all at once feat. Yuudai Ohno from Da-iCE -- Playmaker（プレイメーカー）

 

Happy final Sunday of October! Usually when we here in Toronto hear the term playmaker, we think of Mitch Marner of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Recently though, it's also referred to the ending theme for the late 2022 episodes of "Meitantei Conan"（名探偵コナン...Case Closed）. Yup, "Playmaker" is a collaboration between the vocal duo all at once and Yuudai Ohno（大野雄大）from the 5-piece song-and-dance group Da-iCE. Written and composed by Ra-U, it's been a pretty cool tune thanks to that thrumming underlying rhythm, and for some reason in my head, there's something nostalgic about the arrangement of the tune. One commenter for the music video below mentioned being reminded somewhat of Earth Wind & Fire.

I've only been hearing "Playmaker" in the past few weeks because the TV Japan broadcasts of the anime are about a year behind what's been showing over in Japan itself. Well, as the saying goes, better late than never. The duo all at once already has representation on KKP through their song "Macaron"（マカロン）.

Tulip -- Koi no Dracula（恋のドラキュラ）

From Good Free Photos

Indeed, the annual bewitching hour is almost upon us. My community is supposed to be holding a brief Halloween party for the kiddies later this afternoon. Additionally, I gather that will be devoting some of the posts this coming Tuesday to Halloween-themed songs. Last night, I received a comment from a student at the University of Maryland last night that a radio station associated with his alma mater, WMUC, had devoted an episode to Japanese Halloween-themed music which was surprising and wonderful. My many thanks to that commenter for that playlist.

One of the songs that was on the WMUC playlist was Tulip's（チューリップ）"Koi no Dracula" (Dracula of Love). The B-side to the folk group's 15th single "Yakusoku"（約束...Promises） from October 1978, it's about as playful a pop song that I have ever heard from Kazuo Zaitsu's（財津和夫）wholesome band, and the whole Dracula thing is more analogous than literal. Therefore, there is no master vampire making blood withdrawals; the only stake being thrust anywhere is Cupid's arrow into some poor sap's chest on seeing a fetching young lady. Zaitsu was responsible for words and music. Good choice in starting KKP's annual Halloween thing with Tulip since it's been about a year since I posted about them.

Considering what I've just posted above, I couldn't help but be reminded of Frank Langella's more romantic take on "Dracula" from 1979. More familiar with his older and crustier character roles in recent movies, I've had to be reminded that Langella cut quite the dashing young figure in that movie.

Yutaka Kimura Speaks ~ Japanese City Pop Masterpieces 100: Mariya Takeuchi -- Gosenshi（五線紙）

 

Number: 029

Lyricist: Takashi Matsumoto

Composer/Arranger: Yasuhiro Abe

From Takeuchi's 1980 album: "Love Songs"

"Gosenshi"（Music Paper） is a song that came out exactly 10 years after Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）had expressed the world of the "windy city" through Happy End（はっぴいえんど）. I feel that he brought together the complete transformation of the cityscape through his lyrics of "The ten years have been the same/Even the shadows of the city are coloured in dreams", and at the same time, that boy from his novel "Binetsu Shonen"（微熱少年...The Slightly Feverish Boy）* has all grown up. The sumptuous melody by Yasuhiro Abe（安部恭弘）as well as the light swing arrangement has led to a marvelous work befitting the 10th anniversary of City Pop.

*Matsumoto's novel is a coming-of-age story that was first published in the mid-1970s and then made into a film in 1987.

Hi, J-Canuck here! Try out the scintillating cover by Abe himself.

The above comes from "Disc Collection Japanese City Pop Revised" (2020).

Masayoshi Takanaka -- Bamboo Vender

 

Well, being a Friday and all, I gather that a lot of folks are heavily thinking of hitting the nearest bar or hole-in-the-wall to celebrate the end of the work week with plenty of drink and hearty food. For some reason, I also muse about plenty of Latin jazz. 

