Miho Yonemitsu & Yuko Anai (from Tokyo Performance Doll) -- Akiiro Concerto（秋色協奏曲）

 

Happy Labour Day to all involved countries, and no, I realize that we're still almost two months away from Halloween, but I couldn't find any other picture on short notice to depict the autumn season. And this song does signify the season in its title.

Actually "Akiiro Concerto" (Fall Colour Concerto) as performed by two members of the aidoru group Tokyo Performance Doll（東京パフォーマンスドール）, Miho Yonemitsu & Yuko Anai（米光美保・穴井夕子）, was ably covered several years ago by my friend and co-administrator of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", Marcos V. in 2016. I usually don't do follow-ups of fellow contributors' articles since they have always spoken for themselves without the need for added insights from me. However, I was so charmed by Yonemitsu & Anai's work here that I wanted to write something.

For one thing, I'm always going to be a sucker for some swinging Burt Bacharach-esque horn arrangements since that ties in with the whole Shibuya-kei thing in the 1990s. Indeed, I know that it's the synthesizer providing the horns (kinda PSY-S-like) and there's a part of me that would have preferred the real horns for "Akiiro Concerto", but I'm just whining a tad here. Still, the song created by lyricist Nonoko Jin（神野々子）and composer Kazuhito Fujiki（藤木和人）has got a good beat and the ladies behind the mike give some fine harmonies.

As Marcos mentioned in his article for the song, "Akiiro Concerto" first saw the light of day on the group’s third album, “Cha-Dance Party Vol. 3", in November 1991. I've already provided a few articles regarding Yonemitsu's solo career following her TPD days including her cover of the City Pop classic "Koi wa Ryuusei" (恋は流星）, originally by Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）.