumi or Carlos Toshiki and are arranged by Hiroshi Shinkawa. As of now, this album is not reissued, so you may need some effort to find a copy.
Rarity: 6
Recommendation Rate: 3 (for the sake of the first track)
Price: usually around 3500 JPY
6. Carlos Toshiki - Alquimist (Album, 1993)
From YouTube
This album sounds very different from Toshiki’s emotional album and any Omega Tribe albums. The sound is closer to 90s city pop than to the 80s. I think it is an average album compared to most 90s city pop albums. Composers of this album include Carlos Toshiki, Julia, and Tsunehiro Izumi, and arrangers include Takao Sugiyama, Akihiko Matsumoto, and Yasutaka Mizushima. There are not a lot of Omega Tribe connections. This album is reissued with bonus tracks, so rarity does not apply.
Rarity: N/A
Recommendation Rate: 3
Price: >1700 JPY (used reissue version)
7. Carlos Toshiki - Doushitedarou? (Album, 1994)
From Discogs
After “Alquimist”, Carlos Toshiki is finally getting back to the Omega Tribe style. Composers of this album include Tsunehiro Izumi, Julia, and Carlos Toshiki himself. Arrangers include Tetsuya Osaka and Hiroshi Shinkawa. This album is partly reissued as bonus tracks in Toshiki’s “Alquimist” album, but if you want to get an original issue, it might be a bit hard.
Rarity: 0
Recommendation Rate: 4
Price: N/A
8. D.O.M.E. - D.O.M.E. (1992)
From my collection
D.O.M.E is an abbreviation of “deconstructed omega by mints entertainment”. I think it is a weird name for a band. According to Discogs, this band consists of Michihisa Ikeda, Satoshi Mikami, Shinji Takashima, Seiichi Bannai, and Toshitsugu Nishihara, meaning that there are only two original Omega Tribe members in the project.
The album sounds good in terms of city pop, and it does give me a general “omega” impression with all the funky bass slaps and city pop vibes. However, I feel that something essential has changed and it does not sound like an authentic omega tribe album at its core. Shinji Takashima and Toshitsugu Nishihara are in charge of writing all of the songs on this album.
Rarity: 1
Recommendation Rate: 4
Price: 2000-4000 JPY
9. Brand New Omega Tribe - BNOT (Album, 1994)
From Discogs
Brand New Omega Tribe is another post-omega tribe project that did not reach large-scale success. Since I do not own the CD, I cannot provide much information about this project. But I do know that the vocalist is Masahito Arai, a city pop singer who was active since the late-1970s.
According to Discogs, songs on this album are written by Masahito Arai, Tsunehiro Izumi, and Masao Urino. Arrangements are done by Hiroshi Shinkawa. This crew of composers raised my expectation for this album to have the Omega Tribe sound. However, the actual arrangements indicated otherwise. It felt that the music sounds like someone told the arranger to put in more R&B elements in the album when the songs were halfway done. The overly used synth bass and drums just seem to be too much for this album. I do not like this project too much.
Rarity: 0
Recommendation Rate: 2
Price: N/A
10. Weather Side
From my collection
Weather Side consists of Hideaki Takatori, Shiji Takashima, and Toshitsugu Nishihara. I cannot write too much stuff about this band, because all songs this project has released are rock songs (not soft rock). It is such a shame that no Omega Tribe element is preserved at all, so do not be fooled by the album cover art. If you are buying any weather side albums for some Omega Tribe vibes, you will be very disappointed.
“Driving A Go Go” (1994)
Rarity: 1
Recommendation Rate: 1
Price: 500-2000 JPY
“Happy Go Lucky” (1996)
Rarity: 2
Recommendation Rate: 1
Price: 100-500 JPY
“30°” (1995)
Rarity: 1
Recommendation Rate: 1
Price: 3000-5000 JPY
So that’s it for the moment. I hope this article is helpful and thank you for reading it! If you have time, I recommend checking out my Youtube channel. I regularly share some of my discoveries in city pop there.
