Translation of Liner Notes for Tohoku Shinkansen's "Thru Traffic" Originally by Toshikazu Kanazawa (Part 1)

 

I'm starting off this week's edition of Urban Contemporary Friday on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" with something a little unusual. A few years ago, City Pop podcaster Rocket Brown had asked me some questions about certain passages within the liner notes of the wonderful 1982 City Pop album "Thru Traffic" by the duo Tohoku Shinkansen（東北新幹線）consisting of songwriter Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）and the late great guitarist Hiromi Narumi（鳴海寛）. Yamakawa and Narumi and their one-and-only "Thru Traffic" are a fine example of what can happen when something miraculous and wonderful emerges from the unexpected.

The last time I wrote about Narumi was last September when I posted an article on the digital album, "Around the Thru Traffic", from June 2022 which was a tribute to the guitarist who had passed away in 2015. Last week, I threw "Thru Traffic" into the CD player, lied down in bed and listened to those 40-or-so minutes of pure audio pleasure for a City Pop and J-AOR-loving guy like me. Remembering some of the translation I did for Rocket Brown at that point, I then decided "Why not provide the translation of the whole kit-and-kaboodle for everyone on KKP?". Plus, if I'm not mistaken, the notes also include the reason for the unusual naming of Yamakawa and Narumi's duo.

My copy of "Thru Traffic" is the 2017 remaster in the conventional plastic case. Music journalist Toshikazu Kanazawa（金澤寿和）, the man who was also behind the "Light Mellow" series of CDs in the 2010s, not only included the original 2007 commentary and interview with Tohoku Shinkansen from the first version of the "Thru Traffic" CD which had then been sold in a cardboard jacket, but the first few paragraphs in the 2017 notes consisted of new insights in the two years since Narumi's death in 2015. For Part 1, which will begin below the video of "Summer Touches You", I will provide the translation for those first paragraphs from 2017 and then in the weeks to follow, I'll add on the 2015 translations.

Of course, some of you may have already taken a shot at translating the liner notes yourselves and may come across errors and omissions in my work. If that is the case, please let me know and I'll do my best in correcting them. But that's enough from me since I will now hand it over to Mr. Kanazawa.

It's been two years since the brains behind Tohoku Shinkansen, Hiroshi Narumi, suddenly passed away in 2015. For that reason, much of his music that had not been released for a long time has suddenly appeared as if a dam had burst, something that I’ve witnessed with mixed feelings. Works by someone of his innate musical artisanship bring about the sad reality that people are drawn to his death, making me feel a little helpless. However, when it comes to this one and only album by Tohoku Shinkansen, that’s a topic for another day. I think this new CD reissue of this “unknown miracle masterpiece” is simply something to be celebrated. As for the first-ever CD issue (in cardboard sleeve) in 2007, both Narumi and his partner Etsuko Yamakawa had been extremely thrilled and I was able to receive a great amount of cooperation from them.

Afterwards in 2014, just before the analog boom arrived, “Thru Traffic” was given an analog reissue. Undergoing a limited release, even through reservation, almost all of the LPs were sold out and regrettably, very few of them made it to stores. On top of that, the 7-inch single “Summer Touches You/Up and Down”, which had only been produced as a promotional record back in 1982, was made commercially available with new artwork for the first time which also garnered a lot of praise. It was soon after that when Narumi died. His treasured music was then gradually brought all together and released in series under the Narumin Music label. Actually, at the same time that “Thru Traffic” was reissued once more in 2017, Narumi’s early music collection “Boku wa Shi Tsukuri” (I am a Poet) featuring the man’s genius in full display from 1975 to 1978, and Junko Yagami’s（八神純子）backing band Melting Pot featuring Hiroshi Narumi’s “Live at Egg-Man+” were also put on sale. Especially in Melting Pot’s live record, the popular song “Summer Touches You”, which was performed by them at Yagami's own concert, is included, so you may want to check that one out.

Now, without further ado, I would like to present this revised commentary from ten years previously when the first CD version of “Thru Traffic” came out including an interview with Narumi and Yamakawa which will now have some added poignancy.

Toshikazu Kanazawa

May 2017

Part 2 will be available next week.