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 Vantage & The Myracle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vantage & The Myracle. Show all posts
It was a couple of years ago that Vantage (maybe he's dropped "& The Myracle") and singer Hibiya collaborated to bring out a summery Neo-City Pop tune titled "Sunday Lonely Night" which had some nice dollops of Anri（杏里）and Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）. Felt like old times once again.
Well, a few months ago, Vantage and dulcet-toned Hibiya got together again to release "I'm In Love Again" which has got more of that Future Funk vibe. Sounding different from "Sunday Lonely Night", this one also brings back those memories of walking through a steamy Roppongi or Shinjuku along with images of Japanese TV commercial collages as was often the case with those ancient Vaporwave videos. Vantage mentions underneath the video about an original version of "I'm In Love Again"; I would be more than happy to hear that one, too.
Posting Kana Hanazawa's（花澤香菜）"Time Machine wa Totsuzen ni"（タイムマシーンは突然に）last weekend and realizing that the good folks of Milk Talk were responsible for words and music, I figured that it was time to get another song by the duo themselves up onto KKP.
Last summer in August 2023, the neo-nostalgic electro-boogie Milk Talk collaborated with Tokyo-based electronic artist Vantage on their own tune. And I kinda figured that Milk Talk and Vantage would work together at some point; both acts seem to groove on the same level which is why I put up the latter's "Sunday Lonely Night" last November. Anyways, their love child is "Million Miles Away", a love affair redemption set to the analogy of a long-haul flight. I'm no fan of long-haul flights myself although I have to take them to reach Japan from Toronto; usually I go for the quickie divorce as soon as I hit Haneda.
However, it looks like the old-fashioned VHS-ish video with Milk Talk and Vantage has a much more positive ending. Plus, I really like that 80s City Pop vibe in the music with a touch of Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）and Ginger Root in the arrangement, although rather than boogie, there's more boppy funk in there.
I mentioned in the previous article involving Rei and Ginger Root's collaboration, "Love is Beautiful", that I had found some gold nuggets past midnight a few days ago. "Love is Beautiful" is indeed one of the nuggets, and another one happens to be the subject of this article.
When City Pop first became known to the international masses several years ago, enthusiasts absorbed and then sought out their new musical plaything for some time, even traveling to the source nation for singles and albums. Then, some of the more artistic and enterprising folks outside of Japan decided to make their own bona fide City Pop tunes in the 21st century after analyzing the chord progressions and hooks. KKP has posted a few of these including last week's "SHINKIRO" by VTubers Houshou Marine（宝鐘マリン）& Gawr Gura（がうる・ぐら）.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find a lot of information so far on Vantage aside from the fact that they are a Tokyo-based electronic artist who have a wide SNS presence including a YouTube channel and that they have made their own Vaporwave. But last month in October, Vantage & The Myracle released their "...first full authentic City Pop song" known as "Sunday Lonely Night". I'm assuming that Hibiya is the vocalist for the song and on hearing it for the first time, I got those early 1980s Anri（杏里）vibes when she was being helped out by Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）. The summery disco City Pop is there along with the horns which got me thinking of not only Anri but Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）, too.
What is also cute is how the music video is done up like a gauzy karaoke video clip after it's been through the ancient VHS machine a few hundred times. Nice to see those 80s examples of technology including the portable radio, the boxy car and even that electric fan running in the lass' room. I've got one of those behind me as well.
