Ryusenkei feat.Yasuyuki Horigome -- Futari no Silhouette（ふたりのシルエット）

 

Coming ahead to the Neo-City Pop of the 21st century, we have another winner with Ryusenkei（流線形）and their frequent collaborations with other artists who possess that similar and familiar groove. The last time I addressed these projects, Cunimondo Takiguchi（クニモンド瀧口）was working with singer-songwriter Sincere earlier this year.

Well, let's go back a few years and Takiguchi and Ryusenkei got together with Yasuyuki Horigome（堀込泰行） of Kirinji to release a 2022 single called "Futari no Silhouette" (two silhouette), and this one has a little bit of other genres mixing in with the modern urban contemporary. I can hear some of that evening jazz, a bit of that soul and those violins adding some of that class to the proceedings. Takiguchi was responsible for both words and music but there is something about Horigome's soft-as-velvet delivery that makes "Futari no Silhouette" his own. 

Ryusenkei -- San-go Sen（3号線）

 

I gather that Yumi Arai's（荒井由実）classic "Chuo Freeway"（中央フリーウェイ）has had a buddy route in terms of music for the past couple of decades in the form of "San-go Sen" (Route No. 3 Shibuya). By the way, this is a real part of an expressway in Tokyo, so for all of your City Pop driving tour needs, try Route No. 3 as offered by YouTuber wataken777 Part 2.

Continuing on, it's nice to hear from Ryusenkei's（流線形）"City Music" debut album from 2003 again. It's been a while. I recall posting an article about "Tokyo Coaster" from that release back in 2017 and well, I've got another one which is indeed titled "San-go Sen" that was written and composed by the leader Cunimondo Takiguchi（クニモンド瀧口）and has the sweet vocals of Tomomi Sano（サノトモミ） waxing romantically about the drive. And just like "Chuo Freeway", there is that feeling of 70s City Pop or New Music filtering through my brain.

Then in 2022, Ryusenkei decided to release a small album in August 2022 called "Incomplete" with former Kirinji（キリンジ）member Yasuyuki Horigome（堀込泰行）helping out. The band and Horigome worked on a cover version of "San-go Sen" as the first track with the latter taking over for Sano on vocals. The mellow funk of the original has been given a facelift into something jazzier and more refined. It's as if a young couple just driving in their sports car simply for the heck of it are now in a more expensive Toyota Cressida heading to that hard-to-reserve Italian restaurant in Aoyama. But they're still using Route No. 3.

Shiho Nanba -- Aurora ni Kakurete（オーロラに隠れて）

 

Sad to say, but one of the natural phenomena that I have yet to see despite being over half a century old is the Northern Lights. One of my regular students was able to take a trip to the Yukon and braved the very sub-zero weather to witness the spectacular nature of an aurora.

A couple of years ago was the last time that I wrote about singer-songwriter Shiho Nanba（南波志帆）who has been noticed for her whispery voice and some association with the newer J-AOR acts such as Blue Peppers. My article back then was for her 2009 "Pool no Ao wa Uso no Ao"（プールの青は嘘の青）, a Sunshine Pop sort of number that was provided to her by Takaki Horigome（堀込高樹）of Kirinji（キリンジ）. It wasn't released as a single; instead, it was a track on her "Kimi ni Todoku ka na, Watashi."（君に届くかな、私。...Will I/It Get to You?）indies album.

The mid-teens Nanba would release her first single as a major artist in December 2010, "Aurora ni Kakurete" (Hiding in an Aurora), and rather than the light and mellow stuff, this particular song has more of a bubbly pop flavour reminiscent of Tommy february6. However, it was Takaki's brother, Yasuyuki Horigome（堀込泰行）who came up with the melody while YUKI from Judy & Mary wrote the lyrics regarding an adorable Christmas date. The arrangement was handled by Hiroyasu Yano（矢野博康）from the Cymbals, and as mentioned in the "Pool" article, he was the one who advised Nanba to try the whispery voice treatment.

Tomita Lab -- MAP for LOVE

 

A Happy Good Friday to you! Yup, it's a long weekend here in Canada so while things are still chilly outside, at least the sun is out brilliantly. 

Starting off Urban Contemporary Friday from a weird angle, I recollect that I saw Stanley Kubrick's classic "2001: A Space Odyssey" in its entirety only once. There were a number of noteworthy scenes including the title sequence with "Also sprach Zarathustra", the appearance of the massive spiral space station, HAL 9000, and that final mind-altering sequence featuring Dr. Bowman's evolution into the Starchild. The one chilling scene was seeing HAL murder Dr. Poole and throwing him into the celestial abyss (no worries, though...he gets better in the novel "3001: The Final Odyssey").

