Mimori Yusa -- Kureteyuku Sora wa (暮れてゆく空は)

As a child prior to my immigration to Canada, I spent my summers in remote Russian villages with my grandparents where I would take every opportunity to explore the surrounding green valleys until sunset. Upon stumbling across Mimori Yusa's (遊佐未森) music online for the first time, I had these memories return in full force. I don't think it's much of a stretch to be reminded of childhood while watching the above video for "Kureteyuku Sora wa" (暮れてゆく空は). Yusa herself has that image of a character from a fairytale singing an innocent song about the beauties of nature. It's the kind of song that temporarily suspends my sense of reality and makes me believe in dreams.

Yusa is a singer-songwriter from Miyagi Prefecture who debuted in 1988 with the single Hitomi Suishou (瞳水晶) and contributed songs for anime works such as Yokoyama Mitsuteru Sangokushi and the film adaptation of The Heroic Legend of Arslan. Moreover, many of her songs were used in CM campaigns and TV programs, but no need to list all those. In 1994, she joined a short-lived ambient unit Love,Peace&Trance alongside Miyako Kouda (甲田益也子) and Mishio Ogawa (小川美潮). It was produced by none other than Haruomi Hosono (細野晴臣) of YMO fame. For much of her career, however, Yusa only enjoyed mild popularity, since her music and lyrics were considered eccentric by mass audiences. It was only in 2005 that she scored a real hit with "Kuro" thanks to the song being featured in the NHK program Minna no Uta.

"Kureteyuku Sora wa" was released as a single on September 1, 1989 and was included on her third studio album Harmoniodeon. Katafumi Sotoma (外間隆史) took care of the music, while Junko Kudo (工藤順子) provided the lyrics. Yusa would become more independent in songwriting as her career progressed. Many of her early albums are accompanied by video collections which feature her singing in dreamy natural settings. The video for "Kureteyuku Sora wa" is only one of the performances from her outdoor "concert" Forest Notes -concert with trees-. It sure is staged like one, but in place of people, the audience consists of birds and flowers.

As a bonus, here's Yusa performing "Chizu wo Kudasai"  (地図をください) on NHK's Just Pop Up. She's just so mysteriously charming.

Image source: cdjournal

Kawashima Naomi - 「GEMINI」

When I was living in Japan in the mid-80s as a teenager, one of my favorite shows was the 中京テレビ/ Chukyo TV regional kids variety program, "Owarai Manga Dojo" 『お笑いマンガ道場』  which was syndicated on the 日本テレビネットワーク/Nihon TV channel and ran from 1976-1994. The show was structured like a celebrity game show in which a panel of personalities would be assigned a number of humorous challenges in which they would need to draw various manga/cartoons using keywords or containing specific items. You might say it was a combination of "Kamishibai"/紙芝居 with "Rakugo"/落語 but with a modern twist. The show was hosted by announcer Kashimura Takeaki/柏村武昭 and featured as regulars popular syndicated newspaper comic artists Suzuki Yoshiji/鈴木義司 and Tominaga Ichiro/富永一朗 and TV personality/comedian Kuruma Dankichi/車だん吉 (who is probably familiar to most as being one of the regular roving reporters for TBS TV's Japanese Travelog program  『そこが知りたい』. Rounding out the cast was perky and cute former radio DJ Kawashima Naomi/川島なお美 (who joined the cast in 1982). 

Naomi wasn't a professional artist but she did have artistic talent, a wicked sense of humor and was very personable. In fact, she became so popular that she was given a joint segment with Dankichi separate from the show called "Dankichi and Naomi's Omake Corner" 「だん吉・なお美のおまけコーナー」 in which they would answer fan mail and give away special gifts to their loyal fans. Naomi had aspirations of being an idol and released a number of singles during her stint on "Owarai Manga Dojo" including the above song "GEMINI" which was written and produced by Nakahara Meiko/中原めいこ and was a minor hit for Naomi. J-Wiki mentions that although she got her big break on "Owarai Manga Dojo", she wasn't really happy being on the show and is said to have even wanted to be taken off the show. However, Naomi stayed with the show for a good majority of its run in the 80s and eventually left the show just a year shy of the show's final season in 1994. Wanting to distance herself from the show and shake off her "good girl" image, Naomi decided to release a "hair nude"/ヘアヌー photo book called 『WOMAN』. It must of came as quite a shock to her young fans who had grown up watching her as kids. She further shocked fans with her very sexual and provocative performance as Matsubara Rinko in the syndicated TV Drama adaptation of the popular 1997 bestselling novel "Shitsurakuen"/『失楽園』 AKA "Paradise Lost" by Watanabe Junichi/渡辺 淳一 which was also made into a popular film the same year by Morita Yoshimitsu/森田 芳光. 

