I've been a fan of Japanese popular music for 40 years, and have managed to collect a lot of material during that time. So I decided I wanted to talk about Showa Era music with like-minded fans. My particular era is the 70s and 80s (thus the "kayo kyoku"). The plus part includes a number of songs and artists from the last 30 years and also the early kayo. So, let's talk about New Music, aidoru, City Pop and enka.
Credits
I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.
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".
The news came in last night just before I was about to turn in, but singer and commentator Akihiro Miwa（美輪明宏）had passed away at the age of 91 on June 20th from old age. Miwa was a survivor of the Nagasaki atomic bombing, chanson singer, drag queen, raconteur and commentator on a number of topics including government policy, and he even had at least a couple of shows where he provided advice to people, famous or not. In fact, the last show featured on TV Japan before it converted to Jme over a couple of years ago was his advice program on NHK. Most times, he was very courteous and elegant but there were a few times where Miwa verbally eviscerated other people onscreen in a rage if he felt they deserved it.
Up until 1971, Miwa had been known by his birth name of Shingo Terada（寺田臣吾）or his first stage name Akihiro Maruyama（丸山明宏）. In his obituaries on television, reporters noted his most famous song "Yoitomake no Uta"（ヨイトマケの唄）from 1965. I've already noted that so I wanted to provide a song of his titled "Itoshi no Gin-Pari"(My Beloved Gin Paris). I couldn't definitively track down the recording year but according to his discography on J-Wiki, the earliest that I've seen it mentioned is 2003 so I will go with that.
Miwa's creation is done in the lightly lilting chanson style and he's paying tribute to Japan's first cafe devoted to chanson, Gin Paris（銀巴里）, which was open between 1951 and 1990 in Ginza 7-chome in Tokyo. It was also where Miwa built up his career and a number of other artists have found it to be their breakthrough home such as the late Mina Aoe（青江三奈）. At this time, there is a stone monument at 7-chome near the former site of Gin Paris which has its name carved in.
My condolences go to Miwa's family, friends and many fans.
I should remember that summer is just around the corner...in a couple of days as of this writing. Well, gotta think of some appropriate songs especially when we have Fridays like these on the blog.
Anyways, I was listening to the "Beams" CD within the "Light Mellow" series of albums as curated by Toshikazu Kanazawa（金澤寿和）last night for the first time in a while. Strangely enough, I realized that for the number of tracks from "Beams" that I've featured on KKP such as Sonia Rosa's（ソニア・ローザ）"Tokyo in the Blue"（東京イン・ザ・ブルー）and Kenichi Fujimoto's（藤本健一）"Asa no Wakare"（朝の別れ）, I hadn't brought Toshiki Kadomatsu's（角松敏生）"Beams" onto the blog, and that was the first track and title track for this "Light Mellow" CD.
Originally from Kadomatsu's 15th studio album from August 2003, "Summer 4 Rhythm", "Beams" sounds timeless. I mean that I couldn't believe that it was actually from the 21st century. I'd thought it was right from one of his 80s albums. The song is ethereal, fun and summery. It's like undergoing a tribal experience under the sun at high noon on a pure white beach after which frolicking in the ocean is mandatory. "Summer 4 Rhythm" was probably a tribal experience for many who bought the album since it hit No. 9 on Oricon.
I remember when I first heard "Omoide ga Ippai" (Full of Memories) by the folk-pop duo H2O on an episode of "Sounds of Japan" on CHIN-FM decades ago. Not having known about its status as the first ending theme for the 1983 anime "Miyuki"（みゆき）, I found it a splendid wistful ballad. Years later, the 3rd-year homeroom teachers of the school that I had taught during my time on the JET Programme sang the song for the soon-to-be graduates. Not a dry eye in the room. And I've learned that "Omoide ga Ippai" has been a stalwart song for Japanese graduations.
Well, commenter Brian Mitchell asked me earlier about some of the cover versions and not surprisingly, considering how beloved and sentimental "Omoide ga Ippai" has become since the early 1980s, the list of singers who have given their own versions of the ballad reads like a Santa Claus list. At Brian's request, I went over three of those covers.
The first one here is by actress and singer Mikuni Shimokawa（下川みくに）, and although she's only had one role as an anime seiyuu, she often sings her fair share of anison. But in this case, she did cover "Omoide ga Ippai" via her December 2003"Review ~ Shimokawa Mikuni Seishun Anison Cover Album"（Review 〜下川みくに青春アニソンカバーアルバム〜）. Her take is an even breezier and languid take on the anison classic.
