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.
When I think of singer Mariko Tone（刀根麻理子）, I usually think of her as a 1980s artist but she was releasing singles into the 1990s. In fact, I encountered this single which is her third-last entry to date from November 1993.
"Setsunai Yoru"(Restless Nights) is a pretty sultry song which was written by Sakiko Masano（政野早希子）of the funk-rock band JAGATARA and composed by the late Hiroshi Narumi（鳴海寛）of the City Pop duo Tohoku Shinkansen（東北新幹線）. I probably would have preferred a real piano behind the bossa nova melody rather than the keyboard here, but I love the percussion and it's still a good nighttime listen. Plus, I'm assuming that it's Narumi behind the guitar noodling there.
I've often come across the word setsunai when it comes to Japanese song titles and strangely enough, the definitions that I've seen on Jisho.org include tough adjectives such as oppressive, miserable and painful as if the person in the song is going through one of the worst attacks of gastrointestinal gas in human history. I don't think the song with that title quite reflects anything that visceral which is why I've settled for restless. But we can see what people think.
Around a month ago, I highlighted the late Hiroshi Narumi's（鳴海寛）"Ame Agari"（雨あがり）which first got onto his 2017 album"Boku wa Uta Tsukuri (Early Works 1975-1978)"（僕は詩つくり...I am a Writer of Songs）, although it was obvious that the recording had been done many years earlier. The song also got onto his 2022 "Around the Thru Traffic".
Well, it looks like the same is true with another song, "Oyasumi" (Good Night). Despite the title, Narumi's melody seems to be reflecting a fun night in progress in downtown Tokyo, including some welcome brassiness. Starting off with some mighty fine funky licks, his vocals seem to fly right up into the stratosphere while the arrangement including the chorus reminds me more of the City Pop of the 1970s rather than anything in the 21st century. The title aside, it is indeed a good night for listeners and urban hedonists.
Singer-songwriter and musician Hiroshi Narumi（鳴海寛）, one-half of the City Pop/old-timey pop duoTohoku Shinkansen（東北新幹線）, passed away almost a decade ago, but it's been wonderful that his music as part of that pairing with songwriter Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）and as a soloist has been rediscovered over the years. A couple of years ago, I mentioned that there had been a 2022 album put out in tribute to Narumi titled "Around the Thru Traffic" as a compilation of other songs from his other albums.
One of the tracks there that I didn't cover the first time around is "Ame Agari" (After the Rain). Composed by Narumi and written by Takashi Narematsu, it supposedly first emerged to fans' ears as far back as his 2017 album"Boku wa Uta Tsukuri (Early Works 1975-1978)"（僕は詩つくり...I am a Writer of Songs）, although I couldn't track down the year that it had been first recorded.
It's been a pretty rainy day here in Toronto and since it is a Hump Day, I thought it would be nice to have something like "Ame Agari" start off the Wednesday edition of KKP. "Ame Agari" isn't a City Pop or AOR tune at all; instead it's a light and pleasant bossa nova song with Narumi's vocals fitting the melody perfectly.
As I first did last Friday, I'm back with the AI gallery but I figured if I could do so with some of the female representatives of City Pop, why not give the male representatives a chance, too? Just to remind readers, I threw in three famous song titles in the Bing art generator to see what I could get in terms of images. For a couple of them, I invited Kayo Grace since earlier attempts got supposed real-life figures with very unnerving smiles.
I guess it's been a good week for new City Pop discoveries. Last night, I found out about CHiLi GiRL and then even the day before, I'd learned that there had been a digital album released in June 2022 in tribute to the late singer-songwriter Hiroshi Narumi（鳴海寛）called "Around the Thru Traffic". Tortured usage of prepositions aside, I was interested in the material since Narumi had been partners with songwriter Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）for their one-off 1982 album "Thru Traffic" as the duo Tohoku Shinkansen（東北新幹線）, one of the finest works in the City Pop and J-AOR genres. The connection between the 2022 release and the original "Thru Traffic" was made complete with that gorgeous cover of an old-style house which would make a DuPont Paints salesman swoon.
Accordingly, I thought I would feature a few of the tracks from the whole she-bang of twenty tracks on "Around the Thru Traffic" which consists of selected songs from some of Narumi's other albums including the 2017 "Melting Pot featuring Narumi Hiroshi Live at Egg-man +" when he was part of the project Melting Pot. A couple of those selections are already up on the blog: "Summer Touches You" from the aforementioned "Thru Traffic" and "Nakushitamono ga Ohsugiru"（なくしたものが多過ぎる）from that 2017 album.
