frasco -- Polaroid

 

Ahhh...that series of Polaroid commercials with Mariette Hartley and the late James Garner. The chemistry was said to have been so good between those two thespians that viewers thought that they were actually married. Incidentally, I never owned one of those foldable Polaroid cameras although I did have a relatively cheapo camera to take with me to Japan in 1981. It was always the thing to take the roll of film to have it developed at a place like Japan Camera (which was once a very popular film developing and camera store in Canada) and wait a few days before the photos were ready. Ancient technology, indeed.

Well, lo and behold, I've found this song "Polaroid" by the pop and Shibuya-kei band frasco from their November 1997 album "Missing Angel". I've highlighted this band a couple of times before with their mellow music through "Honno Sukoshi no Ai ga Areba"（ほんの少しの愛があれば）and "Kaze ni Notte ~breeze~" （風に乗って）, but they're not to be mistaken for another band, Frasco (with a capital F and a 2015 in Labels) that got their start in the mid-2010s and have one song on the blog, "Viewtiful".

Having listened to "Polaroid" a few times now, I'm not quite sure whether the song is really Shibuya-kei but it does have that summer jazz and AOR feeling thanks to the guitars and the keyboards that take on some of that Steely Dan horn sensation. According to JASRAC, lyrics were provided by Mika Morioka（森岡みか）and the music was by frasco drummer Makio Tada（多田牧男）. Of course, I have to remind folks that frasco also had the late guitarist Hiroshi Narumi（鳴海寛）of Tohoku Shinkansen fame.

frasco -- Honno Sukoshi no Ai ga Areba（ほんの少しの愛があれば）

Taking a shine to band frasco's brand of breezy pop through their 1996 song "Kaze ni Notte ~ breeze"（風に乗って）because of its inclusion in the "Light Mellow" compilation series, I was happy to find out that it wasn't the only frasco tune out there on YouTube.

(30:33)

I did find this one "Honno Sukoshi no Ai ga Areba" (As Long As There's A Smidgen of Love) from frasco's first album "frasco" released in July 1994. Once again, it's got that refreshing breeziness thanks to lyricist Sakiko Masano's（政野早希子）vocals, and I'm assuming as was the case with "Kaze ni Notte", guitarist Hiroshi Narumi（鳴海寛）and drummer Makio Tada（多田牧男）tackled the melody and arrangement (love the warm sax, by the way). Hopefully, it's just the song to help blow away some of the cold out there today.

Incidentally, although frasco doesn't have any representation on J-Wiki, the online encyclopedia does list another band called Frasco (capital F) that started up in 2015 with a totally different lineup and perhaps a different sound (just heard one of their songs). There's nothing in the J-Wiki article hinting at any association between the two bands but I would like to cover that one song by Frasco that I've heard so far.

frasco -- Kaze ni Notte ~breeze~ （風に乗って）

A bit more seasonal than some of the torrid weather we had gotten over the last couple of days but still sunny and pleasant out there today. Besides, I like the cooler air.

Therefore to commemorate this weather, I've decided to devote this article to this lovely song by not-so-well-known pop band frasco. I never heard of these guys until I bought my very first CD from the "Light Mellow" series a few years ago, "Breeze". But I knew I was on the right step when I heard a lot of wonderful tracks on this disc including frasco's "Kaze ni Notte" (Catch The Wind).

frasco consisted of the late guitarist Hiroshi Narumi（鳴海寛）, session drummer Makio Tada（多田牧男）and singer-songwriter Sakiko Masano（政野早希子）on vocals. Narumi's name has been bandied about before on this blog due to his contribution to the City Pop duo Tohoku Shinkansen（東北新幹線）with songwriter Etsuko Yamakawa（山川恵津子）back in the 1980s. Well, it looks like he brought together another unit in the following decade with frasco in 1994.

This particularly breezy tune "Kaze ni Notte" was included in their 1996 2nd album "film". The band has been solidly classified as a pop group but listening to this summery outing, I couldn't help but feel that there was also some Shibuya-kei in there somewhere so I've also included that genre in the Labels. Either way, it's a good song to listen to. Not too frenetic, not too laid back, it's the equivalent of a walk on the sandy beach. Narumi composed the melody while Masano took care of the lyrics with Narumi and Tada arranging the whole thing.

Considering the obscurity of frasco, all of my information on the group was from the liner notes of that "Breeze" disc for "Light Mellow".

Now it's possible that depending on where you live, you may not be able to see the video at the very top, but perhaps you can access this compilation at around 4:10 when "Kaze ni Notte" begins.