Gryd -- Kaze（風）

From Good Free Photos
by Frankes

 

Last month, I came across this cool Neo-City Pop duo Susumu Narita（成田晋）and Yasuno Kadoya（門屋泰乃）under the name of Gryd. They had released their debut album "Thinking of You" in January this year and their first track "Hohoemi ni Kaete"（微笑みに変えて）has been one heck of a dynamic introduction with reminders of Original Love.

Today, I offer you for your listening pleasure the more laidback second track "Kaze" (Wind) which was written and composed by Narita. In the "Hohoemi ni Kaete" article, I likened Gryd to not only Original Love, but also Sugar Babe and So Nice. Well, perhaps with the tender-as-a-steak "Kaze", I can add another band in my references...Sentimental City Romance when they were on their City Pop/J-AOR kick.

I'll assume that Narita is also the one behind the mike here and I have to say that his vocals remind me of the singing of the late vocalist for Sentimental City Romance, Tokuo Nakano（中野督夫）. In fact, "Kaze" sounds like it belongs perfectly within those early 80s of the urban contemporary SCR. With the splendid strings and the lone romantic trumpet in there, I'd say that "Kaze" is more of a gentle breeze along the shoreline at dusk.

Gryd -- Hohoemi ni Kaete（微笑みに変えて）

 

Yep, I do realize that it is Valentine's Day but let me start with something that comes into the Neo-City Pop oeuvre since it is also Urban Contemporary Friday on KKP.

Until very recently, I hadn't heard of the duo Gryd which according to their katakana rhymes with "pride" or "plied". However from the tiny little blurb I found, Susumu Narita（成田晋）and Yasuno Kadoya（門屋泰乃）had spent a long time performing within Tokyo's live house circuit before finally releasing this lovely first album "Thinking of You" in January. Apparently, it's filled with City Soul goodness, peppered with some funk and jazz.

One track is "Hohoemi ni Kaete" (Switch to a Smile), a song that Gryd certainly doesn't skimp on in terms of length at nearly six minutes, and right from the intro, all sorts of shoutouts come to mind. I got vibes of Sugar Babe, Original Love and So Nice as well as some disco, and even George Benson near the end. As you know, I am a sucker for a battery of horns and these horns here are sublime. I'm also in love with the groove and the backup chorus. Switching to a smile should be a cinch!