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.
I've seen a Mobius strip before on paper and now in solid 3D form as depicted in the above photo. It's a rather endless story so I shall let it be before I lose my fragile little mind.
Luckily, singer-songwriter Atsuko Hiyajo's（比屋定篤子）"Mobius" is a lot more soothing and acceptable to the senses. Coming out as her November 1998 5th single, this was written by Hiyajo and composed by Jiro Kobayashi（小林治郎）, this is another fascinating song that can't be easily categorized since I get bits of a number of genres here and there. There is soul, funk, City Pop and maybe some Shibuya-kei, and the craziest thing is that right from Note One, I think "Mobius" could have been inspired by the 70s works of Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）. At the very least, the Ohnuki of that decade could have covered this song and it would have fit her perfectly. It goes on for over seven minutes, but the last couple of them are devoted to a generous jam by the instruments backing Hiyajo up.
"Mobius" made itself known once more through the 2009 album "Natural Woman", a result of a collaboration between Hiyajo and Ryusenkei（流線形）. The leader of the latter band, Cunimondo Takiguchi（クニモンド瀧口）, took care of the arrangement which gives this somewhat shorter "Mobius" that quintessentially effervescent Ryusenkei urban contemporary touch.
Coming ahead to the Neo-City Pop of the 21st century, we have another winner with Ryusenkei（流線形）and their frequent collaborations with other artists who possess that similar and familiar groove. The last time I addressed these projects, Cunimondo Takiguchi（クニモンド瀧口）was working with singer-songwriter Sincere earlier this year.
Well, let's go back a few years and Takiguchi and Ryusenkei got together with Yasuyuki Horigome（堀込泰行） of Kirinji to release a 2022 single called "Futari no Silhouette" (two silhouette), and this one has a little bit of other genres mixing in with the modern urban contemporary. I can hear some of that evening jazz, a bit of that soul and those violins adding some of that class to the proceedings. Takiguchi was responsible for both words and music but there is something about Horigome's soft-as-velvet delivery that makes "Futari no Silhouette" his own.
With folks hitting the beaches and pools and also preparing the grills for BBQ'ing, summer has finally hit these shores. Meanwhile, much of Japan is either baking in torrid heat and humidity or swimming in torrential rains. I can only hope that some sort of happy medium can be provided soon.
Anyways, I only have this one mellow song for listening solace at least. The last time I wrote about Ryusenkei（流線形）, it was back in November 2024 and it featured a singer-songwriter that I hadn't heard about before under the name of Sincere. Well, the two are back collaborating and in late May this year, they came out with yet another single called "Summer Ray".
The band's Cunimondo Takiguchi（クニモンド瀧口）may be somewhat disdainful of the tag "City Pop"; perhaps he prefers Urban Contemporary. However, I can't help but hear some of the old days of City Pop when I hear the relaxing "Summer Ray" which ought to accompany many a driver on the car stereo as they head for the resort. The keyboards are groovalicious and the nimble fingers on the guitar are fine...then come the warm tones of the saxophone. Couldn't ask for a more summery version of the genre.
Nothing like a postcard of love to and from the capital city of Japan. I still miss many things about Tokyo including the nightscapes and the many convenient aspects.
Looks like Ryusenkei（流線形）and the singer Sincere echo the same sentiments with their "Super Generation", the first track on the former's new album "Illusions" from July of this year. Written and composed by the chief representative from Ryusenkei, Cunimondo Takiguchi（クニモンド瀧口）, I noticed that the track doesn't have Sincere on the byline. Well, she's getting one here since she is singing the tune, for heaven's sake!
The video is indeed a visual love letter to Tokyo and the music has some of the disco from the 1970s along with some of the Japanese R&B feeling from the early 2000s (it has some Mondo Grosso vibes) while Sincere is sweetly singing away. As for Sincere, her management company has stated that she's a singer-songwriter who's into soul and was inspired by acts such as Prince and Arrested Development.
