dos -- Baby, baby, baby

Well, I did say that I would write about this group soon after writing about a song that had been recorded by one of its members earlier in her solo career. Hey, 15 minutes later is soon, isn't it?

Anyways, as a young guy in Japan in the 1990s, I remember experiencing the Komuro Boom via TV and thinking that music impresario Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）was pretty much taking over the air waves with his various solo singers and groups. Namie Amuro（安室奈美恵）was the It Girl of J-Pop at the time, Tomomi Kahala（華原朋美）was becoming a new sensation and trf was having good times with its brand of pop and dance music.

Then came along this commercial on TV one day which featured this latest creation through Orumok Records. The ad showed two women and a man bopping about in shiny and silky wear while singing away. My first impression was that Komuro was trying to make another trf.

Not quite, but it was another Komuro unit with three lower-case letters for a name. dos is the abbreviation for dance of sound, and according to J-Wiki, Komuro's concept for the group was, and I hope that I've got the translation correct, "Music to grasp dance and song side by side"（ダンスと歌を並列に捉えた見る音楽）. Just on that alone, I kinda thought that this was indeed trf the sequel. Anyways, dos consisted of vocalist Taeko Nishino（西野妙子）, alias taeco, dance and chorus Asami Yoshida（吉田麻美）, alias asami, and dance and chorus Eiji Kabashima（椛島永次）, alias kaba.

Their debut single was "Baby, baby, baby" from March 1996 which was the song that Orumok Records was showing on the ad, and it's the only song that I can remember by dos. To be honest, this is the first time that I've heard the song and watched the music video in its entirety, and doing so, I got the impression that dos was going to be a somewhat mellower version of trf. I mean, it's a nice enough song but it didn't really grab me like some of trf's hits have and still do over two decades later. Komuro and Takahiro Maeda（前田たかひろ）wrote the lyrics with Komuro composing the music.

"Baby, baby, baby" went Platinum, getting as high as No. 4 on Oricon, and finishing 1996 as the 53rd-ranked single. It also became a campaign song for Tessera shampoo (I think I actually used it once or twice). There would be two more singles and a full album before dos faded away in 1997 without any official announcement.  Nishino went on to continue acting and appearing as a tarento, and asami soon returned in 1998 as part of a new Komuro-led group called TRUE KiSS DESTiNATiON.

As for kaba, along with his role as a choreographer (he helped map out the dance sequences for Amuro and Kahala along with many others), he also became a popular tarento himself. And since I never followed dos during their brief existence, I hadn't realized that kaba was actually a member of dos (I didn't take down names at the time). A few years after I had left Japan to come back here for good, kaba underwent sex reassignment surgery and officially changed his name to Ichika Kabashima（椛島 一華）, although her stage name remains Kaba-chan（KABA.ちゃん）.

Taeko Nishino -- Ame no Ki（雨の木）

Urk! Quite the rain to start off this week. Glad that things are going to clear out by tomorrow. Pretty darn cool today as well, although by the weekend, things will be getting pretty hot again.

Now and then, the name Taeko Nishino（西野妙子）has popped up here and there although I never got to know her until now. She is a former aidoru before turning into a pop singer, actress and tarento with her debut in 1989. What I hadn't realized was that she was also a member of the R&B trio produced by Tetsuya Komuro（小室哲哉）, dos, later in 1996. dance of sound was one of the creations during the Komuro Boom of the 1990s that I remember along with trf, Tomomi Kahala（華原朋美）and globe. During her time with dos, she was known as taeco.

But in 1992, Nishino released her 3rd album "Hatsuba Yoteibi"（発売予定日...Scheduled Date of Sale）which contained this track called "Ame no Ki" (Tree of Rain). I'm not quite sure whether this and the album belonged in her aidoru period, but the relatively down-to-earth melody (especially like the keyboard work) by Masayuki Kishi（岸正之）and Nishino's own vocals has persuaded me to put this in the pop category. Kanata Asamizu（朝水彼方）provided the lyrics.

Nishino released a total of 12 singles and 5 albums as a solo artist. I will have to write about dos sometime pretty soon.

Mononkul -- Kūsō hikō（空想飛行）

For years and years since the late 1970s, it had been all about Narita Airport deep in Chiba Prefecture when it came to long-haul international flights out of the Tokyo area. But then, some years ago, Haneda Airport by Tokyo Bay, which had been long thrown figuratively into a dusty corner, underwent a major rejuvenation that has included a modern shopping complex and restaurant row done up as something from an Edo Era drama. As someone who first arrived in Japan in 1972 at Haneda, it was nice to see the old airport become the centre of attention again. Of course, Haneda is also more convenient to get into Tokyo than Narita although the latter does have those speedy Skyliners.

