Yuki Matsuura -- Taiyo no Futurizm（太陽のFuturizm）

 

Futurism was an early 20th-century Italian avant-garde artistic and social movement that championed dynamism, speed, technology, and the modern world, while vehemently rejecting tradition and the past. Launched by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti with his 1909 Manifesto of Futurism, the movement celebrated machines like cars and airplanes, the energy of the industrial city, and violence, with its influence seen in visual arts, poetry, and music. Key artists included Umberto Boccioni and Giacomo Balla.

The above is what I got when I threw the term "futurism" into the Google search engine. I've always been interested in what the future may bring in terms of architecture and lifestyle but reading the above, I think that my naïve and optimistic thoughts about what life might be like several hundred years later aren't quite the same as what the futurists in many European countries might have surmised a century ago. For one thing, I do like some of the past and traditional elements to be retained.

Anyways, before we end up heading into a university library together, let's take a look at singer-songwriter Yuki Matsuura's（松浦有希）"Taiyo no Futurizm" (Futurizm of the Sun). First getting exposed to listeners' ears as a track on her 3rd album "Stella Bambina" from August 1997, it hits the nostalgic parts of my brain because of the 1990s dance-pop arrangement that has some little hints of City Pop groove. The rock part surges in near the end for this song that was written and composed by Matsuura. Sharing space on the album is Matsuura's "Watashirashiku"（私らしく）.

Yuki Matsuura -- invisible circle

 

Singer-songwriter Yuki Matsuura's（松浦有希）"Kayo Kyoku Plus" file has existed since 2013 when Marcos V. first wrote about a song that she had penned for singer and seiyuu Megumi Hayashibara (林原 めぐみ), "Forever Dreamer" from 1995. Come to think of it, she's come up with a number of songs for seiyuu and anime such as "Watashirashiku"（私らしく）that had originally been recorded by Houko Kuwashima（桑島法子）and then covered by Matsuura.

However, the Tokyo-born singer isn't just focused on anison. She's had her own crop of pop songs without any attachment to anime and one example is the title song from her June 1999 4th album "invisible circle". Writing, composing and arranging everything for this one, "invisible circle" seems to possess the groove from two generations: the one of 80s soul and perhaps even one of 50s or 60s beatnik jazz. If my first Matsuura song had been this one, I wouldn't have imagined that she was the frequent song creator for many an anime.

I've yet to write very much on Matsuura herself, so just to finish things up here, I can say that her father is saxophonist Yasunobu Matsuura（松浦ヤスノブ）. After dropping out of Baika Women's University in Tokyo in 1987, her first composition was "Lavender Monogatari"（ラベンダー物語...Lavender Story） for aidoru Emi Fukunaga（福永恵規）and then her debut as a singer came in 1990 with the single "Taikutsu wo Taberu Baku"（たいくつをたべるバク...Boredom-Eating Tapir）. Matsuura has also been in duos with her first one being Liaison in 1996 with composer/arranger Kiyoshi Yoshida（吉田潔） and then in 2003, she joined seiyuu Masayo Kurata（倉田雅世） to form Yukikura（ユキクラ）.

Yuki Matsuura -- Watashirashiku（私らしく）

Back in April 2017, I wrote up an article about an anison that caught my ears from the show "Kido Senkan Nadesico"（機動戦艦ナデシコ...Martian Successor Nadesico）, sung by seiyuu Houko Kuwashima（桑島法子）, that had the same effect as strawberries and cream in June.

For whatever insane reason, I never wrote down about who had created "Watashirashiku" in the original article. Allow me to rectify that omission, then, by stating that it was singer-songwriter Yuki Matsuura（松浦有希）who came up with this very pleasant song. Composer and producer Kiyoshi Yoshida（吉田潔）also helped out in the creation and arrangement of the music.

Matsuura provided a self-cover of "Watashirashiku" on her 3rd album "Stella Bambina" from August 1997. Dang, the intro for both versions is still splendid and I do like the harmonica in Matsuura's cover. It's a nice way to finish the work week.

Houko Kuwashima -- Watashirashiku （私らしく）

As I mentioned in my last anime article, I didn't particularly hear any instant anison earworms for the spring 2017 season among the various themes when I visited my anime buddy's house earlier today. However, there was the usual anison hour there and I did get to hear something that was really quite pleasant.

I never saw the 90s anime "Kido Senkan Nadesico"（機動戦艦ナデシコ...Martian Successor Nadesico）although I have heard the title many times before. Plus I have to admit that each time I heard it, I was strangely reminded of snacks like Ritz Crackers.

The ending theme for the anime was something that I did hear for the first time this afternoon. "Watashirashiku" (Being Myself) was sung by Houko Kuwashima（桑島法子）who also had a starring seiyuu role in the series as Yurika Misumaru, and it was released as part of the single which also featured the opening theme "YOU GET TO BURNING" by Yumi Matsuzawa（松澤由美）from October 1996.

With all of the hard rock and cutesy aidoru-like anison that I've heard, "Watashirashiku" can be placed in that nice place of solid pop. I made the past observation that a number of anison sounded as if they had been created 5~10 years before the actual anime, and I think "Watashirashiku" can also be thought of in the same vein, although perhaps the arrangement can be considered to be 90s.

