Hikashu -- Shiroi HIghway（白いハイウェイ）

From Discogs

Usually a song title containing the word "highway" in it would conjure up the genres of City Pop or rock n' roll in my mind...the latter especially as some lone wolf rides out on his Harley into the sunset on that titular road to nowhere and everywhere.

However, we have Hikashu's（ヒカシュー）2nd single from 1980 titled "Shiroi Highway" (White Highway) which was written and composed by leader Koichi Makigami（巻上公一）. I wrote about the B-side "Puyo Puyo"（プヨプヨ）back in January 2024 and then there was my previous posting on the band which happened to be on their 1979 debut single "Nijuu Seiki no Owari ni"（20世紀の終りに）, so I figured it was time to close the circle, so to speak. 

"Puyo Puyo" had that New Wave mixed in with the technopop but the A-side I think is more on the technopop, and strangely enough, Makigami did come up with a story of that loner on the endless titular highway that I mentioned in the top paragraph; there's even a synth version of that famous whistle from "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly" coming in at points. Makigami's vocals make the song sound like a heroic tokusatsu theme so that lone wolf vibe is even more enhanced. But instead of a Japanese superhero show, "Shiroi Highway" was used for a car stereo commercial.

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu -- KURU KURU HARAJUKU

By Chris 73 via Wikimedia Commons

I've made my fair share of visits to Harajuku. Takeshita-douri, all those crepe stands, the fashionistas and the bubblegum-coloured stores...it's quite the amusement park. Of course, by entering the area (even back in my old Japan days), I immediately skewed the age line so I can't even imagine what it would feel like going there now. 

Speaking of age, it's hard for me to believe that the vivacious Kyary Pamyu Pamyu（きゃりーぱみゅぱみゅ）is 33 years old now. She has always struck me as someone stuck in her late teens or early twenties, and her overall aura is such that she doesn't even have to physically appear in a music video to make it worthy viewing. Et tu, "DODONPA"（どどんぱ）?

Well, a couple of days ago, her latest single just dropped. Titled "KURU KURU HARAJUKU" (Spinning Harajuku), it's another percolating blippity-bloppity technopop treat from KPP about a Harajuku denizen's dramatic day in her favourite area of Tokyo. And this time, the mesmerizing video has multiple Kyarys of differing sizes bopping about in what looks like a costume of the Michelin Man in battle mode. Maybe the techno trio Perfume is off on indefinite hiatus but producer/songwriter Yasutaka Nakata（中田ヤスタカ）still has plenty of work.

Seri Ishikawa -- Panorama Heaven

 

Yeah, I was being a little artsy with this shot. It's the front of the Bic Camera store right by JR Mito Station. 

It was about a couple of months ago that I included a track from Seri Ishikawa's（石川セリ）September 1985 album "Rakuen"（楽園...Paradise） titled "Desire". Well, I've got another track from that release titled "Panorama Heaven". Short and sweet, it was written by Moro Fukuzawa（福沢もろ）and composed by Makoto Yano（矢野誠）as an intriguing mélange which begins with a languid City Pop vibe before hitting a chorus containing a reggae/technopop rhythm. Ishikawa sounds especially ethereal thanks to that haunting echo effect. "Panorama Heaven" indeed.

80kidz & AAAMYYY -- Magic

Looks like we've got the electro trio helping out here. The most recent of these acts that I've talked about was tofubeats when I posted his "Angels on the Dance Floor" at the end of May this year. 80kidz and AAAMYYY were last visited back in 2023.

Back in February 2021, the electro duo 80kidz came up with their 6th album, "ANGLE", from which we have their "Magic" today. A lovelorn collaboration with singer-songwriter and former potential Air Canada flight attendant AAAMYYY, I'd been expecting something fairly wild and dance floor-friendly, but, and I'm not complaining here, "Magic" is actually quite the chill tune and I should have known this considering AAAMYYY's whispery voice. I'd say that it qualifies for more introspective and sip-worthy contemplation between frantic dance moves.

A couple of months later, a tofubeats remix of "Magic" was released as an 80kidz' single. It's fortified with a bit more blip.

Tomita Lab -- Futari no Amaterasu（二人の天照）

Wikimedia Commons

Amaterasu is a name that I've been hearing since I began university in the mid-1980s. I've heard about her in lectures within my Japanese Studies major and read about her in books on religion and mythology in Japan. In Shintoism, she is known as the sun goddess and the mythical ancestor of the Imperial family.