When the great re-introduction of Haneda Airport was being advertised on the various news broadcasts, one of the big advantages was that folks getting out of work on Friday can conceivably catch a flight there, fly over to a place like Guam or Saipan for a long weekend and arrive back at Haneda to get back to work the next day without too much fuss.

It was that point that I was reminded of when I first came upon "Kūsō hikō" (Flight of Fantasy) by the duo Mononkul（ものんくる）some months ago. As with the band BLU-SWING, which I had written about last night, Mononkul isn't restricted to just one genre in its performances with vocalist Sara Yoshida（吉田沙良）and songwriter/bassist Ryuta Tsunoda（角田隆太）going for a jazz and pop sound.

"Kūsō hikō" at least seems to go beyond jazz and pop to include that feeling of Latin and a hint of technopop. Tsunoda took care of both words and music for the song about taking off for that area outside of the city so fast that the young lady hasn't even had time to change from her high heels at work. And perhaps the flight is not just in terms of space but also of time, if that anime video is hitting me in the right spot, as an office worker remembers back to her high school days and maybe her very first romantic relationship. It's quite wistful.

The song made it onto Mononkul's 3rd album "Sekai wa Koko ni shika naitte Jouzu ni Itte"（世界はここにしかないって上手に言って..Say That the World is Only Here Skillfully）from July 2017. Their 4th album "RELOADING CITY" was released just a few days ago on September 5th.

I wish that it would be that easy for me to hop on a plane at Pearson and then be over in Tokyo within a few hours. Alas, nothing less than a hypersonic carrier would make that possible right now, but perhaps one might be ready by the time I become an octogenarian.

Naoko Kawai -- Kita Eki no Solitude（北駅のソリチュード）

Guilty feet have no rhythm...

Oops, wrong song, but I can't help but feel that there is something about Naoko Kawai's（河合奈保子）19th single "Kita Eki no Solitude" (Kita [North] Station Solitude) that has me thinking of WHAM's big hit "Careless Whisper" from around the same time frame. It was released in December 1984 and talks of the sad and permanent ending to a relationship between a woman and her fairly well-off (there's a limousine instead of a Toyota in the lyrics) now-former paramour as she gets on the train for good.

That rather sad ending to a beautiful relationship is perhaps enhanced by the release date. As I've said before, the Yuletide in Japanese music can also talk about the death of romance as much as the fun of the Holidays, and the mention of a north station brings to mind a small depot surrounded by naked trees, high winds and lots and lots of snow. Yikes! It's not quite the song to hear at a romantic dinner for two in one of those restaurants in Aoyama.

"Kita Eki no Solitude" was written by Masao Urino（売野雅勇）and composed by Kyohei Tsutsumi（筒美京平）and starts off with a nice jazzy sax intro and has some pleasant musical interludes. However, after a couple of listens, I'm not quite sure, despite the songwriting pedigree and the fact that it is Naoko singing this, whether this will go down as one of my favourite songs by her. It may just be me but "Kita Eki no Solitude" sounds a tad disjointed for some reason, and so far, I'm not a big fan of the delivery of the first two lines in each verse...e.g. Kita eki kara...NIGHT TRAIN. Strange as it may read and sound, there's something rather William Shatner-esque about that, and it doesn't quite fit into a romantic jazz ballad.

The song reached No. 6 on Oricon.

Katsutoshi Morizono and Bird's Eye View -- Blue Funk（ブルー・ファンク）

I really liked Katsutoshi Morizono's（森園勝敏）"Blue Funk" with his backing band Bird's Eye View right from the get-go. The sound is so mellow and creamy and of its time that it just reminded me of having not regular coffee but Viennese Coffee which has that huge dollop of whipped cream right on top. I've had plenty of those at a few of my favourite cafes in Tokyo and Chiba...sinfully delicious.

And just like when I had that Viennese Coffee, "Blue Funk" simply starts off with the creamy keyboard and those three chords that hint at a morning feeling. It's a great fusion tune that has me thinking of Steely Dan and Spyro Gyra. Plus, there is Morizono's amazing solo at 3:35 in the above video. The song is a track on his 3rd solo album "Escape" from 1980.