The single broke the Top 10 by peaking at No. 9 and for Kuwashima, this was her debut single. Speaking of Kuwashima, the name did sound familiar to me so I looked her up on J-Wiki and discovered that several years later, she portrayed the latest incarnation of Yuki Mori on "Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2199"（宇宙戦艦ヤマト2199...Space Battleship Yamato 2199）in 2013.

November 30 2018: Allow me to show you the cover version of "Watashirashiku" by the songwriter herself, Yuki Matsuura（松浦有希）.

Megumi Hayashibara -- Forever Dreamer

It’s very difficult for me to talk about Megumi Hayashibara (林原 めぐみ). She was the first singer I ever liked, and still is my favorite. Don’t ask me why, because I probably can’t answer this rationally. But fanboyism apart, I’m going to introduce in this article one of so many songs that I like from her: “Forever Dreamer”. As the article got bigger than I originally thought it would, it’s important to rise to the occasion: I’m going to use this particular song to analyze some of the changes suffered by the italo-disco/eurobeat musical genre in Japan from the late 80s to mid 90s.

“Forever Dreamer” was never released as a single, and it was included in Hayashibara’s sixth album, “Enfleurage”, released in March 1995. Indeed, as I check Enfleurage’s booklet, I see that the song was firstly released in the anime album “MINKY MOMO in Tabidachi no Eki” (ミンキーモモ 旅だちの駅) in May 1994, supporting an OVA (Original Video Animation) of the same name.

The song itself is a nostalgic synth-pop ballad with some reminiscent eurobeat elements  from the late 80s/early 90s popping out in the instrumental backtrack. Even the out-of-place-at-first-sight guitar solo before the last choruses sounds fine after a few listens. All in all, it’s a very charming song that rescues a particular sonority in a time when eurobeat was turning out into something quite different from the old italo-disco sound that it was labeled from. In that sense, songs like “TRY ME ~Watashi wo Shinjite~” [TRY ME ～私を信じて～] by Amuro Namie with SUPER MONKEYS and “TORA TORA TORA” by MAX, both released in 1995, are examples of hit singles released with this “new eurobeat style” (It’s important to remember, though, that both songs are covers of original Italian eurobeat songs. Those are “TRY ME” by Lolita and “TORA TORA TORA” by Domino). If the reader checks out those two tracks, he/she will probably agree with me that the “new eurobeat style”, although still made by the Italians and recognized by them as the same italo-disco, was more “frenetic” if compared with the old italo classics from mid-to-late 80s. From that point of view, I find “Forever Dreamer” kind of dislocated in time, and would not be surprised to listen it in a late 80s/early 90s album from Wink or Chisato Moritaka, as both acts were recording a lot of eurobeat tunes at the time. Megumi herself have a lot of italo-disco/eurobeat influenced songs in her early albums (“Manatsu no Valentine” [真夏のバレンタイン], from 1991’s album “Half and, Half”; “NAGARE BOSHI” [翔星 -NAGARE BOSHI-] from 1992’s album “WHATEVER”; and “DON’T SIGH” from 1993’s album “SHAMROCK”, to name a few). Some of those songs have more explicit eurobeat influences than “Forever Dreamer” which, as I’ve already pointed out, is a synth-pop ballad. However, we can’t call those Megumi’s songs “REAL” eurobeat tracks, because they were not made for nightclubs. Therefore, the final product ended having a poppier, more aidoru-oriented sound not so distant from what Japan had been doing since the 70s.

Here is the music video for “TORA TORA TORA” by MAX, an example of the “new eurobeat sound”.

Now, for comparison, I've chosen a Michael’s Fortunati song from 1986 called “Give Me Up”. This song, an italo-disco classic covered by the Japanese aidoru duo BaBe in 1987, is the first track of the first volume of a Japanese eurobeat compilation from 1986 called “That’s Eurobeat”. From that song, we can obtain an idea of what was sold as eurobeat in Japan back then.

(I'm sorry but the video has been taken down.)

To finish the video showout, I picked up the music video for Manatsu no Valentine by Megumi Hayashibara, an example of eurobeat influenced Japanese song with an aidoru approach. And don’t let Megumi’s lovely face and vocals forget you to pay attention to the instrumental backtrack.

Finishing the article, I can say that, for me, “Forever Dreamer” is kind of a lost gem. And, as I said before, it’s a nostalgic song. At some point of my life, I thought we had to have personal memories linked to a song to consider it nostalgic, but my father taught me that a song can have a nostalgic quality the first time you listen to it. Although I don’t remember what I thought of “Forever Dreamer” when I listened to the “Enfleurage” album for the first time back in 2005, I can say that, today, it’s one of my favorites Megumi songs, and I blame Megumi’s beautiful vocals and, particularly, the very dated synth arrangement for that.

“Forever Dreamer” was written and composed by Yuki Matsuura (松浦有希) and the arrangement was made by Masaki Iwamoto (岩本正樹). As for the “Enfleurage” album, it ranked No. 6 on the weekly Oricon charts, selling over 97,000 (source: generasia).

To finish the article with an image, that's my own copy of Megumi's Enfleurage.