Shingo Katori & Akina Nakamori -- TATTOO

 

One of my favourite Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）songs of all time has been "TATTOO". The 1988 single having the pop superstar go hard into a tune that spoke of "Blade Runner" replicants and dove into swing jazz that the folks at Mos Eisley spaceport would love got me right here because of that magical combination of jazz and technopop, years before electro swing became a thing. Akina in that tight red body-hugging dress didn't hurt my eyes, either.

I'm not surprised that "TATTOO" has been covered a few times over the past 36 years since its release, and its newest incarnation arrived several days ago. Former SMAP member Shingo Katori（香取慎吾）has still been on his own swing jazz kick for the past little while which has involved collaborations with acts such as Atarashii Gakko no Leaders（新しい学校のリーダーズ）. Well, it looks like Katori's next dance partner, so to speak, is the Divine Ms. Nakamori herself in their own more standard jazz take on her old hit. 

The new duet on "TATTOO" can be found on Katori's newest album "Circus Funk" which is now available for download and streaming. It's an interesting blend of voices with the young and hungry Katori chiming in with the veteran cigarettes-and-whiskey Akina. Just kinda wished that the arrangement hadn't taken that little tangent near the end. In any case, the original "TATTOO" will remain my "TATTOO".

Akina Nakamori -- Back Door Night

 

It is July 13th here which means that it is Akina Nakamori's（中森明菜）birthday! Once again, I give her my congratulations on reaching the big 5-9 and hope that all is fine with her and she's enjoying her special day with family and friends.

From Amazon

Now, over the years, whenever July 13th pops up, either fellow Akina fan and KKP co-administrator Larry Chan or I put up a post regarding one of her songs, and last year, I managed to write something on "Kagami no Naka no J"（鏡の中のJ） from the earliest of her aidoru days in 1982. To be honest, Larry and I have managed to cover most of her big hits in the 1980s and 1990s, and I've even explored two of my favourite albums by Akina: "Bitter and Sweet" and "D404ME". But then, right after those big releases, Nakamori decided to get into the production game when it came to her discography, and for a few years in the late 1980s, her singles and albums bifurcated into parallel tracks with the latter taking a more adventurous and perhaps avant-garde turn.

In fact, those albums were so different that they frankly drove me away for a time. Several years ago, I wrote on her December 1986 10th studio album "Crimson" after finally listening to it for the first time in over thirty years. When I had first heard the tracks there when I was a university student, I quickly dismissed them as Akina going weird again but then having that conciliatory listen after so long, I realized that the songs weren't too bad after all; my ears and brain were simply not ready. Still, "Crimson" hasn't gone down as being one of my favourite Akina albums.

However, all of that drama surrounding "Crimson" occurred because I'd listened to the album that had come before, "Fushigi", from August 1986. According to Wikipedia, the album was meant to be translated as "Mystery" or "Secret"...for me, I went with "Strange" or "Weird". I've already told my fellow Akina friends including Larry that after borrowing my friend's audiotape of it and giving it one listen, I mentally fled (not walked away) from "Fushigi". I do recall thanking my friend very politely though.

"Fushigi" was the singer's first self-produced album and from what I've read about her, she has always been an artist who wants to do things her own way including the type of music she wanted to explore. Well, she basically hitched a ride on the Enterprise and headed to Neptune here. Still, kudos to her for pushing the envelope and I think "Fushigi" does have its fans. I've read somewhere that the album could be described as Akina meeting The Cocteau Twins. I've heard of the group but I've never heard their music so I can't confirm.

The album cover of "Fushigi" was a big hint of what I would be hearing and then when I heard the first track "Back Door Night", my reaction was "Yeah, this is fushigi". Of course, I can't remember a single song since it was that one and only time listening to it back in 1986 so for her birthday today, I decided to return to "Fushigi" for the first time in 36 years and take another chance on it. 

