Credits

I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.

Sunday, August 31, 2025

Yuki Matsuura -- Taiyo no Futurizm(太陽のFuturizm)

 

Futurism was an early 20th-century Italian avant-garde artistic and social movement that championed dynamism, speed, technology, and the modern world, while vehemently rejecting tradition and the past. Launched by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti with his 1909 Manifesto of Futurism, the movement celebrated machines like cars and airplanes, the energy of the industrial city, and violence, with its influence seen in visual arts, poetry, and music. Key artists included Umberto Boccioni and Giacomo Balla.

The above is what I got when I threw the term "futurism" into the Google search engine. I've always been interested in what the future may bring in terms of architecture and lifestyle but reading the above, I think that my naïve and optimistic thoughts about what life might be like several hundred years later aren't quite the same as what the futurists in many European countries might have surmised a century ago. For one thing, I do like some of the past and traditional elements to be retained.

Anyways, before we end up heading into a university library together, let's take a look at singer-songwriter Yuki Matsuura's(松浦有希)"Taiyo no Futurizm" (Futurizm of the Sun). First getting exposed to listeners' ears as a track on her 3rd album "Stella Bambina" from August 1997, it hits the nostalgic parts of my brain because of the 1990s dance-pop arrangement that has some little hints of City Pop groove. The rock part surges in near the end for this song that was written and composed by Matsuura. Sharing space on the album is Matsuura's "Watashirashiku"(私らしく).

Hideki Saijo -- Ichi-man Kounen no Ai(一万光年の愛)

 

Recently, on one of the episodes of the NHK information variety programs "Chiko-chan", I found out that the whole thing about the penlight phenomenon at concerts in Japan could all be credited to the one-and-only Hideki Saijo(西城秀樹). Apparently when he was doing his first concerts back in the early 1970s, he had expressed some disappointment that he couldn't see his fans' faces while performing on stage. So through the media of the time, he asked fans for his next concert if they could bring something like a flashlight to light up so that he could see the lights beaming so that he could also see his fans beaming. Of course, since then the rest is history as the penlight not only evolved but a certain choreography around it evolved as well.

We've also got some Hideki and some light here as well in the form of his 50th single, "Ichi-man Kounen no Ai" (10,000 Light Years of Love) which was released in February 1985. I guess to commemorate this auspicious single and the subject matter, a heavenly pipe organ was brought in along with some major rhythm machine drumming. Saijo sings about courting this beautiful cosmos-weary lady soaring through space and time. Akira Ohtsu(大津あきら)was the lyricist here while Daisuke Inoue(井上大輔)was responsible for both  music and arrangement. It peaked at No. 12 on Oricon, selling around 100,000 records, and first appeared on the album "'85 HIDEKI Special in Budokan - for 50 songs -", a live album from March 1985.

I know that they are completely different songs but there's something about "Ichi-man Kounen no Ai" that reminds me of Europe's "The Final Countdown" although that song wouldn't arrive until May 1986 in the United States. As for that cosmos-weary lady, I can only think of one example.


Saturday, August 30, 2025

Mariko Takahashi -- Wine no You na Kiss(ワインのようなKiss)

 

It's quite the amazing statistic, even among all of the other Japanese music veterans, but as of next year, Mariko Takahashi(高橋真梨子)will be celebrating her 60th anniversary as a singer and songwriter. Here's hoping that she's staying active and healthy.

Although my memory gets a bit wobbly occasionally, I don't believe that I have covered Takahashi's October 1981 5th album "Lovendow", so in all likelihood, I have yet to make any postings about Track 4 on the album, "Wine no You na Kiss" (Kisses Like Wine). One would think that with a title like that, the song would be more of a love ballad.

However, "Wine no You na Kiss" is actually quite the spritely samba-infused tune, a genre that Takahashi has had an affinity for. Written by Chinfa Kan(康珍化)and composed by Kingo Hamada(浜田金吾), it starts out like a disco tune then runs into the dramatic city beat before going all major-key upbeat over that samba rhythm with a vengeance. Those horns, especially that trumpeter, love their Maynard Ferguson apparently and that's OK since the song probably describes what a typical Friday or Saturday night in Tokyo must have been like back in the high-flying 1980s.

Cindy -- Touch the Sky

Wikimedia Commons via Vinaciv 183

To be honest, I can count the number of times that I've been up Tokyo Tower on one hand. For one thing, I'm a bit acrophobic and my impression when I went up the first time was that once was enough. The second time I was up there was because I had friends from out of town so when one of them showed interest in going up the tower, I amicably obliged.


Happily though, there are still millions of people who are willing to visit one of the capital's most visible landmarks and it still cuts quite the figure at night when it's all lit up. There was even a tribute compilation album for Tokyo Tower released in November 1991 titled "Tower of Love"

The first track is "Touch the Sky" by the late singer-songwriter Cindy. Quite the tenderly-sung love song for good ol Double-T, it was created by one of Japan's prolific composers Kyohei Tsutsumi(筒美京平)and arranged by Makoto Matsushita(松下誠). Anyone picking up "Tower of Love" and putting it into the stereo can really pick up on the 90s-ness of it all right from the intro for "Touch the Sky".  I hear that couples often visit the tower for that romantic date and with the view of the city below them, it's probably no wonder; Cindy's contribution can help in the mood-setting.

Friday, August 29, 2025

Toko Furuuchi -- Mangetsu no Sei ni Shite(満月のせいにして)

From Good Free Photos

For this final song in this edition of Urban Contemporary Friday on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I think it's nice to place this one during the evening because of the title, the singer and the arrangement. 

