Testpattern -- Ocean Liner

 

The above is a photo of the exposed Central Park section on the cruise ship Harmony of the Seas. It's a nice area to stroll and one of the restaurants there introduced me to my first Beef on Weck. Ironically, the sandwich is most famous in Buffalo, New York which is across Lake Ontario from where we are here but I actually found out about it on a huge ocean liner in the middle of the Caribbean.

Cruise ships have been called small cities on the ocean or floating buffet restaurants. I see them as both and after engorging myself on a lot of their fare (I think Royal Caribbean still has a WANTED poster out for me), maybe this song is the one I want to hear as I beach myself on the deck chair. This is "Ocean Liner" by the technopop duo Testpattern.

Not that it has been intentional by me, but I've been apparently placing two posts by these guys in 2022, 2023 and now 2026. I'm basically spreading out their 1982 album "Après-Midi" and I guess "Souvenir Glacé" (that I posted about in January) and this one for "Ocean Liner" are going to be my Testpattern contributions for this year. As for "Ocean Liner", it does feel like a thrumming synthesizer version of a really comfortable and snoozy nap on that deck chair with a slow rhythmic deep ocean beat anchoring the mesmerizing feeling of going off to La-La Land before dinner time. Duo Fumio Ichimura（市村文夫）and Masao Hiruma（比留間雅夫）took care of the hypnotic melody.

Yes, indeed I did get that post-Beef on Weck high...after which I helped myself to some soft-serve ice cream. Relaxation on the deck chair was mandatory.

m-flo -- L.O.T. (Love Or Truth)

 

Welcome to another Hump Day in the middle of the final full week of March. We're still making our slow way to spring weather as we hover a little over 0 degrees Celsius here in Toronto, but at least we've made some progress with the sun. 

As such, why don't we lift some of those spirits up with a bit of m-flo? I haven't discussed about LISA, VERBAL & ☆ Taku in over a year, and I was able to find this nice pick-me-up which was released as the group's November 1999 6th single, "L.O.T. (Love Or Truth)". To be honest, I'd never heard of this one before since for one thing, it hadn't been included on the lone BEST collection I have of them, "Award Super Nova".

m-flo to me has usually meant hip-hop or hip-pop so to hear this one is quite the revelation because "L.O.T.", which was written and composed by m-flo with H.U.B.'s help on the lyrics, strikes me more as a contemporary Latin pop number with some jazz elements (although VERBAL has got his usual rap patter in there). It's also been recognized as the group's first ballad and it's beautifully sung by LISA. "L.O.T." was used as the theme song for a TV Asahi drama series "Best Friend".

Quite the atmospheric music video for "L.O.T." but that hotel corridor looks like it came straight from "The Shining"! I was expecting a couple of creepy twin girls to invite LISA and company to play. Anyways, the video below is of the Agape Mix of the song. The song scored a No. 24 ranking on  Oricon. It also appeared as a track on m-flo's first album "Planet Shining" from February 2000; it peaked at No. 6.

The above video from the channel Heisei Sound System is an AI City Pop version of "L.O.T." that was released a couple of months ago, and to be honest, it was the first version of the song that I had heard before I quickly tracked down the original. I have to admit that it does sound quite good, and usually I haven't been all that impressed with the AI attempts at urban contemporary.

Mai Arai -- Wild Lady（ワイルド・レディー）

 

There is one famous scene from the anime "Sailor Moon" in which Usagi drank the wrong drink and, well, she got a little more excitable than she usually is. Strangely enough, I was in a similar situation when one of my students at a party got a little more than she bargained for after imbibing a little too much of the good stuff and she started rattling things off in both Japanese and English. By the end, she was speaking in tongues.

That was what Mai Arai's（あらい舞）"Wild Lady" reminded me of when I first heard it last night. This was the debut single for the then-19-year-old singer-songwriter from Kyoto when she released it in November 1978. Written, composed and arranged by Arai, it does sound a bit like Pink Lady with the dynamic melody touched by a bit of disco and rock-n-roll. 

Now, for KKP readers, if the name Mai Arai sounds familiar to you, then you must have thoroughly read the details in the article for Mikako Hashimoto's（橋本美加子）"Heart Byoyomi"（ハート秒読み）which was one of Arai's creations for the 80s aidoru. I was intrigued enough by the presence of this songwriter when I wrote up the Hashimoto post that I decided to take a deeper look. As it turned out, she gained her ambitions for the music industry when she was a senior in junior high school. Not long after, she got into the industry although her singles came out quite slowly with her seventh single being released in 2005. Her debut album wouldn't hit the shelves until 1990 although by that point, she'd gone with the new stage name of hideko. In 1982, she went on a national tour with fellow singer-songwriter Eigo Kawashima（河島英五）, and she's provided singers such as Yoko Oginome（荻野目洋子）, Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）and GWINKO with her tunes.

The Works of Mariya Takeuchi 2（竹内まりや）

 

Oh, dopey me. I'm four days late in wishing singer-songwriter Mariya Takeuchi a Happy Birthday! But here's hoping that her family enjoyed themselves on the special day. Last year (when I did remember her birthday), I acknowledged the day with a Yutaka Kimura Speaks translated piece about the singer. When I thought about whether to do a Creator article about her, I quickly realized that I had already done one back in 2019.

However for that first entry, I introduced some songs created by Takeuchi in that article that had never been covered before. Well, then, I decided that for this one, I'll bring the comfort food...songs by her that have their own articles from way back when just to remind viewers about what she has given other singers. And of course, this is by no means a comprehensive list.

