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 Tohoku Shinkansen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tohoku Shinkansen. Show all posts
Well, I found out early this morning that Summer 2025 will officially arrive today at 10:42 pm EDT. I would say that it arrived a few days ago with the high temperatures and humidity. It already arrived in Japan where it's beginning to tucker millions of residents out. But in recognition of the change in seasons. I'm leaving some summery City Pop stuff for you. Enjoy the beer and your weekend!🍺
Happy Friday and welcome to another Urban Contemporary session for KKP today. To begin as we have for the last few Fridays, I have the fourth and final part of the translation of the liner notes for Tohoku Shinkansen's（東北新幹線）legendary "Thru Traffic" from 1982 by music journalist Toshikazu Kanazawa（金澤寿和）. This final part goes into the figurative storm clouds that brewed up which led to not only Tohoku Shinkansen producing just the one album before the partnership faded into dust but also how the duo got its name.
Couldn't resist.
Although the recording itself had gone comparatively smoothly, what came after was a nightmare. There was the growing number of directors and engineers coming in and out, and the work slowed down to a crawl. Even the odd name of Tohoku Shinkansen was given to the duo because “it was just like the actual Tohoku Shinkansen bullet train project which kept getting delayed and never launching”. On top of that, there was very little promotion for the album. As mentioned above, only two of the tracks made their debut at Yagami’s（八神純子）concerts. Perhaps part of the problem was that in the midst of the difficulties of releasing the album, Narumi（鳴海寛）, Yamakawa（山川恵津子）and Yamaha couldn’t see eye-to-eye-to-eye. For one thing, Yamakawa, right from the start of Tohoku Shinkansen, had maintained that she wouldn’t participate in any live performances because she didn’t want to be out in front on the stage. Narumi thought that though his partner felt uncomfortable, she should perform if only to promote the release of the album. Then, Yamaha gradually turned the screws onto the two of them to perform. It was from these disagreements that the album only got out to some of Yagami’s fans and Tohoku Shinkansen quietly disappeared.
It was at this time that the one-and-only Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）had heard “Thru Traffic” and invited Yamakawa and Narumi to join his tour as backup chorus. Tats’ hit album “For You” was just released and the man himself was on fire, but in the end, Yagami’s tour had already been scheduled so they couldn’t do it. As well, there was a lot of friction between Narumi and Yagami’s director which led to Narumi not only leaving the band but separating himself from Yamaha. Ultimately, a one-time Tohoku Shinkansen concert wouldn’t finally come into being until August 2004, 22 years later when the duo teamed up once more.
But Narumi would soon join Takao Kisugi’s（来生たかお）band, and then become the sound producer for the late Cindy and Kyosuke Kusunoki（楠木恭介）. And after that, he participated as a guitarist for Tatsuro Yamashita’s“Performance ’88-‘89” tour and then recorded the live album “JOY” under a similar framework which greatly raised his profile. Especially through his incredibly soulful play on Tats’ “Soubou”（蒼茫）, Tats’ fans were astonished when they heard it. In 1994, he would fully return to the music scene when he formed the band frasco out of which three albums were released.
As for Yamakawa, she quickly distinguished herself as a composer and arranger and became active in a wide variety of genres including kayo kyoku and aidoru music. In 1986, her contribution to Kyoko Koizumi（小泉今日子）, “100% Danjo Kousai”（100%男女交際...100% Men And Women Dating） earned her a Japan Record Award for arrangement. Her name has also popped up in the chorus for Tats’ “COZY” and Mariya Takeuchi’s（竹内まりや） recordings among other projects, so that she would participate in over a thousand songs.
Yamakawa: When I look back on things now, I think Tohoku Shinkansen was possible thanks to Hiroshi. I had a really great time singing chorus with him and we meshed well. Though we co-produced the album, it was he who took the initiative. When I was thinking about what I should do to bring out Hiroshi, I thought about my position and took a step back.＊ However, I still have strong memories of the staff and everyone else enjoying themselves a lot. Regarding all of it, everyone was so generous and we didn’t think about things such as the production costs and made the album that we had wanted to make. As a result, I could hear very warm and nostalgic sounds. If anyone thought about making something similar now, it wouldn’t be possible at all. It’s on that part that I hope you take your time and enjoy it.
Toshikazu Kanazawa
September 2007
*I put that one statement by Yamakawa in bold since I am not completely sure about my translation there. By chance, if there is anyone out there who has their liner notes of "Thru Traffic" and have tried to figure it out, let me know if it's OK or if I need to make corrections.
Hello there. It's J-Canuck with Part 3 of the translation of music journalist Toshikazu Kanazawa's（金澤寿和）liner notes for Tohoku Shinkansen's（東北新幹線）one-and-only album"Thru Traffic" from 1982. Today's excerpt goes over the actual production of the album.
After Yamakawa’s entry into Yamaha, she joined Hiroko Taniyama’s（谷山浩子）band as a keyboardist just when Taniyama had debuted as a singer-songwriter. A little later, she also joined Junko Yagami's（八神純子）band because she was recognized for her ability to sing with a similar voice to Junko's. Later on, Narumi, who had become a university student by then, was starting to come to Yamaha frequently, and came to support the bands for Taniyama and Yukio Sasaki（佐々木幸男）. It was around this time that Makoto Matsushita（松下誠） (of the band AB’S and so forth), who was like a senpai to Narumi, began to notice him and gave him an electric guitar (up until then, Narumi just had the acoustic guitar). Then, Kazuo Nobuta（信田かずお）, who had provided support for singer-songwriter Akira Inaba（因幡晃）, had been an instructor at Nemu Music Academy (Yamaha Music Foundation’s original name) and Seiko Matsuda’s（松田聖子）first arranger, brought Narumi aboard for the recording by the band that Matsushita and Nobuta had formed, Milky Way. This was Narumi’s first official involvement in a recording. His strong admiration for guitarist David T. Walker, someone who the connoisseurs would know, came from Matsushita.
