cinnamons x evening cinema -- Shibuya de Go-ji（渋谷で5時）

by Benh LIEU SONG via Wikimedia Commons

 

Well, it's been a few years but it looks like the pop group cinnamons and the AOR unit evening cinema have brought their energies together once more (one of their earlier examples is "Fuyu no Tokimeki"（冬のトキメキ）) and this time, it's a cover of a City Pop classic.

A few months ago, cinnamons x evening cinema recorded their own version of "Shibuya de Go-ji" (渋谷で5時...Shibuya at Five） which had been originally sung by Masayuki Suzuki（鈴木雅之）and Momoko Kikuchi（菊池桃子）back in 1994. Can't believe it's been over thirty years but hey, we're a patient lot. Anyways, to also give credit where credit is due which is something that I didn't do when I wrote up the original article, Kanata Asamizu（朝水彼方）took care of the lyrics while Martin himself came up with the thrilling melody with the late Nobuo Ariga（有賀啓雄）being the original arranger. 

"Shibuya de Go-ji" still retains some of that City Pop feeling although I think the arrangement this time around takes things into a slightly more pop direction. But that doesn't detract from the overall effect at all. It still gives off that fun invitation to one of the most exciting centres in Tokyo and I will always love that music video...it does look like the perfect date if the two can find each other by 5 o'clock in the huge masses of humanity around the statue of Hachiko on a Friday night.

cinnamons -- Summer Radio

 

As I've mentioned many a time on the blog, one of the very few things that I've not missed about my former life in Japan is the notoriously hot and humid summer. Summer festivals are lovely and frankly are nearly an obligatory plot setting in anime, and I actually do miss the incessant sounding of the cicadas in the latter part of the season. But the heat and humidity have been meteorological elements that I've been more than happy to do without, although the countermeasures have been fascinating, to be sure.

One of those countermeasures happen to be the wealth of vending machines in Japan including Tokyo. There are so many of them around that they deserve voting rights, and the gratitude that I had whenever I plunked in my coins or slipped in my bills is beyond simple expression. The two of them just steps away from my old Ichikawa apartment were my good buddies whenever I got home as I bought Max Coffee, Pocari Sweat or Calpis along with the usual cola. I had a couple of buddies from the old country who visited and while I was teaching during the day, the two of them did their walkabout of the megalopolis in the dog days of summer. Much to their horror, one of them was burning through his budget buying drinks every 500 metres on the street in Omotesando since he was feeling so hot; they thankfully escaped into a café before heatstroke truly took hold.

Regardless of my swooning over cold drinks in the hot summer, I've got some seasonal fare via cinnamons' "Summer Radio" which was a track on their debut EP "a.m.e" from January 2017. I guess that releasing the CD at that time must have been a counterintuitive measure to bring hope to the masses during the cold winter that sun and warmth were merely some months away. A twinkly keyboard sequence is underlaid by a funk/rock rhythm for Mariko Suzuki's（鈴木まりこ）floaty and effervescent vocals to create some upbeat alternative pop.

Here's hoping that my friends in Tokyo are hanging in there. I heard that high temperatures have been hitting 35 degrees Celsius without taking into account the Humidex.

cinnamons x evening cinema -- Fuyu no Tokimeki（冬のトキメキ）

Winter arrived here at 10:59 am this morning Toronto time and though we didn't get any active snow today, there's still quite a bit of it on the ground. However, there are no guarantees that we will have a White Christmas going into the weekend. Seasonably cold, though.

Just about 18 months ago, I wrote up an article about a duet between two bands, the pop group cinnamons and the more AOR-centric evening cinema as they collaborated on the appropriately summery "Summertime" back in 2017. Well, a year later, cinnamons and evening cinema got back together once again to provide tribute to the cold season this time.

The December 2018 single "Fuyu no Tokimeki" (Winter Crush) is a tune whose lyrics were written by Natsuki Harada（原田夏樹）of evening cinema and Mariko Suzuki（鈴木まりこ）of cinnamons with Harada handling the music. As with "Summertime", "Fuyu no Tokimeki" has Suzuki's "candy voice" and Harada's light soul vocals singing of the setting of a couple of kids hitting the ski slopes and falling in love. Nope, it doesn't have anything to do with Christmas but just brings back the fun of winter sports in a music format just like back in the late 1980s when the ski boom was exploding in the Bubble Era.

I also found this November 2021 Billboard interview with evening cinema that you might want to read.

cinnamons -- Last Scene（ラストシーン）

The final scene at the airport in my all-time favourite black-&-white movie, "Casablanca" may have been one of the first major examples of the main male lead not getting the girl at the end. It was all very bittersweet but although Rick lost Ilsa in the end, the (former) cynic regained his humanity and idealism. Perhaps his buddy Captain Renault did the same as they walked off together.

I'm hoping that the lady in the music video above regains some hope and happiness. The video belongs to cinnamons' July 2017 digital single "Last Scene". A few days ago, I'd written about the duet between this band and evening cinema, "Summertime", and was interested in finding out more about both of them on their own. I've already gotten the evening cinema single up.

With lyrics by vocalist Mariko Suzuki（鈴木まりこ）and music by guitarist Shinji Aoyama（青山慎司）, "Last Scene" is about a woman's commiserations on the aftermath of a relationship that has come to an end. Was it the wrong thing to do? Should she and her former love have kept the faith longer? She apparently harbours at least some embers of affection for him although she may be coming around to the fact that it's probably a past romance now.

What I like about "Last Scene" is the soothing vocals by Suzuki, that Candy Voice that was mentioned in the band's profile. Also, there is also that plucking guitar that plays away throughout the song which reminds me of some of the 1980s pop which I heard regularly on all of those Canadian music video shows. The song has also been placed onto cinnamons' November 2018 album "noon".

cinnamons x evening cinema -- Summertime

Summer is now here. The season has certainly been displayed in Toronto for the past couple of days, though, with plenty of heat and humidity and lots of sun. Considering how enticing it all is out there, I hope that folks are being careful outside under the current pandemic circumstances.

Well, to give some happy greetings to the hot season, I thought that I might try something new, namely in the form of a duet between the two bands cinnamons and evening cinema. I had never heard of either band before coming across their August 2017 collaboration "Summertime" so I will have to focus on them separately, but in the meantime, I'm happy to make my acquaintance with this cheerful number that has Mariko Suzuki（鈴木まりこ）of cinnamons and Natsuki Harada（原田夏樹）of evening cinema sharing vocals, with the latter responsible for words and music.

The band cinnamons formed in 2016 and consists of Suzuki, guitarist Shinji Aoyama（青山慎司）and drummer eric, and their profile (since deleted for some reason but there's their Facebook page) states that their music features "a candy voice and twinkling sound" while providing "music for Japanese TV programs and advertisements". They've also provided their share of CDs and digital downloads including "Summertime" which is one of the latter.

evening cinema is an AOR group which with Harada also includes guitarist Tomohiro Hikawa（樋川智宏）, bassist Kazuaki Yamamoto（山本和明）and drummer Taiki Abe（アベタイキ）. It started up in 2015 and according to this website, the members have a deep love for the pop music of the 1970s and 1980s which they have incorporated into the sounds of music from the later decades.

Looks like some other fans have created their own physical interpretations to "Summertime". As mentioned, I'll have to explore both cinnamons and evening cinema on their own.