It didn't take me too long to figure out that a lot of Japanese lyricists in the 1980s loved to pluck the Beatles' phrase of "Love me do" or another affectionate collection of words "Hold me tight" for their clients' songs. However, it took me a while of doing this blog before I realized that folks in the Japanese music industry had a love for that particular time period between bright afternoon and dark night if their song (and album) titles were any indication.
Yup, twilight, sunset, dusk, etc. which can be translated into Japanese as yuuyami（夕闇）, yuugure（夕暮れ）, tasogare（黄昏） and just plain sansetto（サンセット） is, I gather, the happy hours for musicians, singers and songwriters alike in Japan. Mind you, we've got our pop cultural representatives for that, too. One of the best examples is Rod Serling's "The Twilight Zone" mystery TV series. Ironically in Japan, it's titled "Mystery Zone", maybe because the distributors there probably didn't want something spooky to invade their romantic notions of twilight time.
Closer to what the Japanese have envisioned is most likely The Platters'"Twilight Time" from 1958 which I used to hear on some commercial aired in my old stomping grounds. Perhaps it was a beer ad or something for cars; the main point is that I think the Japanese cherish the sunset hours as ones when folks can just hit the highway after work for a relaxing drive or meet up with friends or that significant other for a drink or dinner as the sun dunks below the horizon.
I know that a lot of songs that have been created in Japan have those synonyms of sunset and twilight, many of which are already up here on KKP. And they don't necessarily have to be of the City Pop persuasion although some of the six here are. But I can say that they all have their varying levels of soothing feeling, so enjoy the following half-dozen. It's Twilight Time!
I gather that Yumi Arai's（荒井由実）classic "Chuo Freeway"（中央フリーウェイ）has had a buddy route in terms of music for the past couple of decades in the form of "San-go Sen"(Route No. 3 Shibuya). By the way, this is a real part of an expressway in Tokyo, so for all of your City Pop driving tour needs, try Route No. 3 as offered by YouTuber wataken777 Part 2.
Continuing on, it's nice to hear from Ryusenkei's（流線形）"City Music"debut album from 2003 again. It's been a while. I recall posting an article about "Tokyo Coaster" from that release back in 2017 and well, I've got another one which is indeed titled "San-go Sen" that was written and composed by the leader Cunimondo Takiguchi（クニモンド瀧口）and has the sweet vocals of Tomomi Sano（サノトモミ） waxing romantically about the drive. And just like "Chuo Freeway", there is that feeling of 70s City Pop or New Music filtering through my brain.
Then in 2022, Ryusenkei decided to release a small album in August 2022 called "Incomplete" with former Kirinji（キリンジ）member Yasuyuki Horigome（堀込泰行）helping out. The band and Horigome worked on a cover version of "San-go Sen" as the first track with the latter taking over for Sano on vocals. The mellow funk of the original has been given a facelift into something jazzier and more refined. It's as if a young couple just driving in their sports car simply for the heck of it are now in a more expensive Toyota Cressida heading to that hard-to-reserve Italian restaurant in Aoyama. But they're still using Route No. 3.
One of the nicest pathways that I've strolled upon was a promenade or pedestrian boulevard, if you will, near Jiyugaoka Station just west of Shibuya. My good friend lived in the neighbourhood for several years before moving out to one of the newer hubs in western Tokyo. We used to get together to watch movies on the old VCR and there were a lot of good restaurants in the area along with a generously stocked supermarket and of course a video rental shop, so it was very convenient.
I did pick out that thumbnail of twilight-time Jiyugaoka to match this song to start off Urban Contemporary Friday on KKP. "Twilight Shadow" is a collaboration between singer Natsu Summer and Ryusenkei（流線形）, both with their ears and toes in the Neo-City Pop pool, and true to the former's style, "Twilight Shadow", which was released in May 2022 as a single, has got that reggae beat infused into the City Pop arrangement, thanks to the music by Ryusenkei's Cunimondo Takiguchi（クニモンド瀧口）who also provided the lyrics.
