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Some days ago, a commenter asked me about a track from Kahoru Kohiruimaki's（小比類巻かほる）"Frontier" album from September 1992 and I realized that it's been some years since I gave the CD a proper run on the stereo. So, I gave it another listen. I've already posted on a couple of the tracks: the first track "Control" and the title track which was written by the singer and composed by the one-and-only Maurice White from the legendary Earth Wind & Fire, Billy Young and Brenda Russell.
Now, I'll give a few more tracks from "Frontier" some exposure here including the upbeat Track No. 2 "Let's Share Love". A nice piece of gospel-like 70s soul, this was also a creation by Kohhy with her old songwriting partner, the late Yoshiaki Ohuchi（大内義昭）. As the title says, it's all about shedding the sadness and enjoying each other.
The following track is "Tears of Joy" which was written and composed by Kohiruimaki. The song goes into full funk mode (some fine wacka-wacka guitar work) and for some reason, whenever I listen to it, I get thoughts that this could have been a theme song for some 1990s cop show in Japan. I have a feeling that some of Prince's influence was still hanging around when "Tears of Joy" was being produced. To be honest, I've often thought that a number of Kohhy songs could have belonged to the soundtrack for the original "The Equalizer" series in the 1980s.
"Tangerine Moon Night"（タンジェリン・ムーンナイト）was the one song that commenter had been inquiring about, and it's the one other track on "Frontier" that Maurice White collaborated with Kohhy on. Also, Bill Meyers and Sheldon Reynolds contributed as well on the songwriting. I believe I made a misspelling when I responded to the commenter by referring it as "Tangerine Moon Knight". Perhaps with "Fantastic Four" in theatres now, I had a bit of Marvel on the brain. It's indeed "Tangerine Moon Night" with the protagonist hoping for that meeting with a significant other. A goodly amount of EW&F brass stuff and rhythm shuffling populate this one.
One more track that I'll show you happens to be the final one. I'm surprised that I hadn't included the Space of Love version of "Smile for Me" with the original version which was Kohhy's 18th single from April 1992 although I did mention it there but at least I get to do it now. Compared to the original R&B-flavoured "Smile for Me", this one ending "Frontier" indeed sounds rather spacy as would befit the Space of Love label and it almost takes things for a cooldown feeling. If it had been toned down any further, it could have gone ambient which is unusual for the singer.
Wow, Kohhy got to work with the late, great Prince AND Maurice White! If I was her, I would never stop bragging about it LOL! And yeah, "Tangerine Moon Night" is really good. I really like this period where certain Japanese female singers really leaned into urban contemporary/New Jack Swing(Kohhy, Miho Morikawa, Gwinko, Miho Nakayama to name a few).
ReplyDeleteHey, if you work with the best, you get the best! :) Or at least I hope that is the case. The late 80s going into the early 90s was an interesting time with the above-mentioned singers going into various forms of R&B and softer pop stylings.
DeleteI like the idea of having the best in conjunction with the best, but then again that is just the kind of guy I am. J-Canuck thanks for another great post on Kahoru Kohiruimaki, this is a nice treat after that Tsunami threat the other day!
ReplyDeleteHope you guys were OK out in the Blue Forest. Not sure if you were on the coast or not.
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