FUNKY MONKEY BΛBY'S -- Ato Hitotsu（あとひとつ）

 

From Oricon.jp

FUNKY MONKEY BΛBY'S is a band that I have heard from time to time although I never really got into them while I was living in Japan. But during their first time in the spotlight between 2004 and 2013, the face of FUNKY MONKEY BΛBY'S was always the fellow that you see above, DJ Chemical（DJケミカル）, in my opinion. Whenever I entered a Tower Records or an HMV in Tokyo, I sometimes saw that band member's comely visage on a CD case beaming widely at me. His real name is Tomofumi Tanokura（田野倉智文）.

I think that another trope regarding FUNKY MONKEY BΛBY'S is that the arrangement of the band during concerts has consistently been MC Funky Kato（ファンキー加藤）and MC Monkichi（モン吉）in front side-to-side while DJ Chemical is in the back in the centre behind his turntables. And yet, DJ Chemical doesn't spin anything in performance. From what I've read in his J-Wiki profile is that though he is indeed an experienced disc jockey, he feels that he gets a little too dour in his work so in the music videos and concerts, he doesn't bother with the equipment and just gets into the dancing and keeping the beat to get the audience all excited.

From YouTube

As you can see and hear in the video above, the song by the Tokyo-based band is "Ato Hitotsu" (Just One More), their 14th single released in August 2010. I got to listen to it in earnest for the first time last night when NHK's "Uta Con"（うたコン）was broadcasting from Osaka. Although FUNKY MONKEY BΛBY'S had broken up in 2013, the two MCs without DJ Chemical started things up again last year, and they showed up on "Uta Con" to play one of their most well-remembered singles.

Yet another characteristic of the group is that as far as their album/single covers along with their music videos are concerned, FUNKY MONKEY BΛBY'S bring in celebrities to have their faces and presences on them. In the case of "Ato Hitotsu", the face on the cover is that of former New York Yankees and current Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles pitcher Masahiro Tanaka（田中将大）; he also shows up in the video, too.

Used as the theme song for the 2010 edition of the annual summer high school baseball championships (a must-see for just about everyone in Japan) at Koshien Stadium, the band and singer-songwriter Yuka Kawamura（川村結花）fashioned "Ato Hitotsu" into this inspirational song of never giving up and crawling through all the muck to success. Not surprisingly, "Uta Con" had Kato and Monkichi on the show last night to perform "Ato Hitotsu" as part of the segment dedicated to all of those Koshien-friendly tunes. Its popularity led it to being used for a number of sports shows including the TV Asahi broadcast of the 2010 championships.

"Ato Hitotsu" was a hit on the charts, peaking at No. 8. It was also included on their fourth original album, logically titled "FUNKY MONKEY BABYS 4". Released in December 2011, it hit No. 1 and ended up becoming the 20th-ranked album for 2012. The band also performed the song during their second of four consecutive appearances (2009-2012) on the Kohaku Utagassen.

One more intriguing thing about the band is their name itself. Considering that the 1970s rock band Carol had come up with their hit "Funky Monkey Baby" (ファンキー・モンキー・ベイビー), I've wondered if Kato, Monkichi and Chemical had based their name on that particular song. As for how the now former member DJ Chemical got his nom de guerre, apparently when he was in elementary school, he had won the 2nd annual Chemical (Acid) Washed Jeans concert so his mates called him Chemical (another childhood moniker for him was apparently Meat Pie).

Takako Matsu -- Koishii Hito (コイシイヒト)

Ahh, the lovely Takako Matsu（松たか子）! She has been quite the presence on Japanese TV whether it be through the various commercials and her time as one of the big stars in many a drama, notably starring with Takuya Kimura（木村拓哉）of SMAP in shows such as "Love Generation" and "HERO". In fact, I thought those two were becoming the J-Dorama version of Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy (aye, I know I'm stretching it here but I did have to analogize) at one point.

