Ego-Wrappin' -- Riviera

By Olivier Cleynen via Wikimedia Commons

 

It's been a while since I've posted anything by the bohemian jazz outfit Ego-Wrappin'. Can't quite believe that a quarter-century has passed since I first heard their stomping "Psychoanalysis"（サイコアナラシス）led by the booming voice of Yoshie Nakano（中納良恵）.

To be frank, I'm not sure what Nakano and her songwriting/musician partner Masaki Mori（森雅樹）have been up to in the past several years. Their J-Wiki article seems to be several years behind the times. However, last month Ego-Wrappin' released a 12-inch single titled "Riviera" which is quite different from the jazz that I got to know them for. But then again, I have heard Nakano and the band try other genres such as ska for their collaboration with the Determinations. 

Ego-Wrappin's also provided some examples of avant-pop although I forget the name of any of those songs. However, "Riviera" may be one of those inhabiting this particular genre. Certainly, the music video adds to that feeling as we see the adventure of a sentient water faucet through a forest. Looking through Nakano's lyrics, I'm not quite sure what the message is aside from the observation that there is some travel going along the titular existential Riviera. The slow groovy rhythm underlying this river can be quite mesmerizing on a beatnik level. Snap them fingers!

Devo -- Whip It

 

There have been a few times in the past when a bunch of us have gone out to dinner. Certain couples were with us and one time, at one restaurant where some hit music was playing over the speakers, the male half of the happy duo stated that the next song to play will be their song. Well, much to everyone's hilarity, it turned out to be Depeche Mode's "Master and Servant". I'm sure that their relationship took a turn there, and once again, the safety word was indeed APPLES.

I never experienced that situation ever again and probably never will (things on that level of funny are truly one-of-a-kind events). Still, I think this week's entry on Reminiscings of Youth could be another song that no couple would want as their go-to song, but man, it's still fun. 

Several years ago, I posted Devo's "Jocko Homo" which was the first song by the band to get up onto the blog but actually, the first ever song that I'd ever heard by The New Wave Boys of Akron, Ohio was "Whip It" that was their August 1980 single. And as I explained on "Jocko Homo", I first came across the catchy and absolutely weird and kinky "Whip It" through a K-Tel compilation record commercial which showed a part of that (in)famous music video including a bunch of dude ranch tourists, a motherly type whipping up some cream, a couple of other ladies in various stages of undress (well, one only lost her shoes), and the band itself festooned in red flower pots and sleeveless turtlenecks. Man, those were wild and woolly days in music video production!

Not only was it the first time I got to know a little about sadomasochism (so, whips can be fun😈) but I also got informed on what New Wave was all about. The strange lyrics which could be taken as motivational encouragement against any and all challenges or a first-round exercise in S&M paired with the herky-jerky delivery of the vocals and those synths definitely made "Whip It" one of the most famous songs of the 1980s. In a way, the Devo song seared the image of New Wave bands as stoic and robotic performers at their keyboards.

"Whip It" just missed the Top 10 by that much on either side of the world's longest unmilitarized border with it coming in at No. 11 on Canada's RPM and No. 14 on America's Billboard. Of course, a lot of folks liked to do their covers of "Whip It", including the late great Catherine O'Hara as Brooke Shields (2:10 of the video below)..

Remember...when in doubt: WHIP IT GOOD!😁

Now, what was hitting the record store shelves of Japan when "Whip It" came out in August 1980? We have a few here.

Hiromi Iwasaki -- Ginga Densetsu（銀河伝説）

Mayumi Itsuwa -- Koibito yo （恋人よ）

Yoshimi Iwasaki -- Anata Iro no Manon （あなた色のマノン）

Naohirock & Suzukismooth - Keep Rock On

It took me a while to warm up to the idea of Japanese rap. I had seen bits of Samurai Champloo and was aware of artists like Nujabes. I’d also played games like Sonic Rush and Jet Set Radio, whose soundtracks were composed by Hideki Naganuma (長沼英樹). So I already knew there was some great hip-hop and hip-hop-inspired music coming out of Japan.

But actual Japanese rappers breaking it down on the mic like Eric B. & Rakim? Nah, I just couldn’t fathom it.

I don’t remember the first J-rap song I ever heard, but so far, the earliest example I’ve personally traced it back to is Motoharu Sano(佐野元春)’s 1984 single “Complication Shakedown.”

Listen, let’s get this out of the way: this song is corny as all get out. (Although he's got a nice fit on the cover)

In all fairness, it’s no cornier than Kurtis Blow’s “Basketball.” Plus, the beat is admittedly catchy, which is important. Still, I’d be hard-pressed to call Motoharu Sano a rapper. This feels more like the Japanese equivalent of Bruce Springsteen or Billy Joel suddenly deciding to turn their caps backwards.

I think it’s safe to say that J-rap didn’t really begin developing its own identity until the early-to-mid ’90s. Recently, I had the opportunity to check out the 1995 single “Keep Rock On” by Naohirock & SuzukiSmooth, and man were they cooking.

Not only does the beat sample one of my favorite smooth-jazz songs of all time, Ronnie Laws’ “Friends & Strangers,” but the actual rapping is pretty good too. Maybe it’s been a while, but I’m pretty sure most American rappers had stopped saying stuff like “It’s the place to be!” and “Microphone check, one-two-three!” sometime around the mid 80s.

Nevertheless, it’s still a really fun song to listen to. There’s something endearing about hearing the attitude, and conventions of old-school American hip-hop in another language.

I definitely wouldn’t mind cruising down Crenshaw with this blasting out of the speakers.