But enough of the professorial lecture from me. This is "Futari no Amaterasu" (The Amaterasu of Two), the latest single by Tomita Lab（富田ラボ）that was released last month, and according to the good folks at the Otomo website, it's "...an urban pop song focusing on the inner workings of people whose days shift under the influence of the weather". Man, considering the weather that Toronto and Tokyo have been wrestling with over the past few days, I'm hoping that our collective inner workings are hanging on for dear life.

With vocals provided by Yo from the duo Natsudaidai (about whom I posted about back in 2024), it's a cute and blippy tune whose modern arrangement may actually hold an old-fashioned melodic vibe of optimistic American sitcom spunk theme tunes, along the lines of "That Girl" and "The Doris Day Show" from the 1960s. Not sure if Tomita Lab had meant it to be so, but that's how I'm taking it. Then as we approach the grand finale, things go all techno jazzy harmony. Maybe "Futari no Amaterasu" should be looking for a cute Japanese rom-com somewhere. While Tomita took care of the music, Sasuke Haraguchi（原口沙輔）provided the lyrics.

Yuko Kawai -- Persian Rouge（ペルシャン・ルージュ）

 

I may have mentioned this before but singer-songwriter Yuko Kawai（河合夕子）was someone that I discovered because of my work on the blog and the good folks at YouTube. Did not know of her existence in all my years in Japan. My impression of her thus far is that she was one of the more eclectic and fun-loving singers out in the pop field when it came to her showmanship and compositions.

Case in point: her "Persian Rouge", a track from her June 1983 4th and final album to date "Fumin Shoukougun"（不眠症候群）which basically means "Insomnia". She was behind words and music with Masao Urino（売野雅勇）also helping out on the lyrics, and "Persian Rouge" has that playful mix of technopop and exotic kayo as if Kawai was out on the Silk Road somewhere with her synthesizer and a camel.

Glass Kayo

 

The above is a Very Berry Shake that I got at a place called Petit Potato. It was indeed very flavorful and thirst-quenching. However, the theme isn't on the contents but the container. Early this year, I came up with an Author's Picks called "Substance Kayo" which focused on those kayo titled with various substances. But then, I realized after writing up one recent article and remembering a couple of oldies that I'd written early in this blog's history that a subset can be made of kayo kyoku containing the word "glass" in their titles. As such, let me start this Tuesday edition of KKP with some glass kayo.

(1977) Yujiro Ishihara -- Brandy Glass (ブランデーグラス）

(1981) Jun Horie -- Memory Glass（メモリーグラス）

(1983) Seiko Matsuda -- Glass no Ringo （ガラスの林檎）

(1997) Kinki Kids -- Garasu no Shonen （硝子の少年）

(2009) Cheuni -- Glass no Tokyo Tower（ガラスの東京タワー）

Francis -- VIVA! Coffee Jelly（Viva! コーヒーゼリー）

 

I've known that coffee jelly has been a sweet of desire in Japan for over a century since the Taisho Era but wasn't aware that its origins go back to the United States and England. Apparently, the dessert still gets served in New England but not much farther out than that. I've had coffee jelly on occasion when I was living in Japan. It doesn't pop up in my Top 5 of favourite desserts but it's fine enough with me.

But one figure in the music industry that does love his coffee jelly? It's DJ and New Wave dandy Makoto Francis Ori（小里誠）. I just referred to him in my previous article focusing on aidoru Emiri Kanou（加納エミリ）since she and Francis collaborated on "Sabakaru Emiri"（裁かるゝエミリ）a few years ago.

I am rather curious about Francis and what else he's done. On the way, I learned to my surprise that he'd been the bassist for the bands Original Love and The Collectors. According to his biography on his website, he'd formed The Red Curtain (Original Love's immediate predecessor?) with OL OG Takao Tajima（田島貴男）as the bassist there, and they were apparently making music that couldn't be readily categorized even though the band was known as a psych/garage group.

So, perhaps Francis' penchant for avant pop has continued onto his 2021 "VIVA! Coffee Jelly". And the man does love his coffee jelly when one looks at his Instagram account. With him cooing into the microphone like a satisfied man following some nocturnal activities with a partner, I can hear a bit of Shibuya-kei and music that got me thinking of famous Swiss duo Yello (and it's not just because of the repeated "Oh yeah!") but it's indeed a technopop creation. As commenter Brian Mitchell has stated, Japanese songwriters can base their works on literally anything and everything. So, why not coffee jelly?

