Mariko Murai -- Amidana no Christmas Cake（網棚のクリスマスケーキ）

 

Not sure if I'm totally accurate here but unlike here in Canada, there seems to be a distinct obligatory style when it comes to Christmas cake. Those guys at Fujiya might have finalized it, but I think it's the golden cake covered in white icing with strawberries on top to represent the colours of the Yuletide. Mind you, there's also the Yule Log which is also pretty popular in Japan.

I only found out about Mariko Murai（村井麻里子）through the J-Xmas compilation album "CHRISTMAS COLLECTION FOR FRIENDS★JAPANESE VOCALISTS SING" which showed up on the Internet Archives back in 2021, although I'm fairly sure that the original album was put up on the shelves some years previously. There's very little about Murai on J-Wiki, only stating that she hails from Tokyo, graduated from Joshibi University of Art and Design Junior College, and had a career as a City Pop singer which lasted only between 1988 and 1993.

Murai released 9 singles and 5 albums during that time with her third album being "Faith" from November 1989. From that album is "Amidana no Christmas Cake" (Christmas Cake on a Wire Rack) which was written by Mitsuko Shiramine（白峰美津子）and composed by Naoto Kine（木根尚登）, one-third of TM Network. Although by this point, I believe that the era of J-Pop had already begun, "Amidana no Christmas Cake" feels a bit like an old kayo kyoku when it comes to the contrast between the music and the lyrics. The music sounds rather triumphant and cheerful and yet Shiramine's lyrics tell of a woman seeing that titular cake sitting on the rack in a show window of a bakery and remembering when she was much happier some time before when she and her now erstwhile beau had shared a similar Christmas cake together at home. Now, she's musing that he's doing the same thing with another woman. Yep, that's a Japanese Christmas song for you.

Yui Asaka -- Melody

 

I never got to know Yui Asaka（浅香唯）and her music all that well in the late 1980s aside from her hit "C-Girl" through fellow J-Pop friends. Also, there's the fact that she cut quite the photogenic figure in "Myojo" magazine.

However, after completing this week's ROY article with her "Melody" included in the Oricon list, I felt that I had to write about this 12th single by the Miyazaki Prefecture native. At the same time, "Melody", which was released in November 1988, is a fun and catchy number with a nice thrumming rhythm and all sorts of happy synths bouncing off the walls after their first sip of absinthe. Plus, Asaka has got quite the appealingly chirpy voice.

Apparently, the above video is for the album version of "Melody", and the album is "Melody Fair", her 6th release from March 1989. I don't know what the single version sounds like unfortunately but perhaps the album version is somewhat more oomphed up. According to the J-Wiki article on the song, Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）was supposed to have been behind the creation of the melody, but it turns out that his old bandmate from TM Network, Naoto Kine（木根尚登）, came up with the happy-go-lucky summer song. Yukinojo Mori（森雪之丞）provided the lyrics. The single made it all the way up to No. 2 on the Oricon weeklies and was the 66th-ranked single for 1988. Meanwhile, "Melody Fair" also hit No. 2 on the album rankings.

Yaya Auga -- Close to the night

 

Last week, I was able to dig up a music memory from the late 1990s through the Komuro Boom when I re-discovered Leika Miku's（未来玲可）"Umi to Anata no Monogatari"（海とあなたの物語）.

Actually, this video was in the backlog for much longer than the Miku single although I did hear of the name Yaya Auga（大賀埜々）. Auga's birth name is Mikako Motoyama（本山美香子）and she hails from Sapporo in Hokkaido, and her career in entertainment first began as a model from the early 1990s when she was in her mid-teens.

However from 1996, she started the next phase in her career through singing (and the adoption of a stage name, Yaya Auga), and Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）of avex trax produced her debut single "Close to the night" which was released in September of that year. Created by both Komuro and his old bandmate from TM Network, Naoto Kine（木根尚登）, that Komuro sound is in there. As well, the vocal style of Auga is quite similar to that of the other members of the Komuro Family such as the aforementioned Miku, Tomomi Kahala（華原朋美）and tohko.

From about 2000, Auga made another switch and headed into acting. During her relatively brief stint as a singer, she left 6 singles and 1 album, "Orange" which came out in March 1998.

Misato Watanabe -- eyes

Back in 2012, I started the Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）file for "Kayo Kyoku Plus" by talking about the obvious choice, "My Revolution" which was her breakthrough hit and her 4th single from 1986. The song was the template for her music and vocals: big, bold and brassy.

However, when I bought her first BEST album, "She Loves You" (1995), I came across this track, "eyes" which struck me for a bit of a loop. Misato here was more in "sweet voice" form and the arrangements almost made it sound like a very nice aidoru tune from the 80s. Well, as I was to find out, "eyes" was the title track from her very first album which came out in October 1985, so I guess this was more of a proto-Misato. And coming across this track on her BEST album was wonderful for me, since: 1) it's an adorable song and 2) it shows how far she progressed since then.

"eyes" was written by Masami Tozawa（戸沢暢美）who would also provide lyrics for Miki Imai's（今井美樹）mellow "Boogie-Woogie Lonesome High-Heel", and composed by a member of the band TM Network. But unlike the case with "My Revolution", it wasn't keyboardist Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）but guitarist Naoto Kine（木根尚登）. Even with the electric guitar in the song, Kine was able to create a pleasant mid-tempo stroll of a track. "eyes" was never an official single from the album, so the fact that it was not only included in "She Loves You", but also in her next BEST album to commemorate her 15th anniversary, "Sweet 15th Diamond" in 2000, may mean that it was a pretty personally special tune for Misato as well.