MINMI is a singer that I have mentioned on KKP before when she collaborated with m-flo for the dance hall-friendly "Lotta Love". However, she's regularly a reggae singer and that's the genre which is powering her cover of "Omoide ga Ippai" which is a track on her August 2011 album "The Heart Song Collection" which is filled with tunes that she enjoyed as a teenager.
Nao Toyama（東山奈央）is a seiyuu and singer who's shown up on the blog a number of times in the past and she sings "Omoide ga Ippai" for the second in the series of anime character albums for the anime "Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai"（神のみぞ知るセカイ...The World God Only Knows） which was released in 2014. Under her character of Kanon Nakagawa（中川かのん）, she sings the song under a shoegaze and pop arrangement.
I do have a love for pasta, especially spaghetti. I grew up on Bolognese made by my mother but then in Japan, I realized that the Japanese absolutely adore pasta of all kinds and so that's how I discovered other types such as Pepperoncino, Carbonara and Napolitan (which actually doesn't come from Naples but is a purely Japanese type).
Of course, it's not as wonderful as actually eating the stuff itself, but I also indulge in watching the many pasta-making videos on YouTube such as this one by Preppy Kitchen for his take on Carbonara. His way of cooking actually makes the sauce look less intimidating to create...since I have some PTSD from making something that involved raw eggs from long ago.
Once again, my preamble ramble leads us to a group called spaghetti vabune! which I discovered by happenstance a few weeks earlier. When I posted an article on the technopop unit Plus-Tech Squeeze Box, I found out that their "Kitchen Shock" hadn't come from their own discography but it actually belonged to a December 2004 compilation album titled "Contemode V.A. 2".
Well, I looked through the rest of the tracks and saw some other dynamic-sounding acts there and tried looking up the titles. And spaghetti vabune! was one of them. According to their website, the group began life in 2001 and perhaps currently consists of vocalist/guitarist Keiji Tokuda, vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Chihiro Yoshii, guitarist Takayoshi Umeno, drummer Naoya Shimai and bassist Shuhei Kinukawa. Their J-Wiki article has them categorized as a unit into indies pop, jangle pop, Shibuya-kei and alternative rock.
spaghetti vabune!'s contribution to "Contemode V.A. 2" is "Favorite Song (contemode bossa mix)" which does have plenty of Brazilian swagger to the extent that I was wondering whether it should have been called "contemode samba mix" instead. But no complaints here. It makes for some fun and summery listening. I did wonder whether there was an original version of "Favorite Song" and the answer was Yes! The much shorter guitar pop original does appear on the band's April 2003 album"summer vacation, sunset vehicle". Incidentally, the bossa mix was created by Yasutaka Nakata（中田ヤスタカ）.
It's another Hump Day here on Kayo Kyoku Plus, but I have to admit that it's looking really nice outside although the temperatures are still below seasonal. Anyways, let's a little whimsical with another Author's Picks, and this week, I just wanted to give my tribute and congratulations to the astronauts aboard Artemis II (along with Nutella) who are now en route back to Earth after doing that whip around the Moon.
Back in September, I'd already done my first batch of Moon Songs commemorating the autumn lunar festival, so this will be Moon Songs 2, but I don't have quite enough moon-themed songs that I know off the top of my head (although some of them may have already been posted on the blog...my memory isn't that good anymore). As such, I've cordially invited some other tunes with titles of a planetary nature within the Sol System.
Well, winter is definitely back in town. We're due for about four inches of snow by the time today shifts into tomorrow. Might be the perfect weather for Hump Day commuting.
It might be time for some blippity-bloppity technopop to get the blood flowing and the nerve endings fired up once more for that one more burst before the weekend arrives. Here is the short-and-sweet "Life Style Music", a collaboration between Shibuya-kei/technopop duo capsule and the technopop group Sonic Coaster Pop which I only discovered earlier this year.
"Life Style Music" hails from capsule's third album"phony phonic" from November 2003. It's got quite the percussive rhythms in there and the percolating synths with both bands indulging in their high-toned vocoders. Yasutaka Nakata（中田ヤスタカ）took care of everything here. One observation I have to make here is that considering SoCoPo's breakup in 2002, they were still pretty darn active. Another is that although the upbeat perkiness of Shibuya-kei is showing its echo in "Life Style Music", I think the song is definitely more of a harbinger of capsule's stylistic future.