One day, there was an opening in Yagami’s band which Narumi filled at Yamakawa’s recommendation. Close in age and musical preference, Narumi and Yamakawa were influencing each other and they gradually came to lending a hand in the stage arrangements while both were in the band. A Yamaha director who was watching this suggested the following: “How about the two of you become a duo?”. This launched Tohoku Shinkansen.
The musical concept would be mostly based on AOR and Black contemporary music of the time. First and foremost, the aim was high-quality and refined urban music. Basically, they were looking at Gino Vannelli, Bobby Caldwell, Earth Wind & Fire, Quincy Jones, George Benson and Eumir Deodato. As well, the two of them, who liked the addition of chorus, shared an admiration for the jazz chorus group The Singers Unlimited. Moreover, neither of them loved songs with simplistic progressions and preferred something with cool tension chords.
Narumi:At the time, rather than us writing the songs, the melodies and the arrangements just seemed to materialize at the same time. For something like the first track, “Summer Touches You”, the song was born right from the intro.
Yamakawa: “Up and Down” was showing its influence from Earth Wind & Fire. Listening to it now, I think that part when the sound clicks out is a bit unnatural but I thought I sang it well.
Narumi handled all of the guitar playing. To him, this album was his starting point as a guitarist and for him to play the instrument on all of the tracks was a great source of confidence. Even on the instrumental track “Spell”, his David T. Walker-style of play was on full display. He would always use Walker’s favourite guitar, the Gibson Byrdland, which revealed an emotional depth of play that couldn’t be imagined within someone who was in his mid-20s. As well, he handled some of the keyboards where he showed some extraordinary prowess. Yamakawa was in charge of all of the keyboard arrangements as well as those for the horns and strings. While the basic arrangement was done between the two of them, Narumi was more than happy to rely on Yamakawa when it came to the score since that was her strong point. However, the biggest strength that the pair had together was their harmonizing. What showed that to its maximum was the jazz ballad version of “September Valentine”. This track was the only one created by a different artist, J-AOR singer-songwriter Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）. The song had been chosen as one where they wanted to make it sound like something by The Singers Unlimited. It had originally been recorded by Yukio Sasaki, and Narumi, who had been his support band member, was the first to notice the song. Kentaro Haneda（羽田健太郎）played the piano for the Tohoku Shinkansen version.
As well, bassists Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）and Kenji Takamizu（高水健司）, drummer Hideo Yamaki（山木秀夫）, percussionist Motoya Hamaguchi（浜口茂外也）, saxophonist Jake H. Concepcion along with several other famous musicians participated, but it was Yamakawa and Narumi who discussed and set the lineup, and it was through the former’s personal connections that the number of session musicians grew. Junko Yagami herself also joined in the backing vocals. A singer by the name of Chrissy Faith who was on backing vocals had been a backing singer for Rupert Holmes, an AOR artist who also provided Yagami with a song, “Koi no Magic Trick” (恋のマジックトリック...Magic Trick of Love) on which Yamakawa and Narumi also joined in on. The duet track “Tsuki ni Yorisotte” (月に寄りそって...Getting Close to the Moon) with its faintly wistful feeling sounds just like a Yagami song.
Yamakawa:Back then, we were together 100 to 200 days out of the year and we all got along so it’s no surprise that we naturally sounded like each other. Obviously, when we were in the backing chorus, we made an effort to follow each other and so we got accustomed to that.
Narumi:For “Last Message” (the final track), the lyrics came out first and as we read through them, our image for the song expanded, and we nailed down the melody within 3 minutes. Etsu sang this for us since they were a woman’s lyrics.
Toshikazu Kanazawa
September 2007
Next week will have the fourth and final part of the liner notes.
Hello again. This is J-Canuck and continuing on from Part 1 of a translation I'm doing for Toshikazu Kanazawa's（金澤寿和）liner notes from Tohoku Shinkansen's（東北新幹線）"Thru Traffic" album from 1982, I'm providing Part 2 which will begin the original 2007 liner notes when the classic City Pop release was put onto CD for the very first time. This part mostly covers the history of Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）and Hiroshi Narumi（鳴海寛）up to the point where they met at the Yamaha Music Foundation.
Tohoku Shinkansen’s genesis can be attributed to the Yamaha Music Foundation known for its Popular Song Contest (abbreviated as Pop Con). The first one of the duo to enter Yamaha was Etsuko Yamakawa, born in Kyoto, growing up with classical music and majoring in vocal music at university. During elementary school, Yamakawa listened to Group Sounds music and then also got into Western pop hits. From an early age, she was able to learn music by ear and played it on instruments like the piano. From high school, she aimed for a career in music and even participated in Pop Con at the recommendation of a friend, but it was from that point that she preferred to be an arranger rather than a performer.
While attending university in Tokyo, Yamakawa managed to get a part-time job at the Yamaha Music Foundation. At first, she was doing office work and serving tea while getting to know the staff in the Creative Work section in the company, also known as the Lab. It was there that she met the big-time arrangers such as Mitsuo Hagita（萩田光雄）, Motoki Funayama（船山基紀）and Osamu Totsuka（戸塚修）. As she was doing her routine tasks, she would sneak a peek at the scores they had written, and little by little, she would pick up on their methods and techniques. Before long, she would get involved with the popular radio show “Cocky Pop” sponsored by Yamaha and that is where she first met Hiroshi Narumi. Narumi had still been a high school student at the time but his innate talents had already been recognized and it was one of his compositions that had been used as the theme song for the radio show. She eventually got a copy of his demo tape and his transcriptions.