For my final song tonight, I realize that I haven't put up a SHAMBARA song recently. For those unfamiliar with these folks, it is a fusion group in personnel and genre, with Tetsuo Sakurai/櫻井哲夫 (bass) and Akira Jimbo/神保彰 (drums & percussion) from Casiopea, two vocalists Yurie Kokubu（国分友里恵）and Kaoru Akimoto（秋元薫）plus musicians Nozomi Furukawa（古川望）and Kunihiko Ryo（梁邦彦）to round out the band.
I've already written about a couple of tracks from their 1989 album"Shambara", the funky "Solid Dance" and the much mellower "Lovin' You". Well, this one is somewhere in between the two in terms of overall tempo, and "Aquarium no Tokai" (Aquarium City) takes things into another direction. There's more of a light tropical rum punch vibe and a feeling of taking that well-needed vacation down into the Caribbean, and at this time, I'm sure that a lot of people would love that cruise right now (apparently, Royal Caribbean will be setting sail again in a few months).
Not sure if I will ever be able to acquire "Shambara" but this one sounds very worthy just from the variety of songs that I've heard so far from this City Pop/AOR supergroup.
I recollect reading from some of Haruko Kuwana's（桑名晴子）liner notes that she loved her time living by the ocean for several years. Although my places of residence in Japan were up in the Japanese Alps and a couple of kilometres from Tokyo Bay, I can certainly imagine that she did. It must have been very enjoyable and calming to be able to walk along the beach during sunrise and sunset with the waves lapping along the shore.
Therefore, I gather that "On The Seashore" must have provided a good amount of inspiration for Kuwana to do her best on this track which was a part of her May 1979 2nd album"Show me your smile". Accompanied by some of that lovely hazy keyboard of 70s City Pop and that chipmunky keyboard solo, there's also another solo that takes over that is performed by perhaps a Wurlitzer (?). As usual, the singer has those husky vocals of hers to spread the joy of beachside living.
Although Kuwana sings "On The Seashore" as if the song were her own distillation of that good life, actually it was written by Yellow Magic Orchestra drummer Yukihiro Takahashi（髙橋幸宏）and composed by bassist Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）.
Nope, this time, this Akira Terao（寺尾聰）song doesn't come from his magnum opus album "Reflections", but from his 1983 "Atmosphere".
We did get a lot of rain today; in fact, we received a month's worth of precipitation overnight last night. That is good news for some of us since we've had a very dry number of weeks but we more than made up for that within 6 hours. Anyways, getting back to the song at hand, I am talking about "Ame no Fukei" (Rainscape), and as mentioned above, although this song didn't come from "Reflections", of course, Terao and his City Pop/AOR comrade at arms, lyricist Masako Arikawa（有川正沙子）, did come over from that legendary release to provide this appropriately atmospheric number.
"Ame no Fukei" begins with the sound of rain before launching into a pleasant yet dreamy AOR melody with a touch of melancholy mood. Terao is at his usual crooning best as he describes his opinion that it's always raining when the inevitable end of a short-lived romance (one-night stand, brief torrid fling) comes to fruition.
The overall arrangement feels as if "Ame no Fukei" could have ended up on "Reflections", so all the merrier for it to be on "Atmosphere". I'm especially drawn to the delivery of the refrain of "Wakare wa itsumo ame no fukei"（別れはいつも雨の風景...It's always a rainscape when parting） since there's a seemingly wiser-but-sadder C'est la vie message in there from the romance expert who is Terao apparently.
"It's the right place to have a good time, it's the wrong place to be a moron!"😜
Did I get that lyric right? One other commenter for this cool song also made the same observation. I'm kinda wondering whether the singer was actually saying "...it's the wrong place to be in love!"
I would love to know where this right place is...is it Studio 54 in Manhattan, the local cool coffeehouse, the neighbourhood post office? Enquiring minds want to know!
