Makoto Matsushita -- Once You Could See The Light

 

I remember that it was three years ago that the pandemic darkened the shores of every nation on Earth with the warning especially that the elderly should stay indoors as much as possible. To help out my parents, I had to go out into the deserted neighbourhood with the mask to wait some minutes outside the supermarket before I got the say-so to enter and get what I could from limited supplies on the shelves. It was truly a surreal time. Happily, things have markedly improved since then although the economy is still a big worry.

And it was just about at the same time that singer-songwriter Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）had released a BEST compilation "Collection". During an uncertain period where folks were needing to use social media sites to keep themselves entertained, being able to get access to music was probably paramount. "Collection" had a lot of his 1980s City Pop material but there was also some new stuff on the album, and I wrote about one such track a month ago, "Chaos & Harmony" which I considered to be a somewhat avant-pop piece. 

Well, another track is "Once You Could See The Light". This one is more conventional but it also has his unusual but appealing qualities. It's almost as if the transporter on the starship Enterprise (I was watching that gruesome scene on "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" with the transporter accident last night) merged some of that City Pop along with that progressive rock that Matsushita has also loved to delve into to create something new...a Moody Pop, so to speak. There is that underlying keyboard rhythm which sounds like it was lifted from Hiroshi Sato's（佐藤博）"Awakening" as the singer croons mysteriously in English with his guitar growling now and then from the shadows. 

I can even imagine a cinematic setting that the song evokes. A down-on-their-luck detective walks for hours on the streets of their inner city neighbourhood as afternoon transitions into night. They don't know what kind of predator with a grudge against them is waiting to pounce; they only know that they can probably handle any attack with relative ease and cynicism. Then, once they finally return to the office or home, they can put their copy of "First Light" on the record player and decompress with a tumbler of Jack.