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 Masatoshi Nishimura. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Masatoshi Nishimura. Show all posts
Last night, just for kicks, I decided to enter today's date of June 4th into J-Wiki to see who had been born on that day. The usual long scroll of famous people rolled up but one person that would have significance especially on this blog is Okinawa-born singer GWINKO. So, first off, Happy Birthday to her since she's now hit the big 5-0.
As such, I'm dedicating this first song for today on KKP to her "GET ON", her 3rd single from April 1988. Now, I'd known that she was one singer known for her strutting R&B and "GET ON" is no different. Written by Sakiko Iwamuro（岩室先子）and composed by Masatoshi Nishimura（西村麻聡）, the bassist for band Fence of Defense, the funk is surely with GWINKO like the Force is with the Skywalkers. In fact, it's downright Prince-ly. And this is where I give you the "Things that make you go Hmmm..." moment for today. Prince's birthday is only a few days down from GWINKO's....June 7th.
I had been hoping that there were some music video or performance of "GET ON" somewhere on YouTube. Lucky day for me then!
Supposedly by the time I become an octogenarian in the year 2045, this mega-project will have opened somewhere in Tokyo Bay. But at the moment, it looks to be a mere fanciful design on an architect's hard drive. This is Sky Mile Tower, 1700 metres of steel, glass and whatever other materials can be thrown in there that will be built somewhere in Tokyo Bay. It even has its own Wikipedia page. I'm not sure if too many people are aware of this though; I asked my Skype student in Tokyo about it and it was definitely breaking news for him.
But that's been kinda my impression of Japan's capital city for decades. Onwards and upwards. Even during a perceived recession in the nation sometime during my many years there, I never had the impression that Tokyo was in some major economic doldrums. There was always some new steel-and-glass tower going up in a particular area at any one time. And look at the last decade when I've been back here in Toronto; Tokyo has been undergoing some further redevelopments.
So it's rather ironic that I'm introducing this particular song titled "Decline of the City" by the short-lived band Friends of Earth（フレンズ・オブ・アース）or FOE, powered by Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）. I mentioned about them last month through their "In My Jungle", and with "Decline of the City", created as a technopop instrumental designed by FOE member Masatoshi Nishimura（西村昌敏）, it's got some mighty rumbling rhythms underneath those shiny synthesizers with some DJ dance beats in there. It truthfully sounds more like "Rise of the City". It doesn't strike me as being particularly major chord upbeat but it's intrepid in its path going forward which has buildings going up by the street load.
"Decline of the City" is the final track on the March 1986 12-inch single"F.O.E#1/DECLINE OF O.T.T.". Since I couldn't leave an unknown set of initials alone, I had to find out what that "O.T.T." meant. Hosono was the one who coined the three letters used to describe the music that he's created with a driving feel using a detailed mechanical beat. They stand for "over the top", according to the J-Wiki article on the group.
Just some lingering thoughts about the Hanshin Tigers winning it all earlier today. It's been the case that whichever team in professional Japanese baseball takes the championship, their corporate owners celebrate and their customers get the benefits. The Tigers are owned by the Hanshin Electric Railway Company, so does that mean free rides for the next few days? Otherwise, do any of their stations' commercial establishments provide massive sales or freebies?
Anyways, we'll see over the coming days. But allow me to show off "Tonite" by Naomi Akimoto（秋本奈緒美）from her 5th album"Poison 21" from February 1984. Written by the actress and singer herself and composed by Masatoshi Nishimura（西村昌敏 ）, who was also part of Friends of Earth, the 1980s nostalgia waves emanating from this song were quite heavy due to that synth rhythm and even the sax solo. I swear that the late Laura Branigan could have covered this one; it just seems to be the right fit for what she was singing back in the day. As well, Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）was helping out on backing chorus, electric guitar and synthesizers.
Did feel like getting a mullet, a silver-gray jacket and a skinny tie after hearing this one. It was pretty much around that time that the Tigers had last won a Japan Series championship.
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.
Looking up the information for this particular song and singer GWINKO, I've realized that the lass was just a few days shy of 15 when her second album"Teenage Beat" was released in June 1988. And she was already singing and kick-stepping it up a notch.
