I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
Credits
I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.
Back in September 2021, I wrote about a duo called Young Gun Silver Fox who brought back the joy of late 70s/early 80s West Coast AOR into the 21st century. "Kids" hails from Shawn Lee and Andy Platts' 2020 album"Canyons" and I was tickled pink (or should I say leisure suit green?) by both the mellow melody of my childhood and the music video.
As I mentioned in the article for "Kids", nope, this is neither a write-up on a Japanese pop song nor a ROY article, but heck I will gladly made an exception for Young Gun Silver Fox, especially coming across another treasure of theirs in the form of "Simple Imagination". This comes from their 2022 release "Ticket to Shangri-La" and Lee and Platts have that Pages influence once more in their delivery but some of that arrangement also reminds me of Stevie Wonder's 1976"As". I do love those horns as well as the keyboards.
I found another feature about YGSF on Music Glue so you can read about what makes these guys tick.
Joetsu（上越）happens to be the name of a city in Niigata Prefecture, and although I never lived in that province, I did live next door in Gunma Prefecture. That particular name does ring a bell, though, since it was also the name of the Bullet Train that I used to go to and from Tokyo. The Joetsu Shinkansen was about a 70-minute ride between Ueno Station in the megalopolis and our exceedingly large Jomo Kogen Station in the former town of Tsukiyono where I resided for two years.
Singer Rika Tajima（田嶋里香）actually hails from Joetsu City, Niigata Prefecture and it looks like she's the third "newcomer" in a row on KKP for this final day of February 2023. Her time as a singer was relatively brief, though, at four years between 1994 and 1998 during which she released nine singles and two albums. From her second album, "Greetings", came "day after day" which was written by Tajima herself and composed by Kingo Hamada（濱田金吾）.
There's no sign of Hamada's characteristic City Pop or jazz in "day after day". It's simply a very breezy and sunshine-y pop song sung in the same manner. I found out through a Joetsu City-based blog that in the year 2000, Tajima took on the name of Rika Kashiwagi（柏木里香）to become a narrator and then in the following year, she changed her name once more to Rika Morizaki（森咲里香）to continue her life in the geinokai. Supposedly, she had a bit role in Takeshi Kitano's（北野武）film "Dolls" in 2002 as an office employee in a park.
Well, let's see. I helped out my parents, lugged up a bag of rice and got some takeout for dinner later on. Considering that I was up late last night again browsing through YouTube, I'm not exactly displaying the peak of energy levels right now and none of us are purchasers of Red Bull. What's a guy to do?
One pick-me-up has been to blog about a pretty eclectic singer or band. And I did find one with Sugar's Campaign. Formed in 2011, the duo consists of musician Seiho Hayakawa（早川聖朋）and trackmaker Takuma "Avec Avec" Hosokawa（細川拓久真）who have come together according to their Speedstar Recordsprofile to create some new-age City Pop. They have often invited vocalists to front their tunes, and their influences include Yasuyuki Okamura（岡村靖幸）, Toshinobu Kubota（久保田利伸）, Todd Rundgren, the kids' show "Ponkikies"（ポンキッキーズ）, and 1990s anime.
I even found a January 2015"Japan Times" article about Sugar's Campaign (of which I could only get a mere portion because they want me to pay up a subscription fee...ah, nope) that stated that their purpose was to stretch City Pop (a few years before it exploded on YouTube internationally) to the extreme in the same way that Kyary Pamyu Pamyu（きゃりーぱみゅぱみゅ）has done with aidoru music.
Indeed, that is intriguing and in 2019, Hayakawa and Hosokawa came out with a single called "City Pop". However, I'd say that it wasn't even a matter of stretching City Pop to its limits. It's really a wholly different animal or a mild gryphon, so to speak. I kinda heard it as an 80s-style synthpop ditty while a 2019 article on Otaquest described it as a peppy 2000s indie rock song. Whatever it ultimately is, "City Pop" is still plenty fun to hear and shimmy-worthy with guest vocalist Akio behind the mike.
A Happy Tuesday to you as we go through the final day of February. We just weathered another spate of heavy snow last night but it looks a whole lot better outside today.
Those of you in the know about Japanese pop culture will quickly recognize the above dancers and singers as the proud Takarazuka Revue Company（宝塚歌劇団）, famous for its all-women company of glitzy and epic performers. I could only do some quick skimming through the 10-minute video by YouTube uploader shinobu kamo so I was unable to find her, but within all of those talented ladies, there is supposed to be one Hanayo Miyuki（美雪花代）who up until 1981 was the top star of the Hanagumi or Flower Troupe.
Miyuki left the Takarazuka rather abruptly in May 1981 and went into a career of television acting under her real name of Miyuki Iwasaki（いわさきみゆき・岩﨑美由紀）. She also sporadically released a couple of singles in 1984 and 1989 with the first single being "Scramble"（スクランブル）. I don't know about that A-side but we do have her B-side, "I-KE-NA-I Koibito" (Forbidden Lover). The song is a rather cute and jangly pop tune with some New Waviness to it although it doesn't really strike any big bells, so I think that it was appropriate as a B-side. The lyricist was Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）while singer-songwriter Kengo Kurozumi（黒住憲五）came up with the melody.
Going into the 1990s, the entertainer began performing in musicals and decided to go with her Takarazuka stage name of Hanayo Miyuki once more.
Sad to say, but it looks like the first Marvel entry for 2023, "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" isn't exactly creating great buzz, but I figure if someone wants to go see it, I'll catch it with them. However, I think that the new course correction of being a little more reserved about the quantity and rollout of Phases 5 and 6 isn't a bad one. Take some of that sweet time for decent effects and story.
I figure that if Marvel survives and thrives with these two phases, then maybe there's an opportunity to look further at the even more powerful entities in the Marvel Universe; for those who've seen the movies, we've gotten a little taste via the Eternals and the Celestials. But no, there are folks out there who make even those powerhouses seem like pre-Captain America Steve Rogers. There are those living concepts including The In-Betweener, The Living Tribunal and even Lord Chaos and Master Order.
Not to say that Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）will ever end up scoring an MCEU flick but this recent track that I've found by him sounds as if it could adorn any scene where Chaos and Order might show up. The title though is a tad different: "Chaos & Harmony" from his March 2020 BESTcompilation, "Collection". Nope, it definitely has nothing to do with any of his City Pop material from the early 1980s such as "First Light" and frankly I couldn't see Chaos and Order bopping about under a disco ball (although "Collection" also includes the City Pop stuff).
