Negicco -- Anata to Pop With You（あなたとPop With You!）

 

Nice to have aidoru group Negicco back in the KKP saddle again after a few years away. I think the last article I posted about them regarded their "Gozen Rei-ji no Sympathy"（午前0時のシンパシー）from 2020. That has some nice City Pop twist there and my impression has been that the group has enjoyed dabbling into the urban contemporary genres now and then.

I'm going a bit further back in their discography to bring out their single "Anata to Pop With You" (Popping With You) which made its debut in June 2012. I first found about this one when I was perusing kinuzure's "Tamaranaku, AOR Kayo"（たまらなく、AOR歌謡...Irresistibly, AOR Pop） blog. I don't really think that this particular song is in the Neo-City Pop or J-AOR vein despite the presence of some synth brass but it's still an upbeat and fun song for summer. There seems to be a faint reminder of what was going on with Eurobeat back in the 1980s.

Wasn't quite sure about the presence of a "white" Negicco and a "blue" Negicco in the music video. I'd assumed that it was about the good and evil dichotomy with Negicco the White looking rather forlorn while Negicco the Blue were ready to party down. However, the Blue happily won over the White. "Anata to Pop With You", which was written and composed/arranged by singer-songwriter connie, peaked at No. 41 on Oricon. It's also a track on the group's July 2013 album "Melody Palette".

Negicco -- Gozen Rei-ji no Sympathy（午前0時のシンパシー）

 

Not sure if this had been meant to be a Neo-City Pop number by the longstanding aidoru group Negicco, but the observations that Hitomitoi（一十三十一）is behind words and music (along with track maker PARKGOLF), her lyrics seem to have a couple setting up the ideal City Pop-themed date late Friday night, and the video was filmed around Yokohama Bay might have genre fans thinking that the trio is flexing their urban contemporary muscles.

Whatever the case may be, "Gozen Rei-ji no Sympathy" (Sympathy at 12 AM) is a cool and glossy number that was released as Negicco's 24th single in August 2020. With those trip-the-light-fantastic synths in play, the song is also pretty light and trippy. I can only hope that I can spend another couple of nights in Yokohama once more.

Perhaps I'm a little late to the party, but City Pop-themed dates may have already taken place before the pandemic with couples coming into Tokyo or Yokohama to enjoy that midnight drive over the bridge. And once things settle down for safe tourism, they can resume. 💖

Negicco -- Hikari no Spur（光のシュプール）

 

This being the 8201st article for "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I bid you a Merry Christmas for 2021 and I'm hoping that readers have been enjoying December 25th if they do celebrate the holiday. It's been fairly quiet today for us and I'm more than grateful for that, but in a few hours, some of my family will be showing up for dinner tonight.

I got the Twitter notification last night that my good friend Rocket Brown of Come Along Radio had put up his latest mix which of course centered on the Yuletide titled "City Pop Christmas Marathon". So if you're into the Japanese urban contemporary and you need some music while you're cooking in the kitchen or just resting on the sofa before the potentially voluminous dinner, feel free to have a listen to it at Rocket's Mixcloud page.

Late last night, I was able to hear the first 20 minutes of the marathon before deciding to turn in but I was already hearing some good stuff that I hadn't come across before. One example was the bouncy "Hikari no Spur" (Ski Tracks of Light), aidoru group Negicco's December 2014 single. Not as much about Christmas as it is about potentially making romance while hitting the slopes, the song does have a truly upbeat and fun melody that does make one feel like jumping into the SRV and head for Naeba Ski Resort (eat your heart out, Yuming!). By the way, the sunny music video was apparently filmed in Finland.

"Hikari no Spur" was written and composed by connie who has been the group's music producer but I think that delicious beat is also due to the arrangement by Takao Tajima（田島貴男）, aka Original Love, and I've trusted him to make some really catchy songs over the past few decades. 

I'd initially wondered about that last word in the title "spur" since the usual image in my head for such a thing has been that of those tiny spiked wheels near the heels of a cowboy's boots. At the same time, I also thought that it could be "spoor" which refers to the scent of an animal or a human being but I didn't want to imagine what the lyrics would be about in that case. Luckily when I checked on Jisho.org, there was just the one definition for "ski traces", originally from Germany. Anyways, "Hikari no Spur" hit No. 5 on Oricon and was a track on Negicco's January 2015 studio album "Rice & Snow".

Negicco -- Cream Soda Love（クリームソーダ Love）

Whenever the aidoru group Negicco gets mentioned to me, my eyes and ears will always perk up happily. Since Marcos V. first mentioned this band on his "Retro Grooves and Underground Aidoru Gems Playlist" back in 2014, I've become interested in what Nao☆, Megu and Kaede have had to offer me. I've also been happy for Negicco since this was a group of which the above three were the original three of four that were just supposed to have been together for a one-shot campaign project to support the green onion industry in Niigata Prefecture back in 2003 but have since grown from their local aidoru status to national recognition. Plus, I'm sure that they have gained some international fans...like me.