Mai Yamane -- Doyou no Yoru to Nichiyou no Asa（土曜の夜と日曜の朝）

 

It was about a couple of months ago that I posted Mai Yamane's（山根麻衣）"Kibun wa Fairness"（気分はフェアネス）, her August 1982 5th single and a most congenial pop/rock song that was used as a commercial jingle for a Shiseido brand. As I said in that article, the song seemed to be a transitional one between her early City Pop material and her later jangly blues-rock stuff.

Well, today, I have the B-side from that single. "Doyou no Yoru to Nichiyou no Asa" (Saturday Night and Sunday Morning) was written and composed by Yamane, and this time around, it tends toward a more AOR line (although I'd been leaning toward New Wave in the first few measures initially), but is no less congenial. Although the titular days of the week aren't mentioned in the lyrics, Yamane relates a tale of a woman apparently smitten through a weekend encounter with a man of her dreams via a romantic car ride. Now, whether things pan out to her benefit is unknown but for right now, she's more than happy to keep the swooning up. I do love the combination of Fender Rhodes and guitar here.

King Gnu -- Go Ghost

 

I barely remember watching the 1995 anime feature "Ghost in the Shell"; there was the iconic scene of Major Kusanagi flying off the roof and going into stealth mode and the scene where a row of techs had their fingers disjoint to show a whole bunch of metal rods typing at warp speed. But that was it for my memories. I guess the movie was so mesmerizing in how everything and everyone moved that it left me mind blind.

Then in 2017, there was the live-action version of "Ghost in the Shell" starring Scarlett Johansson which I also caught with some friends, but it frankly left me a little cold. I kinda thought it was like the "Black Widow" movie before the actual "Black Widow" movie of 2021, except that it had some special guest appearances by Beat Takeshi and Kaori Momoi.

So I gather that if I were a member of a fictional Iconic Anime Enthusiasts Association, there would be a demand that I shamefully hand back my card and lose my executive washroom privileges right now, because I have never been an avid fan of the "Ghost in the Shell" franchise. And to be honest, there are certain well-regarded Studio Ghibli movies that I never cottoned onto either. 

And this brings us to the newest addition to the franchise which is titled "The Ghost in the Shell"; gotta have that definite article for emphasis. The anime series began running from last month and apparently the animation style is pretty much along the original manga style that Masamune Shirow had gone with. I've only seen some excerpts and reaction videos. Episode 2 got quite the number of whoops, and I'm glad that this iteration shows a sense of humour.

I haven't written on the mixture rock band King Gnu in a few years, but here they are providing the opening theme for "The Ghost in the Shell". "Go Ghost", which was written and composed by vocalist Daiki Tsuneta（常田大希）, is a propulsive story of the life of the Major with blippity-bloppity percussion and a haunting digital tribal chorus to contrast with the futuristic city that is the setting for the show. At a length of merely 2:50, it's quite short and sweet. I've got a feeling that the Kohaku may call on the band to show up on December 31st once more.

Yukihide Takekawa -- Doki Doki Summer Girl（ドキ・ドキ・サマーガール）

When I was writing up the Author's Picks article for the works of lyricist Fumiko Okada（岡田富美子）a few years ago, I was able to find some more of her songs for other artists that I decided to save up for future entries. This is one of them.

Outside of the band Godiego（ゴダイゴ）, vocalist Yukihide Takekawa（タケカワユキヒデ）had his solo career which I've so far represented on KKP with his 1979 "Happiness"（ハピネス）. That song was used for a Suntory commercial. Well, "Doki Doki Summer Girl" (Hubba Hubba Summer Girl) was his 6th single from 1982 and it was also used for an ad for Kose Cosmetics back in the day. Written by Okada and composed by Takekawa with arranging help from his old bandmate Mickey Yoshino（ミッキー吉野）, it's the playful and twangy summery tune that has listeners thinking of beaches, beautiful girls in skimpy bikinis and billowing brews of beer. 

There was an English-language version of "Doki Doki Summer", also performed by Takekawa but with the lyrics written by Will Williams. Also backing Takekawa up was the band TALIZMAN which had a brief fun between 1979 and 1983.

(1:12)

Wait And See (Love Theme From Abunai Deka)

I was a kid raised on action movies, particularly of the cop variety. Rush Hour 2, Bad Boys, The Naked Gun, Beverly Hills Cop—all of these movies delivered great action and even better laughs. They really don’t make ’em like they used to.

So color me surprised when I discovered that Japan had its own answer to the buddy-cop formula in the form of Abunai Deka (あぶない刑事; “Dangerous Detectives”).

Between 1986 and 1987, viewers followed the adventures of Hiroshi Tachi—of COOLS Rockabilly Club fame—as Toshiki “Taka” Takayama, alongside Kyōhei Shibata as Yūji Oshita. The two play detectives working out of the fictional Minato Police Station in Naka-ku, Yokohama.

The show definitely feels like it took a few cues from Miami Vice: two hardcore detectives who don’t play by the rules, taking down serious criminals while looking impossibly cool doing it. There are plenty of explosions, car chases, playful banter, and angry police chiefs to go around. And considering the series was originally pitched as a Japanese take on Starsky & Hutch, that influence makes a lot of sense.

What really stood out to me, though, was the phenomenal soundtrack.

You can tell composer Takashi Shōji was a big fan of Blaxploitation soundtracks, because several tracks sound like they could have come straight out of Shaft. Funky basslines, horns, dramatic guitar—the whole soundtrack gives Yokohama this stylish, larger-than-life crime-drama atmosphere. Arguably the most iconic song from the show is the love theme, “Wait and See,” sung by Kiyomi Suzuki (鈴木聖美).

It’s a cheesy ballad that absolutely sounds like it was written for a television drama, but it still manages to be genuinely heartfelt. For some reason, Suzuki sings the entire song in English, which admittedly makes it sound a little hokier, although she does a pretty good job with it.