First listening to "Twilight Shadow", I heard something familiar in the music and that's when I realized that Takiguchi had sampled Anri's（杏里）"Last Summer Whisper" for the song. So, allow me to include Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）into the Labels as well. If I were still able to stroll on that Jiyugaoka promenade, I could be listening to this song while sitting on the bench at twilight time.
There's nothing like a song that I can really sink my teeth into like a particularly juicy and tasty roast beef sandwich with plenty of au jus. I think that I've found one here.
Throughout the six minutes of singer-songwriter Atsuko Hiyajo's（比屋定篤子）splendid July 1999 7th single"Orange Iro no Gogo ni"(On an Orange Afternoon), I've managed to get a number of musical influences and feelings ranging from Miki Imai（今井美樹）to the Righteous Brothers. It's a wistful ballad of lost opportunities and hopeful reconnections that seems to pay tribute to an epic conclusion to an old 1950s or 1960s Technicolor romance thanks to those shimmering strings and a rich piano. Therefore, I've also been getting vibes of sophisticated pop through the balladry of Swingout Sister and Joe Jackson, and the romanticism of Original Love. Maybe there's even some Shibuya-kei in there, I don't know (I won't mention it officially since Original Love would want to kill me).
The single was written by Hiyajo and composed by Jiro (or Haruo) Kobayashi（小林治郎）, and the duo was also behind the first song that I ever heard by Hiyajo, "Maware Maware"（まわれまわれ）. Its arrangement was handled by Tatsuya Nishiwaki（西脇辰弥）who was once a part of the late 1980s urban contemporary band PAZZ.
(17:55)
"Maware Maware" had its own original version and then a collaborative new take thanks to Hiyajo working with Neo-City Pop band Ryusenkei（流線型）about a decade later in 2009 with their album "Natural Woman". That same album did the same thing with "Orange Iro no Gogo ni", and the results have been breathtaking. I love the original version of "Orange Iro no Gogo ni", but this jauntier redressing in "Natural Woman" had it sound just like if it had been time-lifted as a so-called "lost track" from Taeko Ohnuki's（大貫妙子）1970s City Pop/New Music masterpieces "Grey Skies" and "Sunshower" right down to the rhythms and the instruments used.
In fact, what I realized was that Hiyajo in the late 1990s and 2000s sounds just like Ohnuki in the 1970s! That high-pitched, feathery and spot-on singing is unmistakable. Just imagine it...going from the style of a mid-20th-century romantic flick ending ballad to a breezy and swinging 1970s Japanese City Pop song. And they both sound great.
Let's see..."Remington Steele" had a slick and handsome con man and an intrepid but struggling private detective while "Moonlighting" starred a beautiful if suddenly penniless former model teamed up with a wiseass private detective. Both were detective comedies, both were set in Los Angeles, both were broadcast on American TV networks in the 1980s, both had some pretty stylish music, and both were programs that I enjoyed for a while at least ("Moonlighting" had its wheels fall off for some reason in its later seasons).
Those two old shows came to mind when I read the synopsis of this NHK drama that had just finished its run last month titled "Talio Fukushu Daiko no Futari"（タリオ 復讐代行の2人...Talio: Two Agents of Revenge）. From what I found on the website "My Drama List", the show had a young lawyer pair up with a fraud artist to right various wrongs every episode. I had been wondering what that first non-Japanese word "talio" meant. At first, I had assumed that it was the name of one of the main characters, but instead it refers to the Latin expression "lex talionis" or the "law of retaliation". Basically, we're looking at "An eye for an eye". Ah, I see...the more we learn, right?
Because I no longer have much interest in Japanese TV dramas, I've only seen "Talio" through the commercials for the series on TV Japan so I had no idea that the Neo City Popsters of the band Ryusenkei（流線形）and singer Hitomitoi（一十三十一）were responsible for the soundtrack. Aye, I can only imagine what that must sound like. However, at this point, I'll settle for the opening and ending themes starting with "Kinyoubi no Venus" (Friday's Venus).
