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 Toshiki Kadomatsu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Toshiki Kadomatsu. Show all posts
Last week, I started posting a 2-parter translation of an article that I'd found in the April 2018 issue of "Record Collectors" titled "Cunimondo Takiguchi ga Erabu Shiteki Hachi-juu Nendai City Pop Best 10"（クニモンド瀧口が選ぶ私的80年代シティポップベスト10）. Part 1 contains the Ryusenkei（流線形）leader's first five albums for his Top 10 City Pop list and I'll be wrapping up here with Nos. 6-10. Again, although he doesn't go into great detail about his choices, I will still leave what he said about each one. One more point is that except for No. 6, I was able to bring in whole albums for the other entries. (Part 1 of the article is here.)
6. Baker's Shop with Haruko (Kuwana) -- Hot Line (1980)
I got to know Baker's Shop when they performed as Ruriko Ohgami's（大上留利子）backup band on "Yoru no Hit Studio"（夜のヒットスタジオ）. I thought that their playing was just so cool and reminiscent of a bunch of foreign studio musicians. It was through my discovery of Haruko's"Akogare no Sundown"（あこがれのSundown）in the 90s that I found out about this album. Their wonderful performance was able to bring back some distant memories to me.
I should remember that summer is just around the corner...in a couple of days as of this writing. Well, gotta think of some appropriate songs especially when we have Fridays like these on the blog.
Anyways, I was listening to the "Beams" CD within the "Light Mellow" series of albums as curated by Toshikazu Kanazawa（金澤寿和）last night for the first time in a while. Strangely enough, I realized that for the number of tracks from "Beams" that I've featured on KKP such as Sonia Rosa's（ソニア・ローザ）"Tokyo in the Blue"（東京イン・ザ・ブルー）and Kenichi Fujimoto's（藤本健一）"Asa no Wakare"（朝の別れ）, I hadn't brought Toshiki Kadomatsu's（角松敏生）"Beams" onto the blog, and that was the first track and title track for this "Light Mellow" CD.
Originally from Kadomatsu's 15th studio album from August 2003, "Summer 4 Rhythm", "Beams" sounds timeless. I mean that I couldn't believe that it was actually from the 21st century. I'd thought it was right from one of his 80s albums. The song is ethereal, fun and summery. It's like undergoing a tribal experience under the sun at high noon on a pure white beach after which frolicking in the ocean is mandatory. "Summer 4 Rhythm" was probably a tribal experience for many who bought the album since it hit No. 9 on Oricon.
This will be the last article of the three advance City Pop tunes I'm starting up today on Thursday, so I'll put up the remaining two tomorrow. Admittedly, this isn't a particularly deep think piece but then again, City Pop by its nature isn't about the metaphysics of it all. It's always been about having some great fun in the metropolis or even in the resort areas.
Back in the fall of 2023, I was surprised to find out from commenter Gen Kanai that VTubers were also plying their hands and voices on City Pop, and so I took a try with Houshou Marine（宝鐘マリン）& Gawr Gura（がうる・ぐら）and their duet "SHINKIRO" from 2023. Incidentally, it was also the first time that I presented KKP official cartoon representative Kayo Grace Kyoku up at the top though she didn't have a name at the time.
I also found out that Gawr Gura had enjoyed covering some of the City Pop classics from the 1980s including Tatsuro Yamashita's（山下達郎）"Magic Ways"whose video came out in 2022. She did a really nice job there, and just recently, I found her other 2022 cover of one of my favourite songs of the genre, Anri's（杏里）"Shyness Boy" from her 1983 album"Timely!!". Yes, I realize that it's basically her doing karaoke but still, it's not just a row of terrifying teeth emanating from the mouth of the VTuber shark! Of course, it's Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）who came up with the words and music for "Shyness Boy".
One other thing that I've discovered is that Gawr Gura retired from Hololive last year in May, so I'm hoping that whoever portrayed her is enjoying a happy life somewhere.
