Kazushi Inamura and Dai Ikkan Dai Hyakusho -- Ni-gatsu no Nioi（二月の匂い）

 

I figure that with February just around the corner, it was a good time to put this one up.

Folk singer-songwriter Kazushi Inamura（稲村一志）hailed from Hokkaido and during his time at the Hokkaido University of Education, he and a few others set up a music circle called Folk-In. Along with his time as a radio personality, he also set up a folk-rock band called Dai Ikkan Dai Hyakusho（第一巻第百章...Volume 1 Chapter 100）in his third year in 1970. The band also included Yukio Sasaki（佐々木幸男）.

I found this track from the band's 1977 2nd album "Free Flight" and I've gotta say that it doesn't really sound very folksy, but it still lands very pleasantly on my ears. "Ni-gatsu no Nioi" (The Smell of February) is more along the lines of the mellow soft rock of the decade from either side of the Pacific, and it hits me like Bread & Butter and the urban contemporary side of Sentimental City Romance. Inamura wrote and composed this treat which deserves a glass of the good stuff on the beach table, although the title does have "ni-gatsu" in it.

I also found this concert performance by Inamura singing "Ni-gatsu no Nioi". He released a number of singles and albums up to the mid-2000s, but unfortunately, he passed away at the age of 64 in January 2014.