You’ll probably recognize Kiyomi Suzuki as the sister of Masayuki Suzuki, particularly from songs like “Lonely Chaplin.” That makes me curious why they never recorded a Japanese version of “Wait and See”—or, better yet, turned it into a duet between the two of them.

Funny enough, Suzuki did eventually perform the song as a duet with none other than Michael McDonald, which somehow feels both completely bizarre and appropriate.

Another fun connection for any gamers out there: the song’s lyricist, Linda Hennrick, also worked on music for the Mother/EarthBound series, including songs such as “Pollyanna (I Believe in You),” “Eight Melodies,” and “Bein’ Friends.” 

Masami Urabe -- Aishuuza（哀愁座）

 

It's been an interesting ride thus far with singer-songwriter Masami Urabe（浦部雅美 or うらべまさみ）, someone that I first discovered earlier this year. I first heard her 1976 debut single, the congenially country "Sukoshi Tōde wo Shitemimasen ka"（少し遠出をしてみませんか）and then there was her City Pop "Tomadoi"（とまどい）from 1982.

Yup, it's been observed that a number of singers made a leap from folk or country over to the more urban sounds of City Pop between the 1970s and 1980s. I think Urabe is just one of them. Now, I've come across her 5th single from 1981 which is "Aishuuza" that I can only speculate as meaning "Constellation of Sorrow" but perhaps one of you can confirm or deny this. In any case, this was written by Mariko Ogi（荻まりこ）, composed by Urabe herself and arranged by Tadashige Matsui（松井忠重）. I wouldn't say that this is a wholly City Pop song although there seems to be a sprinkling of it hovering over everything like stardust, but I'd say that this is an urbane kayo kyoku, something to be savored with a cocktail rather than a tumbler of Old Parr.

Various -- Fuji no Yama（ふじの山）

 

Well, this one crept on me fairly quickly. I guess it's because this week at least is part of the O-Bon Holiday season but I had completely forgotten that August 11th is Mountain Day in Japan, a national holiday.

Of course, folks visited their nearby mountains. My old English conversation circle's members are all mountain-hiking enthusiasts although I'm glad that none of them invited me to any of their journeys up the slopes. My heart would have exploded.😨

So, on this Mountain Day, I went searching for whether there was a song that commemorates the most famous mountain of them all in Japan. And sure enough, it didn't take long before I encountered "Fuji no Yama"（Mt. Fuji）which is also known as "Fuji-san"（富士山）.

Designated as a children's song sanctioned by the Ministry of Education, "Fuji no Yama" made its first appearance in a 1910 elementary school student book of songs. Although the composer remains unknown, the lyricist was Sazanami Iwaya（巖谷小波）who was also a children's book author and a scholar of German literature. The song of course proudly boasts of the magnificence of Japan's most famous peak.🗻 The translation below is from Google Translate.

Rising high above the clouds,

Looking down upon the surrounding peaks,

Hearing the thunder roll far below—

Mount Fuji is Japan's greatest mountain.

Towering high in the blue sky,

Clad in a robe of snow,

Trailing a hem of mist far into the distance—

Mount Fuji is Japan's greatest mountain.

In 2007, almost a century after the first appearance of the song, "Fuji no Yama" was accepted as one of the songs in Nihon no Uta Hyakusen（日本の歌百選...Collection of 100 Japanese Songs）. During the past century, it's been sung by various people and bands including school choruses. I did find this rather interesting take on "Fuji no Yama" by veteran vocal group Bonny Jacks（ボニージャックス）. Their soulful cover (I almost thought that they were going to be joined by a few Pips) comes from their 1997 album "Bonny Jacks no Nihon no Shouka"（ボニージャックスの日本の唱歌...The Songs of Japan by Bonny Jacks）.

Spitz -- Mishiranu Ito（見知らぬ糸）

 

I haven't really watched a J-Drama in many many years although I know of the usual types of drama that get onto the commercial networks such as TBS and Fuji-TV. There are the medical dramas, the ones dealing with cops and also the legal battles, and to be honest, they sound a lot like what's on American prime-time television.

Frequent commenter Brian Mitchell told me about this drama that he and his family are currently watching on TBS called "T-shirt ga Kawaku made"（Tシャツが乾くまで...Until the T-shirt Dries） which began its run a month ago. It sounds innocent enough but peel the layers back and one can discover that this is actually a romance mystery regarding two people seemingly losing their respective spouses in the same tragic accident but then finding out something shocking as a result. 

But before I go any further, this is after all a music blog and not a drama blog. Brian asked me to write about the theme song for "T-shirt ga Kawaku made", "Mishiranu Ito" (Unknown Thread), which was released a few days ago as Spitz's（スピッツ）48th single. Now, I've always enjoyed the vocals of Masamune Kusano（草野正宗）and his band has always been symbolic of one aspect of 1990s J-Pop...guitar rock via hits such as "Cherry" and "Namida ga Kirari"（涙がキラリ☆）, so it was great to know that Spitz is still there strumming away with that same comfortable sound from 30 years ago. By the way, Kusano took care of words and music.

capsule -- Portable Kuukou（ポータブル空港）

 

I just discovered this one after posting "Airport Kayo" back in June. But my impression is that this airport-titled song is far away from the others in terms of time and space.

"Portable Kuukou" (Portable Airport) is one of the songs for capsule's 3rd single "Portable Airport" from May 2004. It has been categorized as an electro song although I can still hear some vestiges of the duo's old Shibuya-kei sound before making that transition into more technopop and dance music. Just imagine Swinging London in the 60s...the 2060s, that is.

