Japanese Pop Music x Bon Odori（盆踊り）

 

Being summer, it's festival season in Japan and I know that it's in full swing whenever I hear about or see Tokyo's Sumida River Fireworks Festival on the final Saturday of July. I've seen it on television from the air-conditioned comfort of my Ichikawa apartment and around thirty years ago, I actually saw it with my own eyes from the apartment of a student who generously invited teachers and fellow classmates over for a fireworks party. We were very fortunate in that the apartment was right by the Sumida River in Asakusa where I used to work, so the fireworks literally exploded right over our heads. Getting back home, though, was quite the adventure in time and physics.

Festivals in Japan also mean bon odori...the great communal dance around the raised stage all draped in red and white like the colours of the Japanese flag. Nothing says the dog days of summer than doing those rhythmic steps while sporting a colourful yukata and geta while a min'yo is being sung and performed on stage.

However, in the last several years, there has been some relaxation of the rules in terms of the music, so instead of the traditional stuff, examples of kayo kyoku and J-Pop have been used to get the crowds all roused up and dancing. Thanks to an NHK report yesterday, I was rather inspired to put up this list that I got from a far bigger list on Line Music. Yes, you can dance to these in the Bon Odori style!

(1984) Ann Lewis -- Roppongi Shinju （六本木心中）

(1985) Yoko Oginome -- Dancing Hero （ダンシング・ヒーロー）

(1993) Pizzicato Five -- Tokyo wa Yoru no Shichi-ji (東京は夜の七時）

(2001) B'z -- Ultra Soul

(2013) AKB48 -- Koisuru Fortune Cookie (恋するフォーチュンクッキー)

P.S. They could even make a Bon Dance out of this classic!

"Good" Songs

Wikimedia Commons

No particularly good reason to do so but I just wanted to post up another Author's Picks with the theme today being "good" songs. That is to say, songs with "good" in the title and they are good songs, to boot. Plus, it is a Sunday so a lot of whimsy to share.

(1980) Plastics -- Good

(1988) Keiko Kimura -- Good Morning

(1995) Kahimi Karie -- Good Morning World

(2001) Kirinji -- Good Day Good Bye（グッデイ・グッバイ）

(2025) Mrs. GREEN APPLE -- Good Day

Kirinji -- Good Day Good Bye（グッデイ・グッバイ）

 

We've got some decent weather over the past couple of days and hopefully that means we can actually start dressing for spring. Drivers can finally replace the winter tires.

And on a nice day like today, especially on Urban Contemporary Friday on KKP, we should bring back the Horigome brothers of Kirinji（キリンジ）. This time, I have their 6th single from April 2001, "Good Day Good Bye". To quote the person who came up with the article for the song on J-Wiki: This upbeat song features a lively brass arrangement and a distinctive urban, poppy sound. And indeed, when I listen to it, I can get shades of City Pop and Shibuya-kei at the same time. Lyrically, the song seems to be about life in an idealized metropolis, one with lots of flowers and humour, efficient subways and friendly people that the protagonist would love to strike up a chat with (although he's too busy handing out flyers, probably near the station). Not surprisingly, Tomita Lab（富田ラボ）was the one producing the source album, "3", which came out in November 2000.

DA PUMP -- Corazon

 

Hello everyone. Today's articles will be started off by KKP contributor Fireminer with one of his favourite choices.

The popularity of Latino music in American pop ebbs and flows, but it never ceases to exist, only biding its time to wait for another boom. With that said, the Latin explosion of the late 90s was a particularly ebullient occasion. The last years of the first millennium were all about crossovers i.e. Daft Punks, The Wallflowers and Shania Twain. Latin music too found success on the main chart with Ricky Martin’s La Copa De La Vida and Jennifer Lopez’s If You Had My Love being two standouts. Moreover the impact of the Latin explosion continued to be felt long after those songs fell off the chart. They were one of the reasons why so many early 00s hip-hop and dance hits had some kind of world music beat.

