m-flo loves melody. & Ryohei -- miss you

 

Living in the Tokyo area in the 2000s, I was accustomed to regularly seeing R&B conglomerate m-flo on TV with his various buddies hip-hopping, rapping and grooving. My question is where did they all go, although as for the core, I'm happy to say that they are still around. In fact, they released something just last month.

However, let's go back those two decades to October 2003 when m-flo's 15th single was released. "miss you" with the singers for this one being Ryohei Yamamoto（山本領平）and Japanese-American singer Melody Ishikawa, stylized back then as melody. (not to be confused with the aidoru group Melody). Ryohei would also collaborate with Verbal and gang a few years later on "Summer Time Love".

I remember "miss you" because of its music video which is a conveyor belt of MC Verbal, DJ ☆Taku, Ryohei and melody. having fun and acting out a romantic relationship working out some issues inside what looks like an IKEA storeroom masquerading as a movie script read-through session venue. Between Verbal's pointed hip-hop banter and the two main singers cooing at each other, I'm also enjoying melody.'s soft grooving voice. The song managed to hit No. 8 on Oricon and it's also included on m-flo's May 2004 3rd album "Astromantic" which peaked at No. 2 and ended up as the 42nd-ranked album of the year, going Double Platinum.

One piece of trivia I found out regarding melody. is that she's married to musician Miyavi.

m-flo loves Emi Hinouchi & Ryohei -- Summer Time Love

For those who love summer time here, they are certainly getting it now. I wouldn't mind frolicking about with those folks from m-flo in the above video but I don't think I quite pass the beauty index or the waist size conditions.

In any case, I do remember watching this video for m-flo's June 2006 20th single, "Summer Time Love" a fair bit on the music stations around 10 years ago, and what better choice for a summer article than this one. When it comes to the "m-flo loves..." series, I've known some of the folks helping out the DJ such as Bonnie Pink and Chara, but there are also these other hip folks that I had never heard of and for that matter, haven't heard since.

This time, it's Osaka-born urban singer-songwriter Emi Hinouchi（日之内絵美）and Kyoto-born singer-producer Ryohei who m-flo loves this time helping out in the writing and performing of this tune which is bursting with the atmosphere of an island paradise. It's kinda weird saying this considering that this was produced less than a decade ago, but the music sounds so natsukashii since I haven't heard this sort of retro-disco portion of J-R&B that I often heard from bird and Misia in recent years. I wouldn't mind hearing a revival (neo-retro-disco?) again someday.

"Summer Time Love" made it as high as No. 12 on Oricon and got onto m-flo's 5th album, "Cosmicolor" from March 2007 which peaked at No. 3.

Fantastic Plastic Machine -- Why Not?

This was another one of those impulsive purchases by me when I was browsing through the CD shop...most likely Tower Records in Shibuya. I just heard this rather loopy and quirky song over the speakers, tracked it down and realized it was Fantastic Plastic Machine's 4th single titled "Why Not?". Featuring Ryohei Yamamoto, this came out in November 2002. Considering this was created by FPM, it didn't sound like his usual Shibuya-kei, Austin Powers-friendly output from the late 90s. I never had a huge collection by the fellow...something that I plan to rectify in the near future....but I figured that he had to evolve from the genre as we all entered the 21st century.

I didn't realize that there was an official music video for "Why Not?". But several months ago, I came across it on YouTube. A fair bit of skin n' tease here and on the cover of the CD itself.

A clothing-optional CD, apparently.