Not surprisingly, Yasutaka Nakata（中田ヤスタカ）was behind the music and I'm assuming that vocalist Toshiko Koshijima（こしじまとしこ）was providing the vocal stylings here. What I also found out is that the music video for "Portable Kuukou" was a Studio Kajino-produced (under Studio Ghibli) anime which was the first in a sci-fi trilogy. The very brief excerpt that I could find below has gotten me interested in seeing the whole thing. "Portable Kuukou" was also a part of capsule's 4th studio album "S.F. sound furniture" which was released in June 2004 to a No. 35 ranking.

Ryuichi Sakamoto -- Calling From Tokyo/Laser Man

 

Many things have probably been said about The Professor, aka Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）, since he dabbled in a lot of different genres. "Not boring" would be one such phrase.

Certainly this song of his titled "Calling From Tokyo" which leads his November 1989 album "Beauty"（ビューティー）has quite its fair share of story behind it. Some years ago, I discovered that he'd harboured a long fascination for various types of ethnic music and studied ethnomusicology in university. "Calling From Tokyo" might be one result of his studies and experimentation. According to the J-Wiki article on "Beauty", Sakamoto had at one point dubbed the song "Jazz" but Virgin Records which was the label for the album convinced him to change it (good call, Virgin). 

There's nothing really jazzy about "Calling From Tokyo" unless we're approaching something close to smooth jazz here. It is, though, a smoky mélange of musical spiciness with West African influences, a soupcon of Japanese traditional, Okinawan chants and a whole lot of World Music (which I don't have as a Label here) among other "ingredients". Perhaps after a few listens to it, people may want to head out to get some rich stew at a restaurant somewhere.

Sakamoto did apparently get his original title for his song as it was placed as "Jazz #1" on the "Black Rain" soundtrack. By the way, it was not only Sakamoto behind the lyrics (and music) but also guitarist Arto Lindsay and Roger Trilling. Some of the vocals were provided by the Brian Wilson and Youssou N'Dour.

A version of "Calling From Tokyo" without any major vocals but with a few techno flourishes was included under the title of "Laser Man" as a track on Sakamoto's July 1989 single "Undo #1"（アンドゥ＃1）. It was apparently used as the theme song for a movie called "The Laser Man".

Yoru ga Kuru (夜がくる）by Asei Kobayashi

   A lot of typical weeaboos fantasies about visiting Japan go something like, “I want to go to Shibuya,” or “I want to visit a maid café.”

Me? I'm a simple man.

I just want to sit down at a old izakaya and enjoy a glass of that good old Suntory Old Whisky.

Suntory it is certainly one of the country’s most famous and recognizable brands. Its commercials are especially iconic—and they happen to be some of my favorite advertisements of all time.

I still remember the first time I saw the classic 1969 commercial. 

A tall foreign traveler walks into what appears to be a traditional Japanese inn. Without needing to say a word, the hostess seems to understand exactly what he wants. Before long, the two are sharing glasses from a bottle of Suntory Old.

It’s a simple commercial, but it’s effortlessly cool and classy. More importantly, its music is unforgettable.

The commercial’s theme,  “Yoru ga Kuru/夜が来る” (The Night Comes.) , written by composer Asei Kobayashi (小林亜星), is a short but catchy combination of bluesy guitar and soulful jazz scatting. The piece was reportedly originally titled “Ningen Mina Kyōdai,” or “All Humans Are Brothers.” Which I think perfectly captures the atmosphere these commercials were trying to create. 

The original vocalist performing the memorable scat singing was reportedly Silas Mosley, an acquaintance of Kobayashi’s. Mosley was also a theology professor at Sophia University and a gospel singer, still looking for photos of the guy but his work can be found in anthology album called "The History of Jazz, The Birth of the Blues" by Jinichi Uekusa (植草甚一).

Over time, “Yoru ga Kuru” became an iconic piece of Japanese popular culture. Suntory has continued using the melody for decades, and it remains closely associated with the brand. There is also a version featuring actual lyrics, sung by Kobayashi himself. That rendition is quite good, but there is something especially grounded and inviting about the original, wordless jingle.

Maybe it’s the simplicity of it. The gentle guitar, the relaxed scatting, and the dimly lit atmosphere make it feel less like an advertisement and more like the beginning of a good evening.

Creating a genuinely memorable commercial jingle is difficult, but Suntory struck gold with this one. Even after all these years, the moment that melody begins, you immediately understand the mood: the day is over, the night has arrived, and it’s time to pour a drink.

Hopefully, one day, I’ll get to sit at a quiet bar in Japan, order a glass of Suntory Old, and hear some old man on guitar singing “Ba di dum dum dum Shoobie da dum” somewhere in the background.

Now that would be a dream come true.

Saori Hareyama -- Ichi-en Dama no Tabigarasu（一円玉の旅がらす）

By Monaneko via Wikimedia Commons

For the past several years, we Canadians have been getting along in our economy without the one-cent coin, aka the penny. Rounding up and down has been our way of circumventing the lack of that copper disc when paying in cash here in the Great White North. And yet...and I will apologize to Japanese currency fans in advance for what I'm about to write...the one-yen coin over there still exists despite the fact that it looks and feels more like a token to slip into a gacha-gacha machine.

And yet, the one-yen coin received its fame and appreciation in the sun when this song came out as the debut single of enka singer Saori Hareyama（晴山さおり）. Released in March 1990, "Ichi-en Dama no Tabigarasu" (The One-Yen Coin Vagabond) was presented so that the coin was depicted as the typical historical lone-wolf hero on the byways and highways of Japan. At around the same time, the consumption tax was first applied to the bills of the Japanese public so that having all of those one-yen coins became rather precious in trying to provide exact change.

