Kidorikko -- Momoiro Kingyo（桃色金魚）

Happy Saturday! And I hope everyone in the States is enjoying the start of their Memorial Day long weekend.

I remember when Yellow Magic Orchestra became a phenomenon, it seemed like the synthesizer and any other instrument associated with technopop music started seeping into the production of a whole lot of other pop songs in Japan for several years going far into the 1980s. And of course, even bands and individual artists with that computer music vibe started popping up during that time, inspired by the teamwork of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Haruomi Hosono, Yukihiro Takahashi（坂本龍一・細野晴臣・高橋幸宏）.

However, I've realized that a lot of those technopop bands never entered my radar until very recently, thanks to the presence of YouTube. It's like my discovery of City Pop with a lot of people in the genre figuratively taking up residency in the 9/10ths of the music iceberg under the water...there may be a number of those technopop bands underneath the surface as well.

One such band which I found out about in the last few months was called Kidorikko（きどりっこ）. I couldn't find anything about this particular band itself on J-Wiki, but one of the members has his own bio there. Keyboardist/composer Kimitaka Matsumae（松前公高）got together with Ryuichi Sato（佐藤隆一）, another keyboardist and composer, and vocalist/lyricist Chiyumi Ten（てんちゆみ） (who, at least from the image above, looks a lot like actress Yumi Adachi!) to form the band around the mid-1980s.

From another blog's (Wakarimi/後悔日和) page devoted to the band, Sato apparently went for "...a progressive pop sound with a children's song-like quality", fitted with Ten's happy-go-lucky high-pitched vocals. In 1986, Kidorikko's debut mini-album, "C'est L'elegance na Tanoshimi" (セレレガンスな愉しみ...Enjoyment of This Elegance), was released with one of the tracks being "Momoiro Kingyo" (Peach-Coloured Goldfish). The song was also their debut single from April 1985.

I gotta say that those particular synths caught my attention immediately. That adorably chirpy sound really reminded me of some of the techno beats that Ryuichi Sakamoto put forth for Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）in the early 1980s. Plus, Ten's voice would probably have certain seiyuu listening in envy today. Although Kidorikko has also been pegged as a New Wave band according to this English-language description of them, I'm not quite sure if "Momoiro Kingyo" would apply as a New Wave song but I will leave that decision to you once you listen to it.

Wakarami also mentioned something interesting, stating that the entirety of "Momoiro Kingyo" brought back memories of the old Bubble Era. I think that there is another brand of keyboard work in City Pop that has also elicited that feeling.

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A full studio album was released in August 1987,  "Ryukou Tsushinbo" (流行通信簿...Trend Report Card) . Several of the tracks from "C'est L'elegance na Tanoshimi" and tracks from this full album were put together to form a joint album called "Kidorikko" in 1989.

For Matsumae, he left not too long after "C'est L'elegance na Tanoshimi" had been released. He then got involved in other projects and bands including the group hi-posi during their indies days and SST Band.

Not sure if such a book has ever been published, but I think like my genre bible "Japanese City Pop", perhaps there could be a similar publication titled "Japanese Technopop" covering those bands from the late 1970s and beyond.

Akira Kurosawa & Los Primos -- Ginza Blues（銀座ブルース）

Always a grand area. Even if folks have said that since the Bubble burst and the 2011 earthquake, the lights of Ginza haven't been the same, I've never particularly agreed with the opinion that Tokyo's most famous neighbourhood has lost its gleaming luster. It's still a fine walk, day or night and whether or not the street is closed to vehicular traffic for its weekly pedestrians' paradise.

With the title of "Ginza Blues", I would have thought that this would have been an easy single for the Mood Kayo group Akira Kurosawa & Los Primos（黒沢明とロス・プリモス）. After all, this was the group that performed a number of Ginza-based tunes such as "Ame no Ginza"（雨の銀座）and "Tasogare no Ginza"（たそがれの銀座）. However, it was included as a track on (I'm assuming) their February 1970 album, "Sakariba no Yoru ni Utau"（盛り場の夜を唄う...Sing to the Night on a Busy Street）, although the YouTube video just has "Yoru ni Utau" as the identifying album.

The song also did sound rather familiar, then I figured it out. "Ginza Blues" had been recorded previously in the 1960s and by a number of different artists. In fact, I had already written about the ballad just a few months earlier with Hiroshi Wada & Mahina Stars（和田弘とマヒナスターズ）and Kazuko Matsuo（松尾和子）, among others. But what I found out was that the cover version by Los Primos, compared to the jazzier and swingier versions by those from the other article, has more of an intimate Latin feeling especially with that lone guitar. I imagine, for example, that the Mahina Stars and Yujiro Ishihara（石原裕次郎）would have performed their covers in a classy brightly-lit supper club in Ginza while Los Primos would be in closer surroundings with the spotlight placed right on them.

