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.
Well, we Blue Peppers（ブルー・ペパーズ）fans had been waiting for this new album for the longest time since their last full album was "Retroactive" from 2017, but finally Naoki Fukuda（福田直木）and Kaoru Inoue（井上薫）released "Symphony" last December, and I was all game to acquire it which I did. I did get my appetizer from the album via "Acacia"（アカシア）, one of the tracks and that was enough for me to part with my yen happily.
I will need a few more listens to "Symphony" to get a good gauge on it, but from what I've heard so far, the general consensus is that this album hews a little closer to the American AOR of the late 70s and early 80s when compared to the neo-urban contemporary of "Retroactive". Case in point is the first track "I'll Be There" by Fukuda and Inoue which seems to hearken back to some rock-tinged West Coast AOR of those 1980s thanks to some twangy guitar and some nostalgic keyboard work. I also get some Sing Like Talking vibes from the singing by Fukuda, too.
Speaking of the keyboard work, I really am getting a hankering for the title track. "Symphony" was handled by composer Fukuda with both fellows responsible for the lyrics. Once again, the 80s are back in full along with a gorgeous sax solo by Ryoji Ihara（庵原良司）as Fukuda sings about being by a loving partner's side through thick and thin.
"Owl's Manner" is an instrumental track with Inoue on keyboards (as he is for all of the tracks) and Fukuda on acoustic guitar, and it's a match made in Heaven for all those who love the city jazz and maybe even those folks who have their copy of the soundtrack for the Fuji-TV drama "Tokyo Love Story". As the year of that drama will indicate, there is more of a feeling of the 1990s here.
There is another guest appearance of a female singer-songwriter on a Blue Peppers track with Natsumi Kiyoura（清浦夏実）of the band TWEEDEES providing her vocals for the mellow "Garasu no Hibi"（硝子の日々...Glass Days）. This one seems to straddle the borderline between AOR and pop, and as such, it also has one foot in the 80s and the other sometime in the 21st century. Kiyoura took care of lyrics while Inoue handled the melody this time.
The final track on "Symphony" is "Michi"（道...Paths）, an elegant ballad which brings thoughts of 1980s David Foster with pretty much any ballad that he came up with back then. The melody by Fukuda and Inoue is fine although I think the latter may have pressed a little too hard on the keys during his solo. Meanwhile, the lyrics are bittersweet as a woman and man have decided that it's time to go on their different paths after a romance.
There are two more tracks but I actually took care of both of them back in early 2020: "Believe In Love" and "Marine Snow no Toshi"（マリンスノーの都市）, so you can take a look at the article that I wrote for the two. In any case, I was glad to get this new album by Blue Peppers and if you like listening to a light and mellow duo who have given their loving tribute to past decades, give "Symphony" a try.
Discovering the wonders of the duo Blue Peppers（ブルー・ペパーズ）a few years ago, I was more than happy to indulge in their first full album "Retroactive" from 2017. And there were quite a few of us who were wondering if and when a second album would become due.
Well, wait no more. Album No. 2"Symphony" was released in Japan only a couple of days ago, and in fact, a few weeks back, a brief tasting menu of sorts of the album was put onto YouTube. However, we got that music video featuring one of the tracks from "Symphony" on December 8th.
"Acacia" was written by both Naoki Fukuda（福田直木）and Kaoru Inoue（井上薫）of the Blue Peppers, and Inoue took care of the melody which one commenter said was a throwback to those early 1990s. Certainly that synthesizer utilized in the song is very mindful of that time and I can't help but hear some of Sing Like Talking back in those days. One can't get more light and mellow than this. According to the explanation right under the video, singer Shiori Sasaki（佐々木詩織）, a collaborator on "Retroactive" is helping out on backing vocals, and even Chara lends a cameo via a phone call in the song. The duo's lyrics are also quite wistful as they sound as if they describe a seasoned resident who had once come to town filled with arrogant energy, got knocked down a number of times but found that special someone to find that measure of peace and love.
But may I also talk about the music video? Under the current restrictions of international travel, the video with its scenes of Shinjuku, Ginza and other areas in Tokyo will have City Pop fans who have yet to head over to the megalopolis weeping for joy and/or longing. Meanwhile, there will be guys like me who will happily spout out "Hey, I walked through there!" and "Yeah, I know that place!". In addition, it's also nice to witness Fukuda and Inoue enjoy a pleasant walk through the neighbourhoods as they kinda look like they jumped out of an early 1990s J-drama.