Written by Toyohisa Araki（荒木とよひさ）and composed by Tetsuya Gen（弦哲也）, it was created as this rather robust if playful enka performed by the then-16-year-old Hareyama from Kanagawa Prefecture. I first saw and heard it played on a recent episode of "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）and just from how it sounded and what the song was about, I figured that it would have ended up on NHK's music vignette show "Minna no Uta"（みんなのうた）, and sure enough it was there.

"Ichi-en Dama no Tabigarasu" won a number of awards including Best New Artist for Hareyama who was especially lauded for her kobushi, the vibrato technique that is vital to any enka singer. Hareyama's career in singing had started when she won an award in NHK's amateur singing program "Nodo Jiman"（のど自慢）in 1988. Following that debut, however, her career failed to stay on fire and by 1992, she went into temporary retirement. She decided to give it another go for another decade beginning in 1995, but this time, she went along more of a pop vein although eventually nothing really took off for her.

STUTS & Taeko Onuki - Ohayō (おはよう)

Its always refreshing to know that older artist you grew up listening to still have "the sauce", and they can still turn out great music years later. It's kind of like seeing an old friend years later and knowing that he's doing great in life. That's kinda' how I felt after hearing Taeko Ohnuki's voice in the new song "Ohayo"( (おはよう) / Good Moring).

Produced and arranged by the artist STUTS, Ohayo feels like the perfect marriage between Ohnuki's 70s sophisticated jazz sound and the modern indie/ lo-fi vibe that us chronically online folks have grown accustomed to. We even get a relaxing music video accompanying the song, which I gotta say, this is probably the best music video I've seen for a City Pop song, ever. 

We follow a day in the life of nameless woman as she runs her motorcycle garage, located somewhere what looks to be Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). We even gets some lovely shots of Enoshima Island in the background as she rides her own bike down the highway as she greets all her neighbors throughout the peaceful coastal town. We even gets some cameos from SPUTS and Ohnuki scattered throughout the video. 

I've never heard of STUTS before this song, but after exploring some of his other work, he seems to be a really good producer. The Nagoya born musician really excels at creating a nostalgic sound clearly influenced by 90s hip hop, House, and R&B. I think any Nujabes fans will gravitate forwards this guy real well. 

If you want to get a good sense of his style, I'd recommended checking out his Tiny Desk concert.

 Overall I think Ohayo is the perfect marriage of old & new and show cases both artists strengths very well. I think anyone who misses the easy listening quality of Taeko Ohnuki's music and those who are on the search fore more beats to study to will both be satisfied. 

Momoe Yamaguchi -- Harukaze no Itazura（春風のいたずら）

Amazon.jp

This Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）song was recommended to me by a commenter a few days ago and it turns out to be her fourth single that I hadn't known about. "Harukaze no Itazura" (Spring Wind Mischief) which was released in March 1974 arrived between a couple of arguably more well-known hits by the famed 70s aidoru and actress, "Kinjirareta Asobi"（禁じられた遊び）from November 1973 and "Hito Natsu no Keiken"（ひと夏経験）from November 1974.

As with those two songs, "Harukaze no Itazura" was written by Kazuya Senke（千家和也）and composed by Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）. The arrangement by Shunichi Makaino（馬飼野俊一）was reflective of what Momoe's early material sounded like: light and bouncy kayo paired with her younger and higher-pitched vocals. It's all about a young girl who's gotten so distraught after a fight with the boyfriend that she's gotten lost somewhere in the big cruel city while a cold spring wind is blowing. If Momoe's late-career persona of jaded mankiller ever saw this lass, she would have either taken her under her wing or perhaps given her a sneer and internally told her to dry up.

"Harukaze no Itazura" reached No. 11 on Oricon and ended up as the 85th-ranked single for 1974. The song was also included on her 3rd studio album "Juu-go Sai no Tehma ~ Momoe no Kisetsu"（15歳のテーマ 百恵の季節...Theme of 15 Years Old ~ Momoe's Season） which came out in April 1974 and reached No. 7 on the album charts.

Wink -- Manatsu no Tremolo（真夏のトレモロ）

From YouTube

I'd been noticing it for a while but the Labels on the right had been showing 1,990 articles under the Aidoru tag. Well then, I decided (having that little bit of whimsy inside me) that the next article regarding an aidoru wouldn't only be the 1991st article but also an article about an aidoru with a song from the year 1991.

Well, when I think of aidoru from 1991, my first thought will always concoct the duo Wink. And sure enough, I found their 11th single from June of that year, "Manatsu no Tremolo" (Midsummer Tremolo). It's a song that I hadn't heard in so long and yet when I made my reacquaintance with it yesterday, the memories came back and I gave myself a Gibbs slap for forgetting about it in the first place.

First off, I'm not a musicologist or a musician, so I had to find out what a tremolo is. According to Wikipedia:

Tremolo: "trembling" or "quivering". In music, it describes a wavering effect created either by repeating a single note very quickly, rapidly alternating between two different notes, or quickly varying the volume of a sound.

Now, as to how a tremolo fits into a Wink single, I'm not sure. Perhaps Neko Oikawa's（及川眠子）lyrics refer to a young lady quivering herself over some sort of love affair. Takashi Kudo's（工藤崇）melody with Satoshi Kadokura's（門倉聡）arrangement is right along the Wink formula of synth-heavy Eurobeat (although I could use a confirmation or denial on whether "Manatsu no Tremolo" would be considered Eurobeat), and again I'm not sure if any tremolo effect had been employed in the music. 

The music video above was also one of a number of such Wink videos that employed a ton of computer graphics. The effects company staffers probably didn't have to worry about their kids' tuition for college during the Wink heyday. In any case, "Manatsu no Tremolo" hit No. 2 on Oricon, going Gold. By the end of 1991, the song was the 63rd-ranked single of the year. It was also placed as a track on Wink's 6th album "Queen of Love" which was released in July that same year.