Hitomitoi provides the lyrics about someone who just can't seem to catch a break in life and is desperate for any chance to get out of the rut. Meanwhile, Ryusenkei's Cunimondo Takiguchi（クニモンド瀧口）has some groovy summery vibes for our ears which is splendid considering the time of year that folks were watching "Talio". The interesting thing is that the singer is another friendly face from the genre, singer-songwriter Yasuyuki Horigome（堀込泰行）who this time is only behind the mike and not on the computer helping out in the creation. The mellow keyboards and horns also do the trick here.
Meanwhile, the ending theme is "Kanashii kurai Diamond" (Sad Diamond) which keeps the good times going. Also created by the same folks involved in the opener, "Kanashii kurai Diamond" fairly thrums like the motor of the Cabriolet that's mentioned in the song. Kinda feels like some Rod Stewartdisco. Basically, it's time to hop into the convertible and take a drive down the coast. Nice video featuring Hitomitoi and I guess that would be Ryusenkei sitting around. I wonder if that is actually a set from "Talio".
From the lyrics of both songs, I also wonder if they refer to the main character of Mami Shirasawa, the lawyer who needs that leg up from the very person that she probably would incarcerate under normal circumstances. I probably won't catch the series but I'm glad that Ryusenkei, Hitomitoi and Horigome have hopped into another medium.
Sunday would be the ideal day to put up this track from Hitomitoi' s（一十三十一）9th album"The Memory Hotel" from October 2015. It's written by the singer and her contemporary, Cunimondo Takiguchi（クニモンド瀧口）from Ryusenkei（流線形）and composed by Takiguchi, but it's not the usual Neo City Pop that we've seen them do together on projects such as the 2006 Ryusenkei album"Tokyo Sniper".
One commenter for the YouTube video above put it best: "Labyrinth ~ Kaze no Machi de" (In The Windy City) would be the ideal song to listen to while soaking in a bath. This pop tune is as soothing as the conclusion of throwing in some of that special onsen powder into the hot water, and it's no surprise that it was placed as the final track in "The Memory Hotel". Even the video comes off as a strange but oddly comforting dream in Hitomitoi's head. The combination of synths and strings acts like some sort of relaxation-inducing lullaby. Methinks that this would also be the type of song to hear once that Friday night of a long hard work week comes to pass, although Sunday is nice, too.
As for "The Memory Hotel", it peaked at No. 69 on Oricon. Another one to put on the wish list.
Y'know...I think that cover of Ryusenkei's（流線形）"Tokyo Sniper" is the meme gift that keeps on giving. How many more captions can any of us come up with for that somewhat annoyed jogger on the lonely road? I already gave a couple in the actual article for the album. Maybe another one is "OK, so was the hitchhiking sign a thumbs up or my arms on my hips?".
Ahem...I did mention in that article as well that I would eventually write about the remaining tracks that I hadn't covered there. So, more than a year later, here is one of them. Actually, it's the 2nd track, "Hanabira" (Petals), written and composed by Ryusenkei guitarist Cunimondo Takiguchi（クニモンド瀧口）.
Glad that I could save this one for its own article since with Nika Eguchi（江口ニカ）, aka Hitomitoi（一十三十一）, in there as the vocalist, "Hanabira" is this creamily groovy piece that has some interesting influences, in my opinion. Track 4, "Koi no Last Number"（恋のラスト・ナンバー）has Steely Dan written all over it, but those first several notes of "Hanabira" had me hearkening back to good ol' Gino Vannelli, and then near the end, in the last minute and change, I even got some fine Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）via that rat-a-tat horn intro into the silky sax solo. That's about as nice an aural cameo appearance as I can get as a City Pop fan.
It was definitely a busy weekend with a translation assignment, my regular Skype student and even a first-time podcast but it was that first task that has my shoulders in knots right now. Thankfully, I got it done a full 24 hours before its due date. Now I just have to face the music with my doctor tomorrow since I've gained a few kilos over the past several months (sigh). Just can't win.
