Leon Niihama -- Kimi wo Motomete（君を求めて）

I think the musical arrangement of enka and perhaps even Mood Kayo is changing in at least some of their songs. The genres might even be melding. Enka in decades past to me was always about the traditional instruments including the koto, the shamisen and the shakuhachi whereas Mood Kayo often involved Latin and/or jazz rhythms with a brassy orchestra behind the singer. But nowadays, when the new breed of enka singers lands on TV to perform their latest, there seems to be more of an injection of rock (and maybe even R&B) at times, and it sounds like the songwriters have been asked to throw in some more pizzazz at the expense of some majesty. Not that I begrudge this development. Everything evolves over time...languages have done so, and I see music as a language.

My little internal analysis comes on the heels of "Kimi wo Motomete" (Desiring You) which is the first of enka singer Leon Niihama's（新浜レオン）digital download singles that was released in May this year. He had actually debuted in 2019 with three CD singles under his belt. In fact, Niihama was heralded as having made his debut on the very first day of the Reiwa Era, according to the J-Wiki article about him. To add onto the interest, the lad is the very first enka singer under the Being label, the same entertainment conglomerate taking care of acts such as B'z and Mai Kuraki（倉木麻衣）.

I first saw him on last week's "Uta Con"（うたコン）performing "Kimi wo Motomete" which has that mix of the more contemporary enka laden with electric guitar and dynamic horns and some of that Latin spice from Mood Kayo albeit with more hip-swiveling. I'd say that there is enough action in Koji Makaino's（馬飼野康二）melody that "Kimi wo Motomete" could even do well as a theme song for a current tokusatsu show. Keiko Serizawa（セリザワケイコ）provided the lyrics of a man really crying out for his lady in love.

Watching his performance on "Uta Con" and then seeing the official music video (in its full glory!), I rather wonder if Niihama is seen in the same light when Kiyoshi Hikawa（氷川きよし）made his grand entrance into the spotlight two decades earlier. Would he be the new Boy Prince of enka? I could imagine Hikawa looking at Niihama and sighing wistfully "Yes, I remember it well...".

For a bit more trivia on Niihama, he was born in 1996 as Yuuki Takajo（高城勇貴）in Shirai City, Chiba Prefecture. He's the son of another enka singer Yasuo Takajo（高城靖雄）, and in February 2020, Niihama won Best New Artist honours in the enka/kayo kyoku field at the Japan Gold Disc Awards.

Kumiko Hara -- Ku-gatsu no Kaigara（九月の貝がら）

A few years ago, I featured a jazz singer Kumiko Hara（原久美子）with her City Pop "Magic Night". Originating from her 1978 2nd album "Neppu"（熱風...Tropical Wind）, it was a rollicking and funky piece that showed what an enjoyable evening in Tokyo could be like back in the day.

Well, today's article focuses on the track that immediately followed "Magic Night" on "Neppu". Beginning with a light jazz piano intro and populated with silky strings, "Ku-gatsu no Kaigara", which translates directly as "September Seashell" but has the English subtitle of "Fading Love", is quite the different animal. It's much more of an introspective and melancholy ballad that takes things into the chaise lounge-friendly Fashion Music area. As soon as I heard it for the first time, I was reminded of singers such as Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）and Mayumi Itsuwa（五輪真弓）. It makes for quite the contrast with the preceding "Magic Night". Perhaps "Ku-gatsu no Kaigara" acts as the regretful requiem sequel for a bit too much of that magic night.

The ballad was composed by Hiroki Inui（乾裕樹）and written by Namiko Saki（崎南海子）, who may actually be a poet. "Neppu" is another rare album that I may have my eye on.

135 -- Tokio no Kao（トキオの顔）

This is a most interesting band that I've discovered only recently. Known as 135 (Ichi-Go-San), vocalist/guitarist Shigeto Kajihara（梶原茂人）, keyboardist/bassist Shigeharu Takagi*（高木茂治）and percussionist Yoshihiro Honda（本田義博）first started up in 1986, and have released a dozen original albums and seventeen singles up to 2003. According to J-Wiki, the trio first began under the somewhat less ambiguous name of West Wood (probably because they initially had wanted to do West Coast music) but then decided to change it to 135, after the 135th meridian east, the line of longitude that runs through Kyoto and Hyogo Prefectures in Japan.