Probably a lot of City Pop and J-R&B fans had been wondering if there were ever a duet between a couple of singers within the genre, and sure enough, there was something close to it. GWINKO and Cindy got together to do the first and title track from the album although it's been listed that Cindy was more on backup chorus rather than an equal partner. "Teenage Beat" was written by Akane Tsukinose（月の瀬 茜）and composed by Masatoshi Nishimura（西村麻聡）. As for the type of R&B, I'm not quite sure...would it be funk or a milder form of New Jack Swing? There is something rather Janet Jackson about it.
I have to admit that seeing singer-songwriter Yumi Murata（村田有美）in that get-up, she looks like the most attractive Borg that I have ever seen this side of the Alpha Quadrant. Yeah, I know about Seven of Nine.
But all joking aside, this is the cover of Murata's December 1986 album"Hysteric Glamour" and it's on the YouTube channel of Island Fantasia who goes by his HRLE92 handle here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus". According to him, the lone noteworthy track on this album is the song of the article, "Roman Express no Shuuchaku Eki" (Terminus of the Roman Express).
The music by Masatoshi Nishimura（西村昌敏）has those City Pop elements but it also feels like the sinewy melody of a mid-1980s action movie soundtrack R&B with the funk and the clanging electric guitar. Murata was responsible for the lyrics. The overall feeling of "Roman Express no Shuuchaku Eki" seems to straddle between that type of movie that I just described above and one of those prime-time soap operas that used to be so popular on American TV (but not really "Dallas" or "Knots Landing", though). I do wonder about how the rest of "Hysteric Glamour" sounds like.
The last article that I wrote for Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子）the singer was just over a couple of years ago in 2017 for the song "Hitonatsu no Tapestry"（ひと夏のタペストリー）. Strangely enough, my first Aran article in 2 years is going to be devoted to the album that it came out on "Fuyuu Kuukan" (Floating Spaces).
Yes, after seeing a number of other people gleefully proclaiming their acquisition of the singer-songwriter's 3rd album (May 1983) over the past few years in which folks outside of Japan discovered the treasure of Japanese City Pop and their own brand of AOR, I finally got my own copy of "Fuyuu Kuukan" in the last few weeks. Certainly, because of the surging popularity of this album in recent times, I think that cover has become one of the more recognizable in City Pop.
Strangely enough, though, "Fuyuu Kuukan" can't really be listed as wholly City Pop/AOR. There are tracks such as the aforementioned "Hitonatsu no Tapestry", "I'm In Love" and "Midnight Wanderers", which I've already given their own articles, that do belong in those categories. However, the other songs on "Fuyuu Kuukan" are far more in the pop and even New Wave genres. In fact, I should be slapping myself upside the head since the look of the cover has made that rather obvious. Does that photo of insouciant Aran sitting in that icy-cool blue grid room with the title in computer font look anything like something for a City Pop album?!
Brief self-flagellation aside, the City Pop tracks have been covered so let's get straight to the New Wave-y pop. The first track for "Fuyuu Kuukan" and Aran's 2nd single which came out on the same day as the album is "Body to Body". It starts out strangely reminiscent of a Mike & The Mechanics song and reflects that album cover as Aran on a night out and getting really hungry like the wolf (inside 80s music joke) for that guy. Nothing City Pop about this one with those hard-hitting synths and percussion. I can only imagine Aran stepping out into that disco wearing very angular clothes and blush that goes up like daggers up her cheeks.
"Fuyuu Kuukan" was produced and arranged by Masatoshi Nishimura（西村麻聡）, later of the rock group Fence of Defense which would begin its time from 1985. His future band mates, guitarist Kenji Kitajima（北島健二）and drummer Wataru Yamada（山田亘）, were also a couple of the musicians helping in the endeavour. Both Aran (lyrics) and Nishimura (music) would be responsible for most of the songwriting for the album's tracks. Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）would provide the music for "Midnight Wanderers".
Track 2 "Lonely Night" spells out a funky New Wave tune about a somewhat dysfunctional relationship: the guy treats his girlfriend like dirt, the girlfriend knows this but still loves the guy for some unfathomable reason.
I first heard "Hannya"（般若...The Horned Demoness）on Van Paugam's YouTube radio for City Pop and my initial impression was "Why?!". The folks who were giving their play-by-play comments on the side were also expressing the same sentiments. This is as far away from the genre as a bacon-wrapped steak is from a vegetarian's dinner table. The nightmarish tone brought about from "Hannya" is totally on purpose as Aran sings/shrieks out the story of a woman consumed with rage and jealousy. Reminders of Yellow Magic Orchestra's"Rap Phenomena" and Nina Hagen's"Smack Jack" come to my fragile little mind. Not so much New Wave as it is avant-garde.