Last year, I introduced the current music unit Tokimeki Records with their cadre of singers covering the old City Pop. Up to this point, Hikari and Hannah Warm were at bat with the latter providing her take on Takako Mamiya's（間宮貴子）"Love Trip".
Well, this time, I give you "Fly By Day" which was covered by singer-songwriter JU!iE, and yes it is the Anri（杏里）song that was created by Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）as her 11th single from November 1982. J-Wiki has yet to catch up on the discography of Tokimeki Records which currently only goes up to the end of 2024 so perhaps this might be their 51st single from July.
First off, I love the cover for the single with the typography with young JU!iE sweetly answering an old-fashioned phone. I also enjoy those shades of gold and brown. JU!iE's take on "Fly By Day" has a more assertive deep funky groove that's taking the singer for a nice flight off the California coast. Nice to hear the summery horns in there, too.
JU!iE is indeed pronounced Julie which is a great relief since I wasn't sure how to handle a mid-word exclamation point. That could have been the monster of all glottal stops that I would have had to ram through in my pronunciation. As for information on the singer-songwriter, I was able to find some stuff via the site "My Drama List":
JU!iE graduated from Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China, and went to the U.S. by herself to enter in Berklee College of Music. She has started her music career in NY after graduate. In 2022 she joined HoriPro International Inc. / HT Entertainment Inc. to start her music career in Japan. JU!iE created her music style based on JAZZ, her major in at Berklee College of Music.
The works of JU!iE are characterized by global creating using three languages, English, Japanese and Chinese.
She works in a wide range of areas, not only as a singer, but also as a composer and a producer.
JU!iE is also well known as a model and her number of followers on Instagram is more than 140,000, on Weibo is over 500,000.
When talking about Toshiki Kadomatsu, the fact that he graduated from a Department of Philosophy is quite suggestive.
In 1981, Kadomatsu debuted with the album "Sea Breeze", but it's this and his following two albums that completely positioned him in City Pop embellished with a resort vibe. After that, he would go through a New York-style dance music phase with albums such as "Gold Digger" (1985), but his three albums starting with the 1991 "All is Vanity" up to the beginning of his hiatus in 1993 showed a more personal singer-songwriter side. As well, in 1988, he set up his own label, Om, which is based on a Buddhist term that revealed some influence from Indian philosophy, something that he had majored in.
Putting aside his amiable image from things such as his role as a radio personality, Kadomatsu was basically a deeply thoughtful and philosophical man. Even taking into consideration his early works, they could come across as feel-good love songs at first listen, but they also enveloped a world of truth and proven experience.
Furthermore, his pre-hiatus "Aru ga Mama ni"（あるがままに）and "Kimi wo Kikoeru Hi"（君をこえる日） laid bare personal anguish and isolation, and elicited strong sympathy from at least some of the listeners. As a result, Kadomatsu has possessed this charismatic attraction which hinted at a philosophical spiritualist side within himself. So for this sort of man, what was the message that he was willing to sacrifice himself to convey? You should be able to glean the answer from listening to each of his albums as meticulously as possible.
During his hiatus, Kadomatsu produced his VOCALAND project and was an incognito member of AGHARTA. In 1999, he came out with his "Time Tunnel" album after coming out of his half-decade hiatus and restarted his career and went into a new musical direction, and then in 2016, he welcomed his 35th anniversary.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised"(2020).
Look, the first time I saw this title by Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）, I could only think of a Disney character in a morose mood.
"Lonely Goofey" (and yes, I realize that the Disney character has a slightly different spelling in his name) is the B-side to Kadomatsu's 3rd single from April 1983, "Sky High". I read the blurb that the song is about a surfer who's down in the dumps so he's hanging ten with a hang-dog expression, so I tried to find out what that second word in the title was referring to. The closest I got was the surfing term goofy-footed which describes a surfer who surfs with their right foot forward; not sure if that is a bad thing or not.