"Tokio no Kao" (The Face of Tokyo), from their debut album "135" from February 1987, definitely doesn't sound like West Coast AOR. I guess that I can call it more along the lines of World Music, perhaps. There is some hint of reggae in the intro but then it pours into something more exotic with Kajihara's vocals reminding me of the delivery of the bands Picasso and H2O, and the music reminiscent of the works of Aragon.

I'd be interested in picking the band's brains on their impression of the face of the capital city of Japan since the music is far and away from anything that I could perceive of Tokyo. The usual musical images that I have of the megalopolis is either enka-based or something quite City Pop. It's almost as if 135 had entered a completely different realm of tiny festival-loving villages in an alt-universe Europe.

Meiko Nakahara/TECHNOBOYS PULCRAFT GREEN-FUND feat. Sumire Uesaka -- R-R-R-Russian Roulette（ロ・ロ・ロ・ロシアン・ルーレット）

I'd heard of the expression Russian Roulette a number of times as a kid but never actually knew what it meant until that famous scene from "The Deer Hunter" starring Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken. The scene didn't exactly sit well with me since up to then roulette had always been about that fun spinning game in Las Vegas (or as my high school history teacher used to say: Lost Wages).

Many years later, I found out that the concept behind Russian Roulette also lent itself to many a humorous scene in anime (and it has occurred in real life, usually at year-end parties). Not that cute girls put guns to their heads but they would have a game in which there were some cream puffs that they had to ingest with only one of them containing something atypical and gross such as spicy mustard. That was indeed the case in one episode of "Gabriel Dropout".

Even more recently, the concept came to the fore with balloons in the second season of "Kaguya-sama".

I never expected that there would ever be a kayo with an actual title of "R-R-R-Russian Roulette", but indeed there was and it was written, composed and performed by Meiko Nakahara（中原めいこ）. For the past several entries, the articles have been mainly focusing on her purely City Pop material in the 1980s going into the 1990s such as "Friday Night", but I remember that the first song that I had ever heard by her was "Kimi Tachi Kiwi Papaya Mango da ne" （君たちキウイ・パパヤ・マンゴだね）, the zany tropical fruit boogie-woogie tune.

Arranged by Jun Sato（佐藤準）, Nakahara's "R-R-R-Russian Roulette" was Nakahara's 9th single from July 1985, and it was the opening theme for the television anime "Dirty Pair"（ダーティペア）. With a high-octane vibe bringing in elements of City Pop and rock (and some dance remix tropes), it's raucous and sexy and perfect as the song for the show of two troublemaking trouble consultants. In all likelihood, for anyone within 100 metres radius of the Dirty Pair, it was pretty much playing Russian Roulette with their lives.

I figured that "R-R-R-Russian Roulette" would be ripe for covering some day, and sure enough, it got its opportunity thanks to TECHNOBOYS PULCRAFT GREEN-FUND with the inspired help of quirky seiyuu/singer Sumire Uesaka（上坂すみれ）who is famous for her studies of Russia/USSR culture. The Technoboys and Uesaka turn the song into a delectable synthpop treat which made its way onto the former's November 2017 single "Magical Circle", although it didn't have any direct connection with the updated anime "Mahoujin Guruguru"（魔法陣グルグル...Magical Circle Guruguru）.

For another "Dirty Pair" anison sung by a City Pop legend, try out Miki Matsubara's（松原みき）"Safari Eyes".

Trade Love (ELIKA) -- Sunny Summer Days

Yesterday, it was a drive from San Francisco to California's wine country via J Utah's marvelous driving videos. Today, it was down south through Malibu, and the reason for another virtual drive this hot weekend is that this time I was listening to YouTube channel Sentimental Tokyo's "Summer Edition IV: The Lost Summer「90s」" compilation of City Pop/AOR tracks (which has unfortunately been taken down).

It was another pleasant drive although this time around there was quite a gap in times with the Malibu drive lasting around 40 minutes while the City Pop compilation video was a little over an hour, but that's fine. If you wanna give it the City Pop Radio treatment, you can always choose another J Utah video to finish things up. The wonderful thing is that while listening and enjoying the drive, I got to hear some new stuff; the second track, for instance.