Well, at least for the evening, I can relax a bit with some good music through the lovely tones of Hitomitoi（一十三十一）. Her "Summer Breeze '86" from her "City Dive" album of 2012 provides some super sunset solace. I'm slightly surprised that there was no mention of the second singer since he's in there enough to make this a duet, in my opinion. Written and composed by Cunimondo Takiguchi（クニモンド瀧口）from Ryusenkei（流線形）, I wonder if he is indeed singing with Hitomitoi as well.
Anyways, "Summer Breeze '86" is one of those songs that is slightly difficult to classify. It's got that R&Bgroove although I wouldn't say that it goes into funk but still has that nice and light pop feeling. Plus, it's mellow enough to travel into AOR territory, and even with at least one of those synthesizers in there, I was even wondering whether I should list it as at least a partial technopop tune, but I have held off. Inevitably though, it doesn't matter. It's just a tune that induces me to exhale the fatigue out and inhale some fine vibes.
My Sunday is coming to an end and Heisei is also approaching its finish within the next few days.
The past round of Holidays had me going on a slightly larger shopping spree than usual, and I decided that this time, I would focus some more on getting the Japanese urban contemporary stuff in the 21st century. Of course, that meant I had to get Ryusenkei's（流線形）"Tokyo Sniper" which was their 2nd album and their first full album from October 2006. I know the saying "You can't tell a book by its cover", but hey, as I've mentioned on the articles for the two tracks that I've already talked about on "Tokyo Sniper", the album cover of the perhaps annoyed jogger on a nighttime street is one of the most remembered for me when it comes to the newer City Pop material. I mean, the cover can reach meme levels and it seems to beg for a rash of funny captions such as "Geez, was the marathon at 10 am or 10 pm?!" or "If he doesn't show up in the next five minutes, I really will become a Tokyo sniper!".
Anyways, I ended up getting 9 discs this time around, which kept my mailman calling me up on the phone, but I have to say that "Tokyo Sniper" was indeed one of the albums that stood out. Before I get into some of the tracks, I would like to introduce the members of Ryusenkei: there is guitarist Cunimondo Takiguchi（クニモンド瀧口）, bassist Takehiro Oshizuka（押塚岳大）and keyboardist Yuzo Hayashi（林有三）. Also, there is the vocalist who is front and centre on most of the tracks, Hitomitoi（一十三十一）, under her guest name of Nika Eguchi（江口ニカ）.
I've listened to "Tokyo Sniper" twice now including the tracks, all written and composed by Takiguchi, that I've already written about on KKP, "Time Machine Love" and "Rainbow City Line", and I've come to the conclusion that Ryusenkei was sending a love letter to the urban contemporary/AOR music of the past on both sides of the Pacific. Case in point is Track 4,"Koi no Last Number"（恋のラスト・ナンバー...Love's Last Number）, which is very Steely Dan. But then I have to correct myself because it isn't strictly Dan. It actually sounds like a riff from "New Frontier", a song from "The Nightfly", the legendary 1982 album by Donald Fagen, one-half of the famous duo. Right from Note One, it has that shuffle/strut beat and the warm keyboards. In fact, Hayashi even plays with us Fagen fans by copying the first few notes from "New Frontier" near the end of the song which delves into a lady hoping that her beloved will finally show up for that final dance number at the hall.
"Usumurasaki Iro no Achira"（薄紫色の彼方...The Purple Beyond）is a soulful and groovy ballad slightly reminiscent of the 1970s, thanks to Hayashi, but I also have to give kudos to some of the drum work by Yuko Kitayama. Although Nika doesn't sound anything like her, that keyboard work reminds me of the music by singer-songwriter Toko Furuuchi（古内東子）back in the 1990s. The song is a sad story of a woman who comes to the realization while in the passenger seat of a Porsche that her love for the driver, her friend, will remain forever one-sided as the sun sets into purple.