A recent commenter for the "If I Had an All-Night Radio Show..." article back in mid-June was quite happy to see Toko Furuuchi's(古内東子)"Dare Yori Suki Nanoni" (誰より好きなのに)on the list of songs that I would put on such a fantasy show, and that person suggested a very recent new song by Furuuchi as being part of the radio show. I would say any of her mid-tempo stuff and ballads can earn a spot in the lineup.

"Mangetsu no Sei ni Shite" (Blame it on the Full Moon) was just released as her latest single only a couple of days ago, and it's another winner. Written and composed by Furuuchi, it has the typical rolling soulful piano that is a regular part of her songs dating back to her early years of the 1990s, and though her voice sounds a tad more brittle in the beginning, it undeniably becomes the same Furuuchi sultriness and smokiness that we've come to expect and enjoy. On September 24th, her 21st album, "Long Story Short", will be released with "Mangetsu no Sei ni Shite" included as the second track. Thanks very much to the commenter for his tip.

Bread & Butter -- Kakure Basho(隠れ場所)

 

During my last years in Japan, the doner kebab was something of a celeb target for the foodies of which there are tens of millions in the nation. The above photo isn't a great one since it seems to focus on a couple of guys I don't know but behind those two and the rest of the maddening crowd, there is a whole cluster of doner kebab trucks. Well, many months before, I used to know this one lone truck in an alley among the buildings of Akihabara that I frequented during my visits to the electronics goods area. There were a few other customers there, but basically I savored that truck as my own little refuge of foodie paradise.

In my previous article, Kalapana Black Sand Beach(カラパナ・ブラック・サンド・ビーチ)was a former paradise before a volcano spoiled the fun there thirty-five years ago. But it looks like the veteran singing duo Bread & Butter(ブレッド&バッター)featuring the Iwasawa Brothers have their own "Kakure Basho" (Refuge). They came up with this mellow song for their April 2005 album "Sky"; it sounds timeless as if it could have been created for any of their past albums going back to 1980. It's so laidback (even the trumpeter at the end must have been lying in a hammock) that I swear that the boys must have been in a Hawaii state of mind when they came up with it. Maybe the Aloha State is their refuge or perhaps it's some place a whole lot closer such as the resort city of Hakone.

Atsuko Nina -- Kalapana Black Sand Beach(カラパナ・ブラック・サンド・ビーチ)

 

I didn't realize how poignant this song by Atsuko Nina(二名敦子)would be. The reason I say this is that the towns of Kaimū and Kalapana on the Big Island of Hawaii were destroyed by a lava flow erupting from the Kīlauea volcano in 1990. The towns are buried under 50 ft. of lava and a new black sand beach has formed over the old one which was once seen as one of the most beautiful examples of its type in the world. From what I've read, the new beach is really only good for volcanologists now.

Going back to Nina's song, "Kalapana Black Sand Beach" is the opening track from her May 1984 album "Loco Island". Written by Yoshiko Miura(三浦徳子)and composed by Masayoshi Takanaka(高中正義), the way Nina sings this jolly and laidback song, the beach, pre-volcano, was one heck of a place to get together and get surfing. A little bit of that jazzy piano goes a long way, too. Hopefully, the area will return to its former glory.

Masatoshi Nakamura -- Puzzle Night(パズル・ナイト)

 

My previous posting on Masatoshi Nakamura(中村雅俊)was for his "Akogare no Summer House"(憧れのSUMMER HOUSE), a B-side that was notable for its pompadour-swinging rock n' roll party sense. Richie and Mary Beth would have felt at home here.

Meanwhile, its A-side, which represents Nakamura's June 1984 21st single, is "Puzzle Night", and no, it has nothing to do with the weekly jigsaw puzzle get-together with the whole family. Instead, lyricist Yasushi Akimoto(秋元康)reveals the vagaries of love in the big city where whatever happens there may really have to stay in there. Meanwhile Tetsuji Hayashi's(林哲司)melody under Hiroshi Shinkawa's(新川博)arrangement has a rocking and dramatic feel somewhat reminiscent of Hayashi's work with Omega Tribe(オメガトライブ)at around the same time. 

"Puzzle Night" wasn't a humongous hit for Nakamura as it went only as high as No. 52 on Oricon, selling around 36,000 records. Hopefully, it did better for the Nissan Pulsar whose commercial featured both song and singer.

Suchmos -- Eye to Eye

 

Suchmos' "In The Zoo" wasn't the last article of theirs that I had posted. There were a couple of other articles that I also put up later about some of their earlier material, but "In The Zoo" was a track from what had been their most recent album "The Anymal" (2019) which was notable for a rather large shift in their tone of music. I noted that it was downbeat and had an avant-rockabilly sense which were adjectives that I had thought that I would never use with these guys. A couple of years later, vocalist Yonce and company decided to part ways indefinitely and later on in 2021, bassist Hsu passed away. It just seemed to be a very sad way for a cool band to break apart.

Well, almost a year ago in October 2024, Suchmos hinted that the comeback was on, and sure enough, they held their first show in Yokohama a few months ago. Then last month, the band released their first round of music in several years in the form of the EP "Sunburst" with the lead track being "Eye to Eye". And it's been getting quite a number of approving comments along with other YouTube videos associated with it including reactors' takes. 

With "Eye to Eye", it's a return to their groove-filled form and the feeling is that the party is back on so grab your dancing shoes and jackets. One reactor referenced Fujii Kaze and Jamiroquai. I see those two and raise him two more: Kirinji and Sing Like Talking. Plus, thanks to the creamy keyboards, I also feel some Bill Withers in the 1970s. As for "Sunburst", it hit No. 5 on the Oricon digital albums list and No. 8 on the overall rankings list. Good to see them back in the saddle again.

