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.
Major League Baseball is in its final days of Grapefruit League action before the official season begins next week. Locally, of course, we're looking forward to seeing the Blue Jays back at Rogers Centre and see if they can pull off what they almost did last year.
Not to say that technopop band Denki Groove（電気グルーヴ）has done so for every song they've ever concocted, but I remember a few songs of theirs that have had certain themes in mind. There is the train theme for "Popo"（ポポ）and "Mononoke Dance"（モノノケダンス）with its atmosphere of the scary spirits in mind. Well, their 22nd single from August 2022 is "HOMEBASE" which is all about the baseball. Along with the usual fun plinky-plunky technopop, there is some of the rah-rah cheering prevalent at any Japanese baseball game incorporated.
Of course, Denki Groove also loves to have its tongue-in-cheekiness and the majority of the lyrics for "HOMEBASE" is the reading of a team's lineup with some of the zaniest names. The music video has band member Pierre Taki（ピエール瀧）pull off humanity's longest headfirst slide (with a juice break) in front of Takkyu Ishino（石野卓球）as the tough-as-nails manager.
Look at all those abbreviations in the United States. Makes things rather compact, don't they? Well, it's time for a bit of whimsy here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" today as this thought came to my mind for the latest Author's Picks. I think they're rare enough but there are some Japanese songs that have two-letter abbreviations in their titles, so why not give a few out?
A few years ago, I posted an article regarding chaotic techno band Denki Groove's（電気グルーヴ）cover of Yellow Magic Orchestra's"Cosmic Surfin'". This was a coupling song to the band's debut single"Mud Ebis" from October 1991.
Well, I finally got to see the music video for "Mud Ebis" and even from the beginning, Takkyu Ishino（石野卓球）and his gang relished their roles as the wild and crazy guys of Japanese music. I gotta admit though that the three members looked so young and clean-shaven back then, although that was the least weird part of the video.
As for the title of the song, "Ebis" refers to the Japanese god of money, Ebisu. However, the "Mud" part I'm not sure, unless it actually means "mad" or "insane". According to the J-Wiki article for "Mud Ebis", Ishino wanted to provide his own comical indictment on the pampered children of the nouveau riche but the lyrics weren't meant to be taken that seriously.
Let's see...for a Sunday, it was quite stressful. We've had a telephone modem that's been doing more conniptions than a stomach unaccustomed to flying or roller coasters. Spent an hour talking with a technician online and then another waiting and then consulting with a real live tech as he replaced the bum battery and power cord on the thing. The modem is back to its happy self...for now. It hasn't been a good year for me and technology.
It's "Shameful". Nope, not my lack of adeptness with telecommunications but the subject of this article. To be exact, this is the April 2012 single by those techno wizards, Denki Groove（電気グルーヴ）. Although I wouldn't call it the very best of their dance club-worthy stuff, I did need "Shameful" to get me somewhat out of my gloom and fatigue today.
The video with the junior DJs was rather cute. And looking at those mile-high towers of school desks reminded me of certain scenes in the 1982 "Poltergeist". I really had that feeling to try and shoot something down myself after a modem issue that could have entered its second week. Anyways, "Shameful" ranked in at No. 26 on Oricon and it was also a track on Denki Groove's February 2013 album"Ningen to Doubutsu"（人間と動物...Human Beings and Animals） which peaked at No. 12.
Interestingly enough, I'm going to try and get today's (Wednesday June 28 2023) articles (or just the one) up within the last 45 minutes before we end up migrating over to Thursday. I was taking some long-awaited me time to enjoy myself downtown all day today.
Looks like I've got the coupling song to Denki Groove's（電気グルーヴ）very first single"Mud Ebis" from October 1991, and it turns out to be "Cosmic Surfin'". It happens to be a live cover (in Los Angeles) of the Yellow Magic Orchestraoriginal from their very first album in 1978. YMO'sHaruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）was behind the original.
