Mamiko Suzuki -- Ame to（雨と）

 

Several years ago, I posted an article by the rap duo chelmico when they provided the unusual anime "Eizouken ni wa Te o Dasu na!"（映像研には手を出すな!...Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!）with their catchy "Easy Breezy". I've been kinda wondering how they've been doing.

Well, one-half of the duo, Mamiko Suzuki（鈴木真海子）, recently recorded a solo in the last few months which combines some of her rap with some summery samba. I don't think I ever encountered a samba rap before but then again, I think her delivery approaches more of an old-fashioned spoken-word tune. The short-and-sweet song here is "Ame to" (And the Rain). According to one other YouTube video, it's also been titled "chuva" which means "rain" in Brazilian Portuguese, and it was written and composed by Suzuki with Ryo Takahashi also on composing duties. I like her delivery here which reminds me of some of the lower register of bossa nova singers such as Lisa Ono and Astrud Gilberto.

I'd almost forgotten that "Ame to" was also used as the opening theme for the Summer 2025 anime "Kimi to Ame to" (雨と君と...With You and the Rain) involving a reclusive young writer and a...dog, supposedly. Quite the perfect matchup between anison and gentle slice-of-life anime here. But "Ame to" also makes for a nice goodbye to summer.

chelmico -- Sunburn

 

Had the above photo of Kayo Grace and Mr. Calico picking apples for another article but forgot the opportunity to put it up, so I've decided to just post it up here. I figure that even in November, there are still some more apples to be harvested.

Ironically enough, this is a summer tune. Yes, although we officially went back to Eastern Standard Time from Daylight Savings Time overnight, thereby deepening the stamp that we are definitely in autumn and the days are getting shorter, I'm still doing a summer tune. But, mind you, summer has been unusually stubborn in 2024. We're still getting days of temperature in the low 20s Celsius so the season is being dragged away by its fingernails.

Anyways, I offer you "Sunburn" by the rap duo chelmico, the first track on their September 2024 EP "ati natu ep". Written and composed by chelmico's Rachel and Mamiko with Yazzy Beats also helping out on the melody, the ladies are still spitting those words out at a goodly amount of speed but it's a little more chill and resort-like rather than downtown alley. Certainly, the music video looks like Rachel and Mamiko were taking the kids out on a luxury field trip.

Tomita Lab -- M-P-C "Mentality, Physicality, Computer" (Part 1)

 

Over the past decade of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", I've really cottoned onto the works of musician, producer and arranger Keiichi Tomita（冨田恵一）, aka Tomita Lab（冨田ラボ）, and I've managed to collect some of the fellow's albums including his early 2000s "Shipbuilding" and "Shiplaunching". Unfortunately, his very first album when he was one-half of the duo KEDGE in the late 1980s, "Complete Samples", remains the rarest of the rare but is a fun release in which his music was very different back then.

During my recent Christmas splurge at CD Japan, I bought Tomita Lab's 6th album from October 2018, "M-P-C 'Mentality, Physicality, Computer'" on the strength of one of the tracks, the poppy and boppy "Let It Ride" as sung by Kento Nagatsuka（長塚健斗）of the soul group WONK. And once more, Tomita has continued the tradition of bringing a number of other singers from all over to help record the album with him.

Regrettably, there's isn't a lot written about what "M-P-C" is all about. In fact, I only had the obi for the album to inform me that Tomita had wanted to address the necessary triumvirate of mentality, physicality and the computer for what is contemporary human life, and so, this 2018 release has that concept. The first track is "Introduction", an instrumental which begins with a metropolis' sounds and then a harp with some accompanying dissonance. Then, a combination of pumping percussion, voices and strings go for some good ol' cacophony for the remainder of the one minute and change.

Track 2 is the title track itself featuring MC and track maker (and lyricist) Ryohu from the hip-hop group KANDYTOWN (which will be ending its time in a couple of months). As Ryohu raps the light fantastic just like the J-R&B folks from the early 2000s, Tomita's warm melody of soulful horns and piano lays the foundation of what life is like in the opening decades of the 21st century: the real vs. the unreal, the analog vs. the digital. It could almost be a musical description of "The Matrix".

Ryosuke Nagaoka（長岡亮介）from Tokyo Jihen（東京事変）joins in for "Password"（パスワード）which strikes me as being a mildly synthpop Track 3. However, the Tomita Lab tropes of grooviness and ASMR-inducing chorus are back here as well. As for the lyrics, I received the impression that a couple's surrounding environment isn't quite as robust as first thought. Maybe they are in a holodeck on the Enterprise?

The final song for Part 1 is "Arpeggio"（アルペジオ）by the rap duo chelmico. Three years ago, I first wrote about Rachel and Mamiko because they had come up with the hyperspeed "Easy Breezy", the opening theme song for the 2020 anime "Eizouken ni wa Te o Dasu na!"（映像研には手を出すな!...Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!）. Now, buying "M-P-C", I've found out that they had also helped Tomita Lab with another chrome-lined track. As has been the ritual so far, chelmico provided the lyrics which seem to break the fourth wall in that they openly ask Tomita-san about what they should be rapping about. Mind you, Rachel and Mamiko get their bearings extremely quickly as they let folks know that everyone ought to chill, hang out and have a good time.

I ought to have Part 2 of 3 out sometime next week. But so far, I'm getting the feeling that Tomita Lab wanted to add in that "Computer" part of the title via the appropriate instrumentation. 

chelmico -- Easy Breezy

As I mentioned the night before, my anime buddy is currently vacationing in Japan but will be back on Canadian soil this weekend. However, that will mean that our own incursion into the beginning of the Winter 2020 season of anime will be delayed (and for that matter, the ending of Autumn 2019 will be even more delayed).

However, I've already gotten my eyes and ears pricked up for one of the new entries this month. Once again, it involves a trio of wacky high school girls but there's something interesting about this show, "Eizouken ni wa Te o Dasu na!"（映像研には手を出すな!...Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!）just in the terms of the design of the characters and settings. Plus, the first piece of music used for the commercial advertising it has gotten my attention, too, since it sounds like something that would be ideal in a Tarentino flick.

Then, there is the opening theme for "Eizouken" that has managed to hatch out of its egg and bury itself into my ear like that Ceti eel larva which dined on a bit of Russian via Commander Chekov in "Star Trek II". With every citing of "easy breezy" by the rap duo chelmico, the earworm will inevitably reach the success of its mission.

"Easy Breezy" is their latest single that will be released in about 10 days after this writing by this pair consisting of Rachel and Mamiko. They sound a bit like the second coming of Puffy with more attitude and rat-a-tat dance beats (and that picture of them in their website profile looks like they borrowed Ami and Yumi's fashion sense), and from the YouTube comments, there will be an infestation of earworms if there hasn't been one already. The two of them were responsible for words and music with Ryo Takahashi also working on the melody. Along with the singles, chelmico, who started up in 2016, has put out 3 albums and 2 mini-albums.

Putting up the first article of 2020 in the form of a really catchy anison of an anime that I have yet to see isn't exactly unprecedented on "Kayo Kyoku Plus". I recollect something similar happening three years ago.