(1982) Naoko Kawai -- Kenka wo Yamete (けんかをやめて）

(1984) Hiroko Yakushimaru -- Genki wo Dashite （元気を出して）

(1984) Yukiko Okada -- Dreaming Girl

(1988) Masayuki Suzuki -- Misty Mauve

(1991) Riho Makise -- Miracle Love

Yoshie Kashiwabara -- Shiawase Ondo（しあわせ音頭）

 

Listening to music all these decades and handling KKP for the past fourteen years, of course, I know all about those 45" singles and CD singles with their A/B sides and coupling songs. Sometimes though on a singer's J-Wiki discography, I encounter something called the kikaku single（企画シングル）or "planned single". I'm still not 100% on the meaning or purpose of these things, but from my experience, I can glean that they refer to special releases by a singer tackling a genre that's not usually in their wheelhouse.

And thus, we come to Yoshie Kashiwabara's（柏原芳恵）"Shiawase Ondo" (Happy Folk Song). I found this song just recently on YouTube and it took me a little longer than usual to track this down since "Shiawase Ondo" hadn't been included on Yoshie-chan's long single list. It was placed on the...you guessed it...the kikaku single list and it even got its own entry on J-Wiki.

I guess it's because Kashiwabara was covering something that wasn't her usual aidoru stuff. Released early in her career, July 1982, "Shiawase Ondo" is all about the festival minyo, and the dead giveaway was the title's use of ondo which is often used for the traditional folk songs of Japan. She's got quite the adorably cute delivery of Masato Fujita's（藤田まさと）lyrics but the music is also notable not only for the old-style jaunty folk (vocal whoops included) but the fact that it sounds quite Okinawan and technopop at the same time. I started thinking that Yellow Magic Orchestra had been involved, and sure enough, one third of the group, Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）, provided the melody which Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）then arranged into a spacey yet familiar tune that the kids would love to dance to. 

For Yoshie fans, "Shiawase Ondo" must have been quite the rare thing to covet since this kikaku single hadn't gotten onto an original album for years until March 2004 when it was finally included on the aidoru's CD box set "Kashiwabara Yoshie Premium Box"（柏原芳恵 プレミアムBOX）. The single itself peaked at No. 70 on Oricon.

Hiroshi Uchiyamada & Cool Five -- Futari no Midosuji（二人の御堂筋）

 

I haven't been to Osaka in many, many moons so my remembrance of the streets there is woefully lacking compared to my knowledge of some of the thoroughfares in Tokyo. However, Midosuji seems to pop up a fair bit especially when it comes to kayo kyoku. In fact, I'm wondering if I ought to provide an Author's Picks list of songs that pay tribute to what has been called Osaka's Champs-Elysees. But I'll leave that for further thought. Off the top of my head, though, there is Feifei Ouyang's（欧陽菲菲）"Ame no Midosuji"（雨の御堂筋）from the early 1970s. Anyways, the above video is provided by Japan Walking Tours on YouTube.

Well, yesterday, we were watching the weekend "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌...Songs of Japanese Spirit）as usual, and The Cool Five's Kiyoshi Maekawa（前川清）appeared to provide one of his old group's classics "Saikai Blues"（西海ブルース）from 1977. Since his Cool Five members have basically retired or passed away, some of the other male guest singers provided the backup chorus. I figured that I must have already written on "Saikai Blues", and sure enough, I had done so back in December 2023.

But I wasn't going to be deterred by that, and it didn't take me long to track down another Hiroshi Uchiyamada & Cool Five（内山田洋とクールファイブ）Mood Kayo song. That was their 26th single from December 1975, "Futari no Midosuji" (A Couple in Midosuji), and it fits the typical Cool Five Mood Kayo feeling of love gained and lost in a famous part of a Japanese city. Of course, there's plenty of rain and mournful chorus to emphasize the bittersweetness of romance. Written by Shinichi Ishihara（石原信一）and composed by Taiji Nakamura（中村泰士）, it did OK by hitting No. 44 on Oricon.

Mariko An -- Kanashimi wa Kakeashi de Yatte Kuru（悲しみは駆け足でやってくる）

 

At first, I'd assumed that this would be Mariko An's（アン真理子）first appearance on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", but that would have been wrong. The former chorus singer and dancer has been up here and not too long ago. In fact, back in 2022, I posted an article for the duo Yuki to Hide's（ユキとヒデ...Yuki & Hide）"Shiroi Nami"（白い波）from 1967, and as it turned out, I was reminded that Yuki had been Mariko...before she became Mariko; her real name is Yuki Sato（佐藤ユキ）.

Yuki to Hide would release a couple of singles including "Shiroi Nami" (Sato would release a couple of her own solo singles while the duo was still together) and then break up in 1968. Taking on the new stage name of Mariko An, she made a new debut with the July 1969 single "Kanashimi wa Kakeashi de Yatte Kuru" (Grief Comes Running). Written by An herself with Katsuhiko Nakagawa（中川克彦）taking care of the melody, it's a melancholy kayo kyoku although through An's lyrics, it seems as if she's really trying hard to balance the worlds of light and dark especially as they affect the youth of the nation when it comes the vagaries of love. An released seven more singles up to the mid-1970s and one original album in 1970. She also continued to work as a lyricist under her real name of Yuki Sato although the kanji was a variant version（佐藤由紀）.

Roly Poly Rag Bear -- Sentimental Bus

 

This sci-fi comedy movie "Project Hail Mary" with Ryan Gosling has crept into theatres fairly meekly but it's been doing pretty good box office thus far. Strangely enough and rarely enough, I'm currently reading the original novel just before I head off to slumber each night, and I may actually watch the movie for comparison's sake. The overarching theme here is friendship between two beings despite vast differences due to a common goal.

Things aren't quite as high-stakes and dramatic within the adorable music video for indies pop and shoegaze band Roly Poly Rag Bear's "Sentimental Bus", but it shares the theme of friendship among a couple of stuffed animals and a human. "Sentimental Bus" is a track from the duo's 2004 album "Straw, Water, Pinstripe" and the melody is about as comfortable as a warm blanket and/or a hot bowl of soup on a cold winter day.