In recent years, Naomi has since come to terms with her past on "Owarai Manga Dojo" but still tries to downplay her involvement on program preferring to highlight instead her various TV drama appearances and hobby interests. An avid cook and wine connoisseur, she has frequently been on various cooking shows. She also has a keen interest in cigars and dogs and has two miniature Dachshunds whom she named Coconuts 「ココナッツ」 and Cinammon 「シナモン」. 

Here's a clip from 『お笑いマンガ道場』 - Naomi is in this particular clip.

Here's a fairly recent promotional clip featuring Naomi with actor Jean Reno promoting his film Chef! 「シェフ！～三ツ星レストランの舞台裏へようこ­そ～」. Naomi shows off some of her impressive French speaking skills.

And lastly here's a performance from 1985 of her song 黄昏のチャイナタウン/Tasogare No Chinatown

Courtesy of Bob Walls 2006 from Flickr

Kokushou Sayuri - Valentine Kiss (バレンタイン・キッス)

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, that invariably means that you'll probably be hearing this song at least once or twice at some point in Japan if not more so. 「バレンタイン・キッス」 was Kokusho Sayuri's (国生さゆり) debut single in 1986 and was an instant hit. According to J-Wiki, the single reached #2 on the オリコン/Oricon charts, #1 on the ミュージック・ラボ/Music Lab and ミュージック・リサーチ/Music Research Charts and #4 on TBS' ザ・ベストテン/Best Ten music program. It also won the 日本ゴールドディスク大賞/Japan Gold Disc Award for Best Single of the Year. Over the years it has quickly become the song of choice for many Japanese girls celebrating Valentine's Day. Now that's some debut.

さゆちゃん was born on 12/22/66 in Kanoya, Kagoshima Prefecture. Her father named her after his favorite actress 吉永小百合/Yoshinaga Sayuri who starred in such films as キューポラのある街/Foundry Town (1962) and 男はつらいよ 柴又慕情/Otoko Wa Tsurai Yo: Shibamata Bojo AKA Tora-san's New Romance (1972).

Sayuri attended Elementary and Junior High Schools in Kanoya but moved to Kure, Hiroshima for High School. While in High School, she entered the ミス・セブンティーンコンテスト/Miss Seventeen Contest in 1984. While she didn't win the contest, she was scouted by a CBS Sony agent and offered her a modeling/talent contract. Interestingly her fellow contestants were Watanabe Misato/渡辺美里, Kudo Shizuka/工藤静香, Watanabe Marina/渡辺満里奈, Matsumoto Noriko/松本典子, Amihama Naoko/網浜直子 and Asakura Akira/麻倉あきら all of whom would go on to become either singers themselves or actresses.

After moving to Tokyo she became a model with the Shiseido/資生堂 cosmetics company, however at the urging of her agent she entered Fuji TV's popular "All Night Fuji"/オールナイトフジ program's on-air "Female High School Student Special - Beauty Contest"/女子高生スペシャル 美少女コンテスト in which she ultimately won. She then went on to make her idol debut on Fuji's new teen variety program 『夕やけニャンニャン』 as one of the first members of the Onyanko Club/おニャン子クラブ, an idol unit specifically created to host and perform on the show (Kudo Shizuka and Watanabe Marina were also recruited for the group as well). Sayuri's "Member Number" was No. 8 (会員番号8番). Since Sayuri was the oldest member in the group, she became the de facto leader of Onyanko Club.

If  おニャン子クラブ seems awfully familiar to current idol group sensation AKB48 that shouldn't come as a big surprise as they are both the brainchild of record producer Akimoto Yasushi/秋元康 who also happened to write the lyrics for a lot of the Onyanko Club songs and wrote the lyrics for Sayuri's "Valentine Kiss".

Sayuri was my favorite of the Onyanko Club girls. Not only was she athletic (she was Captain of her High School's Track and Field team) but she was also one tough chick. I remember watching on Onyanko Club, her solo cross-country motorcycle bike trek from New York to California which spanned one month. Amazing considering she did this on her own (with a camera crew in tow), in a foreign country and without any help from others (this was in 1986). From what I can remember she didn't speak much English as well. Her adventure was chronicled in a special DVD release in 2004 called 「HELLO!アメリカ」.

Sayuri went on the become both a successful actress and starred in a number of TV dramas and program specials. At age 46 さゆちゃん still looks as hot as ever.

Here's a recent appearance she made on タモリ/Tamori's 笑っていいとも!/Warate Itomo variety show. 

And here's one of the many covers of the song, this one by AKB48 sub group 渡り廊下走り隊７/Watarirouka Hashiritai 7 (the original is still better IMHO).