Hello, J-Canuck here. Once again, we have commenter and occasional contributor Fireminer with an article for KKP. Following the video, he'll take over.
Following the failed Cool Japan initiative, the Japanese entertainment industry has been emphasizing more on using manga, anime and games as vectors to popularize their products abroad. It’s no eureka moment but only an acknowledgement of reality. Foreigners have discovered and fallen in love with Japanese fashion, music, literature, etc. through those mediums for decades. But what about discovering American music through a Japanese game?
Many millennials can recall the period when rhythm games reigned in the 2000s. And while the second half of the decade was dominated by the likes of Rock Band and Guitar Hero, the first half was the time of Japanese rhythm games like Konami’s Dance Dance Revolution and Beatmania who brought contemporary Eurodance, disco fusion, trance, etc. into the home and no doubt familiarized many people with acts like Smile.dk, Captain Jack and E-Rotic.
A lesser-known but nonetheless celebrated Japanese rhythm game from the time was Elite Beat Agents on the Nintendo DS. It’s a follow-up to the Japanese exclusive Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan and put you in the shoes of government agents who cheer people so they can power through tough spots. It’s bizarre, colorful, upbeat and most importantly accessible to both rhythm game heads and casual gamers such as myself.
Elite Beat Agents' music left a strong impression on me, not least because of the music selection. Fit for a game helmed by Keiichi Yano (矢野慶一) of Gitaroo Man’s fame, Elite Beat Agents featured pop hits from nearly every decade since the 1970s onward. Here you can find Queen’sI Was Born to Love You and Stray Cats’Rock This Town next to Madonna’sMaterial Girl, Avril Lavigne’sSk8er Boi, and the subject of this article, The Jackson 5’sABC.
ABC is pure uncut bubblegum pop, ‘nuff said. And it works perfectly with the band. The yawp-like voice of young Michael Jackson (backed by his brother Jermaine) goes well with the funky and goofy kiddie-pop tune like hands and gloves. Then come the jubilant guitar and bongo that just radiate optimism. This is Motown, this is the 1970s. ABC is about the pure joy of discovering love, and it’s unadulterated joy you will get from it.
Now we move to Ken Hirai’s (平井 堅) cover of ABC from his 2003 album Ken's Bar, the first in a series of acoustic cover albums. You would think it wouldn’t have worked with the ultra-smooth Hirai, but it worked. Hirai works best for me when he is goofy, and though the cover is less silly than the original (every kid under 15 trying to tell you about love will be silly), it still sounds like a fun time. The falsetto and bongo liven the mood like they did with the original.
Ken’s Bar is also the name of a series of live shows whereas Hirai plays the role of a bar host who sings his favorite songs for his guests while they sip the wine he picks for them. It makes sense then for him to cover ABC like that. He has been doing these shows almost annually since 1998, and while COVID-19 brought a five-year absence, the show finally returned one more time last May.
My mother has often asked the question, "Where is Harumi Miyako（都はるみ）? I haven't seen her in ages." Well, looking the legendary enka singer up on J-Wiki, I found out that she basically stopped any public appearances in the mid-2010s, and as of 2021, she's been living with a former actor in an old countryside inn somewhere in the Tohoku region. So, let us just assume that she has finally retired without any great bombast.
Some weeks ago, when I was watching the kayo program "Shin BS Nippon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）on NHK, I noticed one of the guests singing a Miyako song that I had never heard of before. It started out as one of the more traditional enka but then the carpet was pulled out from beneath us listeners, and it became an old-fashioned rock n' roll tune, reminiscent of the Group Sounds days of the 1960s.
This would be "Mukashi" which literally translates as "Long Ago". However, considering the lyrics by Yu Aku（阿久悠）, perhaps a better and more pragmatic translation would be "Yesterday's Man". This was Miyako's 119th single from New Year's Day 2003 and looking at that cover of a triumphant-looking singer with the big hair and her smiling visage emblazoned all over her kimono, this isn't an ordinary Miyako single...especially with Ryudo Uzaki（宇崎竜童）handling the composition, him being the grizzled rock master.
Along with the GS sound, Miyako is more than happy to be singing about washing that man right out of her hair...just to reference another old American song from way back when. She's free, I tell you, free of the shackles of the old relationship and ready to tackle new adventures, but not without some gleeful verbal stomping of the former pathetic paramour.