I did find that tasting menu for "Symphony" now out in stores! Both the videos for "Acacia" and this one are courtesy of YouTube channel Vivid Sound Movie, part of Vivid Sound Corporation which helped produce both of the Blue Peppers' albums along with their earlier works.
I remember when an old friend of mine at university went out with a bunch of other buddies for a drink at a nearby bar, and he was still finding his sea legs when it came to drinking stuff. So, he browsed through the drink menu in the cocktail section since up to then, he apparently had only gone with beer and wine. Then, close to heading home time, he hit something called Long Island Iced Tea and wanted to give that a shot (no pun intended). I didn't know anything about it since I was pretty much connected at the liver to my Brown Cow.
My friend drank it down and he drank it down quickly. He proclaimed it was so very tasty and smooth and if it hadn't been for the fact that it came in an unusually tall highball glass, he would have gone for a second. Well, not too long after that, when we were on the subway, he was doing everything except standing or sitting down. It was fortunate that we had our section of the subway to ourselves because he was as high as a kite and acting like one; luckily, the ceiling kept him from achieving orbit. Even luckier was that one of our other friends was willing to drive him home since he didn't live too far away. I don't know what happened after that but I assume that he got to know his toilet even more intimately the next morning. But we both found out how deceptively potent a Long Island Iced Tea was and still is.😉
Now, let's think about one of Steely Dan's famous songs, "Peg". I think it is the equivalent of a Long Island Iced Tea. Indeed for all of their fans, it is truly tasty and smooth, but according to the history of the making of this prize tune, if I were to further analogize with the best version of the famous cocktail, it would call for not only the best of each ingredient: vodka, tequila, light rum, triple sec, gin, and a splash of cola according to Wikipedia, but also the ones that would work with each other in harmony. So, maybe Belvedere is the best luxury vodka available but for mixing into a Long Island Iced Tea, perhaps Tito's is the one to have, and so on. Try juggling all those ingredients to make the ultimate version.
And apparently that's how hard it was for Donald Fagen and Walter Becker and some of the best studio musicians to come up with "Peg" which was released as a Steely Dan single back in November 1977. Yet, it sounds so groovy and effortlessly catchy (I was grooving again with my shoulders when I heard it a few minutes ago). But through various sources such as YouTube and Wikipedia, I realized that there was the whole thing about the right guitar solo (ultimately achieved by Jay Graydon), how many other musicians were put in and out the revolving door to get the correct combination to play "Peg" to the band's satisfaction, and the certain special chords involved. For the nearly four minutes of pure SD pleasure, everyone probably had to go through some even more major wringers for days or weeks. Such were the famous demands of Fagen and Becker.
I heard "Peg" on the radio of course all the time but the first time I encountered it was, strangely enough, through a TV commercial for some vocational school in Buffalo, New York when I was a teen. I couldn't remember any of the other music that had been playing in the first part of the ad, but then there came the push for dance classes, and suddenly the opening seconds of "Peg" came on. And suddenly, the ad had my full undivided attention as the leotard-wearing kids started to dance to the song.
Ironically though, it wouldn't be until my years in Japan that I finally started purchasing Steely Dan's back catalogue of albums, and it all started from watching a Japanese IBM commercial featuring the ThinkPad and Donald Fagen's"I.G.Y."from his 1982 solo album"The Nightfly". And once I got that one, I just had to start collecting SD CDs. Ultimately, I did get "Aja", the September 1977 album that has "Peg". In Canada, the single peaked at No. 7 on the RPM charts while in the United States, it hit No. 11 on Billboard.
Of course, taking that full dive into City Pop in the last few years of my stint in Tokyo, I and many other City Pop fans have discovered how much Steely Dan has influenced the singers and bands of the genre in terms of their output. Therefore, instead of putting up the usual Oricon leaders or music prize winners of that time, for this ROY article, I will list merely a few of the many songs that contain the Steely Dan DNA.
It's definitely the coldest morning that we've had in a long while...all of 7 degrees Celsius and although it's warmed up to about 18 or so, I think the signs are getting increasingly clear that autumn is just about upon us. As for the COVID-19 forecast, well, it looks like the second wave is upon us as well unfortunately as the daily infection rates blasted off into the 400s today. Looks like it'll be another bumpy 4-6 weeks, maybe.