When I tried to look up guitarist Morizono, J-Wiki just led me to his old band Yonin Bayashi（四人囃子...The Four-Man Band）which had started out as a rock group in 1971 and had its first run between that year and 1979. Since then, it's gotten back together and broken up several times, but the band has been currently active since 2008, although it seems to be a trio right now with Daiji Okai（岡井大二）on drums and Hidemi Sakashita（坂下秀実）on keyboards.

BLU-SWING -- Sunset

Happy Saturday to you, all! Things were very unseasonably cool today...definitely felt like autumn and only a few days after we went through a Humidex of 42 degrees C! Plus, we'll be getting back to those hot and humid days at the end of next week. So the roller coaster of transitioning seasons begins yet again.

I've been getting into the music of BLU-SWING since I wrote about the title track from their 2015 album "Flash" earlier this year. At this point, I can't get that album since it's either all sold our or whatever is left is being sold at exorbitant prices. Being rather stubborn, I was focusing all of my purchasing energies on that one, but listening to some of their past songs, I'm realizing that getting one of their earlier albums would suit me fine, too.

For example, "Sunset" from their 2013 album "Transit". Commenter roelm and I were talking in the Comments section below "Flash" and wondering about how this particular song would be categorized. Well, on first listen, I have to say that I was fairly wracking my head. Not that anything is wrong with the song at all. In fact, I think it's great and it's great that it can have elements from different genres, and the band itself, as I mentioned in the "Flash" article, covers different musical styles such as hip-hop, Club Jazz and the newer type of City Pop.

I can hear strands of jazz and some electropop and perhaps even some Latin in "Sunset" but in the end, I wouldn't add those categories in the Labels section. Overall, I think it has that funk and soul to place it as a J-R&B number and since I can't help but place it in a soundtrack for walking through Shibuya at night or driving in a car on Van Paugam's highways, I would also give it a City Pop tag as well. But as the video shows vocalist Yuri Tanaka（田中裕梨）walking on the wet sands, I could also imagine it being heard on the deck of a yacht while some party is getting started; there's even that fizzing sound at points in the song which had me thinking club soda being passed around to the happy guests. By the way, roelm also noted that the song had some similarity to an old Chic tune from 1978, "I Want Your Love".

For those who can remember reading some of my thoughts down to an iota, you are probably already aware that I enjoy listening to music that can show facets of different genres in one song. Well, then, welcome to the club, "Sunset".

Nami Hirai -- Kagayakitai kara（輝きたいから）

I wrote about this singer, Nami Hirai（平井菜水）, in the beginning of this year, because I was entranced by her brand of elegant pop music which seemed to stretch over the pop, City Pop and Mood Kayo genres. Yep, as for that last genre for those who know the stuff from the 1960s, perhaps it's a bit too much of a stretch, but listening to her "Tayumanai Yoru ni"（たゆまない夜に）, I couldn't help but feel that there was that surrounding atmosphere of shining lights and bars such as would be found in the sophisticated Tokyo district of Akasaka.

For that same article, I also noted that a few of her singles (although not "Tayumanai Yoru ni", which wasn't even an official single) were used as the ending theme for the NTV variety show "Shitteiru Tsumori?!"（知ってるつもり?!）. Well, this song for this article is one of those singles. "Kagayakitai kara" (Because I Want to Shine) was her 2nd single from September 1991, and as with that other number I wrote about, it has that sheen of urban and urbane gentle elegance. However, I think that Mood Kayo element isn't quite as noticeable here alongside the other two genres when compared with "Tayumanai Yoru ni".

Sachiko Nishida（西田佐知子）was the lyricist here while veteran composer Takao Kisugi（来生たかお）came up with the dreamy night melody that could use with a glass of well-made sherry. I was surprised that "Kagayakitai kara" hadn't been chosen to adorn a commercial about jewelry or cigarettes instead. I mention the latter since all those Parliament cigarette ads often used those urban contemporary ballads. Anyways, this would be the song to decompress to after a long and fun night in Tokyo.

To finish my list of parallels, "Tayumanai Yoru ni" was the final track in Hirai's 2nd album "Te no Hira no Tanpenshuu"（てのひらの短編集）, and similarly, "Kagayakitai kara" turned out to be the last song in her debut album, "Yume no Silhouette"（夢のシルエット...Silhouette of a Dream）from October 1991.

For me, as much as the female rock bands and Shibuya-kei signified the early 1990s, I think this genre of classy urban music has also acted as a musical signpost for that time.