So instead of "Cosmic Surfin'" as a technopop tribute to The Ventures, Denki Groove has gone for a more dance club approach with what sounds like House music. I also like the shoutout to Art of Noise's"Dragnet" via a very recognizable quote, and did I hear a familiar rat-a-tat of the drums from YMO's version of "Tighten Up"? It's always interesting to listen to a band's early output for comparison.
Yup, it's gonna be just the one tonight. See you on Thursday!
For this week's Reminiscings of Youth, how about a little popcorn? Well, actually I was talking about "Popcorn".
Before Denki Groove（電気グルーヴ）, before Yellow Magic Orchestra and even before Kraftwerk, there was composer and electronic music pioneer Gershon Kingsley who was the champion for the legendary Moog synthesizer. He was the fellow who came up with the instrumental "Popcorn" in 1969. Even hearing this original version in 2023, "Popcorn" still stuns me with its otherworldliness even in a world where synthesizers have become as familiar as the piano in pop music. I can't imagine how listeners fathomed this 54 years earlier. "Popcorn" can be found on Kingsley's "Music to Moog by".
Have a look at this part of a documentary on Kingsley as he talks about how the title for the song came to be. As he himself put it back then, it's not what you think. At about 1:15 in the footage, I may have come across the inspiration for Yellow Magic Orchestra donning the tuxedoes in the music video for "Tong Poo".
Kingsley may have been the original composer for "Popcorn", but the version that I heard as a kid first via those K-Tel compilations had been recorded by the band Hot Butter for release in July 1972 (my other personal experience with the song involved trying to dance to it as an exercise in elementary school, but the less said about that, the better😱). For the lack of a better word, I think this version had a bit more down-to-earth disco and the popping sounds for the main melody did engrave into my head the feeling that this was the melodic version of Jiffy Pop being made.
And for those who may not know what Jiffy Pop is...yep, we had this too in the old days.
Hot Butter's cover of "Popcorn" became an international hit as it reached the top of the charts in several European countries including France and Germany. It didn't too shabbily here in the United States and Canada either as it hit No. 9 and No. 15 respectively. Over the years, it's been covered by various other bands around the world including Japan's own Denki Groove which brought in its own distinctive take via their No. 5-ranking 1993 album"VITAMIN".
Going with Hot Butter's version of "Popcorn", what was also being released in July 1972?
Last night, I was talking about enka singer Sayuri Ishikawa's（石川さゆり）50th anniversary in show business. Well, it was actually a few years ago, but another act that I've known for years celebrated its own anniversary.
Denki Groove（電気グルーヴ）heralded its 30th anniversary back in 2019 with its studio album "30", and once again, through their music video for the track "Denki Groove San-juu Shuunen no Uta"(Denki Groove's 30th Anniversary Song), they have merged the wacko with their techno. Written and composed by Takkyu Ishino（石野卓球）, it's apparently a remix of "Denki Groove Ni-juu Shuunen no Uta"（電気グルーヴ20周年のうた...Denki Groove's 20th Anniversary Song） but I couldn't find that song anywhere on YouTube, so I'll take their word for it. Singer-songwriter and TV personality Akari Machi（町あかり）helps out behind the mike.
Sounding like a tribal ballad of tribute, the animated video has Ishino and Pierre Taki（ピエール瀧）done up as lab technicians while a monkey undergoing experiments finally decides that he's had enough and breaks out. Along the way, he finds adventure, comrades and love. Looks like there was quite the number of movie shoutouts as well with "Planet of the Apes", the "Hachiko" movie, "Black Rain" and even an annual telethon in Japan. Denki Groove certainly doesn't do small.
Well, NHK's "News at 9" went on a different tack this morning here. Instead of the usual doom-and-gloom news (for the most part), the anchors and reporters not only based their broadcast from the Osaka studio for the first time, but they also gave a cheery report on the 2025 Expo there and acknowledged some history in that 2022 is the 150th anniversary of railroads in Japan.
For a country filled with rabid train enthusiasts, this sesquicentennial has to be a big deal. And at Shimbashi Station in Tokyo, there was a commemorative ceremony and not surprisingly, a ton of tore-ota showed up with cameras and smartphones in tow. I can only imagine that there have been many specials all over the television dial this year as well as similar station ceremonies all over Japan.