Thursday, August 28, 2025

Sabasister -- My girlfriend is PIZZA OF DEATH

Wikimedia Commons via Ed Bierman

I do love my mackerel, which is known in Japanese as saba(鯖). It could be shime saba(しめ鯖) sushi which has been made here at home and at the many kaiten sushi places I've frequented in Japan. I also enjoyed it frying it up in a pan and having it with hot rice. 

So, imagine to my surprise that there is a Japanese band known as Sabasister(サバシスター)that has been around since 2022. Consisting of vocalist Nachi(なち), drummer Gouke(ごうけ), and guitarist Ruminasu(るみなす), they specialize in pop, pop-punk and rock. Up to this point, I've only come across their third single from April 2025, "My girlfriend is PIZZA OF DEATH", and thus far, I've only seen videos of the song being just a little over a minute in length so I'm not sure whether there is a fuller version or it is only meant to be a mini-tune. The ladies really played up the punk in the pop-punk in the video above and there's something about the song that reminds me of the band Go-Bangs.

A couple of months ago, a variant on the song was released which basically retains the hard rock but also includes some ska. Now as for the title, which might read like something on a typical Japlish T-shirt sold in Asakusa, PIZZA OF DEATH is actually the name of the band's label, PIZZA OF DEATH RECORDS, which handles a lot of indies acts.

TOMOO -- LUCKY

 

Although it didn't have quite the distinct flavour of life within an inner city shopping mall in Tokyo, I enjoyed my time shopping and eating in my neighbourhood of Minami-Gyotoku(南行徳), which is basically a suburb for Tokyo in Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture. Metro Center Minami-Gyotoku is the mall right under the subway station and whenever I didn't really want to cook, I ate out at the local Subway, Tonki tonkatsu eatery and the patisserie across the corridor. In the pre-digital camera age, I also used to drop my film off at a camera shop there, and of course, there was the supermarket at the eastern end of Metro Center.

Back around ten days ago, I posted an article about the opening theme song for the current anime "City The Animation", "Hello" by singer-songwriter Furui Riho. I noted that there was something rather 70s and nostalgic about the song. Well, I get the same vibes for the song adorning the closing credits (nice Claymation, by the way). This is "LUCKY" by singer-songwriter TOMOO who I've also written about starting with her August 2021 single "Ginger". In that article, I also noted that she had some Motown influences, and so, I think she was quite ideal to take care of the ending for "City The Animation".

Written and composed by TOMOO, her July 2025 "LUCKY" has that feeling of music from a few decades ago, thanks to that electric piano, the horns and the overall arrangement. What seals the deal is the music video which has the singer enjoying a stroll (and a final mass choreography) in the type of peaceful and friendly neighbourhood that I enjoyed living in for seventeen years. Indeed, I was lucky.

Eddie Albert & Eva Gabor -- Green Acres

 

Welcome to the weekly Reminiscings of Youth (or toddlerhood as it is here) where I will once again dive deeply into the vaults of TV theme songs this time. This week is the 1965 "Green Acres" which had premiered about a month before I arrived on Earth. I wasn't a precocious kid at all (more undercooked, actually) but my impression of the show when I was a baby was that it was about an odd old couple who bought a terrible farm and the husband was pretty much angry all the time at the locals. In the years since, I have been surprised lawyer-turned-farmer Oliver Douglas didn't end up needing his own lawyer because he could have easily murdered the entire populace of Hooterville from frustration.

In my early years of TV viewing from the late 1960s, America's CBS was famous for having a lot of rural-based sitcoms such as "Green Acres", "Petticoat Junction", "The Andy Griffith Show" and "The Beverly Hillbillies" (yes, I know that for that last one, the setting was the titular Beverly Hills in Los Angeles, but the main characters were still down-home folks). Viewers must have wondered whether CBS stood for Cornpone Broadcasting System instead of Columbia Broadcasting System. However, when the 1970s arrived, the powers-that-be decided to go on a rural purge and all of the above sitcoms were cancelled with the focus being on more city-based and socially aware fare such as "All in the Family" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show".

But getting back to "Green Acres", I still remember the opening credits and the theme song by Vic Mizzy. My mother used to tell me (and perhaps everyone within earshot) that I used to bounce on my diapers whenever "Mission: Impossible" came on (that was actually a CBS action drama...nothing countrified there) with its legendary theme song, so there was no way that I wasn't going to do the same with the theme from "Green Acres". At the time, I couldn't quite get the lyrics that main actors Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor sang, but I did get a kick out of the catchy arrangement and got a laugh out of Eddie tossing the pitchfork and then clapping his chest with a straight face. It would also be a while before I realized the irony of Eddie's Oliver driving a dirty tractor while wearing a full business suit.

So, in comparison, let's see what songs were winning the Japan Record Awards back in 1965

Grand Prize: Hibari Misora -- Yawara (柔)


Best New Artist: Hiroshi Wada & Mahina Stars & Miyoko Tashiro -- Aishite, Aishite, Aishichattanoyo (愛して愛して愛しちゃったのよ)


Best Lyrics: Hirooki Ogawa(小川寛興)for Chieko Baisho -- Sayonara wa Dance no Ato ni (さよならはダンスの後に)

Wednesday, August 27, 2025

Hiroko Ikeda -- Seifuku wo Nuidara(制服をぬいだら)

 


Last month, I introduced aidoru Hiroko Ikeda(池田ひろ子)who had a brief career in the recording limelight for a couple of years in the mid-1970s before she finally disappeared into the civilian ether past 1980. For her first article, I posted her debut single "Koi no ABC"(恋のABC).