Watching the relaxing music video for Tomita Lab's（冨田ラボ）April 2021 digital single "MAP for LOVE", I couldn't help but feel that this could have been the perfect song and fate for good ol' Dr. Poole...he somehow gets thrown into an alternate universe over Tokyo in the year 2021 (mind you, he seems to have an even better future in the year 3001). As for the song itself, "MAP for LOVE" is basically a get-together of the Tomita Family in the recording booth. Written by Ryuta Tsunoda（角田隆太）of the band Mononkul（ものんくる）and Ryohu from KANDYTOWN, both of whom had a hand in Tomita Lab's 2018 album "M-P-C 'Mentality, Physicality, Computer'" and composed by the Lab himself, there are no fewer than nine singers behind the microphone: the aforementioned Ryohu, singer/seiyuu Maaya Sakamoto（坂本真綾）, guitarist Ryosuke Nagaoka（長岡亮介）of R&B band PETROLZ, Kento Nagatsuka（長塚健斗）of WONK, Naz, Bird, Sakura Fujiwara（藤原さくら）, Yasuyuki Horigome（堀込泰行）of Kirinji（キリンジ）, and Mononkul vocalist Sara Yoshida（吉田沙良）, all of whom have collaborated with the producer in the past.

All of the Arthur C. Clarke comparisons aside though, "MAP for LOVE" is a sweet and breezy romantic soul ballad about being connected by love no matter the distance whether it be in kilometres or light-years. My apologies but I'm going to have bring in another motion picture here. There's something about the story that reminds me of "Sleepless in Seattle" with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan...and the crazy thing is that I read on Wikipedia that Hanks had once been interested in adapting "3001: The Final Odyssey" for the big screen. 

Uma no Hone (Yasuyuki Horigome) -- Sentimental Journey（センチメンタル・ジャーニー）

 

And before you veteran kayo listeners ask, nope, this has nothing to do with the Iyo Matsumoto（松本伊代）aidoru classic from 1981. This "Sentimental Journey" doesn't sound anything like that cutesy tune written and composed by Reiko Yukawa and Kyohei Tsutsumi（湯川れい子・筒美京平）respectively.

In fact, if anything, "Sentimental Journey" sounds something akin to the late Eiichi Ohtaki's（大滝詠一）works with some of that 50s pop and country-western twang. Sure enough, the Amazon blurb for the originating album "Uma no Hone"（馬の骨...The Horse's Bones） describes the song as having that Niagara（ナイアガラ）sound, referring to Ohtaki's record label starting from the 1970s. But the crazy thing is that Uma no Hone is not only the title of the album but it's also the moniker for the solo project involving singer-songwriter Yasuyuki Horigome（堀込泰行）. 

Yes, indeed, the one half of Kirinji（キリンジ）began this project back in 2005, and though I have yet to listen to the rest of "Uma no Hone" (released in September of that year), I'm getting some good vibes from "Sentimental Journey" which invites the listener to join Horigome's mystery magical carpet ride. The music video certainly makes it very enticing to one and all, especially with that water plane and the tire constantly flying about. Horigome does have that Ohtaki touch in his vocals and arrangement which does set things apart from his Kirinji work with his brother Takaki（堀込高樹）.

Heaco -- Winter Lovely Day

 

Wasn't too bad a day at all during these Holidays. It was sunny and clear with some snow still on the ground and the temperatures weren't too frigid for the average Canadian. Any opportunity to get that batch of Vitamin D will always be welcome.

Over the last number of weeks, I've been introducing what amounts to a family of singers and musicians. First off, I wrote about the band GREAT3 and then discovered that the wife of one of the members Akito Katayose（片寄明人）happened to be Chocolat, a model-turned-singer who was in the Shibuya-kei line of things and someone that I used to see in commercials a fair bit in my early days in Ichikawa.

Well, Chocolat has a twin sister who was also a model and then also became a singer by the name of Heaco. Her singing career was a brief one, though, just lasting between 1998 and 2000, but she managed to put out 4 singles and 2 albums; one of those singles, the October 1999 "Konna Watashi wo Waratte"（こんな私を笑って...Laugh at Me Like This）, included a track called "Winter Lovely Day". Now, while her sister was known for her Shibuya-kei material, Heaco has been classified on J-Wiki as a pop singer, and "Winter Lovely Day" is straight-ahead pop with some jangly guitars and Heaco's light and pleasant vocals. It actually does seem to whip up images of that nice walk during a sunny winter day in a small town.

The song is also available on her first album "One Fine Day" from November 1999. While Heaco provided the lyrics, Yasuyuki Horigome（堀込泰行）of Kirinji fame came up with the fun melody and Keiichi Tomita（冨田恵一）, aka Tomita Lab, produced the song and I'm assuming the entire single.

