punipunidenki x Kan Sano x Shin Sakiura -- Gakugeidai-mae（学芸大前）

 

In the late 2000s, I was teaching a couple of students privately in the western end of Tokyo so I took the Toyoko Line to the tony Den'en-Chofu district, and each time I headed out there, the train passed through Gakugei Daigaku Station which had been built about a century ago right by Tokyo Gakugei University. The university itself though was uprooted and moved off a fair bit away in 1964 so that the station isn't anywhere near the campus anymore but the name of the station remained...maybe just to confuse newbies. While researching about the song here, I learned that the area around the station has become one of the trendier neighbourhoods west of Shibuya along the lines of Jiyugaoka and Shimo-Kitazawa. I never got to stop off at Gakugei Daigaku Station but we can all travel there vicariously through the video above.

And speaking about that song, I'm talking about "Gakugeidai-mae" (In Front of Gakugei Daigaku Station), a collaboration among those Neo-City Pop hipsters punipunidenki（ぷにぷに電機）, Kan Sano and guitarist/music producer Shin Sakiura. Released a few months ago, I'm now pretty confident that the title is referring to the Toyoko Line station rather than the actual university itself. From what I've read of the explanation underneath the music video at YouTube, it all revolves around the lyric "I wanna meet you, darling, at Gakugeidai at 9 tonight" and has other enticing phrases such as "the lights of a small bar," "that song from the 80s," and "magical clichés". Melodically, there are some nostalgic chord progressions that personally take me back a bit to the original City Pop days. Meanwhile, punipunidenki and Sano trade vocals in a give-and-take between the one who is courting and the one who is being courted (and who's playing somewhat hard-to-get).

To finish off, here's a video on the actual Tokyo Gakugei University, just so that it doesn't feel left out. As well, there is a 2024 KKP article focusing on punipunidenki and Kan Sano and an earlier collaboration.

KAGAMI feat. kiki vivi lily and Kan Sano -- Friends

 

Just out of curiosity and a sense of the nostalgic, I threw in the phrase "Doctor Who and the TARDIS whizzing through space and time in a cartoon way." via the Bing AI art generator. Well, I thought I was going to get something bizarre but apparently, even Bing knows about everyone's favourite Time Lord and his TARDIS. However, the Doctor above apparently has the Tenth Doctor's face and the Eleventh Doctor's costume.

Anyways, enough geeking out over one particular corner of my pop culture mind. Let's go back to the one that I should be geeking out over for this blog. Let me introduce you to the group KAGAMI and quote their description from their website:

KAGAMI is a Netherlands-based Cosmic Funk duo led by producers Lucas Sim and Rotem Gerad. 

What began as a shared love for 80s Japanese City Pop and AOR grew into a project that also embraces the pulse of French Touch, Italo Disco, and Brazilian MPB. Inspired by artists like Daft Punk and Tatsuro Yamashita, their music blends live instrumentation with synth-centered production into a sound which is both nostalgic and forward-looking. 

So, as far as my own musical tastes go, there's a lot of potential expected from Sim and Gerad although I'm not up on my French Touch, but you can check out this link to YouTube for what this genre has. In any case, their debut EP from April this year, "Time Machine", boasts their take on 80s Japanese City Pop and AOR, and they've got some help from the buttery-voiced Fukuoka-born singer-songwriter kiki vivi lily and keyboardist, singer-songwriter and track maker Kan Sano. This one track "Friends" certainly has the groove of City Pop and some of that cute blippity-bloppity, timey-wimey synthesizer sense. It kinda sounds like the Doctor's innocent traipsing through Shinjuku with his latest companion.

punipunidenki featuring Kan Sano -- Zurukunai?（ずるくない？）

 

Over the past several months, I've been able to encounter a number of eclectic and interesting artists with their music. And I'm happy to say that a couple of them have collaborated with each other in the past.

Singer-songwriters punipunidenki（ぷにぷに電機）and Kan Sano worked together on lyrics and melody respectively to form "Zurukunai?" (Ain't It Unfair?) which was released in May 2021 as a digital single. I was just talking about the multi-liqueur Singapore Sling cocktail in my previous article, and I think "Zurukunai?" is the musical equivalent and perhaps just as heady as well. I've had to listen to the song a few times and I've picked up on straight pop, some funk, synthpop and Neo-City Pop. Plus, there are the welcome smoky vocals of punipunidenki with Sano's vocal help in the chorus.

I also like the atmospheric music video which takes place at the Analog Record Bar in Shibuya so if any of you traveling to Tokyo are in the mood for the cool and refined drinking experience, you can give that a go. The young lady in the video by the way is model Yu Ishizuka（イシヅカユウ）.

Kan Sano -- Nodobotoke no Christmas（喉仏のクリスマス）

 

As I was mentioning in my first post tonight, I got to see "Godzilla Minus One" with my friends tonight. Following the surprisingly heartful movie, most of us went out for some dinner at a Turkish restaurant and then one of my friends was very kind in giving two of us, me and D, a lift home. Indeed, he was downright magnanimous since the two of us were on opposite ends of the city. D was the first to be taken home so it would be about an hour in the car for me. Not that I minded at all. It was nice talking up a storm and we hadn't spoken in many months.

The above preamble ramble has a connection with the song of note here, specifically with the official music video below. But first, let's talk about "Nodobotoke no Christmas" (Adam's Apple's Christmas) itself. As I've mentioned in the past, my general rule or guideline is that I usually wait a month at least before I post a song by the same singer or band, and actually, it was just a little over a couple of weeks ago that I first introduced singer-songwriter Kan Sano onto KKP with his jazzy 2019 "My Girl". 

Well, I've decided to break my rule by bringing in a song that he only released in the last couple of months because 1) it's a timely Christmas ditty and 2) Sano sounds so good. Yes, I did note his comfy shower loofah vocals in that first article for him. He took care of everything for the unusually-titled but just-as-jazzy and poppy "Nodobotoke no Christmas" which has a guy marvel at how trusting his girlfriend is in a lot of things such as Santa Claus...which is probably why he loves her so much.

Ahhh...that video. Looks like Sano was having as much fun as we three were having in my friend's car tonight, although of course, none of us were in any Santa gear. But may I say that I was getting some mighty "Carpool Karaoke" and "Cash Cab" vibes seeing this? Uber customers in Tokyo would be very happy having him pick them up for a nice roundabout drive in the megalopolis.

Kan Sano -- My Girl

 

My recent strolls through the park of YouTube led me to keyboardist, singer-songwriter and track maker Kan Sano who hails from Hyogo Prefecture. A graduate of Berklee College of Music in New York City where he majored in jazz composition through piano, he's worked with singers and bands such as Sing Like Talking, UA and Chara. Up to this point, he's released six albums and twelve singles.

One album that he's released is "Ghost Notes" from May 2019 and the track here is "My Girl" which begins with a funky trumpet followed by some groovy Fender Rhodes. As well, Sano has a voice with grains in it but it isn't sandpapery; instead it feels like a comfortable shower loofah. It's all meant to sound very cool and clubby and the melody line sounds like something from the 1970s when Stevie Wonder was coming out with some of those legendary albums.

The video was also nice enough to point out the lass in the video. She is model Nanami represented by talent agency Asobisystem（アソビシステム）; the company also represents the song-and-dance group Atarashii Gakko no Leaders（新しい学校のリーダーズ）.