And that would be "Sunny Summer Days" by Trade Love, aka ELIKA. Actually, I posted an ELIKA tune around 18 months ago "Kono Mune wo Dakishimete"（この胸を抱きしめて）, a coupling song for her 5th single "Midnight Party"（ミッドナイト・パーティ）in June 1992. However, some time into the 1990s, she decided to take on a new moniker for a while, Trade Love, and her first single under that name was "Sunny Summer Days", a dynamic and refreshing splash of pop music that came out in April 1995.

I mentioned this in the article for "Kono Mune wo Dakishimete", but I think that similarity in Trade Love's vocals with those of ZARD is also in "Sunny Summer Days". The lyrics were provided by the singer under her real name of Erika Shimakage（島影江里香）while Kazuya Daimon（大門一也）was responsible for the happy music which I could imagine being categorized as Resort Pop. It definitely heralds a pleasant summer drive down to the beach.

"Sunny Summer Days" was the first of two singles that came under Trade Love, and the song was also a part of Trade Love's sole album "paradise door" which was released in July of that year. Incidentally, "Sunny Summer Days" was also used the ending theme for a sports show on NTV. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this song as well as the drive and the City Pop compilation as well.

Toshiyuki Honda -- Burnin' Waves (single track)

Last month, I presented saxophonist Toshiyuki Honda's（本多俊之）"Living in the City", a sunny and mellow track from his 1980 "Easy Breathing". Well this time around, I'm going back further to his 1978 debut album "Burnin' Waves" for that title track.

"Burnin' Waves" the track starts off the album, and it just sounds so New York back in the day with those tight horns, the funky bass and the keyboard. I think the only thing missing here is its own TV detective show set in Brooklyn for which it can act as the theme song. I can just imagine the streetwise private eye strutting down the street like John Travolta in "Saturday Night Fever" saying hello to all of the shop owners, romancing a lot of women, and crushing perps under his fists while having that love-hate relationship with a police lieutenant. Good golly, it's even got jazz flute in there.

A small bit of trivia about Honda. As I was scrolling down the J-Wiki article, I discovered that he had an uncredited role as a Self-Defence Forces soldier in the 1992 "Godzilla vs. Mothra".

Masaharu Fukuyama -- Kazoku ni Narou yo（家族になろうよ）

For the very first Masaharu Fukuyama（福山雅治）article I provided on "Kayo Kyoku Plus", "Gang★", I actually described the comely singer-songwriter and actor as a Japanese incarnation of the Doctor from "Doctor Who". At the time I was a pretty big fan of the sci-fi franchise and Fukuyama himself was starring in the drama "Galileo" as that eccentric crime-solving physicist.

Nowadays, though, I've been seeing the fellow as one of the nicest invitees to a party that one could ever have (David Tennant seems to be that, too). He just strikes me as the guy you want to have to take care of the conversation on the sofa or even provide some music while the host of the party is busy with other things such as cooking and greeting more guests at the door. I haven't really seen too many of his interviews but from what I have watched, perhaps I can say that he's one of the more down-to-earth celebrities that I've seen on TV.

If guest Fukuyama were to entertain his fellow partygoers, then this is the song that I would envisage him performing. His 27th single from August 2011, "Kazoku ni Narou yo" (Hey, Let's Become a Family) is so homey and comfortable that a fireplace and a pot of soup would miraculously appear right by the stereo. Written and composed and arranged by Fukuyama with help by Akira Inoue（井上鑑）, the lyrics were created during the downtime faced by the singer when his nationwide tour had been interrupted because of the 2011 earthquake in the Tohoku region. The song then became the campaign tune for a Recruit magazine specializing in weddings called "Zexy".

"Kazoku ni Narou yo" hit No. 1 on Oricon and became the No. 20 single for 2011. On CD, the song went Platinum with it selling 155,000 copies in its first week of release alone. Even bigger news was that, according to "Oricon Music", with the success of this single, Fukuyama became the solo male artist in Japanese pop music history to sell the largest number of singles and albums combined (approx. 13 million singles and 8 million albums), taking over from Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi（長渕剛）who had held the record for 22 years.

The song also garnered an invitation from NHK to the Kokahu Utagassen for 2011 in which Fukuyama performed it at the Pacifico Yokohama Convention Centre. "Kazoku ni Narou yo" is also a track on his 11th original album "Human" which was released in April 2014. This album was in the No. 1 spot for 2 weeks running and was the No. 7 album of the year, going Platinum.