I knew that along with City Pop, Matsushita was also someone who played his fine and steady guitar in the progressive rock realm, and we got some of that from his 1982 album, "The Pressures and the Pleasures". But this previously unreleased "Chaos & Harmony" strikes me as something different from progressive rock as well. Not sure how to describe it: would it be avant-pop or progressive baroque? But that afterlife-sounding melody and Matsushita's whisperings of extra-galactic significance make me feel like I was about to be granted an audience with beings that even Doctor Strange would be hard pressed to get.
The last time I heard about singer/actress/model Yuki Uchida（内田有紀）was when she became a late addition to the cop comedy-drama franchise "Odoru Dai Sosasen"（踊る大捜査線）. However, my memories of her are usually restricted to her appearances in commercials, music videos and dramas of the 1990s. In a way, I saw her as the 90s version of Kyoko Koizumi（小泉今日子）: a young, short-haired and sassy woman. The singing part of her career was often paired with the Komuro Steamroller as I like to call it when producer and songwriter Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）was pretty much everywhere in music with a group under him including Uchida, hitomi and TRF for instance.
But with her second album"MI-CHEMIN" which was released in September 1995, initially a lot of the tracks there had no connection with Komuro so that, according to J-Wiki, it probably prompted King Records to add on a couple of those hits by the guy in a bonus track sort of way at the end of the album, one being "BABY'S GROWING UP".
The one song that I was actually looking at for tonight is the track "Getsuyoubi no Asa" (Monday Morning), and yep, it definitely doesn't sound like Komuro. In fact, I'd say that there was some Shibuya-kei (by way of perhaps Bacharach and maybe Swingout Sister) infused into its melody and arrangement by Hideo Saito（斉藤英夫）. Manaho Mori（森真帆）was responsible for the lyrics which tell the tale of life after the end of a romantic relationship as a woman begins her life anew by taking a ride on her bike against the pedestrian flow heading into work. It does sound like the plot for a J-Drama featuring Uchida. As for "MI-CHEMIN", it peaked at No. 3 on Oricon.
Japan is a mountainous country and as such, a lot of its citizens adore going mountain climbing. The reasons include exercise, a love of the outdoors and just the fact that they are there to paraphrase Sir Edmund Hillary. None of those reasons apply to me, though. I've always enjoyed the flat earth although I have to admit that at some point in my time in Gunma Prefecture, I did go up on a bit of a hike with some people up a small mountain close to Mt. Tanigawa. How I survived that, I'm not sure. Still I've known folks, including my old English circle of middle-aged ladies, who've been happy walking up and down mountains.
One NHK BS (which stands for Broadcast Satellite) show that has always been on TV Japan all these years is "Nippon Hyaku Meizan"（にっぽん百名山...Japan's 100 Famous Mountains）, a half-hour series that has been on since 2012 showcasing climbs up some of those titular peaks of fame throughout the Japanese archipelago. So I've been getting my mountain climbing done vicariously.
For such a program featuring the grand union of sky and land, NHK contacted longtime folk singer-songwriter Masashi Sada（さだまさし）to come up with the theme. And the result was "Sora ni Naru" (Become the Sky), a relaxing and atmospheric tune that well accompanies the climb and the triumphant if tiring accomplishment of reaching the top of the peak. There's no grand orchestral heft with "Sora ni Naru"; it's just some light instruments including Sada's voice under Takayuki Hattori's（服部隆之） arrangement to get the climbers close enough to touch the sky.
"Why does she have to be so dang affectionate all the time?"
I found this representation of the First Couple of City Pop on Images in Google or Yahoo some time ago, and I found it so adorable that I felt the urge to put it up as a thumbnail. At first, I'd assumed that it was Rocket Brown's illustration but he reassured me that it wasn't. So, for whoever the above belongs to, if it's OK, I'd like to keep it up here with your permission, but if you prefer it taken down, I'll do that lickety-split, too.
Before I get into the remaining half of my translation for Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）Record Day 2021 interview which I began last Monday, I have to inform you that there was a one-hour segment devoted to City Pop on NHK's "Asaichi"（あさイチ）morning information variety show earlier today. In Japan, it starts at 8:15 am right after the usual morning serial drama and goes on for about one hour and forty minutes. It is hosted by Yoshimoto Kogyo comedy duo Hakata Hanamaru/Daikichi（博多華丸・大吉）and NHK announcer Naoko Suzuki（鈴木奈穂子）. On TV Japan here, it comes on at 1 pm and usually I just watch the first ten minutes slouched in my armchair before I head back to the laptop, but for obvious reasons today, I was fully engaged and sat there for the hour-long segment which also had EXILE member and actor Keita Machida（町田啓太）and former aidoru and actor Riho Makise（牧瀬里穂）as guests and City Pop fans.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find any footage of that episode on YouTube as of yet but under the Twitter topic of 「あさイチ シティポップ」, there were plenty of tweets in Japanese. Of all the domestic TV features on City Pop that I've known about, the "Asaichi" segment was by far the longest. I'd half-expected Rocket and/or Van Paugam to have shown up but alas they didn't appear.
In all honesty, although I was happy to watch the segment, my observation was that there was a bit of cringey tension in the air because Daikichi looked somewhat less than enthused about City Pop (which is his personal choice and that's fine), although the usual rule is that there has to be a level of enthusiasm, real or feigned, when on Japanese telly. Again, real or feigned, Makise was simply bouncing out of her seat like a cat who has just discovered catnip about the music, perhaps to compensate for Daikichi and everyone kinda got into the running joke (nudge nudge wink wink). Still, the viewers were full-in because within about 50 minutes, about 9,600 requests for City Pop songs poured in like rapids into the show which apparently was some sort of record.
Well, one question that I've always had about City Pop was finally answered during the "Asaichi" segment and that was "Does City Pop have some sort of physiological effect on people to explain its popularity?". According to one scientist, research on folks listening to different genres of music including classical, techno and 80s pop revealed that that final genre (presumably including City Pop) was able to decrease stress including heart and pulse rates because the variation of the sounds in songs like "Plastic Love" in terms of high and low timbre are very similar to the variety found in nature. So, City Pop can actually be healthy for you (tongue is slowly going into cheek).