Meanwhile, the title track, "Tokyo Sniper" seems to sound like another light tribute to a City Pop song from decades past, "THE TOKYO TASTE" by Rajie and Yoshitaka Minami（南佳孝）. Nika even does the duet with Hiroshima-born guitarist Saigenji. There is some nice keyboard canoodling near the end, and like "THE TOKYO TASTE", "Tokyo Sniper" would make for a good background number to strut through the hotel area of West Shinjuku or even a nice song to drive in that convertible on a warm spring night.
My final song for tonight and the final track on "Tokyo Sniper" is "Ame no Cinderella"（雨のシンデレラ...Rainy Cinderella）which is some lovely musical advice from Nika about how to not be afraid of love and embrace it for what it is. Nika sounds especially mellifluous with this torch song given some contemporary groove, and the rolling song reminds me of Minako Yoshida's（吉田美奈子）"Koi wa Ryuusei" (恋は流星）, right down to the various horn solos and even the chorus work. It is a love letter about love to love, and hopefully without any reversions to pumpkins and mice.
Hard to believe that it's been over a little over 12 years since "Tokyo Sniper" was first released, but it is definitely a keeper for those who love City Pop no matter which decade it comes from. There are three more tracks to cover, but I will keep those in store for their individual articles...just because. If you can read Japanese, there is also kaz-shin's article on the album as well on his "Music Avenue" blog.
We've got a bit of weather breezing in right now and things are getting a little humid in my room, so I've got my 40-year-old fan whipping the air about. Something nice and mellow would be just the thing.
I think this cover for Ryusenkei's（流線形）2006 album, "Tokyo Sniper" will be the representative one when it comes to this band of 21st-century brand City Pop/J-AOR. I don't think the jogger is necessarily going to be assassinating anyone...certainly not in that getup, anyways. However, with that expression on her face and the slightly belligerent pose, I believe she's ready to give an exasperated chewing out to her slower-than-molasses boyfriend or husband.
One of the tracks on the album is "Rainbow City Line". At first, since I hadn't focused so much on the title, I had initially thought that this was a direct cover of Minako Yoshida's（吉田美奈子）"Rainbow Sea Line", assuming that the Ryusenkei number actually had the same title. When I heard the melody and read the lyrics for each tune and realized that they were different, I kinda Gibbs-slapped myself up the head. I ought to practice reading the fine print a little more carefully.
Still, I read one comment on YouTube which stated that "Rainbow City Line" was a nice tip of respect to Yoshida, who can be considered to be one of the pioneers for New Music, City Pop, J-AOR and J-R&B. However, I think that Ryusenkei and vocalist Hitomitoi (一十三十一...for whatever reason, she decided to go with the pseudonym Nika Eguchi/ 江口ニカ for this song) were paying tribute to 1970s City Pop in general with the arrangement. Heck, even the lyrics pretty much paint the picture of a typical image on a City Pop album cover:
When I get off the highway, I feel the sea breeze. Through the sunset Reflected on the cafe terrace window, I still go after that vision in the distance. The love song gets gradually better And the city line flows out
Man, could I use a Corona right now! (Uh, no, that's not part of the lyrics. Just my feeling after hearing those dreamy words.)
It must have been quite the feeling listening to City Pop like this in the 1970s while sitting in that cafe or bar in one of the rising hotels in Tokyo. I will still bet on the Tokyo Prince Hotel for that view (personal bias definitely), although hotels since the old Prince have sprouted to much higher levels.
Well, I got my summer package of discs the other day so I've been listening to them for the past few days. Last night was the time for Ryusenkei's（流線形）"City Music". This was the band's debut album from 2003 and I've already talked about a couple of tracks from the album, "Airport '80" and "Koi no Cider"（恋のサイダー）.