So let's begin with "Throw a Kiss" above which was also from "Melting Pot featuring Narumi Hiroshi Live at Egg-man +". It's a rollicking AOR number which sounds like it could have easily belonged to "Thru Traffic" and there's something about the beat that suggests a nice 1970s City Pop song.
"Desire" featuring Manaho Mori（森真帆）was the B-side to Hiroshi Narumi's own single version of "Summer Touches You", so I'm guessing that it is from 1982 as well. It's also a part of Narumi's "HIROSHI NARUMI WORKS SPECIAL 7inch BOX" which was released in June 2020 according to Amazon. It's quite the smoky and dusky City Pop tune that demands a tumbler of whiskey of similar quality. I believe that is Narumi's giving a bluesy performance on the guitar.
Not sure where "You & I", a duet between Narumi and Cindy, was originally from. The search for it always leads back to this album so could this be a previously unpublicized single? I doubt it but if anyone can educate me on this, that would be most appreciated. Anyways, this is a cool and playful song reminding me of some of the soulful tunes from the 1980s by folks like Al Jarreau and Whitney Houston. It's also rather poignant that all four of the singers that I've mentioned in this paragraph are no longer with us.
One more song that I'll feature here is the final track, Narumi's homemade "For Joao", and suitably it's a smooth and relaxing instrumental of bossa nova goodness (with some scatting) which highlights his guitar skills. Get me a glass of that fine caipirinha!
For all you Tohoku Shinkansen fans, maybe "Around the Thru Traffic" can make its way through traffic into your Christmas stocking this year.
Back on Monday, I wrote about singer-songwriter Kyosuke Kusunoki's（楠木恭介）old band Camel Land（キャメル・ランド）and their single "Koi no Café Terrace"（恋のカフェテラス）when I said that I would have to finish off the remainder of Kusunoki's June 1985 album"Just Tonight". Well, tonight's the night, and it's a good thing, too. I've already written on over half the tracks individually: "Come To Me Again", "Sugar Dance", "For Our Love", "Nagisa ni te ~ Close To You"（渚にて）and "Get Down".
(14:42)
I've just got four more tracks to go before completing the album, so without further adieu, we start with the title track itself. "Just Tonight" begins with an entrance reminiscent of ol' 1970s soul, and Kusunoki does take on a bit of Bobby Caldwell in his delivery. It sounds like the type of smooth balladry that would be played at the end of a dance party when it's just the tired romantic couples on the floor before the janitor finally begins clicking the lights on and off to shoo away the stragglers. Gotta have the bluesy sax to finish things off. Kusunoki was responsible for the melody, Jessie Rein took care of the English lyrics and the late Hiroshi Narumi（鳴海寛）arranged this one and the next two tracks.
(24:59 in the above video.)
The uptempo "Love Devotion" mixes in some Dazz Band and maybe some George Benson guitar canoodling. Plus, Kusunoki does some soaring vocals here along the lines of Gino Vannelli.Rein once again provided the lyrics while Yoichiro Kakizaki（柿崎洋一郎）composed the funkiness. Methinks that I would have loved to have seen a performance video of Kusunoki and this one. It's "Love Devotion" that convinced me that Kusunoki chose wisely when he decided to switch genres from folk to urban contemporary.
Oooh...some dreamy 80s Quiet Storm with "Yoru wo Wasurete"（夜を忘れて...Forget The Night）. Kusunoki composed this urban contemporary lullaby with Kyoko Utsumi's（内海鏡子）lyrics as the singer almost whispers these sweet nothings into our ears. Past the midnight hour is probably the optimal time to hear this in one's dreams.
The final track doesn't have its own video so I've brought in the entire album here where it's situated at 37:58 above. Titled "Chizu Naki Mirai (Yukute)"（地図なき未来(ゆくて)...Future Without A Map ~ One's Path）, this is actually the Japanese-language version as well as the B-side to the singer's lone single under his stage name of Kyosuke Kusunoki, the English-language "High Time" which was released in February 1985, just a few months before the release of "Just Tonight". Probably the only track on the album that doesn't have that overtly R&B sound, it kinda hovers over that Eagles' AOR area. Makoto Mitsui（三井誠）composed and arranged the song as Kathleen Dares wrote the English lyrics while Junpei Matsunaga（松永順平）took care of the Japanese lyrics. The video below is of "High Time".
(Sorry but the "High Time" song has been taken down.)