Supposedly in terms of lyrics, it was also revealed that among the most popular words showing up in City Pop tunes, four are "boku"（僕...I）, "kimi"（君...you）, "machi"（街...city or town） and "yasashii"（やさしい...kind）. Just for kicks, researchers even had an AI come up with its own City Pop tune (lyrics included) which was played on "Asaichi". Let's say that good ol' artificial intelligence has a ways to go which will probably have Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）crowing in glee. Anyways, I'll have my glass of "Stay With Me" for breakfast tomorrow.
Let's get onto Part 2 of the interview between Mayu Kakihata and Mariya.
Kakihata: The jacket designs also have an impact when the albums are sold at LP size, don't they?
Takeuchi: That size is great, isn't it? First of all, this works as an example of art. So much so that the enjoyment of thinking about the jacket design was cut in half when the age of CDs arrived and now that we are in the age of subscription services, the jacket design can end up being completed just by being thrown onscreen. So it's good to see analog LP jackets in this way once more. There are a lot of jackets that I'm interested in, including those for Joni Mitchell and James Taylor. Another way I enjoy them is feeling what the jacket is trying to tell me.
Kakihata: I think that in recent years, many young people and overseas listeners have come to enjoy City Pop music by becoming fans of listening to your music. How do you feel about that phenomenon?
Takeuchi: I was recently made aware of the phenomenon regarding "Plastic Love" being played over and over again on YouTube, but initially I went "What the heck is going on here?" (LOL). I think there are various complex factors that have led to this. South Korean DJ Night Tempo was kind enough to introduce my songs, and maybe there was a synergy by matching edited animation with the songs. And there have been a lot of covers, too. But ultimately, I believe that this song holds a certain omnipresence as a track produced and arranged by Tatsuro, and what I mean is that it has a good sound that holds true for today's youth. Also, by writing the lyrics about the loneliness within a slightly nihilistic city, a nostalgic world view of that era was born, and I think there were people overseas who admired and sympathized with it.
Kakihata: "Plastic Love" portrays an isolated woman of the city who manipulates love as if she were programming a computer.
Takeuchi: That's right. It's a song I created that initially involved having a standard 16-beat constantly sounding away in a rhythm box while adding the chords, the melody and then finally the lyrics. I felt that this image of a woman in an isolated nocturnal city fit this melody with this sort of darkness. It's also a song with a bit of playfulness, but even now, I think that it's the best track for me. We layered the rhythm section of bassist Koki Ito and drummer Jun Aoyama, the strings and the brass arranged by Tatsuro, and the back chorus by me and Taeko Ohnuki. I think it became popular over time because everything was brought together and arranged without any waste. I am truly grateful that this song that I really love has once again been loved by all generations. Having said that though, even when I tried to analyze why young people have given their all to the Japanese AOR of that era or the genre of music called City Pop, I still have to say that I don't really understand it and to be honest, it's still really weird to me. (LOL).
Kakihata: I've come across a lot of settings where your songs were being played by many DJs at entertainment venues such as clubs before the pandemic. I think that there are many young people now who relate to those lyrics that you wrote.
Takeuchi: I feel that today's younger generation, regardless of background knowledge and regardless of whether the things that catch their attention are old or new, have an intuitive way of listening when "good things are good". A lot of music co-exists within these people without much in the way of categorizing genres that goes beyond Japanese and Western music, so in a way, they may be obedient listeners. There's so much information pouring in that they can make their own choices, so the degree of freedom may have increased, but on that point, they may still have to make the right choices. When we were kids, one record cost so much that we had to try it out at the record shop and even though we really liked the album jacket, we felt we were taking a leap of faith when we bought it (laughs). After buying it just on the jacket alone, we really tried to listen to the tracks that weren't very good (laughs). So I really envy the fact that it's a truly lavish age now.
Kakihata: What's left an impression on me is that cover versions of "Plastic Love" by many artists have been popping up in recent years.
Takeuchi: You're so right. Even I'm surprised. Among these artists, there are these great bands such as Fryday Night Plans and Tofubeats who've left quite the impression. And about two years ago, I'd listened to Fujii Kaze's rendition just before he made his debut, and I thought it was fresh and great that a guy would sing "Plastic Love". There are videos of overseas fans singing and dancing to it, and I enjoy them every time I see them. There's even an Indonesian girl who is singing it in perfect Japanese. It's a wonderful thing then that there have been so many cover versions coming out because of my own song.
Kakihata: And to wrap up, what do you want to convey through your music?
Takeuchi: To me, music is something that I always feel that I would like to cherish through the sharing of the overall mood born from song and sound rather than the conveyance of the message from the lyrics. As well, if the listeners find something in their lives that connects with my music or find a little comfort, that's my greatest joy. I would love to have that in my music. I myself have many genres that I love so I like bringing those out in my own music, so I'd like to create and sing songs of a variety of types and I hope that I can freely choose from some of those so that they can be listened to. What I aim for is to continue to create universal songs that can be enjoyed by people of all generations. I want to try new things and enjoy the reaction that comes out of it, rather than imitating myself. I want to continue tackling various challenges such as collaborating with a whole bunch of musicians, for example. In life, age may become a limitation, but even so, I want to do what I can and enjoy it, and I think my curiosity about music will continue. Thanks to everyone for their continued support.
Over the years of doing this blog, I've been hearing this phrase when it comes to digging up information on the Japanese popular music of yesteryear, and that is "cocky pop". And after a bit of immature giggling, I got a bit serious and looked things up.
As it turns out, the expression refers to a nightly Nippon Broadcasting System radio program sponsored by the Yamaha Music Foundation called "Cocky Pop"（コッキーポップ）which had its time between June 1971 and November 1986. There was also a TV program that lasted for a few years from 1977 to 1981. Hosted by Goro Oishi（大石吾朗）, the "cocky", which would usually mean "impertinent" or "putting on airs", was meant to describe the pop music that came on this program as something that was ahead of its time. So I'm assuming that this would at least include New Music and in the airing above, Miyuki Nakajima（中島みゆき）was the featured singer for most of the program. In any case, this would have been a program that I would love to have listened to in its night slot.
Now, the reason that I've mentioned the above is that I found the song of this article on a compilation album called "Cocky Fresh" which was released in December 1975. It was put out by Canyon Records so I don't know if this actually had anything to do with Yamaha and NBS'"Cocky Pop"; the record label may have simply just jumped on the bandwagon and pilfered the "cocky" from its rival to showcase a bunch of New Music songs.
