Well, by coincidence, commenter Fireminer asked about this particular song by the rock band WANDS the other day. He had also provided his own KKP article regarding DA PUMP's "Corazon". "Toki no Tobira" (Time Portal) was the band's 4th single from February 1993 and the follow-up to their big hit which was the collaboration with the late Miho Nakayama（中山美穂）, "Sekaijuu no Dare yori Kitto"（世界中の誰よりきっと）. Probably buoyed by the effect of that song the previous year along with this single being a pretty catchy tune on its own, "Toki no Tobira" was also a million-seller hit for WANDS as it reached No. 1 on Oricon and eventually became the No. 7 single of the year.
Written by vocalist Show Wesugi（上杉昇）and composed by Kousuke Ohshima（大島康祐）, "Toki no Tobira" comes across as if it was channeling a bit of B'z. Considering all of those orchestra hits filling up the arrangement, I can only speculate that WANDS was showing a transition between B'z's early days as a synthpop duo and their very familiar sound as a pop-rock dynamo. The song was also the title track for their second album which was released a couple of months after the single, hitting No. 1 for four straight weeks and becoming the No. 2 album of 1993.
My wife is a big WANDS fan! Needless to say, I have heard 時の扉 more than once over the years. This is indeed a cool song, and I think it would not have been out of place in my country back in 1993 if more people had been willing to listen to music in languages other than English, and sometime Spanish & German(think of Neunundneunzig Luftballons & Rock Me Amadeus) . The clip of the Star Trek episode you linked was a nice touch!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I hadn't made any comments about the 59th anniversary (and to be honest, who really talks about a 59th anniversary?) for "Star Trek", so I though that this would be the ideal opportunity.
DeleteFireminer here. Thank for honoring my request!
ReplyDeleteIf I remember what I heard from an YouTube video years ago right, vocalist Show Wesugi had wanted WANDS to do a more grunge-y sound, but the label turned the band into a pop-rock unit, so Wesugi eventually left WANDS.
WANDS is now on their third vocalist, I think. They appeared on The First Take like a year ago to promote a new song they made for the Slam Dunk movie. I hope that Toki no Tobira will make it to The First Take, though I don't think it will happen. When M-Flo recently appeared on that show to do an old collab song with Crystal Kay, they replaced Kay with a new singer. I heard rumors that it had to do with the bad blood between Kay and Sony who own the YouTube show.
No problems here, Fireminer, and thanks for the further information.
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