Courtesy of MyDearValentine from Flickr

UA -- Rhythm （リズム）

Along with City Pop singer-turned-Techno artiste, Miharu Koshi（越美晴）, UA's face was long a visage that I'd seen and been intrigued by every time I hit a Tower Records or an HMV. With those huge eyes and Jolie-class lips on a face that was often decked out in various types of makeup, I had wondered what kind of singer she was. But it wasn't until I heard this song that I finally pulled the trigger and picked up the single.

Born Kaori Shima（嶋香織） in Metropolitan Osaka's Suita City, she had a job singing in some sort of nightclub when she was scouted by producer Hiroshi Fujiwara（藤原ヒロシ） (also known as the father of Harajuku culture, according to Wikipedia). In June 1995, she debuted with "Horizon", taking on the stage name of UA, which means "flower" or "kill" in Swahili.

UA hit it big with her 4th single, "Jounetsu"（情熱...Passion), exactly a year later, but my first listen to her was with her next release, "Rhythm" in September 1996. Written by UA and composed by Shinichi Osawa（大沢伸一） (aka Mondo Grosso and the producer who helped launch Bird's career a few years later), I really enjoy its mellow R&B groove....it has that old-school and new-school feel at the same time. And UA's voice has that huskiness which reminds me of a cool muted trumpet. The official music video above (which I hope stays for a while at least) has the then-24-year-old as a bit of a bumbling garage mechanic struggling to get by in an American city, and the ending kinda reflects UA's dry sardonic sense of humour. I've seen her appear on "Hey Hey Hey Music Champ" with the Downtown boys, and she was able to render the guys (momentarily) speechless when she nonchalantly told them in front of a full audience that she had been knocking boots with her then-husband just before coming to the studio. Indeed.

As for "Rhythm", her 5th single peaked at No. 20 on the Oricon charts.

UA--Rhythm

Motoharu Sano -- Visitors

July 2011, New York City. While on a short trip to the capital of skyscrapers, I just had to visit the legendary Book Off and stack my backpack with some cheap CDs to bring back home. They don't have places like this here in Toronto anymore. One of the albums I was on a lookout for was Motoharu Sano's (佐野元春) Visitors, which he recorded there in NYC nearly three decades ago. Anyways, here it is, the album supposedly responsible for importing hip-hop into the Japanese mainstream. After the release of his commercially successful album Someday in 1982, Sano relocated to NYC to absorb himself into its culture and produced Visitors during his stay there. It was released in May 1984, and marked a 180° turnaround in his style. Up to this point, he performed bluesy pop and rock tunes influenced by the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and Eiichi Ohtaki, and then with Visitors, he entered the territory of funk, new wave, and hip-hop. While he would apply fresh concepts to his subsequent releases, none of those albums would sound anything like this one.

The video above is the official PV for the opening track "Complication Shakedown". You can tell that Sano was going for something different that hasn't yet been attempted by popular Japanese artists. Sure, funk and R&B were already popular among City Pop folks, but as far as I know, those songs weren't as melodically detached like this one. Then there's Sano rattling off lines of Japanese mixed with English to the dynamic beat -- very characteristic of rap. It's a stunning number, in my opinion, featuring an exciting percussion performance by Bashiri Johnson. And the PV, which was directed by the avantgarde filmmaker John Sanborn, is one trippy adventure. J-Wiki tells me that the full version was shelved off the air for 20 years due to being deemed "too radical" at the time. I can see why, though I'd like to find out more about this.

The following track, "Tonight", doesn't take the creative liberties that "Complication Shakedown" does, but it's a catchy one nonetheless. I'm not an expert at analyzing technical aspects of music, so perhaps someone else may lend me a hand here. Still, I recognize a strong synthesizer performance when I hear one. Every time I listen to this track I regain fond memories of the busy Manhattan. As for the PV, it's very reminiscent of 80's MTV. I wonder if it ever aired over here.

"Sunday Morning Blue" is an urban mid-tempo ballad that gives me Billy Joel vibes for some reason. Sano's peculiar tone goes well with the introspective mood, I think. I just love how the melody glides seamlessly along with the rhythm and dramatic piano riffs, and then comes the instrumental bridge sending me to another realm. Try listening to this at dawn hours while on a long commute to work. The replay button will come in handy.

Then there's the edgy title track which dips its feet into rock and new wave. We're only halfway through the album, and so far it's been a diverse experience. I have to admit, I avoid playing this song unless I'm at the gym because listening to it exhausts me. Excuse my far-fetched simile, but it feels like an aural version of an 8-hours-long warehouse shift. Still, I enjoy the hypnotic arrangement of the song and Sano's robotic vocals.

The whole album only contains 8 tracks, and I've already revealed half of them, but allow me to squeeze "Come Shining" into the mix. It's just too infectiously funky to be skipped. Once again, we have Sano rapping in his peculiar style to the beat. The catchy lyrics feature plenty of references to Manhattan nightlife and other cozy things. I'm not the dancing type, but I can't help but tap my foot like a dork to this one.