If I'd known about this auspicious year in public transportation, I would have acknowledged it on Aya's（彩）"Happy Train" which I wrote about on Monday. However, this has given me an opportunity to devote an Author's Picks on those train-connected tunes. Of course, there is so much related kayo out there and I've covered my small share of them here on KKP, but off the top of my head, I'll just put these up in my own recognition of this piece of history.
Now, why did I put up this photo of me cooking up a big thick slab of unagi in my frypan in my old Ichikawa apartment? No particular reason, but it was tasty with rice that night.
Just the prologue that I needed to introduce this totally bonkers song by techno unit Denki Groove（電気グルーヴ）. Even for a Denki Groove tune, "Edisonden" (Edison Power) comes down as a truly nonsensical seven minutes of electronic pleasure. A track from their 8th original CD album in February 2000, "VOXXX", this whole attempt at incorporating a bit of Dadaism into your listening day was created by the band and DJ Tasaka, and rumour has it that at least some radio stations refused to play it on air lest they unnerve too many of their listeners.
Yeah, I have to admit that it's tremendously weird but "Edisonden" to me sounds more like a song that was whipped up after Takkyu Ishino（石野卓球）and Pierre Taki（ピエール瀧）had gone on a major bender through Roppongi and improbably made it back to the studio to have a bit of insane sampling fun. The song seems to be centered around what sounds like either a Bollywood soundtrack or a kayo orchestra on an ancient television variety show. The site Boshi/Jusei has its own explanation for "Edisonden" along with the translation of the lyrics, and nope, they lost me at Momoko Kikuchi（菊池桃子）. As for "VOXXX", it hit No. 5 on Oricon.
I'd like to state that no actual horses were harmed in the making of the following video.
However, if you have ever wondered about what would happen with alien-abducted Equus ferus caballus, then this is the video for you. This belongs to Denki Groove's（電気グルーヴ）"UFOholic", a track from their March 2017 album"Tropical Love" and as composed by DG maestro Takkyu Ishino（石野卓球）, it's a pretty happy and bouncy technopop tune. Characterized by a cute and catchy little computer riff, it's appropriately dreamy and spaced-out as a more approachable "2001: A Space Odyssey" version of that end-of-movie journey to becoming the Starchild.
The director for the cute if somewhat unsettling video was Cyriak who has his own distinctive style. Apparently, he enjoys the Droste effect. But here is another one of this video creations for Run The Jewels'"Meowpurrdy".
I remember our time in the JCSA back at University of Toronto when we had our Monday night movie showings in Sigmund Samuel Library, ostensibly to help some of our members from Japan with their English comprehension. One of the flicks that we showed was Joel Schumacher's"Falling Down" starring Michael Douglas as an already wound-up citizen of Los Angeles who finally cracks and goes on a personal rampage. It was plenty of fun to watch.
Luckily, this "Fallin' Down" (without the formal g at the end of the first word) is far more jovial than Douglas' D-Fens character. A February 2015 single by technopop group Denki Groove（電気グルーヴ）, it's a simple and happy little synth-ditty by Takkyu Ishino and Pierre Taki（石野卓球・ピエール瀧）, and anchored by that bass synthesizer, the gang and the other synths take us listeners for a little march through the sky. Nice slightly Dadaist music video, too, with those soaring sky-flyers.
"Fallin' Down" peaked at No. 24 on Oricon and it's also a track on Denki Groove's March 2017 studio album "Tropical Groove" which went as high as No. 7. The song was also used as a theme for the TV Tokyo horror-comedy "Kaiki Ren'ai Sakusen"（怪奇恋愛作戦...Spooky Romantics） that was also broadcast in early 2015.
Catchy techno beat and bizarro video. Yep, once again, it's time for Denki Groove（電気グルーヴ）!