Yukihiro Takahashi -- MIRRORMANIC

From YouTube

Considering that I have a face that is perfect for radio, I really should get rid of all of the mirrors, but that would be rather weird. I can't imagine coming out of the shower or brushing my teeth in the bathroom without having that shiny pane of reflective material there. That area of wall would look awfully barren. Plus, we can always use the mirrors to open up the space a bit.

Interestingly enough, on first listen and first sight, I had thought that "MIRRORMANIC" was one of those Yellow Magic Orchestra songs that slipped through the cracks for me. Maybe it was a single B-side that never made it onto an album. However, I was wrong because the song was actually a track on YMO drummer Yukihiro Takahashi's（高橋幸宏）2nd solo album "Ongaku Satsujin"（音楽殺人...Murdered by the Music）from June 1980.

Written by Chris Mosdell and composed by Takahashi, the drummer's two bandmates from YMO, bassist Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）and keyboardist Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）were helping out in the recording along with Kenji Omura（大村憲司）on electric guitar. Despite the familiar faces though and the technopop genre in play here, there is something not quite YMO about this one. I couldn't help but feel that there was something somewhat Davie Bowie-ish here in the arrangement and vocal stylings. And that's a good thing since Takahashi should have been able to distinguish his solo stuff from his work with the main band.

"Ongaku Satsujin" also has the faster-paced and playful "Kanashiki Blue Colour Worker"（悲しきブルーカラーワーカー）so have a listen to that as well.

Ryuichi Sakamoto -- Photo Music（フォト・ムジーク）

 

Well, how about that for a coincidence? Just last week, I posted up an article regarding NHK-FM's late-night radio show "Crossover Eleven"（クロスオーバーイレブン）which focused on a lot of the popular non-Japanese music. And then just now, I discovered the radio program that immediately preceded it.

"Sound Street"（サウンドストリート）was a show which focused on both Japanese and foreign music that played in the 10-11 pm hour for about 45 minutes Mondays to Fridays. Lasting from 1978 to 1987, it was hosted by a number of folks in the music industry including the amazing Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）who held the Tuesday night slot for about five years in the 1980s. The above broadcast from June 1st 1982 had Sakamoto inviting his good friend Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）for a round of songs and laughs. Tats himself would host the Thursday program between 1983 and 1986.

The opening theme for "Sound Street" was Sakamoto's own creation "Photo Music" although I'm not sure whether it had been played right from the beginning of its run in 1978 (perhaps before its release on vinyl in 1981, there had been no official opener). Of course, that was also the same year that Yellow Magic Orchestra launched so I'm sure he and his fellow bandmates, Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）and Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）, were fully in thrall to the technopop sound, and so not surprisingly, The Professor's dreamy and whimsical "Photo Music" is right up that YMO alley. "Photo Music" actually didn't get released until it found itself as a B-side to the light and fun "Computer Obaachan"（コンピューターおばあちゃん）which was released in December 1981.

Well, Jme, If We Can't Have Uta Con Because of the Beatles...

 

This week, we're not watching any "Uta Con"（うたコン）on NHK which was a bit weird because I swore that I'd seen "Uta Con" concierge Shosuke Tanihara（谷原章介）give out the lineup at the end of last week's episode for this week. And then, I figured something was up. Indeed, something was up...the number of non-Japanese songs being sung on the June 9th episode. Notably, the show's theme tonight was all about The Beatles, and this was confirmed by commenter Brian Mitchell in my last article yesterday. 

I've mentioned it before but our streaming provider of Japanese programming here in North America is Jme, and they've given us the heads-up on their website, but when it comes to the performance of American, British or any non-Japanese songs by Japanese artists in Japan, due to copyrights and all that legal stuff, they simply can't allow them to be heard. Usually, if it's one or two songs, Jme will put up the warning blurb at the top of the screen in Japanese and then mask the aural performance with Muzak although viewers can still see the singers doing the cover. However, when there's a whole bunch of foreign music played on a program, then Jme basically can't allow the episode to be shown. This has happened once before with "Uta Con" when the theme for that episode was Disney music.

