MAMALAID RAG -- Café Terrace（カフェテラス）

 

I found this song in the "Japanese City Pop Masterpieces 100" section of the 2020 edition of "Japanese City Pop" earlier today as No. 21 in the series, so this will be covered in a few weeks as a "Yutaka Kimura Speaks" entry.

The rock band MAMALAID RAG is known to me but only because of a collaboration with producer Tomita Lab（冨田ラボ）that I have yet to cover and it should be something to cover therefore in the near future. Regardless, although the band as it is known now is a solo project consisting of just vocalist and guitarist Hirokuni Tanaka（田中拡邦）, when it first began in 2002, there were bassist Naoki Eguchi（江口直樹）and drummer Junichiro Yamada（山田潤一郎）who left the band in 2006 and 2002 respectively. Drummer Hiroo Toyoda（豊田大雄）took over from Yamada although it was just for 2003.

What was given the No. 21 ranking by Kimura was "Café Terrace" which was written and composed by Tanaka as a track for their first full album "MAMALAID RAG" in September 2002 following an initial mini-album released in March that year. The band in its early years was considered to be the contemporary version of the legendary Happy End（はっぴいえんど）from the early 1970s but I think that at least with the soothing "Cafe Terrace" (there's even a clarinet in there), it reminded me more of Sugar Babe（シュガーベイブ）in terms of the overall delivery...felt like being transported to the mid-1970s, in fact. However, I can agree with the J-Wiki description that Tanaka's vocal style is reminiscent of Happy End's Eiichi Ohtaki（大滝詠一）to a certain degree, and apparently Tanaka himself agrees with the assessment, too.