Akiko Nakazato -- Do You Wanna Dance?

 

Looks like we have another new name to add to the roll call on "Kayo Kyoku Plus". Let me introduce you to Akiko Nakazato（中里あき子）from Aomori Prefecture who made her way to Tokyo once she graduated from high school. From there, she would make her singing debut in 1987 with the single "Will You Remember?", a cover of the Eight Wonder song from the same year.

Nakazato would release seven singles and five albums up to 1990 and the first KKP posting for her surrounds the B-side to her final single "Yasoukyoku"（夜想曲...Nocturne）, "Do You Wanna Dance?". It had appeared earlier in the singer's final album "Prisoner of Love" which was released in October 1989. Written by Eiko Kyo（許瑛子）and composed by Masayuki Kuzuguchi（葛口雅行）, it's got quite the sultry panther-like feel to it as Nakazato seems to portray a character in some Roppongi disco virtually daring her next conquest to make the first move. I probably would have fled the joint but I can enjoy the experience safely and vicariously through listening to this brand of R&B.

The singer has gone through a few name changes as she would later release a couple of singles under the name Mikiko Sato（佐藤美記子）in the late 1990s and then micco since 2010 while collaborating with folks like Kingo Hamada（濱田金吾）.

Hitomi Tohyama -- Darling

 

This is probably just my sort of thing, but whenever a City Pop song pops up in my head, I've often developed my form of cross-categorization. One particular angle is whether such a tune sounds like something for the daytime or the nighttime.

When it comes to Hitomi Penny Tohyama's（当山ひとみ）"Darling", which is the second track on her March 1985 album "Five Pennys", it's hard for me to categorize it in that diurnal way. Written by Eiko Kyo（許瑛子）and composed by Takashi Tsushimi（都志見隆）, it has that bright and sparkly arrangement which hints at the daytime (especially around brunch) but then the chorus feels like a relaxing evening in the penthouse, especially when the sax gets unleashed. Lovely and breezy background vocals, by the way. In any case, "Darling" is that typical Tohyama tune of soul, sun and stars.

Mayo Nagata -- Twilight in the Memories

 

Last March, I saw that saucy poster of Mayo Nagata（永田真代）in the pages of "Myojo"（明星）and then went to investigate whether any of her discography was up on YouTube. Indeed, I was fortunate to find some songs up there including "Through the Night", fully imbued with the R&B of the time as a track on her March 1990 debut album "Pathos".

The good times continue here with another track from "Pathos", "Twilight in the Memories" which was also written by Eiko Kyo（許瑛子）but this time, the melody was provided by Akihiko Kawakami（川上明彦）. All of the tracks on "Pathos", by the way, were produced and arranged by Masaaki Omura（大村雅朗）.

"Twilight in the Memories" also has plenty of cool soul and a good measure of sultriness once more due to Nagata's vocals. Japan may have been on the verge of having its bubble burst in 1990, but this particular song still has me thinking of the bright lights, big city and boffo nightlife. It's got the smooth groove, and heck, I'll always welcome a bluesy sax solo.

Mayo Nagata -- Through the Night

 

Whenever I have leafed through my old "Myojo"（明星）magazines, I usually notice this one-page poster heralding a single or an album by a singer named Mayo Nagata（永田真代）called "Sexism" with the singer looking quite devilish.

It turns out that "Sexism" was Nagata's third and final album to date released in October 1991. However, her debut album in March 1990 was "Pathos" and from it, I have "Through the Night", a slightly smoky R&B strut delivered in a similarly sultry and smoky manner by the singer herself. The background chorus is echoed out by someone that sounds really familiar, and it turns out that it is singer-songwriter Keizo Nakanishi（中西圭三）who along with Takao Konishi（小西貴雄）also created the music while Eiko Kyo（許瑛子）provided the lyrics. This was about a year before Nakanishi himself would debut behind the microphone himself and then in 1992, he would have his first big hit with "Woman".

As for Nagata, she released a total of 5 singles and those 3 albums up to 1993. Since then, the Kagoshima Prefecture-born singer has also done some radio and is apparently active mostly in the Fukuoka area under her stage name of MAYO.

