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.
Showing posts with label Ichiko Takehana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ichiko Takehana. Show all posts
We have some more of the Okinawan dynamo who went by the name GWINKO when she was singing in the late 1980s. From her September 1987 debut album"Yesterday, Today, Forever", this is "Kiss Kiss Kiss" by the teenage R&B singer.
Written by Ichiko Takehana（竹花いち子）and composed by Masatoshi Nishimura（西村麻聡）, I have to apologize in advance if I don't have my R&B sub-genres accurate here, but I'm considering "Kiss Kiss Kiss" as an early form of New Jack Swing with some Prince-ly funk and maybe even some Janet Jackson attitude. Regardless, the nostalgia waves are flowing in loud and clear here.
I don't think that I ever put up this piece of trivia regarding GWINKO but according to J-Wiki, she was one of the first graduates of the Okinawa Actors' School which was founded in 1983 to make it big in show business. Afterwards, Namie Amuro（安室奈美恵）, the group SPEED and Da Pump made their own mark in music.
Well, now that local public events in Toronto are coming back online following the pandemic, one such event is taking place this weekend. The Doors Open project has certain facilities opening up to the public when they usually aren't. I took a gander at four places this morning, one of which was the highlight, the small atrium for the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto, as you can see above. It kinda either looks like the Console Room for the Twelfth Doctor's TARDIS or Main Engineering in the Enterprise-D. Yup, I still have my sci-fi on the brain.😵
But I'm realizing that it was my first time walking this much in many, many months so right now I've aching all over and I'm probably going to need some heavy dollops of Voltaren later today. Will need to exercise some more in the weeks and months to come.
Anyways, since I was visiting a number of rooms that I wouldn't usually enter, I thought perhaps "In The Room" would be an ideal song to start this broadcasting day of "Kayo Kyoku Plus". Sung by Miki Matsubara（松原みき）, this is a snappy and upbeat song which was composed by Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）, the same fellow who came up with her classic "Mayonaka no Door"（真夜中のドアー）, many years earlier, and it's interesting because just like with Akira Terao（寺尾聰）tackling something more late 80s City Pop through "The Stolen Memories" with its sophisticated pop sense, Matsubara is also doing the same here with the synths and horns.
The arrangement was done by Shiro Sagisu（鷺巣詩郎）and Ichiko Takehana（竹花いち子）handled the lyrics. Despite the upbeat night-on-the-town feeling of the music, the setting of Takehana's lyrics is within a room of a woman who is quietly and bitterly kicking herself after losing her guy to another woman. Apparently, the breakup was very cordial but she's regretting that she didn't even have a chance to pour some anger onto him. "In The Room" was Matsubara's final single coming out in May 1988 and it was also a track on her final album from the same month "WiNK".
Quite a few months before Valentine's Day but I did bring a box of chocolates from the late establishment 100% Chocolate Café to my school one time. Yes, I believe that February 14th is the day in Japan when women give the chocolates to men while the reverse happens on White Day on March 14th, but I was sticking with my Canadian traditions when I opted to give the box to the staff. But allow me to state that this was purely giri choco or obligatory chocolate and nothing more.
Anyways, also allow me to introduce singer, songwriter and producer Kiichi Yokoyama（横山輝一）to "Kayo Kyoku Plus" for the first time. That name rings a bell and although I couldn't see any song that he has written for other artists that I could recognize and/or have put onto the blog, I believe that he has popped up in the production of at least a song or two that I've covered here. I simply have to seek them out again.
Getting back to the Hokkaido born-and-raised Yokoyama, according to his J-Wiki file, he's released a lot of singles and albums of various sizes over the decades right up into the 2010s, but I did want to show off this particular track from his second album"Voice" from May 1987."Falling In Love" is a pleasant City Pop number composed by Yokoyama and written by Ichiko Takehana（竹花いち子）, and the singer has quite the resonant voice accompanied by some of those late 80s synths, a bluesy saxophone solo and some floaty background vocals.
Yokoyama started out at STVradio Broadcasting in Sapporo as a host and DJ in 1979 before becoming the vocalist for the band Stella（ステラ）in 1981. He came out with his first single"Boogie Walkin'"（ブギー・ウォーキン）and his debut album"I Like It" in 1986.
The crazy thing about "People!", the final track on PAZZ's 1987"Bananafish" album, is that despite its nearly 6 minutes of song, it doesn't wear out its welcome at all and I'm surprised that it just breezes by as quickly as it does.