"Shaku na Yesterday"（しゃくなイエスタディ...Bye-Bye Yesterday）is the one other song that was not composed by Nishimura but by Masanori Sasaji（笹路正徳）as a playful techno-swing tune. Aran is enjoying her time in a bubble bath with a martini as the hours and minutes tick away before she dumps another boyfriend by the wayside. Obviously, her hannya is no longer an issue.
The final track from the original 1983 LP is "Baby, Don't You Cry Anymore". It's a tune which kinda weaves between jazzy torch song and pop/rock ballad, and is the one track on "Fuyuu Kuukan" that has me thinking of all those Journey and Chicago love songs.
This is actually Track 4 on the album but I've saved it for last. "Dilemma ~ Ni-Juu-Go-sai no Yuutsu"（ジ・レ・ン・マ－25才の憂鬱...Depression at 25）seems to be about an office lady who's already going through a mid-life crisis of sorts in her middle 20s.
"Dilemma" is wrapping up things here since I found out an interesting story about this one from the J-Wiki profile on "Fuyuu Kuukan". The original 1983 LP had the above version recorded, a slow-cooking New Wave tune (with all of the blips and blops) with Aran fairly cooing her own lyrics as if she were Deborah Harry of Blondie.
However, when "Fuyuu Kuukan" got its first CD treatment in 1988, the below version of "Dilemma" was inserted in place without any announcement. Though the lyrics and songwriting team of Aran and Nishimura were intact, the music was dramatically different. It still had that New Wave feeling but with some more pop octane added. It's basically a different tune altogether. According to Nishimura (via an entry on Aran's blog), the original "Dilemma" had been due to be made into a B-side for what I assume was the single "Body to Body", but as it turned out, that honour was given to "Hitonatsu no Tapestry" instead. With the new CD version of "Dilemma", the original was left for posterity on the LP version for years. But with the release by Tower Records of the remastered CD in 2018, both the original is back with the poppier 1988 take brought in as a bonus track.
"Fuyuu Kuukan" is the mix of styles and I was quite surprised when I first listened to it. Thanks to the future Fence of Defense and Aran herself, the singer was given a lot of space and opportunity to give her vocals a workout. This album makes for an intriguing contrast with her next album in 1984 "More Relax" which keeps things solidly in City Pop/AOR with the guys in famed fusion band Casiopea handling the reins.
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 albumis 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.
Yup, I think this is one of those songs that fits perfectly with the weather. I was listening to a best compilation of Tomoko Aran's（亜蘭知子）hits, and I realized that during the 80s when she was the most active in singing as well as songwriting. she was dabbling in a few genres as she entered the 90s. There were her contributions to City Pop in the early part of the decade followed by a dip into American-style dance pop (Reimy/麗美 and Junko Yagami/八神純子) were two other singers who would follow suit at around the same time) and then going into the next decade, she would come back musically into Japan with a different urban contemporary pop sound with mellower synths.
Aran's "Hitonatsu no Tapestry" (The Tapestry of One Summer) from her 1983 album"Fuyuu Kuukan"（浮遊空間...Floating Space）kinda straddles the line between City Pop and funky R&B on the West Coast. I couldn't help but feel a bit of Dazz Band on hearing the synths, and of course, there is that boppy bass. Masatoshi Nishimura（西村麻聡）, later of the band Fence of Defense, came up with the oh-so-80s music while Aran provided the lyrics.
And those lyrics talk about a night of subtle debauchery through Mona Lisa smiles, blue cocktails and dedicated leering (yup, they are straight from her lyrics) with the ending verse talking of the morning after when everything seems to have faded into half-remembered memories. As they say, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, although I wonder if Aran could have been talking about Roppongi on a Saturday night.
The singer-songwriter also came up with the words for all those fun-in-the-sun tunes for TUBE so I gather that she was able to take all that night feeling and turn it to a somewhat more innocent thing during the daytime for that band. That would make for an interesting analogy: Aran goes to the beach by day, hits the discos at night.
Perhaps the only bugbear that I might have about "Hitonatsu no Tapestry" is that Aran herself doesn't have as strong a vocal presence as some of her contemporaries, so I would have loved to have had someone like Yagami take the song on.
Well, considering I've chosen this day to celebrate the 5th anniversary of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I thought it would be nice to conclude it with a song from my favourite genre of City Pop.
