Portable Rock -- Picnic（ピクニック）

 

I gather that toting along some unajuu for a picnic lunch is possible, and I am a big fan of grilled eel on rice, but I'm perfectly fine with sandwiches as well.

Last month, I noted the comeback of 80s technopop/New Wave unit Portable Rock（ポータブル・ロック）with a 2022 song "Lonely Girl, Dreaming Girl" starring the divine Ms. Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）, some years before she became the diva for Shibuya-kei group Pizzicato Five.

This time around, I'm going way back. In fact, even though Portable Rock's album "Beginnings" was released in September 1990, according to the Tower Records blurb, it actually consists of songs that had been created and recorded prior to their 1983 debut. Although the review also made mention of its use of a cheap rhythm box, "Beginnings" also has dreamy chord progressions, synthpop sounds and Nomiya's lovely vocals.

And yeah, Nomiya back in the day definitely didn't sound like the purring P5 queen. In fact, on one of the tracks, "Picnic", she almost sounds downright idol-ish although she was already in her early 20s when this was released. She is indeed surrounded by that dreaminess and synthpop concocted by composer and fellow Portable Rock member Tomofumi Suzuki（鈴木智文）. Osamu Takahashi（高橋修） provided the lyrics. I can imagine the band dashing happily among the trees heading for the bench to have that picnic lunch.

Portable Rock -- Lonely Girl, Dreaming Girl

 

Making my occasional crossover into another aspect of pop culture that I've enjoyed for decades, I've been faithfully watching the far-improved Season 3 of "Star Trek: Picard". This is a significant point since I had barely lasted through Season 1 and I didn't even bother with Season 2. Nope, they weren't very good but Season 3 has been some well-needed fresh air for no small reason that almost all of the original Next Generation crew have returned and the story brings back some loose ends from at least two of the Trek series.

The most recent episode "Surrender" has the beloved character of Data finally duke it out once and for all with his evil brother Lore in the battlefield of the mind and when all is said and done, there is victory and a merger of personalities leading to a whole new version who comes across as very amiable septuagenarian Brent Spiner.

I strangely had the same impression on hearing and watching Portable Rock's "Lonely Girl, Dreaming Girl" which was one of the first new songs in a few decades by this band for their May 2022 BEST compilation, "PAST & FUTURE ～My Favorite Portable Rock". Finally delving into Maki Nomiya's（野宮真貴） previous pre-Pizzicato Five group years following her time with one of Shibuya-kei's jewels in the crown, it was fascinating listening to songs such as their "Haru Shite, Koi Shite, Mitsumete, Kiss Shite" （春して、恋して、見つめて、キスして）. It was certainly Nomiya's vocals but through a whole different filter of 1980s New Wave.

But of course with Pizzicato Five, it was all about the Divine Ms. Nomiya as stylish and retro fashion plate in their videos and fun-loving Swinging 60s diva singing into the microphone. Now with Portable Rock with Nomiya showing up once more on screens, it's kinda like Portable Rock Nomiya and the P5 Nomiya coming together to form a mature and classy unit with her old bandmates Nobuo Nakahara (中原信雄) and Tomofumi Suzuki (鈴木智文). The music video has the three all kitted out in bespoke night-out-on-the-town fashion from yesteryear but the music is a return of 80s synthpop in a slightly PSY-S way. Even Nomiya's delivery of "Lonely Girl, Dreaming Girl" seems more liquid and languid than her style with P5.

Portable Rock -- Yuutsu no Hold Me（憂ウツの (Hold Me)）

For the last entry tonight, I have another rare number from the New Wave group Portable Rock which was fronted by future Pizzicato Five vocalist Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）.

My first entry for this eclectic unit was "Haru Shite, Koi Shite, Mitsumete, Kiss Shite"（春して、恋して、見つめて、キスして）which was originally recorded in 1986 and had all that synthy goodness of a bubbly Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）tune created by one of the guys at Yellow Magic Orchestra. Yes, indeed it was The Divine Miss M singing this song.

Well, from their 2nd full album "Dance Volunteer" which came out in 1987 is the first track "Yuutsu no Hold Me" (Depression's Hold Me). And this time while keeping the New Wave intact, the arrangement has more of a harder PSY-S feeling to it as I enjoy those thumping synths. It sounds rather British, although at the same time, I'm reminded somehow of the US synthpop band Information Society and their hit "What's On Your Mind?". Man, those were good days on the dance floor.

"Yuutsu no Hold Me" was written by Seira Asakura（あさくらせいら）and composed by Portable Rock bassist Nobuo Nakahara（中原信雄）.

Portable Rock -- Cinemic Love

About three years ago, I revealed a bit of the Divine Ms. Maki Nomiya's（野宮真貴）past, via "Haru Shite, Koi Shite, Mitsumete, Kiss Shite" （春して、恋して、見つめて、キスして）, way before she entered Shibuya-kei legend as the vocalist of Pizzicato Five. She started out as a solo singer before she hooked up with bassist Nobuo Nakahara (中原信雄) and guitarist Tomofumi Suzuki (鈴木智文) in 1983 to form the New Wave unit Portable Rock（ポータブル・ロック）.

Now, here's something a little milder from the band's 2nd album "Q.T." (1985) called "Cinemic Love". I tried looking up that first word but it doesn't exist in the Oxford Dictionary with the closest variant being cinematic. No matter. It's still a sweet mid-tempo pop number without too much techno or New Wave in there, and just from listening to it, it's hard to believe that it is indeed Nomiya behind the mike, although she sounds great.

From Yahoo Auctions

The following year, the album was released again but this time including  "Haru Shite, Koi Shite, Mitsumete, Kiss Shite", so it was re-titled "Q.T.+1". The cover for the original album can be seen here.

Portable Rock -- Haru Shite, Koi Shite, Mitsumete, Kiss Shite （春して、恋して、見つめて、キスして）

Well, I was going to keep it to two articles of my own today but then I saw this video, and I simply had to get this one in. This is one of those rare gems that might come across my vision once in a blue moon and there is no sign of a blue moon tonight.

What I am talking about is this music video for "Haru Shite, Koi Shite, Mitsumete, Kiss Shite" (Make It Spring, Fall In Love, Look For It, Kiss Me) by this New Wave band called Portable Rock (ポータブル・ロック) which had its heyday between 1983 and 1986. And what is notable about it is who was fronting the band as its vocalist. It was none other than the lady who would half a decade later become the Divine Ms. M of Pizzicato Five, Maki Nomiya（野宮真貴）. I actually and somewhat offhandedly threw out the trivia that Nomiya had been part of this group in one of the first P5 articles I wrote, "Baby Portable Rock" back in early 2013, never knowing that I would ever witness an actual video from Portable Rock itself.

When Nomiya started her solo career in 1981, her backing musicians at her debut concert happened to be Nobuo Nakahara (中原信雄...bass) and Tomofumi Suzuki (鈴木智文...guitar). The following year, they decided to make it a permanent professional relationship by creating Portable Rock. However during their 3 years of existence, they never really hit it big although "Haru Shite Koi Shite, Mitsumete, Kiss Shite" was a tie-up song for the spring campaign for Kose Cosmetics in 1986. The song was written by Saeko Suzuki（鈴木さえ子）and composed by Keiichi Suzuki（鈴木慶一）of the Moonriders.

Still, it is interesting to see Nomiya in her mid-20s prancing about like a proto-version of her Shibuya-kei self singing a cute technopop commercial jingle. Now, I just gotta track down some of her solo stuff even before Portable Rock!