OPCELL -- Hikari kara no Travel（光からのトラベル）

 

Yesterday during the usual Friday Urban Contemporary stuff on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I introduced singer-songwriter Kantaro Yamamoto（山本寛太郎）who had his own solo career from the late 1970s into the early 1980s.

Well, he took a hiatus for several years, but then into the 1990s, he formed the pop group OPCELL which brought in keyboardist Yasuyuki Honda（本田恭之）and engineer/sound designer Tsuyoshi Inoue（井上剛）. Yamamoto himself changed his name to Ken Ranmiya*（KEN 蘭宮）for the purposes of the band, and in January 1995, OPCELL released their one and only self-titled album. According to the J-Wiki writeup for the group, they were known for their nostalgic but fresh sound.

Tower Records noted that the cover for "OPCELL" was illustrated by the Hiroshi Nagai（永井博）and that the album was a City Pop release. I've listened to a few of the tracks thus far but I don't think that I can agree on that point. If anything, the band gets closer to a Being sound of the 1990s along the lines of DEEN with some added unique sounds by Inoue. The opening track, "Hikari kara no Travel" (Travel from the Light), in fact, strikes me as being in the realm of dream pop or indies. But no complaints here; the album does stand out considering the time of the decade in which Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）was dominating the period with his music and cadre of stars.

Following the OPCELL project, keyboardist Honda became part of the band face to ace. I'm not sure what became of Inoue although at the time of the production of "OPCELL", he was working as a recording engineer in New York City. Meanwhile, Yamamoto/Ranmiya is currently living in his native Shizuoka Prefecture where he runs a fishing lure company...and it's apparently called OPCELL (or Clinch Lure). Personally, I kinda thought that the name would have fit the name of Tom Clancy's latest Special Forces team.

*Not 100% sure of the pronunciation of the name. Also, OPCELL did put up their own YouTube channel a few years ago.