So, why not go with some Tomoko Aran（亜蘭知子）tonight? She may have concocted some of those wonderful summery pop songs for TUBE starting from the middle of the 1980s but earlier on, she was also singing her fair share of cool urban contemporary material.
I found this one mellow tune titled "I'm In Love" from her 3rd album"Fuyuu-Kuukan"（浮遊空間...Floating Spaces）which came out in May 1983. Masatoshi Nishimura（西村麻聡）not only provided the music to this song but was also responsible for the music for most of the tracks on "Fuyuu-Kuukan". Additionally, he co-produced the album with Daiko Nagato（長戸大幸）and arranged all of the tracks, plus he handled the synthesizers during recording; a good amount of multi-tasking there.
Aran provided the lyrics to "I'm In Love" which has that nice vibe reminiscent of some of those old radio-friendly downtown tunes that I used to hear all the time. Her vocals are steady for the most part except for a couple of areas where her voice seems to flutter uncomfortably. Still, I'm not complaining too much here. The album also has another track that I have already written about, "Midnight Pretenders".
Gotta admit that the title is cute and clever. Well, summer is indeed here and it has become a "Kayo Kyoku Plus" tradition to bring in a TUBE song to herald the hot season. I had actually thought about writing about one of their many singles when I figured that it has been a while since I brought in a BEST article so here is "TUBEst". Released in December 1989 (I guess the boys are not lacking in irony with that release date), it was the band's very first BEST compilation.
As for the asterisked entries finishing up the album, they are actually the products of the Nagisa no All Stars（渚のオールスターズ）, an informal summery supergroup consisting of TUBE, two of their songwriting contributors Tetsuro Oda and Tomoko Aran（織田哲郎・亜蘭知子）, and a whole bunch of other musicians. I will take care of those songs in another article but "Be My Venus" has already been covered.
"Sentimental ni Kubittake" (Sentimentally Head Over Heels) was the band's 2nd single from October 1985 when they were still known as The Tube. As with their debut entry, "Best Seller Summer", the song had more of a 1950s rock-boppy beat along the lines of early 1980s acts such as The Chanels or The Checkers, although lead vocal Nobuteru Maeda's（前田亘輝）delivery was already in there. It was created by the same duo behind "Best Seller Summer", Kisaburo Suzuki and Yoshiko Miura（鈴木キサブロー・三浦徳子）. It peaked at No. 64 on Oricon and is also a track on The Tube's 2nd album, "Offshore Dreamin'" which got as high as No. 62 on the LP charts.
As for the lyrics....just like a lot of TUBE songs, they all have to do with frolicking on the beach!
"Because I Love You" was TUBE's 4th single from September 1986 and their first ballad out as a single. It makes for a nice sunset song for the young lovers just walking on the beach. Written by Tomoko Aran and composed by Daiko Nagato and Masatoshi Nishimura（長戸大幸・西村麻聡）, it peaked at No. 13 and was the 78th-ranked single of the year. It is also available on TUBE's 4th original album, "Boys on the Beach".
Then there is the even better ballad "Remember Me" although it's much more bittersweet since it deals with reminiscing over a past romance. TUBE's 8th single from December 1988, that piano intro reminded me of an old Boz Scaggs tune. This was Maeda's first foray into writing lyrics for an official TUBE single while Seiichiro Kuribayashi（栗林誠一郎）took care of the music. "Remember Me" jumped up to No. 12, and I think as long as the young lovers don't listen to the lyrics too hard, it should also still make for good strolling-along-the-beach-at-dusk music. It belonged to TUBE's 8th original album as the title track.
Back to some fun in the sun with "Summer City", the song that triggered me to write about TUBE today. I was surprised to realize that I had yet to write about this one into the blog considering that I enjoyed the song after it came out in June 1989, about a couple of months before my arrival in Japan for the JET Programme. That intro which was the musical equivalent of a bunch of delirious surfer dudes racing to be the first one into the ocean before Maeda yells out "SUMMER CITY!" could be the clarion call for all to hit the beaches. Maeda took care of both words and music with this single which peaked at No. 11 and ended up as the 87th-ranked single of the year. It was also the title track for TUBE's 9th album which came out just a few weeks after the release of the single. The album itself topped out at No. 6 and was the 59th-ranked album of the year.
"TUBEst" itself peaked at No. 5 and became the 75th-ranked album for 1990, going Double Platinum and selling over 600,000 copies. And the good times would still keep going for TUBE with 5 more BEST albums into the 21st century.
