Platinum 900 -- Ima Sugu Juwaki wo Totte（今すぐ受話器を取って）

 

Gonna be starting off City Pop Friday with another track from Platinum 900's "Concerto für Jazz, Disco and Bossa Nova" which came out in 1998. "Kayo Kyoku Plus" contributor HRLE92, who first wrote about the album, and I share something in common in that the both of us love it when we encounter a hidden treasure, and although I knew that J-R&B was coming into its own around the end of the 20th century with hip-hop and other forms of the rhythm and blues, it was truly a revelation for me (as it was, I'm sure, for HRLE92) regarding this late 1990s album filled with some old-school funk and disco.

As my fellow collaborator mentioned in his own article, Platinum 900 is seen as one of the overlooked City Pop bands, and once again, I'm going to be plucking out another track from "Concerto für Jazz, Disco and Bossa Nova" as I did with Track 3, "Mercedes Life". The first three tracks, in fact, have been described by HRLE92 as groovy City Pop tunes, and the first track, "Ima Sugu Juwaki wo Totte" (Pick Up That Phone Right Now) has got plenty of groove, funk and propulsion, thanks to the rhythms generated by the bass, guitar and the claps. Heck, I can even hear a 1970s City Pop synthesizer haze effect in there! Lyricist/singer Naoko Sakata（坂田直子）seems to be encouraging all those listeners to pick up the receiver right now as if they were still owning old-fashioned home phones with buttons or even the ancient dial. 

Guitarist and bassist Kazuhiko Nishimura (西村一彦) came up with the basic melody and together with keyboardist Hiroshi Iihoshi (飯星裕史), the entire band worked on the arrangement. I will have to cover that second track "Apple" to complete the groovy trio for the album.