I've already written about much of this pretty fine album with the weird name by the one-off band, and certainly I would love to get my hands on my own copy of "Bananafish" once all this COVID stuff is behind me and mail delivery is stabilized once more. But in the meantime, I'll be more than happy to settle for what I can find on YouTube, and with the finale of the album being "People!", I get a warm and soulful mid-tempo song created by lyricist Ichiko Takehana（竹花いち子）and composer/vocalist Masayuki Iwata（岩田雅之）.
There are some nice honeyed synth-horns and a rhythm that hints at a comfortable afternoon drive along the coast. Then at the end, there is even a hopeful get-together collection of voices and claps which hints at some gospel and perhaps some Stevie Wonder. Although I wonder how much better "People!" would have been with real horns, it's a nice way to end "Bananafish".
Just to give my greetings on this holiday Monday: Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in Canada, Happy Columbus Day to all those in the United States and Happy Sports Day to the citizens of Japan. For the record, we didn't have any turkey in our household...just some fish n' chips.
Anyways, I've been learning with the advent of Google Maps, potential tourists have been able to prep for any upcoming trips by taking a virtual tour of the destination in foreign lands before they actually do the real thing. I am not planning to go anywhere in the near future, but I have been curious about a lot of these cities so I've also been doing the virtual tour thing. One night last week, I was taking a Google tour of Miami, Florida and as I was doing so, I was simply playing New J Channel and the song of the moment was from an album that I've seen from time to time there. It's titled "Bananafish" by the trio PAZZ and was originally released in 1987.
Aside from the manga with the same title that had been turned into an anime last year, I'd never heard anything about a "Bananafish". But I'll tell you...doing that tour of downtown Miami while listening to one of the tracks, "Distance", I got that rare thrill of ASMR going up my back and neck. That was a huge sign that perhaps this oddly-named album may be worth a hunt for Xmas shopping.
There is no J-Wiki article for PAZZ or "Bananafish". However, there is an article for former member and singer-composer Masayuki Iwata（岩田雅之）. Originally from Aichi Prefecture, that's his heavenly voice on the dreamy "Distance", a mix of bossa nova and soul. With him creating the melody, his two other partners in PAZZ were vocalist Miho Fujiwara（藤原美穂）, formerly of Chocolate Lips, and fellow composer Tatsuya Nishiwaki（西脇辰弥）who also worked with Iwata on the keyboards and computer programming. Although Fujiwara was a veteran, PAZZ was the debut deal for both Iwata and Nishiwaki. The lyricist for "Distance" was Ichiko Takehana（竹花いち子）.
"Empty Heart" is another Iwata and Takehana collaboration which is a nice slice of smooth contemporary funk/soul. Listening to Iwata here and on "Distance", I think that there is a slight vocal resemblance to Michael McDonald and 80s singer Zappacosta. I can really feel the Los Angeles connection here.
One more track that I will show is "Can't You See My Love", once again by Takehana and Iwata, a romantic ballad that truly made my virtual tour among the huge shiny skyscrapers of Miami very worthwhile. Iwata doesn't sound anything like Chikuzen Sato（佐藤竹善）but the whole feeling behind this one reminds me of what Sing Like Talking would also be creating later on. Always love those creamy horns.
Looking at the Japanese overview of the album at Technology Pops 𝝅3.14, PAZZ was backed up by some solid musicians such as Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）, Jun Aoyama（青山純）and Jake H. Concepcion. As I said before, I would love to get my hands on this one and only album by the band. Post-PAZZ, Iwata would create songs for a number of other singers such as SMAP, Mariko Takahashi（高橋真梨子）and Harumi Tsuyuzaki（露崎春女）, although he would also release a solo album in 2000.
Spent a lot of the day performing the semi-annual cleaning of the shelves and then putting in the new discs onto them in the right order. This is a downright labour-intensive duty and, boy, are my shoulders harder than granite. I will probably have to vicariously experience a massage via one of those ASMR videos. Such is the virtuality of reality nowadays.
Time for the first Miki Matsubara（松原みき）article for 2019, and this is one is a bit different since it's a track from a 1988 album of hers, her 9th to be exact, "WiNK" (no connection with the legendary aidoru duo who were starting their career around this time). "Megami no Migite"(The Goddess' Right Hand) has the famous vocals of Matsubara, but the song doesn't have the same ol' feeling of City Pop with the Fender Rhodes and some shimmery strings.