Remembering the band's "Flashback Disco" from 1999, I bring you their lead track from October 2014's "25", a mini-album commemorating Denki Groove's 25th anniversary in the music business. "Baby's On Fire" was created by Takkyu Ishino（石野卓球）with assistance on the lyrics by Pierre Taki（ピエール瀧）. As well, helping out on vocals is Sachiko Aoyama（蒼山幸子） and her band Negoto（ねごと）which specialized in rock and electronica. I will have to look more into this group as well.
Ishino's lyrics seem to depict someone trying to target a woman for pickup but feeling that the hunt is rather lacking something this time around. But for me, it's about the bouncy melody which strikes me as being somewhat old-fashioned House. Plus the music video, directed by Hideyuki Tanaka（田中秀幸）, provides one reason not to accept that invitation to that factory tour, as even one of the head-to-foot shielded workers in the factory may be having his "Soylent Green" moment, especially on knowing where the product ultimately goes (at least, it was a modern model). The album, by the way, peaked at No. 15 on Oricon.
Well, perhaps this is a first! Usually when it comes to commemorating anniversaries for certain lauded kayo here, I've found myself a few days to a few weeks late. For example, I was almost three weeks late to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Yellow Magic Orchestra's amazing "Rydeen" earlier this year.
This time around, I'm unfashionably early for YMO's "Technopolis" which was actually the band's debut single released on October 25th 1979. That's right...it's going to be 41 years old in 16 days. Feel free to get those famous words out of your system:
T-E-C-H-N-O-P-O-L-I-S...TOKIO, TOKIO!
Now, I already gave some description about "Technopolis" back in 2012 when I wrote about the album that it was placed on, "Solid State Survivor", which became the No. 2 album for 1979. However, I never gave my full feelings on the melodic love letter to Japan's capital by YMO member Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）. I realize that "Rydeen" will probably be the YMO song that fans will gravitate to first (and I'm a huge fan of it as well), but "Technopolis" is also one of the trio's trademark tunes. After Sakamoto through his vocoder intones his first pair of "TOKIO", the synth melody flows in with an air of mystery and deep wonder as images of gleaming towers rise up and as we the listeners/tourists go further into the titular technopolis, all sorts of incredible architecture suddenly surround us like a 2xth-century utopia. There's also that high-pitched oscillating synth which sounds like a police warning and a welcoming herald into Tokyo.
Some of the interesting trivia that I gleaned from the J-Wiki article for "Technopolis" is that in creating this song, he researched and analyzed a number of Pink Lady songs (!) and reconstructed them to see if he could come up with something that would sell as a "Tokyo kayo".YMO bandmate Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）commented in an issue of "SWITCH" magazine via the J-Wiki article stated that The Professor constructed "Technopolis" under the assumption of prolific composer Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）being asked to create a YMO song...and that's why it became a hit.
During that turning point in my life which was represented by my 1981 summer trip to Japan, I didn't hear "Technopolis" or "Rydeen". However, on listening to "Firecracker" back in Toronto and then a cool technopop version of Vivaldi's "Spring" at the Toshiba Science Centre, I knew that I had to get a YMO audiotape, and I did end up purchasing their first album in Osaka (which didn't have either "Technopolis" or "Rydeen" to my disappointment, but how was I to know?). Still, I could only imagine how much more excited about technopop I would have gotten if Sakamoto's creation had entered my ears during my first five days in the capital.
Another reason that I'm writing this article tonight is that, like "Rydeen", a number of other technopop groups over the decades have provided their own take on "Technopolis". During my time in Japan, for instance, I bought "YMO REMIXES TECHNOPOLIS 2000-01" which came out in November 1999 and consists of remix versions of the Orchestra's songs by those groups. One is "Technopolis (The Readymade - Darlin' of Discotheque Track)" provided by Yasuharu Konishi（小西康晴）of Pizzicato Five fame. It took me a while to figure out his angle, but then I figured out that it was a particularly intense surf rock layer over the original Sakamoto melody. Frankie and Annette and all of their beach blanket bingo buddies would be doing The Swim together at a rave to this one. It goes to show that you can't stop at one peanut since a sequel album was released, "YMO REMIXES TECHNOPOLIS 2000-00" the following year. This time, it's Denki Groove's（電気グルーヴ）"Technopolis (Denki's Techtropolis-RMX)". To be honest, I wasn't initially a fan of this version since it consists of certain phrases from the song being repeated over and over but then over time, it's gotten to grow on me. Basically, I would be doing the full dance to Konishi's remix (don't imagine that please) but nodding my head or shifting my shoulders most intensely to Denki Groove's take.
