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.
Yes, I know...Jamaica isn't in the southern Atlantic Ocean but I merely wanted to put up something tropical for this particular song.
When I wrote the first article on the band Chakra, it was for their 1981 "Myun Myun" (ミュンミュン) which was adorably nutty, and with Mishio Ogawa's（小川美潮）loopy vocals and the synths bombing away, the New Wave was strong with this one.
Recently, I discovered another song by Chakra, the title track from their final May 1983 album"Nanyo de Yoisho" (Heave Ho on the South Seas). Though there are whispers of the technopop and New Wave here and there, "Nanyo de Yoisho" actually does sound more like a calming tropical pop tune, and there are even hints of Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）and Tin Pan Alley especially when some of the percussion taps in. It feels like the band decided to relax a bit and take a cruise somewhere in the South Atlantic. Band guitarist Bun Itakura（板倉文）took care of the music with Ogawa and Itsuro Shimoda（下田逸郎）helping out with the lyrics.
It was much cooler this morning than the steamy weekend we had and in fact, there was even some rain coming down. Therefore, it was ironic that our building had gotten a sudden notice of water shutoff due to an emergency which involved a valve needing to be replaced immediately. Fortunately, the crisis only lasted a few hours and H2O is back flowing through the taps once more. Nothing like the lack of a vital substance to add further stress to a Monday.
Anyways, let's launch the work week with something a little unusual to match my once out-of-sorts mood this morning. I've written about the 80s eclectic band Chakra（チャクラ）a few times already with most of the articles that I've written about them having gone over some upbeat if bizarre songs such as the supremely catchy "Myun Myun" (ミュンミュン) and the epic 10-minute bouncy New Wave adventure of "Chotto Itai kedo Suteki"（ちょっと痛いけどステキ）from their sophomore 1981 album"Satekoso"（さてこそ...As Expected）. Fun stuff those!
Well, another track on "Satekoso" is "Free" which, given the aforementioned two tracks, is a more calming and relatively down-to-earth song about being encouraged to be free, even to the point of perhaps even jettisoning a relationship. Still, "Free" resembles its two trackmates in that it's not that easy to categorize in terms of genre although by the end, I decided to go with technopop. I think that the songs that I've heard from Chakra thus far are like aural Long Island Iced Teas...they've got some disparate ingredients in those but the total effect is still very sweet if potent.
Some other observations of "Free" is that Mishio Ogawa's（小川美潮）vocals sound slightly more relaxed here so that I even get some vibes of Dreams Come True's huskier-voiced Miwa Yoshida（吉田美和）. As well, "Free" is significantly shorter than "Myun Myun" and "Chotto Itai kedo Suteki" at a little over three-and-a-half minutes but Chakra guitarist/songwriter Bun Itakura（板倉文）manages to stuff in so much within that brief time. A "Doctor Who" fan (like me) might say that the song is a TARDIS of a tune.
Around any subway or train station in the Tokyo area, if a commuter flung a stone, there would probably be a 50% chance that it'll hit one of the following: 1) a McDonalds, 2) a pachinko parlour, or 3) a shiatsu clinic.
That was absolutely the case in my area of Ichikawa City, namely at Minami-Gyotoku Station on the Tozai Line. I frequented 1) a few times a week (miraculously I'm still alive), never went to 2) (my interest in pachinko died when I discovered a desire for healthy lungs and ears and financial status), and for a while, I even went to 3).
You got it...for a while, at least, I did make visits to the neighbourhood massage clinic just across from the south exit of Nangyo Station twice a month or so. I guess like a lot of other Japanese customers, I was a tad masochistic since those masseurs could really push down hard on tissue. One guy even managed to reach my chest...through my back. Like the video above at a channel that I subscribe to, Rirakuya, I often asked the technician to work out the kinks in my back and neck. For 1500 yen a session, I got to wear the massaging air boots on my feet, before the main course of real hands, and then the finisher on the roller bed. The treatments depended on the masseur but often I had that feeling which can be said in Japanese to be itakimochiii（イタ気持ちいい...hurts so good）. And nope, there is no leather or whips involved.