Anyways, the song "The Right Place" by Kimiko Kasai（笠井紀美子）is all sorts of 1980s urban contemporary and kakkoii as it was a 1982 single for her and a track on her album from the same year "Kimiko", sharing track space with "I'm So Much In Love". There's so much of George Benson and Manhattan Transfer coming through in the arrangements, and sure enough, according to the brief description of the single on Hip Tank Records, no less than Jay Graydon of Airplay,Richard Page of Pagesand musician Marc Jordan collaborated to provide Kasai with this number.
Among other things, I enjoy Kasai's breathy vocals, the keyboard work and the horns. Couldn't ask for a snazzier start to a Friday City Pop night.
Ahhh, yes....the early days of music video! It was definitely the wild n' woolly n' wonderful West out there in terms of imagination for musicians and directors alike as they played with this brave new world of MTV and Much Music (here in Canada) like a kindergartner with Silly Putty. In those days, there were some really weird videos out there. In fact, there were enough of them that here in Toronto, one of the local video shows decided to present the eccentric stuff on late Friday nights on "City Limits". As long as I was allowed to stay up on Fridays, I could catch the earlier David Bowie songs, Nina Hagen, and The Residents.
I'm fairly certain that the music video for Devo's "Jocko Homo" would also make for a fine citizen on "City Limits". Strangely enough, up until a week ago, I'd thought that this song by the famous Akron, Ohio band was "Are We Not Men?" all these decades. I learned something! Anyways, welcome to another ROY article.
The thing is, though, that the March 1977 single"Jocko Homo" wasn't the first time that I had ever heard of Devo. It was actually the video for "Whip It" via a K-Tel record commercial that first exposed me to the craziness that was the Mothersbaugh brothers' collective. As time went by into the 1980s, I learned some more about the band and the whole thing about devolution, including the video which when I first viewed it scared the heck out of me due to its overall bizarre grainy nature, Booji Boy, and the band members wearing panty hose on their heads. Now, when I see Booji Boy scampering around the factory and Mark Mothersbaugh dancing and prancing around, I get all sorts of warm and fuzzy feelings for the ancient music video days and nights. And indeed, I think that this was the song and video combination that sent Devo on its merry way into fame and fortune.
Now, which singles were released in Japan in March 1977? Well, the first two were actually released far earlier but Showa Pops has them listed in the list for that month, so I'm assuming that they were re-releases.
With Yellow Magic Orchestra's"Insomnia", there was always that Nosferatu-like sinister feeling paired with some traditional Japanese vibes filtered through an eerie filter as Chris Mosdell, in a Kafkaesque mood, gives his exhausted opinions on not being able to sleep. If there had been a music video for "Insomnia", it would have borrowed liberally from Dadaism.
I did find a soulmate of sorts for "Insomnia" and it comes as the first track on Takako Minekawa's（嶺川貴子）3rd album"Roomic Cube" from May 1996 (released overseas in February 1997). With a synthesizer "mwoop" (not too good at describing onomatopoeia) leading things off, "Sleep Song" comes across as somewhat less sinister and more whimsical as Minekawa keeps intoning "I can't sleep...let me sleep", sentiments that I have echoed from time to time from my bed at 2 am. Not sure what was eating at the singer when she was coming up with "Sleep Song", but perhaps I can suggest some warm milk with a touch of nutmeg.
As well, I'm kinda wondering about that Shibuya-kei tag that I've put into Labels. On the face of it, "Sleep Song" feels like an avant-pop tune but there's a part of me that also feels as if this might be a gothic Shibuya song, knowing that Minekawa has been identified as being one pioneer in the genre. But I will also let you Shibuya-kei fans make the choice.
In any case, following "Sleep Song" in "Roomic Cube" is "Fantastic Cat", a song that I have already written about.
In November 2018, I wrote "J-Canuck's Fashion Music"（ファッション・ミュージック）which gave examples on songs that rather fit the titular brand of melody: perhaps an early form of Japanese sophisticated pop from the late 1970s into the early 1980s with elements of jazz and classical pop. Perhaps there was some overlap with City Pop or New Music, mega-genres or umbrellas that covered a number of genres.
