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 The Collectors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Collectors. Show all posts

Monday, March 10, 2025

Duke Aces/Pizzicato Five -- Atarashii Uta(新しい歌)

 


Just imagine...a veteran vocal group from decades ago collaborating with a songwriter and producer famous for a trendy music genre from a few decades ago. But that's what we get with Yasuharu Konishi(小西康陽)writing and composing a song called "Atarashii Uta" (A New Song) and Duke Aces(デューク・エイセス)tackling it at full throttle. And indeed, it's the familiar voices from yesteryear singing about creating that song for that significant other against a wall of Shibuya-kei sound goodness.

Duke Aces first covered "Atarashii Uta" on the March 2002 Pizzicato Five tribute album "Sensou ni Hantai suru Yuuitsu no Shudan wa. ~ Pizzicato Five no Uta to Kotoba"(戦争に反対する唯一の手段は。-ピチカート・ファイヴのうたとことば-...The Only Way to Oppose War ~ Words and Music by Pizzicato Five). The project was released on the 1-year anniversary of P5's disbanding. The Duke Aces' cover was once again put out years later in 2017 as a single.

(31:23)


The original "Atarashii Uta" can be found on P5's 11th studio album "Playboy, Playgirl"(プレイボーイ プレイガール)from October 1998 with the Divine Ms. Maki Nomiya(野宮真貴)singing with Hisashi Kato(加藤ひさし)of The Collectors. The arrangement is "slightly more subdued" but still an exciting trip around town. Kato and Nomiya teamed up as well for "Nagame no Ii Heya"(眺めのいい部屋).


One more version of "Atarashii Uta" can be found as a twee technopop take with Nomiya behind the mike once more through the special album "Haishin Muke no Pizzicato Five ~ Sono San Nomiya no Maki"(配信向けのピチカート・ファイヴ その3 野宮の巻...Pizzicato Five for Streaming Part 3: Nomiya) which came out in November 2021.

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

Pizzicato Five feat. Hisashi Kato -- Nagame no Ii Heya(眺めのいい部屋)

 

This is the view that I had from my room in the R&B Hotel in Otsuka, Tokyo back in 2017. Nope, I wouldn't call it panoramic either but it was still glorious from my point of view because I was back in my old stomping grounds once more. Nice cool draft wafted in, too.😙

It's Wednesday...Hump Day once more...the peak of the week's doldrums so why not bring in something to bring up happiness levels a little. I offer "Nagame no Ii Heya" (A Room with a View) which comes from Pizzicato Five's November 1999 12th album "Pizzicato Five".

The album has been categorized on J-Wiki as a mere pop and rock album and perhaps P5 at this point had been fading away from its Shibuya-kei heyday, but "Nagame no Ii Heya" still sounds like the cool Japanese genre of the 1990s was still coursing through its veins. From the groovy rhythms to the over-the-top horns to the DeVol arpeggios to the vocals of the Divine Ms. Maki Nomiya(野宮真貴), I manage to get that feeling of yesteryear. Written and composed by Yasuharu Konishi(小西康陽), Nomiya is joined by the leader of the rock band The Collectors, Hisashi Kato(加藤ひさし), in this fun tete-a-tete. I've mentioned the band once before almost a couple of years ago when I wrote about their "Christmas Song".

Saturday, December 24, 2022

The Collectors -- Christmas Song

 

Well, I managed to get my family's gifts all wrapped up so I'm good to get a bit more blogging before I make the transition from Christmas Eve to Christmas Day.

Along with Original Love's "X'mas NO HI", another track that I found appealing on "Mint Sound's X'mas Album" from 1987 via Scott's "Holly Jolly X'masu" podcast was "Christmas Song" by the rock band The Collectors(ザ・コレクターズ). In addition to hearing it above at 3:37, you can also listen to it from 10:32 of Scott's podcast and you will also get a description of who The Collectors are. From their J-Wiki article, vocalist and leader Hisashi Kato(加藤ひさし)was influenced by British rock and the Mod subculture and incorporated those elements into his band which was formed in 1986.

"Christmas Song" has some of those jingle bells but there is no supreme flourish of Christmas music production in it which is refreshing. It's just straight ahead jangly rock delivered clearly and forcefully by Kato, and although I and Scott did mention about those influences of British rock and Mod, I couldn't help but also hear a bit of Kiyoshiro Imawano(忌野清志郎)and RC Succession(RCサクセション)in the song.

The Collectors have continued to release singles and albums right up to 2022. In fact, their latest album came out last month, "Juicy Marmalade"(ジューシーマーマレード).