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.
"Angelic" is an April 2002 maxi-single by SPANK HAPPY that I covered through two of its three tracks, the title track and "Haikei, Miss International"（拝啓ミス・インターナショナル）. Well, since I've gone over 66.6% of it, why not finish the remaining 33.3%?
Therefore, it's time to look at "Ennui Electrique" which was created by leader Naruyoshi Kikuchi（菊地成孔）with both him and co-vocalist Hitomi Iwasawa（岩澤瞳）getting in on the action. Starting with a thumpy bass and what sounds like a really hectic bicycle horn, it sounds like the titular ennui electrique stands for the routine debauchery that a lady goes through when she's out and about on the town. It's quite the soundtrack for a Friday night.
There was a time when Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had the biggest pop culture boom when I was in high school, starting or culminating with the 1984 film "Amadeus" which won a ton of awards including a Best Picture Oscar. I think it was about the same time that the singer Falco had a hit with the song "Rock Me Amadeus". And even Japanese pop music wasn't immune to his charms since there was a popular Seiko Matsuda（松田聖子）song around that time based on the Austrian composer. Not sure whether the spirit of the classical music master was amused or bemused.
The last time I spoke about the technopop duo SPANK HAPPY, it was for the title track from their April 2002 maxi-single"Angelic" which sounded like they were channeling some Daft Punk. Well, later on in September, leader and songwriter Naruyoshi Kikuchi（菊地成孔）and vocalist Hitomi Iwasawa（岩澤瞳）released the album "Computer House of Mode" which contains the track "Forever Mozart". Written and composed by Kikuchi, I don't know whether he was actually aiming for something reminiscent of Mozart's style but there is something about "Forever Mozart" that feels like a combination of Fashion Music, technopop and even early 1980s Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）. I can imagine white powdered wig and ballroom gown-wearing robots skating on a grand floor in Austria.
I've mentioned the evolving nature of the eclectic band SPANK HAPPY since they started up in the early 1990s. They've gone from being a pop/rock group into something more techno in the 2000s and denoted their career through three distinct phases.
This is something that I noted for one of their songs "Haikei, Miss International"（拝啓ミス・インターナショナル）from the maxi-single "Angelic" which was released in April 2002. Today, it's about the title song which was written and composed by SPANK HAPPY leader Naruyoshi Kikuchi（菊地成孔）. He provides some of the vocals but the main singer here is Hitomi Iwasawa（岩澤瞳）. Once again, the feeling of "Angelic" is 80s synthpop but with a more ardent French or European cabaret vibe. Perhaps there is something rather Daft Punk about it although it's been fed through a cutesy pop filter.
Good morning (although I'm typing this 7 minutes shy of noon)! I hope on this Boxing Day that you are satisfyingly still digesting your Xmas dinner from last night. I was fortunate enough to have plenty of protein in the form of turkey and roast beef, and then some apple pie to finish up. Ended up with a couple of cups of coffee, too, although I'm surprised to say that I was still actually able to get a good night's sleep.
It was a couple of years ago that I first introduced the eclectic band SPANK HAPPY with Midori Hara（原みどり）as the vocalist during the 1990s. The group has had a long history a goodly number of genres that they covered, especially in those early days in the 90s. When I posted about a couple of songs, "Boku wa Gakki"（僕は楽器）and "Hashiri Naku Otome"（走り泣く乙女）, both from 1994, they struck me as weaving between late 60s Beatles and Japanese pop/rock unit Judy & Mary.
Also from 1994, September 1994 to be exact, I found this final track from their album "My Name is...". "Ohayou"(Mornin'!) is yet another song of SPANK HAPPY that is catchy but quite different from the previous two songs that I mentioned. It's some happy pop rollicking against a backdrop of a House music rhythm, although it also decides to explore a bit near the end. But overall, it feels like something that the 80s synthpop band PSY-S would have whipped up in the late 1980s.
Well, summer officially arrived here at 10:58 this morning Eastern Daylight Time, so just a little over an hour ago as of this writing (of this first paragraph). It's comfortably cool/warm out there although I've got the fan on behind me, so my tush is currently a happy camper for now.
I've already been putting up summer-titled or summer-themed songs here and there over the past several days. This time, I've got something similar in the mellow technopop vein thanks to veteran unit SPANK HAPPY. "Natsu no Tensai"(Summer Genius) was released in May 2018 as the group's one-and-only single thus far during their third phase which has only Naruyoshi Kikuchi（菊地成孔）, the man who has been behind SPANK HAPPY right from the beginning, and singer-songwriter Tomomi Oda（小田朋美）. Both of them were also responsible for their version of the minyo "Kushimoto Bushi" on the "Gundam Thunderbolt"（ガンダム サンダーボルト）soundtrack the previous year.
"Natsu no Tensai" is a happy synthpop tune with little scoops of rock and soul thrown in for good measure. It wouldn't be surprising if it had been used in an eclectic commercial. The song was also included in SPANK HAPPY's October 2019 album"mint exorcist" that has also been ominously tagged with the phrase FINAL SPANK HAPPY. Since then, I haven't heard anything scheduled by Kikuchi under the band name.