Akina Nakamori -- Farewell

Back in 2014, I wrote about "Firestarter", a track from Akina Nakamori's（中森明菜）1988 12th album "Stock". It is one of only two tracks that I remember from "Stock", a tape cassette purchase that was one of a series of her albums in the late 1980s that I've tended to forget and ignore simply because her album material at that time never truly meshed with me.

Well, the other song from "Stock" is "Farewell", that first track which I've always thought was ironically titled since it seems like Akina and song were giving a great big "HELLO!" instead. Hearing this as the launching song for the album, I did have some hope for the rest of the album, but alas, it didn't really come to pass with the exception of the hard rock "Firestarter".

If I were to give a comparison of these two songs, I would say that they were two sides of a coin. "Firestarter" was more rock than pop, whereas "Farewell" was more on the pop side of things with a rock edge. Written by Eiko Kyo（許瑛子）and composed by Ken Sato（佐藤健）, it's the type of tune that I expect would be sung by rock era Ann Lewis, but I think "Farewell" (and "Firestarter", for that matter) work fine with Akina since she's got that famous low projecting vibrato since her slightly earlier Oricon-friendly hits.

As much as I envisage a city drive with City Pop, the pop-rock "Farewell" also has me thinking of bombing down the highway in a convertible. If I'm going to use a Hollywood movie from that decade as an analogy, "Streets of Fire" comes to mind. Incidentally, the arrangers behind "Farewell" are Satoshi Nakamura（中村哲）, who was part of the fusion band Prism back in the 1970s, and Kenji Kitajima（北島健二）, a member of the band Fence of Defense.

Akina Nakamori -- Crimson

As a sequel to an article that I wrote back last Saturday, "OH NO, OH YES!", I dug out my audiotape of Akina Nakamori's（中森明菜）10th studio album "Crimson". It was actually found deep in a collection of tapes in my middle drawer in that chest of drawers in my room. I've pointed it out before in "OH NO, OH YES!" and in a couple of comments that I hadn't been all that impressed with the album when I first bought it at Wah Yueh back in the late 1980s. Perhaps my opinion might be surprising considering "Crimson" hit No. 1 on the Oricon charts and, in fact, was the 3rd-ranked album for 1987 (it was released on Christmas Eve 1986). Plus, it had all that songwriting talent behind it including songsters Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）and Akiko Kobayashi（小林明子）.

The truth of the matter was that I hadn't been ready for this new-at-the-time Akina Nakamori who produced a number of her own albums to reflect a more mature pop sense, somewhat different from her Oricon-friendly singles. And as I said before, for a few years during that decade, her singles and her albums were kept apart.

However, after listening to "OH NO, OH YES!", it looks like my brain and my appreciative senses have finally caught up to what Akina was doing back then. So I took out the tape for the first time in ages and plunked it into my tape recorder that I have dubbed Jaws. I listened to Side A and was quite delighted by what I heard. I didn't roll my eyes once as I re-discovered what the pop superstar was singing. Next, I turned it over to Side B.

W-e-l-l....funny thing here...

Akina Nakamori's "Crimson" (1986-2017)
A nice HB pencil will be accepted in lieu of flowers.

I apologize for the grisly nature of the photograph but death was made official at 2:10 pm on Monday March 6th. Jaws can get pretty peckish at times and it decided to make a meal out of "Crimson". I knew when Akina started to sound like she had recorded "Exotica" after downing a jug of Chez Thunderbird that the end was nigh. And sure enough, I pulled out one mess of ruined magnetic tape.

But was I upset? If this had happened 30 years ago, I probably would have gone through the ceiling. Now...not so much. Nakamori has become such a legend in the world of J-Pop that I wouldn't have much of a problem tracking down a CD of "Crimson", and there are quite a few YouTube videos of the tracks so that I can still talk about the album today. However, if you would like to observe a minute of silence for my late tape, I will wait patiently...

OK, now?