Regardless, one track is singer-songwriter Kyoko Nakazawa's（中沢京子）"Sonna Anata ga" (That Side of You) which was written and composed by the singer under Mitsuo Hagita's（萩田光雄）arrangement. Back at the end of 2015, I introduced Nakazawa onto the pages of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" as somewhat of a mystery artist who won a prize at the 1974 Yamaha Popular Song Contest, put out a single (or two), "Machi-wabite"（待ちわびて）, and recorded a few more songs before calling it quits. "Sonna Anata ga" is a heartfelt ballad about appreciating that significant other through thick and thin that reminds me a bit of The Hollies' 1969"He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother".
Well, in further delving into any more information on "Sonna Anata ga", I found out that Nakazawa's take on the song was a self-cover. She may have gotten her version out at the end of 1975, but the song did get out to a couple of other artists in the previous year of 1974. The sister duo Wish（ウィッシュ）sang their "Sonna Anata ga" as the B-side to their single "Roku-gatsu no Komori Uta"（六月の子守歌...June Lullaby） with an arrangement by Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）. Wish also has a prior song up on the blog, "Go-Annai"（御案内）.
Akiko Kosaka（小坂明子）also recorded "Sonna Anata ga" (and for that matter "Roku-gatsu no Komori Uta") in her February 1974 debut album"Anata ~ Kosaka Akiko no Sekai"（あなた / 小坂明子の世界...You ~ The World of Akiko Kosaka） with Hagita arranging the entire album. Listening to Nakazawa's version above, I had figured that Kosaka would be the ideal candidate to sing "Sonna Anata ga" as well. Of course, the singer had her own tribute to the second-person pronoun which broke her into stardom.
Compared to the photo above of a lovely and innocent 80s aidoru Kazue Ito（伊藤かずえ）above, the cover of her 7th single from January 1985 is anything but.
The first thing I thought on seeing the cover for "Juu-nana Sai no Terror"(17-Year-Old Terror) was "Wayward Teen Punk! Red Alert!". I didn't see too many Japanese movies from that decade but I heard about them and some TV dramas dealing with delinquents causing havoc in the city while all garbed in dark leather instead of breathable light cotton.
Written by Masao Urino（売野雅勇）and composed by Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）with arrangement by Goto and Hiromoto Tobisawa（飛澤宏元）, there is that de rigueur electric guitar wailing away to signal motorcycles and their riders weaving back and forth as they bomb down the highways at night. While Ito doesn't have the greatest voice, she is conveying some of that sultry menace. In fact, listening to "Juu-nana Sai no Terror", I was reminded of Akina Nakamori's（中森明菜）early songs from 1982 and 1983. Goto did compose a number of Akina's tunes but they were actually on her "D404ME" album which came out later in the same year as this Ito single.
When I was thinking about this latest in the Gosanke（御三家...The Big 3）series on KKP, I also mused about whether our household every owned anything by Toshiba. Sony and Hitachi were represented at home and of course, there was the Toyota car, but I don't think a Toshiba item ever got past our threshold. However, I do remember the Toshiba Rupo word processor in the Board of Education of Tsukiyono where I worked on the JET Programme. Compared to the slender laptops we have now, the Rupo was a veritable World War I tank.
But I digress. For this Gosanke entry, there is the Toshiba Sannin Musume （The Three Ladies of Toshiba） consisting of singers Chiyo Okumura（奥村チヨ）, Jun Mayuzumi（黛ジュン）and Tomoko Ogawa（小川知子）. The connection among the three is that the ladies debuted their discographies from Toshiba Records, and the name got adhered to them in the late 1960s according to J-Wiki with Okumura being the latest to debut in the year 1965. The naming is similar to what happened with a later trio of singers: the RCA Sannin Musume（RCA三人娘）.
It's been a hot minute since I've gone through Batayan's repertoire. And by hot minute, I mean five years. At least. Of course, my all-time favourites were constantly on rotation over the years and that affable greeting of his never gets old. But, another expedition into what more he has on offer was long overdue, and so that's what I've been doing lately.
"Hyotan Jitterbug" is at the 7:00 mark
To reaccustom myself to Yoshio Tabata's (田端義夫) other works, I tuned into one of those long album videos on YouTube as I surfed the 'gram for food ideas. This video turned out to be the very same one I used to love back in the day. In it was nine of the electric guitar-wielding singer's works with a 1960s-swing-style facelift to the melodies, giving them a more contemporary and snazzy sound. Among them, the jubilant "Hyotan Jitterbug" (the latter written as "jiruba") brought back a wave of nostalgia as the tinkling keys of the piano's introduction rang out and its jazzy beat came crashing in. I loved its fun-loving vibe then and I still love it now despite the many-year gap.
The original take
"Hyotan Jitterbug" was a postwar entry in Tabata's discography created by composer Akira Michinoku (陸奥明) and lyricist Shingo Kato (加藤省吾) in 1947. Likely overshadowed by his later solemn hits, this funky ditty mostly stayed relatively under the radar. That said, I've always known Batayan as a pretty versatile artist - I'm convinced he did any genre as long as he could play it on his guitar, so a swing tune like this just felt very him, no questions asked. What's more, in his unique high tone seemed to be a hint of mischief as he played the role of a carefree drifter with, I'm assuming, a dried gourd filled with sake by his side, enjoying life as it comes. Very Batayan indeed.
The video above is an instrumental version of "Hyotan Jiruba". It comes from "Batayan no Guitar Meienshu" (バタヤンのギター名演集), released on 18th February 2015, which features Batayan's beloved electric guitar front and centre.
I would like to personally thank the 100 yen stores for enabling me.
P.S. Ever since I began living on my own, I make it a point to make every house a home. Friends jokingly call it my 'Husbando Shrine' - I insist it's a 'Husbando Shelf'. Either way, it's a must and one of the first things that go up after a move. Priorities, am I right? Recently, I thought I should showcase more bromides, so I've added a couple of fellows to the mix. Since they're the flavours of the season, Batayan and Hai-Katsu have temporarily joined my Big 3. In hindsight, I suppose it was long overdue that I have a Batayan thing displayed. He's been a constant presence since my first foray into ryukoka, after all.
I'd been wondering when I would finally get to use the Yuji Oda（織田裕二）photo. Well, tonight's the night! When it comes to Oda's file on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I figured that it was going to be a short one since I've really only known him for his acting and despite having a fairly long discography, the only song that had ever really gotten my attention was his contribution of his duet with Maxi Priest, "Love Somebody", as the theme for one of his most famous dramas, the 1997 "Odoru Dai Sosasen"（踊る大捜査線....Bayside Shakedown）.