Masahiro Kuwana -- Limelight（ライム・ライト）

From Rakuten

Just by coincidence, I noticed that yesterday would have been singer-songwriter Masahiro Kuwana's（桑名正博）73rd birthday. Unfortunately though, the native of Osaka had passed away at the age of 59 in 2012 from heart failure.

I came across this track from his 5th album titled "Kuwana No. 5" from June 1979. "Limelight" is a cool and strutting number that has been classified as blues-rock and I can also throw in City Pop and New Music into the mix. With lyrics by Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）, "Limelight" was composed by Kuwana while its arrangement was handled by the singer and Canadian-American composer and arranger David Campbell. Noting how TOTO-like the song felt, I tried to search whether Campbell had anything to do with the legendary American band. I couldn't find anything definitive but the man has worked with artists on both sides of the Pacific including X Japan, Chika Ueda（上田知華）, Jackson Browne and Carole King.

Anri -- Sentimental Express

 

When it comes to Anri's（杏里）albums, I've devoted articles to them such as her 1981 "Kanashimi no Kujaku" （哀しみの孔雀）and her 1988 "Boogie Woogie Mainland". And then there are times when I cover individual tracks from an album through individual articles over many years. I think her "Mystique" from June 1986 is one such example and I'm going with the most updated version with the bonus tracks from 2011. Thus far, I've done "Innocent Time", "Morning Squall/Evening Rain"（モーニング スコール）and "Honeymoon Shuttle"（蜜月船）. 

From what I've read of "Mystique" on J-Wiki (which peaked at No. 6 on Oricon), it seems as if Anri had wanted to once more have a clean slate with a new album with help from new songwriters and new sounds, without any assistance from Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）who had been producing and writing for her for several years prior. In a way, it reminds me of the aforementioned "Kanashimi no Kujaku" which was also quite a different project for Anri which involved her trying out different things there as well.

I have here her second track from "Mystique", "Sentimental Express". And although this is not a Kadomatsu-penned number per se, it is still City Pop with that crystalline synth, boppy bass, a good bouncy rhythm and a nice battery of horns. What's interesting is that "Sentimental Express" may have been the first collaboration among composer Anri, lyricist Yumi Yoshimoto（吉本由美）and arranger Yasuharu Ogura（小倉泰治）. Getting into Japan in 1989, it became a tradition for me to buy up new Anri albums at the CD shops. Starting with "Boogie Woogie Mainland", I saw that songwriting triangle of Anri, Yoshimoto and Ogura becoming the main engine behind the next few albums of hers leading from the late 80s into the early 90s as the singer adopted more American R&B dance pop. If "Sentimental Express" had been an audition of sorts for Yoshimoto and Ogura, then they passed swimmingly.

Crest Four Singers -- Elise

 

I still don't know a lot about the vocal group Crest Four Singers aside from the fact that they had started out in the 1970s with Tsunehiro/Norihiro Uchida（内田典宏）as a folk/Mood Kayo group before female vocalist Kazumi Kaai（かあいかずみ）joined. Then, the group went more into the jazz and urban contemporary.

At this point, Crest Four Singers released two albums with their debut being the 1978 "The Crest Four Singers" (the definite article, you might say? Sorry, that was a "Doctor Who" joke), and I've yet to hear the entire album (as provided above) but it seems as if the group was fully in thrall to their jazzier side by this point. At 4:15 of the video is the second track, "Elise", a rum punch of a song with influences that seemingly fly in from Santana, Henry Mancini and disco. Kaai shapes her vocals like a seen-it-all and done-it-all heiress in the lap of luxury while Uchida and the rest of the Singers provide some French in some funky harmony. Listening to the coolness of "Elise", I just kinda wonder why I never heard about Crest Four Singers at the same frequency of fellow vocal acts Hi-Fi Set and Circus.

Michiru Kojima -- Haruka naru Rakuen（遥かなる楽園）

 

For some reason, YouTube's "kojima michiru -- Topic" placed this song and album as 1996 productions when they actually come from the year (September) 1986. But to be honest, listening to the cool and crystalline "Haruka naru Rakuen" (Distant Paradise), I probably would have believed the 1996 dating. There's just something about the certain synths or other keyboards in the song that also has me thinking the 1990s.

But let's not stray from my observation that this is a pretty good tune by Michiru Kojima（児島未散）. Written by Chiroru Yaho（谷穂ちろる）and composed by Masaki Matsubara（松原正樹）with Ichizo Seo（瀬尾一三）as arranger, I was hovering between City Pop and regular pop for at least half the song until certain urbane chords punched their way through and that saxophone at the end finally convinced me that we had another City Pop tune. I guess on the pop side of things, we can consider "Haruka naru Rakuen" a pop tune of sophistication. Incidentally, this song belongs to the album "Michille".

Ken Shima -- Misty

 

Yup, I still have the latest Seizo Watase（わたせせいぞう）calendar hanging up in my room. If I can't have the good life, well, at least, I can watch it vicariously.

According to YouTuber Marty McFlies v2, there was a manga by Watase known as "Hurricane" which lasted all of one volume, and jazz pianist/arranger Ken Shima（島健）created an image album of music based on it. Released in 1989, this album, also known as "Hurricane", looks awfully classy on its cover...almost like an old movie poster of some thriller movie starring Bogie and Bacall. Shima is no stranger to Watase projects since he had also been helping out on the anime form of the illustrator's "Heart Cocktail" through songs such as "Cool Lunch Time"（クールランチタイム）.