"Back Door Night" was written by Keiko Aso（麻生圭子）and composed/arranged by Japanese rock band EUROX, and indeed, revisiting it after so long, it still strikes me as being very different from what she had done before. It is by far the longest track on "Fushigi" at over 5 1/2 minutes long as if she wanted to make a strong statement right from the get-go: this is my music and it's not going to be typically Oricon-friendly. To add to the fushigi-ness of it all, I'd thought that there was something wrong with my cassette recorder. The music was rocking away in its New Wave way, but Akina sounded like she was several dozen metres away from the microphone, and then I learned that she was experimenting with various recording and production techniques, so it was intentional. Her voice was unmistakable but it sounded like she had been possessed by a wayward coven's witch who had gotten lost. Going through Aso's lyrics now, I think they would make a great background story for Kimiko Miyashiro from "The Boys".

Am I going to listen to the rest of "Fushigi" now that I've opened the back door to "Back Door Night"? Eventually, I will although it will probably be baby steps. Having said that, the album hit the top spot on Oricon and became the 15th-ranked album of the year.

Akina Nakamori -- I Missed "The Shock"

Hmmm....I could've picked a better picture of the singer, but I'll go with this one. In any case, it is July 13th as I write this, which means that it is once again Akina Nakamori's（中森明菜）birthday. So, a very Happy 50th to her wherever she is.

To be honest, "I Missed 'The Shock'" isn't one of my very favourite Akina tunes. This isn't a slam against the song at all, but there are just so many more of her songs that I like even better. However, her 22nd single from November 1988 has that exotic tang that a number of her singles during the late 80s had, and I have to admit that I did like that rumbling drum which was in the intro along with Akina's "OooooooOOOOOooooh!" near the end. "I Missed 'The Shock'" was also one of those Akina songs that I often caught on episodes of "The Best 10".

The song was written and composed by QUMICO FUCCI, aka keyboardist Kumiko Fukushi（福士久美子）of the alternative rock band, Sherbets, and was arranged by the band Eurox, which had also helped out on Akina's previous single "Tattoo" (which is one of my very favourite Akina tunes). As for the meaning of the title, well, according to the TV magazine "The Television" (via the article for the song on J-Wiki), the lady herself remarked that she had wanted something that couldn't (sensibly) be translated into Japanese.

"I Missed 'The Shock'" managed to peak at No. 3 on Oricon, and became the 57th-ranked single for 1988...not too bad, considering that it had been released in the second-last month of the year. And it hung around to become the 53rd-ranked song for 1989. In fact, due to the success of that particular single, the total sales of all of her singles since her debut finally broke the 10 million mark. Not surprisingly, Akina was able to get onto the 1988 Kohaku Utagassen as well to sing that very song, her 6th appearance on the NHK special.

EuroX -- Galient World – Run For Your Life (ガリアン・ワールド -Run For Your Life-)

Why in the world a Japanese band would call itself Eurox? Is this some kind of inside joke? “Oh yeah, we wanted to be EroX, but they said it wouldn’t do…” Well, not really. I smell a different pun here. “ユーロックス” can be read as well “You rocks”. 

Half of katakana jokes still go over my head. (Only half? I am showing progress!)

Anime music changed drastically around 1982-1984. Gone were the march songs sung by childrens’ choirs and overtly masculine performances by Ichiro Mizuki and Isao Sasaki. New anime music was based on pop rhythms and disco beat, and soon it expanded to rock. It’s open to discussion when this new era officially began (I’d pinpoint Creamy Mami ED2, Love Sarigenaku, ep 28, January 13 1984. It was important.), but there were certain series that were leading the movement: Macross of course, shojo series like Creamy Mami and Nanako SOS, Urusei Yatsura – and Panzer World Galient (機甲界ガリアン).

Panzer World Galient was a typical TV budget mecha show, where cars looked like boxes, characters and mechas were copied from all the previous mecha series as always, and story of medieval world with mechas was to become imitated many times during next decades. Nothing to see here, keep going. (Though you'd perhaps like to take a look at Escaflowne, but that's a different matter.)