If "High Time" and "Chizu Naki Mirai" sound particularly life-affirming and inspirational, you can be well assured that the former was used in a commercial for Citizen's Club La Mer watch. And on that note, I close the file on "Just Tonight". For anyone who has the album, you have my envy.
Earlier today, both Rocket Brown and I got together to make our latest album-centered podcast on "Come Along Radio". The target album was one that we had been looking forward to doing for some months so definitely we were very glad to finally tackle it: Tohoku Shinkansen's（東北新幹線）lone 1982 album"Thru Traffic".
Now, I've given my fair share of love to "Thru Traffic" through a couple of articles on the album proper and articles on a few of the individual tracks over the years, and frankly the album articles covered only a few tracks with some of them being repeated from the individual articles since the tracks by Hiroshi Narumi（鳴海寛）and Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）who made up the short-lived but fantastic duo Tohoku Shinkansen have been just that good. I gather that giving the tracks their own little articles keeps the good times going.
One that had yet to be covered here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" was "Kokoro no Mama ni" (As You Please). The tracks had Narumin and Etsu doing their own solo work or working together in duets. "Kokoro no Mama ni" was another Narumin solo with him also providing words and music in addition to the vocals. It's an oh-so-soft and lush AOR ballad about a bittersweet story of letting the one you loved go to be with the other person he/she truly loves. The singer-songwriter sings his words in a very tenderhearted matter as if he's floating around the very scene, being careful not to interfere with the sad but necessary separation.
At the risk of giving some of our talk away before the podcast gets put up sometime later, Rocket posited that this was the Christopher Cross track of the album, something that I can agree with wholeheartedly. For me, the arrangement had me thinking a bit of Jimmy Buffett's "Margaritaville". All in all, it's something very hammock-worthy with a cocktail on the adjacent end table.
May have to look a little more closely next time around at the liner notes for "Thru Traffic", the one-off classic 1982 City Pop album created by Tohoku Shinkansen（東北新幹線）which consisted of musicians/songwriters Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）and the late Hiroshi Narumi（鳴海寛）. I've loved the album and was so glad when I was able to acquire a copy of it some years ago. When I heard the first track that I ever heard from "Thru Traffic", "Tsuki ni Yorisotte"（月に寄りそって）, my fate was sealed.
However, my assumption had been that Narumin and Etsu were always in the back office, so to speak, simply writing music and helping out in recording booths on instruments as session musicians at the Yamaha Music Foundation all that time. But I only found out last night that both people had been active in a New Music band known as Melting Pot（メルティングポット）which lasted between 1977 and early 1984. There's even a J-Wiki article on them. Mind you though , the duo who would create Tohoku Shinkansen were not front and centre, with Narumin being the second guitar between 1980 and 1983 and Etsu being a keyboardist between 1979 and 1983. Both also helped out in backing vocals.
Leader and guitarist Hideaki Yahagi（矢萩秀明）, bassist Toshinori Fujioka（藤岡敏則）, keyboardist Masahiro Miyazaki（宮崎まさひろ）, all of whom were also working at the Yamaha Music Foundation, got together with keyboardist Shuuji Tashiro（田代修二）and Latin percussionist Masatoshi Hiyama（桧山正利）to initially form the group, Yahagi Band（矢萩バンド）. They would become the backup band for singer-songwriter Junko Yagami（八神純子）and Yahagi was then asked to change the name. The leader was reading a music magazine article on fusion pianist Joe Sample in which he basically said that New York was a melting pot which had Yahagi realizing that the members of his own group had their own differences so the band became Melting Pot, according to that J-Wiki article. I'm not sure how they started out but over time, it was respected for its provision of refined urban pop. Along with the future Tohoku Shinkansen, there were other members who came and went, and speaking of Yagami, Melting Pot backed up the singer when she made that Kohaku Utagassen appearance in 1980 for her hit "Purpletown"（パープルタウン）.
Just one album, a live performance release, was released but in June 2017, some 33 years following Melting Pot's breakup. Titled "Melting Pot featuring Narumi Hiroshi Live at Egg-man +", the record shop Merurido site reports that the tracks all stem from the band's 1983 performance at the famous Shibuya live house Eggman, which is why I've put both of those two years in the Labels.