Several months ago, I featured the band SPANK HAPPY which had its beginnings in the early 1990s as a pop/rock outfit starring saxophonist Naruyoshi Kikuchi（菊地成孔）and vocalist Midori Hara（原みどり）. I ended up writing about a couple of their songs from their first of three phases, "Boku wa Gakki"（僕は楽器）and "Hashiri Naku Otome"（走り泣く乙女）. I'd say that their music also pushed a bit into either the psychedelic or avant-pop zone.
By the end of the late 1990s though, there were some major lineups which ended up with Kikuchi being on his own. However, the arrival of new vocalist Hitomi Iwasawa（岩澤瞳）in 1998 welcomed the second phase of SPANK HAPPY's career which supposedly took on more of a club music feeling or even Shibuya-kei.
A first maxi-single was released in 2001 and then another one titled "Angelic" the following year. One track from that one is "Haikei, Miss International" (Dear Miss International) which sounds neither club nor Shibuya-kei. As mentioned in the first article for the band, J-Wiki had listed a number of other genres for them: technopop, dance pop, disco, electronica, House and electroclash, and I think "Haikei, Miss International" is more associated with any of these genres. In fact, I find the song to be more reminiscent of early 1980s synthpop, something that Tomoko Kawase's（川瀬智子）Tommy february6 was also doing at the same time. Nice to hear the bubbly, shiny and chrome stuff again. But then, a little over halfway through it, the melody suddenly veers into Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）and Ryuichi Sakamoto's（坂本龍一）collaborative technopop of the early 1980s.
A week ago, I wrote on an article featuring a duet between folk group Tulip（チューリップ）vocalistKazuo Zaitsu（財津和夫）and new singer Midori Hara（原みどり）titled "Tsugunai no Hibi"（償いの日々）. It was the second link in an interesting chain down the rabbit hole which began from listening to Scott's "Holly Jolly X'masu" podcast last week. Well, I'm going further down the hole since I found out that Hara would later help form a band with the intriguing name of SPANK HAPPY.
Of course, the slightly naughty part of my mind wondered if the origins of the band name came from some sort of S&M flick (the safe word is apples), but according to their fairly detailed J-Wiki biography, SPANK HAPPY, which first began in 1992, adapted their name from 1970s German avant-pop group Slapp Happy. I will let that matter rest then.😏
SPANK HAPPY has had a long history which can be divided into three phases. What has been called Old SPANK HAPPY consisted of vocalist Hara, saxophonist Naruyoshi Kikuchi（菊地成孔）and keyboardist Shin Kouno（河野伸）. In terms of the genres that they covered, once again according to J-Wiki, the band has covered technopop, dance pop, disco, electronica, House and electroclash but the phase that Old SPANK HAPPY covered between 1992 and 1998, seemed to be more about psychedelic rock and perhaps even the avant-pop that Slapp Happy had been aiming for.
Case in point: their December 1994 single"Boku wa Gakki"(I am a Musical Instrument). Written and composed by the band, it definitely doesn't sound anything that I've heard in Japanese pop music at the time. In fact, I'd say that the song hearkens back to the aforementioned psychedelic rock and some of that Beatles late-60s music. For the pop ballad with Zaitsu, Hara may have sounded like she was auditioning for a David Foster love song, but here she sounds like the second coming of Yuki from Judy & Mary with a bit of Chaka from PSY-S.
"Boku wa Gakki" might come across as rebellious and raucous but the lyrics are pretty poignant as they describe the night as being melancholy music with all of the people acting as the musical instruments interpreting what they are feeling. And to keep on that 60s thing, there is a part of that song which reminds me of "MacArthur Park" by actor Richard Harris.
Another song from the early phase of SPANK HAPPY is their maxi-single from earlier in August 1994, "Hashiri Naku Otome"(The Running and Crying Maiden). The Judy & Mary feeling comes even harder here through the song and Hara's vocals, and it's all about a spat playing out downtown as a woman runs off from her boyfriend's car with the usual anger, despair and melodrama being flung about like mortar attacks. "Hashiri Naku Otome" also has plenty of energy with help from some boss horns so this time, I feel that this is straight-up pop/rock approaching that Judy & Mary sound along with a bit of Original Love thrown in. Maybe even a soupcon of 80s David Bowie?
In their live performances, SPANK HAPPY was joined by musicians including trombonist Yoichi Murata（村田陽一）, guitarist Tsuneo Imahori（今堀恒雄）and percussionist Asa-Chang.
Near the end of 1997, Kouno left the band. Then in 1998, Kikuchi had to be hospitalized for a time due to serious illness, and then later in the year, Hara herself left which meant that the first phase of Old SPANK HAPPY was at an end. A year later, Kikuchi would return and be joined by a new partner to begin New SPANK HAPPY which had a new sound. I'll cover a song during that phase soon enough and then eventually, I'll get to their third incarnation known as Final SPANK HAPPY which started up in 2018.