Now, I’m not sure if the same thing happened in Japan, but listening to DA PUMP’s “CORAZON” sure gives me the impression. CORAZON was DA PUMP’s 14th single released on April 25th 2001. Front man ISSA (Hentona Issa, 辺土名 一茶) wrote the song based on one of his poems, while his bandmate KEN (Okumoto Ken, 奥本 健) did the rap part. CORAZON was a hit, and DA PUMP even got to perform it at the 52nd Kohaku Utagassen (第52回NHK紅白歌合戦). The song would later be packaged in DA PUMP’s 4th album “the NEXT EXIT” (ザ・ネクスト・イグジット) alongside their other hit “if...”.

This period was when DA PUMP really got into their stride, and CORAZON was no exception. It may not have the electricity of some of the most memorable Latino hits of the time, but it gets the sensuality down. It’s hard to put it into words, but if I have to, it’s something a bit both seedy and pitiable (in an endearing way). “Corazon” means “Heart” in Spanish. It’s an apt name considering how much heartbreak and heartbreak there is in the lyrics.

"Day" Songs

 

Being the usual lazy Hump Day, I'm going with a sequel to yesterday's "Night Songs" and presenting some "Day Songs".

(1981) Takao Kisugi -- Goodbye Day

(1981) Off Course -- Christmas Day

(1982) Motoharu Sano -- Someday

(1988) Hi-Fi Set -- Too hot day

(2001) Misia -- Sunny Day

Ken Hirai – Kiss of Life

 

Hello, J-Canuck here. We have commenter and occasional contributor Fireminer with an article for KKP. Following the video, he'll take over.

Ken Hirai has been awfully quiet for the last few years, with his last album having come out in 2021. It however highlights how long the heartthrob singer has been on the scene. 2025 is in fact the 30th anniversary of his career, and I want to use this occasion to look back at an older entry in his body of work.

Kiss of Life (キス オブ ライフ) was Ken Hirai’s 13th single released on 16th May 2001. It was the fourth and final single of his fourth album Gaining Through Losing. Kiss of Life successfully reached the 2nd place on the weekly Oricon chart and charted for 29 weeks. It was also made the theme song of the drama Love revolution (ラブ・レボリューション).

On first hearing, Kiss of Life is a relatively simple and catchy song. The hook “Every day, every night, wanna kiss, want your lips.” is a bit weak but works though. However, Kiss of Life is also painfully early-2000s. That period when the fusion of R&B and hip-hop has completed its takeover of pop. I can swear that I’ve heard the same beat in a Timbaland song, though for the life of me I can’t remember it. And the music video is very 2000s too. It shows how versatile an empty white room as a set is. 

I won’t use the word “elevator music” to describe Kiss of Life. 2000s R&B was all about the texture and mood anyway, and Kiss of Life has a pleasant vibe to it. I think it and the white room set go well together. They are blank canvases perfect for you to project your emotion at the moment.

J-Canuck's Six Favourite Ringo Shiina Songs（椎名林檎）

Wikimedia Commons
via 高野水理 

Over the past number of years, singer-songwriter and musician Ringo Shiina has broken down some walls that I had once constructed around her. In the approximate quarter-century that I've known about her, I had assumed the following things: 1) she was the scariest punk-pop-rock singer that I have ever seen or heard (that psycho stare and the growling r's), 2) she would never show up on the Kohaku Utagassen and 3) she would never agree to a long-form interview on any show.

Let's start with 3). A few weeks ago, Shiina actually appeared on NHK's "Asaichi"（あさイチ）for over an hour to banter with the hosts about her career. That got a ton of viewers putting eyeballs to screen. She even had a belly laugh on camera about one of her friend's remarks. As for 2), she has shown up on the New Year's Eve special several times either as herself or as the vocalist for her band Tokyo Jihen（東京事変）. And for 1), Shiina has more often than not appeared in a kimono including that "Asaichi" interview and she couldn't have been more down-to-earth and polite and friendly. She looked like the graceful owner of a particularly expensive ryokan somewhere in the countryside.

After that special experience on "Asaichi", I figured that I just had to post up six of my favourite Shiina songs. Not surprisingly, some of them are her early jangly hits and the rest are her jazzier/orchestral fare.