A few days ago in the Comments section for Galali's "Clear Summer", I received an anonymous statement about the Okinawan song and dance duo HALCALI getting the "Plastic Love" treatment. Their 22-year-old song "Otsukare Summer" has hit the big time via SNS.
Apparently, the song from their September 2003 debut album"Halcali Bacon"（ハルカリベーコン）(I posted on another track "Electric Sensei"（エレクトリック先生）back in early August) went viral on TikTok over the past number of weeks or months, and though it was one of the relatively rare songs that didn't originally have Halca and Yucali dancing all about in a music video, no problems. Folks around the globe have picked up on that and provided their own choreography such as KanzakiAnna through her YouTube account.
The love has bounced back to the original recording company, FOR LIFE MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT because just yesterday, they released an animated music video for "Otsukare Summer"! Y'know, I had never heard of a loungy Latin-infused Shibuya-kei rap song before...now my life is complete. We can all thank not only HALCALI but also the songwriters Fantastic Plastic Machine and Masayuki Kumahara（熊原正幸）for providing this classy and catchy paean to the end of the hot season (which is next week).
As for the title, it's a pun on the very common phrase "otsukaresama"（お疲れ様）which literally means "Thank you for your hard work", so it's something that is used by folks in Japan to commend fellow workers or others who have done a great service for them such as furniture movers. I gather that I can also treat the punny title as "Thank You, Summer!". For a lot of the local sun worshippers, they are likely saying the same and lamenting the fact that it's going away so soon.
Another sign that autumn in Toronto is just around the corner: the annual Toronto International Film Festival. Depending on the weather, and they are saying that thunderstorms might be welcoming the stars, cinephiles and media, the first day of TIFF tomorrow may be a very soggy one which is too bad but the second day sounds far more promising. But I'm sure that the autograph hounds will still be out in force, rain or shine.
Under the circumstances, maybe I can put up a list of some of the songs that I heard on the big screen throughout my life.
(1970) Kiyoshi Atsumi -- Otoko wa Tsurai yo (男はつらいよ）from "Otoko wa Tsurai yo"
(1972) Mari Amachi -- Hitori Janaino (ひとりじゃないの）from "Aitte Nandaro?"（愛ってなんだろ）
(1997) Yuji Oda & Maxi Priest -- Love Somebody from "Odoru Dai Sosasen"（踊る大捜査線）
(1997) Akihiko Matsumoto -- Rhythm & Police from "Odoru Dai Sosasen"（踊る大捜査線）
Welcome to another middle-of-the-week Hump Day. Perhaps shoulders and backsides are getting a tad stiff in the chair after a few days in the office, so maybe some fun movement is in order.
Then, allow the ladies of HALCALI to get you bopping about with their cute-as-all-get-out rap-pop and dancing and prancing. Back in June, I covered their "Halcalism 'Candy Hearts'"（ハルカリズム "CANDY HEARTS"） from their September 2003 debut album"Halcali Bacon"（ハルカリベーコン）. Well, there is also its track mate, "Electric Sensei"(Electric Teacher).
"Electric Sensei" was also HALCALI's 2nd single from April 2003 and it's got their usual kiddie-friendly sing-songy patter thanks to RYO-Z from the group Rip Slyme with DJ FUMIYA providing the melody and arrangement. The single managed to reach No. 16 on Oricon and the video is fun for the choreography and animation involving Halca and Yucali. From what I've read of the translated lyrics, it seems like one high school lass has a thing for one of her teachers.
Techno master Takkyu Ishino（石野卓球）also contributed to the single with his own mix of "Electric Sensei". You can really loosen those muscles with this version.
It's been a while since I've had the dynamic duo HALCALI up on KKP. Their brand of cutesy pop rapping and dancing in their videos always kept things very entertaining.
Couldn't find an official music video for this one but this track from their September 2003 debut album "Halcali Bacon"（ハルカリベーコン）has reminded me of how much fun they are. "Halcalism 'Candy Hearts'", written and composed by KOHEI JAPAN, is a steady and pulsating platform for Halca and Yucali's rap with a groovy rhythm that had me thinking City Pop at first. Nice cameo by Alvin, by the way, to start things off.😆
"Halcali Bacon" also has one of my first articles on Halcali which dealt with their percolating tune "Giri Giri Surf Rider"（ギリギリ・サーフライダー）. What was noted on the Wikipedia article for the album but wasn't on the J-Wiki equivalent was that "Halcali Bacon" was the first album by a female hip-hop artist to break into the Top 10 in Japanese recording history by peaking at No. 5 and staying on the charts for 21 weeks.