Ah, by the way, the bad news is that I believe that both albums have the dreaded haiban status but perhaps you may be able to find copies through auction.
Several years ago, I discovered this video on YouTube by Orengedenki, aka Hiroshi Oikawa. He has been specializing in covers of YMO songs and although I don't think that he has ever released anything on CD or streaming, he has put out a lot of content through his YouTube channel. Also known as Orange Magnetic Orchestra (OMO), his version of "Technopolis" has some more bongo-esque percussion, a bit more spaciness in parts and some rearrangement here and there. I also have to give my compliments to the video which was released in 2010...nothing like West Shinjuku including Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building to show off a modern megalopolis.
Since I'm subscribed to his channel, I've also got to show Chick Norman's"The Dark Prison Mix" of "Technopolis". Y'know, if there were ever a Hollywood thriller movie set in Tokyo, this would be the version that I would love to have rolling during the snazzy end credits sequence.
In finishing, I've been reading the comments underneath the videos about how either "Technopolis" or "Rydeen" ought to be performed at the Tokyo Olympics' Opening Ceremonies, provided that they will indeed take place in 2021. I'm good with either one if Yellow Magic Orchestra is invited to come up on stage at the Olympic Stadium. But I also have to admit that I would love to see Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）come back to perform "TOWN" as well.
Not sure how Takkyu Ishino（石野卓球）, Pierre Taki（ピエール瀧）and the rest of the guys from oft-comical techno unit Denki Groove（電気グルーヴ）felt right at the beginning of their career in the late 1980s. They must have felt full of beans and other energies at the possibilities with all of their wacky ideas and musical equipment of synthesizers and samplers.
My impression from this opening track from "662 BPM BY DG" (June 1990), their very first album under an indies label, SSE, is that Ishino and the rest of Denki Groove were more than happy to hit the tarmac running. "Denki Biri Biri" (Electric Shock), written and composed by Ishino, feels to me like it sucked in its fair share of samples, a slice of New Order, a dollop of Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）and even a good handful of Beastie Boys. Part of the fun is trying to identify the sources of those samples; I could pick out Eddie Murphy, Depeche Mode and Robocop so far within "Denki Biri Biri", and according to the article for the album, Denki Groove brought in tons of those samples. There is even a list of those samples in the article.
Looks like Ishino and Taki took some playful pokes at a couple of those synth lords in the lyrics, the aforementioned Komuro and Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）, and were more than proud to show off their cool shiny equipment. Nothing like some healthy rivalry from the young guns at Denki Groove, and they really liked getting the listeners off their duffs and dancing on the floor...provided that there was some room to do so.
Adorned by those groovy propulsive beats and the rest of the synthpop accessories is this sweet tune regarding rainbows. This was Denki Groove's（電気グルーヴ）6th single, "Niji"(Rainbow) from April 1995 sung by band leader Takkyu Ishino（石野卓球）and singer-songwriter Yoshiko Goshima（五島良子）. I didn't quite have time to track down the original less-than-5-minutes single but I think the above live performance by everyone will suffice.
The single, written and composed by Ishino, peaked at No. 27 on Oricon, and also became a part of Denki Groove's"Dragon", their 5th original album released in December 1994. The album went all the way to No. 13 on the charts with the album version of "Niji" clocking in at a little under 11 minutes. Rather contemplative. I really feel like chasing rainbows at supersonic speed...and having some Skittles.
Never saw the 2005anime"Eureka Seven" although from reading some of the information on Wikipedia, it sounds quite interesting and involved. I'll have to ask my friend about that. Anyways, "Niji" was used as an insert song for Episode 50, and apparently that left quite the impression on viewers.
