Rei featuring Ginger Root -- Love is Beautiful

 

Welcome to another round of Urban Contemporary Fridays on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" and hopefully all of you down in the United States have been able to digest most or all of your turkey dinner in the past 24 hours. I gather then that we are about to enter the Yuletide season. Officially on the blog, we'll be doing that from tomorrow on November 25th so stay tuned for some Xmas songs for the next few weeks leading up to Christmas Day.

A few days ago late at night, I pulled off what I call the equivalent of skipping a stone on the pond at least a few times across to the other bank when I discovered a succession of interesting tunes. Let's say that I didn't get to bed until rather late because I had to peruse these new gems for some time past midnight.

The first one is actually a collaboration of a couple of people who already have representation on KKP: snazzy and twinkly 80s-loving Ginger Root finishing up his Kimiko Takeguchi arc last year and guitar princess Rei who I wrote about a few years ago with her "Lazy Loser". Rei's new mini-album, "VOICE", is due out next week on November 29th but her own YouTube channel has put out the first track's music video in the last couple of weeks.

"Love is Beautiful" is the first track with Ginger Root and Rei working together on the song and the result is a calm and groovy tune combining Rei's slightly husky vocals and strumming guitar with Ginger Root's quintessentially sparkly keyboards. The music video has Ginger ravenously searching music store after music store for that one rare album, something that I can relate to very well after my own occasional quests in the CD store-filled neighbourhood of Shibuya and beyond. I've gotten lucky from time to time. Hama Okamoto from OKAMOTO's is also helping out as well with the music and donuts.

Tomita Lab -- M-P-C "Mentality, Physicality, Computer" (Part 2)

 

Last week, I provided an article on Part 1 of Tomita Lab's（冨田ラボ）2018 album "M-P-C 'Mentality, Physicality, Computer'", and so far, from him and his collaborators, it's been some a mixture of R&B, hip-hop and even a bit of synthpop. All music is by the Lab himself.

I guess with the overall concept of what life is like in early 21st-century Japan, there will be a couple of interludes. "Interlude 1" which is officially Track 5 is another cooperative effort between Ryohu of KANDYTOWN and Tomita that has disco and rap as the former gives his patter about making that first step going into the big city for what might be a terrifyingly exhilarating night. Looking in the liner notes, I gotta say that I never expected a couple of clarinet players alongside the horns helping out here.

Track 6 is "Let It Ride" which I already wrote about and the link to that song can be found in Part 1, so let's go over to the soulful "OCEAN" featuring Naz, aka Nazu Yamada（山田なづ）, an Okinawan R&B singer. With lyrics by Lori Fine of COLDFEET, Naz delivers a pleasingly smooth and smoky performance about suddenly finding joy, reassurance and power. Her website is currently out of commission but her Facebook and Twitter accounts are still open.

One more track is "POOLSIDEDELIC" featuring singer-songwriter and guitarist Rei. With lyrics by Jun Kamoda（鴨田潤）, aka hip-hop musician Illreme（イルリメ）, I'm not quite sure which part of R&B this track belongs to, but the percussion is snazzy. Lyrically, there seems to be an Agatha Christie novel's worth of suspense and intrigue surrounding one recreational pool. In any case, I will wrap up "M-P-C" with Part 3 next week.

Rei -- Lazy Loser

Singer-songwriter Rei was someone that I first saw on an episode of the NHK music-variety show "Banana Zero Music" （バナナ♪ゼロミュージック）, providing some blistering rock and blues guitar.

However, her J-Wiki profile has her covering all sorts of genres including classical guitar, alternative, and just plain J-Pop. Rei also has plenty of guitars in her possession including a 1956 Gibson LG-2, a 1966 Fender Duo-Sonic II and a Gibson ES-225. Not being a guitar fan myself, my mouth isn't exactly hitting the carpet, but my anime buddy, who's become very enamored with the instrument and has gotten his own guitars over the past few years, may widen his eyes a bit.

Starting her career in 2011, she released a digital single in September 2018 titled "Lazy Loser" about a character who makes a sloth appear hyper. It's pretty catchy, too, in an Avril Lavigne "Girlfriend" sort of way. Her website can provide any further information.