Yoshiaki Ohuchi -- Zero de Hajimaru Number（ゼロではじまるナンバー）

 

Thought it might be nice to have something with atmosphere above so I went with this AI picture of a gaslight avenue at night.

It's been a while but fellow City Pop fan Rocket Brown and I finally got to meet and talk for the first time in a few months. We were playing some telephone (or Internet) tag for a bit before we got to chat on Discord earlier this afternoon. He and his father will be having some participation at the Los Angeles Comic Con next week so I wished them well in their venture.

He also introduced some of his recent discoveries including the late musician-producer Yoshiaki Ohuchi（大内義昭）who tragically passed away nearly a decade ago in 2015 at the age of 55 due to esophageal cancer. Ohuchi already has a fairly long list on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" since he's been composing tunes for a number of other singers including Kahoru Kohiruimaki（小比類巻かほる）through songs such as "Hold On Me" and "Moving Action". He also had a hit with his singing partner, actress Miwako Fujitani（藤谷美和子）, with the 1994 "Ai ga Umareta Hi"（愛が生まれた日）.

So, though he has a loaded KKP file, he barely shows up on the byline, but allow me to rectify that for tonight at least. Ohuchi does sing and he did release five original albums between 1989 and 1996. Rocket told me about one track which leads off Ohuchi's 1990 second album "Remember Blues" and that would be "Zero de Hajimaru Number" (A Number That Begins with Zero). Writing and composing this song, it starts off with a lone elegant piano before it goes to a melody and arrangement that straddles the line between pop/rock and funky City Pop. Ohuchi's vocals are slightly raspy and whispery and they trip the light fantastic on those concrete streets before the last minute lets the electric guitar rip.