Ryusenkei & Hitomitoi feat. Yasuyuki Horigome -- Kinyoubi no Venus（金曜日のヴィーナス）/Ryusenkei & Hitomitoi -- Kanashii kurai Diamond（悲しいくらいダイヤモンド）

 Let's see..."Remington Steele" had a slick and handsome con man and an intrepid but struggling private detective while "Moonlighting" starred a beautiful if suddenly penniless former model teamed up with a wiseass private detective. Both were detective comedies, both were set in Los Angeles, both were broadcast on American TV networks in the 1980s, both had some pretty stylish music, and both were programs that I enjoyed for a while at least ("Moonlighting" had its wheels fall off for some reason in its later seasons).

Those two old shows came to mind when I read the synopsis of this NHK drama that had just finished its run last month titled "Talio Fukushu Daiko no Futari"（タリオ 復讐代行の2人...Talio: Two Agents of Revenge）. From what I found on the website "My Drama List", the show had a young lawyer pair up with a fraud artist to right various wrongs every episode. I had been wondering what that first non-Japanese word "talio" meant. At first, I had assumed that it was the name of one of the main characters, but instead it refers to the Latin expression "lex talionis" or the "law of retaliation". Basically, we're looking at "An eye for an eye". Ah, I see...the more we learn, right?

Because I no longer have much interest in Japanese TV dramas, I've only seen "Talio" through the commercials for the series on TV Japan so I had no idea that the Neo City Popsters of the band Ryusenkei（流線形）and singer Hitomitoi（一十三十一）were responsible for the soundtrack. Aye, I can only imagine what that must sound like. However, at this point, I'll settle for the opening and ending themes starting with "Kinyoubi no Venus" (Friday's Venus).

Hitomitoi provides the lyrics about someone who just can't seem to catch a break in life and is desperate for any chance to get out of the rut. Meanwhile, Ryusenkei's Cunimondo Takiguchi（クニモンド瀧口）has some groovy summery vibes for our ears which is splendid considering the time of year that folks were watching "Talio". The interesting thing is that the singer is another friendly face from the genre, singer-songwriter Yasuyuki Horigome（堀込泰行）who this time is only behind the mike and not on the computer helping out in the creation. The mellow keyboards and horns also do the trick here.

Meanwhile, the ending theme is "Kanashii kurai Diamond" (Sad Diamond) which keeps the good times going. Also created by the same folks involved in the opener, "Kanashii kurai Diamond" fairly thrums like the motor of the Cabriolet that's mentioned in the song. Kinda feels like some Rod Stewart disco. Basically, it's time to hop into the convertible and take a drive down the coast. Nice video featuring Hitomitoi and I guess that would be Ryusenkei sitting around. I wonder if that is actually a set from "Talio".

From the lyrics of both songs, I also wonder if they refer to the main character of Mami Shirasawa, the lawyer who needs that leg up from the very person that she probably would incarcerate under normal circumstances. I probably won't catch the series but I'm glad that Ryusenkei, Hitomitoi and Horigome have hopped into another medium.

Emi Okamoto -- Bokura truth（僕らtruth）

Another sunny Sunday out there and a little unseasonably cool, but that's perfectly fine with me. I was never a huge fan of heat and humidity, and seventeen summers in Japan taught me that.

I'm completing a covering of a trilogy of recommendations that I was given from a commenter on the Kirinji（キリンジ）article for "Ai wo aru dake, Subete"（愛をあるだけ、すべて）. The connecting thread among all three of them is the composer Yasuyuki Horigome（堀込泰行）, formerly part of the band itself. The first couple of songs were for seiyuu-singers Saori Hayami（早見沙織）and Maaya Sakamoto（坂本真綾）, but this third one, "Bokura truth" (Our Truth) is for singer-songwriter-bassist Emi Okamoto（おかもとえみ）who is also the vocalist for the pop band Friends（フレンズ）.

"Bokura truth" is a calming mixture of soul and dreamy pop by Horigome with a lot of appropriately calming blue in the video, although that bass synth does come in with a stomp sometimes. Okamoto provided the lyrics which seem to speak of a love that hasn't quite come to fruition quite yet but at least one of the potential pair is fairly hopeful. You know...when I heard this for the first time, my impression was that this was Kirinji in its current form: cool, contemporary and spacey at the same time. Going back to that video, I think that it could also be used for a psychoanalysis session.

The song belongs to Okamoto's first solo album "gappy" which was released in October 2019. As some trivia, Okamoto was responsible for naming her band Friends. In addition, both of her parents are illustrators, Hideo and Yoshiko Okamoto（岡本英郎・美子）, and she has a love for pickled plums and zombies. Yes, she loves zombies.