That above anecdote was brought to you by Chakra's（チャクラ）"Chotto Itai kedo Suteki" (A Bit Sore But Wonderful), a track from their 1981 second album"Satekoso"（さてこそ...As Expected）. This is the same release that has "Myun Myun"（ミュンミュン）which is probably how most folks outside of Japan got to know this rather eclectic band.
"Myun Myun" may be quite good for a drive on the highway which is how I first got to know it (thanks, Van Paugam), but "Chotto Itai kedo Suteki" just brings back all sorts of memories of a variety of 80s music from my youth. It's one happy march that seems to invite New Wave, ska, technopop for a big party. On top of that, in terms of actual artists, I get some Devo and Nina Hagen as well.
Plus, there's the fact that the song is over 10 minutes long! I have heard a few songs that did go on for about a sixth of an hour as performed by artists as varied as Stevie Wonder and Chaz Jankel. And though the latter's "Am I Honest with Myself Really?" is the only one that has truly been worth the time (and that depends on my mood at the time), "Chotto Itai kedo Suteki" does come close. But even by Mishio Ogawa's（小川美潮）musical admission midway through the song, break time is needed and she takes it midway for about a couple of minutes before she returns with a vengeance. I just hope that some of the breakables were taken away from the studio before the 6-minute mark. Still, I was some doing major bopping for a guy my age at the really good parts.
Back at the beginning of the year, I wrote about this song that I had discovered on YouTube called "Myun Myun", the weirdly attractive ditty by technopop/New Wave duo Chakra（チャクラ）from the 1980s. It looks like the song has gotten some traction from the YouTubers, even on Van Paugam'sCity Pop radio. It has dug in like a Ceti Alpha eel.
Then today, I came across this track from Chakra's last album from 1983, "Nanyo de Yoisho"（南洋でヨイショ...Heave Ho on the South Seas）. Titled "Mada" (Not Yet), it hooked me instantly since it sounded like a mix of technopop and whimsy and New Wave that could have been up either Akiko Yano's（矢野顕子）or Taeko Ohnuki's（大貫妙子）alley at the time. Guitarist Bun Itakura（板倉文）came up with the song while pleasantly plaintive vocalist Mishio Ogawa（小川美潮）wrote the lyrics. Always nice to encounter any new techno kayo.
Ah, if only my awareness and ambition about Japanese popular music had been more open back in 1981 when I visited Japan back then, I probably would not only have been able to pick up a lot more singles in the aidoru category but also go further afield.
Why did I just get all so philosophical above? Well, I discovered this YouTube video featuring this New Wave band from that same year, and it wasn't Yellow Magic Orchestra. At the time, I had thought that YMO had a monopoly on that sound but if I had been smarter, I would have known that the influential band had been around for a few years which meant that other synthesizer bands probably did emerge from the woodwork to get on the bandwagon.
In this case, this was the band Chakra (チャクラ) which had a number of members but the main two were Mishio Ogawa（小川美潮）on vocals and Bun Itakura（板倉文）on guitar. The song featured here tonight is "Myun Myun" (try 3:27) from their 2nd album"Satekoso"（さてこそ...As Expected）from 1981 and it's quite the technopop earworm. In fact, I would say that it's the far older and cooler cousin to that "Nyan Cat" song which was all the rage several years ago. Itakura and Ogawa wrote the vocals while Itakura took care of the music. Listening to it, I got that feeling of Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）in there when she was also on her own technopop kick at the time. Along with Ogawa chirping the title, I also like the guitar work.
Chakra started in 1980 with a self-titled album produced by Makoto Yano（矢野誠）who had been married to the aforementioned Akiko. Then "Satekoso" came out the following year with Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）from YMO taking care of the production. One more album came out in 1983 titled "Nanyo de Yoisho"（南洋でヨイショ...Heave Ho on the South Seas）before Chakra finally broke up. Only one single was released in 1980 "Fuku no Tane"（福の種...Seed of Fortune）.