In terms of sales, Visitors scored the No. 1 spot on Oricon weekly charts, though it's nowhere to be seen in the Top 100 for yearly rankings. Nevertheless, it won "Excellent Album" prize at 26th Japan Record Awards and remains critically renowned to this day.

Sadistic Mica Band - 「Boys and Girls」

With a name like Sadistic Mika Band (サディスティック・ミカ・バンド) one might halfway expect either an angry punk band or some kind of wacky performance group but they are in fact a unique musical collective which has been around from the early 70s and whose music has evolved over the years from Glam Rock to Electronic/New Romantic to Jazz Fusion and Progressive Rock. Formed in 1972 by husband and wife team of gutarist 加藤和彦/Kato Kazuhiko and his wife, singer 福井ミカ/Fukui Mika, the band name was in parody by John Lennon's "Plastic Ono Band" and was said to have been inspired by Mika's insensitive sense of humor.

It's core membership consisted of a number of musicians who would later go on to successful solo careers and musical collaborations including guitarist 高中正義/Takanaka Masayoshi, bassist 小原礼/Obara Ray and drummer 高橋幸宏/Takahasi Yukihiro (who would later go on to join YMO)

The band's early music was heavily inspired by the Glam Rock music of T.Rex and David Bowie but over time slowly evolved as London's music scene changed (Kato was at the time living in Kensington, London). They would incorporate a number of musical influences especially the art rock of Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music and pop rock of Badfinger.

They would release a number of albums during the 70s and had a minor memorable hit with the fun rock song Time Machine Ni Onegai/タイムマシンにおねがい.

The band would see a few member changes over the years as well as a name change to The Sadistics/サディスティックス in 1978 but as Kato and the various members pursued solo careers and other projects, the band temporarly disbanded.

The band has reunited three times. Each time Kato, Takahashi and Takanaka have formed the core of the band, with a different female lead vocalist and supporting musicians.

In 1985, they collaborated with 坂本龍一/Sakamoto Ryuichi and 松任谷由実/Matsutoya Yumi under the tongue-in-cheek name of "Sadistic Yuming Band" 「サディスティック・ユーミン・バンド」.

In 1989 they would go back to their original name only this time changing it to "Sadistic Mica (with a "C") Band".  With new vocalist 桐島 かれん/Kirishima Karen they would have their first Oricon Top 100 hit in 1989 with the very catchy single 「Boys and Girls」 which would also be used as a CMソング for Mazda's ファミリア (FAMILIA) car line. What really was unique about this the song was its heavy use of bilingual lyrics owing to Karen's native English ability. The above clip is from their appearance on the music variety program 夜のヒットスタジオ, one of my favorite music programs in the 80s along with ザ・ベストテン.

In 2006, pop singer 木村カエラ/Kimura Kaela would collaborate with the band and they would release an album under the quirky name "Sadistic Mica Band Revisited" AKA "Sadistic Mikaela Band".

Here's the original Sadistic Mika Band in 1974 with their song ハイ・ベイビー/Hey Baby in 1974.

And here's Sadistic Mica Band with 木村カエラ in 2007 singing their hit song タイムマシンにおねがい.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEBLC7yK26g

Miharu Koshi -- Keep On Dancin'

Last week, I wrote my first profile on Miharu Koshi（越美晴） via her debut single, "Love Step"(1978), a City Pop tune. And for the first three years of her career, she was releasing jaunty songs of that genre.

However, after 1981, she went away for a couple of years. I was reading some of her comments from the liner notes of her 2009 album, "Epoque de Techno", which was a re-release of the first two albums from her new era as　コシミハル, "Tutu" and "Parallelisme". And those two years seemed like an existential struggle for Koshi as she tried to find a new sound for herself with the help of the synthesizer. Apparently studio after studio flatly rejected her new sound, until YMO member, Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）, gave her some rave reviews about the demo tape that she had let him listen to.  And with that, Hosono produced "Tutu".

The starkness of the album cover with Koshi looking very different starting with a short Audrey Hepburn-type haircut was just the beginning. One of the tracks on the album (none of them were ever released as singles) is "Keep On Dancin'", a strangely New Wave/Old Jazz concoction written and composed by Koshi....kinda reminds me of some of the stuff Taco, the Indonesian-born Dutch singer, when he had a hit with his synthesizer version of "Puttin' On The Ritz" in 1982. And her voice sounded as if it had been boosted up an octave or so...a bit more on the coquettish side.

Overall, Koshi was on a new avenue of musical possibilities, away from her City Pop roots and into something more interesting. Just my opinion here, but I think by doing so, she was able to keep her career going for far longer, and according to her notes, she's had no regrets.

Left: Miharu Koshi RCA Years (her City Pop stuff)
Right: Koshi Miharu Epoque de Techno