Haruo Oka -- Tokyo Chanson（東京シャンソン）

 

Over the past few days, I've been hearing that the Kanto region including Tokyo was going to get walloped by the white stuff, but it looks like the megalopolis may have avoided a huge snowy bullet according to NHK's report today. I've been informed that Tokyo used to get snow more frequently in decades past, but during my time there, wintry precipitation was quite rare, and in amounts far smaller than what I'm accustomed to here in my native Toronto, even a couple of centimetres of snow would be enough to have Japan Railways go to Red Alert.

As such, I'd been thinking about putting up a meteorologically appropriate song on KKP tonight but I realized that I'd already put up Cheuni's（チェウニ）"Tokyo ni Yuki ga Furu"（Tokyoに雪が降る）a few years ago, and then when I settled for anything on Tokyo, I also found out that I'd also already posted "Tokyo"（東京）by the folk trio My Pace（マイ・ペース）back in 2018.

Well, then I decided to punch into the Yahoo.jp search engine anything to do with Tokyo-based kayo. I did receive a number of results, one of which was Haruo Oka's（岡晴夫）"Tokyo Chanson". Good choice there, too, since Oka has provided some songs regarding my old stomping grounds such as "Tokyo no Hanauri Musume"（東京の花売娘）and "Tokyo no Sora, Aoi Sora"（東京の空青い空）.

Not sure whether I would place "Tokyo Chanson", which was an October 1947 single by Oka, as an actual chanson, although admittedly my knowledge on the melodic style of the French musical genre is extremely limited. It is a gently upbeat kayo though as Oka sings about seeing the girl of his dreams at some stage play for the first time. I'm wondering whether he was watching a Takarazuka Revue performance since I believe the nationally famous all-women troupe has come up with musicals set in France, and the title is, after all, "Tokyo Chanson". Anyways, Shizuo Yoshikawa（吉川静夫）and Gento Uehara（上原げんと）were responsible for words and music respectively. Additionally, I also hope that Kanto residents are doing their best with the storm; as someone who has also gone through one of the Top 10 most powerful snowstorms in Toronto's history almost a month ago, I do feel their pain.

Asako Toki -- Rendez-vous in ’58 (sings with バカリズム)

 

One old Japanese comedy-variety show that I never really got to watch was "Oretachi Hyokinzoku"（オレたちひょうきん族...We Are The Wild and Crazy Guys） starring Beat Takeshi（ビートたけし）and Sanma Akashiya（明石家さんま）among other comic up-and-comers who have all become decades-long presences on television. I watched far more of The Drifters'（ザ・ドリフターズ）"Hachi-ji da yo! Zen'in Shuugo"（8時だよ全員集合）which was the big comedy program in the 1970s but "Oretachi Hyokinzoku" was the successful upstart going into the 1980s.

The rotating series of ending themes for "Oretachi Hyokinzoku" also gained its share of fame since it included EPO's "Downtown" and "Doyou no Yoru wa Paradise" (土曜の夜はパラダイス）along with Tatsuro Yamashita's（山下達郎）"Doyoubi no Koibito" （土曜日の恋人）. Apparently, one of the loose guidelines for a song to be used on the show was that it should have some mention of Saturday in the title or in the lyrics because "Oretachi Hyokinzoku" was televised on that very night. All three songs mentioned were able to fulfill that guideline.

Anyways, according to singer-songwriter Asako Toki's（土岐麻子）website, Toki herself was a fan of "Oretachi Hyokinzoku" and those ending themes. In fact, she wondered where those adults went for fun after hearing the tunes by EPO and Tats. Certainly, I don't blame her...I've also wondered about the night life in good ol' Tokyo on listening to "Downtown" and "Doyoubi no Koibito" for the first time, and happily, I did get to indulge during my time in the megalopolis very often.

Well, for her February 2021 album "HOME TOWN ～Cover Songs～", she was able to come up with a track that paid some tribute to those cheerful uptempo ending themes back in the pre-Bubble Era days and nights. Titled "Rendez-vous in '58", Toki paired up with comedian, TV personality and lyricist Bakarhythm（バカリズム）to perform this just-as-cheerful and uptempo song hearkening back to the feelings of "Downtown" and "Doyoubi no Koibito". To keep things within the family, so to speak, EPO herself came up with the melody while Toki provided the lyrics about a couple imagining flying throughout time and space to settings such as Ibiza in 1985 and Newport in 1958 after having their real date cancelled due to a storm.

