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.
Knowing that I have mentioned curry-based kayo in the past, I have waxed philosophically on the type of curry I like. First off, I was weaned on the Japanese style of rice curry through the good folks at S&B but going into my university years, I did discover the varieties from other nations such as India and Thailand. I also discovered the limits of my gastrointestinal tract (but they were all tasty, I assure you).
Back in 2015, the Okinawan-based rock and hip-hop band Orange Range gave their tribute to one particular dish "Sushi Tabetai"（SUSHI食べたい）with help from a fellow named Soy Sauce（ソイソース）who's a guitarist from the band NAOTO. Over a decade later, the collaboration came up with a sequel in July of this year titled "Curry Tabetai" (Wanna Eat Curry). With a bit more rap and a tongue pressed further into the (curry-laced) cheek in addition to an even more deranged video, the boys focused their voices and stomachs on the wonders of the Japanese style of curry.
Well, whaddaya know? There was a method to the madness!
The last time I wrote about the group Kyoko Omiya & Orange（大宮京子＆オレンジ）, it was for their 1980 single "Mirage"（ミラージュ）back in 2022. I couldn't believe that at the time, we here in Toronto were just getting out of our sixth wave of COVID.
Well, here in 2025, we have another different crisis to deal with but let's leave that aside when it comes to KKP fun and business. "Mirage" was also the first track on Orange's self-titled album from 1980 but we also have this other track titled "Shadows". Unlike "Mirage", "Shadows" seems to hew more toward the urgent rock side of New Music with the piano and electric guitar combo. As written by Hiroyuki Kato（加藤博之）and composer/band member Toshikazu Miura（みうらとしかず）, the beginning several seconds even sound like the intro for a typical 1970s American TV detective series outside of "Columbo".
In a rather grim way, remembering my first article for the folk/New Music group Kyoko Omiya & Orange（大宮京子＆オレンジ）which covered their songs "Melody" and "Season" is nostalgic since the first thing that I put down was that my province of Ontario was heading into the second wave of the pandemic in the fall of 2020. However, as I type this third article for the group, things seem to be going in the right direction as we leave our sixth wave. I am hoping that things will settle down for the rest of the summer at least, although there is that possible monkeypox outbreak to deal with now.
Anyways, on top of "Melody" and "Season", there is also the second article "Toki wo Modoshite"（時を戻して）that you can peruse about Omiya & Orange. Although some sites such as Hip Tank Records have considered the group as a City Pop band, I've seen them thus far as more New Music and AOR, more along the lines of Off-Course（オフコース）when they were transitioning from folk over to a more pop style in the late 1970s. Of course (no immediate pun intended), this isn't a slag against Orange since this 1980 single of theirs, "Mirage", is a spirited tune that would have had folks back then hop into their cars for a nice Sunday drive along the seashore.
Unlike the other Orange tunes that I've profiled, "Mirage" wasn't created by any of the band members. Instead, it was lyricist Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）and composer/arranger Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）who created this soaring number which I am also enjoying for its "Xanadu"-like sound and the background chorus. Going into this unofficial start to summer here in Ontario via the Victoria Day long weekend, "Mirage" does sound like quite the tonic.
Some months ago, I introduced this group onto the blog via their 1979 single"Season/Melody". Kyoko Omiya & Orange（大宮京子&オレンジ）is another one of those obscure groups that I was only able to discover through the "Light Mellow" CD series, a fact for which I will always be grateful to Toshikazu Kanazawa（金澤寿和）, the journalist behind this grand campaign that started in the mid-2010s.
Through their lone 1980 album"Orange", I offer you the track "Toki wo Modoshite" (Bring Back the Time). Written by the same band members who whipped up "Season/Melody", lyricist Yuuji Sato（佐藤雄次）and composer Toshikazu Miura（三浦年一）, unlike the folksy A and B sides, "Toki wo Modoshite" has more of the quieter AOR vibe a la Bread & Butter, and though this particular song hasn't shown up on a "Light Mellow" CD that I own, perhaps it will end up on a similar compilation somewhere if it hasn't already done so.
It would be nice to track down a copy of the album "Orange" since I do appreciate the tenderhearted vocals of Omiya along with the laidback arrangements. We can always have more calming moments during these times.
It's something that I'd been expecting if not thrilled about, and our local Chief Medical Officer declared that it was all but inevitable. The daily infection rates have begun to climb up once more, so I gather my city is most likely entering the second wave of the pandemic. On top of that, we've got kids going back to school in the next couple of weeks, so everyone in Ontario is going to be on tenterhooks for a little while. Let's see if we can try something soothing on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" to begin Sunday.
First finding out about this group Kyoko Omiya & Orange（大宮京子＆オレンジ）through one of the "Light Mellow" albums some time ago, this band from Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture made its start in the late 1970s and my impression is that its overall happy sound is reminiscent of folk groups such as Cherish and Aoi Sankaku Jougi (青い三角定規）.Its debut single was "Season" from 1979 and it has that breezy and uplifting feeling like a breath of that much-needed fresh air. With Omiya's vocals, it does come across like that reassuring jingle that you want to hear for an insurance commercial in Japan.
Written and composed by Orange members, co-vocalist Yuuji Sato（佐藤雄次）and keyboardist Toshikazu Miura（三浦年一）respectively, "Season" starts out a little eerily but Omiya and the subsequent arrangement quickly puts everyone at ease, as they should. The song won the Grand Prize at the annual PopCon contest in that year of 1979. From this Rakuten blog on folk and rock music in Japan during the 1970s, I found out the rest of the lineup on Orange: Yoichi Hayasaka（早坂洋一）on guitar, Aki/Akira Miyazawa（宮沢章）on bass, and Hidekazu Endo（遠藤秀一）on drums.
Sato and Miura were also responsible for the creation of the B-side "Melody"（メロディー）, a more elegiac but also no less inspiring number. I like the guitar solo here and the ending is truly lovely. Both songs were included in the remastered version of Orange's (probably lone) album "Orange" which came out in 1980. According to Hip Tank Records, the album is seen as one of those little-known City Pop gems although I don't think the tag applies to either "Season" or "Melody", so now my curiosity is piquing regarding that release. However, I've already gotten a taste of what a couple of members from Orange have done in that genre since Miura came up with "Friday Night" under his nom de plume of M. TOSIKAZ, a spritely City Pop number in which vocalist Omiya lends a hand as a backup vocalist.