Anyways, why don't we start off with something soothing to head into the weekend? Maybe the timing isn't spot-on, but "Samidare Diary" (Early Summer Rain Diary) is another wonderful tune from the mellow pop duo of Blue Peppers（ブルー・ペパーズ）. It's somewhat melancholy, though, since the lyrics by Kaori Sakakibara（榊原香保里）are about a man's worries that his relationship with his girlfriend may gradually be coming to a natural end.
However, the lovely bossa nova-like arrangement by Blue Pepper Naoki Fukuda（福田直木）can't be denied. The combination of flute, gentle guitar and piano has me thinking of Vince Guaraldi, and the lone comment under the YouTube video compared "Samidare Diary" to something that singer-songwriter KAN would have tackled, a point that I can't disagree with. Perhaps the melody is one way to let the possibly soon-to-be former lovers down easy.
At just 3 minutes and change, the song is short and sweet, and it belongs to Blue Peppers' 2017 album"Retroactive". I've yet to hear of any new album coming out, and the latest news was from January 2020 about "Retroactive" being available for digital download, according to their website. It would make for some nice news if that second album eventually gets released.
The above photo was something that Rocket Brown of Come Along Radio was very kind to send to me some weeks ago. If you look closely, you can see a very young Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）in the middle of Masamichi Sugi（杉真理）and Red Stripes. With all that heavy garb, they look positively Canadian! I hope that provides some happiness especially to the Mariya fans out there.
And that is the point of this Author's Pick article. Over five years ago in March 2015, I posted up an article in commemoration of the United Nations' International Happiness Day on March 20th (coincidentally Mariya's birthday!) titled "Happy Songs for Me" which listed some of the many songs that have made or kept my spirits happy and light. Just a few months after that, I then provided "Happy Songs for Me 2" just to show that the list was far from complete.
Well in July 2020, I've decided to go for a three-peat. And I think it's especially important now when the pandemic and its various ill effects have left millions upon millions of people feeling anything but happy. Not to say that this article is going to provide the ultimate cure to the population of Earth obviously. However, perhaps for those who do like Japanese popular music, some of my choices in "Happy Songs for Me 3" (along with its two cousins) can be your choices that make you feel happy.
For a fellow who got his education in all things Taeko（大貫妙子）first through her synthpop offerings at the turn of the decade into the 1980s, hearing the singer-songwriter going really high into the 1970s City Pop was quite the revelation. In the years since listening to "Summer Connection" repeatedly, this has become one of my summer must-hears and it's a grand aural sepia-toned photograph into the Tokyo hot season of that decade. Especially when the brass launches it and then she hits her highest notes in the song, I get to go to my happy place.
This wasn't the first Seiko-chan（松田聖子）song that I ever heard but it's been the one that has struck me as being one of the purest grin-giving aidoru numbers of the 1980s. When I first heard this on "Sounds of Japan" decades ago, I thought that this was the ultimate Seiko song. It's just a buoyant summer song of yesteryear powered by disco strings that takes flight over the beach and surf while the teen aidoru and a beau are frolicking the days away.
There's nothing like listening to an Anri（杏里）song from the 1980s with a Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生） engine to drive the blues away. Of course, that includes many tunes but one of my very favourite is "Shyness Boy" from her "Timely!!" album. As soon as I hear this one on the stereo with the sunny brass, I get transported to wherever Anri was having her photograph taken on the cover of the album; I'm assuming that it's either Hawaii or Los Angeles. Just imagine the rise on the happiness scale when listening to "Shyness Boy" while in a convertible driving along the California coastline.
SLT's "Together" is already included in one of the previous "Happy" lists and while that is just one joyous caper through the city, "Mitsumeru Ai de"（みつめる愛で）has me preparing for a fun night out on the town. It's pure fantasy but this song is the theme for throwing on a Hugo Boss suit (that would probably have to go beyond its usual parameters to fit me), getting into a limo with the lady of my dreams (no comment on that), and tripping the light fantastic for dinner and drinking and dancing. Pianist Satoru Shionoya（塩谷哲）absolutely helps in batting this one out of the park.
