Monta and Brothers -- Desire

 

That was quite the wallop. I was watching "Uta Con"（うたコン）an hour ago and right after the opening act of Sayuri Ishikawa（石川さゆり）, the hosts solemnly reported that vocalist and songwriter Yoshinori Monta（もんたよしのり）of Monta and Brothers（もんた&ブラザーズ）had passed away a few days ago on the 18th. He succumbed to an aortic dissection at the age of 72. The stunning thing was that he had appeared on "Uta Con" less than a month ago for what I believe was the first time. I'm also posting this only some hours after writing on the tragic loss of vocalist Atsushi Sakurai（櫻井敦司）of the band BUCK-TICK.

For most people, Monta will be known for his band having the No. 1 hit of 1980, "Dancing All Night". However, what I have here tonight is his 4th single "Desire" which was released in October 1981. A City Pop tune with a bit of rock in there, it was written by Kazunori Sonobe（園部和範）who also goes by the name Rio Rinozuka（里乃塚玲央）. Monta came up with the urgent melody for the song about being thrown into the maelstrom of that titular emotion as it applies to that crazy thing called love. Of course, it wouldn't be a Monta and Brothers song without that distinctive raspy voice by Monta himself.

"Desire" peaked at No. 7 on Oricon. I have seen a lot of tributes from YouTube commenters toward Monta. My condolences go to his family, friends and fans. It's been a pretty poignant couple of weeks.

Anri -- Morning Squall/Evening Rain（モーニング スコール）

Decided to go for a twofer here, especially since it's been a short while since I've inserted an Anri（杏里）article. I'm going to cover both the A and B sides for her 18th single, "Morning Squall" released in June 1986. Yup, it's been over 33 years since this one came out, and considering how it's like right now weather-wise (steady precipitation), I'd say that this was a most appropriate choice.

First off, let's start with "Morning Squall". Launching with some distinct keyboards, I thought that there was a fair bit of foreshadowing in terms of what Anri's music was going to sound like later that decade. Yumi Yoshimoto（吉元由美）, Anri's songwriting partner during that later dynamic R&B phase, actually took care of the lyrics for "Morning Squall" while Ichiro Hada（羽田一郎）brought about some of that light funk. I think there is still some of that Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）feeling in the overall arrangement (Kadomatsu having contributed to a lot of her music some years prior) although that role here was fulfilled by Jun Irie（入江純）.

The B-side, "Evening Rain" reminds me slightly of some of her early 80s AOR/City Pop style, and taking into account the rain outside my window as I type this, this was the reason that I decided to go with "Evening Rain" before I then settled on including the A-side as well. Lyricist Kazunori Sonobe（園部和範）provided the story of what sounds like the perfect ride in a convertible with all of the trimmings before the rain starts coming in, but even then, the couple stays quite happy. The late Yuuichiro Oda（小田裕一郎）certainly shares the same sentiments in his music; for a rain song, this is one very upbeat tune.

"Morning Squall/Evening Rain" peaked at No. 51 on Oricon. The former ended up on Anri's 9th original album "Mystique" which also came out at the same time as the single with it reaching No. 6 on the charts. The latter song hadn't been placed on any album for the longest time until a remastered version of "Mystique" was released in 2011 with it included as a bonus track.

Aru Takamura -- Ta Ta Ya My Love〜ARU 2nd.〜

Forgive me...just sorting out my geek thoughts after watching the season premiere of "Doctor Who" with Jodie Whittaker and the first episode of "Short Treks", a series of vignettes before Season 2 of "Star Trek: Discovery". The feeling is not unlike that of a post-regenerative crisis.

Anyways to get a bit grounded again, I'm here at the blog and yesterday commenter RideZeLitenin mentioned that the 2nd and final album of Aru Takamura（高村亜留）, "Ta Ta Ya My Love〜ARU 2nd.〜" has been put up on YouTube. I certainly hope that the powers-that-be will keep this one up for a good long while since it's probable that this January 1986 release hasn't been remastered yet. It's not available at Tower Records or CD Japan and the one copy at Amazon.jp is selling for about a nosebleed 8000 yen!

I've taken a listen to most of the tracks and enjoyed it as a Japanese singer's voyage through what I was listening to in the genre of R&B throughout the 1980s here in Toronto. There is soul, funk and dance stuff in there. Case in point: the first track above, which is a cover of Tomoko Aran's（亜蘭知子）"I'm In Love" (interesting to point out that Takamura also sang a different "I'm In Love" on her debut album). It's got that American dance remix arrangement, and although I will still go with Aran's original City Pop take, Takamura has got a stronger handle on the vocals.

Track 2 is the deliciously smoky "Saigo no Tenderness"（最後のTenderness...Last Tenderness）. Written by Takamura herself and composed by pianist/arranger Yoshinobu Kojima（小島良喜）, there is definitely something urban and spacey at the same time here. Dancing in the clouds is an image that comes to mind.

Here is "Kaigi Gesshoku"（皆既月食...Total Lunar Eclipse）, another winner. This time, it's soul that Takamura is expressing here with some guitar licks which had me thinking of George Benson. Cosmic phenomena couldn't sound cooler. Yuuichiro Oda（小田裕一郎）, who had handled Seiko Matsuda's（松田聖子）early hits, came up with the mellowness here while Kazunori Sonobe（園部和範）who provided the lyrics to Anri's（杏里）fun "Innocent Time", wrote the words.

"Ta Ta Ya My Love", the title track is a trip through the dance-funk of an 80s disco. For some reason, I couldn't help but think up of many a dance scene in an action movie starring Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger while I was listening to this. Takamura once again wrote the lyrics with Masatoshi Nishimura（西村麻聡）, the same fellow behind Aran's "I'm In Love", taking care of the music. The guitarist here was Takahiro Matsumoto（松本孝弘）, i.e. one-half of the future B'z.

The final track is "Good Luck Again", a nice mellow way to finish things up. Sonobe was the lyricist here with Kenjiro Sakiya（崎谷健次郎）weaving a pop/AOR melody similar to many a ballad that I used to hear on radio back in my high school and university days.

It's too bad that "Ta Ta Ya My Love" is not readily available right now, but since Takamura's first album is out at Tower Records and CD Japan, here's hoping that the 2nd album may not be too far away from getting its re-introduction. The album is not just for City Pop fans but also for anyone who has enjoyed the R&B from America in the 1980s.

Anri -- Innocent Time

Ahhh....innocent times indeed. No need to worry about things like income tax, pension plans or what-not. Anri（杏里）came out with her 17th single, "Oriental Rose" back in February 1986 as I was going through 2nd year at the University of Toronto, and yep, I didn't have to worry about the above things, except for those irritations known as exams and essays.

In any case, I was more interested in the B-side to that single, "Innocent Time". It didn't become an Oricon hit although I think it was good enough to earn an A-side. Every time I hear Anri singing it, it just reminds me of those wonderfully breezy summery songs that came out by specialists like her, TUBE and Omega Tribe in the 1980s. Composed by Anri herself and written by Kazunori Sonobe（園部和範）, "Innocent Time" is about as sunny and smiling as they come and has about as much to do with work as laying on the beach all day. The melody alone just seems to whisper, "hedonism".

And as the video below will tell you, it can reflect both the best of enjoying the summer and winter. In fact, "Innocent Time" was used as the theme song for this TV Tokyo show called "Ski Now '86" for which the below is the opening credits. My favourite part is that electric guitar solo in the middle as well as that thumping bass throughout the song.