Yoko Maeno -- Ai no Hitojichi（愛の人質）

Another Friday night is upon us so hey, let's go with City Pop here. I found this song by Yoko Maeno（前野曜子）titled in a sultry way "Ai no Hitojichi" (Hostage to Love).

A track from her 7th and final album "Twilight" from 1982, "Ai no Hitojichi" is this urbane but wistful song with a slightly sexy streak thanks to Maeno's vocals. I like some of that twiddling on the keyboards and the horns that accompany her. Just my opinion, but I think from Maeno's singing, this sounds like a 1970s City Pop tune given some of that 1980s arrangement.

I wasn't able to find out who took care of words and music but I do appreciate that nighttime vibe that emanates from the song. It kinda reflects a very smart evening out on the town. Finally, I also like that cover on the album. Simply stated, I have a soft spot for twilight-themed photos.

Miki Imai -- Doshaburi Wonderland（どしゃ降りWonderland）

While folks in Japan are going through an early version of a typically torrid summer over there, we here in Toronto have been having cold and wet weather to the extent that it seems as if spring had been cancelled. But it seems that over the past couple of days, despite all the rain last month, we may have a sliver of spring in between the big guys of winter and summer.

Although I don't think that April was basically the re-enactment of the climate that launched Noah's Ark, the rain was fairly steady. However, it seems like the story in Miki Imai's（今井美樹）"Doshaburi Wonderland" (Downpour Wonderland) has one lady who's more than happy to traipse around like Gene Kelly in the famous scene of "Singing in the Rain" (and yep, Imai even gives a shout out to him in the song). And that's because she in L-O-V-E! Nothing like that particular emotion to make anyone completely oblivious to changes in the weather.

"Doshaburi Wonderland" isn't going down as one of my very favourites in the Imai oeuvre but it's fun and snappy enough. This was the first track in her 2nd studio album "elfin" from September 1987 and was created by Masami Tozawa（戸沢暢美）and Satoshi Takebe（武部聡志）. It's interesting enough with a Prince-like funk guitar riff launching things and some rather nostalgic synthesizer. Moreover, considering some of her later, more dramatic-sounding hits, hearing the light-as-meringue "Doshaburi Wonderland" early in her career can bring a smile to my face.

Tokyo Q Channel -- Ni-juu-kyuu-sai（29歳）

Of course, here in Canada, we've got Tim Horton's. It's not technically a Canadian company any more since it's majority-owned by Brazilian/American investment firm 3G Capital, but heck, we can still dream about the man the donut-and-coffee emporium was named after, the late Toronto Maple Leaf Tim Horton. Over in Japan, I think the leading donut place is still Mister Donut even with that craze over Krispy Kreme and other gourmet donut establishments almost a decade ago. There was even one branch by my old subway station, Minami-Gyotoku.

When I was visiting Tokyo in 2017, I decided to stop by for a morning snack at the Shimo-Kitazawa branch of Mister Donut. I ended up with a straight coffee and a double-chocolate donut. Compared to the yeast-raised donuts at Timmies, Mister Donut's donuts are more on the cakey side. It's all good!

Anyways, my donut-filled pre(-r)amble has nothing to do with the song here; I was just musing wistfully. But speaking of wistful, I would like to introduce this really pleasant ditty, "Ni-juu-kyuu-sai" (29 Years Old) by the musical duo Tokyo Q Channel (or TQC, for short). Enjoying a short run between 1994 and 1998, the band's name does sound somewhat like a home shopping network but it was indeed a singing act comprised of vocalist Mayumi Sudo（須藤まゆみ）and keyboardist-guitarist-composer Yasuhiko Warita（割田康彦）.

"Ni-juu-kyuu-sai" comes from TQC's first of two albums "Switch On!" which came out in June 1995. With Sudo and Warita creating the song on their own, it sounds more like a tune from a decade back, maybe more along the lines of something that Hiroshi Sato（佐藤博）or Katsuhisa Hattori（服部克久）in AOR mode would create in the 1980s. All those wonderful strings and twinkly keyboards surround a story of a young lady looking back as well as forward while she is in her final year of her twenties. Sudo has that lovely crystalline voice and my compliments also go out to Warita. "Ni-juu-kyuu-sai" doesn't seem to reflect any regrets and is very uptempo...perhaps just the song to adorn an Iwaki Credit Association commercial which it did.