I can say that "City Music" is a "Kayo Kyoku Plus" purchase because it was through working on this blog that I was even able to find out about Ryusenkei. The band has yet to be recognized on J-Wikiand Wikipedia and started its career some years after the inaugural issue of "Japanese City Pop", my bible on the genre. I simply found out through YouTube.
"Tokyo Coaster" rather sums up on what Japanese City Pop of the 21st century has been to me. The original City Pop of the 1970s and 1980s had that big capital 'C' for city with the big bass and saxophone pushing the melody along with a really funky strut as if it were a very confident dandy demanding a lot of space while he hulked his way over to the nearest disco from JR Shinjuku Station.
The next generation (and I realize that other folks [perhaps even the artists themselves] do not like to use the City Pop tag for this 21st-century music) which includes Ryusenkei, Hitomitoi（一十三十一）and others, comes off a whole lot more mellower group. Perhaps it's more of a lower-case 'c' for the city with a bit more smooth jazz and Latin entering the keyboards. I don't really see a disco either...perhaps a tastefully appointed cafe.
Cunimondo Takiguchi（クニモンド瀧口）wrote and composed "Tokyo Coaster" with Tomomi Sano（サノトモミ）handling the tender vocals, and in addition to hearing it in that café in Harajuku, this could be just the song to hear while driving down the megalopolitan highways on a Saturday night and having that congenial conversation with friends inside a sporty Toyota or Nissan (not on the cellphone, that would be bad). It doesn't demand your undivided attention. Instead, it acts like a very tip-worthy concierge by discreetly providing some fine service.
Gotta say that I'm getting pretty tempted to get an album...any album...by groovy band Ryusenkei（流線形）.
I mean, it may be the early 21st century but these guys are disco-ing as if it were the late 1970s or early 1980s. "Koi no Cider" (Love Cider) is straight from Ryusenkei's debut album"City Music" from 2003. The arrangement is a love letter to City Pop and I just adore the drums in this tune. Unfortunately, that's about all the information I can get about this song since the band still doesn't have any sort of website or even any recognition on J-Wiki. I think their Facebook page is about it for representation outside of any media reports on them. But I did find out that Tomomi Sano（サノトモミ）is the vocalist here.
Various folks have put forth that City Pop as a genre should be addressed to the creations by Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）, Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）, Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）and others from decades back and that the tunes made by folks like Ryusenkei should be given a new name or the old one of AOR. However, I think the newer stuff I've heard still fits the bill enough to earn the return of the name of that favourite genre of mine. At the same time, though, I think I can see their point since City Pop seems to refer to the big city (namely Tokyo) during a time when the Economic Miracle was paying off in big dividends...a time that no longer exists now.
Incidentally, you can also try out another song from "City Music": "Airport '80"（エアーポート’80）.
Not sure whether the cool and groovy band Ryusenkei（流線形）was inspired by flying police boxes or speeding DeLoreans, but the guys came together to create another cool and groovy tune under the title of "Time Machine Love" as a track for their 2nd album"Tokyo Sniper" in 2006. I'm always going to remember the album for the cover image of that jogger taking a break on the road there.
And they got some able assistance from singer Hitomitoi（一十三十一）to provide this nice driving song for the highways and byways criss-crossing Tokyo. Good ol' kaz-shin on his Japanese-language blog of Japanese music "Music Avenue" noted that "Time Machine Love" which starts off "Tokyo Sniper" is reminiscent of some of Minako Yoshida's（吉田美奈子）early material when she embraced R&B in the early 70s. Certainly, Hitomitoi's high-tone vocals can vouch for that. Plus I gotta mention that I enjoy some of that disco bass as well.
Yoshida was one of the early pioneers for New Music and City Pop in the 1970s and 1980s, and so whenever I hear some of these recent urban contemporary popsters such as Ryusenkei and Hitomitoi, I get reminded of a small debate that I've heard sometimes about whether City Pop should only be used to describe that metropolitan music that flourished in the late 70s and early 80s. Perhaps what the recent singers are creating and performing now should be considered examples of J-R&B or J-AOR or an extension of the soul-tinged pop that Misia and bird were doing starting from the early 2000s.