I couldn't find much information about Roly Poly Rag Bear but according to what I could scrape off the Net was that Mihoko Tanoue（田之上美穂子）and Makoto Igarashi（五十嵐誠）formed the pair in 1998 and released a number of singles and albums including "Straw, Water, Pinstripe" throughout the 2000s before going on hiatus in late 2010. Along with their sunny and warm indie pop stylings, they were also known for performing some Shibuya-kei although I have yet to come across any of that part of their discography. 

Denki Groove -- HOMEBASE

 

Major League Baseball is in its final days of Grapefruit League action before the official season begins next week. Locally, of course, we're looking forward to seeing the Blue Jays back at Rogers Centre and see if they can pull off what they almost did last year.

Not to say that technopop band Denki Groove（電気グルーヴ）has done so for every song they've ever concocted, but I remember a few songs of theirs that have had certain themes in mind. There is the train theme for "Popo"（ポポ）and "Mononoke Dance"（モノノケダンス）with its atmosphere of the scary spirits in mind. Well, their 22nd single from August 2022 is "HOMEBASE" which is all about the baseball. Along with the usual fun plinky-plunky technopop, there is some of the rah-rah cheering prevalent at any Japanese baseball game incorporated.

Of course, Denki Groove also loves to have its tongue-in-cheekiness and the majority of the lyrics for "HOMEBASE" is the reading of a team's lineup with some of the zaniest names. The music video has band member Pierre Taki（ピエール瀧）pull off humanity's longest headfirst slide (with a juice break) in front of Takkyu Ishino（石野卓球）as the tough-as-nails manager.

Mikako Hashimoto -- Heart Byoyomi（ハート秒読み）

 

Welcome to another KKP weekend! As I was telling a friend of mine this morning, it doesn't really feel like spring here in Toronto quite yet, but at least, the snow is largely gone and I can actually walk the sidewalks like a normal human being again. I'll be happy to take the little steps toward the green season.

Anyways, out of the Mikako Hashimoto（橋本美加子）songs I've covered thus far on KKP, this single has struck me as being the grooviest thus far. This is her 5th single from June 1986, "Heart Byoyomi", which seems to translate directly as "Heart Countdown", although I'm wondering if it's more accurate to say "Reading Your Heartbeat" in terms of the usual trials and tribulations of love encountered in these aidoru tunes. In any case, Mai Arai（あらい舞）was responsible for both words and music and as for the latter, I love the wailing electric guitar and the horns. Kei Wakakusa（若草恵）took care of the snazzy arrangement.

Tadaharu Nakano -- Seishun Rumba (青春ルムバ)

I feel like I'm playing a word association game but with themes with the past couple of articles I wrote. First, it was "Isao Hayashi" (林伊佐緒) with Sogen wo Yuku Otoko (草原をゆく男) and Kurashiki no Hito (倉敷の女). From the latter, I am carrying over the theme of a singer's voice to this article.

Quite a while back, I was reading something on the line of how a singer's voice can be highly attractive to its listeners, even without the presence of their physical being - think radio, records, CDs, etc. - as we can fill in the blanks ourselves. The mind is a powerful tool. Seeing as how Tadaharu Nakano (中野忠晴) never showed up on TV postwar, and prewar footage of him even just moving is exceedingly rare, I let my imagination take the reins with what it has: his photos and his voice (via his songs).

So hot｡ﾟ(ﾟ´艸`ﾟ)ﾟ｡

Mr. Nakano is essentially my antithesis to Hachiro Kasuga (春日八郎). During his tenure as a recording artist, he often appeared to be either chipper with his cheeky grin or suave with a smolder. His jazz covers and western music-inspired songs often match either version of him, and his expressive deliveries would sound a little different depending. If its something like a silly or sentimental jazz song, he would ordinarily come equipped with a bright tenor. But if its a more dramatic number, he would lean into the lower register of his vocal range and showcase its richness. The latter, in particular, gets the heart racing. 

Seishun Rumba belongs to this latter category. Released in June 1939, it's actually a cover of Tabú, originally created musician Margarita Lecuona. The Cuban number has a heady air of sensuality about it with its languid rhythm. However, to fit Nakano's dynamic energy, Showa's other jazz song arrangement whiz Takio Niki (仁木多喜雄) sped up the tempo a little and made it sound theatrical with more dramatic percussions and blaring horns, yet still retained the sex appeal of the original. It makes the perfect space for Nakano's chesty delivery in this instance to shine; and despite its boldness, the singer manages to add a tenderness to his voice that makes it even more alluring. 

Taking care of the Japanese lyrics was Ko Fujiura (藤浦洸), who was already making a name for himself making several hit western-inspired numbers. His words seem parallel the rumba and its vitality to youth, which explains the title that literally translates to "Youth Rumba." To be completely honest, I'm not super fond of the title they gave the Japanese version. Somehow, the thought that this could be considered one of those "odes to youth" (seishun sanka) that were popular during the 30s does kind of diminish the more mature vibe the Niki's arrangement and Nakano's delivery give to me. Nevertheless, Seishun Rumba was the song where, upon first listen, had me texting one of my good friends that I thought the man "[sounded] so hot." The blend of the music, his voice, and those suave images sends my imagination into overdrive and has me forgetting to breathe. I would be transfixed seeing Hachi sing Kurashiki no Hito live, but I think I'd pass out seeing Nakano do Seishun Rumba live.

Tomoko Koyano -- Shiawase Modoki（幸わせもどき）

 

It's been a long while since the last Tomoko Koyano（古谷野とも子）article which was back in March 2020, just before COVID shut the world down for a couple of years. That was for "Yorisoi Nareta Ude no Naka de"（寄りそい慣れた腕の中で）and though the Koyano file on KKP is still not all that deep, I've gotten the impression that she's along the lines of fellow singer-songwriters Keiko Maruyama（丸山圭子）and Mieko Nishijima（西島三重子）with their mellow New Music stylings.