As the title for that 2021 album states, "HOME TOWN" is an album of covers, and it turns out that Toki first recorded "Rendez-vous in '58" as a solo final track for her June 2013 album "Heartbreakin'". Either way, it's a stylish contemporary version of the good ol' bright-lights-big-city and painting-the-town-red standards of long ago.

Anzen Chitai -- V (Harmony, Side 1)

 

It's been a couple of months but I'm finally covering the last LP in the original 3-LP album representing the epic "V" by Anzen Chitai（安全地帯）. Took care of the last article back in December so from today, I'm taking care of the "Harmony" LP starting with Side 1. However, I have to say that I already covered the first half of this side consisting of "Gin'iro no Pistol"（銀色のピストル）, "Namida wo Tometa Mama"(涙をとめたまま) and "Kon'ya Futari de"(今夜ふたりで) , with the latter two showing up on the very first article for "V" all the way back in August 2012. And since the first half of Side 1 is all together, I can summarize that half as being cool, collected, jazzy & bluesy, and very City. Once again, it was Goro Matsui（松井五郎）and Koji Tamaki（玉置浩二）behind words and music respectively.

The overall theme continues with Track 4, "Ima Sugu ni Koi"（いますぐに恋...Love Now） which has one of the best rhythm tracks that I've ever heard on an Anzen Chitai song (try to imagine Tamaki cutting a rug on stage here). It starts out with some synthesized whimsy before listeners are taken downtown or uptown for a fantastical night out with a fellow who has fallen heads over heels for a woman with a high style of fashion and perhaps an ability to twirl men around her well-manicured finger. Some of the lyrics include "Hello my girl" and "Hello my love", but considering how hot the lad has it for the lass, Matsui should have also added "Hello NURSE!".

Next up is "Ano Music kara"（あのMusicから...From That Music） which is rock seductive and sultry. As much as the previous track was about a fellow going nuts over a lady, this time, it's another guy who's gone gaga over a particular song. Tamaki's vocals go more growly here, and one wonders whether he and Matsui had wanted to create a sonic version of how Mick Jagger acts at his sexiest.

And with that guitar diddling at the end there, we are led to the final track and the second bluesy jazz piece on the side with "J no Blues"（Jのブルース...J's Blues）. Once again, Tamaki transforms his voice into whispery and breathy as he describes all that love turning into absolute lust for a woman. I'm always a sucker for a good jazz orchestra, and I usually need a cigarette for the afterglow after listening to this one.

One more side to go and the "V" project for KKP will be done.

D.O.M.E. -- Megami-tachi ni Aeru Hi（女神たちに逢える日）

 

Almost a year ago, HRLE92 put up an article detailing some of the side projects that sprouted from that quintessential City Pop/J-AOR band of the 1980s, Omega Tribe（オメガトライブ）. It was quite fascinating to find out about how individual members and small groupings fared on their own as the times went into the 1990s.

One of the new groups that HRLE92 described was D.O.M.E., otherwise known as Deconstructed OMEGA by Mints Entertainment, which had a couple of members of the original group, guitarist Shinji Takashima（髙島信二）and keyboardist Toshitsugu Nishihara（西原俊次）, join up with bassist Seiichi Bannai（坂内聖一）, drummer Michihisa Ikeda（池田通久）and vocalist Satoshi Mikami（三上哲）. Getting together in 1992, D.O.M.E. released a single in May titled "Megami-tachi ni Aeru Hi" (The Day That I Can Meet The Goddesses) which also was the first track on "DOME", their one and only album that came out a few weeks later.

"Megami-tachi ni Aeru Hi" starts off quietly almost as if representing a sunrise before the main melody by guitarist Takashima comes into play, something that has a faint echo of the mother group but also has some of that rollicking fervor that Omega Tribe's fellow summery band, TUBE, had in spades. Considering the times, Takashima's music was also reminiscent of the sound from another guitar band, DEEN, and interestingly enough, according to that part of the J-Wiki article for D.O.M.E., the composer would begin directing and producing at Being Inc. which represented bands such as the aforementioned DEEN, B'z and ZYYG. So I guess that this spinoff group was something like Omega Tribe with the Being sound.

Minako Ishikawa（石川美奈子）provided the lyrics for the song. As for vocalist Mikami, he has since become an actor and a seiyuu.

INSHOW-HA -- SWAP

 

Happy weekend! Was slip-sliding all over the pavement this morning to get a newspaper because we've started out at thaw-friendly temperatures although we are dropping back to freezing from this afternoon. I'm particularly sensitive at my age about potentially falling down and breaking my hip.👴

As for the thumbnail, I've chosen a video about what Impressionism is all about. I've never been a huge purveyor of art so aside from the fact that this particular movement was from the 19th century, that's pretty much all I know.