There are quite a few remix versions of "Niji" but I have to admit that I like this 1999 version by Paul van Dyk the best. Maybe Monday may not be the most optimal of dance nights but if you've got plenty of floor space wherever you are, feel free to cut a rug.
Had a late night at the clubs yesterday? Pray to the porcelain gods this morning? Well, maybe you ought to steer clear of the music video for this one.
Welcome to "Flashback Disco", the 10th single by techno unit Denki Groove（電気グルーヴ）from July 1999 (yep, 20 years ago). It's another pulsing and throbbing technopop creation by the group and leader Takkyu Ishino（石野卓球）that has been described in its J-Wiki article as the first single since the departure of Yoshinori Sunahara（砂原良徳）from Denki Groove. I'm not sure whether Sunahara was the resident lyricist but J-Wiki seems to intimate that it was his departure that meant that "Flashback Disco" was going to be an instrumental largely devoid of lyrics outside of variations on the words "flash" and "back". It apparently got some flack from critics saying that Denki Groove had lost its sense of humour, although it's still popular with the fans.
As for me, I don't have anything against "Flashback Disco" but then again as I've mentioned a number of times before, I was never much of a lyrics person. Plus, I think that Denki Groove's songs were always more about getting up and jumping about at a rave. Then, there is that weirdsmobile music video in which the setting looks like it had been inspired by one of my go-to spots in Tokyo, the Village Vanguard in the VenusFort mall in Odaiba, Tokyo. The above video is of the Village Vanguard in the bohemian neighbourhood of Shimo-Kitazawa. Let me tell you, this has absolutely no connection with the famed jazz club in New York City. Let's say that it's a massive shop of knick-knacks with a good dollop of "Stranger Things" sensitivities.
Anyways, getting back to "Flashback Disco", it managed to peak at No. 35 on Oricon. The song also got onto Denki Groove's 8th album"VOXXX" from January 2000, and that release went as high as No. 5.
Maybe I should have put this on Friday or Saturday, but heck, it's all fine.
From Amazon.jp
Not sure if this cover of Denki Groove's（電気グルーヴ）9th album"J-POP" from April 2008 would be now called an example of Deep Fake, but heck the meshing of the faces of Pierre Taki（ピエール瀧）and Takkyu Ishino（石野卓球）onto these tough guys is amazing and creepy at the same time. What is plain cool, though, is the cruise-worthy track "Shonen Young"(Young Boy Young).
With guest star guitarist Toru Hidaka（ヒダカトオル）from Beat Crusaders (in the single version), Denki Groove provides a soundscape of groove and future-is-kakkoii through "Shonen Young" which was also the band's 12th single from December 2007. Taki and Ishino wrote the weird rhyming lyrics while Ishino got the music together. It would have been nice if "Shonen Young" had been used as the background music for some video game.
The music video for "Shonen Young" is an amazing experience in itself. I had wondered about a Japanese TV show inviting a bunch of the fashionable women in current-day Shibuya or Harajuku and then remaking them into 80s aidoru/teen icons. Well, I no longer have to wonder. Director Hideyuki Tanaka（田中秀幸）did all of the hard work and transformed them into girls with the Seiko-chan cut, Hiroko Yakushimaru's（薬師丸ひろ子）character from "Sailor Fuku to Kikanjuu"（セーラー服と機関銃...Sailor Suit and Machine Gun）, and terrifying tsuppari with the frizzy hair.
Yesterday, I provided the first part of my Favourite Technopop Tunes, and unlike the straight-ahead list there, this one is going to be slightly different in that there will be two entries per musician/band. You might recall reading from Part 1 that coming up with the choices was muy difficult? Well, the big guns as I call them here are responsible. For these folks, it was very hard even to narrow things down to two choices. But after much thought, here are my 10.
Of course, I will not be leaving Messrs. Hosono, Sakamoto and Takahashi out of this loop. What can I say about "Rydeen"? I see it as the theme song for the early 1980s in Japanese pop, and it's been covered over and over by everyone from The E-Girls to a fictional high school band. The melody by drummer Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）may be relatively simple but almost 40 years after its release, it still has folks squeeing like hyperactive teenagers. I saw so many "Hibike! Euphonium sent me here" comments under YouTube videos of the original song that the comment may have gained memedom. And I'm still hoping against hope that it could be brought into the Opening Ceremonies for the 2020 Olympics.