“This guy’s amazing for a high school kid!” she said.
On Narumi’s homemade tape, he had recorded his own overdubbed chorus onto his performance by piano. And when she listened to the sound of his beautiful music, there were these complex chords everywhere that she had never heard before. That was the first step for the two of them.
Narumi’s roots were in Beethoven. Furthermore, for three years from kindergarten to Grade 1 of elementary school, he listened only to the master’s “Moonlight Sonata” everyday without fail as if he were a boy possessed, a feat which astonished everyone. But it was this singular experience that nurtured his amazing ear and well-honed sensitivity. His piano playing was described by his elder brother as something by a child prodigy, and it’s said that Hiroshi memorized his brother’s own piano playing completely by ear. And when his brother started taking up guitar in Grade 3, Hiroshi also somehow began picking it up as well; while he was copying what he saw on televised guitar lessons, he was able to play the instrument in no time flat. In junior high school, Hiroshi was turned onto the pop music of Bread, Carpenters, Burt Bacharach, and The Fifth Dimension. Soon after that, his interest spread to Philadelphia Soul, Stevie Wonder and Al Green, and then on radio, he started listening to Sonia Rosa and as he unraveled the riddle behind her mysterious attraction, he came across Joao Gilberto. While his friends got into raunchy rock, he preferred soft pop and soul. He analyzed the skillfulness of the chord progressions and the precision of their arrangements and then embedded them into his own music over time. Then for his original compositions, he did the dubbing over and over by himself at home for his demo tape over many days. Narumi is widely recognized as a guitarist, but he himself believes he’s adept at both guitar and piano. Whenever he went to the piano after getting worked up, the agitation and his soul tended to cool down.
I'm starting off this week's edition of Urban Contemporary Friday on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" with something a little unusual. A few years ago, City Pop podcaster Rocket Brown had asked me some questions about certain passages within the liner notes of the wonderful 1982 City Pop album "Thru Traffic" by the duo Tohoku Shinkansen（東北新幹線）consisting of songwriter Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）and the late great guitarist Hiromi Narumi（鳴海寛）. Yamakawa and Narumi and their one-and-only "Thru Traffic" are a fine example of what can happen when something miraculous and wonderful emerges from the unexpected.
The last time I wrote about Narumi was last September when I posted an article on the digital album, "Around the Thru Traffic", from June 2022 which was a tribute to the guitarist who had passed away in 2015. Last week, I threw "Thru Traffic" into the CD player, lied down in bed and listened to those 40-or-so minutes of pure audio pleasure for a City Pop and J-AOR-loving guy like me. Remembering some of the translation I did for Rocket Brown at that point, I then decided "Why not provide the translation of the whole kit-and-kaboodle for everyone on KKP?". Plus, if I'm not mistaken, the notes also include the reason for the unusual naming of Yamakawa and Narumi's duo.
My copy of "Thru Traffic" is the 2017 remaster in the conventional plastic case. Music journalist Toshikazu Kanazawa（金澤寿和）, the man who was also behind the "Light Mellow" series of CDs in the 2010s, not only included the original 2007 commentary and interview with Tohoku Shinkansen from the first version of the "Thru Traffic" CD which had then been sold in a cardboard jacket, but the first few paragraphs in the 2017 notes consisted of new insights in the two years since Narumi's death in 2015. For Part 1, which will begin below the video of "Summer Touches You", I will provide the translation for those first paragraphs from 2017 and then in the weeks to follow, I'll add on the 2015 translations.
Of course, some of you may have already taken a shot at translating the liner notes yourselves and may come across errors and omissions in my work. If that is the case, please let me know and I'll do my best in correcting them. But that's enough from me since I will now hand it over to Mr. Kanazawa.
It's been two years since the brains behind Tohoku Shinkansen, Hiroshi Narumi, suddenly passed away in 2015. For that reason, much of his music that had not been released for a long time has suddenly appeared as if a dam had burst, something that I’ve witnessed with mixed feelings. Works by someone of his innate musical artisanship bring about the sad reality that people are drawn to his death, making me feel a little helpless. However, when it comes to this one and only album by Tohoku Shinkansen, that’s a topic for another day. I think this new CD reissue of this “unknown miracle masterpiece” is simply something to be celebrated. As for the first-ever CD issue (in cardboard sleeve) in 2007, both Narumi and his partner Etsuko Yamakawa had been extremely thrilled and I was able to receive a great amount of cooperation from them.
Afterwards in 2014, just before the analog boom arrived, “Thru Traffic” was given an analog reissue. Undergoing a limited release, even through reservation, almost all of the LPs were sold out and regrettably, very few of them made it to stores. On top of that, the 7-inch single “Summer Touches You/Up and Down”, which had only been produced as a promotional record back in 1982, was made commercially available with new artwork for the first time which also garnered a lot of praise. It was soon after that when Narumi died. His treasured music was then gradually brought all together and released in series under the Narumin Music label. Actually, at the same time that “Thru Traffic” was reissued once more in 2017, Narumi’s early music collection “Boku wa Shi Tsukuri” (I am a Poet) featuring the man’s genius in full display from 1975 to 1978, and Junko Yagami’s（八神純子）backing band Melting Pot featuring Hiroshi Narumi’s“Live at Egg-Man+” were also put on sale. Especially in Melting Pot’s live record, the popular song “Summer Touches You”, which was performed by them at Yagami's own concert, is included, so you may want to check that one out.