Fine. From my memories of playing "Crimson" for the first couple of times on a less tape-i-cidal recorder, there are a few songs that have stood out. One is the first song itself, "Mind Game" which was written by Eiko Kyo (許瑛子...who had also been responsible for the lyrics for another Akina hit "Sand Beige") and composed by Akiko Kobayashi. Seeing Kobayashi behind the melody here, I was surprised since I had always envisioned her as the singer with the Karen Carpenter-like voice singing Karen Carpenter-like songs, and yet this sounded like a pretty saucy tune. But then I remembered that Kobayashi had started out as a vocalist for a rock band.

Anyways, that video above showing her in the dark outfit and glasses nicely sums up about what the number is about. With the electric guitar and the synth providing the musical milieu of the singer strutting out in the downtown areas of Tokyo, safe and not-so-safe, "Mind Game" actually seems to take place in the lass' apartment, and before listeners assume some sort of CIA intrigue because of the title, it's more of Akina playing the puppet master here.

The lyrics hint at being loved by a number of suitors and yet she is bored by all of them. Perhaps she'll string them along a little while longer before cutting the wires permanently. In a way, if Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）had continued her career up into the mid-1980s, maybe this could have been the type of song she would have sung since she had portrayed the "I've-had-it-up-to-here" cynical woman willing to go medieval on her errant lover in the last half of her 1970s career. Now, that woman would have been more like "Yeah...like whatever". In any case, there is so much ennui in this song and setting that there just has to be a chaise lounge somewhere in Akina's pad. And yeah, I do like the song now.

Track 2 is "Eki"（駅...Station） which seems to be one of Akina's more famous tunes from the late 1980s. Mariya Takeuchi was responsible for words and music. I had stuffed "Crimson" into the drawer for so long that I had forgotten that this ballad which would pop up on various TV shows and BEST compilations actually had first appeared on this album. It's also one of the first times that I heard the whispery and fragile vocals of Akina as she just stood in a unmentioned station suddenly remembering the final time she saw her former flame. Unlike "Mind Game" and Kobayashi, I could imagine Takeuchi creating and singing "Eki" which she did on her 1987 album "Request".

"Pink Champagne" (ピンク・シャンパン) is a song that I did not remember but discovering it again after so long, I'm happy to make its re-acquaintance. Composed again by Kobayashi and written by veteran lyricist Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子）, it's a mixture of old (horns) and new (synths) to create this Roppongi soundscape that I could easily imagine Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）covering. And if I can continue to wear the music sommelier's cap for one more sentence, there is even a bit of soulful Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）. Again the whispery side of Akina's voice is in play here as she sings about sipping back some of the titular drink after a tawdry night (perhaps a one-night stand) in a neighbourhood of concrete and neon.

The one other song that I remembered from the original playing of the album was the final track, "Mick Jagger ni Hohoemi wo" (ミック・ジャガーに微笑みを...Smiling at Mick Jagger). And it was the only song that I actually liked on "Crimson" back then since I could hear that amazing mid-80s Akina voice again. The only disappointing part was that whole day-in-a-life thing with Akina typing and having that cup of tea/coffee before the song comes into full volume.

Takeuchi was once again responsible for words and music here as Akina extols the love of listening to some old Rolling Stones on the radio-cassette recorder (talk about dating yourself!). Hearing it again, I realized that this could have been another Momoe tune. And to think there would be another song with Jagger in the title many years down the line with Maroon 5.

Well, I guess it's time to track down another copy of "Crimson" but I'm happy that there has been a redemption of sorts. I haven't thrown away the tape, though. "Crimson" will be kept around as a memento of a bygone age.

Yoko Minamino -- Aki no Indication （秋のIndication）

Man, I didn't realize that Yoko Minamino（南野陽子）had such a good run of consecutive No. 1s. Her string of chart-toppers ran from Single No. 6 "Rakuen no Door"（楽園のDoor）which was released in January 1987, through her 11th single "Toiki de Net"（吐息でネット）, all the way to her 13th single "Aki kara mo, Soba ni ite"（秋からも、そばにいて...Stay by my Side, Also from the Fall） from October 1988...a good chunk of 2 years. And the powers-that-be really had her spitting out those singles within a relatively short period of time.

Also within that string was her 9th single "Aki no Indication" (Autumn Indication) from September 1987 which I had never heard before. Written by Eiko Kyo（許瑛子）and composed by Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）, that melody was the thing that hooked me since it sounded rather exotic for a lack of a better word. But then again, I have said that a number of the aidoru tunes from the late 1980s went farther afield in terms of their music; I guess that aidoru-dom was following in the footsteps of some of that exotic kayo which had been released a decade earlier.