I found this track which shares space with "Yorisoi Nareta Ude no Naka de" on her 3rd album "Neutral Tints" from 1978. And "Shiawase Modoki" (Fake Happiness) may not titularly hint at good times within Etsuko Kisugi's（来生えつこ）lyrics, but man, right from the first several notes of the song, I do feel that Koyano's creation strikes me as something ahead of its time. The arrangement comes across as a lot more contemporary especially with the keyboard work (although that Fender Rhodes is a symbol of City Pop music, particularly in the 1970s). I could imagine "Shiawase Modoki" as having been created in the 1980s or 1990s even. Nice to have such a cool and good tune to finish off tonight's slate of postings, especially with that sax solo...gave me some Gerry Rafferty vibes.

Chu Kosaka & Makoto Iwabuchi -- Rainbow

 

Probably would have preferred Kayo Grace and Mr. Calico to have stood a little farther away from the number, but in all of the excitement about writing the 2700th City Pop article on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" a few minutes ago, I completely overlooked the fact that the blog itself surpassed the 20 million view mark some time in the last 24 hours. 

Thank you, Mr. DiCaprio! And congratulations yourself on "One Battle After Another" winning Best Picture although I'm sorry that you didn't get that Best Actor Oscar.

It's rather amazing that the views are already more than 70,000 deep beyond 20,000,000 so let's get at it with another song. First off, although I have separate articles for Makoto Iwabuchi（岩渕まこと）and the late great Chu Kosaka（小坂忠）, I had no idea that they also worked together as a duo for several years in the 1980s and 1990s, putting out a lot of albums together.

One album, released in 1982, is "Best Friend", and the cover has Iwabuchi and Kosaka looking very chummy. I managed to find one track "Rainbow" which brings in friendly folk and a hint of that Margaritaville AOR into the proceedings. It's just the melodic tonic for a cool and relaxing Sunday drive out in the countryside or the beachside. Not quite ready for that activity here in Toronto yet, but perhaps this time next month, things will have meteorologically improved.

Junko Yagami -- Koi no Smash Hit（恋のスマッシュ・ヒット）

 

I only noticed this some minutes ago, but this article will become the 2700th such article under the City Pop banner since beginning "Kayo Kyoku Plus" in 2012.

Thank you, thank you!

And who better to share this honour than with one of the greatest representatives of City Pop, singer-songwriter Junko Yagami（八神純子）? She was looking rather glammed up and Blondie-ish in that bold striped dress against the red-and-black background. I'd probably say that it is one of the more famous images of the Aichi Prefecture-born singer as a cover for her 16th single "Koi no Smash Hit" (I WANNA MAKE A HIT WIT-CHOO) from July 1983.

To be honest, "Koi no Smash Hit" wasn't a smash hit, only getting as high as No. 61 on Oricon, but for the fans, it's another jewel in the crown and kinda shows Yagami's transition from her City Pop phase into a more West Coast R&B sound going into the middle of the 1980s. She wasn't even behind words and music this time around...they were provided by lyricist Frank Musker and composer Louis St. Louis. I think the song is also notable for the cameo appearance of what sounds like the turbolift doors on the USS Enterprise and the somewhat tongue-in-cheek lyrics with Junko having a grand ol' time singing about simultaneously getting her guy and getting that Grammy with this creation. Her 6th album from the same month is also titled "I WANNA MAKE A HIT WIT-CHOO" and it did better in comparison than the single by peaking at No. 16.

EVE -- Sugar Sugar

 

I figure that if I can get a Eurobeat song onto the blog last month, thanks to Yoshimi Yokosuka（横須賀昌美）, I can do so here in March as well.

And this time, it's by the group EVE that seemed to be omnipresent in the music world back in the 1980s since they popped up backing up a lot of other artists in the recording studio. This time, though, the Sisters Shinzato from Okinawa are front and centre with their second single as a group, "Sugar Sugar" which came out in August 1987. Written by two of the sisters, Clare & Leona, with Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）handling the arrangement under his nom de plume Mark Davis (man, he's been a busy man today after providing his services for the song of the previous article), I'm sure that he made Stock, Aitken & Waterman very proud with his Eurobeat tendencies. "Sugar Sugar" peaked at No. 77 on Oricon.

Issei Endo -- Kono Mama Truly（このままTRULY）

 

Well, spring officially arrived at 10:46 am this morning. The problem here in Toronto is that everyone got the memo except for spring itself. It's been a cold and dreary day with freezing rain intermittently falling as I type this.

Ahh...that is just meteorological life in the largest city in Canada. Anyways, let's go to something more hopeful and cheerful. The uploader for the above video stated that he first heard singer-songwriter Issei Endo's（円道一成）"Kono Mama Truly" (Just Like This, Truly) on some late-night TV commercial as a jingle for something alcoholic. Not a bad thing to hear in the overnight hours. I could actually happily fall back into La-La Land listening to this or stay up savoring the music in my head.

Yup, I do like "Kono Mama Truly" which was released as a single in January 1986 (kinda like the "Miami Vice" threads there, Issei), according to Discogs. The singer was behind words and music with Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）providing the arrangement which hints at some old-time wonderful Motown soul. Maybe it is truly meant to be enjoyed along with some libations.

Blondie -- Rapture

 

I can't quite remember how records and tapes by the big artists were being distributed back in my teenage years, and the reason I'm starting out this way is that the first time that I'd heard Blondie's "Rapture" was actually through one of those K-Tel compilation records in which there was one quick cut of the music video where Debbie Harry was holding her head while she purred the title. Now, I would think by that point, the song had long been released as a single and as part of an album, and so I was wondering why I hadn't heard of this one before. Blondie was already big in the world so I should have heard this one already on the radio or television.

