ASKA -- HELLO

Hello there, how's everyone doing today? Good, I hope. :)

Recently I had been revisiting my ASKA playlist fairly often and, finally being adventurous enough, sampled some of the tracks I hadn't bothered to listen to when I got the albums... 5 years ago. Better late than never, I suppose. One such song was "HELLO".

From the medleys I had seen on YouTube, I was very aware that "HELLO" is one of the most well-liked songs in ASKA's 3rd album "NEVER END" from 1995, and in a fan-favourite poll ASKA held in 2017, it even managed to emerge as one of the top 20 out of all his solo works. But strangely, I couldn't get its appeal and was quite averse to listening to it for the longest time and would always skip it without much hesitation. However, this time round, while stuck in traffic in Hong Kong a few weeks back and thinking that enka didn't fit the environment all that much, I decided to give it a second chance and let it run its course after listening to my personal favourite, "Senten wo Homeru nara Yugure wo Mate" (晴天を誉めるなら夕暮れを待て). And by golly, the thought of, "Hey..., this song is actually great!" felt like a hard flick to the forehead.

(50:55)

Besides its chorus, "HELLO" has got the tropes I like most from ASKA's songs: A melody with a nice light rhythm, church bells clanging away, and synths that are reminiscent of horns and strings that create a western flavour - this sound is most notable in the "NEVER END" album. Upon hindsight, I think the only reason that kept me away from "HELLO" was that I did not like its intro. With rolling drums and crashing cymbals, I found it way too loud and overly dramatic, and I couldn't get over that. Right now, can't say that I've fallen in love with it in the same way as the rest of the song, but I'm getting used to it. Actually, with a more positive look at the opening and the constant "Hello-s", the first thing that came to mind was the image of parents introducing their little kid to a whole new world and its wide array of characters.

Moving on, in terms of what the lyrics in "HELLO" are all about, I don't exactly know, but my guess is that it could be about how the titular greeting is the first step to getting to know someone and that it can be quite a daunting task to do just that in the beginning. As a victim of social awkwardness myself, I can attest to that.

Well, as I continue to (slowly) sift through the portion of ASKA's discography I've yet to touch, I wonder what other songs will turn out to be the same case as "HELLO" - I have a feeling that there are many more to come.

Toko Furuuchi -- Daijoubu（大丈夫）

Although the genre of Quiet Storm has been around since the mid-1970s, I only became aware of it when Anita Baker perked up my ears with "Sweet Love" in 1986. I had assumed that it was a sub-genre within the larger one of R&B, but according to Wikipedia, it's considered to be a "super-genre" enveloping "... contemporary R&B, jazz fusion and pop music that is characterized by understated, mellow dynamics, slow tempos, and relaxed rhythms".

If that is indeed the case, then I would consider City Pop in Japan to be along the same lines since it brings together genres such as soul, disco, jazz, sophisticated pop, etc. Getting back to America, though, Quiet Storm has a lot of singers included such as Sade, Luther Vandross and Smokey Robinson, but for me, I think my ambassador will always remain the divine Ms. Baker.

Various aspects of R&B have popped up within Japanese music over the decades. Of course, there was City Pop in the 70s and 80s, and then the parallel rise of hip-hop and soul in the late 90s going into the 00s. However, I don't think Quiet Storm ever got its representation through a large number of singers and/or groups. Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）is perhaps one crooner who can be considered to be a Quiet Storm singer. As for a band, I often think of Sing Like Talking.

The other one who comes closest in reminding me of Anita Baker is singer-songwriter Toko Furuuchi（古内東子）who is celebrating her 25th anniversary since she released her debut single in 1993. Whenever I want to relax to the sounds of light soul and pop, Furuuchi would be the one to head for. And what better song title than "Daijoubu" (It's Alright) to provide solace?

This was her 10th single which came out in July 1997. I was actually viewing her collection of videos last night on the computer when "Daijoubu" popped up; I had completely forgotten about this one and all of the nostalgia juices started flowing again. Those strings and horns put me quite at ease. Furuuchi may not really get out of a certain range of music (can't really see her tackling rock or straight-ahead pop), but when one of her songs crops up once in a while through a compilation or on YouTube, it's enough for me to sit back and enjoy.

"Daijoubu" was also a track on her 6th album "Koi"（恋...Love） from August 1997. It peaked at No. 2 on the Oricon weeklies. Furuuchi hasn't really released anything since the earlier years of this decade, and it's understandable since she is now enjoying motherhood with her son. But according to her J-Wiki article, she did release a live album and cover album in 2016.

Not sure if it will happen but it would be really nice if an equivalent of a Quiet Storm arrived on Japanese shores. Perhaps one really subtle version has already landed through groups such as microstar, Blue Peppers and Blu-Swing in the past few years.

Mitsuko Komuro -- Highway Rendezvous（ハイウェー ランデブー）

It's Friday night so perhaps it's time for City Pop once again. Whenever the name Mitsuko Komuro（小室みつ子）pops up in my memory, I always go "Ahh, yes, she's the lyricist for TM Network's classic 'GET WILD' who is NOT at all related to Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）".