However, I was able to find his 3rd single from February 1991, "Utaenakatta Love Song" (The Love Song I Couldn't Sing). Written by Aki Mana（真名杏樹）and composed by Takashi Tsushimi（都志見隆）, it's got an amiable pop-rock rhythm and aside from the synths, I couldn't help but feel that the song was arranged sounding like a very upbeat number created and performed by another singer with the same initials as Oda: Yutaka Ozaki（尾崎豊）. Mind you, Ozaki had the better chops.
I mentioned in the "Love Somebody" article that its lyrics reflected the personality of Oda's role in "Odoru Dai Sosasen", the noble if somewhat goofy Officer Aoshima. Well, perhaps "Utaenakatta Love Song" could describe a happier and naive Kanji Nagao, his character from another earlier and famous Fuji-TV drama "Tokyo Love Story"（東京ラブストーリー）. Interestingly enough, the single was released midway through the original run of that popular show though it had nothing to do with it, but I felt that the lyrics reflecting on a guy just starting out on his working life was Kanji-kun about to take off from his home prefecture of Ehime to Tokyo to begin an exciting new chapter as an employee at Heart Sports, before he ran into that sticky love triangle with Rika and Satomi.
"Utaenakatta Love Song" may not have had anything to do with "Tokyo Love Story", but it was picked up to be the commercial tune for the Suzuki Cervo which Oda helped promote. According to J-Wiki, the song was Oda's first Top 10 hit by landing at No. 2 and it ended up as the 14th-ranked single of 1991, selling over 500,000 copies. An acoustic version of it is available on his March 1991 album"On The Road". As of 2019, "Utaenakatta Love Song" remains as Oda's most successful single. One more piece of trivia, the arranger was none other than Akihiko Matsumoto（松本晃彦）who would later come up with the soundtrack for "Odoru Dai Sosasen".
Japan was the place where I learned not only about the different high fashion brands such as Hermes and Gucci but it was also where I found out about the different types of coffee which include Blue Mountain and Kilimanjaro. I certainly didn't care about fashion brands and when it came to a barista at Starbucks in Tokyo recommending a certain type of coffee, I just said "Yeah" more out of a sense of "whatever" (I was polite, though) than out of an interest in the actual brand.
So when I heard the name Lucky Kilimanjaro, I thought it was something that a customer might win at some café raffle. Little did I know that it was actually the name of a six-strong band formed in 2014. According to J-Wiki, although the synths (and perhaps the rap) are strong here, vocalist and songwriter Yukimaru Kumaki（熊木幸丸）and his band incorporate the sound of City Pop and disco.
Having released a mini-album and then a full album during their indies period in 2015 and 2017 respectively, their work with the major label of DREAMUSIC Inc. has resulted in 14 singles, 2 EPs and 4 full albums up to the end of 2022. Their March 2021 2nd album"Daily Bop" has one track that I've been enjoying, "Ame ga Furu nara Odoreba Ii ja nai"(If It Rains, Why Not Dance?).
With lyrics by Kumaki and composition by the whole band, "Ame ga Furu nara Odoreba Ii ja nai" definitely has the Neo-City Pop groove that I've heard from Kirinji（キリンジ）during their last band phase thrumming through their spacey synthesizers as Kumaki sings basically about making lemonade out of lemons. Plus, there are some shoutouts to Gene Kelly and Jim Carrey (the latter especially through his acclaimed movie "The Truman Show"). It would mean that in the last year and change, my fellow Ontarian has had some tenuous connection with a couple of tunes in the City Pop vein: this song and his association with The Weeknd's sample of Tomoko Aran's（亜蘭知子）"Midnight Pretenders" for his "Out of Time".
My main memory of actress Narumi Yasuda（安田成美）is her role in the Fuji-TV drama of the early 1990s, "Sugao no Mama de"（素顔のままで...Just the Way You Are) which was somewhat of a variant of the Hollywood flick "Beaches" with Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey. She had that attraction of the sweet and innocent woman in a tall and willowy form (although she's actually two inches shorter than me). Interestingly enough, I also saw her in another remake of an even more famous movie: "Roman Holiday" (via TBS) with some major tweaks to the characters although I could see Yasuda as an Audrey Hepburn type.
I wouldn't find out until some years later that Yasuda had been the singer of the theme song for one of Studio Ghibli's most famous movies "Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind" (風の谷のナウシカ). It's an adorable song as Yasuda's debut single although her label as an aidoru helped in accepting the fact that she was never a strong singer as nikala pointed out in the article for the song.
"Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa" was indeed the lead track for Yasuda's debut album"Yasuda Narumi" which was released in April 1984, and looking at the songwriting information for the album, it looks like a mixture of Happy End and Yellow Magic Orchestra members was helping out. For example, lyricist Masao Urino（売野雅勇）provided the words for one track "Sabishii Yasashisa" (Lonely Kindness) which was composed by the late Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）of YMO (he also produced the album).
I've noticed that on Yasuda's J-Wiki profile that she's been identified as an actress and a narrator but not as a singer. I promise that this will be the last time that I mention the observation that her vocal prowess left much to be desired back then, but there were a few times while listening to "Sabishii Yasashisa" that I had to cringe, even while knowing and liking my aidoru singers from the 1980s. For this techno-aidoru tune, it would have been interesting if Takahashi had actually covered it on his own since the song seems to fit his style. As it is though, I do like the arrangement by Takahashi.
I've been hearing about the horror-comedy "Cocaine Bear" which should make for some hilarious viewing. Maybe someday in the not-so-distant future, it could be part of a double feature along with "Snakes on a Plane".
Quite the ironic thing then that on the same day that "Cocaine Bear" premiered in theatres, veteran seiyuu Noriko Hidaka（日髙のり子）appeared on NHK's morning information show "Asaichi"（あさイチ）to talk about her 40-year-plus career along with her own bear incident. The voice actor admitted that she felt kinda strange appearing as a guest on the show when she was already a regular by narrating several segments on "Asaichi" over the years.
Of course, Hidaka cringed half-jokingly at some old footage when she debuted as an 80s aidoruafter which she spoke on some of the dues that she had paid while also doing her duties as a junior tarento reporting in the field. So, we come to the bear incident. Apparently, she was out at some animal sanctuary when one bruin decided to sample some of Hidaka's hair which caused no small amount of grief and terror and tears (as in from the eyes, not lacerations in her flesh). Although she thankfully didn't suffer the gore that the folks in "Cocaine Bear" do, it must have still been traumatizing for the young lady.
