Portable Rock -- Lonely Girl, Dreaming Girl

 

Making my occasional crossover into another aspect of pop culture that I've enjoyed for decades, I've been faithfully watching the far-improved Season 3 of "Star Trek: Picard". This is a significant point since I had barely lasted through Season 1 and I didn't even bother with Season 2. Nope, they weren't very good but Season 3 has been some well-needed fresh air for no small reason that almost all of the original Next Generation crew have returned and the story brings back some loose ends from at least two of the Trek series.

The most recent episode "Surrender" has the beloved character of Data finally duke it out once and for all with his evil brother Lore in the battlefield of the mind and when all is said and done, there is victory and a merger of personalities leading to a whole new version who comes across as very amiable septuagenarian Brent Spiner.

I strangely had the same impression on hearing and watching Portable Rock's "Lonely Girl, Dreaming Girl" which was one of the first new songs in a few decades by this band for their May 2022 BEST compilation, "PAST & FUTURE ～My Favorite Portable Rock". Finally delving into Maki Nomiya's（野宮真貴） previous pre-Pizzicato Five group years following her time with one of Shibuya-kei's jewels in the crown, it was fascinating listening to songs such as their "Haru Shite, Koi Shite, Mitsumete, Kiss Shite" （春して、恋して、見つめて、キスして）. It was certainly Nomiya's vocals but through a whole different filter of 1980s New Wave.

But of course with Pizzicato Five, it was all about the Divine Ms. Nomiya as stylish and retro fashion plate in their videos and fun-loving Swinging 60s diva singing into the microphone. Now with Portable Rock with Nomiya showing up once more on screens, it's kinda like Portable Rock Nomiya and the P5 Nomiya coming together to form a mature and classy unit with her old bandmates Nobuo Nakahara (中原信雄) and Tomofumi Suzuki (鈴木智文). The music video has the three all kitted out in bespoke night-out-on-the-town fashion from yesteryear but the music is a return of 80s synthpop in a slightly PSY-S way. Even Nomiya's delivery of "Lonely Girl, Dreaming Girl" seems more liquid and languid than her style with P5.