(1998) Kabukicho no Jou（歌舞伎町の女王)

(1998) Koufukuron (幸福論) (try link for "Kabukicho no Jou")

(1999) Honno （本能）

(2001) Mayonaka no Junketsu （真夜中の純潔）

(2001) Sid to Hakuchumu （シドと白昼夢）(jazz version)

(2007) Yokushitsu/La Salle de Bain（浴室）

Kirinji -- Drifter

 

My growing knowledge of Kirinji（キリンジ）is still an ongoing project. Although it is currently just Takaki Horigome（堀込高樹）minding the store, I remember when it was a full-fledged band not too long ago with some spacy upbeat delights and then much further back at the entry point of the 21st century, when it was simply the duo consisting of Takaki and his brother Yasuyuki（堀込泰行）giving out some of the most wonderful soulful ballads such as "Aliens".

Of course, I'm a huge fan of Kirinji, no matter the era and style of their music, and so is fellow contributor HRLE92. We communicated recently and he's been rather busy with his own academic pursuits but he was able to let me know of one of his favourites by the Horigomes, and that is the first song on their 8th single "Drifter/Taiyo to Venus"（太陽とヴィーナス...The Sun and Venus）, released in July 2001, not too long after "Aliens".

Written, composed and arranged by the Horigomes along with Keiichi Tomita's（冨田恵一）help on arrangement, "Drifter" starts off with a piano rhythm that feels like it's introducing a couple of old buddies in a retirement home going over old times, and then it slips into that familiar smooth blanket-swaddling Kirinji and Tomita balladry from their early years. From the title, I had initially assumed that it was about a lonely soul going through life, never sticking around one place or one person for long before moving on, but then looking at the lyrics, I realized that it was about a couple trying their best to hold onto each other during tempting turbulent times.

Reaching No. 43 on Oricon, the single's two main songs also ended up on Kirinji's November 2001 album "Fine".

The Works of Hiroshi Shinkawa（新川博）

 

I first saw the announcement on singer-songwriter Mioko Yamaguchi's（山口未央子）Twitter account last night, and unfortunately, it was regarding the fact that arranger and keyboardist Hiroshi Shinkawa had passed away on January 8th 2025 at the age of 69 due to heart disease. Yamaguchi had relayed the news from Shinkawa's wife. The above YouTube video shows Shinkawa playing some blues piano.

Shinkawa may not have been quite as prolific as Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）or Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）, but his name and his works have been a solid addition to "Kayo Kyoku Plus" over the years so I wanted to pay some tribute to him through this Creator article. Born in Tokyo in 1955, his mother was the poet Kazue Shinkawa（新川和江）, who had just passed away last August, and he started playing classic piano at the age of 5. At 11, he and his classmate Char would form their own band. Some years later, Shinkawa had a part-time job at a music publishing company while being taught by composer and producer Kunihiko Murai（村井邦彦）. He later graduated from Nihon University College of Art and made his professional debut at 20 as part of the backing band for Hi-Fi Set（ハイ・ファイ・セット）. He would participate in Yumi Matsutoya's（松任谷由実）concert tour as the music director and then at 28, he became a full-fledged arranger.

I've found that a lot of his works for other singers were in the aidoru, pop and City Pop fields. Here is just a mere sample of what he arranged, a lot of it in the 1980s.

(1982) Seiko Matsuda -- Lemonade no Natsu（レモネードの夏）

(1984) Meiko Nakahara -- Kimi Tachi Kiwi Papaya Mango da ne （君たちキウイ・パパヤ・マンゴだね。）

(1984) Hideki Saijo -- Kagirinaki Natsu（かぎりなき夏）

(1986) 1986 Omega Tribe -- Kimi wa 1000% （君は1000％）

(1986) Yoko Oginome -- Roppongi Junjouha （六本木純情派）

Although he had his main arranging work, in the 2000s, Shinkawa set up his own label Aosis Records covering the genres of jazz and AOR. He would also produce four of his own solo albums including the 2001 "Shinkies". I'll leave this article with a track from "Shinkies", the smooth "Altogether Alone". My condolences go to Shinkawa's family, friends and fans.