It's been just about a year since I put up my last Negicco article on KKP so it was good that commenter Michael came up with his own favourite happy tunes and recommended this one by the aidoru group, "Cream Soda Love". This was a track from their 2nd studio album "Rice & Snow" from January 2015.

Written by Negicco member Nao☆ and composed by connie with arrangement by Katsutoshi Kitagawa（北川勝利）, "Cream Soda Love" has quickly become something that I've warmed up to as well because of that sunny jazzy pop that I think puts Negicco on the same level as Blue Peppers（ブルー・ペパーズ）and microstar. The trio has been categorized in J-Wiki as a group in tribute to City Pop and Neo-Shibuya-kei, and those warm-and-fuzzy horns in "Cream Soda Love" kinda take me back to the Bacharach 1960s. As for "Rice & Snow", that peaked at No. 18 on Oricon.

It's ironic, though, since I am no fan of cream soda. In fact, I put it up there with natto and liver in terms of ingestibles that I really can't take. Maybe the cause for my cream soda non-love originated back in the 1970s when my family brought back home all sorts of soda pop from the supermarket, and the company-brand sodas each had their own decade-typical pop art symbology to delineate each type of drink. The cans of cream soda were characterized by purple diamonds, and to my naïve eyes, I had assumed that they had grape soda. One swig had me going BLEAHHH with more force than a disgusted Snoopy and since then I haven't been able to touch the stuff. It's also significant to note that I don't like the combination of ice cream and any carbonated drink proper at any diner. I'm quite happy with a good old milkshake.🍦

Negicco -- Mujun, Hajimemashita.（矛盾、はじめました。）

Can't believe it's already halfway through August. At this rate, we may as well get the autumn jackets ready to launch.

It's nice to have the Negicco girls back with this for the summer. I've been seeing a lot of compliments for their 20th single, "Mujun, Hajimemashita" (Contradictions, Started), and it's rather refreshing to hear an aidoru group tackling a genre that I don't usually associate with the contemporary teenybopper-related singers, Latin. This came out in March 2016, and though it's got those samba horns, it's not super-high energy. It's quite relaxing, actually, especially with warm and honey saxophone solo.

Created by singer-songwriters Asako Toki（土岐麻子）and Yu Sakai（さかいゆう）, on first listen, I wasn't quite sure how to categorize "Mujun, Hajimemashita", the story of someone going through an existential crisis of sorts (anyone who thinks about having a cream puff with a can of beer...that's a red flag for me). I was wondering whether, along with the "Aidoru" label, I should also be thinking of it as a neo-City Pop or as a neo-Shibuya-kei piece, but with further listenings, I felt that the Latin label was perfectly fine.

As for the nice and simple music video, Negicco was joined in the latter half of the song by members of the now-disbanded Especia, along with members of other groups and individual singers that I'd never heard of such as PUMP! and lyrical girl. "Mujun, Hajimemashita" broke into the Oricon Top 10 by hitting No. 8 and it is also included in the group's 3rd studio album "Tea For Three"（ティー・フォー・スリー）from May 2016.

Negicco -- Triple! WONDERLAND（トリプル!WONDERLAND）/ Koi suru Negicco（恋するねぎっ娘）

Over the past week, an old classmate of mine from not only university but also from Japanese Language School days sent me an e-mail asking me whether I knew anything about the contemporary aidoru group known as Negicco. I had to say that my knowledge was rather limited when I got the mail although I know that Marcos V. included them in his March 2014 article "Retro Grooves and Underground Aidoru Gems Playlist".

Well, not to let any enquirer down, I checked things out about this group and found out that Negicco is a bit of a Cinderella story come to life. Back in 2003, Japan Agricultural Cooperatives had wanted to boost the exposure of the green onion industry in Niigata Prefecture, so Nao☆, Megu, Miku and Kaede were brought together as Negicco, literally meaning Green Onion Girls for what was only going to be a one-month gig. However, the activities and fame kept on coming for them, and although Miku graduated in 2006 (she would be replaced by Misaki but she left a couple of years later), Negicco has continued releasing the music and albums up to the present day, and leader Nao☆ has even helped pen a number of songs for the group.

I found out this single from April 2014 titled "Triple! WONDERLAND" which is quite catchy. The video kinda reminds me of an even cuter Perfume performance, and the music by ex-Cymbals drummer Hiroyasu Yano（矢野博康）had me reminiscing of another aidoru group in this decade, Especia. I would have just categorized "Triple! WONDERLAND" as an aidoru and pop tune but with those 80s-sounding synths and that Especia Neo-City Pop sound, I couldn't help but throw in those particular genres into Labels, too. Yano also provided the lyrics for what is a cute and fairly cool tune.

