Gamu -- Ai wa Kagero （愛はかげろう）

Yes, out of the cobwebs of my mind. I heard this once more after years and years, and the nostalgia, oh the nostalgia, started flowing through the arteries again. This is Gamu's（雅夢）"Ai wa Kagero", the folk duo's oh-so-tenderhearted debut song from September 1980. Kazuto Miura（三浦和人） and Toshikazu Nakagawa (中川敏一...I hope I got that last name right) formed Gamu (elegant dream) sometime in the late 1970s while studying at Chukyo University in Nagoya.

In May 1980, the pair entered the 19th annual Yamaha Popular Song Contest with "Ai wa Kagero" that Miura had written and composed, and subsequently won a prize in composition. It wasn't too long before it was released as the official debut and became Gamu's biggest hit, selling close to 700,000 copies. The song would also become the 13th-ranked single for 1981.

I've seen "Ai wa Kagero" translated as "Love is a Heat Haze" but I'm wondering if "Love is Fleeting" wouldn't have been a more romantic way to express it. It may have been a folk song but there is also that hint of European sentiment which gives it another interesting dimension to my ears. I guess with the additional fact that I am also a big fan of Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）from her early 80s pop music with a French twist, I probably have an affinity for that particular fusion of music from two different continents.

Nine singles and seven albums later, Gamu called it a day and decided to break up in December 1984. The above YouTube video is from their final concert, and apparently Miura got rather choked up during the performance of their most famous song.

Akihabara

Toshinobu Kubota -- Sunshine, Moonlight

Back in my days in Japan, there was a commercial for Nippon Ham featuring J-funkster Toshinobu Kubota（久保田利伸）meeting cute with some street thugs (unfortunately, that ad was taken down but you can see another commercial featuring the slower version of the song) while selling those wieners which snap. Yup, the Japanese love franks which make sounds when you bend them (let's not think too deeply about that, shall we?). My brother came to Tokyo one year while I was there and at the Shinagawa hotel where we had breakfast, he admitted that he wasn't too fond of the snappy variety.

In any case, the funkiest commercial song ever to be tied up with frankfurters is "Sunshine, Moonlight" written and composed by Kubota himself. And it worked well as a jingle since it has that groovy hook. And both for the ad and the concert footage above, it's got that nice strutting beat to it.

"Sunshine, Moonlight" was originally the title track on Kubota's debut album in the United States, released in September 1995. The song was sung in English with Tawatha Agee on backing vocals, and it was a slower version which I was a tad disappointed by. I remember my first time listening to it on the old Onkyo and waving my hand to get it to speed up.

The album did well on the Oricon charts by hitting No. 1 and selling over 500,000 copies. And I can only imagine how many packages of snappy wieners cleared the supermarket shelves on Kubota's say-so.

Katsuji Heiwa and Dark Horse -- Soemoncho Blues (宗右衛門町ブルース)

I had seen 'Soemoncho Blues' here there and everywhere, heard it being sung by Kiyoshi Maekawa (前川清) - I realise I'm getting to know many different Mood Kayo songs through him - and this other comedic Enka singer Hiroshi Kadokawa (角川博). But I hadn't listened to the original by this Mood Kayo group called Katsuji Heiwa and Dark Horse (平和勝次とダークホース) until a couple of weeks ago, partially because I had no idea that this was their song.

In fact, 'Soemoncho Blues' was their debut single, released in 1972 and became Dark Horse's first and probably also last hit since I've not noticed any other song by the group that particularly stood out, selling about 200 000 singles. Hmm, I wonder why they weren't invited to sing at the Kohaku. Not good enough?

The song revolving around a street by the name of Soemon was written by Katsuji Heiwa (平和勝次), also known as the front man of now reduced to a group of 3 - originally comprised of 5 members. And Shinichi Yamaji (山路進一) took care of the composing duties.

If you're wondering, Soemoncho is a street in the south part of Osaka, or as they call the minami part of town where most of the drinking establishments (out of other things) reside... the entertainment district, if you will. Mom always mentioned about going back to the minami area ever since we had a brief visit there. But the next time instead of Shinsaibashi, it's going to be Soemoncho. Can't miss a chance to visit a place featured in popular Mood Kayo song!

The video above looks like quite a recent performance and has the current Dark Horse line up of 3 members only. I don't know, it seems a little weird to just have 2 amigos as the backup singers. Probably because I'm too used to seeing at least 4 and not just 2.

music.geocities.jp

Tsubasa Imamura -- Singular

Tsubasa Imamura is a very special singer. Although Japanese, she loves Brazil, the country where I was born and live. Many of her songs are inspired in Brazilian pop-rock or Bossa Nova, and she’s also learning Portuguese. Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend her concert when she came to Rio de Janeiro a couple of weeks ago. I’m still kind of sad that I couldn’t watch her live, but the fact that I was able to buy her CD a couple of days later made me feel better.

I confess that Tsubasa is very diffent from the kind of artist I usually listen. She is not a polished aidoru artist, nor a classy City Pop singer, but something about her just caught my attention.