As for "Behind The Mask" by Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）, it was the first track on that YMO BEST compilation tape that you see at the top. That 30-second introduction with the synths and the blasting drums is still incredible. If there were ever a cool song needed to backstop a news feature on the goalie mask exhibit at the Hockey Hall of Fame in downtown Toronto, I would go with this one. Jari provided a complete article on the song with all of the top-flight performers Stateside who covered it, but I will still have my preference with the original, although Greg Philliganes comes awfully close.
I think Yano's happy honeybee approach to singing and technopop were an excellent match. Although there have been the comparisons to Kate Bush (another singer I like), I think Yano is still very much in a class of her own. "Hitotsudake"（ひとつだけ）is so spacey ethereal yet innocent and fun at the same time, it makes planetary invasion as dangerous as being assaulted by Hello Kitty characters high on Ovaltine.
"Harusaki Kobeni"（春咲小紅）was a subject of one of my very early articles on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", and for good reason. It may have been the campaign song for Kanebo Cosmetics but whenever I hear the strings and synths, I think of a very crazy and high-speed traipse through a massive garden...fun, mind you, but caffeine-fueled, all the same.
First coming across the duo of CHAKA and Masaya Matsuura（松浦雅也）when I was on the JET Programme, my impression was that here was a technopop band coming up with some appealing tunes and they were most definitely notYMO. But like the Yellow Magic Orchestra, it was awfully hard to come to a decision on a great pair of songs by them since there are so many of them to opt for. Eventually, I decided on the above two. "Wake Up" is perhaps the alarm clock I don't really need but the one I would love to have. It's quirky but has a drive that can get a sleepyhead out of bed and happily on the commute on Monday morning.
"Woman-S" was the first track on the first album that I ever bought by PSY-S ("Two Hearts"). That newer version had a bit more brass in the synthesizer but I also like the original version from the album "PIC-NIC" (dang, that percussion!). The duo had their fair share of mellow ballads but their uptempo stuff could really perk listeners up that would make squirrels seem sedated in comparison.
OK, whereas PSY-S was the technopop band during my Gunma days, Denki Groove was a similar group when I started residing in Ichikawa from the mid-1990s. And often the wild-&-crazy guys from Denki Groove would stomp hard on either side of the techno/pop fence.
"Nijuu-ichi Seiki mo Motetakute"（２１世紀もモテたくて）, I think, is simply a genius mash-up of a couple of 80s aidoru pop hits that take both songs on a supersonic ride. C-C-B's"Romantic ga Tomaranai"（Romanticが止まらない） and Seiko Matsuda's（松田聖子）"Tenshi no Wink"（天使のウィンク）are fun songs to listen to on their own and both are part of my mindset into nostalgia, but this techno hybrid is a totally new animal...bionic cheetah, to be exact. "Volcanic Drumbeats" from their "Ace" album is the theme song for the ultimate battle between every Ultraman and every resident on Monster Island. It's kinda like Red Bull but the wings one gets are solar.
Began with YMO so why not finish off with a YMO friend? I was actually listening to Taeko Ohnuki's 1978 "Mignonne"earlier today, and it looks like the album has gotten a lot of new contemporary fans in the past year or two, thanks to YouTube (and I'm hoping that at least a few of the viewers have bought the actual disc or LP). It's been wonderful to see everyone including myself realize how much of a treasure of City Pop/New Music treats "Mignonne" has been loaded with when compared to the relative indifference it had been slapped with when it was first released.
However, the soul-searching that Ohnuki had gone through in the several months since "Mignonne" was able to push her in a new direction that benefited her and us. With a twin approach of a European sound and a technopop one, her next album was the 1980 "Romantique" with the opening track of "Carnaval". As I said in the article for this album, it was pretty gutsy of Ohnuki to not only have this technopop wizardry start things off but also have it released as a single. But it paid off in dividends, and if I had heard "Carnaval" at the time that I discovered Yellow Magic Orchestra, rest assured I would have become an Ohnuki fan years earlier. All those synth sounds in the song have made for a bountiful technopop feast.
