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.
Showing posts with label SPARKLING☆CHERRY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SPARKLING☆CHERRY. Show all posts
As I type this, there are less than 48 hours before autumn officially arrives at 8:44 am Eastern Daylight Time on September 22nd, so at least, summer worshippers have Saturday to soak up as much sun and heat as possible.
Then why not bring in another summer City Pop tune into the proceedings? For today, we have SPARKLING☆CHERRY's"Summer Time Magic" which was written and composed by vocalist Cherry. It's got that Neo-City Pop air about it with those brassy synthesizers and Cherry's voice is rather reminiscent of some of the other singers who've performed with duo Blue Peppers. Plus, the song is packed with other singers and songwriters of the City Pop umbrella: Kingo Hamada（濱田金吾）, the mentor behind SPARKLING☆CHERRY, is helping on backing chorus with Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）from Tohoku Shinkansen（東北新幹線）, and Makoto Matsushita（松下誠） is on guitar. "Summer Time Magic" is the first track on the band's July 2019 album "Roxy".
You can also give their "Mirage" a listen, too. It's the most recent article that I had about them until today.
Earlier in the year, I found out about this Neo-City Pop group called SPARKLING☆CHERRY mentored by singer-songwriter Kingo Hamada（濱田金吾）and led vocally by Cherry. Liking the cut of their jib, I bought their late 2021 album"Windy" and have enjoyed their 21st-century take on Japan's urban contemporary scene.
Well, in gathering the information on SPARKLING☆CHERRY, I discovered their website and also the fact that "Windy" was the fourth of their album releases. Sometime between that "Windy" article and now, I did bring in one of their past tunes into the backlog, and I'm now happy to introduce it. This is the title track from the band's 2nd album"Mirage" released in July 2018.
May I say that the album cover is one handsome fellow? No, I don't think that it's an Eizin Suzuki but the loving feeling for him is there. Of course, when I think of Suzuki in that musical sense, I will always have images of Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）dancing in my brain, and the same thing happens when Cherry sings out the refrain of this title track (she was also responsible for words and music). I can imagine Tats singing it as well. Considering that July release month, "Mirage" is a perfectly upbeat and summery song to listen while envisaging that beachside resort. It may have made its debut quite a few decades following the initial City Pop boom of the 1980s, but "Mirage" still packs an homage punch.
At the end of January, I introduced this band SPARKLING☆CHERRY which has been around since 2014 with at least four albums to its credit. Into the Neo-City Pop, it's had a few veterans from the original City Pop era helping out including singer-songwriter Kingo Hamada（濱田金吾）as permanent resident guitarist and producer Toshikazu Kanazawa（金澤寿和） with Cherry as the vocalist-songwriter. Rocket Brown of "Come Along Radio" was good enough to recommend the band during a recent conversation, and coming across their charming "Windy Rain", it was not only enough for me to write about it but it got me to get the originating album "Windy" which was released in December 2021. However, it also helped that the band had also put up their own "tasting plate" video so that I could listen to tidbits of each track, and that video can be found at the bottom of the "Windy Rain" article on KKP.
The first track "Your Wind" is a nice way to start things especially on a spring day like today where the images from Cherry's lyrics spark a similarly meteorologically wonderful Sunday with a young couple in love enjoying the domestic life in their small but stylish apartment. With a combination of synths and guitars (one played by Hamada), "Your Wind" has that pleasant mellow groove which makes the song more of an AOR or a straight pop number rather than something from the City Pop realm. Cherry's vocals are on the breezy and slightly coquettish side of things and she reminded me a bit of Asako Toki（土岐麻子）.
Unfortunately, not all of the tracks are up in their full form but I could find this tune "Sora no Shita World"（空の下World...World Under the Sky）. It's a fascinating one for no less than the fact that the above video was uploaded all the way back in 2012, although I'd said above that SPARKLING☆CHERRY's debut album didn't come out until 2014. Well, apparently, there had been a self-produced album released in November 2011 by the band called "Ippo" according to their website, and the original "Sora no Shita World" came from that. While I think the rearranged version in "Windy" is more in keeping with the overall elegant sound of the album, the 2011 original has got a feeling that ranges between the music of Misia and Bird. There's that light Latin vibe that I've often heard in the latter's music paired with Cherry's vocals which resembles that of the former, especially in the way that she trips the light fantastic with the lyrics.