All that has been encapsulated by her own song and music video which came out in December 2021. The short-but-sweet "Kuma ni Kamareru yori Mashi" (Better than Being Bitten by a Bear) is humourously autobiographical as she relates that all of the sturm und drang that she went through in show business doesn't compare to the attack on her scalp by a bear. I can certainly agree with that. Written and composed with even the animation provided by singer-songwriter Keiko Yanai（矢内景子）, it starts off innocently as a kiddie-friendly pop tune until the attack brings on some rock music drama to the proceedings.
You can also check out my article on Hidaka's "Image Ihan"（イメージ違反）which I wrote about in the same month that "Kuma ni Kamareru yori Mashi" was released.
Near the end of the year in 2022, I found this eclectic band that had some chameleon-like abilities with its genres. 99.99 (called "four-nine" instead of "ninety-nine point nine nine") skipped the light fantastic through progressive rock, technopop and fusion. In fact, the band's debut album in 1982, "99.99" divided its tracks into Type A which followed the first two genres while Type B tunes covered fusion. Type B was what described the first track, aptly named "Amazin' & Amusin'".
Then, maybe the first track from 99.99's 2nd album"More of 99.99"from January 1983, "Ginza de Aimasho Darlin'"(Let's Meet in Ginza, Darlin'), is more of Type A. I'm not quite sure how to categorize it though, to be honest, and that's a good feeling. It means something even more interesting is afoot here since maybe this starting song, which might be a humourous titular riff on Frank Nagai's（フランク永井）classic 1957 "Yurakucho de Aimashou" (有楽町で逢いましょう）, could be a form of progressive pop with a soupcon of techno exotica a la Yellow Magic Orchestra's"Firecracker". Then again, I also hear a fusion of sorts melding New Wave and EPO's cheerful brand of City Pop from the same period. Finally, for some reason, I think that "Ginza de Aimasho Darlin'" may have some sibling connections with some of the tracks from Kazuhiro Nishimatsu's（西松一博）"Bouekifu Monogatari"（貿易風物語）.
In any case, we'd have to ask 99.99 member and composer Masei Hattori（服部ませい）about all of the genres that could possibly be tied up here like a bouquet garni into this musical stew. Lyricist and vocalist Noriaki Nakabayashi（中林憲昭）basically sings "Ginza de Aimasho Darlin'" like Fujimal Yoshino（芳野藤丸）with a lighter touch. For a Mood Kayo/enka-friendly area like Ginza, it's rather refreshing for some other different genres to take a whack at one of the most expensive slabs of real estate that can be found on Earth.
My observation has been that certain types of Japanese pop music from the past have been getting their renovations in this century. Aidoru music has been getting injections of indies and hard rock, and even City Pop of the 1970s and 1980s has been popping up here and there with some new flavours. For example, I wrote about Natsu Summer earlier this morning with her blend of City Pop and reggae.
I'm uncertain whether the band YONA YONA WEEKENDERS has actually mixed Neo-City Pop and punk into any of their music since I've only heard the one song so far. However, their J-Wiki profile lists them as covering the wide range of City Pop, regular J-Pop and then punk. Would love to hear that sort of blend if possible.
YONA YONA WEEKENDERS has been around since 2016 and they hail from Naka-Meguro, Tokyo. Consisting of vocalist/guitarist Isono-kun（磯野くん）, guitarist Kiichi（キイチ）, bassist Shingo Suzuki（スズキシンゴ）and drummer Takeshi/Takefumi "Beatsoldier" Kohara（小原“Beatsoldier”壮史）, J-Wiki has described the band as a group coming from mellowcore punk sensibilities with "snack-worthy good music". Well, I do love my Pringles and Kaki-P. As for the origin of the band's name, it comes from the fact that all of the members have been working as company employees by day and then musicians at night and on the weekends (the expression "yona yona" means "night after night").
In their indies period with the label para de casa before 2021, YONA YONA WEEKENDERS already released a few singles and EPs with their first of the latter being "Yoru to Album"（夜とアルバム...Night and the Album） which came out in November 2019. "Yoru no groovin'"(Night Groovin'), written and composed by Isono-kun, is indeed a grooving and gliding guitar-driven nighttime tune which does have a city vibe albeit not of the major centres such as Ginza and Akasaka. It actually seems to reflect more of the nocturnal side of the smaller hubs including the band's native Naka-Meguro or even the neighbourhood of Jiyugaoka whose fuzzy photo is up at the top. Nope, no sign of punk in there. I think that even the cover for "Yoru to Album" kinda reflects that inner city feeling.
I received all sorts of warm and fuzzies listening to this one for the first time in a long while. Perhaps in this decade, I ought to refer to that expression as ASMR.
The reason for that is the arrangement of the cool keyboards including the Fender Rhodes, the wailing guitar and the young lady behind those wonderful vocals, Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）. Here she is performing "Windy" which is a track from her 1983 "Rolling" album. Given lyrics by Rui Serizawa（芹沢類）and music by City Pop stalwart Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）, "Windy" is truly breezy but this is not a park but the concrete jungle of Tokyo. The warm and fuzzies come from the overall melody which hints at the metropolitan life back then whether it be the hotel bar in Shinjuku or a street-level Renoir café anywhere in Tokyo.
Twitter friend halcali remarked a few days ago that they enjoyed my name dropping of Kurahashi when I mentioned her in Tsugutoshi Goto's（後藤次利）"file" where I also referenced her "Itsuka Dokoka de"（いつかどこかで）. It's always nice to encounter a fellow Kurahashi fan online since they are so few and far between, so I opted to bring "Windy" into the KKP fold. Besides it's been almost a year since I put up a Kurahashi article, and I also wanted to remind folks that she wasn't just an interpreter for laconic Fashion Music but also someone who could also bring in the urban and urbane; after all, she also recorded "December 24".
One of the nicest pathways that I've strolled upon was a promenade or pedestrian boulevard, if you will, near Jiyugaoka Station just west of Shibuya. My good friend lived in the neighbourhood for several years before moving out to one of the newer hubs in western Tokyo. We used to get together to watch movies on the old VCR and there were a lot of good restaurants in the area along with a generously stocked supermarket and of course a video rental shop, so it was very convenient.