Now, without further ado, I would like to present this revised commentary from ten years previously when the first CD version of “Thru Traffic” came out including an interview with Narumi and Yamakawa which will now have some added poignancy.
Consider this a sequel to my prior "Love" songs on behalf of Valentine's Day 2024. Couldn't find nearly as many "Valentine" songs at this juncture but these three will do just fine.
Back in the summer of 2020 when the world was in the middle of the pandemic, I posted up the third in the series of "Happy Songs for Me"...those tunes that would get me in a better frame of mind just simply by listening to them. Well, yesterday I listened to a Junko Yagami（八神純子）favourite on YouTube, "Be My Best Friend" from 1980 and although I hadn't been in a dark place, I could immediately feel the glorious decompression setting in once I heard those golden bossa nova tones.
Looking at the comments below the video, I saw one Japanese person mention how kokochi yoi"Be My Best Friend" was. Of course, I don't really teach Japanese through the blog but in the interests of cultural exchange, kokochi yoi means "comfortable" or "pleasant". So, today I decided to start today's round of KKP posts with an Author's Pick on those comfy and relaxing songs. These ones can be different from the ones that I've picked on "Happy Songs for Me" (although there may be some overlapping) in that these don't so much energize me into bliss as they actually give me that ASMR feeling of "Ahhhhhh". More hammock than nightclub, you might say. Anyways without further ado and in no particular order, I give you the following tunes.
I just kinda thought, "What the heck!". Let's get some September songs up here. For some reason, September-themed kayoseems to be the most frequent of all of the months, although I think May and August are up there as well. I'm also going to throw in a couple of my favourite American September tunes as well since the 21st is coming soon. Most of them have already been written about on the blog so I'm only going to provide commentary for just one song here.
The Ames Brothers -- September Song (1960s)
And this is the song..."September Song" which was originally a song introduced in 1938 in the Broadway musical "Knickerbocker Holiday", and from what I've heard of the various versions, it's usually arranged in a very soft and wistful style. However, the first version that I had heard was the one by The Ames Brothers via that LP collection of standards that my father got with his RCA Victor stereo back in the 1960s. The reason that I remember it so well is that this version is so jazzy and upbeat that it can only be made for cutting a rug in front of the jukebox. If anyone can inform me when exactly this version was recorded, I will be grateful.
Earlier today, both Rocket Brown and I got together to make our latest album-centered podcast on "Come Along Radio". The target album was one that we had been looking forward to doing for some months so definitely we were very glad to finally tackle it: Tohoku Shinkansen's（東北新幹線）lone 1982 album"Thru Traffic".
Now, I've given my fair share of love to "Thru Traffic" through a couple of articles on the album proper and articles on a few of the individual tracks over the years, and frankly the album articles covered only a few tracks with some of them being repeated from the individual articles since the tracks by Hiroshi Narumi（鳴海寛）and Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）who made up the short-lived but fantastic duo Tohoku Shinkansen have been just that good. I gather that giving the tracks their own little articles keeps the good times going.
One that had yet to be covered here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" was "Kokoro no Mama ni" (As You Please). The tracks had Narumin and Etsu doing their own solo work or working together in duets. "Kokoro no Mama ni" was another Narumin solo with him also providing words and music in addition to the vocals. It's an oh-so-soft and lush AOR ballad about a bittersweet story of letting the one you loved go to be with the other person he/she truly loves. The singer-songwriter sings his words in a very tenderhearted matter as if he's floating around the very scene, being careful not to interfere with the sad but necessary separation.
At the risk of giving some of our talk away before the podcast gets put up sometime later, Rocket posited that this was the Christopher Cross track of the album, something that I can agree with wholeheartedly. For me, the arrangement had me thinking a bit of Jimmy Buffett's "Margaritaville". All in all, it's something very hammock-worthy with a cocktail on the adjacent end table.
Of course, having been exposed to Japanese dishes for my entire life, I am always going to love my sushi, tempura and sukiyaki. I hit my fair share of kaiten sushi places throughout my time in Tokyo but I saw the restaurants serving tempura and sukiyaki as being special occasion places. Therefore, for the former dish, hitting places like Ten-Kuni was a gastronomic joy. I was also a fan of ten-don...the dish of large shrimp tempura doused in special sauce and placed on a bowl of rice.
Speaking of tempura, I found this quirky little song by veteran singer-songwriter Hiroko Taniyama（谷山浩子） that was her 11th single from April 1982 titled "Tempura☆Sunrise". In fact, it was so quirky-sounding that despite knowing of Taniyama's ability to create songs, I swore that the arrangement was such that Akiko Yano（矢野顕子）must have had something to do with its creation. I mean, "Tempura☆Sunrise" sounds just like a Yano song of that time.
However, indeed it was Taniyama behind words and music, and what's more, the lightly technopop sound arrangement could be all laid at the feet of the one-time duo Tohoku Shinkansen（東北新幹線）, aka musician Hiroshi Narumi（鳴海寛）and composer Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）! Yes, the same duo behind the classic City Pop/AOR album "Thru Traffic" from that same year. Not sure whether the three parties decided whether they had wanted to do a Yano-esque song, although hearing some of the high-pitched chorus about two-thirds of the way through is a big hint.
The quirkiness even goes into how Taniyama's lyrics were fashioned. Most of them were made into katakana for some bizarre reason. Usually when katakana is used in a manga or other literary form, it's so that it displays a non-Japanese trying to speak Japanese in a somewhat broken form, and yet Taniyama sings it as smoothly as ever. Another question that I have is whether the singer was trying to be literal about this magical restaurant in Tokyo (Shinjuku Station and Omotesando are sung out) serving up some fine meals or whether the megalopolis itself is the menu. Can't really say that it's a City Pop song, though.