Well, her sophomore single was "Seifuku wo Nuidara" (When I Take Off the Uniform) and that was released in March 1976. Written by Kayoko Hayashi(林カヨコ)and composed by rocker Shogo Hamada(浜田省吾), it isn't quite as salacious as the title might seem. It's actually about a girl who is more than willing to doff the high school uniform and put on the heels and cosmetics to get that guy. Uh...on second thought, that description doesn't sound too wholesome either but it could have been worse. Anyways, the arrangement has that 1950s/1960s rock n' roll feel to it.

NSP -- Mizu to Taiyou(水と太陽)

 

I've already got a number of NSP articles up already but perhaps I should have already started a running gag based on the fact that the band members never really came up with an explanation for what NSP actually stood for. For today's posting, I'll just say that it stands for No Socks, Please.👣

Moving forward, this NSP song hails from their April 1985 16th album "Mizu to Taiyou" (Water and Sun), and sure enough, it happens to be the title track. Written and composed by the late NSP vocalist Shigeru Amano(天野滋), it's quite the wistful song and with this one at least, I get some Bread & Butter(ブレッド&バッター)in Amano's singing and even Off-Course's(オフコース)1980s arrangements in the execution. I especially like the addition of the synthesizer in the intro and outro. I can say that it's quite the 80s tune.

Tuesday, August 26, 2025

Keiko Mizukoshi -- Sanjuu-ni Kai no Bar(32階のBar)

 

Probably the closest that I ever got to a hotel-top bar was right here in Toronto decades ago when some of my university buddies and I managed somehow to get a drink at a bar among the higher floors of the Four Seasons Hotel. The Toronto International Film Festival wasn't happening at that time so, no, unfortunately no celebrity sightings but the atmosphere and décor were there: lots of wood, brown leather chairs and a couple of fireplaces. Can't even remember what I had in terms of a cocktail.

In Japan, I've been to premium hotels and I've been to bars, but I've never been to a hotel-top bar but I can imagine that it is primo classy and in all likelihood primo pricey. Probably even the peanuts there require an installment plan for payment. However, I've mentioned...usually through a City Pop song...about how sitting in one of those plush watering holes must feel like.

Well, for some vicarious listening on this topic, I grant you Keiko Mizukoshi's(水越恵子)"Sanjuu-ni Kai no Bar" (The 32nd Floor Bar). A track from the singer-songwriter's October 1997 album "In my life", this aural libation contains some mellow Latin spice although I wouldn't consider the song a City Pop tune. It's just a nocturnal number to sip your cocktail to while musing about life at the top of West Shinjuku accommodations.

The Works of Kisaburo Suzuki(鈴木キサブロー)

From Discogs

It's been a while since I've done a Creator article and the name Kisaburo Suzuki had been spinning around in my head for a while, so I've decided to pay tribute here. He's one of those prolific musician-songwriters that has created so many songs for so many singers that he's at the level of the question "He wrote THAT?!".

According to his J-Wiki profile, Suzuki(鈴木喜三郎)was born in the city of Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture in 1952. At the age of 15, he started learning the guitar and ukulele from his older brother and began becoming inspired by the works of the legendary B.B. King. In 1972, he made his way down to Tokyo and from the following year, he backed up a lot of singers including Masatoshi Nakamura(中村雅俊), Akira Fuse(布施明)and Naomi Chiaki(ちあきなおみ). A few years later in 1977 following an encounter with lyricist Osami Okamoto(岡本おさみ), he set about to become a composer. Then in 1980, Suzuki would pick up his first award for providing Kenji Sawada(沢田研二)with "Sakaba de DABADA"(酒場でDABADA).

With the probable exceptions of enka and Mood Kayo, Suzuki has covered all of the genres in Japanese music including anison and aidoru tunes. When I finally started paying attention to the songwriters in the industry, my impression of Suzuki was that he was quite the master at coming up with pop melodies in the 1980s which combined shimmering orchestra strings and wailing electric guitar. Mariko Takahashi's(高橋真梨子)"See You Again...Kaze ni Kuchitsukete"(SEE YOU AGAIN ・・・風にくちづけて...Kiss The Wind) was one of the first examples of this that I had ever heard and it was the first composition by Suzuki that I ever came across. However, there was one notable exception to the tradition of strings and guitar, and that was for one of Akina Nakamori's(中森明菜)biggest hits, "Desire". Anyways, the following is just a mere sample of what he has created.

(1983) H2O -- Omoide ga Ippai (思い出がいっぱい)


(1981) Saburo Tokito -- Kawa no Nagare wo Daite Nemuritai (川の流れを抱いて眠りたい)


(1981) Ruiko Kurahashi -- Last Scene ni Ai wo Komete (ラストシーンに愛をこめて)


(1986) Akina Nakamori -- Desire


(1982) Toru Watanabe -- Yakusoku (約束)


(1982) Cherish -- Come On, Sunshower (カモン・サンシャワー)


(1982) Mariko Takahashi -- See You Again...Kaze ni Kuchitsukete (SEE YOU AGAIN ・・・風にくちづけて)

Monday, August 25, 2025

Keitarou Takanami -- 1DK no Nagisa(1DKの渚)

From the site OHEYAGO



In Japan, apartments are described through a shorthand of numbers and letters so my old place in Ichikawa was known as a 2K, i.e. two rooms and a kitchen. For whatever reason, the bathroom was never included in the coding and it was just as well since it could have made things a bit more unwieldy. For the purposes of this article, the above floor plan is of a 1DK apartment somewhere in Tokyo: one room and a dining/kitchen space.

Of course, just having a floor plan won't give you a full picture of what a 1DK would be, so I've also included this video of YouTuber serori's own 1DK apartment. It's a whole lot more tastefully planned than my old place.

