Yuko Sugita -- Kira Kira（キラキラ）

 

Yes, the above video was so soothing that despite its ten-second run time, I almost got hooked into its sneaky clutches. Beware the glitter!

But you should be totally OK with this video showing singer-songwriter Yuko Sugita's（杉田優子）"Kira Kira" which coincidentally enough means "Glitter". For one thing, "Kira Kira" was written and composed by Sugita herself and despite what the title might imply considering its release in 1978, it's not a disco number at all. In fact, I'd say that it belongs more on the farm with its most congenial and cheerful arrangement of country, although I can still hear the synthy haze effect of City Pop and some other electronic keyboard stuff. The song was a track on Sugita's album "Monsoon Baby" along with "Senritsu"（旋律）.

Yuko Sugita -- Senritsu（旋律）

 

When KKP contributor nikala first introduced singer-songwriter Yuko Sugita（杉田優子）all the way back in October 2014 through her article on "Shuu Densha" (終電車), she made it abundantly clear that there wasn't a whole lot of information about her. That hasn't really changed but I was able to find out from "Idol.ne.jp" that Sugita did release a total of three singles and two albums between 1978 and 1979.

Since nikala's first article, I've added some more to the Sugita file with a couple of more songs: "Maryoku"（魔力）and "Surfing Musume"（サーフィン娘）because, as my fellow contributor has mentioned, she's pretty darn interesting. And that holds true for this entry "Senritsu" (Melody) which was actually the second of Sugita's three singles. It was released in July 1978, and I was able to find out through Discogs that the singer had some good help in the recording of the song for which she provided words and music.

First off, Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）arranged "Senritsu" which begins with this distinctive combination of regular strings and synth-strings with the latter provided by Masataka Matsutoya（松任谷正隆）. My first thought was that "Senritsu" was a certain type of New Music tune whose setting was somewhere out in Paris but listening to it a few more times, I realized that there was also some bossa nova mixed in there just like with Keiko Maruyama's（丸山圭子）classic "Douzo Kono Mama" (どうぞこのまま）, and then I picked up on the underlying rhythm which felt like typical 1970s City Pop. Indeed, it is quite the fascinating senritsu, and overall, I found it cool and cooling.

In addition to Suzuki, who was on electric guitar, and Matsutoya, Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）was on bass, Tatsuo Hayashi（林立夫）was on drums, Hidetoshi Yamada（山田秀俊）was on electric piano and synthesizer, and the rest of the percussion was provided by Nobu Saito（斉藤ノブ）. "Senritsu" was also a track on Sugita's first album "Monsoon", just like "Shuu Densha".

Yuko Sugita -- Surfing Musume（サーフィン娘）

 

I'm not sure what the status of surfing is anywhere around the globe right now, but I'm hoping that enthusiasts will be able to hang ten again sometime in the near future. Never thought once about taking up that pastime because physics will be brutal toward me.

Ahem...anyways, I've got a nice slice of Margaritaville here with singer-songwriter Yuko Sugita's（杉田優子）"Surfing Musume" (Surfing Girl). This was a track from Sugita's 2nd album "American Comics"  and indeed it was written and composed by the singer. With arrangements by Shigeru Suzuki（鈴木茂）, I'd probably say that this winning song is more on the gentle AOR side when compared with its track mate "Maryoku"（魔力）that I wrote about last year.

Now that we are on the cusp of June and therefore the summer months, "Surfing Musume" is appropriately summery and breezy. The addition of what sounds like a mandolin might also bring the song into that category of exotic kayo, a Japanese pop subgenre that was fairly popular in the late 1970s and probably had folks wanting to grab their ANA or JAL tickets as soon as possible. Again, I hope that surfing is having its fun somewhere. Maybe I'll check with JTM on how things are since he's out in Hawaii.

Yuko Sugita -- Maryoku（魔力）

Over 5 years ago, nikala wrote about a little-known singer named Yuko Sugita（杉田優子）and her cheerful song "Shuu Densha"（終電車）. She mentioned that Sugita had released a couple of albums and a handful of singles before leaving the recording booth for good.

"Maryoku" (Magic) is then from her 2nd album "American Comics" (1979). Written and composed by the singer, Sugita concocts some Japanese City Boogie with the assistance of a honky-tonk piano and what sounds like a beefy saxophone or electric guitar. Although Sugita doesn't sound anything like her, "Maryoku" has that feeling of a Junko Yagami（八神純子）tune from around the same era and weaves a scene of the down-and-dirty night life somewhere in Tokyo.

Though I try not to romanticize past decades since I know that all of them had their various problems and issues, hearing "Maryoku" does make me wonder how music and life were like back in Tokyo circa 1979. But then again, I had my taste of the megalopolis for a month a couple of years later. It was literally a life-changing period.

Yuko Sugita -- Shuu Densha (終電車)

When I first googled Yuko Sugita’s kanji (杉田優子) to look for samples of her music after coming across a curious cover of her first LP “Monsoon Baby” (モンスーン・ベイビー) on Stereo Records, I had to waddle through numerous pages of another opera singer with the same name before getting any relevant results. There’s almost no information available online on this singer-songwriter from the late 70’s. No CD reissues of her albums either. The little I could gather came from a brief post here and musician credits from Stereo Records. Being such an obscure singer, she had some prolific people backing her up, including Ryuichi Sakamoto (坂本龍一), Tatsuo Hayashi (林立夫), Tsugutoshi Goto (後藤次利), and Shigeru Suzuki (鈴木茂) (who also arranged her music). Sugita herself released only two albums and a few singles between 1978 and 1979 and then disappeared from the scene altogether, aside from random appearance on a backing chorus at Amii Ozaki’s 1983 concert. I tend to be interested in unknown names, but her story just takes the cake in obscurity competition.

Despite Sugita’s lack of publicity, she is a pretty interesting singer. Her music is typical pop with a New Music touch, which was trendy at the time, but she delivers it in snappy fashion which I found refreshing, since I associate the genre with a more languid mood. “Shuu Densha” (終電車…Last Train) is a mid-tempo track with a somewhat rollicking attitude. Not sure what the lyrics are going on about, but I like that swaying rhythm created through the bass, the drums and the percussions in the background. Latter half Candies sprang to mind as I was listening to this, but I’m sure there are more appropriate comparisons.

Here’s the title track from the album. Some fun driving music. Like I mentioned above, much of her material is pretty upbeat.

I ended up parting with some of my cash to obtain the LP at the end. Liked what I heard and besides, it's always nice to own some rarities.