Well, I'm biased here since City Pop is my favourite genre within Japanese pop music but I still wouldn't mind it if that very genre name were still used for tunes right up into this decade. However, I'm sure the artists themselves will have their own strong opinions about how they would like to be classified or whether they even want to be classified at all. In any case, I still like "Time Machine Love" as a city song and would be willing to purchase "Tokyo Sniper".
During my usual translation work today, I put in "Light Mellow - Twilight" into the player for a second round, and I found myself starting to really like Track 1 which was "Maware Maware"(Turn, Turn) by Atsuko Hiyajo（比屋定篤子）.
I had come across that name before in kanji although I didn't quite know how to read it at the time. Once again, it was through my curious searches for City Pop that I had yet to hear on YouTube that I first found the name. But it wasn't until I got "Light Mellow - Twilight" that I finally got to hear the pearly tones of Ms. Hiyajo, and in fact, I was only able to read the name finally by finding her official website.
Hiyajo, who has enjoyed singing since she was a little girl, hails from Okinawa and when she was attending Musashino Art University in the suburbs of Tokyo, she entered a circle which focused on the study of Latin music. It was from there that she got involved in a band with her as vocalist. During her time at university, she also met Jiro Kobayashi（小林治郎）who was trying to become a composer, and the two started picking up gigs at the live houses in the Big Sushi. In 1997, she made her debut, with "Maware Maware" becoming her 4th single in August 1998, and it was with her 2nd album in 1999, "Sasayakareta Yume no Hanashi"(Talk of the Whispered Dream) that "Maware Maware" became a track. Hiyajo wrote the lyrics while Kobayashi composed the music.
There is some very nice and sunny groove going on with "Maware Maware" which makes it a fine tonic during the current winter and a good accompaniment for the later summer. The arrangement for the original song also had me thinking a bit of Shibuya-kei, and with Hiyajo's vocals, the band paris match in particular.
In the decade since, Hiyajo has put out a number of albums but in 2009, she had a collaboration with groovy band Ryusenkei（流線形）via the album "Natural Woman" and in that release, she and the band put out a new version of "Maware Maware" which, as one commenter put it, sounded a bit more in the TOTO vein (the band, not the toilet). Both versions sound just plummy to me.
I just came across a 2012 article on "The Japan Times" that talks about a return of that Perrier-sipping and plane-hopping Japanese genre known as City Pop. And considering some of the singers I've encountered for the first time via YouTube and articles on this blog, I think the return is still happily on the move. Perhaps Japan, and specifically Tokyo, may no longer be all that close to the top of the economic heap as it was when City Pop was experiencing its first heyday, but it seems that there is still a want for some of that urban contemporary beat.
One of the relatively new artists that I discovered in the last few months is Ryusenkei（流線形...Streamline） aka Cunimondo Takiguchi nee Toshiaki Takiguchi. He is mentioned in that Japan Times article but otherwise there is not a whole lot about him aside from his own Facebook page. However, I did find out that he has had three albums so far under his belt, "City Music"(2003), "Tokyo Sniper"(2006) and "Natural Woman" (2009).
Tonight I'm featuring a track from Ryusenkei's first album"City Music", "Airport '80", created by Takiguchi. Both the album and the song are perfectly titled considering the genre. The airport is one of the representative places when it comes to City Pop...that launching point to exotic horizons, whether they be the shores of Honolulu or the streets of Manhattan, or that landing point before heading into the world's biggest megalopolis. As soon as I heard that melody of shimmery strings and strumming guitar along with those technological bloops after that recording of soaring jets, I knew I was getting back into some comfortable musical territory. The mellow vocals also had me craving those huge cocktails with the paper umbrellas. I'll be interested in trying to catch up with what Ryusenkei has been producing over the past decade.
Have a look at a couple of articles that Marcos V. has written up on similar material. One is on Greeen Linez and the other is his playlist on those Retro Grooves.
