SEKAI NO OWARI -- RAIN

I've been hearing about and seeing the band SEKAI NO OWARI for the past few years but have yet to really get into them. I believe they've been on NHK's Kohaku Utagassen at least a couple of times and musically, they come across as something of an alternative folky pop-rock group. They certainly stand out for their name and for the fact that one of their members, DJ Love, perpetually wears a clown mask (the band is currently on its second DJ Love as of this writing).

As for the name which means "The End of the World", Wikipedia didn't bother explaining it but there is one for the J-Wiki entry. Apparently, vocalist Fukase was the one who came up with it as he stated that during a time when it felt like the whole world was ending around them and the band felt like it was just them and their music remaining, they just figured to start from that end. That's quite the war story.

The other night on "Uta Kon"（うたコン）, SEKAI NO OWARI appeared on location as guests for the weekly NHK show, and that location happened to be in the middle of a massive industrial complex. The intro was that currently, tourist tours of industrial complexes at night was a big niche hobby. As someone who has visited such a complex way west of Tokyo once to teach a class, I can say that it's a typically Japanese pop cultural thing whose time has come. It was terrifying and awesome approaching this petroleum megaplex that looked like a Borg cube or a scene from "Blade Runner".

In any case, the band was dropped into one such complex to perform their most recent single which just came out a few days ago. "RAIN" actually touched a nice nerve within me; it sounded hopeful and adorable at the same. So perhaps it's not that surprising to find out that the band's 11th single has been slated to be the theme song for an animated motion picture coming out tomorrow titled "Mary to Majo no Hana"（メアリと魔女の花...Mary and the Witch's Flower）by Studio Ponoc about a girl named Mary who becomes a witch for a night. I guess there really is something about Mary (cough, cough).

Fukase and keyboardist Saori wrote the lyrics and composed the music with bespectacled percussionist Nakajin. I have pegged the members with their instruments but it looks like all of them are very well cross-trained including vocals.

Perhaps the irony of the band's latest title worked all too well. SEKAI NO OWARI was supposed to have performed "RAIN" live on "Uta Kon" but as a lot of Japan watchers know this week, there have been some major poundings of precipitation scouring the nation. They actually had to tape the performance some minutes beforehand when things were still logistically manageable and the band members looked like they were barely hanging onto the deck when they were being interviewed live. Maybe at that point, Fukase and company were thinking that it was truly the sekai no owari.

Ryusenkei -- Tokyo Coaster （東京コースター）

Well, I got my summer package of discs the other day so I've been listening to them for the past few days. Last night was the time for Ryusenkei's（流線形）"City Music". This was the band's debut album from 2003 and I've already talked about a couple of tracks from the album, "Airport '80" and "Koi no Cider"（恋のサイダー）.

I can say that "City Music" is a "Kayo Kyoku Plus" purchase because it was through working on this blog that I was even able to find out about Ryusenkei. The band has yet to be recognized on J-Wiki and Wikipedia and started its career some years after the inaugural issue of "Japanese City Pop", my bible on the genre. I simply found out through YouTube.

"Tokyo Coaster" rather sums up on what Japanese City Pop of the 21st century has been to me. The original City Pop of the 1970s and 1980s had that big capital 'C' for city with the big bass and saxophone pushing the melody along with a really funky strut as if it were a very confident dandy demanding a lot of space while he hulked his way over to the nearest disco from JR Shinjuku Station.

The next generation (and I realize that other folks [perhaps even the artists themselves] do not like to use the City Pop tag for this 21st-century music) which includes Ryusenkei, Hitomitoi（一十三十一）and others, comes off a whole lot more mellower group. Perhaps it's more of a lower-case 'c' for the city with a bit more smooth jazz and Latin entering the keyboards. I don't really see a disco either...perhaps a tastefully appointed cafe.

Cunimondo Takiguchi（クニモンド瀧口）wrote and composed "Tokyo Coaster" with Tomomi Sano（サノトモミ）handling the tender vocals, and in addition to hearing it in that café in Harajuku, this could be just the song to hear while driving down the megalopolitan highways on a Saturday night and having that congenial conversation with friends inside a sporty Toyota or Nissan (not on the cellphone, that would be bad). It doesn't demand your undivided attention. Instead, it acts like a very tip-worthy concierge by discreetly providing some fine service.

Mai Yamane -- Wave

Definitely a hot one in Toronto, going up to about 30 degrees Celsius. Nope, doesn't quite compare to the steam baths of August in Tokyo but let's say that I was grateful for some of that ice water during lunchtime with some friends today.

Speaking of something nice and cooling, I did discover that swaying feeling with "Wave" from Mai Yamane's（山根麻衣）debut album "Tasogare" (Twilight). The images that first came to me involved standing by the ocean during sunset while the breezes came rolling in along with the surf.

Kinda ironic that, since the lyrics by Yamane described something more intimately physical and torrid. Perhaps turning on the air conditioner during the afterglow session would have been a wise thing. Another City Pop master was responsible for the deceptively mellow music, guitarist Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）. And of course, Yamane lends some lovely vocals to the soundscape of languid guitar and horns.

You can also give the title track a shot as well.

Akiko Kobayashi -- Miracle of Love

Long time, no see, Akiko Kobayashi（小林明子）! You've been missed. I think the last time I wrote up an article dedicated to the singer-songwriter was over a year ago.

https://music.apple.com/jp/album/golden-best-single-collection-%E6%81%8B%E3%81%AB%E3%81%8A%E3%81%A1%E3%81%A6/1539253324

(excerpt only)

Plus, I wrote about her 5th studio album "Bon Voyage" well over 3 years ago. If you take a look at it now, unfortunately, it's most likely that you cannot hear most of the tracks I've mentioned since music.163 may not be accessible depending on where you are (it isn't to me now).