The first track, another Rocket Brown recommendation, that I've encountered is "Nakushitamono ga Ohsugiru" (Too Many Things I've Lost) , one banger of a City Pop tune. It goes down nice and smooth, and with Narumin on vocals, it frankly sounds like an extra track on "Thru Traffic". I do love the cool and mellow Fender Rhodes, the wailing guitar solo and of course, the vocalist. There's also some splendid bluesy guitar to finish things off. I have to compliment the producers of the record since it doesn't sound like a concert recording but something that had been created in a record studio. I will definitely have to check out some of the other tracks, but if this was indeed Narumin's last hurrah with Melting Pot, he definitely left on a high note.
Y'know...I really felt like pulling out another J Utah driving video when I listened to this one. However, the song itself is only four minutes and change while a J Utah video usually goes at least 40 minutes.
But hey, if you're lucky enough to have Kyosuke Kusunoki's（楠木恭介）1985"Just Tonight" album, then enjoy the LP and the video. As it is though, I'm still happy to make the acquaintance with "Get Down", the second track from "Just Tonight", and despite the disco vibes that the title engenders, the song is very much a production of its decade, thanks to Hiroshi Narumi's（鳴海寛）arrangement of Yoichiro Kakizaki's（柿崎洋一郎）melody tied with Jessie Rein's lyrics.
It's nice and groovy on a West Coast level, and images of 1980s George Benson, Al Jarreau and Manhattan Transfer in their urban contemporary mode come to mind. Heck, Kusunoki at the beginning comes across as a Japanese version of Michael McDonald in his delivery. This is definitely a car drive-friendly number, and I still maintain that if you have a long-play City Pop/J-AOR compilation album handy, play it alongside a J Utah video. It's smooth sailing. This is his latest: a drive through Malibu!
Taking a shine to band frasco's brand of breezy pop through their 1996 song "Kaze ni Notte ~ breeze"（風に乗って）because of its inclusion in the "Light Mellow" compilation series, I was happy to find out that it wasn't the only frasco tune out there on YouTube.
(30:33)
I did find this one "Honno Sukoshi no Ai ga Areba"(As Long As There's A Smidgen of Love) from frasco's first album"frasco" released in July 1994. Once again, it's got that refreshing breeziness thanks to lyricist Sakiko Masano's（政野早希子）vocals, and I'm assuming as was the case with "Kaze ni Notte", guitarist Hiroshi Narumi（鳴海寛）and drummer Makio Tada（多田牧男）tackled the melody and arrangement (love the warm sax, by the way). Hopefully, it's just the song to help blow away some of the cold out there today.
Incidentally, although frasco doesn't have any representation on J-Wiki, the online encyclopedia does list another band called Frasco (capital F) that started up in 2015 with a totally different lineup and perhaps a different sound (just heard one of their songs). There's nothing in the J-Wiki article hinting at any association between the two bands but I would like to cover that one song by Frasco that I've heard so far.
We've been having newscasters all day reassuring the lot of us that just because today is Labour Day, it doesn't mean the summer is over. There are still 19 days before autumn officially turns the corner. Yet, there are children heading to school as of tomorrow so for some of them who got interviewed on television, it may as well be September 20th already. They were appropriately rather glum at the prospect, and I do feel their pain since I've been in the same head space.
Not sure if those kids would appreciate my offer of a song to help them relax before getting their knapsacks ready and school clothes ironed, but perhaps some of the more City Pop-oriented fans out there may enjoy this one before heading back to work on Tuesday.
I bring Kyosuke Kusunoki's（楠木恭介）"Sugar Dance" from his 1985 album"Just Tonight". Just to confirm, all of his songs on the blog thus far since "Come To Me Again" earlier this February have been from this solo debut LP, so I gather that his folder here may be like the Takako Mamiya（間宮貴子）file. But not to complain at all..."Just Tonight" is that good. Ironically, despite "Sugar Dance" implying a major need to do a frenetic jig on the floor after imbibing several Cokes, the actual song is a far mellower sunset affair with any hint at dancing probably restricted to a slow one cheek-to-cheek.
Kusunoki composed this pleasant mid-tempo tune with Kyoko Utsumi（内海鏡子）providing lyrics, and Hiroshi Narumi（鳴海寛）behind the overall arrangement. I especially love the mid-song trumpet insertion by Shin Kazuhara（数原晋）with the temporary key shift. Now if only "Sugar Dance" can be released on CD instead of just having only the LP available.
Ahhh...Tohoku Shinkansen's（東北新幹線）"Thru Traffic", the urban contemporary gift from Japan that keeps on giving. Still cool and groovy with City Pop, AOR, Manhattan Transfer-type jazz vocal and even a bit of 50s/60s pop.