Anyways, I provided all that to introduce the song "1DK no Nagisa" (The Beach by the 1DK Apartment) that was written, composed and sung by Keitarou Takanami(高浪慶太郎). He was a part of Pizzicato Five in its early years back in the 1980s and I first introduced his solo works via his 2021 synth-fully delicious reggae "Citypop Lullaby"

Just judging from that song, I had assumed that "1DK no Nagisa", which comes from his July 1994 album "Everybody's Out Of Town", was going to be something as eclectic or perhaps something Shibuya-kei because of his association with Pizzicato Five. However, I was surprised to discover that "1DK no Nagisa" is actually a very old-fashioned mellow AOR piece with a touch of soul. And it's quite the pleasant song that could accompany serori's video tour or any footage of a 1DK apartment right by the beach. Mind you, I can't even imagine how much a unit like that would go for in terms of rent.

Harumi Miyako -- Bakaccho Defune(馬鹿っちょ出船)

Welcome to the final Monday of August 2025. Although it took me a while to catch up, I've loved the zany Mel Brooks' movies of the 1970s including "Young Frankenstein", and it's poignant to realize that just about all of the main cast have left this mortal coil. There was that one scene where the Monster and Elizabeth had one heck of a romantic night but then the former had to suddenly leave the latter which had poor Liz chastising the Monster as one of those wham-bam-thank-you-ma-am boors who prefers to love 'em and leave 'em.

Harumi Miyako's(都はるみ)June 1965 8th single "Bakaccho Defune" (You Dumb Departing Ships...although I prefer the translation of Darn You, Love 'Em Leave 'Em Sailors) reminds me of that "Young Frankenstein" scene. I heard it last night on NHK's "Shin BS Nihon no Uta" (and yep, it looks like the regular programs are returning from summer hiatus this week) and was delighted that it was a song that I've heard from my childhood but just forgot through the breezy windmills of my mind. 

Written by Miyuki Ishimoto(石本美由起)and composed/arranged by Shosuke Ichikawa(市川昭介), Miyako herself sings in the lyrics that this is a madorosu kayo kyoku or a sailor-based kayo, one of the many sub-genres that would finally be all officially melded into enka, the traditional genre that finally got official standing in the Japanese lexicon in the early 1970s. I gotta ask Noelle whether that Hawaiian twang in Ichikawa's supremely cheerful arrangement was part and parcel of the madorosu kayo kyoku experience. But in any case, the enka legend also growls about how all those sailors quickly come (no pun intended😁) for the romance but then take off just as quickly for the seas, leaving the women bereft of companionship once more. When Miyako growls the title out, I feel that's similar to Elizabeth barking out in frustration, "Oh, you men are all alike!".

Sunday, August 24, 2025

Poppies -- Koi wa Kibun(恋は気分)

 

The J-Wiki profile on this sextet singing group Poppies(ポピーズ)is fairly sparse, but they formed in 1974 and at the time of their formation, they consisted of Junko "Jun" Yamada(山田順子), Sayoko "Boku-chan" Nishida(西田さよ子), Yukiko "Mikki" Katada(片田雪子), Tomoko "Monroe" Sugiyama(杉山智子), Akemi "Eve" Sakamoto(坂本明美)and Sachiko "Lark" Matsumoto(松本祥子)*. Poppies debuted in April 1974 with "Koi no Chance"(恋のチャンス...Love Chance) but for this article, I'm featuring their sophomore effort, "Koi wa Kibun" (Love is a Mood).

My impression of "Koi wa Kibun", which was created by veterans Rei Nakanishi(なかにし礼)and Tadao Inoue(井上忠夫) (who would change his name to Daisuke Inoue/井上大輔), is that all involved wanted to put out a rapid-fire tune with old-fashioned 60s girl pop mixed in with a bit of ABBA disco and a soupcon of sex kitten. Think of it as Candies(キャンディーズ)fare with some of that Pink Lady kick-step although both girl groups still had their best days ahead of them when this single was released in September 1974.

After their third single, there were some major changes in the lineup and Poppies went down to being a group of five ladies with only Nishida and Sugiyama remaining from the original team. When their final single was released in 1978, they were down to just four.

*The given name kanji for Ms. Matsumoto can be read in many ways. I've gone with Sachiko for now but if anyone can confirm or correct this reading, that would be greatly appreciated.

Galaxy Songs

 

Recently, when I posted my article on a Candies'(キャンディーズ)tune, commenter AL noted that there were a lot of kayo kyoku with "ginga"(銀河...galaxy) in the title. I agreed and wondered whether I should put up an Author's Picks about those galactic songs. Well, I'm no longer wondering. Here are some of them.

(1978) Isao Sasaki with the Suginami Junior Chorus -- Ginga Tetsudo 999(銀河鉄道999)


(1979) Godiego -- The Galaxy Express 999 (銀河鉄道999)


(1988) Hikaru Genji -- Paradise Ginga (パラダイス銀河)


(1977) Candies -- Gingakei made Tonde Ike!(銀河系まで飛んで行け!)


(1980) Hiromi Iwasaki -- Ginga Densetsu(銀河伝説)

Saturday, August 23, 2025

Sumire Uesaka -- No Future Vacances(ノーフューチャーバカンス)

 

Here's hoping that your weekend has gone off to a good start. My whole family was out for shopping at the local J-Town earlier today where I pulled the trigger and bought bottles of Peach Calpis and Kirin Milk Tea so we're laden down with the sugar. I had a good tall glass of the former and suffered a bit of a sugar crash. 