I don't know much about this duo known as Sonic Coaster Pop (or SoCoPo) that had its run between 1999 and 2002 but they were categorized as being part of the Akishibu-kei（アキシブ系）hybrid genre of Shibuya-kei rhythms as applied to anime and game music, which was (and maybe still is) concentrated in Tokyo's pop culture Akihabara district. Akira Suzuki and Chinatsu Furukawa were the two here and they provided their music through a number of releases and compilations.
One such compilation came out apparently after SoCoPo's disbanding. "Good compi" was released in 2003 under abcdefg*record and the second track is "Usagi-chan Dancin'" (Little Rabbit Dancin'). It's a bouncy number,and as one person said on one site: "Think YMCK meets Perfume." I would probably push further on that analogy and posit that it can be a mix of YMO bleeps and bloops, Pizzicato Five's Shibuya-kei paint-the-town-red arrangement and a bunch of Precure vocalists on a major bender. The music video above is such that I can even suggest some Vaporwave (I do remember that Pocari Sweat commercial with Sae Isshiki). It's like tripping the light fantastic in a digital world.
Happy Mother's Day to everyone out there! Took my folks out for breakfast at our usual friendly diner. As usual, I won't be needing lunch as a result.
I've decided to get things started off with a bit of aural Orange Mimosa via the good folks at orange pekoe. Their "Sweet Movie" comes from their 2nd studio album"Modern Lights" which was released in July 2003. Fully in thrall to their jazz, vocalist Tomoko Nagashima（ナガシマトモコ）goes into her Andrews Sisters' boogie-woogie route here and provides some sunny Sunday music. Below is the Sunata T Experience Remix of "Sweet Movie" which incorporates more funk and dance beats. As well, you can check out its track mate on the album, "Gokurakucho ~ Bird of Paradise"（極楽鳥）.
The above is a photo of what was once the small Tower Records branch underneath the skyscraper village known as Shiodome between the Tokyo neighbourhoods of Ginza and Shimbashi (the store closed down in March 2021). Compared to the massive main store in Shibuya, the Shiodome branch was cute and petite but it still had plenty of shelves to be perused and I used to visit it a fair bit. To give credit where credit is due, the photo is actually a shot that I copied from Minato Eye no Minato-ku Tsuushin's site. I haven't been able to find my own photo of the branch itself so my apologies to the site if I've overstepped my bounds here.
Now, the reason that I'm even mentioning one of my old CD haunts for this Reminiscings of Youth article is that Shiodome Tower Records was where I first heard Canadian jazz singer great Michael Bublé. He's already been mentioned here at KKP through "Spider-Man" and "Sway" but this is the first time that he gets his own ROY article (and it won't be the last either).
I had already known about jazz chanteuses Diana Krall and Holly Cole, but when I entered that Tower branch in 2003, I had yet to hear about Bublé from Burnaby, British Columbia. However, he'd been around the jazz world for a few years already when I encountered a display shelf filled with copies of his third album "Michael Bublé" and it just so happened that the first track was playing on the store speakers. That song was "Fever", a steamy tune that I had heard in the past from Peggy Lee as a "torchy lounge" song as has been described. What I hadn't known was that Lee's rendition was also a cover of the 1956 original by Little Willie John.
Well, getting back to the Bublé cover, I noticed that the steam was piping hot there (always love a good wood bass) but there was also some of that Las Vegas ring-a-ding-ding swing as we hit the climax. I read one comment on YouTube where the person still enjoyed "Fever"despite the jazz orchestral trappings. I ended up buying "Michael Buble"becauseof the swing. Thus began a very nice addition to my jazz collection.
"Michael Buble" came out on February 11th 2003. What were two songs in Japan that hit the Top 10 the day before?
I heard this particular song on last night's episode of NHK's "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新・BS日本のうた）as performed by none other than bidanshi enka singer Keisuke Yamauchi（山内惠介）who really rocked one out and maybe scratched up his larynx in the process.