This time, it's the Beatles. Not that I'm a huge fan of the Fab Four although there are several songs that I do like by Paul, John, Ringo and George, but it still gets rather annoying to have something that my family looks forward weekly get cancelled due to legal and money stuff (and personally, I did want to see Hiromi Iwasaki and Junko Yagami give their covers). Therefore, just off the top of my head, I've decided to put up some covers of the Beatles discography by Japanese singers...simply for the heck of it.

B'z -- Let It Be

Masayoshi Yamazaki -- All My Loving (and he's performing this in front of Sir Paul himself!)

Yellow Magic Orchestra -- Day Tripper

Mone Kamishiraishi -- Yesterday

Akiko Kanazawa -- Yellow Submarine Ondo（イエロー・サブマリン音頭）

Yuko Hara -- Koi wa Go-Tabou Moushiagemasu（恋は、ご多忙申し上げます）

 

As I mentioned in my previous article, I had been scrolling down the Top 50 singles of 1983 when I discovered Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi's（長渕剛）"Good Bye Seishun"（GOOD-BYE青春）at No. 49. Well, it turns out that I didn't know the song at No. 50 either, so why not finish up Monday's entries with another 1983 hit?

On first listening to Yuko Hara's（原由子）"Koi wa Go-Tabou Moushiagemasu" (Too Busy for Love) which was released in August of that year, I'd assumed that much like "Good Bye Seishun", this one also fronted a television drama as the theme. However, it was actually used as another campaign song for Shiseido. According to the J-Wiki article, this was the Southern All Stars（サザンオールスターズ）keyboardist's first big solo hit (her own 4th single hitting No. 5 on the Oricon weeklies) and as written and composed by her husband, SAS vocalist Keisuke Kuwata（桑田佳祐）, there is something quite reminiscent of Phil Collins' take on "You Can't Hurry Love" from 1982. Heck "Motown" is even mentioned in Kuwata's lyrics.

Perfume -- Cold Sleep（コールドスリープ）

By Gene Wang via Wikimedia Commons

I'm starting to get those Arashi（嵐）retired/not retired vibes when it comes to the group Perfume. Up to now, I'd gotten the distinct impression that Nocchi, Kashiyuka, and A-chan were on an indefinite hiatus after spending a quarter century with each other, mostly creating technopop treats for the masses. Well, I know now that Arashi has officially retired, but I should have reminded myself that "indefinite hiatus" doesn't mean "permanent retirement". 

In fact, when I finally read the fine print of their current status, Perfume stated that they were entering a phase of "cold sleep", and when the time is right, they will return as a different form of Perfume. And interestingly enough, to emphasize the point, Perfume and songwriter/producer Yasutaka Nakata（中田ヤスタカ）put out the group's latest digital single "Cold Sleep" on May 15th. 

Quite the bubbly and percolating Perfume song with some nostalgic synths (and some nicely syncopated vocals, to boot) for a group that is supposed to be in cold sleep, the ladies seem to be trying very hard to make sure their fans don't forget their old selves and style. "Cold Sleep" is also supposed to be the theme song for an upcoming documentary commemorating their 25 years in show business.

YMO -- Tegakari（手掛かり）

 

I remember the Yellow Magic Orchestra single "Taiso"（体操）with its upbeat melody and its message of up-and-at-'em just to rouse up the kids for the morning exercise session. The music video made me wonder how much in the way of stimulants and the like were pumped into its production, though.

There's a bit of lyrical psychedelia as well in the B-side for "Taiso", although the more dramatic "Tegakari" (Key) didn't get its own video which is too bad in a way. Haruomi Hosono's（細野晴臣）words seem to describe a depressed fellow who's ended up in a one-person video adventure game that could also serve as a mindscape aching to be analyzed by a psychiatrist for their thesis. Hosono and YMO drummer and vocalist Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）came up with the urgent pounding melody that could make that fellow build up quite a sweat as he's running up and down those hills in the gamescape.

Kyoko Koizumi -- Micro Wave（マイクロWAVE）

 

Come to think of it, that picture of Kyoko Koizumi（小泉今日子）above does remind me of 90s dance-pop singer Cathy Dennis.

And speaking of Dennis, I remember that Kyon-Kyon had once released a May 1989 album titled "KOIZUMI IN THE HOUSE" which involved her delving into House and Acid House music. In fact, the last article that I did regarding the former 80s aidoru singer was for her "Fade Out" which is also included in the album. Well, this time, it's all about its track mate on the album "Micro Wave" which brings out the dance beats alongside the story of getting a bento nuked at the convenience store. I'd gotten that done so many times at my local 7-11, Lawson's and am/pm for my karaage bento and hanbaagu bento that the cashiers didn't even bother asking me anymore after a while. 