But there's nothing like a really sparkly and catchy song to get back on track. It's been quite a few years since I've had seiyuu and singer Sumire Uesaka(上坂すみれ)on the byline. Only recently did I discover the title track from her August 2018 4th studio album "No Future Vacances" and it's quite the banger. It feels like Neo-City Pop with some disco and shiny and gleaming synthpop. And listening to that arrangement made me wonder who was behind the words and music.

There was something especially Especia about it. And whaddaya know? Uesaka was behind the lyrics but the composer/arranger was Toshin Resonant(東新レゾナント), aka Schtein & Longer, the same fellow behind all those Especia songs. I also found out that songwriter's real name is Yuki Yokoyama. "No Future Vacances" feels like hitting an Ibiza disco floor with one foot in the past and one foot in the future.

I've also noticed that the album "No Future Vacances" contains "Koi suru Zukei (cubic futurismo)"(恋する図形), a song that had the influence of another group of technopop wizards, TECHNOBOYS PULCRAFT GREEN FUND.

Riyuko Tanaka -- Lonely Chaser(ロンリー・チェイサー)

 

I've heard all about the trials and tribulations of producing an anime from my anime buddy over the years, and among some of them, "Fushigi no Umi no Nadia"(不思議の海のナディア...Nadia, The Secret of Blue Water) and the legendary "Evangelion" suffered quite a few setbacks (if I'm not mistaken, these two were under the aegis of Hideaki Anno who had his own demons to slay). Apparently, that was also the case with a 1980s mecha anime called "Chō Kōsoku Galvion"(超攻速ガルビオン...Super High Speed Galvion) that ended up not being too popular and even its one run got truncated by a number of episodes due to its sponsor going belly-up just a few months after its premiere in February1984.

That was kinda too bad since its opening theme, "Lonely Chaser", by Riyuko Tanaka(田中利由子)wasn't too bad at all. Written by Tomoko Aran(亜蘭知子)and composed by Masayuki Yamamoto(山本正之), the song has a catchy beat and is arranged in that 80s way reminding me of all of those scenes in Hollywood action movies back in the day when the main characters show up in a disco or aerobics studio in Los Angeles

As for Tanaka, she started in showbiz when she was 16 as a magazine model after which she shifted into recording commercial jingles and anime theme songs. It wasn't too long after that she made another transition into jazz.


The above video here is Episode 22 which was the last aired episode of "Galvion" out of a scheduled 26 episodes (supposedly) according to the Wikipedia article on the show. The June 1984 No. 22 did finish but then a 35-second segment was tacked onto the end with a dramatic voiceover explaining what was to happen to everyone while stills of the characters popped up. FIN

Friday, August 22, 2025

Keiko Maruyama -- Hatachi no Watashi(20才の私)

 

Seeing that we started today's Urban Contemporary segment with something light and mellow, it would seem appropriate to end things the same way as well. 

"Hatachi no Watashi" (Me at 20) sounds like just the tonic and since the middle part of my articles were all in the 80s with the first article being from the 90s, why not finish up with a song from the 70s? This particular tune was written, composed and performed by Keiko Maruyama(丸山圭子), someone that I haven't covered for a little over a year, and it comes from her fourth album "My Point of View" which was released in December 1977. 

Feeling like a whimsical 1970s City Pop tune with a touch of bossa nova, a young lady who has just turned that significant age of 20 seems to have experienced a number of things already, some of them with her beau (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)😉. Twenty in Japan was indeed once the age for a teenage to become an adult and a part of working society through things like drinking, smoking and voting, but a few years ago, the legal age of adulthood was brought down to eighteen. Mind you, I have a feeling that a lot of teens were already experiencing some of those things way before the special age.

Baker Shop Boogie -- Soul Taxi Driver

Wikimedia Commons via Sam Duluth

One time back in my university days, I had been out with the guys way past midnight and not being able to get a lift home, I opted for a taxi. The driver was someone who obviously liked his weed so it was an interesting 20-minute ride home. Had a Dickens of a time trying to get to sleep that night and I had to do a lot of explaining to my parents about the aroma in my room the next day. I couldn't just state that we all had a great Korean BBQ dinner.

Even earlier, I remember my first chances to watch NBC's "Saturday Night Live" near the tail end of the original run of The Not Ready for Prime Time Players in the late 1970s. Fortunately, I also got to see a lot of reruns of those early episodes with Chevy Chase, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, and that included the famous Blues Brothers performances with that intro of "I Can't Turn You Loose". That was some mixture of performance art and gonzo concert.

That was the scene that came back from my memories when I first heard "Soul Taxi Driver" by the blues band Baker Shop Boogie although the rhythm was a little less frenetic. My good friend Rocket Brown of the podcast "Come Along Radio" introduced this to me via Discord a few weeks ago. "Soul Taxi Driver" has got quite the feeling of the Blues Brothers along with James Brown as singer Akira Sawauchi(澤内明)sings about a cab driver living the life that he's always wanted. The Motown soul tune originally popped up as a track on Baker Shop Boogie's 1983 2nd album "Hungry St."

Back in 1972, Sawauchi met up with guitarists Hitoshi Seki(関ヒトシ)and Hajime Yoshida(吉田 はじめ)to form Baker Shop Boogie which specialized in performing blues tunes. Members would come and go as the band did their tours with a first album, "Baker Shop Boogie", finally coming out in 1982.

Hiroshi Saeki -- Night Cruise(ナイトクルーズ)

 

The above is a shot of the pool deck on board the Harmony of the Seas during our Caribbean cruise back in 2017. It makes for a wonderful night shot but I haven't dived into a swimming pool in decades. Me and water simply don't mix outside of the daily ritual of bathing.