Although there is a J-Wiki bio for Tokyo Q Channel, there isn't much outside of their discography. I found out that the duo had released eight singles along with their two albums. But Sudo and Warita have their own articles from which I did discover that Sudo is from Gunma Prefecture, has backed up a number of other singers such as Miki Imai（今井美樹）and Maaya Sakamoto（坂本真綾）, and has sung a lot of other commercial jingles. Meanwhile, Warita, who also hails from Gunma, was discovered by composer Tetsuji Hayashi（林哲司）in 1990 after which Warita made his own debut as a composer. He has created melodies for acts including SMAP, Ribbon and Hikaru Genji（光GENJI）.

I had the entire 2nd floor of Mister Donut to myself!

Negicco -- Triple! WONDERLAND（トリプル!WONDERLAND）/ Koi suru Negicco（恋するねぎっ娘）

Over the past week, an old classmate of mine from not only university but also from Japanese Language School days sent me an e-mail asking me whether I knew anything about the contemporary aidoru group known as Negicco. I had to say that my knowledge was rather limited when I got the mail although I know that Marcos V. included them in his March 2014 article "Retro Grooves and Underground Aidoru Gems Playlist".

Well, not to let any enquirer down, I checked things out about this group and found out that Negicco is a bit of a Cinderella story come to life. Back in 2003, Japan Agricultural Cooperatives had wanted to boost the exposure of the green onion industry in Niigata Prefecture, so Nao☆, Megu, Miku and Kaede were brought together as Negicco, literally meaning Green Onion Girls for what was only going to be a one-month gig. However, the activities and fame kept on coming for them, and although Miku graduated in 2006 (she would be replaced by Misaki but she left a couple of years later), Negicco has continued releasing the music and albums up to the present day, and leader Nao☆ has even helped pen a number of songs for the group.

I found out this single from April 2014 titled "Triple! WONDERLAND" which is quite catchy. The video kinda reminds me of an even cuter Perfume performance, and the music by ex-Cymbals drummer Hiroyasu Yano（矢野博康）had me reminiscing of another aidoru group in this decade, Especia. I would have just categorized "Triple! WONDERLAND" as an aidoru and pop tune but with those 80s-sounding synths and that Especia Neo-City Pop sound, I couldn't help but throw in those particular genres into Labels, too. Yano also provided the lyrics for what is a cute and fairly cool tune.

"Triple! WONDERLAND" is their 6th single under the T-Palette Records label ("Aidoru Bakari Kikanaide"/アイドルばかり聴かないで featured in Marcos' article is their 4th). It peaked at No. 16 on Oricon, and made its appearance on "Rice & Snow", Negicco's 2nd album under the same label from January 2015. That album went as high as No. 18.

Now, let's go all the way back to the beginning with "Koi suru Negicco" (Green Onion Girls In Love) with the original quartet. Their debut single premiered in November 2003, and is a more conventional and oh-so-adorably bouncy testament to themselves. Hopefully, sales in green onions did get a boost. The lyrics were provided by Kura & Oga and music was by atk. Before joining up with T-Palette Records, a little under a dozen singles were released by Negicco with 5 other companies between 2003 and 2010.

Nav Katze -- Yuunagi（夕なぎ）

I was working part-time as a student assistant at University of Toronto's International Student Centre back in the late 1980s which meant that I took care of the facilities once or twice a week at night when the regular day staff went home. It was a nice gig, too, for the most part since some nice university clubs came in regularly to use the various rooms at the ISC. Plus, a few of my friends would come by and keep me company from time to time and after I close up, we may even walk down to Chinatown for a late-night dinner.

One of the regular groups that came on Tuesdays was the U of T chapter of the Society of Creative Anachronism. I hadn't really known what they were all about but on a weekly basis, the friendly members signed off on one of the larger rooms on the ground floor and I could often hear some medieval music going on with what sounded like dancing from the rhythmic footsteps. As it turns out, the SCA is a group dedicated to life in the Middle Ages without all of the horrible diseases and violence. Nice men and women, they all were.

For some reason, when I listen to this song by (at-the-time) trio Nav Katze, I get reminded of the SCA. Perhaps "Yuunagi" (Evening Sun) strikes me as having this somewhat medieval vibe woven into its tapestry although it is obviously contemporary; I think it's partially because of that instrument which starts things off, but the whole tone throughout the song seems to be fitting for a pleasant adventure in the forest. Moreover, the music definitely stands out from the Japanese pop at the time so that I also think of the band PSY-S when I hear "Yuunagi" although PSY-S is more in the technopop realm.

"Yuunagi" served as Nav Katze's debut single from August 1987 and was also a track on the group's 2nd album "OyZaC" which came out a month later. I've already written about one of their later songs, "Nagori no Bara"（名残りの薔薇）, so you may additionally want to give that one a try for comparison.