As much as I have mentioned that singer-songwriter Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）had once been that mysterious figure whose name I'd always hear in the wind, fellow singer-songwriter Hiroko Taniyama（谷山浩子）perhaps has been even more of an enigma. From her J-Wiki article, she's been performing since 1972 in her mid-teens and I've seen a recent NHK "Minna no Uta"（みんなのうた）with one of her tunes. Yet, this is someone that I've never seen hit the huge stadiums or the charts, but of course, that's not to say that those things should define a singer's or band's success.
My impression is that she has specialized in love ballads and I think this is the case with her "Oyasumi"(Good Night), the B-side to her 11th single, "Tempura Sunrise"（てんぷら☆さんらいず）from April 1982. I'm going to have to see if that A-side is out there in YouTube land; it sounds like a fairly goofy and upbeat tune. "Oyasumi" is definitely the opposite: a melancholy number about a romantic loss (through death or breakup, we don't really know), that piano and Taniyama's tenderhearted vocals are enough to perhaps cherish the things that we hold most dear instead of taking them for granted.
"Oyasumi" also ended up on her June 1985 10th album"Nemurenai Yoru no Tame ni"（眠れない夜のために...For Sleepless Nights）, a release which peaked at No. 27 on Oricon. Taniyama wrote and composed the song but it was the City Pop duo, Tohoku Shinkansen（東北新幹線）, consisting of Hiroshi Narumi and Etsuko Yamakawa（鳴海寛・山川恵津子）who arranged it. The ballad also reminds me of a similarly-toned song, "Bungaku Shojo"（文学少女）, that was used to humourous effect in the anime "Danshi Kokosei no Nichijo"（男子高校生の日常...Daily Lives of High School Boys）.
Ahhh...Tohoku Shinkansen's（東北新幹線）"Thru Traffic", the urban contemporary gift from Japan that keeps on giving. Still cool and groovy with City Pop, AOR, Manhattan Transfer-type jazz vocal and even a bit of 50s/60s pop.
Yet another track from "Thru Traffic" representing the City Pop/AOR aspect is "Strange Wine". I would think that ingesting the real thing would be a recipe for an emergency run to the nearest hospital to exquisitely experience a stomach pump, but happily, such will not be the case here.
With lyrics by Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）and music by one-half of Tohoku Shinkansen, guitarist Hiroshi Narumi（鳴海寛）, "Strange Wine" is a pleasantly woozy song performed by Narumi about whimsy and loss. The protagonist is at a seaside hotel, nursing some of that good stuff which strangely triggers past memories of a former love who's now gone due to breakup or death. The sounds of the sunset surf are present as "Strange Wine" launches introspectively and keeps that feeling of hazy remembrances throughout the song. There is that also haunting background chorus in the middle of the song that adds to the fantastical feeling, and reading that the chorus includes the wonderful Junko Yagami（八神純子）, Kayoko Wada（和田夏代子）along with the other half of the Tohoku Shinkansen duo, Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）, I feel that "Strange Wine" is a truly magical experience.
Now that 2018 is on its way out, perhaps I can provide one more article under Author's Picks before 2019 comes into being. The above is a couple of issues of "Record Collectors" that my friend and fellow collaborator on the blog, JTM, was kind enough to send me for reading during Xmas, and for those who can read katakana, you can see from the cover that the main article was a history of City Pop split over two issues and two decades. Of course, there are some interviews and a good amount of listings of the various albums of the genre, although not quite as voluminous as the one in the book "Japanese City Pop".
The above is one reason for me to start up this article, and the other reason is that someone had once commented to me some months ago about whether I would put up an article about my favourite City Pop albums. In all honesty, I had balked on the topic at first since: 1) I already wrote an article on my favourite City Pop songs back in August 2016, 2) I found it difficult to come up with a list that I would be satisfied with since I figured that no matter what, I would probably end up leaving something out that I really liked, and 3) I've given the albums their own articles.
But then, I caught a few videos on YouTube not related to Japanese pop music at all. And all of them, including the above video from Cocktail Chemistry starring Nick going into how to stock one's first bar, talked about beginnings. So with some inspiration from them, I decided that perhaps I can at least suggest a few City Pop albums that can be purchased to start off their collection. I figure that with some of these artists, the albums here are simply representative of some of their other similarly themed releases, so that fans who like this stuff can branch out with other albums.
I won't go into any long commentary since I've already provided my insights in the individual articles, and they're not ranked in any sort of order. Won't even mention my favourites here since what you like is what you decide upon when you listen to the tracks.
Takako Mamiya's（間宮貴子）"Love Trip" isn't just precious because it was the only album that the singer had ever recorded before completely disappearing from the pop culture radar ("Love Trip" is indeed mentioned in "Record Collectors" and it's still unknown about where she's gone), but also because the tracks and songwriters in there are good and polished. If you've decided to start your City Pop collection and a home bar as Nick talks about, make yourself a good cocktail while you're listening to this one. The title track itself had me searching for my old Gino Vannelli album.
As I mentioned in that first article on Matsushita's（松下誠）masterful "First Light", if it weren't for the fact that most of the tracks are sung in Japanese, I would have placed the album solely in the American AOR genre. The guitarist and arranger also seems to have enjoyed trying on the bespoke melodic suits of various folks from the genre such as Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers. The only thing I regret here is that I couldn't get a copy of the album with the original cover.