Holy coincidences, Batman! Anyways, Mitsuko Komuro is a lyricist and composer but she has also been a singer, albeit one who may not be all that well known. In fact, she released her 1st single "Angel Walk" in 1981 and her 1st album "Amai Yokan"（甘い予感...Sweet Premonitions） in the same year.

I am not up on enough of her discography to label her definitively but the song that I have for you tonight is "Highway Rendezvous" which was a track on her third album "Mishiranu Koibito"（見知らぬ恋人...Unknown Lovers） from February 1983.  Komuro provided the lyrics while Masaaki Kinou（喜納政明）came up with the City Pop-friendly melody. It probably was a nice song to have on the car tape deck while cruising down the highway.

I don't know...Komuro's voice reminds me a lot of one other City Pop singer from the same part of the decade, Yurie Kokubu（国分友里恵）. There's quite a nice breeze which flows through both singers. And somehow, I get the feeling that I've heard this song before by perhaps Kokubu or another City Pop chanteuse so I will have to check out some of my albums then.

Kayo Ishuu -- Oshiete（おしえて）

Whereas CNN seems to have "Breaking News" almost every minute, it isn't everyday that TV Japan allows NHK to cut in suddenly for a breaking news story. But that is what happened last night between Sanma Akashiya's "Honmadekka!? TV" from Fuji-TV and the new NHK morning serial "Hanbun, Aoi". No commercials came in...just a sober-sided announcer to break the news that animator Isao Takahata（高畑勲）had passed away earlier on Thursday.

The name is familiar although to be honest, I wouldn't have immediately been able to identify his works just from hearing Takahata's name such as would have been the case with Hayao Miyazaki（宮崎駿）. However, I do know his harrowing "Hotaru no Haka"（火垂るの墓...Grave of the Fireflies）which is most likely his best work. Even to this day, I can't bear to watch a lot of the scenes from that movie and even when I was reading the synopsis on Wikipedia after hearing about his death, I couldn't help but get lumpy in the throat. There was a variety show in Japan that I was watching in which a group of the most hardened martial art students was asked to watch the movie in a room and pretty much everyone ended up as puddles of brine.

I was not aware that Takahata had earlier directed the TV anime "Alps no Shojo Heidi"（アルプスの少女ハイジ...Heidi, Girl of the Alps） back in 1974 but that show is familiar to me since I remember the climactic scene where Heidi's best friend Clara was actually able to stand up from her wheelchair. Cue tears.

The other thing I remember from "Heidi" is the opening theme song titled "Oshiete" (Teach Me) as sung by Kayo Ishuu（伊集加代子）with Nelly Schwarz providing the yodels. Bouncy and joyful thanks to composer Takeo Watanabe（渡辺岳夫）, the lyrics by Eriko Kishida（岸田衿子）reflect the main character's curiosity for things ranging from why whistles can be heard from so far away to where the winds go.

The single sold 1.2 million records in Japan alone and apparently even in Europe, "Oshiete" became a million-seller there as well according to Hidetoshi Kimura's（木村英俊）"The Anime Song ~ Hit wa Koushite Tsukurareta"（THEアニメ・ソング―ヒットはこうして作られた...The Hits Were Created This Way）. It even won a special award at the 1974 2nd FNS Music Festival held annually in December.

Kazuhito Murata -- Denwa shite mo（電話しても）

I am grateful to nikala for writing about singer-songwriter Kazuhito Murata（村田和人）all the way back in 2015. As she wrote in "Ippon no Ongaku"（一本の音楽）, Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）acted as a mentor to him when Murata came on the scene in the late 1970s, and there is indeed a bit of that Tats in how he performs. But I think the Tokyo native seems to have been more focused in the laidback J-AOR scene; I could forever see Murata in an Aloha shirt performing on the sands of Waikiki Beach.

Murata debuted with "Denwa shite mo" (Even If I Call) in April 1982, a sunny and mellow number punctuated with a really plucky guitar. Written and composed by the singer, if I've gotten an accurate reading of his lyrics, he gives a whimsical account of someone who kinda wonders whether his romance can last only to state that he and his significant other will meet again tomorrow. Strangely enough, I can envision a blissful couple listening to this on the beach so the protagonist's worries are probably more tongue-in-cheek than anything else. But even a solo unit like myself is enjoying "Denwa shite mo"; I especially like how the song shifts gear in the middle.

"Denwa shite mo" has something in common with tunes such as microstar's "Yuugure Girl"（夕暮れガール）and Cindy's "Watashi Tachi wo Shinjiteite"（私達を信じていて）in that it's also been given the Vaporwave/Future Funk treatment through Artzie Music. But you know, I will always go with the original.

I wish I had caught this information much earlier since I wrote my first article on Murata late in 2016, but I only found out tonight through a condolence message given by the uploader for the "Denwa shite mo" video above that the singer had passed away on February 22nd 2016 from cancer at the age of 62. I read his blog in which he wrote up to about a week before his death after which his son made the announcement on the 23rd. Truly sad but at the very least, he has provided a legacy through his discography and songs that he had created for other singers.