Regardless, this Kadomatsu-penned song has a 1950s doo-wop melody transplanted into a 1980s City Pop/J-AOR arrangement. Kadomatsu came up with this non-album entry from his own images of hitting the waves and dedicated it to his own surfing buddy. The mention of September in his lyrics kinda hints at the possibility of a broken romance. Of course, that's too bad but you can't beat the soulful melody.
It's been a while since I've posted anything by one of the City Pop kings, Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）. And since up to this point, we've been keeping tonight's urban contemporary material very contemporary, let's head back to the good ol' 1980s.
From his May 1985 5th studio album, "GOLD DIGGER〜with true love〜", I offer you his "Secret Lover" which may sound like one of his Toshiki-est songs from that decade. From that boppy bass, those wistful and summery chord progressions and his silky vocals, the only other way that it could become even more City Pop of the 1980s is have him show up in an outfit designed by Seizo Watase（わたせせいぞう）.
I'll be honest, though. I know that 80s songs on either side of the Pacific had their fair share of DJ tricks and open flirtation between the artist and some young lady during the bridge, but the first time I listened to Kadomatsu doing just that on "Secret Lover", I almost did a spit-take with my glass of water. By the way, "GOLD DIGGER" hit No. 7 on Oricon.
Yup, Kayo Grace is in the big city which means that we are at Friday, the day of the urban contemporary on KKP. And today launches with a rather distinct article because not only am I talking about an album, but it's an album that won't be released officially until March 6th this year.
But allow me to give some background information. For one thing, I can't quite believe that it's been almost ten years since I posted the first article on singer-songwriter Junk Fujiyama（ジャンクフジヤマ）because of his "Hoshikuzu Pipeline"（星屑のパイプライン）, that homage to the sound stylings of late 70s/early 80s Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）that first got known as the amazing musical accompaniment to the ending scene of Episode 6 of the bonkers anime "Space Dandy". Some years before the whole "Plastic Love" thing, "Hoshikuzu Pipeline" had some of us City Pop fans back then swooning that maybe the good ol' days of music grooviness can come back with new tunes. Well, it's kinda crazy what's happened over the last decade.
Fujiyama has continued to do his groove thing although his profile has struck me as being somewhat low-level over the years. Well, I found out a few days ago that he's coming out with an album of City Pop covers, "Shoukei Toshi"(City of Aspirations), which I said above will be released on March 6th. I guess that a lot of fantasies of City Pop fans have now come true with Junk Fujiyama handling other tunes of the uber-genre. For instance, an advance digital single came out on January 23rd, a mellower cover of the late Junko Ohashi's（大橋純子）"Telephone Number", a special favourite for many of the fans.
Even earlier...on December 13th 2023, to be exact...Fujiyama released another digital single which is a cover of Anri's（杏里）"Windy Summer" and it'll also be included on the album. It's of course arranged in his style but it's no less summery than the original. I'm hoping that the other tracks which include covers of Junko Yagami（八神純子）and Miki Matsubara（松原みき）will also be fun. I've also noticed that Junk had covered a few Tats tunes in 2021 and 2022 but they're not on "Shoukei Toshi". Nice cover art, by the way.
Welcome to another KKP Urban Contemporary Friday as we in Toronto await another winter storm in the next several hours. I've decided to start with something that ought to get folks shimmying in their seats since frankly I would like to warm up considerably. By the way, let's give another warm welcome to KKP AI-created representative Kayo Grace Kyoku above standing in front of a cityscape.
Ah, yes...I have heard of the term hako iri musume（箱入り娘）which literally means "girl in a box" but is used in conversation as "a girl who has had a sheltered life" or "a naïve girl". Maybe the biggest thing that comes to mind when the term pops up is Episode 3 in Season 1 of the anime "Kaguya-sama: Love Is War"（かぐや様は告らせたい〜天才たちの恋愛頭脳戦〜）when it's discovered that young Kaguya really has had no idea of what it means by "the first time" since she was only given a smidgen of somewhat inaccurate intelligence on the whole birds-and-the-bees thing.