Yes, I love the "Miami Vice" buzz with Yoshino（吉野藤丸）here. Also love the tracks in there along with Yoshino's singing, too. "Yoshino Fujimal" could be your soundtrack on the car stereo even if you're bombing down the highway outside of Tokyo. As such, any time any of the tracks end up on Van Paugam's City Pop radio on YouTube, I stick around and listen as the video travels on the highways and byways of Japan...night or day.
This was a true revelation as "Thru Traffic" hadn't shown up in "Japanese City Pop", and I only found out about it purely by happenstance on YouTube one day. The pairing of Etsuko Yamakawa and Hiroshi Narumi（山川恵津子・鳴海寛）, two people that I had only known up to that point as behind-the-scenes songwriters and musicians, was just magic on this one-off album. I realize that even those people had to be pretty proficient as singers as well, but I hadn't been aware that Yamakawa and Narumi were that good behind the mike. With the various songs reminding me of works by the aforementioned Vannelli, Steely Dan, Manhattan Transfer, and Quincy Jones for "The Dude", I am hoping that "Thru Traffic" and Tohoku Shinkansen（東北新幹線）have gotten new love by a new cadre of fans.
Takeuchi's（竹内まりや）"Variety" album from 1984 has the famous "Plastic Love", to be sure, and it has also been listed in both "Japanese City Pop" and the second half of the "Record Collectors" article, but when it comes to one of her releases that truly has that City Pop/AOR beat, I go for the earlier "Miss M". In an earlier article, I had mentioned about my brother remarking about the David Foster-y feeling from some of the 80s Japanese pop music. Well, I introduced him to "Morning Glory" from this release, and told him for that the first half of the album (including this song), the actual Foster along with members of TOTO and Chicago helped in the recording of this album. Even for a singer who basically adored a lot of that American pop in the early years of her career, "Miss M" stands out.
For folks discovering City Pop and Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）, this is "For You" (ha, ha). This is chock-filled with some of those hits that have made this fellow a virtual god for the fans of the genre. Love his soaring voice? Love some tight horns? Love that bass? Love that feeling of summer? Yup, you can do with this one on your shelf. Plus, considering the time that I'm writing this, a little bit of the hot season would be nice right now, and after all, "For You" was released in January 1982.
Hiroshi Sato feat. Wendy Matthews -- Awakening (1982)
I have got to get more of Hiroshi Sato's（佐藤博）works since so far it's still just "Awakening" that I own, but dang, it's a good start to his file. More on the mellow AOR side than the oft-hustling City Pop, I kinda feel like I'm listening to this while on the shaded balcony in a luxury seaside apartment rather than on the beach or in the passenger side of a convertible that perhaps Tats'"For You" would position me. And like Yamashita, Sato also has that rather distinctive voice.
As with Tatsuro Yamashita, it was difficult to whittle down to a lone recommended EPO album for this list since the singer-songwriter has been so associated and so good with City Pop/AOR for a lot of her early releases in particular. But I've decided to go with "Goodies", and as with Tohoku Shinkansen, this 1982 effort has EPO tripping the light fantastic through a number of musical styles. No matter the track, though, she remains a most vivacious host for this party of an album.
I may have already mentioned this in a more recent Akira Terao（寺尾聡）article, but if not, I have to say that now that I have listened to a lot of City Pop/J-AOR over the past several years, I consider his hit album "Reflections" as being perhaps the most Japanese-sounding City Pop album. OK, that sounds rather weird since City Pop is a Japanese music genre, but with some other singers and their works in these two genres, I can hear the influence from Western acts such as the Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan, but overall with "Reflections", my feeling is that I'm most definitely in Tokyo when I listen to it. I think it even straddles the border between Mood Kayo and City Pop, with the setting being in some sort of drinking establishment.
If there is one album that I can definitely recommend for newbies to the genre, it would be anything from the "Light Mellow" series. Several of these have come out over a couple of years with names such as "Breeze" and "Highway" and "City", but what they all have in common is that they include various singers and songs of the City Pop/J-AOR persuasion from the 1970s into the 2000s. There is an interesting mix of famous and obscure tunes on each disc, and some of them have tracks that are getting their appearance on CD for the very first time.
Well, I've tried to keep things to ten entries here. Obviously, there are many more worthy candidates out there but among the ones that I do have, the above is a good place to start and they have been my go-to albums. Now, the 1980s part is something that I added pretty late to my title since I realized that all of these albums are from that decade. I will see if I can come up with a 1970s version of this later in the new year, but I really ought to be collecting more City Pop albums from that decade before I come up with anything this big.
I may have run off a bit at the mouth with my descriptions but think of this article as a hub linked to the source articles, if you haven't seen them. In any case, if you are indeed coming to City Pop/J-AOR for the first time, I hope that getting at least a few of these albums will give you hours of listening pleasure. And of course, if you have some of your own suggestions, please let me know. I may have them or I may not...and if I don't, I will be sharpening up my credit cards in 2019!😁
P.S. You can also take a gander at this article on City Pop suggestions.
Wasn't quite sure whether I would get another crack at talking about this album since I basically covered all of the songs there which had been represented by sites such as YouTube. However, last night, I did find two more tracks from the rare and wonderful 1982 album by the duo known as Tohoku Shinkansen（東北新幹線）, "Thru Traffic", the only release that came out of the collaboration.
("Last Message" at 38:29)
Actually "September Valentine" is a song that I have already mentioned in the first article on the album but I am going to talk about it again since 1) it's THAT good to me, and 2) it shares something with "Last Message" in that the two represent the jazzier contributions on the album.
