Carlos Toshiki -- Yoake made Borderless（夜明けまでBORDERLESS）

 

Last night, I was looking at HRLE92's epic article on the various side projects budding out of the perennially summer time City Pop/J-AOR band Omega Tribe（オメガトライブ）, "Omega Tribe-Related Works Review". Up to now, I had assumed that it was Kiyotaka Sugiyama's（杉山清貴）group to be passed over to Carlos Toshiki（カルロス・トシキ）, but like the multiverse which began to sprout at the end of the first season of "Loki", Omega Tribe apparently grew its own branches.

One album that came under HRLE92's scrutiny was Toshiki's debut solo album "Emotional" from December 1991. It wasn't looked upon too kindly by my fellow KKP contributor but he and I both agree that the first track "Yoake made Borderless" (Borderless Till Dawn) was the one standout. The song was actually his November 1991 2nd single as a solo artist following his 1982 "Lusia" (also noted in HRLE92's review) which had been released before Toshiki's relationship with Omega Tribe.

Written by Masako Arikawa（有川正沙子）, composed by Tsunehiro Izumi（和泉常寛）and arranged by Hiroshi Shinkawa（新川博）, the keyboards might sound 90s but in all other regards, "Yoake made Borderless" feels as if Toshiki had never left the band. Those harmonized backing vocals and the summery sax seal the deal in terms of the familiarity. The single only did very modestly, though, by scoring a peak of No. 97 on Oricon. The Economic Bubble Era may have crumbled away in that year but this song sure didn't get the memo.