In fact, I would say that "Megami no Migite" has more of a West Coast pop atmosphere as if David Foster helped out in its creation. Actually, it was Hitoshi Haba（羽場仁志）behind the composition with lyricist/copywriter Ichiko Takehana（竹花いち子）providing the words. I do like the period synths, the horns and that incessant keyboard laying down the beat. Nope, it may not be the most original pop song of the decade, but on the radio, there are way worse ways to spend 4 minutes and change. Besides, I'd be willing to purchase "WiNK" just for the zesty cover alone.
I found this just about a week ago while flipping through the YouTube pages with Kiyoshi Maekawa (前川清) in the search engine. Among the many live performances of Cool Five classics and some of his own recent solo efforts, I managed to come across the video for "Fiction no Youni" that played the song in its original state. It's actually quite uncommon to find such videos since most of them with Mae-Kiyo's older songs are usually just one of those karaoke covers, much to my ire.
Anyway, inferring from the song's name, I kinda guessed that it wouldn't be close to the genre he's most known for, Mood Kayo, let alone Enka. "Fiction no Youni" sounds so Pop-like and looks like a song title straight from the mind of Aska. Nevertheless, I assumed this would probably have a slow, relaxed pace with an air of mystery to it. So you could say I was more than surprised to hear synths (in a Mae-Kiyo song?!) and a brisk tune, very typical of songs from the early 80's. It still has that air of mystery to it though, especially since he starts off in a cool, quiet tone... actually it doesn't get as intense at the later parts either, unlike other songs... lookin' at you, "Soshite Kobe" (そして、神戸).
Composed by the late Daisuke Inoue (井上大輔) from the Group Sounds group, Jackey Yoshikawa and his Blue Comets - the one who played the flute or sax - I think this was one other single that made Maekawa eventually known for singing songs that lean more to the genre of Pop. It was written by Ichiko Takehana (竹花いち子).
He looked "derpy" yet somewhat cute in the 80's.
Urgh, but that hairdo...
I have finally come to the scene of the crime when it comes to me and Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）. Her 6th single, "Kinku"（禁区） may have been the very first song of hers that I had ever heard, but it was her 8th studio album, "D404ME" that brought me into Akina World. I first borrowed a tape cassette of the album from a classmate in 2nd-year Japanese who was the biggest Akina fan, and ended up listening to it twice in quick succession. But before I ended up destroying the thing in repeated play, I decided to fork out the cash at Wah Yueh or another record store across Dundas in Chinatown to purchase the actual LP as my own copy. Then I set out to abuse the needle on my record player instead of the heads on my tape recorder.
As you can see from the photo above, it looks like the album cover decided to reflect the eclectic direction that Akina was continuing from her previous album, "Bitter and Sweet". Apparently the title (which had always sounded like something used to fix that squeaky doorknob or kill cockroaches in their tracks) was derived from the registration number of a warehouse. And it certainly looked like the photo shoot for the cover was held inside that warehouse. It looks like a 3-year-old's concept of the Batcave.
Anyways, listening to the tracks again had me realize how much I missed this album after so long. As with "Bitter and Sweet", it has a lot of dynamic songs...8 out of the 10 tracks...created by a number of veteran singer-songwriters. The album starts out with "Endless" (the above video), which starts out like something from "The X-Files" before it launches into a funk-and-groove City Pop tune. The huskiness of Akina's voice continues to develop and her delivery has that sort of Siren-like effect, enticing listeners to enjoy the temptations of the city. Looking over the liner notes for "D404ME" again, I was a bit surprised to find out that it was Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）who had composed the opening track with Ikki Matsumoto（松本一起）providing the lyrics. At the time I got the album, Ohnuki was just the name of someone who had flittered around the edges of my kayo kyoku/J-Pop mind, and it would be several years before I finally got who she was and appreciated her own brand of music.
The 2nd track, "Nocturn", written and composed by one-half of Chage & Aska, Ryo Aska（飛鳥涼）, is a pop/rock piece driven by Masaki Matsubara's（松原正樹）electric guitar. The lyrics hint at the darker side of love. Just in terms of Akina's delivery and the arrangement, the song sounds like something that late 70saidoru Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵） would have sung. Considering that in the early years of my acquaintance with Akina's music, it was often said that there were similarities between the two singers from different eras, the sound of this 2nd track is not lost on me.