Well, City Pop master Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）released his 5th single in October 1984 titled "Girl in the Box ~ Ni-juu-ni-ji made no Kimi wa" (Until 10 pm, You Are...) which does indeed describe a young lady out on the town with her beau but has to take off a couple of hours before midnight back for home. Of course, the boyfriend isn't too thrilled about the lass' primness when it comes to a night out but I'm somehow not all that surprised by the early end since Showa era Dad is more than happy to keep her sheltered for as long as possible. The ironic thing is that even back then, Tokyo tended to shut down right before midnight which is surprising for a huge metropolis with its bars and discos.
The above is the 12-inch single version of "Girl in the Box" which was released several weeks later and it's another Toshiki bopper with the bass and bass synth whomping away as the other keyboards have their own funky fun. Of course, the master of ceremonies himself, Kadomatsu, is soaring over the rhythm and the city through his famous vocals.
I'm looking up Koen Dori in Shibuya, Tokyo, if I'm not mistaken because I see Parco off in the distance. Someday if I ever get back to the megalopolis, I'll have to see whether this part of the Youth Mecca of Japan has also undergone some major redevelopment.
A couple of articles ago, I posted Marlene's "Summer Nights" onto the blog. It looks like City Pop prince Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）was even more specific about his hot season since he has a song titled "Summer Moments". The B-side to his first single"Yokohama Twilight Time" released in June 1981, I love that very particular guitar sound and though it's unmistakably Kadomatsu's voice in there, it's intriguing to hear his early vocals. Of course, the bass is still beloved and I get that feeling of West Coast AOR.
"Summer Moments" was also a track on Kadomatsu's first BEST compilation "1981-1987" from October 1993 which hit No. 6 on Oricon. While Kadomatsu took care of words and music, Masaki Matsubara（松原正樹）handled the arrangement.
Hello, J-Canuck here. Just to clarify, I did provide an article for "August Rain" three weeks ago but that was for the original version on Toshiki Kadomatsu's（角松敏生）"Touch and Go" album from June 1986. The version that Kimura is talking about here is for an updated take on the song via Kadomatsu's December 1991 compilation "TEARS BALLAD", although personally I don't think that there is all that much difference between the two. But I will let you readers decide on that.
Number: 018
Lyricist/Composer/Arranger: Toshiki Kadomatsu
From Kadomatsu's 1991 album: "TEARS BALLAD"
It's my personal impression that a mark of a truly good artist is polishing up an old song for a listen, and this best ballad version, more than the favourable original medium-tempo version from "Touch and Go", is far and away even better in terms of the vocals. How its progress can be reflected in this manner as an artist is due to the fact that the song itself is already highly accomplished.
The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised" (2020).
Still several days before August arrives but I figure that since it is Urban Contemporary Friday here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", we can move up the schedule for this one.
My snarky comment for the album cover of Toshiki Kadomatsu's（角松敏生）June 1986"Touch and Go" is that if he's gonna do stunts like that on his plane, it will be truly touch and go regarding his survival.
But no complaints whatsoever regarding one track "August Rain ~ It's Our Pure Hearts". Not surprisingly, it is indeed a summery Kadomatsu creation with the able help of the one and only Jerry Hey and his splendid horns (just mentioned him yesterday for "The Dude"). "August Rain" can truly make August rain look romantic with this light and mellow hammock-worthy song. Plus, the saxophone solo is the cherry on top. Overall, the song makes me want to take deep cleansing breaths after a busy work week.
Well, the third Monday in July just passed in Japan which means that the citizens there have celebrated another long weekend ending with "Umi no Hi" or Marine Day (or Sea Day or Ocean Day). If I'm going with the Wikipedia assessment, July 20th had been slated for Marine Day from 1996 but then to join the kick for long weekends in the country, the holiday was simply placed onto the third Monday in July every year.
I have commemorated the holiday now and then with individual songs having to do with the deep blue sea, but this time, I've decided to provide a quintet of sea-related tunes.
Despite the holiday and all that, Japan has been getting flooded and roasted depending on the area so I am hoping that folks are taking care of themselves and each other.
