Minoru Mukaiya -- Take the SL Train

 

Keyboardist Minoru Mukaiya（向谷実）was one of the founding members of the smooth and cool jazz fusion band Casiopea（カシオペア）in the late 1970s and so he was front and centre whenever I wrote about any of their songs such as "Eyes of Mind".

However, I'd had no idea that he was so much into trains. In fact, after his Casiopea days, he became the head honcho for the company Ongakukan（音楽館）which has produced professional train simulators for Japanese transit systems and has even provided video game and train enthusiasts with the "Train Simulator" series of games beginning in 1995. My anime buddy, who also possesses his own love for trains, has said that he's even played the game. I'm pretty sure that Mukaiya has provided the music for them.

As well, I discovered on his Wikipedia page that he has concocted various chimes for trains and stations such as the one for the Sanyo and Kyushu Bullet Trains at 1:30.

I'll be honest with you folks and say that I have never heard of this Mukaiya mix that he made as the departure melody for the stations along Tokyo Metro's Tozai Line（東西線）, and my station was Minami-Gyotoku（南行徳）which was right on the line. It's very pleasant, though, and I think that if I had heard it, maybe my own departures in the morning wouldn't have been quite as grumpy.

I gather that Mukaiya's love for trains must have sprouted all the way back when he was a kid; I think that a lot of kids fall for two things from early in their childhood: trains and dinosaurs. So, perhaps it's no surprise that when he took a hiatus from his time as Casiopea's keyboardist in 1985, he included a track on his first solo album released in August, "Welcome to the Minoru's Land" that was dubbed "Take the SL Train".

The keyboardist also incorporated the sounds of escaping steam and chugs into this bright, jazzy and cheerful track. Instead of it being fusion (although it's been categorized as such on J-Wiki), though, I think it does sound more along the lines of the technopop that Yellow Magic Orchestra whipped up, and on the J-Wiki page for "Welcome to the Minoru's Land", he got together his toys of the latest sequencers and drum machines to help him out. In fact, I swear that there is at least one passage in the song that comes across as downright Sakamoto-esque. And you know, I wouldn't be surprised if "Take the SL Train" was actually used in the early versions of "Train Simulator".