Recently though, I've been made aware of another genre: baroque pop which seems to be that sort of pleasant music with lots of strings and piano that bring up images of life in the European countryside, and perhaps with a castle thrown in. And yes, the singers that I mentioned in my previous article such as Mayumi Itsuwa（五輪真弓）and Chika Ueda（上田知華）can be said to have dabbled in baroque pop as well.
If I had known about her earlier, I probably would have included singer-songwriter Haruhi Aiso（相曾晴日）, too. I've already put in a few articles on her songs but listening to this particular track from her November 1982 debut album"Twilight no Kaze"（トワイライトの風...Twilight Winds）, "Kanashimi no Twilight Zone" (Melancholy Twilight Zone), my first impression was that, yep, this is pretty baroque. Written and composed by Aiso, it's got the (electric) piano and strings along with her tender and light vocals to create a very contemplative atmosphere.
The Shizuoka Prefecture-born Aiso does appreciate that word "twilight" as do a lot of other kayo singers through their titles and even through the Japanese translation of "tasogare"（黄昏）. For one thing, the singer won a prize for her performance of "Twilight" at the 1980 Yamaha Popular Song Contest, and of course, there is this song and the album.
Although it's not always the case, I've often seen television meteorologists in North America as the court jesters of the news teams. They can whip out the quips as readily as the high temperatures and the low pressure systems. Until very recently, I was accustomed to seeing one such fellow on the local CTV affiliate for many years after returning from Japan.
His name is Tom Brown and he was always the giddiest fellow on set. Brown was also in charge of the annual Xmas charity campaign, Toy Mountain, and many was the time that he would do location shoots doing stuff while talking about the weather. The above video had been put up a year or so on YouTube before I returned back to Toronto for good, and though bloopers were rare with Brown, this particular video had a bit of a boo-boo. Happily, the polar bears were alright.
Recently, I've been seeing what is perhaps becoming a bit of a YouTube sensation in the form of a certain weather forecaster on Japan's Weathernews broadcasts. Her name is Saya Hiyama（檜山沙耶）from Ibaraki Prefecture, and her very bubbly personality has made ripples all across the platform although I'm not quite ready to call her the personification of "Plastic Love".
To be honest, I subscribed to the Weathernews YouTube channel some months ago not particularly because I needed to know what the weather was like in Japan that desperately. Instead, without looking at the live broadcast, I have been simply enjoying listening to the weather folks talking away along with the calming music. Perfect while I'm working away at my assignments. Just want to say though that I still love New J Channel.
Now, how does all this talk about weather forecasters on either side of the Pacific come into play for this song? Well, the Weathernews broadcasting day is broken up into various segments with cute names, and the 11 am to 2 pm slot has been called "Coffee Time" (I guess Lunch Time was a tad too pedestrian). And as such, it reminded me of this song by chanteuse Miharu Koshi（越美晴）that I'd been putting on backlog for a rather long time.
Called "Coffee Break" from her 1981 album "Make Up", it sounds like the type of song that would get played on the overnight non-host segments of Weathernews when just the maps would be put up. With lyrics by Yu Aku（阿久悠）and music by Koshi herself, there is a soothing reggae beat accompanying this number that I wouldn't place among her very early City Pop creations but neither would I consider it as being part of the out-there New Wave tunes that she would surprise her fans with a couple of years later. Maybe New Music and pop would be the answer here? I've already put up another track from "Make Up", "Sarigenaku Ginger Ale"（さりげなくジンジャエール）.
Getting back to good ol' Tom Brown, sad to say but he and one other weather veteran on CTV Toronto, Anwar Knight, were let go along with many other employees (including whole radio stations) throughout Canada owned by a certain part of the media industry some weeks ago. Unsurprisingly, viewers and listeners didn't take the news well, and I'm left wondering what is to become of Toy Mountain which was really Brown's baby all these years.