Incidentally, I went to some site and got the name of the blog done up in Vaporwave mode just for some fun.
It’s Oliver Ebisuno, coming back to Kayo Kyoku Plus after a long break. For some time now, in spite of work and personal stuff, I wanted to make an update on the blog, but always felt either unmotivated or drained from strength when sitting in front of an open draft editor. I think the time is right for a special post; to be specific, an Author’s Pick text. Shamelessly, I admit that J-Canuck’s Driving to City Poptwo-parter provided me with much needed dosage of inspiration.
Evidently, I do not live in Japan and there are no prospects of me visiting the country in the nearest future, but I thought it would be fun to mix my love for Japanese music with my personal experience, that is, commuting to work.
The city I live in is such a hole in the middle of nowhere (and forgotten by the Almighty) that basically right after finishing high school I had to get used to commuting. I had to undergo a one-hour trip by bus while studying for 5 years, the same applied to PhD studies, and my first employment. Last year, I switched jobs and now I also commute by bus, but this time to a different city, which is located roughly an hour away from my place of residence.
Being on the bus for two hours per day (please bear in mind that this is a “there and back again” route) gives me a lot of time to do various sorts of stuff like reading, browning the web, but also listening. For years, I was never that keen on the idea of listening to music outside of the comfort zone of my home, but I warmed up to the idea after the pandemic.
Now, en route to work (and most importantly coming back from it) I can’t help but listen to Tomoko Aran. Her albums Fuyuu Kuukan and Last Good-bye really calm me down and put me in a positive mood, especially in the morning. The same also goes for Toshiki Kadomatsu’s After 5 Clash and Hitomitoi’s City Dive albums.
When I am in a more adventurous mood, then I reach for music that is more charged with Synth-Pop or Rock. In such instances, Yoko Oginome’s Route 246 Connexion and Chisato Moritaka’s Mi-ha prove to be invaluable. Very rarely, when I feel deeply melancholic, I decide to desperately turn to Wink’s Best of selection or Naomi Akimoto’s Poison 21. Please refer to the selection of my favourite songs from the aforementioned albums here:
That’s it for the moment, I sincerely hope that you enjoyed my list of suggestions. I should also add that apart from the aforemtioned songs/albums, I also tend to listen to either Pet Shop Boys or Animotion while commuting. Thank you for reading.
Image sources: The feature photograph at the top of the post was taken by me on a bus to work on wintery night at 5 AM. I usually sit at the back, so it was easier for me to make sure that the faces of other commuters won’t get caught by the phone camera. The image of Akina Nakamori next to Mercedes was found on Pinterest. All the hyperlinks lead to previous Kayo Kyoku Plus posts.
One of the nicest pathways that I've strolled upon was a promenade or pedestrian boulevard, if you will, near Jiyugaoka Station just west of Shibuya. My good friend lived in the neighbourhood for several years before moving out to one of the newer hubs in western Tokyo. We used to get together to watch movies on the old VCR and there were a lot of good restaurants in the area along with a generously stocked supermarket and of course a video rental shop, so it was very convenient.
I did pick out that thumbnail of twilight-time Jiyugaoka to match this song to start off Urban Contemporary Friday on KKP. "Twilight Shadow" is a collaboration between singer Natsu Summer and Ryusenkei（流線形）, both with their ears and toes in the Neo-City Pop pool, and true to the former's style, "Twilight Shadow", which was released in May 2022 as a single, has got that reggae beat infused into the City Pop arrangement, thanks to the music by Ryusenkei's Cunimondo Takiguchi（クニモンド瀧口）who also provided the lyrics.
First listening to "Twilight Shadow", I heard something familiar in the music and that's when I realized that Takiguchi had sampled Anri's（杏里）"Last Summer Whisper" for the song. So, allow me to include Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）into the Labels as well. If I were still able to stroll on that Jiyugaoka promenade, I could be listening to this song while sitting on the bench at twilight time.