The first track on "Hurricane" is a cover of the 1954 jazz standard "Misty" by jazz pianist Erroll Garner. Shima's take on it is very refined and romantic...somewhat Mancini-esque in arrangement. I start remembering the more tender moments in the detective dramedies "Moonlighting" and "Remington Steele" when I hear this one. Very expensive dinners under moonlight also come to mind. 

Cunimondo Takiguchi's Personal Selection for His Top 10 City Pop Albums of the 1980s ~ Part 2

 

Last week, I started posting a 2-parter translation of an article that I'd found in the April 2018 issue of "Record Collectors" titled "Cunimondo Takiguchi ga Erabu Shiteki Hachi-juu Nendai City Pop Best 10"（クニモンド瀧口が選ぶ私的80年代シティポップベスト10）. Part 1 contains the Ryusenkei（流線形）leader's first five albums for his Top 10 City Pop list and I'll be wrapping up here with Nos. 6-10. Again, although he doesn't go into great detail about his choices, I will still leave what he said about each one. One more point is that except for No. 6, I was able to bring in whole albums for the other entries. (Part 1 of the article is here.)

6. Baker's Shop with Haruko (Kuwana) -- Hot Line (1980)

I got to know Baker's Shop when they performed as Ruriko Ohgami's（大上留利子）backup band on "Yoru no Hit Studio"（夜のヒットスタジオ）. I thought that their playing was just so cool and reminiscent of a bunch of foreign studio musicians. It was through my discovery of Haruko's "Akogare no Sundown"（あこがれのSundown）in the 90s that I found out about this album. Their wonderful performance was able to bring back some distant memories to me.

7. Harumi Ohzora -- VIVA (1983)

The tropical impressions I got from the savannah band kayo of "VIVA" led to some exciting metropolitan vibes even within all of that nostalgia. 

8. JADOES -- Free Drink (1987)

I bought "Free Drink" because Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）was the producer.

9. Toshiki Kadomatsu -- Gold Digger ~ with true love ~ (1985)

As for "Gold Digger", my buddies and I sang "Tokyo Tower" while driving through Roppongi back in our high school days. We really got that urban vibe.

10. Kyosuke Kusunoki -- Just Tonight (1985)

The AOR and soul here felt just right and I couldn't get enough of its urbaneness. Hiroshi Narumi's（鳴海博）guitar and arrangement were the best.

Timelesz -- Kakumei no Dancin' Night（革命のDancin' night）

 

Admittedly, I haven't had the sharpest eyes looking out for the STARTO (formerly Johnny & Associates) boy groups over the past few years, so I was a little surprised when a commenter informed me about this group called timelesz. I didn't know who they were so I looked them up on J-Wiki and Wikipedia and found out that they used to be known as Sexy Zone. "Kayo Kyoku Plus" has a couple of Sexy Zone's songs so with the new name change (which came into effect as of April 2024), I've made some adjustments to their Label on KKP as you can see at the bottom of the article. Their new name was formed from one of their previous incarnation's final songs before the 2024 change, "Timeless" and a fusion of the initials from Sexy Zone added onto the end of their new name. With the name change also came a fairly large change in the lineup which is currently numbered at eight members.

Moving on, the commenter also recommended one of their songs under the new regime, as it were. From their June 2025 album, "FAM", I give you the bouncy "Kakumei no Dancin' Night" (Revolutionary Dancin' Night). For me, it's been SOP that whenever I see any title containing the phrase "dancing night", I check it out for some of that juicy urban contemporary nature I've enjoyed in City Pop, R&B and the like. The commenter told me that there is some of that Neo-City Pop feeling in "Kakumei no Dancin' Night" and that's all probably due to the composer Umi Kinami（きなみうみ）who has had a love for AOR and Black contemporary music. There is also a quartet of lyricists on this one: Kinami, Yui Kimura（木村友威）, EARSY and Shori Sato（佐藤勝利）. 

As for "FAM", it went to No. 1 on Oricon and it also went Double Platinum.

Reiko Ohshida -- Dousei Jidai（同棲時代）

 

A couple of years ago, I posted "Onna no Gakko"（女の学校）, a 1970 kayo kyoku and debut single by actress and singer Reiko Ohshida（大信田礼子）who had been in the popular action series  "Playgirl"（プレイガール）. "Onna no Gakko" was a slithery and sexy song of the night that also probably summed up Ohshida's character in the TV series.

Ohshida released seven singles up to the middle of 1973 with her penultimate one being "Dousei Jidai" (The Time of Living in Sin) which came out in February that same year. Composed by Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）and arranged by Hiroshi Takada（高田弘）, the melody sounds a whole lot more peaceful and innocent but the lyrics by Kazuo Kamimura（上村一夫）are quite the downer as a couple discovers that they can't live with each other and yet they can't live without each other. In fact, at one point, the woman had even considered killing her paramour and then killing herself. Talk about words and music going into opposite directions!

Interesting piece of trivia is that Ohshida actually ended up getting married to composer Tokura the following year, although she had apparently not gotten along with the man during the production of "Dousei Jidai". The marriage didn't last too long, however, since they divorced by 1978. As well, Ohshida had been classmates with Kenji Sawada（沢田研二）from elementary to high school in their native Kyoto.

Linda Ronstadt -- Just One Look

 

Not only did I hear "Just One Look" on the radio but I also heard plenty of it as a commercial jingle for cars. I just forgot it was for the Mazda. By the way, the actor speaking in the ad ended up becoming a doctor at "General Hospital". In any case, "Just One Look" renditions by different singers and bands were used in other commercials; that title was just perfect for selling.