Yoshimasa Inoue（井上ヨシマサ）handled lyrics, melody and arrangement for "Micro Wave", quite the trippy little song. I didn't think that I would ever hear something from a dance DJ booth about a microwave oven warming something up for dinner but as both commenter Brian Mitchell and I agree upon, songwriters could and did write about anything and everything.

tofubeats -- Angels on the Dance Floor

By  Studio Roosegaarde via Wikimedia Commons

It's been decades since I was on the dance floor on a Saturday night. Barely remembering things from that period, once a great song hit the speakers, it was everyone rushing to the floor all at once to move that body without causing any major collisions. "Bizarre Love Triangle" by New Order was one of the favourites.

Speaking of which, I just encountered this latest by singer/producer/track maker tofubeats titled "Angels on the Dance Floor" which came out as a digital single only yesterday. The music video looks like an ancient game from the old PlayStation 1 and the plot reminds me of something rather Kafka as developed by either Rod Serling or Alfred Hitchcock. But lest it get too dark, the young lad here is only getting riled up because everyone around him is getting into a great dance groove. He eventually "gets" it and everything is happy again.

Keeping things within this rather nostalgic twilight zone, even the arrangement of "Angels on the Dance Floor" is reminiscent of dance music from a few decades ago. If I'm not mistaken, the song seems to be following some old-fashioned House lines. I'm hoping some of the more dance-oriented commenters on KKP can confirm or deny my statement. By the way, below is the KIRARA mix of the tune. Enjoy it with your Tamagotchi!

HANDS Down!☹️

 

It's been almost a decade since I mentioned through my article on Akina Nakamori's（中森明菜）album "Crimson" that Jaws, my tape recorder, made a meal out of my audiotape of the album. It died rather gruesomely, kinda like Ben Gardner in "Jaws". Well, around this time yesterday, I realized that my home printer Sam breathed its last. It was 14 years old and from what I've read of life expectancies of such devices, ol' Sam lived an unusually long life so I'm not mourning too badly and I've got a new one on the way.

However, I have to state that another beloved thing from my memories is now in its last months. That would be the very first branch of the iconic Japanese DIY and hobbyist store Tokyu Hands (now known as Hands) in Shibuya. The doors will close at the end of this November and unfortunately, I will not be there to say goodbye. As usual for the fate of such emporia, the cause is the whole online thing and declining of foot traffic which is hard for me to imagine because the last time I was there was many years ago when the store was packed with customers.

During my years in Tokyo, next to Tower Records a few blocks over, Tokyu Hands was my regular go-to place in Shibuya. It was always the case of walking on one particular street from Tower and then eventually coming down the hill to see good ol' Hands to my left. I used to visit this ivory tower filled with mezzanines to purchase calendars and other examples of stationery along with other sundry items that I can't remember. I do remember the incense area on one floor where I picked up a lost-lasting box of incense cones. I lit up a cone with a match and quickly waved out the flame after which the smoke basically coated my living room in very heavy herbal scents for several days at a time. Basically, if there was something I wanted to buy for the home or make in the home, Tokyu Hands was the place. Now, Hands will go on throughout its other branches but Branch No. 1 has been given its terminal diagnosis and I will miss it.

By DeepSkyBlue via Wikimedia Commons

Now, I couldn't find any sort of music or singer that was attached to Tokyu Hands so I was at a quandary about how to pay tribute to the store. But then, I figured that I'll just provide a list of songs whose titles' first words begin with the letters in HANDS. So, here's my Author's Picks on the shop.

(1982) Minako Yoshida -- Hoho ni Yoru no Akari（頬に夜の灯）

(1977) Iruka -- Ame no Monogatari （雨の物語）

(1983) Yu Hayami -- Natsu Iro no Nancy (夏色のナンシー）

(1983) Yumi Matsutoya -- Dandelion ~ Osozaki no Tanpopo （ダンデライオン〜遅咲きのたんぽぽ）

(1983) Anri -- Surf City

FINAL SPANK HAPPY -- Smooth Escalator

By Kakidai via Wikimedia Commons

During my years in the Tokyo area, I've managed to enter and traipse through all of the major department stores in the megalopolis such as Mitsukoshi and Matsuya. I've also visited Isetan in Shinjuku. These days, I'm not sure about the future of department stores, generally speaking. Perhaps as has been the fate of the department store here in Toronto, the Tokyo ones may also be facing extinction like the dinosaur but knowing Japan and their penchant for holding onto the oldest things, the depaato that I've mentioned may stick around for a few more decades like a stubborn Time Lord I know.

