Yumiko Araki -- Nagisa de Cross（渚でクロス）

I've referred to this before, but as much as that huge pyramid of 80s aidorus separated into ranking levels existed, I think there was also that somewhat more obscure but similar 70s pyramid of teen singers.

There were those singers such as Momoe Yamaguchi（山口百恵）, Hiromi Iwasaki（岩崎宏美）and Pink Lady（ピンク・レディ）up at the top of that pyramid in the late 1970s, but to be honest, I don't have nearly as much knowledge about the B-team below those 70s stars as I do for the equivalent ranking with the 80s aidoru. However, I did find out about one such singer recently from the late 70s second tier.

Her name is Yumiko Araki（荒木由美子）and she hails from Saga Prefecture, which is the setting for one of this season's most popular anime incidentally speaking, and she's currently known as a singer, tarento and actress.

In 1976, when she was around 16 years of age, she earned herself a prize at the 1st annual Hori Pro Talent Scout Caravan, a talent show whose Grand Prix winner was none other than Ikue Sakakibara（榊原郁恵）. Then, some months later in June 1977, Araki made her singing debut with "Nagisa de Cross" (Crossing at the Beach) which earned her some Best New Artist honours alongside the aforementioned Sakakibara and Mizue Takada（高田みづえ）.

"Nagisa de Cross" was created by the husband-and-wife team of Ryudo Uzaki and Yoko Aki（宇崎竜童・阿木燿子）, the same tandem behind a number of Momoe Yamaguchi's later hits such as "Imitation Gold"（イミテイション・ゴールド）. Finding this out as I listened to the song, I could pick up on the tough girl feeling as Aki's lyrics seem to relate a fierce rivalry between two girls over a guy during the summer (from the title, I had initially thought it was about volleyball). It's almost as if Araki was the teen version of the jaded seen-it-all done-it-all character that Yamaguchi was portraying through her hits, although we all know that Yamaguchi was still very much an adolescent herself at that time.

One other thing that I picked up on as "Nagisa de Cross" was playing in my ears was the overall arrangement by Koji Makaino（馬飼野康二）. That rumbling melody had me thinking of tough girls and guys and their motorcycles which then reminded me of Akina Nakamori's（中森明菜）"Ni-bun no Ichi no Shinwa"（1/2の神話）that would come out several years later in the 1980s. The interesting point was that Nakamori was seen as the heir apparent for Yamaguchi through her image and deeper voice.

Her debut single didn't particularly take Araki into the stratosphere as "Nagisa de Cross" peaked at No. 56 on Oricon and sold 44,000 records. However, she would release a total of 10 singles up to 1980 along with 4 albums while also entering the tarento and acting worlds of the geinokai. In 1983, she then married fellow entertainer Masayuki Yuhara（湯原昌幸）and retired for many years before making a return in 2004.

Tomoko Kuwae -- Tasogare wo Wine ni Somete（黄昏をワインに染めて）

There are certain singers who have been seen as one-hit wonders: they get that huge hit which is the talk of the town for several months to a year, only for them to disappear into obscurity with the exception of their die-hard fans who keep holding the flame. As a fellow who has liked to see a bit deeper into the discography of such singers to see if I can find some other hitherto unknown gems, "Kayo Kyoku Plus" has provided me many an opportunity.

One such singer is Tomoko Kuwae（桑江知子）. Japanese pop music listeners of the late 70s and early 80s will probably remember her for her sole hit, "Watashi no Heart wa Stop Motion"（私のハートはストップモーション）from 1979. I think it's one of those pop songs that hit the perfect centre of the kayo kyoku Venn diagram in which it's perhaps a little too uptempo to be considered Fashion Music or AOR but doesn't really step totally into the City Pop genre.

Well, back in May 2012, when I wrote an article about "Watashi no Heart wa Stop Motion", I did mention a single that Kuwae had released in February 1990. This is indeed that single "Tasogare wo Wine ni Somete" (Color the Wine with Sunsets). Up to now, I've had the singer frozen in time in the late 1970s due to that hit, so it was a bit of a shock to see Kuwae in the video above sporting that sauvage hairstyle which was so popular with women back in those days.

Again, like "Watashi no Heart wa Stop Motion", "Tasogare wo Wine ni Somete" has got that sophisticated arrangement which sounds like an updated version of Fashion Music, especially with those epic strings. It feels like it was a Chika Ueda（上田知華）creation, but actually it was written by Toyohisa Araki（荒木とよひさ）and composed by Takashi Tsushimi（都志見隆）. Unfortunately, the video above just has a shortened version for performing on a music show so it would be nice if I could my own copy of the whole thing someday. The song was also used as one of the many ending themes for the late-night variety show "Tonight" on TV Asahi. That show is quite well-known to me for using those high-flying ballads as sendoff music.

Rasmus Faber -- Rise

Didn't catch "Uta Kon"（うたコン）last night as I usually would because I was actually out last night with a few close friends for a Peking Duck dinner. I didn't want that cholesterol to go to waste, after all. In other news, my latest package from Tower Records has been in Toronto for the past couple of days where it will probably be having an extended stay at a processing centre while the rotating strike-influenced backlog attempts to be cleared.