As for "Chance" which was a track in the following album "Aventure", this was as much about warmth as "Carnaval" was about cool/cold. The technopop was a bit more muted for "Chance", but this is still one happy song which not only expresses a whimsical present but even hints at an amazing and aspirational future during the instrumental bridge. When it came to thinking about which two songs to select from Ohnuki's technopop period, picking that second song was tough but there was no doubt about me going for "Chance" as the first number.
So that is my 2-parter on my favourite technopop tunes. Still, there are plenty of those digital ditties that I have enjoyed over the years and I think there are a lot of songs that I have yet to unearth, along with technopop bands and songwriters that I have to discover. I know about POLYSICS and TECHNOBOYS PULCRAFT GREEN FUND, but if you folks know of any synth artists out there that you can recommend to me, please let me know.
I didn't set out to write about an entire Charan-Po-Rantan（チャラン・ポ・ランタン）album, especially when I have yet to buy anything by sisters Momo and Koharu Matsunaga（松永もも・松永小春）. Through one commenter's tip a few years back, I first listened to them and found their brand of accordion pop and jazz refreshing in an era of aidoru-dominated pop on the Oricon charts.
It's just that I discovered this cover of "Koi to Machine Gun"（恋とマシンガン）originally by Shibuya-kei duo Flipper's Guitar and found it perfect for Charan-Po-Rantan, only to find out that the video is an abbreviated version. Kinda too bad since it looks like the Matsunaga sisters were having some fun going through the trendier areas of Tokyo.
"Koi to Machine Gun" is a track from their special September 2016 album"Karimono Kyousou"(Concerto of Borrowed Things), a release of covers of English and Japanese songs. Since the video for "Koi to Machine Gun" was so short, I felt that I needed to compensate with at least one more of their singles. However, I realized that it was part of this album and then saw that there were other tracks up on YouTube, so I decided that I would feature some of those entries.
For example, "Shangri-La" originally by techno group Denki Groove（電気グルーヴ）. Not a bad cover all things considered but I think "Koi to Machine Gun" is still in the lead. The video for "Shangri-La" is even shorter. However, we get to see the Shibuya for old folks, Sugamo.
(Sorry but the video has been taken down.)
Then, there is the sisters' cover of "Saudade"（サウダージ）by Pornograffiti which is here in its full glory and which I think fits the bill better in terms of transition. It's too bad, though, that none of their covers of English-language tunes are up since personally I would love to hear their version of The Buggles'"Video Killed The Radio Star".
Up to tonight, I would have proudly said that my favourite Denki Groove（電気グルーヴ）song was "Nijuu-ichi Seiki mo Motetakute"（２１世紀もモテたくて）. The techno mashup of Seiko Matsuda's（松田聖子）"Tenshi no Wink"（天使のウィンク）and CCB's "Romantic ga Tomaranai"（Romanticが止まらない）from 2001 was epic genius.
But then I came across this little gem by Takkyu Ishino（石野卓球）and Pierre Taki（ピエール瀧）that came out as their 13th single on Valentine's Day 2008, "Mononoke Dance" (Spectre Dance). It was used as the opening theme for the 2008 late-night version of the classic anime "Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro"（ゲゲゲの鬼太郎）on Fuji-TV under its different title of "Hakaba Kitaro"（墓場鬼太郎...Kitaro of the Graveyard）. It's the first time in a long time that I watched a YouTube video on first look three times in a row since I was so attracted to the opening credits of the show. It's cool, sultry and driven.
The above is the album version (excerpt only) of "Mononoke Dance" that was included on the band's 9th album"J-POP" from April 2008. However, I think the short and sweet version used in the anime is tighter and better. The single peaked at No. 17 while the album broke the Top 10 at No. 9. Now, that I've heard "Mononoke Dance", I gotta make a decision.
For the original and more famous theme for "Ge Ge Ge no Kitaro", have a look here.