One of my friends on the JET Programme frankly had the same attitude toward KAN's magnum opus "Ai wa Katsu"（愛は勝つ）that I had (and still have) toward natto: GET IT AWAY FROM ME! She really wasn't much for whimsical pop. For me, "Ai wa Katsu" was one of the musical touchstones in my life since it became that big hit during my two years in Gunma Prefecture. Perhaps the message is as corny as a field in the Midwest but the song still manages to prop up some happy memories of pop culture and life back then.
The next few entries involve some of the wonderful new urban contemporary acts in the last decade that I've discovered in the years since the first two "Happy" lists have come out. Case in point: the cool AOR duo Blue Peppers with vocalist Shiori Sasaki（佐々木詩織）with their "Roku-gatsu no Yume"（6月の夢）, one very happy-go-lucky number that deserves its own light sitcom set in a Tokyo suburb. I get some of that lovely Steely Dan vibe here and I still eagerly await that next album.
Around the same time that I first heard about Blue Peppers, I came across the coolness of BLU-SWING which has been around for over a decade. I really am a late bloomer. At least, I was fortunate to discover "Flash", a great calling card for the band and perhaps the theme song for the nightlife in any major city in Japan. With a combination of sultriness in the vocals and the snap-and-bang in the arrangement, any listener can potentially be enticed to plan a vacation for the metropolises of the nation (although unfortunately not now).
It was quite the re-introduction to Kirinji since I had known them mostly for their soulful ballads back in the early 2000s. How was I to know that the band made a change into catchy/spacey pop tunes some years back? And then I get hit with "Jikan ga nai"（時間がない）with its video that has gone worldwide with that middle-aged manager and his disco moves. I didn't stand a chance. Even now, as I write this, my shoulders instinctively started shimmying to the groove. I won't ever hit a dance floor but I can imagine that I'm on one thanks to this one.
Of course, I'm going to end this list with the first singer that I mentioned off the top. There's something so adorably 80s AOR about "Morning Glory" and since I'm a big AOR fan, it's downright Pavlovian how I react whenever I hear this track from "Miss M". Thankfully, I tend to get happy instead of salivating all over the CD. Maybe Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）thought it was a little too AOR for his tastes, but I'm perfectly happy with his future wife's original (although Tats' version on "For You" is also fine).
Well, that is my third list of happy songs. I hope that at least some of them made you happy in these uncertain times. Already there are tunes that are stabbing me in the head demanding why I haven't included them so I'm pretty sure that there will be a fourth list sometime down the line without having to wait another five years. For commenters and collaborators, let me know what your happy song or songs are.
I had always been anticipating any new music from the duo Blue Peppers（ブルー・ペパーズ）, that smooth J-AOR duo bringing together the new and the old that I discovered about a couple of years ago. It didn't take much prodding for me to get their first full album "Retroactive".
Happily, I have also discovered that Naoki Fukuda（福田直樹）and Kaoru Inoue（井上薫）released a new single last December in digital download format and then later in January this year as a regular CD. "Believe In Love" keeps the sweet Blue Peppers sound with Fukuda singing away to an arrangement which had me thinking partially of Al Jarreau's"Breakin' Away". There's something so relaxing and optimistic about this one, and the cover of the two walking along the beach is perfect.
One YouTube commenter wondered whether Yutaka Yokokura（横倉豊）inspired this second song from the single, "Marine Snow no Toshi" (Marine Snow City) due to that koto in there, although since the instrument isn't listed on the page for the single on their website (just scroll down a bit), it's probably some keyboard magic by Inoue. Additional magic is provided by having Shiori Sasaki（佐々木詩織）return to share the vocals with Fukuda. It was Blue Peppers and Sasaki who introduced that first song to me back in 2018, "Roku-gatsu no Yume"（6月の夢）, and it's been love ever since. Nothing like these two numbers to bring in some mood of spring.
Apparently, the single is only in limited supply in stores, so I will probably wait a while until a full album comes out. Hopefully, that won't be long but I will keep my yen ready.
OK, Blue Peppers（ブルー・ペパーズ）...where have you been hiding your copy of Steely Dan's"Aja"?
A couple of days ago, I put up an Author's Pick on bossa nova/samba-influenced kayo. Now I'm wondering whether I should write something similar on Japanese songs that have been inspired by the sweet melodies by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen.
Good golly, I'm so glad that someone finally uploaded Blue Peppers'"Searchlight" from their 2017 album"Retroactive". This is so Steely Dan that if Fagen ever heard this, he probably would be rushing through his master tapes to see whether he and his late partner had ever created this. I'm not sure whether a name was ever placed on the distinctive Dan sound with the keyboards and guitar and horns: percolating grooves of velvet? In any case, Blue Peppers nailed it here.