But the first time was on radio. Didn't know at the time that this wasn't even an original by Linda Ronstadt but a cover version done by her, but it has been the one that I will always remember. Released as a January 1979 single, it's a tune that starts off country congenially but then becomes progressively buzzier with the rock edge. I also didn't realize that the main chorus is only heard once and at the end of this fairly short song at just a little over three minutes. Ronstadt's cover did modestly well on the Canadian and American charts by  posting somewhere in the 40s but in the former's Adult Contemporary chart, "Just One Look" placed in at No. 4 while on the latter's East Listening chart, it had a No. 5 ranking.

The original "Just One Look" was recorded by singer-songwriter Doris Troy for release in May 1963 with Troy and Gregory Carroll creating the song. It's an even shorter tune with the main chorus basically acting as a fadeout coda. 

We have here the Top 3 singles of Oricon for January 22nd 1979, a day before Ronstadt's cover was released.

1. Pink Lady -- Chameleon Army (カメレオン・アーミー）

2. Alice -- Champion （チャンピオン）

3. Godiego -- Gandhara （ガンダーラ）

Blogger Announcement: False Positives for "Malware and Similar Malicious Content policy"

 

Hello, folks. J-Canuck here and usually when I put up the apple pie photo, it means that I have an APB on an unknown song that we are searching information on. But this is not that sort of article but I needed to have something up, so I chose the apple pie.

Anyways, I wanted to inform readers and fellow bloggers on the Blogger platform that I received a message from KKP contributor Oliver Ebisuno92. Apparently for the past couple of days, there has been a rash of blogs getting flagged or even locked out due to Blogger automated systems going on a misguided search-and-freeze operation. From what I've read of some of the comments, it looks like any blogger on Blogger who has recently made any changes to the basic template may get smacked unfairly, although actual postings won't trigger anything. You can take a look at the actual announcement here.

"Summer" Songs

By Muke Tever from Wikimedia Commons

A little over a year ago, I put up "The First Day of Summer!", an Author's Picks consisting of all of those summery tunes with the explanation point being that all of the song titles contained the word "summer". Well, I figured that I would go for another similar posting but I've relaxed the rules slightly by also allowing the Japanese term for summer, "natsu". So, without further ado then, get into that hammock and pull up a citrus-y cocktail.

(1979) The Milky Way -- Kagirinaki Natsu（限りなきの夏）

(1982) Junko Yagami -- Summer In Summer ~ Omoide wa Suhada ni Yaite（サマー イン サマー 〜想い出は素肌に焼いて〜）

(1983) Yoshinori Monta with Junko Ohashi -- Natsu Onna Sonia（夏女ソニア）

(1984) Yukiko Okada -- Sayonara Natsu Yasumi （さよなら・夏休み）

(1987) Kanako Wada -- Natsu no Mirage （夏のミラージュ）

(1987) TUBE -- Summer Dream

Masashi Sada -- Kamisama no Iu Toori（神さまの言うとおり）

 

Welcome to Hump Day! And yeah, it feels even more like a Hump Day than usual. For one thing, I've been noticing for the past three days that our household has suffered micro-power outages of less than a second at around the same time in the morning. Now as I said, they are very short in duration so the power is back on lickety-split but it's enough to require me to wait five minutes for the Internet to return and I have to reset all of the clocks. Very annoying. I've sent our electric power company a letter of inquiry and complaint for which I've received a reply stating that it may take up to five days for a proper answer.

In any case, I've learned that people having a bad day tend to be more productive at work, presumably because they want to focus on anything other than the source of the bad day. Well, I'm focusing on this one here. And it has to do with a couple of observations regarding recent Japanese society. The first one is that Japan may have one of the larger populations of centenarians in the world and the other is that when the patriarch of the family retires from decades of work, he may tend to just lounge around the house with nothing to do all day which can aggravate the wife and perhaps even the children to no end. 

That seems to be the premise of the Japanese comedy movie franchise "Oshûkatsu Jukushun! Jinsei, Hyaku-nen Jidai no Sugoshi Kata"（お終活 熟春!人生、百年時代の過ごし方...The Final Years: The Golden Years of Maturity—How to Spend Life in the Era of the 100-Year Lifespan） that started in 2021. A third movie was released at the end of May this year. As to why I'm talking about this, well....last night, singer-songwriter and tarento Masashi Sada（さだまさし）appeared on "Uta Con"（うたコン）to sing this old-time jazzy number called "Kamisama no Iu Toori" (As God Says). I've heard Sada sing folk and City Pop but this is the first time that I've heard him sing anything jazz and this is where I found out that "Kamisama no Iu Toori" was the theme song for the third movie. Written and composed by Sada with Toshiyuki Watanabe（渡辺俊幸）handling the arrangement and the conducting of the orchestra, it's a sweet nostalgic tune that had Sada doing a bit of Vaudevillian soft-shoe on the stage and maybe the movie characters dancing cheek-to-cheek on the floor.

Nash Music Library -- BATTLE X

 

I really couldn't find an image that I already had on file that would match the tone of this song and it was quite the adventure to even find something appropriate on Wikimedia Commons. Finally, though, I could get this one by Spinnmaster for his Mutasect Core Ventus.

Considering my previous article based on the movie that I'd seen earlier today: "Spider-Man: Brand New Day", I figured that it was time to check out the good folks at Nash Music Library if they had something with a battle theme...considering there are quite a few of those in the Marvel flick. 

Well, it didn't take long to track one down. And I have to admit that even though NML has covered a lot of genres in its huge storehouse of music...everything from jazz to disco, this is the first time I've come across "BATTLE X" with its arrangement that reminded me of many a magical girl anime with battle scenes. Specifically, I was thinking of the "Pretty Cure" franchise with their music directors' love of injecting some thrilling rock shreds into their battle music. Not sure whether Michael Giacchino would do so, though. In any case, this piece comes from their 2003 album "Dead Heat".