Well, I think that there is a small group of J-Pop fans who are celebrating today since less than 24 hours following my APB yesterday for this appealing excerpt of a mystery song that had been posted up on YouTube back in 2019, identification was made. The comments have been made under the posting but give thanks to Robert B for first informing us about the song and then commenter Brian Mitchell for breaking the case.
Drum roll, please...the mystery song is "Circus Circus" by singer-songwriter Sachiko Kumagai（熊谷幸子）and it's a track on her June 1993 2nd album "Niji no Achira ni ~ Far beyond the rainbow"（虹の彼方に）. As I mentioned in the APB, that 25-second excerpt was enchanting enough for me to become quite interested in who was behind it. I do love me a quirky pop song and there's a lot in "Circus Circus" to be quite attracted to with the cool yet slightly spacey bounce in this one. In fact, I'm sorry that it still feels a little short even at 3:43.
The songwriting credits deserve their own paragraph. According to the JASRAC database, "Circus Circus" was given lyrics by Mica Project（マイカプロジェクト）which happens to have none other than Masataka Matsutoya（松任谷正隆）, his wife Yuming（ユーミン）and Shun Taguchi（田口俊）among others helping out. You see, when I wrote the first article for Kumagai in 2018, I did mention that she began composing after being inspired by Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）. Well, what I hadn't mentioned was that while she was working as a secretary at a foreign shipping company in the mid-1980s, Kumagai decided to enroll in the composition course at a music school known as the Mica Music Laboratory which has been run by Masataka.
In fact, according to Kumagai's J-Wiki article, Matsutoya was impressed by the budding singer-composer's seemingly genius-level abilities at complex chord progressions, and indeed the singer was responsible for the melody. Sure enough, listening to "Circus Circus", I got the feeling that there was something either Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）or Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）in the melody and obviously neither of those two are slouches in the industry. Anyways, folks, enjoy listening to the song that you had been trying to unearth for years!😄
Yay for the mystery being solved! Now if you can solve the mystery of this song that has stumped people for 30 years and counting now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y3JUmERfY8
ReplyDeleteHi there. Actually, that was a past APB that I put up back last May. I guess that it's still not been resolved. It's a good song though although I wonder if this was a demo track by a budding singer that she no longer wants to associate her with.
Deletehttps://kayokyokuplus.blogspot.com/2021/05/all-points-bulletin-name-this-tune.html
Morning, Brian.
ReplyDeleteThat's nice to hear. I hope that the information adds at least something to their listening pleasure. When a singer has the Matsutoyas helping out, that's usually a big thing.