Plus, she comes from quite the family of performers. To start off, her father is Koshiro Matsumoto IX（九代目 松本幸四郎）, a famed kabuki actor who has also appeared in his fair share of television dramas including the Fuji-TV show from 1995 "Ou-sama no Restaurant"（王様のレストラン...Restaurant de Roi） in which he played a charismatic legendary waiter of a French restaurant. Then, there is her older brother, Somegoro Ichikawa VII（七代目 市川染五郎） who is another kabuki actor/actor, and another acting older sister whose husband is also a thespian. And it seems that I've only started with that list. Matsu herself has attained a title according to Wikipedia which is Koka Matsumoto I（初代 松本幸華）as the first master of the Matsumoto School of Nippon Buyo (Japanese dance). I gather that if there is an acting family that could be compared to the Barrymores or Carradines in the United States, this family could be it.

Matsu has even hosted the Kohaku Utagassen once in 1996 and then appeared on the same show the next year when she debuted as a singer. I never followed all that faithfully to her career but my impression was that her music was in the very mellow pop vein.

She's had her share of hits among the 21 singles she's released up to 2009 including her first 2 releases breaking into the Top 10. However, the song that I've always associated her with has been "Koishii Hito" (The One I Miss) which was her 12th single from March 2001.

It went as high as No. 16 on Oricon but I just thought that this was the musical footprint that she left for me. The music by singer-songwriter Yuka Kawamura（川村結花）is perfect for listening in that small but stylish cafe in the wilds of Aoyama or Omotesando, and Matsu's singing is so mellow that I could take my coffee black without needing cream as my ears take it all in. Both Matsu and Kawamura collaborated on the lyrics. It is interesting how the song starts up as if the orchestra was warming up, though.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x24nu3f_%E6%9D%BE%E3%81%9F%E3%81%8B%E5%AD%90-%E3%82%B3%E3%82%A4%E3%82%B7%E3%82%A4%E3%83%92%E3%83%88_music

The original shortened music video for "Koishii Hito" has also helped retain my enjoyment of the song. There is just something very comforting watching Matsu with her cat under that train overpass while it's playing.

Last year, Matsu gave birth to her first child, a daughter. Since I wasn't really too clued into songwriters or musicians back during my time in Japan, I didn't really pay too much attention to the news when Matsu had married musician-songwriter Yoshiyuki Sahashi（佐橋佳幸）in 2007. He is represented on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" with a couple of compositions for Misato Watanabe（渡辺美里）, "Sentimental Kangaroo" and "Moonlight Picnic" although he has done many more for her and other singers.

Ginza Evening (compilation album)

Back in August 2014, I wrote up an article about Yoko Kuzuya's（葛谷葉子）"Koi"（恋）which was this rich ballad from this compilation album called "Ginza Evening" which was released back in 2001. Looking at the title, I had assumed that there would be a whole bunch of snazzy Mood Kayo songs in there but then on seeing the fuzzy background image on the booklet, I started wondering. And then on giving it a test listen at one of the listening posts in the CD shop, my mind was definitely changed. The tracks were all of a mellow contemporary nature. This was more of spending a quiet rainy Sunday afternoon in a Ginza café (and yep, I have been in a few of those) rather than a raucous night in a Ginza nightclub.

The wonderful thing about picking up these compilation albums is that not only do I re-discover some of those old tunes that had once been gathering dust in the brain but I also get to discover new wonderful songs from artists that I would never have heard unless I buy one of these omnibus releases.

Yoko Kuzuya was one such example. Another is Yuka Kawamura（川村結花）, a singer-songwriter who was born in Osaka. She actually gained (further) fame when she helped pen the SMAP megahit, "Yozora no Mukou"（夜空ノムコウ）in 1998 a few years after she had first debuted. But I didn't get to finally hear the singer part of her until I picked up "Ginza Evening" and listened to her 8th single from February 1999, "Every Breath You Take", and no, it has nothing to do with that early 80s hit by The Police.

Speaking of The Police, I vaguely remember an interview with Sting during which, when told that his song was about loyal devotion to a loved one, he surprisingly countered that one of his band's most famous tunes was actually about stalker-like obsession. I could imagine that interviewer's jaw dropping onto the floor. Kawamura's own "Every Breath You Take" is happily more innocent via the lyrics in which the singer declares her support for that significant other no matter how trying the circumstances. The song does sound as if it had been recorded straight from the floor of an intimate nightclub in front of an audience while Kawamura's vocals and piano have that feeling of a performance from way back in the 1970s. It is also featured on her 3rd album "Lush Life" from April of that same year.

