Natsuko -- Yoru Goto no Period（夜ごとのピリオド）

 

On our usual Friday of City Pop, AOR and other forms of the urban contemporary, I found another singer with a fine voice but not with a lot of information online. This particular song was actually on the channel for Island Fantasia who is known here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" as HRLE92.

The only intelligence that I could glean on the singer known as Natsuko（七月子）was that she had at least one album "Misty Love" which was released in January 1994 and earlier in December 1993, she had released "One More You". There is also the brief blurb originally written in "CD Journal" that seems to be the only report given anywhere at any site about the singer which can be translated as "The first album by a rather mature female vocalist. Despite it being a debut work, it's solid throughout with songs that are convincingly good. Her voice is indebted to Northern Soul here but I'd like to further hear the music by this lady who's into various other sounds."

Well, I don't think that Natsuko provided much more than "Misty Love" and "One More You" unfortunately. However, I have listened to one track from the album, "Yoru Goto no Period" (Nightly Period), and though I haven't heard enough Northern Soul to identify the song as such, it does have quite a bit of soul in the arrangements and delivery. Those cool-sounding horns also give "Yoru Goto no Period" some of that sophisti-pop sheen of Swingout Sister and the beats in there can also make it pretty danceable, too. Lyrics were by Yuriko Ishikawa（石川ゆり子）and music/arrangement were handled by Takefumi Haketa（羽毛田丈史）.

During my quick foray into what Northern Soul was about, I encountered this charming dance video by Levanna McLean dancing to the genre itself. You can check out her YouTube channel.