I did pick out that thumbnail of twilight-time Jiyugaoka to match this song to start off Urban Contemporary Friday on KKP. "Twilight Shadow" is a collaboration between singer Natsu Summer and Ryusenkei（流線形）, both with their ears and toes in the Neo-City Pop pool, and true to the former's style, "Twilight Shadow", which was released in May 2022 as a single, has got that reggae beat infused into the City Pop arrangement, thanks to the music by Ryusenkei's Cunimondo Takiguchi（クニモンド瀧口）who also provided the lyrics.
First listening to "Twilight Shadow", I heard something familiar in the music and that's when I realized that Takiguchi had sampled Anri's（杏里）"Last Summer Whisper" for the song. So, allow me to include Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）into the Labels as well. If I were still able to stroll on that Jiyugaoka promenade, I could be listening to this song while sitting on the bench at twilight time.
Coming across this song, I am reminded of a certain scene in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" in which Lt. Saavik makes a key observation about Admiral James T. Kirk. Captain Spock's remark had the audience laughing when I saw the film in 1982. Good times!
I've had to pull in information from various sources but it still feels like I don't have the whole story on this band Spoozys which has been called a bunch of New Wave idiots or folks into space rock. I've got no idea myself but they are fun to listen to, according to this short track from their September 2003 album"CE-III". "So Human" seems to take inspiration from the works of bands such as Devo and Polysics with their crash n' bang of synths and rock guitars. It may be less than three minutes, but Spoozys certainly makes all of those seconds count.
I'm not sure whether Spoozys has had a lineup of musicians or it has been just the one-man unit of Tokyo guitarist and songwriterJun Matsue（松江潤）but according to "Last.fm", he's often collaborated with other groups such as Cibo Matto, Pizzicato Five and Fantastic Plastic Machine. Matsue himself began releasing singles and albums in 1993, but Spoozys came about in 1998, and the band has distinguished itself in both Japan and America.
For me, the peak decade for female aidoru in the age before the Hello Project and the AKB48 girls poured in from the late 1990s was the 1980s in terms of quantity and popularity. So, I've had a curiosity about the individual aidoru and aidoru groups that came once the Showa Era ended in early 1989 and the Heisei Era began thereafter since by the middle of the 1990s, an aidoru desert had apparently been reached.
Qlair was a name that I had heard bandied about when talking about those final aidoru groups along with CoCo and Wink, but I never got to know them. They were a trio consisting of Sachiko Imai（今井佐知子）, Hiroko Inobe（井ノ部裕子）and Aki Yoshida（吉田亜紀）who graduated from a Fuji-TV-managed tarento training facility called Otome Juku（乙女塾...Teen Girl Cram School）. Qlair had a short run between 1991 and 1994 with 7 singles and 3 original albums under their belt.
Their 3rd single was "Sayonara no Chime" (The Goodbye Chime), released in January 1992. Sounding like a mix between the aidoru arrangements of those early 1990s thanks to the certain keyboards being used at the time and a summery Being song, "Sayonara no Chime" was written by Saeko Nishio（西尾佐栄子）and composed by Mioko Yamaguchi（山口美央子）. The story was all about reminiscing about that high school where a young girl missed out on an opportunity to make her feelings known to a boy she liked. Of course, it's bittersweet but the happy music gives a big hint that she has moved on to better pastures.
"Sayonara no Chime" was actually their lowest-ranking single in the Top 100 of Oricon, peaking at just No. 72. Now, as for the origin of the name, Qlair was derived from the song "Clair" by Gilbert O'Sullivan who I actually wrote about earlier today for his even more famous "Alone Again (Naturally)". In fact, during any of their live events, "Clair" would be played at the beginning while "Alone Again" would finish the proceedings.
Nope, I have to admit that it isn't the most flattering caricature of Onyanko Club（おニャン子クラブ）enka-singing member Sanae Jounouchi（城之内早苗）but it was the only picture that I could find on the fly for her.
Several years ago, Marcos V. was kind enough to display Jounouchi's debut single as a late-teen solo enka singer away from the usual teenybopper tunes of her mother group, "Ajisaibashi" (あじさい橋) from June 1986. Well, later in November, Jounouchi released her second single, "Ryuuhou no Tegami" (Letter in the Ice Floe).
Alongside the fact that a teenager was making waves as a bona fide decent enka singer from Onyanko Club itself, there are also some interesting observations surrounding "Ryuuhou no Tegami". For one thing, lyricist and Onyanko Club Svengali Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）and composer Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）were behind the creation of the song with Kei Wakakusa's（若草恵）arrangement. For one thing, Akimoto was usually associated with the aidoru and perhaps some general pop music while Goto was usually seen as a funky fellow behind the bass who often delved into City Pop. It was indeed unusual to see the two of those guys handing an enka tune. Heck, I was just writing about Goto yesterday with his "file".
Another observation is that Wakakusa's arrangement of "Ryuuhyou no Tegami" makes for a very elegant enka. In fact, I'd say that it's a melange of genres. The aidoru aspect is that I was accustomed to hearing some of those stirring strings in a number of aidoru songs throughout the 1980s to add that touch of class, and staying on that melody line, I feel that the elegance is so prominent that it could also be considered to contain some of that Fashion Music. From the title alone, I had already suspected that this wasn't the typical giddy puppy love tune but the cold aftermath of heartbreak.
Jounouchi's debut "Ajisaibashi" and the follow-up single of "Ryuuhyou no Tegami" broke into the Top 10 with the latter peaking at No. 10. The singer therefore reached an early career highlight in that she was the first enka singer to break into the Top 10 on Oricon with her first two singles.
For a Reminiscings of Youth article, this one is a bit more loaded than usual although I had been aware of some of the stuff going on in Japan regarding this ballad.
As with so many of the old songs, I used to hear Gilbert O'Sullivan's"Alone Again (Naturally)" all the time on the radio but never realized the significance of the lyrics until many, many years later. It wasn't until recently that I discovered that the song hadn't been about a guy moping about not having that love in his life, but someone who really needed help since he was about on the verge of suicide, such was the depths of his loneliness. O'Sullivan's music was just so comforting and whimsical that I couldn't really tell.
Released as a single in the UK in February and then in the United States in May 1972, "Alone Again (Naturally)" was an international hit. On America's Billboard chart, it was at No. 1 for six non-consecutive weeks and ended up as the No. 2 single of the year there while in Canada, it also hit the top of the charts but was "only" No. 6 for 1972.