Masato Inami（伊波真人）and one-half of Blue Peppers,Naoki Fukuda（福田直木）, who also worked on one of the other tracks on "Retroactive", "Akikaze no Regret"（秋風のリグレット...Autumn Wind Regret）, collaborated on "Searchlight", a cool night tune about a fellow who may be hitting the town...hard...to rid himself of the memories of a lost romance, a romance lost because of him. The last line in the song refers to the titular searchlight possibly exposing him as the heel he has been. From another angle, the song could even be a chapter in a noirish detective novel featuring Mike Hammer getting hammered because he dropped a hammer on his love life (yeah, that last part came up suddenly and it was too good to resist).
Listening to "Searchlight" and the rest of the album, as I did earlier today, has given me a good feeling about getting "Retroactive" in the first place, and I can only hope that Blue Peppers will record their next album really soon. In the meantime, I'm going to listen to "Deacon Blues" and "Peg" by Steely Dan for the umpteenth time.
Once again, we're on the cusp of a weekend, so to finish off my articles for Friday, perhaps I can do so with something AOR or City Pop.
Happy that I can include another song by light and mellow Blue Peppers（ブルー・ペパーズ）from their 2017 album"Retroactive". This is "Futari no Mirai" (A Future for Us) with the lovely voice of Shiori Sasaki（佐々木詩織）gracing the notes once again.
Written and composed by Blue Pepper Kaoru Inoue（井上薫）, along with the 21st-century J-AOR feeling, I also think that there is a nice overlay of sunny Shibuya-kei, just judging from the arrangement. I get this impression that Inoue may have been going for some sort of tune which would have been ideal as a theme song for some breezy rom-com from the 1960s. Certainly Inoue's lyrics of one-half of a relationship reassuring the other that no matter the problem, they can overcome it together kinda hint at something along the lines of a Redford/Fonda flick. In any case, it's just the jazzy tonic to get us into the weekend...without the hangover.
Last night, I wrote an article on another one of Blue Peppers'（ブルー・ペパーズ）mellow tracks from their 2017 album"Retroactive", "Hachi-gatsu no Kageboushi"（八月の影法師）, and in fact, much earlier this year, I had written about the album itself.
One of the tracks that was tackled on the article for "Retroactive" itself was the innocent and warm "Cobalt Blue" as sung by former AKB48 member Michiru Hoshino（星野みちる）. Well, in the last few days, I found out that this particular track was actually a cover of the original version provided by Blue Peppers to Fukuoka-born singer Shiho Nanba（南波志帆）.
Nanba has been around as a performer since 2008 with her major debut beginning in 2010. "Cobalt Blue" is a track on her third album"meets sparkjoy" released in April 2016 (and reaching No. 45 on Oricon). With only a few differences in the arrangement (including some electric guitar at the end), and a slightly less whispery delivery by Nanba, the song is an ironically titled track. On first seeing the title, I would have thought that it was prefacing a cool-as-ice hard techno tune. Instead, it's referring to a girl's accessory on the ideal day to have that wonderful date in the park.
Welcome to another end of a work week. Hopefully, most of you will be enjoying a full weekend. Met up with an old friend for lunch earlier today and he and his wife will be heading out to Japan for a couple of weeks of vacation. Lucky dog!
Anyways I want to get back to that "Retroactive" album by AOR band Blue Peppers（ブルー・ペパーズ）that I introduced in March this year. There are a few more tracks that I have yet to cover from the November 2017 release, so here is "Hachi-gatsu no Kageboushi" (August Silhouette).
This was the first track from "Retroactive", and as its title intimates, it's a bouncy summer tune that would be nice to listen to at this time of year. Blue Peppers took care of the melody while Masato Inami（伊波真人）provided the lyrics about dreaming of that wonderful girl. I can hear just a bit of Steely Dan and some more of Tomita Lab（富田ラボ）in there. Some really happy soul with "Hachi-gatsu no Kageboushi".