The song sounds as if it took a bit of European into itself. And according to the J-Wiki article, Nanno herself had been interested in a 1960s song by Italian pop singer Wilma Goich titled "In un fiore" (In A Flower), so I gather that Hagita was inspired by some of that melody to create "Aki no Indication". As mentioned, it did hit No. 1 on Oricon and became the 33rd-ranked single of 1987. It was also used as the commercial song for the Cecil chocolate bar from Glico. Nothing says fall more than a piece of milk chocolate, apparently.

Akiho Sendo -- Glass no ECSTASY (硝子のECSTASY)

“Glass no ECSTASY” is, without a doubt, one of my guilty pleasures!!!

Akiho Sendo (千堂あきほ) was one of those beautiful aidoru singers from the early 90s who shared an “OL-style of look” with tons of sensuality, as was the case of Minako Tanaka (田中美奈子) and Chisato Moritaka (森高千里), for example.

Akiho, though, was a very bad singer, and it’s quite synthomatic to think about how was possible that people thought she could be a successful singer... yes, yes, we all know how vocal talent is not the most important thing when it comes to aidoru singers, but, at the same time, I really try to understand how in such a dark period for aidoru singers (late 80s/early 90s) they started promoting girls with dubious talent like Akiho Sendo and Aya Sugimoto (杉本彩) based solely on beauty and sensuality.

Reflexions aside, “Glass no ECSTASY” became one of my favourite trash pop songs since I first listened to it back in 2013. Somehow, I really like the singalong chorus and the generic arrangement comprised mostly of “synths trying to be horns”. As for Akiho, the studio recording does its job covering most of her flaws, but the live performances, just like the one posted at the beggining, is pure shame for the girl. In fact, she was lucky to have some recorded background vocalists accompanying her during the choruses, because if they were relied solely to her, the disaster would be even bigger.

As usual when it comes to aidoru music produced in Japan during the late 80s/early 90s, I hear some similarities between “Glass no ECSTASY” and some Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW) productions, and that’s probably because of the “fake horns”.

Also, although not an example of singer, Akiho was an actress and tarento. Personally, the only work I’ve watched from her was the great “Tokyo Love Story” (東京ラブストーリー), aired in 1991. She had a secondary role in the drama, but it was nice to see her somewhere else than on a singing stage.

“Glass no ECSTASY” was released in June 1990. Lyrics were written by Eiko Kiyo (許瑛子), while music was composed by Chika Ueda (上田知華).

Akina Nakamori -- Sand Beige - Sabaku e (砂漠へ)

"Sand Beige" has one of the most recognized intros in Akina Nakamori's（中森明菜） discography, and perhaps for Japanese music in the 80s. Not sure what that instrument is which launches the song off, though; hopefully an Akina fan out there may be able to help out.

I first heard Akina's 12th single on "Sounds of Japan", and it struck me right from the start with that exotic melody. Released in June 1985, "Sand Beige - Sabaku e" (To The Desert) was written by Eiko Kyo（許瑛子）, her very first work as a lyricist, and composed by Takashi Toshimi（都志見隆）. A story of a woman trying to restart her life through a trip after a failed romance, the singer's delivery, the melody and the lyrics swoop softly up and down the dunes of the Sahara Desert like a magic carpet as images of veils, camels and the Nile come to pass. There are even some samples of the Egyptian dialect of Arabic sprinkled in the song.

Akina was definitely trying to spread her wings as this song followed the Latin-infused hit "Meu Amore". It was no longer just about love-drenched ballads or tough girl uptempo songs for her. She was getting out in the world. And people were taking notice as "Sand Beige" won 3 awards that year, although none of them were from The Japan Record Awards. It debuted right at No. 1 and would become the 7th-ranked single of the year with close to half a million records sold.

Today's posting has a bit of a bittersweet timing as yesterday I heard about the passing of Irish actor, Peter O'Toole, the man who portrayed T.E. Lawrence in "Lawrence of Arabia".