To begin the first Urban Contemporary Friday for June 2023 on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I may have found one of the rarest of the rare. I am talking about what was probably the short-lived duo DEW consisting of guitarist Hiroshi Yasukawa（安川ひろし）and keyboardist/producer Nobuo Kurata（倉田信雄）. In 1980, they put out one single and one album titled "DEW 1st".
Today will provide space and time for the lone single "Atsui Sasayaki" (Hot Whispers) with lyrics by Toyohisa Araki（荒木とよひさ）and melody by Yasukawa under Kurata's arrangement. It's notable for some odd choices such as Christmas bells in the intro and a weird combination of keyboards in the coda, but between the two is some rumbling downtown Latin-tinged City Pop.
The B-side is "Night Time" which starts off with a steamrolling cascade of piano before the convertible takes off for a road trip on the expressway. Kurata trips the light fantastic on his instruments and there is a feeling of 70s and 80s City Pop arrangements coming together for a passing of the torch perhaps. Yasukawa also has a good deal of fun on the guitar. Unfortunately, I couldn't find out who was handling the songwriting for "Night Time".
I could find the J-Wiki articles for both Yasukawa and Kurata although neither make any mention of their time in DEW. Yasukawa began his music education as a violinist at the age of 5. Graduating from Doshisha University, he entered a jazz trio and later on, provided his skills for the television industry. Yokohama-born Kurata began as a studio musician in 1977 and has worked with virtually everyone ranging from Naomi Chiaki（ちあきなおみ）and Masashi Sada（さだまさし）to Misia and Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Feel free to provide any comments (pro or con). Just be civil about it.