The reason that I've gone for Impressionism is that I'm doing my second article on the eclectic duo INSHOW-HA（印象派）which does mean The Impressionists. Back in August last year, I discovered MICA and miu with their track "le:mon"（檸檬）from their 2017 album "INSHOW-HA wa Kimi ni Toikakeru"（印象派は君に問いかける...INSHOW-HA Would Like To Ask You a Question）.

Now, here is an even earlier song from their June 2013 first mini-album "Nietzsche", "SWAP". It's another catchy number by them and the video once more leaves quite an impression as MICA and miu pop up as nifty computer graphics supermodels doing the runway walk toward us. The techno side this time is a bit more muted aside from the ladies' modulated vocals, but no complaints about the arrangements, especially when the drum n' bass kick in at around 2:22.

Ohsuke Kanoh -- Shutter Chance（シャッター・チャンス）

 

Maybe it's a bit odd that I put up a video from the raunchy anime "Seitokai Yakuindomo"（生徒会役員共）as the article thumbnail, but if you can bear with me, I can explain. The above video focuses on the extremely nosy head of the schools' newspaper club, Ranko Hata, who will not let go of any opportunity to get a camera shot of a compromising situation among the other characters in the show, although a lot of the times, they're able to stop her in time. Although the particular scene is not included in the above montage, I have heard her exclaim "Shutter Chance!" (the Japanese equivalent of the exclamation "Gotcha!" in photography) to signify that she's about to get that great photo.

Yep, and all that "Seitokai Yakuindomo" preamble ramble is for the fact that I wanted to introduce an actual song titled "Shutter Chance" by Ohsuke Kanoh（叶央介）. Who that, you say? Well, you might know his old group, the pop vocal quartet known as Circus（サーカス）which is famous for their 1978 hit "Mr. Summertime"（Mr.サマータイム）.

I found this song on Island Fantasia's YouTube channel, and for the past year and change, he has been contributing articles here on KKP under his nom du blog, HRLE92. According to him, "Shutter Chance" was originally on his 1988 solo album "Ocean" (although J-Wiki says that it was a 1986 release) which is a play on words for his nickname O-shan（おーしゃん）. But it's a well-placed title since "Shutter Chance" definitely has that summery beach weather sensation. In fact, it's one of those Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）tunes that actually isn't a Tatsuro Yamashita tune. Lyrics are by Erina Shima（島エリナ）and music is actually by Ken Harashima（原川健）; no Tats to be seen. Yet, the arrangement is so like Tats with that chorus, the bouncy bass and that sax solo.

One other piece of trivia that I found on Kanoh from the J-Wiki article for Circus is that his interest in music manifested because of a chance meeting with folk singer-songwriter Takuro Yoshida（吉田拓郎）when Kanoh was in junior high school. He took up the guitar soon after and went after the songs of Simon & Garfunkel and Group Sounds band The Tigers（ザ・タイガース）.

Hiromi Miyano -- Hitorigoto Serenade（ひとり言セレナーデ）

 

I wrote about 80s aidoru Hiromi Miyano（宮野比呂美）last summer when I introduced the B-side to her debut single "Yokohama Gigolo"（横浜ジゴロ）, "Ame no Suspicion"（雨のサスピション）from July 1985. As I mentioned there, her recording career was brief, only lasting two singles. 

Once again, I bring you another B-side from her 1986 2nd single,"Ao no Toki"（蒼の時刻...Blue Time）, "Hitorigoto Serenade" (Soliloquy Serenade). In comparison to the synthpop of "Ame no Suspicion", this B-side possesses more of the spicy and dramatic Latin flavour provided by Keiichi Oku（奥慶一）while Arisu Sato（佐藤ありす）is behind the lyrics. Also, I think Miyano here has given her delivery more of a flowing girlish wave, kinda like along the lines of Wink or an early-in-her-career higher-pitched Akina Nakamori（中森明菜）, although Oku's melody brings to mind some of Akemi Ishii's（石井明美）material at the time. Come to think of it, compared to the heavily made-up visage that was on the cover of her first single, Miyano looks more natural here.

In the near future, I will have to get onto those A-sides for Miyano. 😀 Maybe she wasn't the strongest singer but the B-sides, especially "Hitorigoto Serenade", haven't been too bad for me. I'm not really certain whether this would constitute a City Pop-tinged aidoru tune, but with that Latin in there, I think it could merit some feeling of the metropolis.