Well, in any case, I eventually did hear the totality of the song and caught the video after it had been released in January 1981. "Rapture" was basically the first time that I ever heard rap in any form. Harry was talking in some rhythmic pattern about eating Cadillacs and entire bars which struck me as being some sort of weird New Wave-y thing. I think the only time that I heard anything similar to that was when I was watching a segment on "Sesame Street" featuring a cartoon bear pattering the first five numbers to a beatnik jazz beat.

In any case, Harry apparently had two parts to the song: the first part had her singing in those fluffy light vocals which reminded me of "Heart of Glass" and then the rap part in the latter half had her utilizing those richer and lower tones from "The Tide is High". Looking back at the song after so many years, "Rapture" certainly doesn't strike me as the usual rap tune with the tubular bells and the disco rhythms in there. Plus, I'm sure when the video was first shown, maybe there had been a disclaimer stating that one shouldn't be under the influence while watching it. Aside from Harry, the one other character that I still remember is the so-called "Man from Mars" in his white suit and top hat.

"Rapture" hit No. 1 in the United States while it reached No. 3 in Canada. I also recently found out through the YouTube comments for the song that it had become part of the lore in "The Boys" with Soldier Boy doing a cover on "Solid Gold". Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing Captain America trying it out himself.

Anyways, right on the day that "Rapture" was released, these three songs were at the top of the Oricon chart.

1. Masahiko Kondo -- Sneaker Blues (スニーカーぶるーす）

2. Harumi Miyako -- Osaka Shigure （大阪しぐれ）

3. Mayumi Itsuwa -- Koibito yo （恋人よ）

Nash Music Library -- Summer Things

From Amal Suthan via Wikimedia Commons

Well, it's a heck of a thing to come up with a summer song when spring here in Toronto doesn't arrive for another several hours. However, I know that Torontonians are absolutely biting their lips at even the slightest opportunity to enjoy the hot season once more after one of the more enervating winters in recent memory. 

Unfortunately, I can't bring the heat and the rest of the summer weather but at least we can live a bit vicariously through music. Specifically, I can show another song from the vast discography of Nash Music Library. "Summer Things" comes from their March 2018 collection "Happy Hours" and it's a very skippy and heat-inducing song that even includes a bit of soft rap/vocalese near the end of this short and sweet tune. 

Takako Ohta -- Merry-Go-Round

 

We've been getting reminders of it this week but as of tomorrow and for the whole weekend, Toronto Comicon will be making its presence known at the Metro Convention Centre by the lake. I've been to the summer Fan Expo but not to the spring Comicon (and indeed, spring does arrive tomorrow), although from what I've seen of the video above of last year's version, there doesn't seem to be anything really different. Anime and cosplay will show up as usual. I'd been thinking of putting up a list of the most popular anime cosplayers but the list doesn't include any show I know very well. I've heard of "Jujutsu Kaisen" and "Chainsaw Man" but never got into those. 

Amazon.ca

Just to warn viewers, this is going to be a very shoehorned segue but perhaps for anyone interested in the old DC comics, there is the superhero and stage magician Zatanna. Maybe someone at a Comicon anywhere around the world could dress up like her.

AND SPEAKING OF MAGICIANS (ahem), we have Takako Ohta's（太田貴子）10th album "Magician" from October 1989. One track from this one is "Merry-Go-Round" which is this synthpop concoction written by Hideyuki Yamamoto（山本秀行）and composed by Masaya Ozeki（尾関昌也）. At first, I'd wondered whether this would fall into the Eurobeat category, but then I opted to keep it within pop. But you folks can listen to it and decide. 

BABYMETAL -- Gimme Chocolate!!（ギミチョコ!!）

By Steve Rainwater via Wikimedia Commons

Well, Easter is approaching. As a kid, I used to remember my parents buying these huge chocolate Easter bunnies from the supermarket or Shopper's Drug Mart. My brother and I took quite a while to devour the annual Easter bunny, and frankly I'm surprised that we survived the ritual. I mean, that was one hunk of solid milk chocolate!

It's been a while since we've invited the good ladies from BABYMETAL onto KKP, so welcome them back to the blog. The heavy metal/J-Pop band has been visiting Toronto a few times over the years but it doesn't look like they'll popping by the 6ix this year although they did visit our city last summer.

"Gimme Chocolate!!" is a song that was released in the UK as a single in May 2015 although in Japan, it popped up as just a track on BABYMETAL's self-titled debut album several months earlier in February 2014. Composed by Takeshi Ueda（上田剛士）and written by Mk-metal and Kxbxmetal, it's a headbanging and heart stopping mix of heavy metal and Japanese pop, stuffed with enough energy to feel as if I had munched down half of that aforementioned chocolate rabbit in one go. SU-METAL, MOAMETAL and YUIMETAL are wailing their thoughts on chocolate which is stretching from one end to the other. Do they happily fall to the temptation of the sweet goodness or hold off on it, lest their weight board a rocket ship? I can totally relate!

Wow! All that mayhem and strobing in the music hall above. If I'd had a Snickers while watching all this in person, it would have been "Gimme Ambulance!!".

Yuuki Hide -- Chikai no Ballad（誓いのバラード）

 

It was almost five years ago that I posted the article for the opening theme for Toei's take on "Spider-Man" from 1978 because at the time "Spider-Man: No Way Home" was on its way to theatres with a flash-bang trailer leading the way. I'll let you know right now, I only got to see the whole film finally last month, and much to my regret, I wish I had seen the movie at theatres but with COVID restrictions and my parents' health a concern, there was no way I could do so.

Earlier this morning, the trailer for the next chapter in Peter Parker's life was released. I saw the big ad for "Brand New Day", and I'm definitely looking forward to this one. And hopefully this time around, I'll be able to catch this one at the cineplex at the end of July. For Peter's sake, I'm also looking forward to a happier movie overall as the title hints.