Guitarist and producer Masayoshi Takanaka（高中正義）has been serving his fair share of tonic since the 1970s. Within his 5th studio album "Jolly Jive" (December 1979),  I have "Bamboo Vender" which has songwriter Takanaka also helping out not only on the guitar but also the steel drums while Izumi Kobayashi（小林泉）is on the keyboards. I don't really think of anyone selling bamboo poles while getting into "Bamboo Vender", but it's very pleasant hearing that rumbling Cuban jazz rhythm (if I'm wrong with my geography here, please let me know). My image is more of beach chairs, white sands and sipping cocktails.

With that December 1979 release date, I can only figure that those who had bought the original LP of "Jolly Jive" had some mighty big ideas about flying out of the cold and over to more tropical climes. I can certainly sympathize although as I'm typing this out, it's been unusually warm here in Toronto with the heat index in the low 20s Celsius.

Wotako -- Daite (GET A CLUE)（抱いて）

 

The first time I heard "Daite (GET A CLUE)" (Hold Me), I figured that it must have been something from the late 1980s thanks to that specific type of funk done in a New Jack Swing style. Well, I was slightly off there; the song was a part of Wotako's（詩子）second of three albums "Yes" from June 1991. 

Wotako reminds me of a couple of other female R&B singers from around the same time, GWINKO and Cindy. I gather that all three of them were embracing their Janet Jackson. Regardless, "Daite" is a snazzy affair with the beat and the sharp horns blasting away. It's too bad that I couldn't nail down who was behind the songwriting. The J-Wiki article for Wotako only lists in "Yes" that several big names were involved in the words and music such as Shiro Sagisu（鷺巣詩郎）, Shun Taguchi（田口俊）and Masamichi Sugi（杉真理）.

From her mid-teens, Wotako, whose real name is supposedly Utako Kida（木田詩子）according to Mojim, began to learn jazz dancing and then set up an amateur girls' band before debuting with her solo single "Runner" in 1988. In addition to those three albums, she released a total of eight singles up to 1992.

AB'S -- Stay in the Night

 

I was just posting about Fujimal Yoshino's（芳野藤丸）50th anniversary in the music business with his "50/50 Fifty-Fifty" this past weekend, and now I'm additionally happy to hear about an earlier milestone. 

One of Yoshino's old bands, AB'S, with Makoto Matsushita（松下誠）and Yoshihiko Ando（安藤芳彦）, brought out their 7th album, logically titled "AB'S-7", in September 2020. Listening to one of the tracks, "Stay in the Night", it sounds as if they had never left the 1980s. Written by Ando and composed by Yoshino, the song is an elegant form of City Pop as the video shows those sky-high evening shots above the metropolis. The vocals come across a bit more gruffly and gravelly but I think that adds more character although maybe the gang probably needed some Sucrets after recording.

Maiko Kawakami -- ÄLSKLING（エルスクリン）

 

Maiko Kawakami（川上麻衣子）is an actress who I've heard about over the years but didn't know that she had been born in Stockholm, Sweden to a couple of interior designers (no IKEA jokes, please). However, her family moved back to Japan when she was around a year old.

Another thing that I hadn't known was that she did have her time behind the recording mike. Kawakami released four singles between 1981 and 1983 along with three albums between 1982 and 1984. Her second album from June 1983 was titled "ÄLSKLING"; the title is Swedish for "darling". The video uploaded by mingumangu has the second and ninth tracks.

Track 2 is "Zanshou" (残照...Afterglow) which is some dreamy City Pop concocted by lyricist Kaoru Asaki（麻木かおる）and composer Kisaburo Suzuki（鈴木キサブロ）with some smoky if not all that strong vocals by Kawakami. Track 9 at 4:27 is "Tsumetai Bed"（冷たいベッド...A Cold Bed） which picks up the pace a bit into a more mid-tempo tune with a hint of New Wave. Asaki also provides the lyrics here but this time, the composer is Tsugutoshi Goto（後藤次利）.

One more song from "ÄLSKLING" is the first track "Kanshou"（感傷...Sentimentality） which also was Kawakami's 3rd single from July 1983. It was written and composed by Ami Ozaki（尾崎亜美）and arranged by Jun Sato（佐藤準）.