Ayumi Hamasaki -- Never Ever

via Wikimedia Commons and
Chi-Chuan Chen

 
Hello, J-Canuck here. Hope you have been enjoying the Holidays. Now that we are approaching the arrival of 2025, contributor Fireminer is here with an article on the J-Pop superstar Ayumi Hamasaki. Have a read of his take on "Never Ever".

In my previous article on TM Network’s “COME ON EVERYBODY”, I touched on a Famicom game that had to do with the band and that song in particular. Video games about musicians are nothing new. 90s kids will remember titles like “Michael Jackson's Moonwalker”, “Revolution X”, “Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style”, and “Queen: The Eye”. Then there are also “games” little more than interactive CDs like your “Prince Interactive”, “Kid A Mnesia Exhibition”, and what I want to get into in this article, “Visual Mix: Ayumi Hamasaki Dome Tour 2001 A” (alternative title: “浜崎あゆみ VISUAL MIX”)

But first, the song:

This is Ayumi Hamasaki’s 21st single “Never Ever” released on March 7, 2001. It was later included in the album “I Am…” released on January 1, 2002. “I Am…” brings together dance, rock, pop and ballad pieces with the theme of love, hope and peace connecting them all. It’s still weird to see “Never Ever” stands beside the  fan-favorites “Dearest”, “M” and “Evolution” because it is admittedly one of her weaker songs.

“Never Ever” is quite a straightforward pop-rock song, with lyrics about finding strength from love in the face of despair. The instrumentation sounds a lot like early 2000s stripped back J-Rock in a nice way. What kills this song for me though is the vocals. I’m not really that deep in Ayu’s early discography, and one reason is her nasal voice. She did get a lot better in the early 2000s, but the squeakiness remained for “Never Ever” and prevented it from being a good piece. The song could’ve worked had it been written differently so that Ayu didn’t have to reach for the high notes, but then again, she composed it herself.

Back to “Visual Mix”. It was released on December 21, 2001 for the PS2 as a two-disc package. The first disc has footage of Ayu’s live performance and behind the scenes at the Tokyo Dome on July 6 and 7, 2001 (as part of the Ayumi Hamasaki Dome Tour 2001 A – she also toured the Nagoya Dome, Osaka Dome, and Fukuoka Dome.) The footage was captured by Sony’s Fourth View technology (also called SONY Spatial Video) which was a form of early 360° recording. It was previously used to make a very similar game named “Space Venus starring Morning Musume” starring the eponymous idol group.

In “Visual Mix”, you don’t passively watch Ayu perform “Never Ever” and other songs from “I Am…”. You can change the camera view, zoom in or out, and add visual effects such as fireworks or falling cherry blossoms. “Playing” with it is like messing with a video editor when you were a kid in computer science class.

The second disc consists of a simplified music mixer (“Ayu-Mix Studio”) and a fake web browser (“Ayu Browser”). In “Ayu-Mix Studio”, you get to play around with the remixes of “Endless Sorrow” or “UNITE!”. It’s rudimentary compared to more “professional” fares on the PS2 like “eJay Clubworld”. Ayu Browser on the other hand reminds me of some games like “Front Mission 3” and “Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers” which recreate the 90s Internet experience in a futuristic shell. Admittedly you don’t have much to do in “Ayu Browser” other than decorating it with pictures of Ayu and, more impactfully, sending and receiving prewritten emails to the singer herself. Nowadays we have ChatGPT for that.

All in all, “Visual Mix” is an interesting piece of software. It was released in a time when few Japanese had a PC at home, but many had the brand new PS2 and were all too eager to explore its multimedia capability. “Visual Mix” and the technology behind it were the products of Sony Music Japan, who also had a lot of involvement with the development of the PS and PS2. With “Visual Mix” they had -- in their own small way -- portended how the interactive concert experience would become.

Tetsuo Sakurai -- Wonderland in the Sky

 

When I knew that I was going to do this article, I couldn't help but going to Bing once more to see if I could concoct up something that would be reminiscent of Cloud City on Bespin or that other city in the clouds from the "Star Trek" episode "The Cloud Minders". Well, it's not too, too bad.