I realized on listening to arguably the best version of "September Valentine" which was originally created by Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）and Atsuko Saito（斉藤敦子）that I've long had an affinity for smoky jazz chorus performances. My first example in my life listening to such a combination was the Norman Luboff Choir's take on the Tony Bennett classic "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" when I was a toddler. And then there was the Manhattan Transfer's"Foreign Affair". Both of those standards were arranged in that way always leave me feeling rather wistful and happily melancholy (as weird as that may sound), and would be the type of music that I'd like to hear when leaving an amazing city for a long time.
This is why that Tohoku Shinkansen's take on "September Valentine" was a stroke of genius. I'd always thought that there was a streak of jazz in the earlier versions by Yukio Sasaki（佐々木幸男）and Abe but Narumi and Yamakawa amped the ballad even further by going full jazz. This cover is simply the theme song for strolling in Yamashita Park at night along Yokohama Bay with the brilliant view of Minato Mirai 21 in the background while that significant other is on your arm.
As for "Last Message", which is a solo for Yamakawa behind the mike, this was written by Arisu (or is it Alice?) Sato（佐藤アリス）and composed by Narumi. It kinda has that mix between a standard and a romantic 1950s ballad, perhaps something that a young Mariya Takeuchi（竹内まりや）could have tackled. It is also the final track for the album so it's a nice way to end this great release on.
To give you an idea about what I mean by those old standard choruses, here is the Norman Luboff Choir. Unfortunately, I couldn't find their version of "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" but "But Beautiful" is more than enough to give you an idea of their sound.
And here is the Manhattan Transfer with "Foreign Affair".
Well, this album will most likely end up being my most coveted release this year, and I was indeed very happy to get this one last week.
The duo known as Tohoku Shinkansen（東北新幹線）consisting of the late musician Hiroshi Narumi（鳴海寛）and songwriter Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）has already been mentioned on the pages of this blog through three tracks from their sole album from 1982, "Thru Traffic". And it is because of those three tracks that I had wanted to get "Thru Traffic" for many months. However, at the time, Amazon.jp and some other sites were selling the rare album for prices like 7,000 yen and upwards; too rich for my blood.
Tower Records Japan had actually been selling far more reasonably priced CDs of the album but when I checked there, it had already been sold out. Undaunted, I kept checking periodically until early June when I discovered that my old haunt was once again taking in reservations for a new batch of "Thru Traffic". Well, the fingers flew fast on my keyboard that night and made my purchase. Being the smirking cynic that I am, I figured that my luck would run out and Tower would send me a message stating that I had just missed out or that Japan Post had lost my disc. Happily, though, it didn't happen.
"Thru Traffic" is definitely a pure KKP/YouTube purchase. There wasn't even any mention of it or Tohoku Shinkansen on "Japanese City Pop". I only found out about it because I was just strolling through YouTube one night at some of the other songs that songwriter Yamakawa had provided other singers. Unfortunately, the video of the whole album has been taken down and although I understand the reason behind the powers-that-be's decision to send that cease-and-desist e-mail, I have to say that it was because of the presence of that video along with the videos of separate tracks that I could find out about the album and eventually purchase it. No videos, no "Thru Traffic" in my hands. Furthermore, I've got the sneaking suspicion that some of the other purchases of the album from Tower Records may have been because of folks coming across the videos on social media somewhere.
But before I end up pressing that soapbox into the soft earth under my considerable girth, let me step off and just say that I have brought back the opening track "Summer Touches You" as performed by Narumi, although it has already gotten its own article. One of the commenters said that the song reminded him of some of the material that Canada's own Gino Vannelli had sung, and his name does indeed pop up in the liner notes for "Thru Traffic" as an influence. I have already sung the praises but listening to it a few more times, that intro of guitars and mellow horns is simply fantastic for a guy who loves R&B and other facets of urban contemporary pop from that era.
The only other new track that I could find anywhere online was "September Valentine". And it was a song that I had already covered back in 2012. The bluesy original by Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）and Atsuko Saito（斉藤敦子）has been remade into a jazz ballad on "Thru Traffic" that would make Hi-Fi Set or even the Manhattan Transfer swoon. Compared to the other three tracks represented here on the blog, it's a bit of a stylistic detour but a wonderful one thanks to Narumi and Yamakawa.
I've only had a chance to quickly skim through the liner notes of the album but what I could find out was that both Narumi and Yamakawa started their musical education in classical music. However as they were growing up, Yamakawa started falling for the Group Sounds of the 1960s and Western pop music in general while Narumi had his eyes (and ears) further opened by the sounds of artists such as Burt Bacharach, The Carpenters and The Fifth Dimension. If I've got my translation correct, the two of them were working at the Yamaha Music Foundation and it was evident that their ages and musical tastes meshed well. One day, a director at Yamaha even suggested that the two collaborate as a unit and so Tohoku Shinkansen was born.
"Thru Traffic" would be the big project for the duo with the concept covering AOR and black contemporary music of the time with that feeling of the city (despite the cover having that illustration of a white house with the wood siding perhaps out in the burbs). Basically, according to those same liner notes, there were influences from Vannelli, Bobby Caldwell, Earth Wind & Fire and George Benson.
Ah, what the heck! I brought in another video, "Tsuki ni Yorisotte"（月に寄りそって）performed by both Narumi and Yamakawa, to finish things off here. I have no idea how the album did on Oricon; most likely it did modestly at best but to me, this is a definite keeper. And if anyone ever asks about how to get in on the ground floor for Japanese City Pop or J-AOR, I could definitely recommend "Thru Traffic". If you've got the funds, you can get it on Amazon or pester Tower Records Japan for more copies to be made.
Yesterday, I had a commenter remark about how much he loved the works of singer-songwriter Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）. I heartily agreed. And for this blog, she has mostly popped up as the songwriter but recently I only discovered of her participation decades ago in the duo Tohoku Shinkansen（東北新幹線）as not being just behind the pen but also behind the mike.
