Yumi Murata -- Roman Express no Shuuchaku Eki（ロマンエクスプレスの終着駅）

From Amazon.jp

I have to admit that seeing singer-songwriter Yumi Murata（村田有美）in that get-up, she looks like the most attractive Borg that I have ever seen this side of the Alpha Quadrant. Yeah, I know about Seven of Nine.

But all joking aside, this is the cover of Murata's December 1986 album "Hysteric Glamour" and it's on the YouTube channel of Island Fantasia who goes by his HRLE92 handle here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus". According to him, the lone noteworthy track on this album is the song of the article, "Roman Express no Shuuchaku Eki" (Terminus of the Roman Express).

The music by Masatoshi Nishimura（西村昌敏）has those City Pop elements but it also feels like the sinewy melody of a mid-1980s action movie soundtrack R&B with the funk and the clanging electric guitar. Murata was responsible for the lyrics. The overall feeling of "Roman Express no Shuuchaku Eki" seems to straddle between that type of movie that I just described above and one of those prime-time soap operas that used to be so popular on American TV (but not really "Dallas" or "Knots Landing", though). I do wonder about how the rest of "Hysteric Glamour" sounds like.

MASH -- LOVE

 

The first time that I heard about this group, I couldn't help but be reminded of the old CBS sitcom-turned-dramedy "M*A*S*H" based on the movie which had in turn been based on the 1968 novel by Richard Hooker. I watched the show in its later years when it was far into providing more drama than loony comedy so I had to rely on the nightly reruns on Canadian TV to catch up on the early years.

Browsing through YouTube, I did discover this group MASH and its funky City Pop tune "LOVE". Couldn't have asked for a more genre-specific song for Urban Contemporary Fridays on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" than this one; it's quite the enjoyable romp through the megalopolis. I just had to find out who these guys were.

Well, it wasn't that difficult to find out at least some information about this MASH which had just that one sole album "MASH" from June 1981. According to his profile on J-Wiki, the group was jazz/fusion keyboardist Naoya Matsuoka's（松岡直也）brief project which didn't last too long since the costumes and the sound level were apparently a little too loud for comfort when his group did appear on stage. That was too bad though since it was quite the lineup in MASH with Yumi Murata（村田有美）on vocals, "Ponta" Murakami（村上秀一）on drums, and Matsuoka himself and Nobuyuki Shimizu（清水信之）on keyboards among other famous studio musicians. On the blog "The Listener of Music Media", I also found out that it was Matsuoka behind the melody and Konosuke Fuji（藤公之介）on the lyrics.

I've seen some sites selling the presumably rare "MASH" for somewhere between 5000 and 6000 yen, but Tower Records has some copies at the saner price of 1,430 yen.

Yumi Murata -- Kanpoo（乾風）

 

There was a running gag on Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show". Whenever anyone complained about the summer temperatures in Los Angeles, Johnny would snidely say "But at least it's a dry heat".😎 We weren't even that lucky in the Tokyo area. Basically from June to late September, we were assaulted with heat and humidity. Many was a day that I woke up leaving a major J-Canuck-shaped sweat stain on my sheets. But I endured. How I endured.

Maybe singer-songwriter Yumi Murata（村田有美）was luckier than most and she ended up recording her 1983 album "Drywindasian" in Los Angeles with its dry heat. With lyrics by her and music by Masanori Sasaji（笹路正徳）, the opening track "Kanpoo" (Dry Wind) is quite the R&B stomp and the style is pretty reminiscent of some of Minako Yoshida's（吉田美奈子）material back around the same time. It's also got quite the funk in there so there will also be strutting among the stomping at the same time. Love the guitar and the horns, too.

An English version of "Kanpoo" was also made into the B-side for Murata's single "Pigtail" from the same year. For that version, Chris Mosdell provided the lyrics. According to Jisho.org, though, the proper reading for the kanji of the title is karakaze.

Yumi Murata -- Mr. Romance（Ｍｒ．ロマンス）/Let It Blow

                                         

I've decided to go with a couple of Yumi Murata's（村田有美）songs today to start off the usual J-urban contemporary Friday since they are both worthy of mention now.

(37:12)

Murata's debut single was "Mr. Romance" in 1979, something that I made mention of when I wrote up her first article on KKP over two years ago, "Krishna"（クリシュナ）. It's quite the fascinating and creamy City Pop tune since it's one of those songs that acts like a good scotch. 

"Mr. Romance" has feelings of both Junko Yagami（八神純子）and Junko Ohashi（大橋純子）and perhaps even some Miki Matsubara（松原みき）and Machiko Watanabe（渡辺真知子）not just in their respective vocals but also through the arrangements which include the de rigueur Fender Rhodes and a lonely trumpet that seems to reflect the sad shuffle that the protagonist is doing on the concrete of those Tokyo streets at night, although there is also some of that dreaminess in there. It's got quite the pedigree in the songwriting as well with lyricist Yu Aku（阿久悠）and composer Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）providing some classy City Pop from the turn of the decade. I'm assuming that "Mr. Romance" also got its appearance on Murata's debut album "1st".

