Toshiki Kadomatsu -- Door no Mukou ~ Sayonara T ~（ドアの向こう 〜SAYONARA T〜）/We Can Dance

 

Looks my last entry for City Pop Friday is another banger and of course, it's by one of the leaders himself, Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）.

"Door no Mukou ~ Sayonara T ~" (Beyond the Door) is Kadomatsu's 10th single from November 1986, and when I was reading the article for the song on J-Wiki, I was surprised to discover that Kadomatsu had wanted to create a Mood Kayo with a touch of old soul. "Door no Mukou" is that creation. 

I think the entire song is infused with varying levels of Mood Kayo. Namely, the biggest feelings of it come in through the intro within the first 35 seconds with the languid melody and the bluesy saxophone by Jake H. Concepcion, and then there is the instrumental bridge just under the 3:00 mark with the Latin guitar by Masahiro Ikumi（幾見雅博）. "Door no Mukou" is indeed an interesting creature with the one layer of a soulful Mood Kayo that sounds like genre groups such as Los Indios or Los Primos could have tackled it in a previous decade while the overlaying layer is pure Toshiki City Pop.

Japanese music site Music Avenue's kaz-shin has commented on the surprise and brilliance of "Door no Mukou" but I'd also like to add one thing that hadn't been observed in either the J-Wiki or Music Avenue articles. I guess that it's because of that 1970s soulfulness and the wonderful brass section arranged by Shin Kazuhara（数原晋）and Kazuo Otani's（大谷和夫）strings, but on hearing the tune a number of times, I feel that "Door no Mukou" could have been offered to The King of Love Songs himself, Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）, and it would have fit him hand-in-glove.

The B-side "We Can Dance" is also another banger. This is more in the conventional Kadomatsu stream and once again, trumpeter Kazuhara has managed to whip up another tasty brass treat. kaz-shin mentions that "We Can Dance" doesn't have much of an impact but it somehow remains in the ears and mind. Yeah, as I mentioned, it's a regular Kadomatsu but even a regular Kadomatsu can still be a killer tune. Once again, I have to state that even this B-side could have been covered by another top-notch singer, the late Hideki Saijo（西城秀樹）during his own City Pop phase, and in fact, Kadomatsu did provide him with a song "Through the Night" in 1984.

Also, have a look at the bottom of that J-Wiki article for "Door no Mukou" for the great musicians backing both songs up. Also, both songs hadn't been put on any album for some years until 1993, when they were included on Disc 2 of Kadomatsu's first BEST album "1981-1987" which peaked at No. 6 on Oricon.