Anyways, back on Sunday when I met up with my anime buddy, we had our usual anison hour. My friend decided to play a few tracks from his newly-acquired soundtrack of the summer anime "Harukana Receive"（はるかなレシーブ）. Track 1, "Rise", immediately grabbed my attention with its happy and high-paced Latin beat. This is the vocal version (unfortunately I couldn't find out who the vocalist was) created by Rasmus Faber who was behind the entire soundtrack, but the instrumental version of it was played throughout the show at various points.

It's a great tune which has been able to pull me away from the current snow-laden weather outside, and "Rise" even reminds me of "Life" which was the wonderful Mondo Grosso creation from 2000. With a few more of these tropical tunes, I may just survive the Canadian winter to come here.

Shoko Sawada -- Asphalt no Ue no Suna（アスファルトの上の砂）

As I mentioned in the first article that I wrote up for singer Shoko Sawada（沢田聖子）, she's someone that I discovered through an episode of the radio program "Sounds of Japan" on CHIN-FM all those years ago, and is a chanteuse that I never got to see or hear in all those years in Japan. Basically, I've seen Sawada as one of those unsung singers who could have occupied that personally made-up genre called Fashion Music with her brand of mellowness.

Case in point: her song "Asphalt no Ue no Suna" (The Sand on Top of the Asphalt) from her 1984 8th album "Kaze no Yokan"（風の予感...Premonition of the Wind）. Now, from the title, one could be forgiven if the assumption that this was some sort of summery rock n' roll song by TUBE or Southern All Stars. But it's actually a tune that rather falls under this Fashion Music banner.

Written by Masao Urino（売野雅勇）and composed by Mieko Nishijima（西島三重子）, "Asphalt no Ue no Suna" is a fairly skippy song with some dramatic strings hinting in my imagination a train ride through Europe. But according to Urino's lyrics, it's about a woman revisiting a beach that she had once walked upon with her now former beau, and the visit hasn't exactly come off as being too happy. Seeing Nishijima's name connected with "Asphalt no Ue no Suna", I kinda figured that the song would sound pretty exotically classy since I've associated her with Fashion Music as well. By the same token, I would have also assumed that the song was created by Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）.

For some strange reason, though, I think Sawada isn't exactly perfect in her delivery of the song. At some points, it sounds as if she were breathlessly rushing through "Asphalt", kinda crunching certain syllables. Perhaps that may have been the point, but it still sounds a bit strange to me. However, I don't have complaint about the melody since I do like my Fashion Music.

Koji Tamaki -- Kiyoshi Kono Yoru（きよしこの夜）

Ladies and gentlemen...readers of "Kayo Kyoku Plus", on this November 26th, we're now officially less than a month away from Christmas. I figure that with American Thanksgiving done and Toronto's annual Santa Claus Parade having taken place last Sunday, the Holidays are once again upon us.

As such, allow me to launch the annual Xmas season on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" with the usual round of seasonal tunes between now and December 25th. We can begin with Koji Tamaki's（玉置浩二）own rendition of a Christmas classic "Kiyoshi Kono Yoru", otherwise known as "Silent Night". Although I'm not sure whether the Anzen Chitai（安全地帯）vocalist had ever officially recorded it in any of his solo albums, I figure that Tamaki would be one of a few Japanese singers who could take something like "Silent Night" and bat it higher than Santa's sleigh's flight altitude on Xmas Eve.

I'm hoping that me and some of the other collaborators here at KKP can track down some J-Xmas tunes and put them up. Over the years, we've managed to put up more than 100 Yuletide-themed numbers, and even if folks like Marcos, Noelle and Joana do follow-up articles on some of the songs that are already up here, that's perfectly fine. Everyone has their own special stories to tell. Of course, singers that are covering some of the Western classics will be covered as well.

Reiko Ohara -- Peacock Baby（ピーッコック・ベイビー）

Reiko Ohara（大原麗子）was an actress who passed away almost a decade ago, but pretty much all of my sightings of her were through her appearances on TV variety shows and commercials with the latter on display above. For me, it was her slightly squeaky and sexy voice that I got to know her for.

Although she made her debut in show business back in 1964, she first made her appearance behind a recording mike around March 1968 when she first released her debut single "Peacock Baby". Her vocals weren't all that great but listening to the song created by Chihiro Todaiji and Asei Kobayashi（東大路千弘・小林亜星）, I almost had this overwhelming urge to do the Shimmy and do my Austin Powers impersonation. There's quite a bit of inspiration from Sergio Mendes and Brazil '66. Can you dig it, baby? She would release two more singles in 1978 and 1996 along with an album in 1978, but as you can see from the gaps in releases that singing wasn't really a priority with her.

Air Suspension Club Band -- Jack in the Box

Happy Monday! I've got no idea who the members were in this supposedly one-off project called Air Suspension Club Band, but according to this track "Jack in the Box" from their sole 1982 album "Another World", these guys knew how to funk.

The greatest information that I could find on ASCB is from the Ondas Record Store, and that was only to point out that the band was into fusion boogie. In any case "Jack in the Box" is a nice way to get out of those Sunday night "Oh, woe is me...back to work tomorrow" blues and get back into the swing of things. Along with the funk, there are some of those dreamy passages that take listeners into the sky, and then the clip-cloppy percussion that start and finish the song off.