"The geinokai's 'only shining star'"...that byline in "Eye-Ai" could have earned Miho Nakayama（中山美穂）some resentful growls from other entertainers and their management companies. But hey, they were OK, she was OK and we are OK.
Well, right now in Canada and Japan, we're about as far away from summer days as anyone could get. My old stomping grounds are themselves being stomped by a huge cold wave and it looks like Toronto will be getting smacked with a snowstorm in the middle of the week. I wouldn't blame my fellow Canadians if they were swooning to the point of distraction over the thought of sun and 30-degree Celsius highs.
However in the meantime, we do have "Far Away From Summer Days", a track from Miporin's hit album "Catch the Nite" from February 1988. It's another golden collaboration between the aidoru and City Pop king Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）as he wrote, composed and arranged everything here. Kadomatsu has a way with those synths, guitars and percussion that bring on the sheen of Coppertone-bronzed skin, gleaming sand and crashing waves in a futuristic utopian setting. I think as much as Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）was responsible for helping out with the Omega Tribe（オメガトライブ）sound in those 1980s, Kadomatsu was also vital for bringing that particular urban dance pop which Nakayama spun around in during the latter part of the decade.
By the way, the source album "Catch the Nite" was not only a Number 1 hit on the Oricon weeklies, it also ranked in at No. 20 on the 1988 chart.
Folks who are trying to get on their way to their tropical getaways down south today might be going through the gauntlet due to today's Snowmageddon at the airports. Personally, I will never approach Pearson International during this time because of the chaos during a regular weather day in December. I can't even imagine what it's like there now.
Of course, in happier climes and times, it was all about hitting the airport just before the weekend to get that quick two-night stay in some tropical resort. Haneda Airport in Tokyo has been perfect for that; once the office workers are done for a Friday, they pick up their bags, head to the airport, get on that plane for Saipan, enjoy the good life and head back for work again on the Monday.
But back in April 1982 when Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）came up with his second album"Weekend Fly to the Sun", I think that Haneda's cachet was heading downwards due to the then-rising star of Narita Airport out in Chiba Prefecture. So, perhaps along with Kadomatsu's labels of singer-songwriter, musician and producer, prognosticator could be added.
"Weekend Fly to the Sun" had that concept of enjoying the weekend holiday, and though I haven't written about the album in its entirety, I have given my articles on at least a few of the tracks including "Brunch". Well, after "Brunch" is "Space Scraper", a good old disco stomp with that wonderfully beefy bass. Considering its position in the album, I think that it's probably Saturday afternoon when "Space Scraper" is taking place, and the holiday folks are trying out some parasailing from what I gather from Kadomatsu's lyrics whose translation is at Lyrics Translate. Parasailing was developed only in the late 1970s according to Wikipedia, so I can only say that Kadomatsu was really on top of his prognosticating game.
Wow! Knock on wood, but I managed to get my Friday four in while the power is still on here. But still, I would prefer for the power to last through this storm.
Welcome to another J-Urban Contemporary Friday at "Kayo Kyoku Plus". And what great timing, too! Just when I logged on, I found out through the Twitter feed that City Pop impresario Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）is celebrating his 62nd birthday today, so let's do some of that.
However, let me preface the song with the story of the Japanese folklore spirit known as the yuki-onna（雪女）or snow lady. According to the video above and Wikipedia, her motivations and history are as enigmatic as any X-File depending on time and place in Japan. She has been evil and she has been...well...nice, so it's a wonder that she hasn't been brought in as a character for Marvel Comics,
I saw her once in a manga as a kid and in that one, she was this sylph-like presence who was invited in by a kindly farmer on a night of a bitterly cold winter storm. She gladly accepted a cup of hot tea but noticed when a puddle began to form under her, she had to skedaddle really quickly.