Maaya Sakamoto -- Kayoubi（火曜日）

Realizing that considering the title, maybe I'm jumping the gun by putting this one up on a Sunday, but it's a very pleasant Sunday-worthy ballad.

I'm talking about singer-seiyuu Maaya Sakamoto's（坂本真綾）"Kayoubi" (Tuesday), a track from her November 2019 10th album "Kyou dake no Ongaku"（今日だけの音楽...Music for Just Today）. This was another recommendation from that commenter who had also recommended fellow voice actor Saori Hayami's（早見沙織）"Yuuei"（遊泳）the other day with the reason being that both songs were created by former Kirinji member Yasuyuki Horigome（堀込泰行）.

Like Hayami and "Yuuei", Sakamoto's "Kayoubi" has nothing to do with an anime as far as I know, but sometimes I think it would have been placed as an ideal ending tune for one. It's as calming as chamomile tea as the singer reminisces about a past romance that was abruptly ended on a Tuesday, and judging from the music, it looks like it was a fairly bittersweet breakup with the emphasis on the sweet part. The arrangement reminds me a bit of a Tomita Lab concoction. As for "Kyou dake no Ongaku", the album managed to reach No. 11 on Oricon.

Saori Hayami -- Yuuei（遊泳）

Over the past several years as I got back into anime again thanks to my good friend, the names of the seiyuus also became household words to me. Although I have no real idea what the education is like for Japanese voice actors, I can imagine that they must receive the rigorous training in trying out all sorts of different timbres ranging from high-pitched moe to growly and threatening.

Seiyuu Saori Hayami（早見沙織）was one of the first that I got to know by name since my anime buddy presented a lot of shows that had her in major or recurring roles. Usually, though, if I were asked to describe her usual voice, I would have to say "creamy" based on what I've heard from her characters in series such as "Mangaka-san to Assistant-san to"（マンガ家さんとアシスタントさんと）and "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?"（ご注文はうさぎですか）. Having said that, I was pretty floored when I heard her rough-and-tumble, suffer-no-fools-at-all character of pink-haired Deana Del Rio on the action-comedy "Double Decker! Doug & Kirill".

Therefore, it's not all that often that I get to hear Hayami (or any seiyuu, for that matter) performing a song in a non-anime capacity, but one commenter was kind enough to introduce me to a few songs that had been composed by Yasuyuki Horigome（堀込泰行）, former member of Kirinji and brother of Kirinji vocalist Takaki Horigome（堀込高樹）. One of those songs happens to be the topic of this "Kayo Kyoku Plus" article.

"Yuuei", according to jisho.org, has a couple of meanings. There is the basic one of swimming but there is also the more intriguing one of making one's way in the world. Perhaps Hayami's song is trying to cover both definitions; she provided the lyrics which seem to develop a scene of mystery and romance in some tropical clime thanks to Horigome's bossa nova melody (and there's even some spacey keyboard in the middle which reminds me of some of the more recent Kirinji material that I've been hearing). There's also a mention of a code name in the lyrics so perhaps the heroine is trying get herself out of an espionage jam in South America somewhere.

In any case, "Yuuei" is pleasantly delivered and a nice tune to have with that tall cocktail on the beach chair. But it's also not bad listening while anchored down in a chair in front of a computer. The song is a part of Hayami's 2nd mini-album from March this year, "Sister Cities"（シスターシティーズ）, with that illustration of her getting ready for a vacation. Maybe it could be performed at Rabbit House in the 3rd season of "Gochuumon" under Hayami's guise of author Blue Mountain Aoyama; couldn't really see Dina doing it.

Yasuyuki Horigome -- WHAT A BEAUTIFUL NIGHT

It may just be a Monday but I think it's still great to be out there on a summer night like tonight doing the al fresco thing with some friends or work colleagues. Mind you, it could be a little hot and humid out there but as long as the beer is flowing cold...

Yasuyuki Horigome（堀込泰行）of the band Kirinji（キリンジ）has also done some solo work since the mid-2000s, and if his own output is like what he has done with the band, then I'm all in for it. His "WHAT A BEAUTIFUL NIGHT" from his October 2018 album "What A Wonderful World" sounds very promising if I decide to try out some of his stuff. It all comes across as simultaneously old-style R&B, spacey pop and magical music. Perhaps it was made for couples walking along the boardwalk in the evening somewhere.

The video is also quite noteworthy as the camera simply focuses on actress/model Rena "Non" Nounen（能年玲奈）as she seems to go through some major internal crisis during the four minutes and change of "WHAT A BEAUTIFUL NIGHT" before finding some sort of catharsis by the end. Well, it's either that or she really needs some extra-strength Tylenol.