It's been six months since I last posted something on bassist Tetsuo Sakurai（櫻井哲夫）, and up to now, his music has all been from his 1986 solo debut album "Dewdrops?". Not that "Dewdrops?" is a bad thing by any means, but I had been wondering about some other aspects of his discography. Fortunately, I was able to find his 2001 album "Gentle Hearts", and yep, it is indeed quite the temporal leap ahead.

One track on the album is "Wonderland in the Sky" which is one mighty dance across the atmosphere, powered by the electric guitar of Greg Howe and the drums of Dennis Chambers. The 7 1/2 minutes don't let up for a moment and it really feels like one is getting the tour of a lifetime on Bespin via one of those skypods. You might say that the skypod is fusion-powered...ha ha.

Dusty Springfield -- The Look of Love

 

Welcome to another weekly article of Reminiscings of Youth. A few years ago, I posted up the theme from the first "Casino Royale" (1967), the hot mess of a 007 spoof starring David Niven and Peter Sellers which nonetheless inspired Mike Myers' "Austin Powers" franchise. As I said in that article, I have seen the movie once and then bits and pieces on YouTube. However, what I've appreciated most about the flick is the music and that Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass theme penned by the amazing Burt Bacharach that is so infused with the Swinging 60s of Great Britain. If I were ever to get to London someday on a vacation and somehow got a Savile Row suit, I would love to walk up and down the streets with that song in my ears.

However, there was one scene in "Casino Royale" that also caught my attention because of the music and, well, Ursula Andress. I remember she was hopping all about with a bunch of shocking pink feathers and I guess the above footage only shows the seconds or so before that one scene. At the same time, there was the music which was jazzy and oh-so-sexy with a breathy voice that squeezed out "The Look of Love" as if a woman in Bubble Era Japan were trying to get out of her bodicon dress. I think the scene and the song play off of each other very well because of the languid pacing out of both of them, and considering the lunacy that precedes and follows in "Casino Royale", Sellers and Andress having a little intimate fun makes for a pretty calming oasis.

Dusty Springfield was someone that I had heard of before when I was a kid in the 1970s because of those K-Tel LP compilation commercials on television but the song that featured her (can't remember the title) had her sound a whole lot different than those vocals on "The Look of Love". The bossa nova jazz was woven together by Burt Bacharach with Hal David taking care of the lyrics, and it was even nominated for a Best Song Oscar in 1968.

Jazz pianist and vocalist Diana Krall is one of many artists who have covered "The Look of Love", and it's included as the title track for her September 2011 album. The original version was released in April 1967, so what were three songs from Japan that got their release at around the same time?

Naomi Sagara -- Sekai wa Futari no Tame ni （世界は二人のために）

Jackey Yoshikawa and His Blue Comets -- Blue Chateau（ブルー・シャトウ）

Yukio Hashi -- Koi no Mexican Rock （恋のメキシカン・ロック）

Every Little Thing -- jump

 

Wow! I guess it's been quite a while since I posted my most recent Every Little Thing article. In fact, that article was for their "Every Best Single +3" BEST compilation all the way back in June 2020. 

Additionally, I noted in that article that I would have to cover some of their material going into the 2000s. That's what I am doing today with their 19th single "jump", from October 2001. I remember hearing quite a bit of it back in the day, probably through the music video channels and covers of it on the popular celebrity karaoke program "The Yoru mo Hippare"（The 夜もヒッパレ）. I'd assumed that it was made into a theme song for some J-Drama but actually it was a campaign jingle for a Kanebo cosmetic.

"jump", which was written and composed by vocalist Kaori Mochida（持田香織）, always sounded a little different from their earlier hits, and perhaps that was true for their 21st-century material. The 90s part of their discography was more synthpop but listening to "jump", I realized that the song goes a bit more into rock and even Mochida's vocals get a little more growly here. The song was another Top 10 hit for Every Little Thing, by peaking at No. 7, going Gold. It also appeared on ELT's "Many Pieces" album released in March 2003 which hit No. 1 and became the 19th-ranked album for the year.