Cherry sounds especially good here on "Sunao ni Naretara" (素直になれたら...If I Can Be Honest) in this late afternoon/early evening light and mellow song that has Hamada playing the electric guitar with special guest guitarist Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）, no newbie when it comes to the City Pop scene. There's also something in the underlying rhythm that sounds quite Tatsuro-esque. The lyrics are all about regretting not being able to express one's love; interestingly enough, that seemed to be the theme from the opening episode of Season 2 of "Star Trek: Picard". Not sure whether Sir Pat would be into City Pop, though.
That was all I have been able to find in terms of videos for the tracks right now. But I have to say that the last two tracks, "Line"（線）and "Answer" are definitely more in the pop realm rather than anything urban contemporary. Also, the band does a fine rendition of "Goodbye Transfer", a song by Hamada that was originally sung by Rajie for her October 1984 album"Gogo no Relief"（午後のレリーフ...Afternoon Relief）. But again, if you want to at least hear some samples, head over to the "Windy Rain" article and scroll down to the bottom to hear the "tasting plate" video that I mentioned above. I'm not sure whether SPARKLING☆CHERRY's"Windy" is a Neo-City Pop classic but the songs have been entertaining and soothing enough so that I'm interested in checking out their previous three albums since the genre special guests were plentiful back then as well.
Had a nice conversation with Rocket Brown from "Come Along Radio" today in which we talked about the possibilities of me finally visiting him in the Los Angeles area someday once COVID has been wrestled under control. Sushi and ramen would be great; maybe even catch a City Pop dance party since I am keenly interested in observing how people would shimmy to City Pop. Of course at my age, if some of those young fans ever caught me on the floor, they would most likely go "Wow! He must have gone to school with some of those singers!".
Ooh! I think I'll just slink on back to my table and order another Metamucil with a cherry on top. 😦
As I said in "Happy 10th Anniversary, Kayo Kyoku Plus!", I've been happy to have become friends with Rocket Brown since we've been able to talk on our favourite genre, I've been able to be a guest on "Come Along Radio" a few times and also because he's been able to recommend some good new artists to me. One such band that he was able to introduce me to is SPARKLING☆CHERRY which can be considered to be one of the Neo-City Pop crowd along the lines of Hitomitoi（一十三十一）, Ryusenkei（流線形）and Blue Peppers（ブルー・ペパーズ）among other contemporary groups.
But one interesting point is that the artistic people who have been involved with this Neo-City Pop band were involved with the original City Pop decades ago. SPARKLING☆CHERRY, which started up in 2014, has had music journalist Toshikazu Kanazawa（金澤寿和）, who has helped out on the "Light Mellow" CD project and has his own blog on the lighter and mellower stuff from both sides of the Pacific, has been the executive producer. Also, in the last 8 years, the band has had guest performers and songwriters helping out in any which way including guitarist Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）, Kingo Hamada（濱田金吾）and Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）. The core of this band, by the way, consists of vocalist Cherry, bassist yoshiro and keyboardist Takashi Aoki with special member drummer Masahiro Miyazaki（宮崎まさひろ）.
Their 4th and most recent album is"Windy"which was released in December 2021, and I have here one of the tracks "Windy Rain". Written and composed by Cherry, the aforementioned Hamada and SPARKLING☆CHERRY handled the arrangement with Hamada even contributing his electric guitar skills to the song. As I informed Rocket, the first 14 seconds of the song got me hook, line and sinker! It just seems as if all of those various City Pop elements which I've encountered over the years assembled to create "Windy Rain": that thin veil of Steely Dan, the 80s AOR/soul/disco feeling, some PAZZ-ivity, the boppy bass, and Cherry's vocals that remind me a bit of EPO and Hitomitoi.
CD Japan has been nagging me again on those points. Use them or lose them! Well, I'll put them to good use tonight on "Windy" and a few more albums including Blue Peppers' recent "Symphony". We all raised KKP to pre-teen levels so I think that I deserve a little parenting reward in terms of new CDs.