"Alone Again" was a hit that kept on giving in Japan. For one thing, when it was also released in 1972 there, it was No. 1 for 5 straight weeks on Oricon's Western music chart. But as time passed, the song was used for many projects. For one thing, O'Sullivan's arguably most famous song was used as the theme tune for Episode 24 in the famous "Maison Ikkoku"（めぞん一刻）anime series back in 1986. My first impression was that "Alone Again" was being utilized to signify some major incident within the show but instead, I found out via the Maison Ikkoku Wiki that O'Sullivan had been signed to Kitty Records which was associated with Kitty Films which was behind the anime so that it would be a good way to promote him. However, fans didn't go for the out-of-left-field inclusion and it was back to Yuki Saito's（斉藤由貴）much happier "Kanashimi yo Konnichiwa"（悲しみよこんにちは）from Episode 25 (although "Alone Again" would return as an insert song in Episode 27 and then as the theme for the live-action version of the series in 1986). Watching this one-off opening credit sequence above did leave quite an impression, though, and apparently on a lot of YouTube commenters.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, "Alone Again" attracted attention from at least a couple of products which used it for their commercials, one being JT's brand of cigarettes. A couple of network dramas also used it as their theme song into the 21st century, and I think it was for one of them that I ended up picking up a re-release of the O'Sullivan song at one of the major Tokyo CD shops.
Though I always saw kayo wunderkindShinji Harada（原田真二）as the Japanese version of Gilbert O'Sullivan, I don't think that he ever did a cover of "Alone Again...Naturally". However, vocally speaking, singer-songwriter Takao Kisugi（来生たかお）is quite similar to O'Sullivan, so I did go naruhodo when I heard his rendition of the ballad. The J-Wiki article for it mentions that he's sung "Alone Again...Naturally" in concert but I'm not sure whether the crooner ever released an official version.
Let's go with the American release date of the song when showing what was being released at that time in Japan. I found two famous hits which got released in May 1972.
Last summer for the first time, I actually had the late entertainer and former Tokyo governor Yukio Aoshima（青島幸男）up on the byline of a KKP article instead of having him in his usual place in Labels as a songwriter. Ironically enough considering the season, it was for a Christmas song that he released in the year 2000.
Now, it's his second time on the byline and this time around, we're going way back into his career in the early 1960s when he released this December 1963 single titled "Onna Nante" (Aw, Women). As soon as I saw that title, I kinda figured that it was going to be a comical kayo (which was Aoshima's specialty) about a guy's frustration with women in a "You can't live with them, you can't live without them" way. Sure enough, he sings his own lyrics of his disdain of women and all of their bad points only to say in the last line that he'll still see if he can get a date with any of them.
Hiroaki Hagiwara（萩原哲晶）composed "Onna Nante" in this twangy way which suggests that the complainer in the song lives somewhere out in the rural areas or he's a country boy at heart in the big city. There's something also very enka in the sharply slicing arrangement, but the comical aspects for the song make me think of it more as a general kayo kyoku. Not surprisingly, Aoshima sings it in the manner of a worldly fellow, if his world extends as far as the walls of his favourite watering hole.
One Step Communicate is a group consisting of Kenichi Nakagawa (vocals), Hiroyuki Yano (guitar), and Takeshi Kudo (bass). The group released two albums and disbanded. However, in around 2008 (?), Kenichi Nakagawa and Hiroyuki Yano formed a group called "First Fruits" with another musician known as You-Ju. They released an album called From α which according to a Japanese blog is "reminiscent of Kiyotaka Sugiyama's Omega Tribe".
The latest place I've seen the bassist Takeshi Kudo was in a bass guitar textbook and he was writing about Marcus Miller.
One Step Communicate is one of the two releases from the group of the same name. The other album they released came out in the same year and credits the same recording locations, so I think the two albums are actually one recording session split into two albums.
By the time this album came out, the trend of city pop and funk-based J-pop has already begun its decline. stuff that topped the chart at the time was synth-pop and rock. Artists such as Shizuka Kudo and Zard were replacing 80s idol singers such as Akina Nakamori and Anri. Even on the funky side of things, the Japanese music industry was taking a dramatic turn towards neo-soul, new jack swing, and contemporary R&B. However, obviously the three guys at One Step Communicate couldn't care less. All they wanted to do was produce a banger album that can push the boundary of city pop, a genre that started its decline half a decade ago by the time this album came out.
And boy did they deliver. Every song on this album is a banger on its own. The attempt to innovate their sound is audible. Since it was the 90s, they of course had to experiment with digital and synthesizer instruments, but they eventually decided to keep many instruments analog, such as the horn section and bass. The fusion of synthesizer and analog instruments is one key element that makes this album sounds so good.
The arrangements and compositions are mostly done by Hiroyoshi Yano. In other words, he is responsible for all the bass slaps, elegant synth-string sections, and crazy guitar solos. It is certain that he took J-fusion as a reference when arranging the album, but he didn't take things too far. He found a perfect balance point that is just right between J-fusion and city pop and just let it flow. Except for amazing, I honestly don't know how to describe Yano's work. I really would not be surprised if you say these arrangements are from experienced musicians such as Yuji Toriyama or Masanori Sasaji, but this is not the case. One Step Communicate was actually Yano's debut. It's also sad to see how his career played out. The first album he arranged was a city pop masterpiece, and then he gets like 5 songs to arrange for the rest of his career. He has the talent but sadly no one noticed.
Kenichi Nakagawa is in charge of the vocals. Whoever chose him to fill this role knew what they were doing. For a city pop album, we need a city pop voice, and who sounds more city pop than Kiyotaka Sugiyama? Well, unfortunately, Sugiyama was doing his own rock thing in the 90s, so the management found someone that also has that crystal-clear voice and amazing singing skills. Nakagawa's vocal part is just the cherry on the sundae for the entire album.
The guest musicians feature Japanese fusion veteran Yuji Toriyama as well as the bass legend Tomohito Aoki. The horn section features famous LA studio horn musicians Gary Grant and Jerry Hey, the latter being a frequent collaborator with Japanese musicians.
Overall this is just an amazing album. Great musicians, great sounds, creating a unique vibe you won't hear anywhere else. It is also one of the last city pop albums in the 90s that can make me feel the same vibe Toshiki Kadomatsu, Anri, and Tatsuro Yamashita created a decade earlier.
