Apryl Fool -- Kurai Nichiyoubi（暗い日曜日）

 

Just continuing on from the previous article, Chu Kosaka's（小坂忠）"Yuugata Love"（ゆうがたラブ）from January 1975, and paying tribute following the news of the singer-songwriter's passing last month, I also wanted to talk about one of the songs produced by his old band Apryl Fool（エイプリル・フール）. Also, since neither nikala nor I had mentioned this probably in any of the previous articles dealing with Kosaka, the singer was born Masayuki Kosaka（小坂正行）in the city of Shiki, Saitama Prefecture but was raised in Nerima Ward, Tokyo.

I provided an article a couple of years ago on one of the other tracks from the band's one-and-only self-titled album which came out in September 1969. "April Blues" was an instrumental, but this time, I have Kosaka providing vocals for this track called "Kurai Nichiyoubi" which translates directly into "Dark Sunday" but the official English title is apparently just "Sunday". Written by band members Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）under his other name during his time with Apryl Fool, Rei Matsumoto（松本零）, and composed by Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）, the two future songwriting legends were on drums and bass respectively.

Apryl Fool has been noted as a psychedelic rock band coming out during the waning years of the Group Sounds era, but "Kurai Nichiyoubi" comes across as a very quiet and introspective, even dreamy, song led along by a tender-voiced Kosaka. I could even imagine it as a piece ahead of its time considering the future Shibuya-kei a couple of decades later, and in fact, keyboardist Hiroyoshi Yanagida （柳田博義）and guitarist Eiji Kikuchi（菊池英二）even add a bit of jazz in their solos. "Kurai Nichiyoubi" lasts over six minutes but despite a few listenings to it already, it doesn't overstay its welcome.

Apryl Fool -- April Blues

Kinda figured that with it being April 1st today and all, I had to find something appropriate, and I recollect that there was a band connected to this day. Sure enough, there was the rock band Apryl Fool (yes, with a Y) which existed only in the year 1969. For kayo fans, some of the members will be rather familiar to you: Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）, Chu Kosaka（小坂忠）and Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）along with Eiji Kikuchi（菊池英二）on guitar and Hiroyoshi Yanagida （柳田博義）on keyboards. Of course, the following year Hosono and Matsumoto would start up Happy End（はっぴいえんど）. Another tidbit of information is that during Apryl Fool's reign, Matsumoto took on the name of Rei Matsumoto（松本零）.

Via J-Wiki, the September 1969 edition of "New Music Magazine" stated that the initial incarnation of the band was The Floral, a Group Sounds band that had formed in 1968 when Group Sounds was actually on its way down in popularity. Then with the changes in the bassist and drummer, the name of the band itself changed over to Apryl Fool since according to one of the members, the name would allow a measure of freedom in what they could do. Yanagida, who seemed to have been the central member, wanted to take Apryl Fool into more of an art rock or psychedelic rock direction such as was the case with The Doors and Iron Butterfly, and as a result, the band was seen as one of the pioneers for the new Japanese genre of New Rock.

In September 1969, Apryl Fool released their sole self-titled studio album, and the track that I have here is the instrumental "April Blues". It's got the psychedelic rock to be sure, but I think Yanagida's relentlessly rolling piano takes things down the jazz vein. With both rock and jazz in there, I would have remarked that this could have been one of the first cases of a fusion song, but I don't think the jazz and rock are fused here. It's more of a collaborative effort between two genres. There is also that feeling of rawness with all of the background noises and blurting of voices here and there.

Also, you can take a listen to the full album below. Plus, this time, you can also get to listen to Kosaka singing away.