Another track that I could get a video of is "Miracle of Love" (not now unfortunately) which also reflects the overall tone of "Bon Voyage", that of a lighter and sunnier approach mixed in with a bit of that sophisticated pop sensibility that a number of female singers were taking at the time such as Miki Imai（今井美樹）and Midori Karashima（辛島美登里）. "Miracle of Love" does sound like that sort of tune that could be played on the deck of a cruise ship if Kobayashi had been booked as one of the entertainers. A lot of her earlier songs kinda reminded me of visits to a small cafe in New England...not that I'm complaining here. I am quite partial to cafe-friendly tunes.

"Miracle of Love" was written by MAYUMI and composed by Kobayashi. Reading the lyrics, the song can also be said to be another nice tune to signify the coming of the Tanabata holiday which will arrive tomorrow.

Masahiko Kondo -- Yokohama Cheek （ヨコハマ・チーク）

The Johnny's group Arashi（嵐）has been occupying several lots of the annual Oricon real estate over the years. However, the guys there are obviously not the first Johnny's representatives to load a number of their hits on the Oricon charts. I'm sure the recently departed SMAP also achieved the feat, and a fellow from way back did very well in 1981.

Although Masahiko "Matchy" Kondo（近藤真彦）had just the one song on the Top 10 Single chart for 1981, "Sneaker Blues"（スニーカーぶるーす）, I found out that he owned a bit more real estate into the teens and just lipping into the 20s: "Blue Jeans Memory"（ブルー・ジーンズ・メモリー）at No. 11 and "Gingiragin ni Sarigenaku"（ギンギラギンにさりげなく）at No. 21.

Right at No. 20 was "Yokohama Cheek", Matchy's 2nd single from March 1981, sandwiched between his debut of "Sneaker Blues" and "Blue Jeans Memory". At first, I wasn't quite sure about how to romanize that title. Was that second word "-tique" as in the suffix or was it indeed "cheek"? But on looking at the lyrics by Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）, I realized that Matchy was inviting a lucky girl to have the time of her life in Yokohama, and that included a nice intimate slow dance...or as they would say in Japanese, a cheek dance (as in dancing cheek-to-cheek).

The music by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）is nostalgically Matchy-esque with the dollops of 50s-style rock n' roll. I mean, I couldn't really imagine him doing something like City Pop or enka. It's all high-kicking energy and wailing electric guitars.

"Yokohama Cheek" peaked at No. 2 and the article for it on J-Wiki intimated that it could have hit the top spot like its predecessor, "Sneaker Blues", if it weren't for the fact that Akira Terao's（寺尾聡）"Ruby no Yubiwa"（ルビーの指輪）was such a huge hit that year. Still, I don't anyone connected with Matchy or Matchy himself really didn't complain too much. It was still quite the banner year for one-third of the Tanokin Trio.

B'z -- Taiyo no Komachi Angel （太陽のKomachi Angel）

This particular song isn't quite in my own personal B'z league of "Be There" or "Love Phantom" but I cannot doubt the familiarity of the melody.

"Taiyo no Komachi Angel" (Komachi Angel of the Sun) has that percolating and contagious music by Tak Matsumoto（松本孝弘）which has been a B'z characteristic all these years. According to the J-Wiki article, he used a bit of Latin to spice things up. Vocalist Koshi Inaba（稲葉浩志）came up with the lyrics and the title but even he himself was a bit stymied about how he came up with it. Perhaps a little too much tequila that night...

The song came out as the duo's 5th single from June 1990, just 3 weeks after the release of the aforementioned "Be There", and finally did something that hadn't been done before by B'z. "Taiyo no Komachi Angel" became the guys' very first No. 1 song, thus launching that incredible record of basically every subsequent single hitting/debuting at No. 1. Going Platinum was a done deal and it became the 27th-ranked single of the year. It was later included on its first album, the BEST compilation of "B'z The Best "Pleasure", released in May 1998.

Hanayo Gondo and Kan'ichi Shimofusa -- Tanabata-sama （たなばたさま）

First off, I hope all of you readers from the United States had a fine Fourth of July. I tried to search for some sort of kayo connected with America but couldn't quite succeed this time. However tonight's "Uta Kon"（うたコン）gave me some food for thought since the annual Tanabata Festival（七夕）is coming up on the 7th.

The theme for tonight's episode was indeed Tanabata and the hosts asked each of the guests about the person (who has already left this mortal coil) whom they would like to meet across the stars. Singer/actor Dean Fujioka replied that he would like to meet his grandfathers again while another guest mentioned Audrey Hepburn. Personally, on the kayo side, I would love to have a drink with The Tough Guy himself, Yujiro Ishihara（石原裕次郎）even though I would be at a horrible disadvantage in the imbibing department. On the somewhat more down-to-earth side, I would meet an old friend of the family who always greeted me warmly when I was a kid living downtown.

With that Tanabata theme in mind, I tried looking for some tunes related to the holiday but it looks like the two that were featured in tonight's "Uta Kon" had already been covered by me in years past. One was "Hoshizora ni Ryote wo"（星空に両手を）whose article gives a very brief description of the holiday, and the other was "Hoshikage no Komichi"（星影の小径）.

However I did find a children's song about the holiday itself, "Tanabata-sama" (The Star Festival). Written by Hanayo Gondo（権藤花代）, a lyricist and children's songwriter, and composer Kan'ichi Shimofusa（下総皖一）in 1941, the song tells it to the listener straight about the holiday including the custom of writing down wishes on those colourful strips of paper known as tansaku. The translation for the song can be found at "Nami's Diary" whose author is based in Newfoundland, Canada.

The last few months in the world have been rather tumultuous to say the least. There may be a larger amount of tansaku being wrapped around the branches than usual this year