Yet another track from "Thru Traffic" representing the City Pop/AOR aspect is "Strange Wine". I would think that ingesting the real thing would be a recipe for an emergency run to the nearest hospital to exquisitely experience a stomach pump, but happily, such will not be the case here.
With lyrics by Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）and music by one-half of Tohoku Shinkansen, guitarist Hiroshi Narumi（鳴海寛）, "Strange Wine" is a pleasantly woozy song performed by Narumi about whimsy and loss. The protagonist is at a seaside hotel, nursing some of that good stuff which strangely triggers past memories of a former love who's now gone due to breakup or death. The sounds of the sunset surf are present as "Strange Wine" launches introspectively and keeps that feeling of hazy remembrances throughout the song. There is that also haunting background chorus in the middle of the song that adds to the fantastical feeling, and reading that the chorus includes the wonderful Junko Yagami（八神純子）, Kayoko Wada（和田夏代子）along with the other half of the Tohoku Shinkansen duo, Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）, I feel that "Strange Wine" is a truly magical experience.
Well, I decided that it was time for another spending binge on the music that I love, and one of the albums that I had been aiming for was Kyosuke Kusunoki's（楠木恭介）"Just Tonight" (1985). From listening to the soulful ballad "Come To Me Again" and writing about it, I was hooked on that 80s AOR along with Kusunoki feeling like the second coming of Bobby Caldwell and Fujimaru Yoshino（吉野藤丸）.
(21:00)
Alas, although the album is indeed available at Tower Records, it's currently only in LP format and costs over $40 Canadian. It's not only too rich for my blood, but frankly I think that I (and probably Tower as well) would be fretting about a thin vinyl disc being shipped overseas. But it had been sold in CD form in the past so I'm hoping that there will be another re-release of "Just Tonight".
What made the disappointment somewhat more pointed was that I discovered another great track on this album. This is "Nagisa ni te" (On The Beach), and Kusunoki gives some more fine croon, and it would make the perfect background tune for the scene that I photographed up above in 2014 on the shores of the city of Ito in the evening. According to "Music Avenue", "Nagisa ni te" was composed by the late Hiroshi Narumi（鳴海寛）but I couldn't find out who had provided the lyrics. No matter...it's a nice urban contemporary piece which further keeps my hopes alive that I will procure "Just Tonight" someday in the not-too-distant future.
I was able to dig up some more information about the Tokyo-born Kusunoki on his J-Wiki profile, and it looks like he started his music career shortly after graduating from university by creating the band Camel Land（キャメル・ランド）with two singles and one album in the early 1980s. Under his name of Kyosuke Kusunoki, there was the one album and one single, both in 1985, but after that, he changed his name to Yuukou Kusunoki（楠木勇有行）with four singles and four albums going into the early 2000s. He has also been a special guest with the fusion band Casiopea（カシオペア）.
Another wonderful track from the "Highway" compilation of the "Light Mellow" series to go along with Miki Asakura's（麻倉未稀）"Forum" which I wrote about a few days ago, Kyosuke Kusunoki's（楠木恭介）"Come To Me Again" is another creamily enticing mid-tempo song.
(29:37)
Originally from Kusunoki's debut solo album"Just Tonight" from 1985, "Come To Me Again" was mentioned in the liner notes in "Highway" as being very Bobby Caldwell, and I can certainly agree with that assessment. However, I would also like to add that Kusunoki's vocals remind me a bit of the voice of Michael McDonald from the Doobie Brothers.
The arrangement does indeed remind me of Caldwell's most famous hit "What You Won't Do for Love" to some extent, especially when the mild horns come in. I wish that it were a longer song but I guess "Come To Me Again" must have followed that entertainer's edict of leaving the audience wanting more. Kusunoki composed the song with Kyoko Utsumi（内海鏡子...hope that first name is correct）providing the lyrics and Hiroshi Narumi（鳴海寛）arranging everything in a way that would probably have had David Foster, Quincy Jones and Rod Temperton giving a collective thumbs-up.
As for Kusunoki, he was the lead vocalist in the band The Wood which started out originally as rocker George Yanagi's（柳ジョージ）backup group Rainy Wood（レイニーウッド）in the mid-1970s.
Wasn't quite sure whether I would get another crack at talking about this album since I basically covered all of the songs there which had been represented by sites such as YouTube. However, last night, I did find two more tracks from the rare and wonderful 1982 album by the duo known as Tohoku Shinkansen（東北新幹線）, "Thru Traffic", the only release that came out of the collaboration.