Well, then, to follow the pattern of the article for "Kakero! Spider-Man"（駆けろ！スパイダーマン）, I will provide the ending theme for the 1978 Japanese show. The same people involved for that opening theme: singer Yuuki Hide（ヒデ夕樹）, composer Chumei Watanabe（渡辺宙明）and lyricist Saburo Yatsude（八手三郎）, are back for the ender "Chikai no Ballad" (Ballad of Vows). Not surprisingly, this one contrasts with the heroic opener by being more introspective and revealing of the costs of being a superhero: loss of loved ones and a lonely existence. Good heavens! It pretty much wraps up the whole story of "No Way Home" into a tightly-packed ball. Mind you, it's a ballad that almost reaches City Pop groove.

Stardust Revue -- Yume Densetsu（夢伝説）

 

I heard this on a recent episode of "Uta Con" (and nope, it wasn't on this week) and found out that this was a Stardust Revue（スターダストレビュー）song. And it was used for a Calpis commercial back in the day.

"Yume Densetsu" (Dream Legend) was the band's 5th single from May 1984 and it starts off with a synth-powered slow burn before the score emerges into the light to begin a fun and hopeful summer song. Written and composed by vocalist Kaname Nemoto（根本要）with band percussionist Toshikatsu Hayashi（林紀勝）helping out on the words as well, the verses remind me a bit of Olivia Newton-John's "Xanadu" and his lyrics have that star-crossed lovers theme in there. No matter how long or how far, they will find each other over and over again.

According to the liner notes of Stardust Revue's "Hot Menu" BEST compilation via the J-Wiki article for the song, Nemoto had joked back then that if "Yume Densetsu" hadn't become a hit, it would have been the end for the band. Well, it made it up to No. 40, so perhaps it wasn't a runaway hit, but the band's still here in 2026.

A very distinctly Japanese accolade was given to Stardust Revue and "Yume Densetsu" when the song was adopted in October 2013 as the departure melody at Gyoda Station on the Takasaki Line in the city of Gyoda, Saitama Prefecture, Nemoto's hometown. Incidentally, the band also acts as tourism ambassadors for the city. "Yume Densetsu" was first included in an album via their July 1984 BEST compilation "TO YOU ~ Yume Densetsu".

Akira Fuse/Ayaka Hirahara -- Danny Boy

 

It's frigid as all heck out there in Toronto but March 17th, aka St. Patrick's Day, wasn't going to send anyone away from the Irish pubs, and I'm assuming that the places are still jam-packed with folks enjoying the Irish holiday. I personally don't celebrate the holiday myself but I remember a few times back in my Tokyo days when I joined fellow teachers and students for a pint at the local Irish pubs there such as Dubliners.

I recall in past years that I tried to come up with kayo kyoku with an Irish theme on St. Patrick's Day, but came up wanting. I think in those cases, I searched and perhaps found some songs with "Green" in their titles.

Well, I realized that the 1913 folk song "Danny Boy" has been sung in Japan through what I've learned while doing the blog over the years and from performances on TV by the older kayo kyoku singers. Although I don't know when the above performance was made, Akira Fuse（布施明）has given his own rendition of the tear worthy ballad. And below, there is singer-songwriter Ayaka Hirahara（平原綾香）with her cover of "Danny Boy" which was on her 2011 album "My Classics 3" with her own Japanese lyrics.

I just had to include Bing Crosby's take from 1943. Anyways, I hope that all of you are enjoying yourselves out there tonight.

TM NETWORK -- BEYOND THE TIME ~Möbius no Sora wo Koete~ （メビウスの宇宙を越えて）

 

Hello, J-Canuck here. I've got another article via Fireminer. Enjoy!

In my previous post about TM NETWORK’s “Come On Everybody”, I briefly touched on their concept album “CAROL ~A DAY IN A GIRL'S LIFE 1991~”. It’s time for me to touch another song from that album, the incredible “BEYOND THE TIME ~Möbius no Sora wo Koete~” (BEYOND THE TIME ~Beyond the Möbius Universe~ BEYOND THE TIME ~メビウスの宇宙を越えて~).

Bandai approached Tetsuya Komuro (小室哲哉) in 1987 about writing the theme song for their upcoming anime film “Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack” (機動戦士ガンダム 逆襲のシャア). Yoshiyuki Tomino (富野 由悠季), the creator of “Mobile Suit Gundam” and the film’s director, sat down and talked to Komuro about the movie and his musical vision for it. It should be noted that Tomino already had some experience as a lyricist under the pseudonym Rin Iogi (井荻麟).

Any analysis of “BEYOND THE TIME” can’t be complete without touching on “Char's Counterattack” first. The film is the culmination of the saga starring the protagonist and antagonist of the original Gundam, Amuro Ray (アムロ レイ) and Char Aznable (シャア アズナブル). On the backdrop of a giant asteroid descending upon Earth and threatening a nuclear winter, the two men clash while reflecting upon the road that has brought them there, their failures, regrets, neuroses, hope and despair. And looming over all is the question of can humanity ever learn to overcome their flaws and march toward a more humane future, or are they destined to forever be trapped in a Möbius loop of personal failures and civilization-wide self-destruction.

It was written that Komuro came up with the melody for “BEYOND THE TIME” in just 20 minutes, having been inspired by Tomino’s vision of a naniwa-bushi (浪花節) on the cosmic stage. The string instruments in particular are meant to represent the voices of humans, and the way their sound interfaces with the synthesizer can be thought to symbolize the friction and the pull humanity feels when they interact with universalist ideas.

The lyricist for “BEYOND THE TIME” was singer-songwriter Mitsuko Komuro (小室みつ子) who also wrote the lyrics for several TM Network (including “Get Wild”) tracks under the penname Kari Saimon (西門 加里). She correctly identified that “Char’s Counterattack” was the crystallization of the entire Gundam franchise till that point. The lyric focuses on two themes: “Humanity repeats their sins” and “Beyond the claims of justice and freedom, men fought to protect those they love.” Just like the film itself, the lyrics are full of hope for humans to one day learn to connect with each other and be able to change the seemingly-inevitable encroaching ruin.