There is a lot to be introspective about when it comes to "Ginza Evening". Another ballad that helps in that endeavour is Akiko Yano's（矢野顕子）"New Song". This was originally from her 1995 album "Piano Nightly", and although "New Song" has that relaxing atmosphere, Yano's words are there to help the listener come out of any gloom and doom.

One of my favourite tracks has been "Kiss no Ondo"（キスの温度...Temperature of a Kiss）by the duo known as wyolica. They have been defined according to Wikipedia as "...a two-piece folk pop/chillout group from Japan". Since I'm not all that well versed on those newfangled genre names, I'm going to imagine that chillout doesn't include bands such as Loudness or X Japan. And certainly "Kiss no Ondo" as purred by vocalist Azumi would probably have me imagining that I was in a tiny hidden cafe in bohemian Shimo-Kitazawa rather than a Renoir (a long-running coffee house chain) in Ginza. That Latin guitar and the mellow keyboards definitely do fine by me. Azumi wrote the lyrics while guitarist so-to and Shinichi "Mondo Grosso" Osawa（大沢伸一）took care of the music. "Kiss no Ondo" first appeared on wyolica's debut album "who said 'La La...'?" from February 2000 which peaked at No. 17 on Oricon.

Crystal Kay was another one of those artists that I saw and listened to during that period when R&B really started making the rounds in J-Pop in the late 1990s and early 2000s along with folks like m-flo and Misia. However, the one song by her that stayed in my brain was the one she debuted with, "Eternal Memories" from July 1999. She recorded this song when she was 13 years old (maybe I can have my niece listen to this one just to provide her with a bit of inspiration) and it was put into heavy rotation merely by having it become the campaign song for a long-running commercial on TV.

Listening to the whole song, there is something haunting but also quite soothing about "Eternal Memories", especially when she sings the mantra:

I will go and try, to find what's in my self
I need to find the way, to find what's in my self
I know it's not that easy, but I'll try

My memory of the original commercial song had it sounding a little more energetic but I still like this slower version that is in "Ginza Evening" since it is going along with the overall mellow tone of the album. Hiroshi Ichikura（一倉宏）and Crystal Kay provided the lyrics while the marvelous Yoko Kanno（菅野よう子）composed the hypnotic melody. Kanno had just created something a whole lot more jazzier the year before.

There are of course a number of other tracks on the album but I will probably give some of them some more individual attention in the near future. But the take-away here is that just like B-sides on an old 45" record, don't count out some of those subtle compilation albums.

SMAP -- Yozora no Mukou （夜空ノムコウ）

This was another SMAP song that seemed to fill the airwaves entirely when it was released. It just felt like I saw the scenes of the guys on that pedestrian bridge on a daily basis on the telly, and that was no surprise since it was such a big hit. In fact, "Yozora no Mukou" (Beyond The Night Sky) placed only 2nd to GLAY's "Yuuwaku"（誘惑）on the Oricon yearly charts for singles in 1998.

I wasn't ever a hugely dedicated SMAP fan in terms of their music but I'd felt that the Johnny's Entertainment group until that point was the group that took over from their sempai group, Hikaru Genji as the 80s went into the 90s. So I had usually thought of SMAP as the boisterous aidoru boy band. But then, "Yozora no Mukou" came along and Nakai-kun and the rest performed this down-to-earth mature contemporary ballad, and I got the impression that SMAP grew up a bit.

Released in January 1998, singer-songwriter Yuka Kawamura（川村結花） came up with the music while singer-songwriter Shikao Suga（スガシカオ） wrote the lyrics....or almost didn't. Allow me to explain that last part. According to the J-Wiki article for "Yozora no Mukou", Suga had been asked to come up with the words for the SMAP song but the request was totally forgotten by the singer until the very day that the lyrics were due. When his manager reminded him while at Tokyo's Haneda Airport en route to a job in Sapporo, Suga pulled off a small miracle by whipping up the words while on the plane and at the hotel in Hokkaido's capital city. Perhaps he must've heard he would have had to deal with an angry KimuTaku if he hadn't gotten it done.

In any case, the rest is history as they say. "Yozora no Mukou" became SMAP's first million-seller and has since been covered by a lot of other artists including the pair who created it. Of course, it hit the top spot on the Oricon weeklies and that invitation to the Kohaku that year came knocking.