("Last Message" at 38:29)
Actually "September Valentine" is a song that I have already mentioned in the first article on the album but I am going to talk about it again since 1) it's THAT good to me, and 2) it shares something with "Last Message" in that the two represent the jazzier contributions on the album.
I realized on listening to arguably the best version of "September Valentine" which was originally created by Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）and Atsuko Saito（斉藤敦子）that I've long had an affinity for smoky jazz chorus performances. My first example in my life listening to such a combination was the Norman Luboff Choir's take on the Tony Bennett classic "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" when I was a toddler. And then there was the Manhattan Transfer's"Foreign Affair". Both of those standards were arranged in that way always leave me feeling rather wistful and happily melancholy (as weird as that may sound), and would be the type of music that I'd like to hear when leaving an amazing city for a long time.
This is why that Tohoku Shinkansen's take on "September Valentine" was a stroke of genius. I'd always thought that there was a streak of jazz in the earlier versions by Yukio Sasaki（佐々木幸男）and Abe but Narumi and Yamakawa amped the ballad even further by going full jazz. This cover is simply the theme song for strolling in Yamashita Park at night along Yokohama Bay with the brilliant view of Minato Mirai 21 in the background while that significant other is on your arm.
As for "Last Message", which is a solo for Yamakawa behind the mike, this was written by Arisu (or is it Alice?) Sato（佐藤アリス）and composed by Narumi. It kinda has that mix between a standard and a romantic 1950s ballad, perhaps something that a young Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）could have tackled. It is also the final track for the album so it's a nice way to end this great release on.
To give you an idea about what I mean by those old standard choruses, here is the Norman Luboff Choir. Unfortunately, I couldn't find their version of "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" but "But Beautiful" is more than enough to give you an idea of their sound.
And here is the Manhattan Transfer with "Foreign Affair".
About 18 months ago, I was first made aware of the lovely stylings of the late singer-songwriter Cindy. Never heard of her or saw her on TV any time during my two stints in Japan but then back in the summer of 2016, I discovered some of her material from her 2nd album"Angel Touch" which came out in June 1990.
The song that first drew me in was "Watashi Tachi wo Shinjiteite"（私達を信じていて）, a mid-tempo R&B number that grabbed me by the short-n-curlies (sorry for that analogy) and has yet to let go. The arrangement was heavenly (the Future Funksters certainly agreed) but what made it all gel was Cindy's lovely voice.
From "Watashi Tachi wo Shinjiteite" and a hearty recommendation in the Comments section for the song, I decided that I had to get the album. And thanks to Tower Records, I was finally able to purchase "Angel Touch" earlier this month as part of my Xmas bonanza. I put it on the stereo earlier today and I am now thrilled that I got it. It is truly ambrosia for the ears.
For example, "Surprise" which starts the album off. That is one lovely intro with a hint of Latin as Cindy takes us on a mellow romantic ride. Chinfa Kan（康珍化）, who also took care of another pop chanteuse in the previous decade, wrote the song with Cindy taking care of the melody. It also happened to be the coupling song for "Watashi Tachi wo Shinjiiteite" when it was released as a single.
I also like Track 2 "Setsunakute"（せつなくて...Heartrending）written by Masami Tozawa（戸沢暢美）with music and arrangement by Rod Antoon. Was able to hear a lot of the old R&B tropes from that turn of that particular decade which got the nostalgia going. After listening to this one, I just went "Wow! And this was almost a decade before the arrival of Misia".
The same duo behind the classic "Watashi Tachi wo Shinjiteite", Kan and songwriter/musician Hiroshi Narumi（鳴海寛）, also wove this splendid ballad "Special Ever Happened" for Cindy which also turned out to be her 5th single from November 1990. Warm brandy for the soul. Miho Nakayama（中山美穂）would make a cover of the song in the following year for her album "De eaya".
"Candle Light" is some nice downtown funk with Cindy's great vocals and sax. Listening to this one, I just had to wonder if there had been any sort of duet between her and Sing Like Talking's Chikuzen Sato（佐藤竹善）. Rui Serizawa（芹沢類）provided the lyrics with Cindy and Yuji Toriyama（鳥山雄司）coming up with the music.
Plenty of other tracks remain but I will leave those to future articles. In any case, as the commenter mentioned, I owed it to myself to get "Angel Touch", and happy to say that this could be one of those heavy rotation discs.
Well, this album will most likely end up being my most coveted release this year, and I was indeed very happy to get this one last week.