TM Network recorded “BEYOND THE TIME” while on the road for their Kiss Japan TM NETWORK Tour '87〜'88 (November 9, 1987 to February 26, 1988). They released the song as a single on March 5, 1988, 7 days before the film’s theatrical debut. Both the film and its theme song enjoyed a great reception.

“BEYOND THE TIME” since its release has been covered by many singers, and TM Network also re-recorded it several times, most recently as the song appeared as the outro theme for episode 11 of the latest Gundam series “Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX” (機動戦士Gundam GQuuuuuuX). The show was co-written by famous director Hideaki Anno (庵野 秀明) who actually worked as a mecha designer for “Char's Counterattack” (you can read more about his involvement in this excellent article.) So yes, things do go full cycle sometimes.

I’ve always maintained the position that “Char’s Counterattack” is a good movie if you’re casually familiar with the original Gundam plotline. But if you’ve bought into the Amuro vs. Char rivalry and connected with the saga on an emotional level, then the movie is a masterpiece. Yoshiyuki Tomino’s animated works are flawed, but they have a timeless quality thanks to his excellent psychoanalysis and hope in humanity’s ability to connect and forgive. I think that “BEYOND THE TIME” is also timeless for the same reasons. I welcome the fact that it will continue to haunt us for a long time and remind us that there is still hope ahead.

I want to end this article on a hopeful note, so I’ll bring up the story that an SD card containing the song was brought to the International Space Station (ISS) on December 21, 2021 as part of a promotion for Nikkei, inc.’s protein crystallization in space service Kirara. The SD card was returned to Earth on January 25, 2022 with a certificate that it stayed on the ISS.

Hachiro Kasuga -- Kurashiki no Hito (倉敷の女)

Kasuga performing at the Kurashiki no Hito promotional recital.
The band conductor (extreme right) is likely Hayashi.
From Mikasa, 14 April 1968 Issue

It goes without saying that a singer's voice is their main attraction... Well, most of the time I would think it is. It certainly is one of them for me. I tend to favour the smoother, resonant vocals of singers from the 1930s and immediate postwar era, and value the singer's ability to convey emotion without having to go over the top - I'm looking at you, do-enka singers. I suppose it's no surprise by now that the one who is the perfect intersection of everything I like in a singer's voice is Hachiro Kasuga (春日八郎). 

Hachi ordinarily delivered his songs according to the music sheets with little to no room for adlibbing, for this seemed to be a hardline expectation for artistes in the old kayo world (approx. late 1920s to early 1960s). Such an expectation began to fade by around the 60s or so as more and more amateur singers came on to the scene. By the time enka the genre sprouted (1964-65), conveying anguish/sadness/drama, as well as not sounding "perfect" nor singing according to the (music) books seemed to take priority - in enka, at least. Nevertheless, Hachi still mostly sang as he did when recording songs, though on the rare occasion he does surprise me. One of such times is in Kurashiki no Hito (Woman of Kurashiki). 

Part of Kasuga's late-to-take-off "Onna Series"* (女シリーズ), Kurashiki no Hito hit the shelves in March 1968, was written by Takashi Tsukasa (司太可志), and composed by Isao Hayashi (林伊佐緒). I got to know this song several years ago when I was still testing the waters with Hachi. I was on board with it fairly quickly with it being a romantic blues Mood Kayo with the saxophone blaring away and all. Topic-wise, its your standard enka and Mood Kayo fare, i.e. our song protagonist is reminiscing and pining for the titular woman from Kurashiki - a love that wasn't meant to be. However, at the time the Hachiro Kasuga whom I knew as generally sounding measured if not somewhat gloomy seemed to let loose and essentially cried out in anguish at the song's crescendos. So emotional is this cry that his voice was on the cusp of breaking. I was floored. I don't know why, but it sent my heart racing. "Kasuga could sound like that??" I thought. Admittedly, I still feel the same way now, despite it being at least 6 years from that very moment. I suppose there's something attractive in him straying from his usual, rather placid demeanour and expressing more primal-sounding emotion.

I don't think Hachi ever reprised the same vocal style in recordings since then, and I did wonder why this sudden anomaly with Kurashiki no Hito. This is pure speculation on my part, but this song emerged around the time when blues Mood Kayo singers like Shinichi Mori (森進一) and Mina Aoe (青江三奈) made it big. Both were known not just for their unique, husky vocals, but also heavily emotive cries or sighs of anguish - particularly Mori. Considering Hayashi sensei's melody was made in a similar vein to the younger singers' hits, I wonder if Hachi decided - or was instructed - to take on a style not unlike them. 

Moving on, Kurashiki no Hito is a go-tochi song that is set in Kurashiki, a quaint town in Okayama prefecture where the vestiges of the Edo era remain. It seemed like it was made with the Kurashiki town council's support with hopes that it'd boost tourism - one of the pluses that come with being featured in a go-tochi songs. To that end, the song was also quite heavily promoted in the town/the prefecture, enabling it to perform fairly okay in terms of sales. Unfortunately, it didn't really stand up to the test of time, and it wouldn't be wrong to say that it's mostly a deeply buried gem.

I got this at a a used book flea market in
Shinbashi for 200 yen 

I've not been to Kurashiki yet, but I have in my mind's eye only what photos, videos, TV shows, have shown me, and the romantic picture Tsukasa had so vividly depicted in Kurashiki no Hito: traditional houses with snow white walls and ash grey tiled roofs, waterways lined with willows hanging lazily over the water's surface, etc. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it was considered Japan's answer to Venice. I think it's high time I heed the call of this go-tochi song and head down there for one of my solo trips. I'm also a big fan of author Seishi Yokomizo's detective Kosuke Kindaichi series, where several instalments were set in Okayama. There's a little museum exhibition in a town around Kurashiki where Yokomizo had evacuated to during WWII and served as the setting to the series' first tale, so that'd definitely be on my must-visit list.