Well, the allure of free points for a limited time on CD Japan was too much to reject. I ended up getting another 4 albums to add to the collection, and one of them was a recent discovery. About a month ago, I discovered a duo called Blue Peppers（ブルー・ペパーズ）which has been creating this groovy sound of AOR and fusion for a few years. The song that I fell for was "Roku-gatsu no Yume"（6月の夢）with Shiori Sasaki（佐々木詩織）as the guest vocalist, and it was this cool happy-go-lucky number that could have described a sunny Sunday afternoon outing.
I heard a few more of their songs on YouTube and checked out their website. From that point, I decided that I would invest in their latest release which is their first full album"Retroactive" from November 2017.
Not certain whether Naoki Fukuda（福田直木）and Kaoru Inoue（井上薫）had thought about it this way, but I think the title is pretty darn clever because when I read it, I think of "retro" and "active". Having listened to the album once and hearing the individual tracks on YouTube again, there is that modern groove to be sure but there is also that love letter to the sounds of yesterday, notably the music that Fukuda and Inoue have loved listening to, ranging from the discography of Steely Dan to Toko Furuuchi（古内東子）. Retro is indeed active.
One of the tracks is "Zutto"（ずっと...Always）that actually came out earlier in 2017, and once again, the lovely vocals of Shiori Sasaki come to the fore. The music harkens back to the 1990s when the aforementioned Furuuchi first made her presence known. It is some of that J-Soul that was percolating through the late 90s into the early 2000s that "Zutto" reminds me of. Inoue wrote and composed this track.
"Akikaze no Regret"（秋風のリグレット...Autumn Wind Regret）, which was the coupling song for "Zutto", takes my mind back even further since it reminds me of an old late 70s/early 80s AOR number from one of my compilations from the genre, perhaps Jackson Browne. Fukuda composed and sang this piece of nostalgia while Masato Inami（伊波真人）wrote the lyrics about a fellow who has lost a love but would like another chance.
Former AKB48 member Michiru Hoshino（星野みちる）who has been carving out her own solo career for the past few years comes in as a guest vocalist for "Cobalt Blue"（コバルトブルー）which seems to be a new song. Written and composed by Blue Peppers, it has that similar happy-go-lucky vibe as "Roku-gatsu no Yume".
And for the final track, here is a shortened version of "Ase wa Amai Kuchizuke"（汗は甘い口づけ...Sweat is a Sweet Kiss）which nearly demands to be heard with a glass of sangria. Some very sunny bossa nova infused into this track, and I think Blue Peppers even gave a tiny shoutout to Antonio Carlos Jobim's"Brazil".
I will leave it at that for now since you can also listen to the samples of all of the tracks from "Retroactive" below and form your own opinions. As for me, another happy acquisition from the current crop of urban contemporary music from Japan.
I think for a lot of folks here, it's already past the point where they've had enough of the winter. It's bad enough that two out of the three groundhogs on the 2nd said that there would be 6 more weeks of this season, but Toronto has gotten another few centimetres of snow during the morning rush which caused a lot of traffic accidents on the roads. And in Japan's Fukui Prefecture, there are reportedly 1000 vehicles just plain stuck on one long stretch of road due to the heavy snow. Spring is probably desperately desired at this point.
Well, I can't really help out in the weather department. However, perhaps for those who come to the blog like barflies to the neighbourhood pub, I can perhaps serve up a bit of lovely sunshine tonight. I found out about these guys named Blue Peppers（ブルー・ペパーズ）last night on YouTube. The two members, Naoki Fukuda（福田直木）and Kaoru Inoue（井上薫）from Keio University in Tokyo have created this music which spans AOR, Latin, jazz and fusion...genres that I do love. Plus when I read on their website that Fukuda digs folks like Steely Dan, Jay Graydon, Gino Vannelli (yeah, Canada!), Tomita Lab（冨田ラボ）and Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）while Inoue likes Kirinji（キリンジ）, Maaya Sakamoto（坂本真綾）, and Toko Furuuchi（古内東子）, among others, Blue Peppers instantly had my attention and affinity.
The song that I discovered came from their first release in October 2015, "Blue Peppers EP". It turned out to be their first track "Roku-gatsu no Yume" (Dreams of June) with vocalist Shiori Sasaki（佐々木詩織）piping in here as well as providing the lyrics to Blue Peppers' melody. As I said, the song is breezy and summery, and it would be just the number to back up a picnic in a park or some brunch with friends. It's just the tonic for these wintry climes.
"Roku-gatsu no Yume" has also made it onto their first full album, "Retroactive"which was released in November 2017.
