Tetsuji Hayashi -- Light Up!

 

There's nothing like a good police takedown set to some future Vaporwave music, courtesy of composer Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）. Yes, the master music maker for City Pop and AOR in the 1970s and 1980s crafted the soundtrack for the NTV detective series "Jungle"（ジャングル）which had its two-season run in 1987 and 1988. I still get a kick out of seeing star Takeshi Kaga（鹿賀丈史）, aka the flamboyant host of the original "Iron Chef" program on Fuji-TV, play a dead-serious and justice-laden detective on the hard streets of Tokyo.

Strangely enough, "Jungle" has already some representation on KKP, thanks to the inclusion of the two opening themes, also by Hayashi, with the original opener from 1987 and "Dangerous Night" from 1988 as performed by the late great Jake H. Concepcion. Well, this time it's not a theme song but just some music from the original soundtrack by Hayashi called "Light Up!".

Contrary to the title, "Light Up!" isn't exactly a high-octane track designed to accompany an arrest or a shootout (extremely rare in reality, happens all the time on cop shows). In fact, it's a jazzy City Pop instrumental that has probably been used for one of the lighter and goofier moments of an episode or maybe it's suitable for a contemplative walkabout by two of the characters on a Shinjuku avenue. Although I couldn't find out for sure, maybe that saxophone is once again by Concepcion.