Well, I hope that Tom Brown is doing well in whatever he is doing right now and he's being missed. I will leave you tonight with a video of his appearance as a contestant on CBS' "The Price is Right" game show in the United States. He rather surprised us with that news a few years ago but apparently he and his family were on vacation in Los Angeles when he got to come on down.
Not to say that the song of this article has anything directly to do with the anime "Kaguya-sama: Love is War", but "Hoshizora no Date" (Starry Sky Date) kinda describes the situation that Kaguya and Miyuki found themselves in when the latter got all moony over the moon and the former got all moony over Miyuki getting all moony over the moon.
(1:01:11)
As for "Hoshizora no Date", this was the first song on pop singer Rika Himenogi's（姫乃樹リカ）"Golden Best" compilation from 2006, but it was originally a track on her debut album"Fairy Tale" which was released in August 1988. I wrote about her "Glass no Kiss"（硝子のキッス）back last New Year's Eve, and that debut single actually had an anime connection, but although this one doesn't, it does have the same songwriters in lyricist Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）and composer Tsunehiro Izumi（和泉常弘）.
I also mentioned in the article for "Glass no Kiss" that there was something fairly aidoru-ish about the song, but for "Hoshizora no Date", the arrangement has made it plainly clear that this is some stylishly fine pop on the same level as Miki Imai（今井美樹）at around the same time. Those soothing keyboards are indeed the ticket and Himenogi's vocals in the chorus are just top-notch for me. Listening to some of the other tracks on the BEST collection have also been quite pleasant as well.
Nice to see that the singer is still active in recent years. According to the information for the video, Himenogi was singing "Hoshizora no Date" at a Yokohama venue in 2019.
Being Hump Day today, perhaps something with a little oomph on another day of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" would be in order.
First things first. Although I had been spelling out the network's weekly kayo program in romaji as "Uta Kon" all this time, because NHK has labeled it as such now in the corner of the screen, I will be referring to the Tuesday night show as "Uta Con"（うたコン）from this time forward. Anyways, it was a fairly auspicious night last night as the show was broadcast from the Osaka venue this time around, and it was the first time there since the pandemic began last year that a small audience was allowed to view the acts. I'm hoping that this continues in the right direction.
One of the other things was that song-and-dance group DA PUMP was back on the stage, this time to feature their latest single...their 34th, to be exact. Released a week ago, "Dream on the street" first sounded some bells in my City Pop head because I wondered whether DA PUMP was improbably covering the 1981 song by Noriyo Ikeda（池田典代）. But then, I realized that there was a prepositional misunderstanding since Ikeda's most famous song is actually "Dream In The Street". Still, it would have been fascinating to hear a DA PUMP version of that.
Nope, "Dream on the street" was written by shungo and composed by MUSOU, DEY GON GET IT and PAICH JR. Beginning with an intro including an appropriately street-level busking saxophone that made me go "Hmmm...." at first, the song actually has turned out to be a pretty cool and soulful listening experience. Of course, with the music video, it's also been a visual treat although I'm not sure whether the choreography will be able to be emulated by the masses like their big hit "U.S.A." did a few years ago.
Can't quite believe this statistic either but "Dream on the street" has become DA PUMP's first No. 1 single on Oricon in their history. I would have thought that Issa and the guys had already gotten the top position among their past releases.
Though I have seen Miina Tominaga（冨永みーな）as a veteran seiyuu and narrator, often on NHK shows, I'm still finding out about that part of her career as a singer. About a year and a half ago, I contributed the first article devoted to her through one of her early songs in the mid-1980s. Incidentally, the above video had Tominaga advertising some sort of seiyuu audition event in which she was one of the judges.
In comparison to the synthpop of "Hito Natsu no Memory"（ひと夏のメモリー）, the topic of that first article, Tominaga's "Kanojo no Kare kara Watashi no Kare" (Her Boyfriend is Mine) straddles the blurry line between 1990s City Pop and straight-ahead brassy pop. A track on her 1991 album "mind", the song has got that sophistication and flair which I've often acquainted with a night out in Tokyo back in the Bubble Era. Love that saxophone in there.