I would've loved to see Hachi singing Kurashiki no
Hito live. From Mikasa, 14 April 1968 Issue

Anyway, let's circle back to Kurashiki no Hito to end things off. Despite it being a relatively unknown Kasuga Bushi, it's sung fairly regularly at the Kasuga Enka Denshokai. I decided to give it a go for myself during my first visit of the year. Ordinarily, I'd be shaking from the nerves, or being too self-conscious with singing the songs "right," but I thought that if Hachi could let loose and put his all into conveying Kurashiki..., so could I. I think it was the only song that I was able to sing with no inhibition. And by golly, that felt so good! And to sing it with/for people who enjoy Kasuga bushi as much or even more than I do felt so good. 

*A series of songs with the word "onna"(女) but read as "hito"(ひと) in their titles. It was technically kickstarted by Kasuga with Nagasaki no Hito (長崎の女) in 1963. However, it became associated with Saburo Kitajima (北島三郎), who more consistently released songs of this theme since his Hakodate no Hito (函館の女). By the time Kasuga began to be more consistent with the "Onna series" in the late 1960s, the series' association with Kitajima essentially became almost set in stone.

Tinseltown-ish Tunes

 

By chance, did anyone check out the Oscars last night? To be honest, and I have most likely mentioned this in past articles, I had once been a regular watcher of the Academy Awards when I was a kid because of the glitz and the fact that it was Hollywood celebrating Hollywood. But living in Japan all those years gradually weaned me off due to the fact that the live presentation was happening while I was at work.

Then when I returned to Toronto for good in the early 2010s, I realized that I had lost interest in the glitz and the celebration of celebrity. Plus, my track record of seeing those Oscar movies is frankly abysmal. The last Oscar-nominated movie I caught was "Oppenheimer" back in 2024. I don't really consider myself a cinephile and yet, I still cherish some of the older stuff such as "Casablanca" and "Roman Holiday" (as for newer stuff, there is "Inception" and a few of the MCEU movies). And to be frank, when I occasionally catch a movie, the purpose is to get away from reality for a couple of hours and be entertained...not necessarily to be educated or moved.

OK, I'll just jump off my rapidly sinking soapbox and give you my latest Author's Picks. Over the years, I have discovered that from time to time, certain songs pop up which have at least a titular connection with Hollywood or movies, so here's a short but varied list.

(1977) Ikue Sakakibara -- Al Pacino Tasu Alain Delon Yori Anata (アル・パシーノ＋アラン・ドロン＜あなた)

(1978) Hiromi Go -- Hollywood Scandal （ハリウッド・スキャンダル）

(1979) Kenji Sawada -- Casablanca Dandy （カサブランカ・ダンディ）

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

(1985) Picasso -- Cinema （シ・ネ・マ）

Akiko Yano -- Ashita Koso, Anata（あしたこそ、あなた）

 

Happy Monday! I've always had a fascination for those songs that kinda slipped through the net, so to speak. What I'm referring to are tunes by a singer that never got put onto one of their studio albums from a single such as a forgotten B-side or even an A-side. And perhaps, they never even made it onto one of their early BEST collections.

Being a singer and songwriter, the Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）file on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" is pretty long by now, but I think I've managed to find one of those mystery songs. Her "Ashita Koso, Anata" (Tomorrow For Sure, You) was her 6th single from November 1981, and according to one site, it was used as a jingle for a Kadokawa Bookstore commercial. It did eventually get onto a Yano special compilation CD called "Ai ga Tarinai"（愛がたりない...Not Enough Love） which came out in January 1995 and supposedly consists of those ignored songs.

The other notable thing about this particular Yano song is that aside from the singer coming up with words and music, her husband at the time, Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）, and Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）were behind the arrangement (and you can hear him as background chorus). In fact, looking at the list of musicians involved, this was virtually a Tats-and-Yellow Magic Orchestra collaboration with Sakamoto on synthesizer, Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）on drums, Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）on bass and Tats also helping out on guitar while Yano was singing away. I wouldn't even say that "Ashita Koso, Anata" was a technopop tune at all. If anything, it sounds closer to being a Shibuya-kei tune (a decade before the genre really came into being) with the happy-happy beat and Tats' chorus. If there had been a music video, I would have imagined a 60s band playing on some old music-variety show. Plus, there is something about the opening of each verse which reminds me of the music from "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus". It's one of the rarest of the rare in many ways.

EPO -- Claxon（クラクション）

By Cjp 24 via Wikimedia Commons

 

As someone's who communicated in the Japanese language and enjoyed Japanese pop culture for so many decades, it's always been interesting how some of those gairaigo（外来語）have been adopted into regular usage within the nation where I used to live. For example, an air conditioner in Japan is known as the cooler, and the hood of the car is called the bonnet. Speaking of cars, the horn on one isn't called a horn in Japan; it's called the claxon (or klaxon). I've barely heard claxon used for anything in Canada although I think it's used more widely in the UK. In fact, my entry into the lexical usage of claxon was through Junichi Inagaki's（稲垣潤一）mellow ballad hit "Natsu no Claxon"（夏のクラクション）from 1983.

Well, this will be my second song discovery using the term claxon. And it's from another City Pop veteran who used the term for another ballad. "Claxon". The B-side to singer-songwriter EPO's breakthrough 1980 debut single, her cover of "Downtown", I actually did hear this through her debut album of the same name in March of that year.

Written and composed by the singer herself, "Claxon" seems to paint a bittersweet picture of two ships passing in the night via a gas station. EPO has always been great mixing the contemporary with the past in terms of musical stylings, and "Claxon" is no different. It feels like a nostalgic bobbysoxer ballad but there is also something there that says "Yep, it's the Japanese 80s alright!".