The duo known as Tohoku Shinkansen（東北新幹線）consisting of the late musician Hiroshi Narumi（鳴海寛）and songwriter Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）has already been mentioned on the pages of this blog through three tracks from their sole album from 1982, "Thru Traffic". And it is because of those three tracks that I had wanted to get "Thru Traffic" for many months. However, at the time, Amazon.jp and some other sites were selling the rare album for prices like 7,000 yen and upwards; too rich for my blood.
Tower Records Japan had actually been selling far more reasonably priced CDs of the album but when I checked there, it had already been sold out. Undaunted, I kept checking periodically until early June when I discovered that my old haunt was once again taking in reservations for a new batch of "Thru Traffic". Well, the fingers flew fast on my keyboard that night and made my purchase. Being the smirking cynic that I am, I figured that my luck would run out and Tower would send me a message stating that I had just missed out or that Japan Post had lost my disc. Happily, though, it didn't happen.
"Thru Traffic" is definitely a pure KKP/YouTube purchase. There wasn't even any mention of it or Tohoku Shinkansen on "Japanese City Pop". I only found out about it because I was just strolling through YouTube one night at some of the other songs that songwriter Yamakawa had provided other singers. Unfortunately, the video of the whole album has been taken down and although I understand the reason behind the powers-that-be's decision to send that cease-and-desist e-mail, I have to say that it was because of the presence of that video along with the videos of separate tracks that I could find out about the album and eventually purchase it. No videos, no "Thru Traffic" in my hands. Furthermore, I've got the sneaking suspicion that some of the other purchases of the album from Tower Records may have been because of folks coming across the videos on social media somewhere.
But before I end up pressing that soapbox into the soft earth under my considerable girth, let me step off and just say that I have brought back the opening track "Summer Touches You" as performed by Narumi, although it has already gotten its own article. One of the commenters said that the song reminded him of some of the material that Canada's own Gino Vannelli had sung, and his name does indeed pop up in the liner notes for "Thru Traffic" as an influence. I have already sung the praises but listening to it a few more times, that intro of guitars and mellow horns is simply fantastic for a guy who loves R&B and other facets of urban contemporary pop from that era.
The only other new track that I could find anywhere online was "September Valentine". And it was a song that I had already covered back in 2012. The bluesy original by Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）and Atsuko Saito（斉藤敦子）has been remade into a jazz ballad on "Thru Traffic" that would make Hi-Fi Set or even the Manhattan Transfer swoon. Compared to the other three tracks represented here on the blog, it's a bit of a stylistic detour but a wonderful one thanks to Narumi and Yamakawa.
I've only had a chance to quickly skim through the liner notes of the album but what I could find out was that both Narumi and Yamakawa started their musical education in classical music. However as they were growing up, Yamakawa started falling for the Group Sounds of the 1960s and Western pop music in general while Narumi had his eyes (and ears) further opened by the sounds of artists such as Burt Bacharach, The Carpenters and The Fifth Dimension. If I've got my translation correct, the two of them were working at the Yamaha Music Foundation and it was evident that their ages and musical tastes meshed well. One day, a director at Yamaha even suggested that the two collaborate as a unit and so Tohoku Shinkansen was born.
"Thru Traffic" would be the big project for the duo with the concept covering AOR and black contemporary music of the time with that feeling of the city (despite the cover having that illustration of a white house with the wood siding perhaps out in the burbs). Basically, according to those same liner notes, there were influences from Vannelli, Bobby Caldwell, Earth Wind & Fire and George Benson.
Ah, what the heck! I brought in another video, "Tsuki ni Yorisotte"（月に寄りそって）performed by both Narumi and Yamakawa, to finish things off here. I have no idea how the album did on Oricon; most likely it did modestly at best but to me, this is a definite keeper. And if anyone ever asks about how to get in on the ground floor for Japanese City Pop or J-AOR, I could definitely recommend "Thru Traffic". If you've got the funds, you can get it on Amazon or pester Tower Records Japan for more copies to be made.
A bit more seasonal than some of the torrid weather we had gotten over the last couple of days but still sunny and pleasant out there today. Besides, I like the cooler air.
Therefore to commemorate this weather, I've decided to devote this article to this lovely song by not-so-well-known pop band frasco. I never heard of these guys until I bought my very first CD from the "Light Mellow" series a few years ago, "Breeze". But I knew I was on the right step when I heard a lot of wonderful tracks on this disc including frasco's "Kaze ni Notte" (Catch The Wind).
frasco consisted of the late guitarist Hiroshi Narumi（鳴海寛）, session drummer Makio Tada（多田牧男）and singer-songwriter Sakiko Masano（政野早希子）on vocals. Narumi's name has been bandied about before on this blog due to his contribution to the City Pop duo Tohoku Shinkansen（東北新幹線）with songwriter Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）back in the 1980s. Well, it looks like he brought together another unit in the following decade with frasco in 1994.