Well, throughout all of her incarnations in time and space, Kadomatsu has brought the yuki-onna in as perhaps the actual snow lady herself and not just a stoic woman at the dance club in his "Snow Lady Fantasy". Sharing track space with "Hatsukoi"（初恋）as a November 1985 12-inchsingle, it shows that even hot funk and a guy's love can be applied to a cold yokai. I was wondering about the chorus and the sax player, and through Discogs, I discovered that they were Minako Yoshida（吉田美奈子）and Bob Mintzer respectively.
An extended version of "Snow Lady Fantasy" was included in Kadomatsu's December 1986 album of remixes "T's 12 Inches" (heh, heh...Kad was a real cad, wasn't he?). To be honest, I had been keeping this one in place until later in winter, but seeing that it was the guy's birthday, I decided that it could be unleashed today. In any case, I can imagine him having a great birthday party surrounded by a lot of friends in a swanky place.
Going into the final full week of July 2022, perhaps we can start "Kayo Kyoku Plus" with a spicy Latin number.
Yesterday, I wrote about Anna Banana（アンナ・バナナ）for the first time and one of her songs from the early 1990s. Lo and behold, I discovered another ANNA but with no last name and in full caps, and I was pleasantly surprised that she does have her own J-Wiki providing a few social media links. She hails from Chiba Prefecture and is currently a radio personality and a narrator.
However in the mid-1990s and for some years after that, she was also a singer with eight singles and two albums. From her second album, the March 1998"Stories", here is her track "Anna ni Koi Shita" which could be a cute intentional pun in that it means either "I Fell So Much In Love" or "I Fell In Love With Anna". As you can hear, it's dance club form of exciting samba about ANNA herself possibly finding love and intrigue in Brazil. There's even some faint hint of Barry Manilow's"Copacabana".
From that J-Wiki article, I found out that ANNA had been part of Toshiki Kadomatsu's（角松敏生）VOCALAND project between 1996 and 1997 to introduce new female singers. Kadomatsu was also behind the production of "Stories" with Akio Inoue（井上秋緒）providing lyrics and Akira Okamoto（岡本朗）composing the samba. When Okamoto was himself a singer under the name Issei Okamoto（岡本一生）, he was quite happy with the City Pop in the late 1970s onwards with gems like "Midnight Station".
ANNA has an active blog and has been jockeying the Chiba Prefecture-based bayfm program "miracle!!" ever since it started in 2008. Below is a September 2016 broadcast.
Last night, I decided to pull up an Anri（杏里）disc and listen to that for the first time in a while. It was her 7th original album"COOOL" from June 1984. As I was going through the tracks for this last of three Anri-Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）collaborative efforts in the 1980s (the previous two being "Bi-Ki-Ni" and "Timely!!"), I wondered whether I had actually devoted time and space on the blog to "COOOL" as an album article.
Amazon.jp
Well, scrollling down the Anri file, I discovered to my chagrin that I hadn't touched it at all. Mind you, I did cover one track, the lovely "I Can't Ever Change Your Love For Me" that I actually first heard on one of her BEST compilations, "The Anri", years before I finally got my copy of "COOOL". But that's no excuse! I'd covered the incredible "Timely!!" all the way back in 2016 but didn't bother with the succceeeding album! Not coool and goood, J-Canuck!😡
I must rectify this situation as quickly as possible, and by the way, I will limit the runnning gag of triple letters just to the above paragraph (alas, allow me just one more above). Let's begin with the first two songs, "Bring Me To The Dancenight" and "Gone With The Sadness" with producer/arranger Kadomatsu creating the former while Anri handled the latter. Judging the smooth transfer between songs, I gather that the two were produced to form Siamese twin tracks.
And what do you know? I did write about "Bring Me To The Dancenight" back in 2017 after all, but I had assumed that it was all of that song without considering "Gone With The Sadness". But I digress. "Bring Me To The Dancenight" is all about painting the town red at the Tokyo disco downtown while "Gone With The Sadness" has a bit more of that feeling of a dramatic drive on the Kan-Etsu, perhaps after tripping the light fantastic.
