Ikemen 3 -- Koi no Matenrou（恋の摩天楼）

 

The latest mega commercial complex got its grand opening in Tokyo on Friday. Azabudai Hills opened up its doors to the masses and it joins its Hills siblings: Roppongi Hills, Toranomon Hills and Omotesando Hills. There's been a lot of construction and change in my old stomping grounds since my last visit there in 2017, so I've got a feeling that I may need a new guidebook to grope my way around Japan's capital.

So, in tribute to that event, I was searching for any matenrou-based music since I've encountered a few such songs over the years. Well, it didn't take too long before I came across this new tune. "Koi no Matenrou" (Skyscrapers of Love) is a snappy and snazzy song about finding love among those steel and glass towers and holding on for dear life because the couple doesn't know what tomorrow will bring. 

The December 2009 song is so far the only single performed by Ikemen 3（イケメン3）. The three singers involved all have their own KKP files: Daisuke Kitagawa（北川大介）, Hiroshi Takeshima（竹島宏） and Keisuke Yamauchi（山内惠介）. Considering that they were put together as a male enka aidoru trio under the aegis of the predecessor of NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）, "Kayo Concert"（歌謡コンサート）, thoughts of Gosanke came to mind. Sure enough, the J-Wiki article for Ikemen 3 were given the nickname of the Heisei Era Gosanke. Not sure if there have been any reunions among the three but now that almost 14 years have passed by, I think the aidoru label can be taken off.

"Koi no Matenrou" was written by Koyomi Asa（麻こよみ）and composed by Kohei Miyuki（幸耕平）. It's again one of those songs that can be quite amorphous in terms of its genre. I can go with neo versions of enka and Mood Kayo but I can also use the convenient term of New Adult Music with a kick of Latin thrown in for good measure. In the end, it does feel like an adventure of romance in the big city.

Hiroshi Takeshima -- Santa Maria no Kane（サンタマリアの鐘）

Wikipedia Commons

Along with Ryokuoushoku Shakai（緑黄色社会）, Hiroshi Takeshima（竹島宏）appeared on "Uta Con"（うたコン）last night to perform his own recent single, his 29th to be specific, "Santa Maria no Kane" (The Bells of Santa Maria) which hit the shelves in March 2023.

The enka and Mood Kayo singer kinda hovers in that area between his two chosen genres and regular pop music so I guess that he might have that amorphous label of New Adult Music which had attempted to stick onto certain songs in that gray area a few decades ago. Alternately, "Santa Maria no Kane" could be Neo-enka or Neo-Mood Kayo.

In any case, the Fukui Prefecture native sings this rather lush and dramatic ballad about a love lost in Florence, Italy which is pretty far from Japan for a Mood Kayo. Regardless, when I look at that title, I was wondering which church the singer, lyricist Hiroshi Yamada（山田ひろし）, composer Kohei Miyuki（幸耕平）and arranger Masayuki Sakamoto（坂本昌之）had been referring to. According to Wikipedia, there are five religious establishments in Florence which have a connection to that Santa Maria name, so I just went with Florence Cathedral which is known officially as Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore. "Santa Maria no Kane" broke the Top 10 by scoring a No. 8.

Hiroshi Takeshima -- Yume no Furiko（夢の振り子）

Heard this on recent episodes of both "Uta Kon"（うたコン）and "Gogo Uta"（ごごウタ）and found it catchy enough to write about. "Yume no Furiko" (Pendulum of Dreams) is the June 2019 single for enka/Mood Kayo singer Hiroshi Takeshima（竹島宏）, and though I don't consider this to be an enka, I'm kinda wondering if this would be a musical hybrid of Mood Kayo and straight pop. Plus, the shortened music video above has choreography kinda reminiscent of an aidoru group, and Takeshima himself still has some young aidoru-like looks although he is currently 41.

I think what got me interested in "Yume no Furiko" is that the collaboration of lyricist Goro Matsui（松井五郎）and composer Takashi Tsushimi（都志見隆）has produced a song which has also gotten me thinking of that exotic kayo boom from the late 1970s when the hits from that mini-genre were arranged so that the listener felt that they were on some sort of out-of-country adventure in Europe or Asia. There's certainly that jaunty beat in "Yume no Furiko".

"Yume no Furiko", which went up to No. 15 on Oricon, was also the ending theme for a samurai drama on NHK Broadcast Satellite titled "Daifugou Doushin"（大富豪同心...Ultra Rich Constable）. The show was adapted from a novel series starting from 2010 and ran for a couple of months earlier this year. According to the website "My Drama List", the series dealt with the son of a very wealthy merchant in Edo ending up as a bumbling constable trying to solve crimes with considerable help from people around him.

Hiroshi Takeshima -- Koi Machi Counter（恋町カウンター）

Happy Friday! Trying to fight post-dinner drowsiness (320g steak) and some annoying Internet failures to get back onto my own personal quota for the blog.

I've heard this song by Mood Kayo/enka singer Hiroshi Takeshima（竹島宏）a couple of times now, and I'm enjoying it.

This would be "Koi Machi Counter" (Love Town Counter), Takeshima's latest single released in March 2018. Anzen Chitai（安全地帯）collaborator Goro Matsui（松井五郎）wrote the lyrics of love coming to fruition in a drinking establishment with Takashi Tsushimi（都志見 隆）coming up with the zippy Mood Kayo melody.

And this is what I like about the song. It has that zesty Mood Kayo feeling from yesteryear but paired with the 39-year-old being quite informal in garb and even exercising his option to dance around a bit. No need to stand rigidly at attention by the mike while wearing a glossy suit anymore. We have the old-fashioned with the modern.

Heck, I do like that dramatic piano with the shimmering strings there. And there's even a video showing the dance steps necessary to bring "Koi Machi Counter" to life. I guess the demands on karaoke singers have gotten even higher.

As for Takeshima, he was born in Fukui Prefecture and was inspired to enter the career of singing when he was an elementary school student after watching a performance of enka singer Fuyumi Sakamoto（坂本冬美）. He made his debut in 2002 with "Ii Mon da, Ii Mon da"（いいもんだ　いいもんだ...It's Good, It's Good）.  Something else that I hadn't known until today was that back in 2008, through the machinations of NHK's previous kayo kyoku incarnation "Kayo Concert"（歌謡コンサート）, he was placed with two other handsome singers, Daisuke Kitagawa（北川大介）and Keisuke Yamauchi（山内惠介）, to form the enka singer trio Ikemen 3（イケメン3...Cool Guys 3）. I guess this was the 21st-century equivalent of the Gosanke（御三家）, the 1960s triumvirate of heartthrob singers consisting of Yukio Hashi, Kazuo Funaki and Teruhiko Saigo.（橋幸夫、舟木一夫、西郷輝彦）.