A Song Vacation (mostly) by "Uta Con" April 23rd 2024

 

NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）had their final broadcast before going on a multi-week hiatus during Golden Week. Now, the annual spate of holidays ranging from the last days of April into the first days of May doesn't begin for a few more days yet, but I figured that I can still provide a few of the songs that got into their "Uta no Tabi"（歌の旅...Song Vacation） theme segment yesterday along with throwing in one of my own choices.

As it stands right now, though, with the Japanese currency plummeting down to 155 yen to the dollar, perhaps there won't be as much tourism from Japan to overseas destinations this Golden Week although Americans, Canadians and other people will be more than happy to fly over to Japan for the next little while. Maybe that's why some of the songs from "Uta no Tabi" were most definitely domestic. In any case, here are the selections.

Rimi Natsukawa -- Nada Soso (涙そうそう)

Hiroshi Miyama -- Oiwaki Yama (お岩木山)

Mayo Shouno -- Tonde Istanbul （飛んでイスタンブール）

Godiego -- Gandhara （ガンダーラ）

Kome Kome Club -- Roman Hiko (浪漫飛行）

Dream -- Get Over

 

Go – or chess in general – is not exactly my cup of tea. And yet one manga series that I return to again and again is Hikaru no Go. It is a coming-of-age story starring Hikaru Shindo, a boy who accidentally released the ghost of Fujiwara no Sai from his grandpa’s Go board. Sai was a Heian-era Go master who committed suicide after being (wrongly) blamed of cheating. Hikaru reluctantly took up to Go to appease the ghost haunting him, then gradually learnt to love the game and grew up both as a player and a person. Hikaru no Go is a quintessential sport manga, despite the action being very low-key and lacking the hot-blood you would expect in a Weekly Shōnen Jump series. I would argue that is exactly what drew so many Western anime fans to the series in the first place.

Of course, having a banger of an opening helped too. Hikaru no Go’s first opening song is Get Over by the idol trio Dream consisted of Matsumuro Mai (松室麻衣), Tachibana Kana (橘佳奈), and Hasebe Yu (長谷部優). They were the winners of a talent contest named avex dream 2000. Interestingly enough, Koda Kumi also cut her teeth at avex dream 2000 and came in second. All four of them signed with avex, with Dream debuted as an idol unit in 2000. It took six singles for them to finally crack the Oricon chart, with the sixth one My will also be the first ending song of Inuyasha. Get Over is Dream’s eleventh single and peaked at #12 on the Oricon chart.

Get Over is a fight song by all measures, with lyrics fill with recognition of pain and regret as an inevitable part of an arduous journey, but also hope that personal perseverance and friendship can help you overcome anything. Marry that to a catchy slow dance tune and you have a certified hit that can transcend the language barrier. Even if the listener do not know a lick of Japanese or Go rules, Get Over is sure to intrigue them enough to stay and watch Hikaru no Go, and maybe fall in love with the show just like how the protagonist fell in love with Go./.

Bump of Chicken -- Tentai Kansoku（天体観測）

 

I once encountered a chart showing the Heisei era karaoke rankings and found out that this particular song was one of the most popular ever sung at karaoke from that period between 1989 and 2019. It stood out for the fact that I had most likely covered the rest of the list of that Top 10 in KKP but this one was new to me.

The rock band Bump of Chicken was a group that I had never covered in the blog and yet for years on end, I kept hearing their name from time to time, going back to my Japan days. With that name, it definitely stuck in my head, and I'm sure Bump of Chicken's manager was quite glad for it. Therefore, wondering what the origin behind the name was all about, I discovered that when the group of four (all born in 1979 and all from Sakura City, Chiba Prefecture): vocalist and main songwriter Motoo Fujiwara (藤原基央), guitarist Hiroaki Masukawa (増川弘明), bassist Yoshifumi Naoi (直井由文) and drummer Hideo Masu (升秀夫), had officially brought together the band in 1996 (they first started playing together at their school's cultural festival back in 1994 under the name Hage Band), they opted for a name that meant "a counterattack by a weakling". Personally, I had thought it had something to do with goose bumps but I now stand corrected.