This particularly breezy tune "Kaze ni Notte" was included in their 1996 2nd album"film". The band has been solidly classified as a pop group but listening to this summery outing, I couldn't help but feel that there was also some Shibuya-kei in there somewhere so I've also included that genre in the Labels. Either way, it's a good song to listen to. Not too frenetic, not too laid back, it's the equivalent of a walk on the sandy beach. Narumi composed the melody while Masano took care of the lyrics with Narumi and Tada arranging the whole thing.
Considering the obscurity of frasco, all of my information on the group was from the liner notes of that "Breeze" disc for "Light Mellow".
Now it's possible that depending on where you live, you may not be able to see the video at the very top, but perhaps you can access this compilation at around 4:10 when "Kaze ni Notte" begins.
Yesterday, I had a commenter remark about how much he loved the works of singer-songwriter Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）. I heartily agreed. And for this blog, she has mostly popped up as the songwriter but recently I only discovered of her participation decades ago in the duo Tohoku Shinkansen（東北新幹線）as not being just behind the pen but also behind the mike.
Not sure if Tohoku Shinkansen was ever meant as merely a whimsical dalliance/project as opposed to a full-fledged duo recording albums and making concert tours considering that Yamakawa and guitarist Hiroshi Narumi（鳴海寛）only created the one album "Thru Traffic" in 1982. Still, for City Pop/J-AOR lovers, this is one of the desired rarest of the rare. Personally, I would love to get my hands on a copy of the album but prices are now exorbitantly high. Realistically, I can only hope that one of the tracks has managed to get onto a compilation album such as the "Light Mellow" series or someday the recording companies decide to release a new batch of remastered CDs or digital downloads.
The one reason I've been quite keen on Tohoku Shinkansen is that the three tracks from "Thru Traffic" that are on YouTube are all very cool and classy numbers of the genre. I've already gotten "Tsuki ni Yorisotte"（月に寄りそって）and "Summer Touches You" up and running. The former is a duet between Narumi and Yamakawa while the latter is a solo by Narumi.
"Summer Touches You" was released as a single as well which leads to the topic of this article, "Up and Down". The song was the B-side to the single and also appears on the album. It is a solo concoction by Yamakawa in words and music, and is pleasingly breezy with a tight horn section and some light funkiness. Listening to the songwriter do her solo, I think it's a pity that she didn't show up more often in the recording booth rather than man the machines.
Note: The link to her website only gives out gibberish to me. You may have better luck.
Yup, summer is indeed coming to an end for another year, and though I'm not sure how the season was where most of you are, outside of Toronto and Japan, it was definitely a scorcher here in T.O. And I'm saying this as a fellow who lived 17 summers in the Tokyo area where I used to swim not walk through the atmosphere. To be honest, I'm not a huge summer fan in terms of the humidity so I'm quite glad that fall weather may finally look kindly upon us in a few days' time.
So perhaps it is appropriate that before summer officially goes out like a lion, I throw in one more summery song...or at least something with the word "summer" in the title. And here I have Tohoku Shinkansen's（東北新幹線）"Summer Touches You" from their lone 1982 album"Thru Traffic".
A few weeks ago, I encountered my first song by this duo consisting of guitarist Hiroshi Narumi（鳴海寛）and songwriter Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）from the same album, the oh-so-comfy "Tsuki ni Yorisotte"（月に寄りそって）. Well, "Thru Traffic" starts off with "Summer Touches You", a mid-tempo number created and sung by Narumi that has a great City Pop intro and some nice George Benson-style canoodling on the guitar. The fellow on the Japanese-language music blog "Music Avenue" keyed me in on the Benson comparison, and he remarked that as soon as he had heard those first few measures of "Summer Touches You", he was assured that "Thru Traffic" was going to be one solid album.
I actually looked for the album at my usual sources of Tower Records and CD Japan in the hopes of purchasing it but unfortunately it's not there anymore. There were a few copies of it at Amazon but the cheapest one in the lot started from the 7000-8000 yen range which is way too rich for my blood. At this rate, I can only hope that one of the readers of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" is a Tower or CDJ procurement employee who could somehow aim to get a few of those CD versions back on sale for "Thru Traffic". Pretty please.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