The opening Galient World –Run For Your Life- and ending Hoshi no ichibyou were composed and performed by Eurox, a progressive rock band that was founded in Tokyo in 1984. Most musicians had met each other in their previous band TAO. The lineup consisted of Tsutomu Kurihara (栗原務 guitar), Tatsuo Nozawa (野澤竜郎 drums), Haruo Okano (岡野治雄 bass), Asato Sekine (関根安里 keys, violin), and Hiroshi Nemoto (根本博 vocals). In addition to Galient the band recorded themes for Saint Seiya.

Eurox’s very first single Cold Line was a CM song for Suntory. It was also released in Italy, where the record sold 20 000 copies.

The single Galient World sold 170 000 copies in 1984. These two singles were so noteworthy that the band was contacted by British music industry and they were offered an opportunity to warm up for Level 42 during their UK tour! At the moment Level 42 was becoming a chartbuster in Europe with songs like Something About You, Lessons In Love, and Running In The Family. However, vocalist Nemoto left EUROX unexpectedly and an important opportunity was missed.

During the 1980’s Eurox worked with Akina Nakamori in album Fushigi (please see TATTOO review), but the band broke up before the end of decade. After 20 years of inactivity the band made a comeback in year 2009 to compile a new album with old and new material. In album “Dig From The Past” Galient World was arranged with dark colours and majestic dimensions. But how, how this new arrangement happen to sound more 1980's vintage than the original? Or is it just me?

Vocalist MNEMO has an active blog. http://mnemosyneoforion.blog.so-net.ne.jp/

In 1984 the years when record companies would pay money to have their hottest artists featured in anime tunes were yet to come. The most of anime music in year 1984 was still rather old-fashioned. This contrast made Eurox sound so impressive. Time has treated this track really well. Galient anime has been thrown somewhere in the dustbin of history and its world hasn’t been able to revive, but Galient World – Run For Your Life sounds still as fresh as in the time of the original release 30 years ago. It’s energetic, timeless music.

There is an English version too.

Akina Nakamori -- TATTOO

In the latter half of the 1980s, after her big successes with the singles "Meu Amore" and "DESIRE", Akina Nakamori（中森明菜） made the transition from superaidoru to artiste starting with her 9th album, "Fushigi"（不思議...Strange) in 1986. That album and the ones following it were notable in that they were produced by Nakamori herself, she started getting more experimental with her sound (hard rock, exotic, etc.), and they didn't include the hit singles that she was still releasing regularly. I did buy "Fushigi", "Crimson" and "Stock" and gave them a listen when they came out over 20 years ago....I have to admit that I didn't really cotton onto them...but that was then, this is now. Perhaps I might appreciate them better in the 21st century.

But my point is that during this career parallelism, when I thought I was losing Akina-chan to avant-gardism, this single just went....BOOM....in a whole lot of noggins, including the hollow one on my neck in 1988. She showed up on the music countdown shows wearing a tight red mini-skirt and a Madonna-worthy bodice, and started shimmying those shoulders to a synthesized Big Band melody! Yowza!

"TATTOO" was written by Yuriko Mori（森由里子） and composed by progressive rock band EUROX keyboardist, Asato Sekine（関根安里）, who had helped craft "Fushigi" a few years previously. According to Mori, she'd had the movie "Blade Runner" in mind, and the lyrics do mention "replicant" and push the idea of an android revolution. Not sure if Mori had also been trying to send a message about Japanese society at large.

The song was first released on May 18, 1988 and it hit No. 1 on the Oricon right from the get-go and stayed there for 2 weeks. It would also be the 15th straight single to reach No. 1 for Nakamori since "Southern Wind" in 1984. It became the 13th-ranked song of the year and would also earn a Gold Prize at the Japan Record Awards.

Motohiro Makaino（馬飼野元宏） a critic for "Hotwax Presents: Kayo Kyoku Famous Songs and Recordings 1980s"gave the following impressions:

"This was a bold undertaking melding a Benny Goodmanesque motif with a Big Band orchestration and a jungle beat, realized through a digital sound. It's a cutting-edge number which deviates from the usual structure of a kayo kyoku."

Shimmy, Akina, shimmy!