Written by Tominaga and composed by singer-songwriter Shoichiro Hizume（日詰昭一郎）, I don't know what the lyrics are about but with that title, I would think that it would have made for the ideal theme for one of the final trendy dramas on Japanese television. As for Hizume, he played support bass for TM Network and Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）, but also released a few singles and albums of his own. Sadly, he passed away suddenly in 2001 at the age of 43.
Coincidentally, I had found out how old actor and bon vivant William Shatner was just a few days before his birthday came around yesterday. I know that he's been around for a long time but my eyes still boggled when I realized that he turned 90 years old on March 22nd.
I've shown my "Star Trek" geekiness occasionally on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", and yep, with all due respects to Chris Pine (who I also liked in the character), I think Shatner is still the one true Captain James Tiberius Kirk of the starship Enterprise. And even from a blog that centers around Japanese music from the Showa Era, I still wanted to pay tribute to this old Montrealer with the distinctive thespian delivery.
So I'd been wondering what the song would be. When the original "Star Trek" was shown in Japan under the title of "Uchuu Daisakusen"（宇宙大作戦）, it didn't come up with any original theme of its own created by any Japanese songwriters. I even checked out the Japanese voice actor who dubbed Kirk, Masaaki Yajima（矢島正明）, to see if he had released any songs of his own, but no dice there.
Then I realized that during my years in Japan, from time to time on Japanese variety programs, often travel-related, the theme song from the original "Star Trek" was used to accompany the footage of heading out to the far-flung areas outside of the nation such as Hawaii or Los Angeles. I gather that was the case because of the wondrous and romantic nature of travel and the whole thing about the premise of "Star Trek" was going out into the unknown to explore strange new worlds and civilizations.
However, it wasn't the original theme by Alexander Courage that was the travel footage's melodic companion, but a disco cover of the song by jazz trumpeter Maynard Ferguson. Like Shatner, Ferguson also hailed from a part of Montreal, Canada, and in the West, he's probably much more well known as the musician behind "Gonna Fly Now", the theme song for Sylvester Stallone's "Rocky"(1976). I will probably have to do a ROY article on that one fairly soon.
Still, I like Ferguson's take on "Star Trek". I figure if Meco can come up with disco "Star Wars", then why not a glitter ball-friendly version of "Star Trek"? Wouldn't it be nice to view the NCC-1701 soar through the sky while drinking down that cocktail by the beach?
Both "Gonna Fly Now" and his cover of "Star Trek" are on his March 1977 9th album"Conquistador", Perhaps Ferguson himself, who passed away in 2006, may not be all that well known to the population at large in Japan nowadays, but I think both of those songs still have some resonance and recognition although folks would probably be able to identify the movie for "Gonna Fly Now" faster than that for the other theme song.
It was a bit hard to believe when I saw the news over this weekend but the fact that there was a gubernatorial election in my old residential prefecture of Chiba laid it out plain. Actor/singer Kensaku Morita（森田健作）who had taken the reins as governor of the region in 2009 called it a day for his current job. He is retiring after about 12 years at the helm which means that he became governor when I was still living in Ichikawa City.
Well, definitely some measure of otsukare-sama and arigato is in order for Governor Morita, so I would like to give some tribute to him by featuring one of his old kayo here. I think I found something rather apt via his February 1973 single, "Seishun ni Kui wa Nai ka" (No Regrets For Your Youth?).
Written by Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composed by Koichi Morita（森田公一）, both of whom are in the legendary category for their fields, "Seishun ni Kui wa Nai ka" is a pleasant mix of folk and kayo with that relaxing harmonica and some horns leading the way. The song was used as the theme for an NTV drama "Okore! Otoko da"（おこれ!男だ...Get Mad! You're Men） which starred Morita.
The above video is of Morita late last year giving the announcement that he would not be running in the next election. Hopefully, he won't have any major regrets about his time as governor.
