Portable Rock -- Picnic（ピクニック）

 

I gather that toting along some unajuu for a picnic lunch is possible, and I am a big fan of grilled eel on rice, but I'm perfectly fine with sandwiches as well.

Last month, I noted the comeback of 80s technopop/New Wave unit Portable Rock（ポータブル・ロック）with a 2022 song "Lonely Girl, Dreaming Girl" starring the divine Ms. Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）, some years before she became the diva for Shibuya-kei group Pizzicato Five.

This time around, I'm going way back. In fact, even though Portable Rock's album "Beginnings" was released in September 1990, according to the Tower Records blurb, it actually consists of songs that had been created and recorded prior to their 1983 debut. Although the review also made mention of its use of a cheap rhythm box, "Beginnings" also has dreamy chord progressions, synthpop sounds and Nomiya's lovely vocals.

And yeah, Nomiya back in the day definitely didn't sound like the purring P5 queen. In fact, on one of the tracks, "Picnic", she almost sounds downright idol-ish although she was already in her early 20s when this was released. She is indeed surrounded by that dreaminess and synthpop concocted by composer and fellow Portable Rock member Tomofumi Suzuki（鈴木智文）. Osamu Takahashi（高橋修） provided the lyrics. I can imagine the band dashing happily among the trees heading for the bench to have that picnic lunch.