ikkubaru -- Amusement Park/Neko wa Moufu no you ni（猫は毛布のように）

A few days ago, Matt K. contacted me again about this Indonesian City Pop band called ikkubaru and he introduced a song of theirs (with collaboration from JULIE) to me titled "Neko wa Moufu no you ni" (Cat's Like a Blanket). I'm sure the average pet feline is as soft and cuddly as a blanket, but unfortunately when our family cat, Mako, was still around, he and I weren't exactly too friendly with each other so I couldn't really find out. In any case, listening to this one, I did get that feeling of the warm and fuzzy variety, and even the vocals struck me as being someone cat-like. The somewhat cautious and deliberate delivery reminded me of ol' Mako trying to sneak up on me when I was in bed; cat paws getting ready for the strike. Luckily, with this song, the strike never occurs. Instead, I'm just enjoying the Vaporwave/Future Funkiness of it all.

I'd thought that this was the first time that ikkubaru would get its due on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", but actually nikala mentioned about the band in her 2018 article for Ko Nakashima's（中島考）"drop". As for the band itself, the name is derived from the katakana rendition of the leader, Muhammad Iqbal, and ikkubaru itself was formed on Christmas Eve 2011 with their raison d'etre being the wonderful City Pop from Japan with artists such as Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）and Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）.

ikkubaru's debut album "Amusement Park" came out in October 2014. City Pop fans can rejoice since the song has some of that summery influence from Kadomatsu's "Sea Line" with that guitar hook. I would probably say that the Kadomatsu hook has been grafted nicely onto some of those crystalline synths of more recent J-urban contemporary. In addition, looking at Iqbal in the music video above, I also got reminded of another City Pop god, Fujimal Yoshino（芳野藤丸）.😀

Regrettably, I couldn't quite pinpoint when "Neko wa Moufu no you ni" was released, although the Soundcloud version has pegged it as being put up 6 years ago.

Thanks to Matt K. for letting me know about ikkubaru, and now I'm curious about some of the other non-Japanese bands/singers who are providing their own City Pop.

Ko Nakashima - drop

Hi, nikala here. I wouldn't say that I officially retired from blogging, but my life isn't the same as it once used to be to allow me such a luxury. The funny thing that in between all the outings, housework and a taking care of a baby I do listen to a lot of music, Japanese too, that livens up my apartment. It's just that I have no time to actually sit down quietly and write about it. On the plus side, I read articles Kayo Kyoku Plus a few times a week and am very impressed at how much this blog has grown thanks to new collaborators and the expansiveness of Japanese music itself. I'll try to blog here and there without neglecting my real life obligations.

I've noticed that within the past half-decade or so there has been a surge of musicians and singers reviving and modernizing the nostalgic sounds of City Pop: Especia, hitomitoi, Junk Fujiyama, just to name a few. One such artist that particularly impressed me is Ko Nakashima (中島孝), a young singer-songwriter from Saga Perfecture now based in Tokyo. I came across his name in mid-2016 when I read that he shares the same management company as Especia and Suiyobi no Campanella, Bermuda Entertainment Japan. I was led to his Soundcloud page where I listened to a bunch of his songs and became impressed. His approach to modern City Pop contains the right balance of acoustic and digital elements, though his later work has more of the later. The song I'm focusing on, drop, is from that earlier period. It was released in December 2015 as a Tower Records exclusive single and collaboration with an Indonesian City Pop band called ikkubaru (more on them here). A lovely song right here, with that really urban mood in the verses and the indie rock treatment in the refrain and especially the bridge. Not sure what the lyrics are about, but I welcome the introspective mood especially with Nakashima's soft and emotive voice.

From what I gather from his Facebook page and this Rooftop article, he got his start in 2010 under the pen-name Nakakoh and released several independent EPs before switching to his current name in 2015 and moving to Bermuda. You can pretty much listen to his entire discography on Soundcloud. As of late 2016, he also has been working as part of a synthpop group called INDEEA that includes members of another City Pop backup band Hi-Fi City.