To be honest, I hadn't heard of Ulfuls'（ウルフルズ）"Ehh Nen" whose meaning is the Kansai dialectal variant for expressions like "Hey, it's OK", "No worries" and "We're good". It came out as the band's 25th single in November 2003 but also as a welcome back song to one of the original members of Ulfuls, bassist John B. Chopper, after he'd left the band in 1999 due to philosophical differences with the band's sound. I can imagine that the return was loud, joyful and boisterous with plenty of those ehh nen. Written and composed by vocalist Tortoise Matsumoto, the lyrics are basically letting listeners know that whatever the issue, no probs man!
Hey, I can imagine "Ehh Nen" being a popular choice at karaoke, especially if two good buddies in a company department, baseball team or neighbourhood association had gone through a sudden tiff followed by the making-up phase. Although "Ehh Nen" was a big hit in the Kansai region, overall, it "only" got up to No. 20 nationwide which nullified some plans to provide variations on the song through regional ways to say "Ehh Nen".
Ah yes...I remember that corner quite well. It's the Fujiya Building right on the northern edge of Ginza just across from Sukibayashi. There was or is a karaoke box in there, and I think one time a bunch of us in our suits ended up singing on the Hello Kitty floor. Made for quite a contrast.
Talking about cutesy things, I ran into this little number called "Stereo Tokyo" which was part of the 2003 Konami video game "pop'n music 10". I recognize the type of game it is but never played it myself. Written and composed by Yasutaka Nakata（中田ヤスタカ）, the music producer behind acts such as Perfume and capsule, the nom du plume he uses here is polyphonic room. The vocalist is named Wanta with the chorus being supplied by Nakata's partner in capsule, Toshiko Koshijima（こしじまとしこ）.
Within the game itself, "Stereo Tokyo" apparently belongs in the genre of Plastic Pop but I hear it as a mix of bubbly technopop and Shibuya-kei. I can certainly imagine the Divine Ms. Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴） covering it for instance. Nakata's lyrics talk about a fellow who's so content zoning out that he would even let the important stuff pass him by (not sure how much of that is in jest). But at the end though, he is considering heading out to Tokyo and just wonders how his significant other would take the news. If it's for simply playing video games, then I don't think she'll take it well.
2024 has been the year that I first found out about the late singer Yoko Nagisa（渚ようこ）, a somewhat mysterious figure who loved to sing her own brand of Showa-era pop music in a way that brought back memories of the 1960s and 1970s although she recorded her songs in the 1990s and 2000s.
The last time I wrote about her was back in late July with her 2003 single"Ai no Toubousha"（愛の逃亡者）, a reminder of all things American Sunshine Pop and Burt Bacharach. Well, apparently the coupling song, "Tasogare Minato Machi" (Sunset Port Town) is much more of a return to Japan. In fact, there is something downright Ayumi Ishida（いしだあゆみ）and her classic 1968 "Blue Light Yokohama" about her vocalization and the arrangement surrounding this song. I don't get any hints of the 2000s here; musically, I get shot back to when I was only four years old.
The composer was Gary Ashiya（ゲイリー芦屋）while the lyricist has been listed on the JASRAC database as Kazuki Tozai（東西蘭月）, although his real name was Akihiro Yoshida（吉田明裕）according to this tweet on Twitter. Unfortunately, he passed away in early 2022.
Living in the Tokyo area in the 2000s, I was accustomed to regularly seeing R&B conglomerate m-flo on TV with his various buddies hip-hopping, rapping and grooving. My question is where did they all go, although as for the core, I'm happy to say that they are still around. In fact, they released something just last month.
However, let's go back those two decades to October 2003 when m-flo's 15th single was released. "miss you" with the singers for this one being Ryohei Yamamoto（山本領平）and Japanese-American singer Melody Ishikawa, stylized back then as melody. (not to be confused with the aidoru group Melody). Ryohei would also collaborate with Verbal and gang a few years later on "Summer Time Love".
I remember "miss you" because of its music video which is a conveyor belt of MC Verbal, DJ ☆Taku, Ryohei and melody. having fun and acting out a romantic relationship working out some issues inside what looks like an IKEA storeroom masquerading as a movie script read-through session venue. Between Verbal's pointed hip-hop banter and the two main singers cooing at each other, I'm also enjoying melody.'s soft grooving voice. The song managed to hit No. 8 on Oricon and it's also included on m-flo's May 2004 3rd album"Astromantic" which peaked at No. 2 and ended up as the 42nd-ranked album of the year, going Double Platinum.
One piece of trivia I found out regarding melody. is that she's married to musician Miyavi.
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