"Triple! WONDERLAND" is their 6th single under the T-Palette Records label ("Aidoru Bakari Kikanaide"/アイドルばかり聴かないで featured in Marcos' article is their 4th). It peaked at No. 16 on Oricon, and made its appearance on "Rice & Snow", Negicco's 2nd album under the same label from January 2015. That album went as high as No. 18.

Now, let's go all the way back to the beginning with "Koi suru Negicco" (Green Onion Girls In Love) with the original quartet. Their debut single premiered in November 2003, and is a more conventional and oh-so-adorably bouncy testament to themselves. Hopefully, sales in green onions did get a boost. The lyrics were provided by Kura & Oga and music was by atk. Before joining up with T-Palette Records, a little under a dozen singles were released by Negicco with 5 other companies between 2003 and 2010.

Marcos V.'s Retro Grooves and Underground Aidoru Gems Playlist

Inspired by my own post about Greeen Linez’s “HibiscusPacific”, I came up with a small playlist of retro inspired songs focusing mostly in late night grooves and some underground aidoru-pop gems that also flirts with a retro style. As always, I had a lot of fun “building” this entry, and I hope you guys enjoy the songs presented here. Also, different from my other lists, there's no preference order here.

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Hitomitoi -- Dive

I consider Hitomitoi’s (一十三十一) “Dive” to be Greeen Linez’s “Hibiscus Pacific” sister track. They’re not directly related, but both songs were released around the same time (summer of 2012) and featured a City Pop inspiration. Based on that, “Dive” is a lovely light disco song that would not be out of place in a late night walk around the city. It was included in Hitomitoi’s 2012 City Pop album, “City Dive”. Also, the video portrays a beautiful and sexy Hitomitoi. It’s worth a watch.

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Especia -- Umibe no Sati

Especia is quite an underground aidoru group with a gimmick focused on a retro 80s style. Unfortunately (or fortunately), I couldn’t find the original version of “Umibe no Sati” (海辺のサティ), which is not as lengthy as this one. On the other hand, this "Vexation Edit" remix is amazing for people that, just like me, love extended versions of these types of grooves. As for the song, it’s a nice late-night funky gem with a warm melody. Also, the arrangement is incredibly rich with lots of synths and catchy electronic drums. Finally, “Umibe no Sati” can be found in Especia’s “Midnight Confusion” (ミッドナイトConfusion) single ("Midnight Confusion", the title track, is also a killer synthpop aidoru song).

As a side note, a Greeen Linez remix of "Umibe no Sati" was also included in the "Midnight Confusion" single, but I couldn't find it on YouTube.

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Negicco -- Aidoru Bakari Kikanaide

Negicco’s shibuya-key styled “Aidoru Bakari Kikanaide” (アイドルばかり聴かないで) is a bright aidoru song about a girl who wants her boyfriend to pay more attention to her instead of keep listening to aidoru songs. It’s a fun critique that reveals the self-awareness of this aidoru group. The song, which was released in 2013, features strong and tense strings, courtesy of Pizzicato Five’s Konishi Yasuharu (小西康陽). As for the video, while not very complex, features an interesting retro and classy style.

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saori@destiny -- OFF THE WALL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Avh222gogf8

NOTE: If the link above gets deleted, here's an alternative link featuring half of the song (click here). Since this alternative link is from the label's official YouTube channel, it probably won't go away.

saori@destiny was an electro-pop artist that started singing around 2007, when Perfume and a bunch of other auto-tuned artists were trying to conquer the Oricon charts. Also, as everybody knows, only Perfume reached stardom while the others faded after a couple of good releases. In the case of “OFF THE WALL”, it’s an album track that was included in saori@destiny’s 2011 mini-album “Domestic domain”. Alongside the laid-back funky vibe, I dig the synth melody that comes along in the 1:07 mark. It also makes a second appearance in a filtered form after the 2:29 mark. As for saori, her vocals, although auto-tuned to death, are kind of wispy and sexy in a way that matches the song’s vibe very well.

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Tomato n' Pine -- Captain wa Kimi da!

The now disbanded Tomato n’ Pine released the glittery disco “Captain wa Kimi da!” (キャプテンは君だ!) as their first "indies" single back in 2010. The song is quite something and I remember that it was the only “new” thing that caught my eyes when I watched the DVD featuring performances of the first Tokyo Idol Festival at the time. Although not a laidback groovy song like some of the others it has a nice throwback sound and a bright aidoru vibe. Bass, strings, horns, cute girls and a good melody… what more could I ask?