Well, Shinjuku Isetan was the setting for this rather fascinating music video for the song "Smooth Escalator" by the eclectic group SPANK HAPPY (or officially FINAL SPANK HAPPY in this case) which got its appearance in December 2020. The month itself is fascinating since this was smack dab in the pandemic years. How did they get permission to film inside the commercial emporium? Was the video a visual gift for those stuck at home? And for that matter, what was up with the additional "FINAL"? Were they about to break up?

Regardless, this is about as recent as I've gotten with SPANK HAPPY in the blog since most of the entries have covered their early material in the 1990s and then into their technopop 2000s, although I did cover their "Natsu no Tensai"（夏の天才）from 2018. By the late 2010s, the group consisted of founder Naruyoshi Kikuchi（菊地成孔）and singer-songwriter Tomomi Oda（小田朋美）, and I'm assuming that Kikuchi and Oda are indeed the ones tripping the light fantastic within the deserted department store with the former looking like a hip-hop member from m-flo and the latter looking like a New Wave gamine from "Breakfast at Tiffany's". According to the story for the video, the two of them sought refuge in Isetan from zombies.

"Smooth Escalator" has a mix of sophisticated piano pop of Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）sentiments and a commonly-heard synth that I will have to ask YMOfan04 about sometime wrapped around some gentle, almost whispery, singing-like-talking...not quite rap. As someone who hadn't been able to enter a store aside from the local supermarket for several months at the time "Smooth Escalator" came out, watching the video would have been rather swooning for me as well.

Art of Noise -- Beat Box

 

I've already posted a number of Art of Noise articles in the past ten years as parts of the Reminiscings of Youth file here on KKP, and indeed, the avant-garde synthpop group consisting of Anne Dudley, Trevor Horn and all of the rest made up some of the most incredible collages of sounds to form music to add pleasure to my time in the 1980s. By the time that they came up with their version of "Dragnet" for the movie starring Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks in 1987, they were very much a welcome part and parcel of the decade's pop panoply.

However, several years earlier, I was honestly taken aback and maybe even somewhat intimidated by the Art of Noise when I heard their December 1983 debut single "Beatbox". It was nothing that I had ever heard before; they made this beloved song in the breakdancing world out of various sounds which emanated like and not like human voices screeching out a march alongside some pounding percussion and perhaps my first exposure to orchestral hits.

I've read and heard that there have been various takes (or diversions) on "Beatbox" on record and in music video. If so, then the music video below is the one that I've seen because I remember seeing that image of the London police officer getting duplicated and stretched out. It was quite the tourist video for London as well.

Among all of the diversions (I've seen No. 10), I think the one that I heard the most on radio was Diversion 1 which lasts more than eight minutes and finishes with a classy classical piano take on the core song. It's almost as if AON was trying to let us know that no matter all of the technology and sampling, music still comes down to a basic beautiful melody played out on an old-fashioned instrument.

So, as I said, "Beat Box" was released in December 1983. What else was being released in Japan in that month?

Yutaka Ozaki -- Juu-go no Yoru（15の夜）

Yoshie Kashiwabara -- Camouflage （カム・フラージュ）

Tatsuro Yamashita -- Christmas Eve

Ritsuko Kazami -- Karui Kankei（軽い関係）

 

The last time I wrote about Ritsuko Kazami（風見律子）, it was for the mysterious and panther-y "Yoru no Subete"（夜のすべて）from her 1985 debut album "Kiss of Fire". It has quite the bass synthesizer thrumming throughout the song which seems to have some of that City Pop and some of that throwback exotic kayo.

Well, another track from "Kiss of Fire" is "Karui Kankei" (Slight Connection) which takes things a little more into the blippity-bloppity technopop while filtering some chugging train-like jazz rhythm. Not surprisingly, words and music were provided by Haruo Chikada（近田春夫）who knows something about the eclectic stuff. Some nice harmonizing between Kazami and who I think is Chikada himself on background vocals.