Getting back on track, I did mention that one song on that list at karaoke. Well, it was Bump of Chicken's 3rd single "Tentai Kansoku" (Stargazing) from March 2001. As the title states, it's all about the joy of taking out that telescope and exploring the heavens. Never thought that a song about astronomy would get the rock treatment but actually "Tentai Kansoku" by Fujiwara is a fun and romantic romp filled with the excitement and glee of children setting up the telescope to view Polaris or Jupiter for the first time. 

"Tentai Kansoku" went as high as No. 3, going Gold. More than twenty years after its release, Bump of Chicken were able to perform this and one more song on the 2021 edition of the Kohaku Utagassen. The song was also included on the band's first album as a major act, "jupiter", which was released in February 2002. The album was a No. 1 hit and ended the year ranked at No. 45.

Dozan Miki (DOZAN11) -- Lifetime Respect

 

Yes, I gather that my three articles for today all have some connection with last night's "Uta Con"（うたコン）episode, but seriously, I have to give my props to the NHK music show because it reacquainted me with a song that I hadn't heard in almost two decades. The worst thing was that I'd also never paid attention to the singer or the title all that much because I was never really much of a reggae fan, so I completely forgot about them.

And yet, I remember the tune for not only that reggae beat but also for the official music video. It was shown weekly for quite a few months on the rankings programs and on the local music video channel on Sunday mornings. That's considering that an intimate environment and nudity were displayed, but I gather that was the point of "Lifetime Respect" by reggae musician, singer-songwriter and author Dozan Miki（三木道三）, who currently goes with the stage name of DOZAN11.

"Lifetime Respect" was Miki's 21st single in a career that began from 1992. It was released in May 2001 and it's an ardent love promise to his dearest sung in the Kansai dialect (Miki was born in Nara), and such is his naked devotion to the lady he loves that he makes it clear as well through the images in the video. The song would become the first Japanese reggae tune to hit No. 1 on Oricon and it became the No. 9 single of that year, going Double Platinum. In July 2001, Miki's first album as a major artist "Lifetime Respect" was released which hit No. 2 on the charts and finished the year ranked at No. 58.

DOZAN11 has continued to release singles and albums up to the present day including one of the former from June 2023 titled "SAGANTOSU Anthem". His most recent album was "Japan be Irie!!" from 2014. Incidentally, back in 1997, there was also a reggae-pop tune that also enjoyed some success on the charts albeit not quite as high as "Lifetime Respect", the ending theme for the long-running series "Odoru Dai Sosasen"（踊る大捜査線....Bayside Shakedown）, "Love Somebody".

RIZCO (Ritsuko Kurosawa) -- Tokai（都会）

 

As of this writing, I haven't been to Tokyo in six years and I would dearly love to visit my old stomping grounds and friends there once more. There's always been a vibrancy there that can't be beat, and I know that some of the neighbourhoods I frequented such as Shibuya have changed quite a bit since my last visit.

Well, since we are noting the big city here, I'd like to show off this Ritsuko Kurosawa（黒沢律子）cover of Taeko Ohnuki's（大貫妙子）classic "Tokai" (The City) from her November 2001 7th album "melody". At the time, she was apparently going under the name of RIZCO. Not sure if I would categorize her take on "Tokai", which was originally on Ohnuki's "Sunshower" album (1977), a City Pop tune; I'd say that it has been given the groovy-and-spacey pop treatment which is perfectly fine. Nice bluesy guitar solo in there, too.

The Works of Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）, Part 2

 

Last Wednesday, I posted "The Works of Nobuyuki Shimizu"（清水信之）, Part 1 to pay tribute to this veteran musician and arranger. There were a lot of notable works so I'm going into a Part 2.

(1980) Mariya Takeuchi -- Fushigi na Peach Pie （不思議なピーチ・パイ）

Although his arrangement of EPO's cover of "Downtown" may be seen as his first work, he was also quite busy crafting Mariya Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）"Fushigi na Peach Pie" in the same year. As far as I and J-Wiki know, this song was the only Mariya tune that he helped on, but in doing so, he helped in cementing her early career as one of giving tribute to the girl pop of the 1960s.