Also, some years ago, I posted an article for the moody song "Ai wo Somete, Lisa"(愛を染めて、リサ), a 1986 solo effort by Hiroshi Saeki(佐伯博志)who had once been known as Hiroshi Koide(小出博志), one half of the duo Buzz. That duo was famous for the folk song-turned-car commercial jingle "Ken to Mary ~ Ai to Kaze no yo ni" (ケンとメリー〜愛と風のように〜) back in the early 1970s.

Lisa may have been the lucky lady in that single but the B-side seems to be focused on some lass named Stella in "Night Cruise". A playful and nocturnal song that probably indeed takes place on a ship rather than a car since there is a reference to window blinds being closed, it's got that bouncy urban  rhythm and some of those Fender Rhodes notes jangling away. Written by Hitoshi Shinohara(篠原仁志), composed by Saeki and arranged by Michiru Oshima(大島ミチル), Saeki's voice is pitched really high here which makes me wonder whether "Night Cruise" was actually meant to be a slower ballad in tempo.

Naoko Amihara -- Catch a Star

 


Until recently, I had never heard of Naoko Amihara(網浜直子)before but the Kobe-born lady has been an actress, TV personality and a singer although that last occupation was really just for a couple of years in the mid-1980s. Her movie and TV career began in 1985 with Amihara appearing in the movie "Barrow Gang BC" alongside aidoru Noriko Matsumoto(松本典子)and Shibugaki-tai(シブがき隊). She also became good friends with other singers including the late Miho Nakayama(中山美穂).

As I mentioned, Amihara had a brief dalliance in the recording booth with seven singles being released between 1985 and 1987 (one more single was released much later in 2011), and then one lone studio album coming out in March 1986, "Amie's 1st Avenue". From that album, I give you "Catch a Star", a snappy and snazzy horn-laden track that was written by Yuuho Iwasato(岩里祐穂)and composed by Yoshio Nomura(野村義男), one of the Tanokin Trio(たのきんトリオ)back in the early 1980s. Although Amihara was never categorized as an aidoru, I think there is something rather aidoru-like in the overall effect, perhaps due to the occasional gulpy nature of Amihara's voice. 

Akemi Kakihara -- Taiyo no Shita de(太陽の下で)

 

And once again, welcome to another end of the work week here on KKP which means that it's Urban Contemporary Friday on the blog. It seems as if here in Toronto, we're enjoying those warm days but the nights are getting cooler which is normal for us, and the beginning of next week will be having highs just in the low 20s Celsius. So autumn is just around the corner.

It's been a while since we've had singer-songwriter Akemi Kakihara(柿原朱美)so it's nice to have her back. I consider her to be one of those artists of the late 1980s and early 1990s responsible for some very comfortable light pop of the time. I can put her beside singers such as Miki Imai(今井美樹), Midori Karashima(辛島美登里)and Akiko Kobayashi(小林明子), and so it's not surprising that Kakihara, or ak as she's been known for the past several years, has contributed a lot of her songs to Imai.

In June 1994, the singer came out with her sixth album "Taiyo no Shita de" (Under the Sun), and the first track happens to be the title track. Written and composed by her, I can't say that it's a City Pop, AOR or an R&B tune but it still has plenty of urbaneness and urbanity with a bit of bossa nova sprinkled into it. The marvelous sax solo in the middle lifts "Taiyo no Shita de" into sophisticated pop territory. I can also imagine Imai herself covering this one.

Thursday, August 21, 2025

naivepop or petitfool -- Tuesday tte Nanyoubi?(チューズデーって何曜日?)

 

I've kinda reached the age when waking up immediately begs the question about what day of the week it is. Sometimes, it takes me several seconds to figure it out for which I have to remember what I had done the day or night before. Such is the geriatric process.

Anyways, maybe that is the odd question that the duo naivepop or petitfool (and indeed, that is the name of this group) is pondering as well. "Tuesday tte Nanyoubi?" (What Day is Tuesday?) is a track from their October 2002 debut album "1, 2, 3...Darts!!". The indies band has a bit of avant-garde as they think about Tuesday through an arrangement of techno and reggae. I'd also say that there is an overall sense of dreaminess, emphasized by the vocalist's high-pitched voice coming through a gauzy filter.

To be honest, I first encountered "Tuesday tte Nanyoubi?" via the 2003 compilation "good compi - abcdefg * record" but was able to track down a YouTube video of the single song above. As for the group itself, I couldn't find out a lot about naivepop or petitfool but they were a Nagoya-based band which started up in 1998 and had their last activity in 2014 before presumably disbanding. From their website, there were another album and an EP in 2008. Hiromi Matsuda was the vocalist while Masahiro Nomura was on the instruments. I gather that the bunny hood for Hiromi and the horse head for Masahiro were part of the act. 

The Molice -- Headphone

 

I haven't written about the Buffalo, New York State-based rock band The Molice since 2021 when we were all swamped with COVID and its consequences. At the time, the band led by vocalist/guitarist Rinko was back in Japan, not being able to return to The Queen City. I'm not sure about now though; hopefully, they have long resumed their activities. The first song I covered by them was "Hello, Hello".

Recently, I encountered their 2008 song "Headphone" which chugs away with their hard rock style and Rinko's rapid-fire patter. The video is interesting as The Molice performs in cramped quarters as if they were trying to impress Marie Kondo or spark joy and the ancient inspiration for NHK's "Tiny Desk Concerts".  There's also something about Rinko's slinkiness in this one which reminds me of Gail from "Letterkenny".


Vapour Trails -- Don't Worry Baby

 


Maybe for this one, it isn't so much a Reminiscings of MY Youth as it is a Reminiscings of Youth for a lot of Japanese people my age back in the 1980s. As was the case with last week's ROY entry involving the "William Tell Overture", this was also a Western song that adorned a Japanese TV program of that magical decade but the fact is that I didn't personally know about the show or its theme song until many years later through retrospective programming.