When I was putting the album on heavy rotation on the stereo, my favourite track was the third one, "Allegro Vivace". Compared to almost all of the other songs, I think it's one of the two relatively slower ballads. Written by Yoshiko Miura（三浦徳子） and composed by Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）, it's soaring and elegant, and was one of the first hints for me that Akina was no ordinary aidoru, and in fact, by the time "D404ME" came out, she really no longer was.
The first track on Side B of the LP is "Blue Ocean". With lyrics by Reiko Yukawa（湯川れい子） and music by the rock band NOBODY, its technopoppiness comes out right from the get-go with that tinny synth and snippets of Akina on repeat mode. In a way, the song sounds like her singing a combination of an aidoru tune and an old-fashioned tropical ditty from an old Ealing Studios movie taken into outer space. The guy on keyboards was pretty interesting; it turned out to be Joe Hisaishi（久石譲）who whipped up all those wonderful scores for the Studio Ghibli movies, and arranged this particular track.
(cover version)
Singer-songwriting buddies EPO and Taeko Ohnuki teamed up to give Akina this fun song with a little tech and a lot of funk called "Magnetic Love", which seems to describes falling in love as a power surge through a major metropolitan grid. I wouldn't be surprised if SONY or Hitachi had actually used the song as a jingle for one of their products. The one other thing I'll say about it is how much I enjoy Akina pronouncing "magnetic love".
One of the things I also enjoyed about "D404ME" is the horn section. I've always been a sucker for a good group of trumpets and trombones accompanying the saxes. "Mona Lisa" has a bit of this Barbee Boys vibe in the arrangement and then in come the full set of three trumpets, three trombones and Jake H. Concepcion on sax. Goto was once again involved in the composition but the lyrics were provided by Ichiko Takehana（竹花いち子）.Akina sings about not wanting to actively have anything to do with loving anyone else but instead just wants to be admired from afar by freezing herself like the proverbial eternally beautiful smiling titular figure. Along with the horn section, the other thing I like is the bell-like keyboard, especially when it goes off like a fire engine siren.
The piece de resistance, though, is Akina's 11th single, "Meu Amor e"（ミ・アモーレ） which has its special version at the end of the album. However, I'll save that for the next article. To be honest, it's been years since I listened to "D404ME" due to the fact that I never got around to getting the CD version of the album while I was in Japan, and although the original LP is sitting next to my feet as I type this, my stereo has long ago joined the proverbial audio store in the sky. But being able to hear just about all of the tracks again via YouTube has been very reassuring for me.
"D404ME" was originally released in August 1985 on LP (a month later on CD), and hit No. 1 on Oricon right from its launch where it spent the next 2 weeks. However, even after falling from that lofty perch, it hung around the charts for a further 26 weeks to become the 7th-ranked song of the year. It also earned an Excellent Album prize at The Japan Record Awards. I think having both this album and "Bitter & Sweet" is a must just to show the transition Akina made from aidoru to pop superstar.
A mystery for me...and for anyone who reads this. I came across this album, "Love Trip" (1982) through the auspices of "Japanese City Pop". Furthermore, I found just one song by Takako Mamiya （間宮貴子）on YouTube, and I'm not even sure if it's been uploaded in its entirety. "Mayonaka no Joke"(真夜中のジョーク...Midnight Joke) is a pretty decent City Pop tune. But despite looking throughout the Net, I haven't been able to find any more information about this singer. Would like to track it down someday, but I've got a feeling that this could be one of the rarest of the rare. (April 15, 2017: Obviously since my original comments, things have improved on this front...as long as the powers-that-be don't take it down. And I hope they don't. I still consider the album a very rare find.)
"Mayonaka no Joke" was written by lyricist Ichiko Takehana（竹花いち子）and composed by Hiroyuki Nanba（難波弘之）. Takehana apparently has her own foodie blog. As for the title track, "Love Trip" is one smooth tonic that brings to mind folks like Al Jarreau and Gino Vannelli in the arrangement. Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）and Kazuo Shiina（椎名和夫）were responsible for words and music respectively, and as with the album as a whole, "Love Trip" the song has all of the tropes that has made City Pop as delectable as it has for many a new fan, including what I call the Evian spring water keyboard riff. This is a must-get for any convert to the cause.