Not sure if Tohoku Shinkansen was ever meant as merely a whimsical dalliance/project as opposed to a full-fledged duo recording albums and making concert tours considering that Yamakawa and guitarist Hiroshi Narumi（鳴海寛）only created the one album "Thru Traffic" in 1982. Still, for City Pop/J-AOR lovers, this is one of the desired rarest of the rare. Personally, I would love to get my hands on a copy of the album but prices are now exorbitantly high. Realistically, I can only hope that one of the tracks has managed to get onto a compilation album such as the "Light Mellow" series or someday the recording companies decide to release a new batch of remastered CDs or digital downloads.
The one reason I've been quite keen on Tohoku Shinkansen is that the three tracks from "Thru Traffic" that are on YouTube are all very cool and classy numbers of the genre. I've already gotten "Tsuki ni Yorisotte"（月に寄りそって）and "Summer Touches You" up and running. The former is a duet between Narumi and Yamakawa while the latter is a solo by Narumi.
"Summer Touches You" was released as a single as well which leads to the topic of this article, "Up and Down". The song was the B-side to the single and also appears on the album. It is a solo concoction by Yamakawa in words and music, and is pleasingly breezy with a tight horn section and some light funkiness. Listening to the songwriter do her solo, I think it's a pity that she didn't show up more often in the recording booth rather than man the machines.
Note: The link to her website only gives out gibberish to me. You may have better luck.
Yup, summer is indeed coming to an end for another year, and though I'm not sure how the season was where most of you are, outside of Toronto and Japan, it was definitely a scorcher here in T.O. And I'm saying this as a fellow who lived 17 summers in the Tokyo area where I used to swim not walk through the atmosphere. To be honest, I'm not a huge summer fan in terms of the humidity so I'm quite glad that fall weather may finally look kindly upon us in a few days' time.
So perhaps it is appropriate that before summer officially goes out like a lion, I throw in one more summery song...or at least something with the word "summer" in the title. And here I have Tohoku Shinkansen's（東北新幹線）"Summer Touches You" from their lone 1982 album"Thru Traffic".
A few weeks ago, I encountered my first song by this duo consisting of guitarist Hiroshi Narumi（鳴海寛）and songwriter Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）from the same album, the oh-so-comfy "Tsuki ni Yorisotte"（月に寄りそって）. Well, "Thru Traffic" starts off with "Summer Touches You", a mid-tempo number created and sung by Narumi that has a great City Pop intro and some nice George Benson-style canoodling on the guitar. The fellow on the Japanese-language music blog "Music Avenue" keyed me in on the Benson comparison, and he remarked that as soon as he had heard those first few measures of "Summer Touches You", he was assured that "Thru Traffic" was going to be one solid album.
I actually looked for the album at my usual sources of Tower Records and CD Japan in the hopes of purchasing it but unfortunately it's not there anymore. There were a few copies of it at Amazon but the cheapest one in the lot started from the 7000-8000 yen range which is way too rich for my blood. At this rate, I can only hope that one of the readers of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" is a Tower or CDJ procurement employee who could somehow aim to get a few of those CD versions back on sale for "Thru Traffic". Pretty please.
It's not everyday that I listen to a song for the first time and enjoy it so much that I rush through my night shower and exercises so that I can give it another go. Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）and Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）are a couple of singers whose works that I have treated in that way. I was about to close up shop for the evening after putting up three articles when for the heck of it, I gave a groovy Japanese compilation by a YouTube uploader a try. One of the songs is the topic of what will be my final article for tonight and it was one of the tracks on that compilation. I sought to see if the song did exist independently and, lucky me, it did.
At first, I couldn't quite figure out the name of this unit here: Tohoku Shinkansen（東北新幹線）. I mean, who would name their group after a JNR Bullet Train line? Perhaps this was supported by a group of train otaku? No such animal, as it turned out. This was a duo comprised of the guitarist Hiroshi Narumi（鳴海寛）who sadly passed away last year and songwriter Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）.
I had to look through at least 3 sources to get some information on Tohoku Shinkansen. Although there wasn't a J-Wiki entry on the unit per se, there was one for Yamakawa who is officially listed as a lyricist, composer, arranger, music producer and studio musician for a wealth of singers. But the term "singer" for herself isn't there. However in 1982, she and Narumi decided to actually work their voices in the recording studio and put out one album cleverly titled "Thru Traffic" which had the mellow ballad "Tsuki ni Yorisotte" (Cuddle Up to the Moon).
And I gotta say that this track is a wonderful slow groove of love for this AOR fan. This is the Sing Like Talking ballad before Sing Like Talking. Strangely enough, there was a double-Etsuko whammy behind it with Etsuko Yamakawa composing the music while Etsuko Kisugi（来生えつこ）provided the lyrics of getting up close and personal with ol' Luna. The Japanese music blog "Music Avenue" provided a further whammy when the entry listed one of the backup singers as Junko Yagami（八神純子）! I never thought I would ever see the day that Yagami would actually be backing up a singer, but it makes some sense here since Yamakawa actually sounds a bit like Yagami and perhaps needed her to provide that added depth. Yamakawa has helped Yagami as well in a couple of her songs.
One other site related a bit more about Tohoku Shinkansen's musical leanings which were urban contemporary, AOR and City Pop. Like with Makoto Matsushita's"First Light", the track "Tsuki ni Yorisotte" seems to bend more toward American AOR with that layer of soul just percolating underneath the vocals. It has certainly gotten me interested in listening to other tracks on "Thru Traffic".