(1987) Yoshitaka Minami -- Video City

As noted in Part 1, Shimizu did like his City Pop and that was also the case with Yoshitaka Minami's（南佳孝）"Video City". I've usually seen Minami as the ballad crooner so it was surprising to hear this modern contemporary pop equivalent of taking that spree through the wonders of metropolitan living. Shimizu pretty much threw the mix of consumerism and Bubble Era out there.

(1988) Junko Ohashi -- Nemurenai Diamond (眠れないダイアモンド）

Shimizu may have made Minami's "Video City" a welcome to the tourists coming to Tokyo, but his work on Junko Ohashi's（大橋純子）scintillating "Nemurenai Diamond" is an urban odyssey for the well-heeled and well-to-do on a Friday night when all things were possible and payable. This is one of the prime examples for the caviar-and-champagne wing of City Pop.

(1984) Chika Takami -- Kuchibiru Nude （くちびるヌード）

The aidoru genre also had Shimizu helping out. One example is Chika Takami's（高見知佳）"Kuchibiru Nude" from 1984 which was used as a commercial jingle for Shiseido. J-Wiki doesn't mention whether the arranger had done a lot of jingle production for companies, but he certainly made a catchy one for the famed cosmetics producer. With EPO composing the tune, "Kuchibiru Nude" has the EPO-tastic feeling along with the jangly vibe that I often associated Shimizu with in the early 1980s.

(1992) Eri Hiramatsu -- Heya to Y-Shatsu to Watashi （部屋とＹシャツと私）

Eri Hiramatsu（平松愛理）and Shimizu had been married to each other for about eleven years from the 1990s into the 2000s. Just before the relationship got very personal though, the latter had helped arrange the former's trademark tune as a slow and adorable waltz about the family life. 

(2001) Misia -- Sunny Day

Before my Labels for this tribute get completely stuffed, I'd also like to mention that Shimizu arranged a few of Misia's songs including the very catchy "Sunny Day". There's something contemporary and yet old-school about this one which suits me just fine. A melodic strut down the street on a sunny Sunday is how I would describe it. From EPO to Misia...that is quite the range, and of course, there are many other works that are listed in the Shimizu file on KKP. 

Skoop On Somebody -- sha la la

 

Just a month into the history of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I wrote the first Sing Like Talking article in February 2012 for "Together", the really fun single riffing off of Django Reinhardt's "Dinah" . However, I also related there how I first came to know Chikuzen Sato（佐藤竹善）and the rest of SLT, and it was purely by mistaken identity. Some time before I ended up buying SLT's "Discovery" (1994) at the neighbourhood CD shop in Ichikawa, I had watched a totally different band on Fuji-TV's venerable "Music Fair" and gotten interested in them. Thinking it was that band, I bought "Discovery".

Well, that band was actually Skoop On Somebody, and as it turns out, there are similarities between them and Sing Like Talking. Both consist of three main members and both tackle a mixture of soul, pop and gospel. Whereas SLT has been around since the late 1980s though, Skoop On Somebody only started out in 1995, although by the time that I bought SLT's "Discovery", even SOS had been around for a few years.

One of Skoop On Somebody's big hits and possibly their breakthrough hit was "sha la la", their 14th single from Halloween 2001. It's a gently calming song that was given the catchphrase "The Greatest Love Ballad for This Fall" (translated from the Japanese) which certainly goes against the old kayo kyoku tradition of having romantic heartbreak as a theme within autumn-based tunes. The vocal talents of members TAKE, KO-HEY and KO-ICHIRO expressing their love through the microphone remind me of the songs by The Gospellers. Natsumi Kobayashi（小林夏海）and SOS provided the lyrics while music production unit Face 2 fAKE composed and arranged the song.

"sha la la" peaked at No. 18 on Oricon and went Gold. It also became the commercial tune for Nivea Cream. It was also included on SOS' ballad collection "Nice' n Slow Jam" released in December 2001. 

Between the time that the three members had met in Osaka to form the group in the mid-90s and around 2000, the trio was known as SKOOP but on hearing that the word in English, namely "scoop", could also actually mean "ensnare" or "exhumed", it was decided that the extra two words would be added. Just my personal opinion, but a scoop could also refer to a tool to pick up ice cream and who doesn't love ice cream?🍨