I'm talking about "Best Hit USA", a TV Asahi late-night show that ran between April 1981 and September 1989. It was hosted by the very amiable and English-fluent Katsuya Kobayashi(小林克也)and it struck me as being a Japanese counterpart to Casey Kasem's "America's Top 10" as both featured the popular charting songs in the United States. The friendly theme song for "Best Hit USA" that played every time right from the start was only known for its intro and maybe some of that first verse.


Strangely enough, I got to hear the whole song finally many years after "Best Hit USA" had finished its run and it was the first full track on "BRIO AOR: Off-Shore", one of a two-CD set of all those groovy and laidback AOR tunes that populated the 1970s and 1980s. This is the 1979 "Don't Worry Baby" by Vapour Trails consisting of John McBurnie, Andy Dalby, and Phil Curtis, a British band that specialized in those West Coast soft rock songs, and it was known as "Surfside Freeway" in Japan. The song was also part of Vapour Trails' one and only album from that same year, "Vapour Trails".

That's pretty much all I could find out about this band. Apparently, there is a current Scottish band known as The Vapour Trails which provides jangle pop and indies. Of course, when I hear or read "vapour trails", I usually think of Yumi Arai's(荒井由実)famous "Hikoki Gumo"(ひこうき雲). 

As for "Best Hit USA", it returned to TV Asahi's broadcast satellite service in 2003 where it has continued talking about the popular stuff in America for over twenty years.

Now, since I couldn't get more specific than 1979 as the origin for "Don't Worry Baby", I've opted to show what was at the top of the album charts for that year in Japan. Here are Nos. 1, 4 and 6. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to cover the albums so the links below will take you to their representative tracks.

1. Godiego -- Saiyuki(西遊記)


4. Satoshi Kishida -- Morning (モーニング)


6.  Alice -- ALICE VII


Wednesday, August 20, 2025

Ai Kanzaki -- Bridge(橋)

 

I've used this photo before but just to remind readers, this is the pedestrian bridge spanning between Kinokuniya Books and what used to be Tokyu Hands in the Times Square complex in South Shinjuku. I used to traverse it a lot since I often had things that I had wanted to purchase in both stores.


All this for the flute-softened song "Bridge" by singer and flutist Ai Kanzaki(神崎愛). This is once again from her 1980 debut album "Today" and it's a pretty jaunty and sunny track by lyricist Keisuke Yamakawa(山川啓介)and composer Yasuo Higuchi(樋口康雄). In her brief file on KKP thus far, I've noticed that Kanzaki's voice could go from low and sultry to high and playful. Perhaps with "Bridge", her vocals travel to a medium state between those two ends. Melodically, the song itself hovers in its own medium state dipping tantalizingly into jazz, City Pop and New Music. Ultimately, I opted for that last genre. 

The Eyes Have It!

 

Aliens vs. Anime? I figure that could be one of the last frontiers that the 46-year-old sci-fi-horror franchise could visit. By the way, the photo above was taken in Nakano Broadway.

In any case, the latest in the "Alien" franchise is "Alien: Earth" and in the months and weeks approaching its arrival on screens, we've been getting tidbits about the terrifying yet fascinating new predators going on the attack. Perhaps the one big monster is T. Ocellus that is 50% octopus, 50% eyeball and 100% nightmare. It literally bursts out in its debut as you can see above (or perhaps you don't want to, especially if you love cats).

Well, considering that it's Hump Day today and I want to gently scrub my brain of any of T. Ocellus' work, I'm going with another whimsical Author's Picks consisting of songs that have "eyes" in the title. It'll be a short list today.

(1982) Tatsuro Yamashita -- Your Eyes


(1983) Rats & Star -- Me Gumi no Hito (め組のひと)


(1985) Anzen Chitai -- Aoi Hitomi no Elise(碧い瞳のエリス)


Only Japan could make a comedic commercial involving a Xenomorph. Maybe it could do the same for T. Ocellus. A contract with Kirin perhaps?

Tuesday, August 19, 2025

Joe Rinoie -- Synchronized Love

 

Out of the cobwebbed corners of my memories, another song has managed to be unwebbed. And this one comes from thirty years ago when I first started living in Ichikawa for my second go-round at English teaching. I got reunited with the song just by a chance re-encounter on YouTube and then I checked to see if the commercial that it was associated with was available on the platform.

Sure enough, it was. I used to see this ad all the time on television featuring these female dancers in their leotards going all out in the choreography while this singer was vocalizing away. Of course, being a typical Japanese commercial, it took me the entire commercial to find out what it was selling, and it was Takefuji's(武富士)high-interest consumer loan business. Of course, dynamic dancing and consumer loans are a natural fit for each other.😕

I learned that this song was titled "Synchronized Love" by singer-songwriter Joe Rinoie(ジョー・リノイエ)and it was his second single released in February 1995. I have heard of Rinoie here and there but this is the first time that he's coming onto KKP so I bid him welcome. In the age of the Komuro Steamroller, Rinoie's brand of dance pop and R&B shown through "Synchronized Love" would probably have been warmly welcomed although there isn't any sign of it hitting the Oricon charts. 



I read that "Synchronized Love" was also included as part of the "Dance Dance Revolution" craze back then. My friend, who was a big fan of all of the game platforms including PlayStation, brought over his own portable DDR set and played around with it when he stayed over at my place for a week. He asked me whether I'd like to give it a shot but I said that I really didn't want to give my downstairs neighbour an unexpected skylight in his ceiling.