I had two options of songs here. One was the Bossa Nova styled “Hadashi no Shoujo” (click here), while the other, my chosen one, was the ballad “Singular” (means unique), which is a special song Tsubasa composed part in Portuguese (verses) and part in Japanese (chorus). All in all, it’s an introspective love song with nice passages like “Simplicidade é o tom. É como aquele disco de vinil tocando o nosso som... Você mostrou o lado A de tudo o que eu sou, e o lado B a vida me ensinou” (Simplicity is the tone. It’s like that vinyl record playing our song... You showed me the A-side of what I am, and the B-side life taught me). In the end, what I really like about Tsubasa is her soft voice. Well, it looks like she’s singing especially for the listener. Like I said, her music style is not what I listen to non-stop, but her voice is something very special. I really hope she comes back to Brazil soon.

On a side note, I had a chance to participate in a live chat with Tsubasa a couple of days ago. I asked who was her favorite Japanese female singer and her answer was Seiko Matsuda (松田聖子). Not bad for the “eternal aidoru” Seiko-chan.

“Singular” was recorded in 2013 and was included in Tsubasa’s album “por você” (means for you), which was released in Brazil in July 2014. Tsubasa worked on the song with Robert Regonati.

To finish, here's a photo of the "por você" CD. It came with a beautiful poster as well.

Kimeru -- The Pleasure of Love

I sympathize a lot with Kimeru since I was an avid Yu-Gi-Oh! fan back in 2004. One of his songs, “OVERLAP”, was used as one of the openings for the anime, and I also used to sleep with it playing non-stop (oh, the repeat button) until I got up to school every single day.

Until I couple of months ago, “OVERLAP” was the only Kimeru song I knew, so I decided to take a look on his discography to see what else I could find. My main surprise was “The Pleasure of Love”, which is a very straightforward pop/rock song with crashing synths in the background. Also, it’s ridiculously energetic and catchy. Soundwise, it reminded me of access and T.M.Revolution, two acts headed by Daisuke Asakura (浅倉大介), a famous synth player/composer. Strangely enough, Dai-chan was not responsible for “The Pleasure of Love”, although he finally worked with Kimeru on the “Starry Heavens” single later.

On a side note, it’s not only musically that Kimeru reminded me of access or T.M.Revolution. His videos are also full of homoerotic references, mostly because of Kimeru’s flamboyant image. “The Pleasure of Love”, for example, shows Kimeru lying in a bed with provocative clothes in a very sexual way. And the English sentences that are showed are very funny as well. In the end, it’s an enternaining video.

“The Pleasure of Love” was released as a single in February 2005 and reached #112 on the Oricon charts, selling 2,813 copies. Lyrics were written by Kimeru himself, while music and arrangement were done by Yoshihisa Fujita (藤田宜久).

Yukiko Okada -- Summer Beach

Yukiko Okada (岡田有希子) is probably mostly remembered for the hit single “Kuchibiru Network” (くちびるNetwork) and her unfortunate suicide. For years, it was the only two things I knew about her.

I don’t really remember when or why, but I had the opportunity to listen to another one of her classic gems, the summery and positive “Summer Beach”, which was released as a single in April 1985.

When I think about “Summer Beach”, bubble era City Pop is exactly what comes to my mind. I imagine a beautiful afternoon in a resort with charming people walking around and smiling with no apparent reason... or maybe just because life was good in the Japanese 80s. About the song itself, the strong bass and all the twinkles are charming and very characteristic of its time. And yeah, “Summer Beach” also features a sax solo. In other words, it can’t get better than this.

“Summer Beach” reached #5 on the Oricon charts. Lyrics and music were done by Ami Ozaki (尾崎亜美). As for the arrangement, Masataka Matsutoya (松任谷正隆) worked on it.

Sweet Vacation -- Ai ni Ikou ~I・NEED・TO・GO~ (あいにいこう)

Sweet Vacation was a Technopop duo comprised of Thai singer May and Japanese producer Daichi Hayakawa (早川大地). They were active between 2007 and 2011.

I mostly remember Sweet Vacation as one of Perfume’s similar Technopop acts that were trying to be successful back in 2009 and 2010. After some five years without giving the proper attention to them, I started looking at some old files and realised that a good portion of their songs were quite nice and deserved more love. One of them is the catchy and fluffy “Ai ni Ikou ~I NEED TO GO~”, which was released in July 2009 as the lead single for Sweet Vanation’s first full lengh album, “pop save the world!!”.

Unlike other contemporary Technopop acts like Aira Mitsuki and saori@destiny, or even Perfume in songs like “GAME” or “edge”, Sweet Vacation didn’t release hard hitting club-oriented Techno songs, focusing mainly on a typical J-Pop sound with a light and fun synth base. According to Daichi, in an interview for J-MELO, he chose working with J-Pop because he thinks of it as “sophisticated and fashionable” music (click here for the interview. It’s in English with Japanese subs, so everyone is a winner here). With that in mind, we can see that the “sweet” in the band’s name was not a mere ornament.

“Ai ni Ikou ~I NEED TO GO~”, for example, is a typical Sweet Vacation song. It’s sugary, happy, catchy and provides a very positive feeling on the listener. I confess that I can’t help but sing along during the chorus (well, I try). As for the video, it’s a nice complement that showcases what Sweet Vacation is really about. I remember that with all the dark-tinged Lady Gaga songs that were constantly popping on TV around 2009 and 2010, listening to Japanese Technopop acts like Sweet Vacation was something very refreshing.

“Ai ni Ikou ~I NEED TO GO~” reached #116 on the Oricon charts. Lyrics were written by Sweet Vacation (May and Daichi), while music and arrangement were done by Daichi himself”.