Speaking of "Krishna" which was the title track from her August 1980 2nd album, the track that starts that particular album off is "Let It Blow". And yep, Murata really does let it blow here beginning with some dramatic and suspenseful strings for a good 30 seconds before this incredible Steely Dan/Bobby Caldwell-like melody comes pouring in along with the singer's voice thrown to 11 on the dial. A couple of her collaborators in the recording booth contributed to the creation of "Let It Blow": Satoshi Murakawa（村川聡）was the lyricist who was also helping out on background vocals for the album while saxophonist Yasuaki Shimizu（清水靖晃）composed the song. There's a form of tug-of-war among the downtown funk, another round of sky-high dreaminess, and plain ol' action drama with guitarist Takayuki Hijikata（土方隆行）emphasizing some of that. Not sure how the rest of the album goes outside of the title track but "Let It Blow" strikes down a loud first step.

Yumi Murata -- Ranhansha（乱反射）

 

My first article (relatively recently in March 2019) on City Pop/J-R&B singer Yumi Murata（村田有美）was for "Krishna"（クリシュナ）released in 1980. Impression-wise, I thought that here was another singer who's been criminally under the radar with her voice and surrounding arrangements.

Since then, I've come up with at least a couple of more articles on her, but this one covers one of her earliest numbers. "Ranhansha" (Diffuse Reflection...yes, I know; it sounds better in Japanese) is actually the B-side to what I think is her debut single "Mr. Romance"（Mr.ロマンス）from 1979. From what I've heard so far of Murata, there's been that line straddled between City Pop and straight-on American R&B but with "Ranhansha", I think it's solidly within the former with that bass and keyboard work (dang fine sax, too). I just imagine Tokyo instead of Tokyo and Los Angeles.

"Ranhansha" was composed by Katsuo Ono（大野克夫）, a fellow who knows a bit about the funky side of kayo kyoku as seen in his creation of the theme song for the iconic TV cop series "Taiyo ni Hoero"（太陽にほえろ）. The lyrics were provided by Yu Aku（阿久悠）which surprised me a little since I'd always known him for writing more for the aidoru and more traditional kayo genres, but then again, he did write a song for New Wave/rock band Sheena & The Rokkets as you can see in the Creator article for the man.

Not sure how it ever did on Oricon, but "Ranhansha" also made it onto Murata's debut album "Yumi Murata First" also from 1979.

Yumi Murata -- Stay With Me, My Love

Back in December last year, I wrote up an article about Yumi Murata's（村田有美）funky "Fushigi Okite"（不思議起きて）from her 1985 album "Uterus, Uterus".

Well, from that same release comes "Stay With Me, My Love" which is more on the City Pop/AOR dividing line. It aims for a ballad style with some slight oomph as the ever-calming fluegelhorn and chorus are paired with some injection of additional sharp horns later on. Good for any time of the day, and according to JASRAC, Murata provided lyrics while Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）came up with the appealing music.

I'm currently on a no-purchase policy for the next number of months at least until the end of tax season, but I'm gonna have to see whether I can track "Uterus, Uterus" down.

Yumi Murata -- Fushigi Okite（不思議起きて）

Earlier this year, I discovered singer-songwriter Yumi Murata（村田有美）and her brand of City Pop/R&B on YouTube, so I figured that I would try giving her songs a listen, and I was quite happy with the results. So I wrote about her 1980 "Krishna" which is about as far away from a Buddhist chant that one can get. Wonderful voice, nice cool bass.

Let's jump ahead in her career about 5 years and here is this album by Murata with the standout title of "Uterus, Uterus" released in 1985. Well, the wonderful voice is back as is the nice cool bass. One track from there is "Fushigi Okite" (Strangeness, Wake Up!), and this time, the voice and bass are joined by some good smacks on the snare and the fine feeling of post-disco to create a brief soundtrack for a jaunt downtown on a Saturday night.

Described at the Rare Groove website as a Japanese boogie number, I'm cool with that as well. According to the JASRAC database, "Fushigi Okite" was written by Murata with Masanori Sasaji（笹路正徳）as the composer. Now, if only "Uterus, Uterus" were readily available.

Yumi Murata -- Krishna（クリシュナ）

Uh...no, I realize that is the Buddha in Kamakura and has nothing to do with one of the major deities in Hinduism, but this was the closest that I could get to putting up any sort of thumbnail that has something to do with a religious icon.

Still, I wanted to kill two birds with one stone here. The first bird was the easy one since it's been a few days since I had put up a good ol' City Pop tune, and the second bird was introducing singer Yumi Murata（村田有美）to the pages of "Kayo Kyoku Plus". I've seen her around YouTube quite a lot and she has made her presence felt on Van Paugam's radio and New J-Channel on the platform as well.

Unfortunately, the same can't be said about her biography or full discography. I had to glean bits and pieces here and there, and what I could find was that she was born in Tokyo in 1957, and made her debut with the single "Mr. Romance" in 1979. Then in August 1980, she released the album "Krishna" (known in English as "The Krishna" [definite article, you might say]).

Gotta say that I love the bass and the funk here with the title track. To give fine credit where credit is due, the bass is played by Yasuo Tomikura（富倉安生）and the tight brass is provided by the MARIAH Super Horn Section, according to Amazon. I couldn't find out who wrote the lyrics or provided the melody, but Murata herself gives some sexy voice to "Krishna", purring here and soaring there. The beat is relentless. I was asked recently what would be good City Pop songs that could even play on the classic "Soul Train". Well, here may be another one.

According to her website, Murata is currently a vocal trainer.