If I'm not mistaken, JTM gave his two cents on the album through his article on "The Anri" and the third track "Ki Mama ni Reflection"（気ままにREFLECTION...Carefree Reflection） which also served as Anri's 15th single from the same month of release for "COOOL". However, putting in my own comments here, "Ki Mama ni Reflection" is a slice of straight pop about two lovers enjoying themselves although they already have other dancing partners, if you know what I mean. There is that hint of danger and drama in the melody and arrangement provided by Daisuke Inoue and Jun Sato（井上大輔・佐藤準） plus Yoshiko Miura's（三浦徳子）lyrics.
I would have thought that the song was the ideal theme for a J-Drama about all sorts of sordidness in the entertainment districts of Tokyo, but it actually was a commercial jingle for yakisoba. "Ki Mama ni Reflection" hit No. 7 on Oricon and finished the year as the 78th-ranked single for 1984.
"Silly City Girl" is a nice summery boogie shuffle by Kadomatsu with some of that beefy bass and a battery of synthesizers. It's barely three minutes of a story of a young metropolitan lass hiding behind cosmetics and attitude finding fun and love everywhere but perhaps needing something more substantial. For some reason, I keep thinking of actress Reese Witherspoon in her role of Elle Woods in "Legally Blonde" if she had actually decided to work in Japan as an English teacher when this song pops up. Go figure.
Light, breezy, and yes, morning-like adorns "Morning Highway", written and composed by singer-songwriter Yuuho Iwasato（岩里祐穂）. With a hint of bossa nova mixed in with that 80s City Pop/J-AOR, "Morning Highway" does sound like a contemporized version of a 1970s kayothat takes things out of the nightclub and puts them into the driver's seat of a convertible racing out to the beaches in the wee hours.
The driving City Pop continues with "Surprise of Summer", once again by Kadomatsu, and I think that guitar lick in the middle is a truly Kadomatsu thing. The car ride is definitely in the 1980s again right on the Bayside Highway. Anri's voice is in especially fine fettle here, and it wouldn't be a summer City Pop tune without some brass including a warm honeyed sax solo.
Another Kadomatsu trope? That funky bass, of course! And there's plenty of it in "Flashin' Night", a track of fun and suspense as it sounds like a young callow woman has hit the dance floor and may have even discovered love.
"Mercury Lamp ~ Suigin Tou"（水銀燈...which indeed means a mercury lamp） is a laidback breakup song written by Susumu Kishi（岸進）and composed by Kimikazu Uetake（植竹公和）. Uetake has been a music composer but according to his J-Wiki file, he has been mostly a broadcast writer for various game shows and variety programs on a number of stations such as TBS and Fuji-TV. "Mercury Lamp" is listed as one of his more notable compositions, and it's got that sunset City Pop ballad vibe, so my compliments to him. For that matter, Anri's voice is a bit different here...slightly huskier and whispery.
"He's My Music" was written and composed by Anri, and it's also an enjoyably mellow tune about a woman head-over-heels with a guy and just enjoying every moment with the lucky fellow. Heck, he even loves sipping Brown Cows, my favourite cocktail! There's something about the keyboard work in this one that has me thinking of Al Jarreau and Quincy Jones from the early 1980s.
The original final track is "Maui", also created by Anri, which continues the romance in the titular setting. Once again, her vocals take on a lower and more velvety tone. The rhythm section reminds me of some 70s light funk.
The remastered version of "COOOL" finished up with a bonus track which had been originally the B-side to the single "Ki Mama ni Reflection". Once again, written and composed by the singer, "Share ~ Ai wo Futari de"（S・H・A・R・E〜愛をふたりで〜...Two For Love）, the song is more proof that folks ought to never ignore those B-sides; it's a marvelous song of romance. Wistful, summery and filled with hints of David Foster feeling, "Share" is enhanced by those strings and a piercing trumpet solo. And I have got to say that is one splendid cover photo of the single for "Ki Mama ni Reflection".
"COOOL" was released just on the cusp of summer, perfect timing as far as this album was concerned. And it did pretty well by peaking at No. 5 on Oricon.
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