Motomaro/Mari Amachi/Yoshio Hayakawa -- Salvia no Hana（サルビアの花）

This afternoon, as I was plowing through some translation work, I decided to listen to one of the CDs from the "Good Times Diva" series for the first time in a long while. Specifically the disc of choice was Volume 2 which you can see at the bottom with the Cameron Diaz-looking figure in blue. There was one haunting ballad from the 1970s which got me interested enough to write an article about it.

Lili Iwabuchi（岩渕リリ）was the singer on Volume 2 who tackled "Salvia no Hana" (Salvia Flowers), a sad song about a man devastated from losing the love of his life to another man. However, Iwabuchi's version is not up on YouTube (although she is represented by her other songs); incidentally, "Salvia no Hana" was her 2nd single released in April 1972. There isn't much on her J-Wiki article except for a brief discography that only has 4 singles and 1 album for the years of 1972 and 1973.

There's no J-Wiki article at all for the folk trio Motomaro（もとまろ）and that is because they even had less of a presence in the kayo kyoku world than Iwabuchi. I actually had to look for their biography on a Japanese site called "Folk Song Cafe", and basically, after being encouraged to enter a folk song contest on a TBS program "Young 720"（ヤング７２０）while they were still at school, they ended up winning for 5 weeks and getting a recording contract. The record they made was their own cover of "Salvia no Hana" which came out in the same year. But since none of the three members had any interest in pursuing a professional singing career, that one song was it and Motomaro broke up.

A couple of years later, 70s aidoru Mari Amachi（天地真理）gave her own take on "Salvia no Hana" as a track on her 8th album "Koi to Umi to T-Shirt to/Koibito-tachi no Minato"（恋と海とTシャツと／恋人たちの港...Love and The Sea and A T-Shirt）which came out in June 1974. Clear-voiced as ever, Amachi's "Salvia no Hana" is a straight pop version with a melancholy trumpet that also stood out in Iwabuchi's cover.

Investigating this song more deeply, I found out that the original was by far the most affecting and effective in terms of the melody and the singer behind it. Yoshio Hayakawa（早川義夫）, who composed and performed "Salvia no Hana", was a member of a psychedelic rock band called Jacks（ジャックス）, and I heard some of their stuff a few hours ago, so I'm gonna have to talk about their "Marianne"（マリアンヌ）sometime soon.

Hayakawa released his first solo album in November 1969, "Kakkoii koto wa nante Kakkowarui daro"（かっこいいことはなんてかっこ悪いんだろう...Cool Things Are Uncool）, which included the original "Salvia no Hana" with lyrics by Yasuko Aizawa（相沢靖子）. Listening to his "Salvia no Hana", you would almost think that he was the poor guy whose girlfriend had left him. No screeching or wailing from him, though. He's just a forlorn palooka resigned to his single fate as he is tinkling on that piano in a nearly deserted bar while whoever's left is using the song to nurse their drinks and troubles. That piano makes the whole song.

Since then, Motomaro and Amachi are just two of the many artists who have covered "Salvia no Hana". I've glanced them on YouTube but apparently there have been covers by Aming（あみん）, Yoshihiro Kai（甲斐よしひろ）, and Rumiko Koyanagi（小柳ルミ子）.

I will be honest with you. Considering the kana reading of the title, I had thought that it referred to the nation of Serbia and had initially written a lot of the article with that in the title. I was rather wondering what flowers from this particular European country had to do with a romantic breakup in Japan. It turns out they never did. Just in case, you can get this little briefer on this plant from the mint family.

Meanwhile, I shall see about getting something up for Lili Iwabuchi and Jacks.

Zainichi Funk -- Bakudan Kowai（爆弾こわい）

In late February, I'd been discovering all sorts of new bands for this decade that had popped in my eyes and ears. For instance, I found out about this Big Band jazz band called Gentle Forest Jazz Band led by the flamboyant but congenial trombonist Gentle Kubota（ジェントル久保田）, and now I'm pretty interested in getting at least one of the band's albums.

Well, at about the same time I found out about Gentle Forest Jazz Band, I also found out about this funk group called Zainichi Funk（在日ファンク）which can be translated as Funk in Japan. And strangely enough, it just so happens that Gentle Kubota is also one of the 7 members of this unit led by another flamboyant trombonist by the name of Kenta Hamano（浜野謙太）who is also the vocalist.

And the song here tonight is the title track from their 2nd album "Bakudan Kowai" (Bombs Scary) from September 2011. James Brown is absolutely pouring from Hamano although looking at the music video, there is a sense that these guys aren't so serious about the art that they can't poke a bit of fun at themselves.

Hamano is showing more of his funk moves in concert. Zainichi Funk has been around since 2007 but their first album didn't come out until 2010. The album "Bakudan Kowai" peaked at No. 54 while a single version remixed by Yasuyuki Okamura（岡村靖幸）was released in January 2012. That got as high as No. 66.

Not as much of a funk fan as I am into jazz but perhaps I may be enticed to pick up the album "Bakudan Kowai" depending on how much I rake in over the next couple of months. Of course, an annual income tax bill is also pending. Now that is scary!