Hi-Fi Set -- Sukoshi dake Mawari Michi（すこしだけまわり道）

 

The above photo shows off a little side street in the Koedo district of Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture. The area is just like the Kanto region's little piece of Kyoto, although the house on the right gives the show away. I wouldn't mind returning there again the next time I'm back in Tokyo and maybe if things go well for both Canada and Japan, I can get back in about a year.

Here is a song from the vocal trio Hi-Fi Set（ハイ・ファイ・セット）, "Sukoshi dake Mawari Michi" (Just a Little Detour), their 11th single from April 1978 and a track on their 5th album "Swing" which came out a couple of months later. A mid-tempo number of remembrance of a romance past, a fellow finds himself in an old familiar area where he and an old flame used to walk. He's gotten over the stages of heartbreak and regret and now views the old times and that pathway as fond nostalgia.

Written by Machiko Ryu and Tsuzuru Nakasato（竜真知子・中里綴）, the music was created by Tadao Inoue（井上忠夫）, formerly of the Group Sounds band Jackey Yoshikawa & His Blue Comets（ジャッキー吉川とブルーコメツツ）, and this was his real name before he decided to switch to the stage name of Daisuke Inoue（井上大輔）. Kentaro Haneda（羽田健太郎）was responsible for the arrangement. I'm not sure if that is a sitar that introduces the song but listening to it, I'm reminded of some of the Motown soul from earlier in the decade. Then there is also the delicate harp that also brings us into the light vocals of Junko Yamamoto（山本潤子）with Shigeru Okawa（大川茂）and Toshihiko Yamamoto（山本俊彦）backing her up, and the light and cheerful rhythm which illustrates the happier state of mind of that fellow.

Sakanaction -- Rookie（ルーキー）

 

Throughout the Sakanaction（サカナクション）file on KKP thus far, I've been kinda jumping back and forth through their discography, and up to this point, my impression of Ichiro Yamaguchi（山口一郎）and his band has been one of a brand of technopop and rock that is slightly less caterwauling than the music of POLYSICS but no less hook-laden. In addition, I've also enjoyed their music videos which show off a deadpan sense of humour, and that includes the amazing "Wasurerarenaino"（忘れられないの）, a shoutout to the Japanese music ranking shows of the 1980s and perhaps Omega Tribe（オメガトライブ）.

Much of the Sakanaction music on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" has been from the more recent part of their discography, but I've written about "Ame (B)" which saw the first light of day in 2009 and even back then, there was that techno-rock sense about them. However, the entry this time is their 4th single "Rookie" from March 2011.

Interestingly enough, there is much more written about "Rookie" on Wikipedia than on J-Wiki so if you're intrigued, you ought to give that article a gander. The article states that the song is stylistically different from what had come before for Sakanaction although I think that Yamaguchi, who wrote and composed the song, has maintained my usual image of the band's techno-rock, although, yes, the BPM has jumped up considerably and "Rookie" heads somewhat more toward the Denki Groove（電気グルーヴ）arena.

The music video by Daisuke Shimada is also striking in that the premise seems to be something out of "The Twilight Zone" with Yamaguchi himself portraying a fellow caught in a mysterious time-and-dimension loop. It all ends with a female version of Yamaguchi lying dead at his feet. The only person missing is Rod Serling himself popping out and warning about the dangers of stray interdimensional portals. According to that same Wiki article, "Rookie" was inspired by Yamaguchi's worries at the time of where his band was heading versus where it ought to be heading, and also about the physical suffering that he was experiencing due to his sensorineural hearing loss. Perhaps some of that ended up getting into the general idea of the video. My question is whether the title of the song referred to whether Yamaguchi had felt like starting from Ground Zero again with him once more as a rookie in the music industry. "Rookie" peaked at No. 6 on Oricon.

Yumi Asuka -- Special na Night（スペシャルなナイト）

 

A special night? Not really sure if I've had one of those in the last several years aside from the usual Xmas dinners with friends and family. Besides my bar for that qualification is really quite low. If I can obtain an especially tasty karaage bento for supper, then that would be a "special" night for me as well.

(30:07)

"Special na Night" (Special Night) is apparently one of the very few music recordings that Yumi Asuka（ユミ飛鳥）ever released. In fact, I'm uncertain whether she was an official singer although her vocals for "Special na Night" are pretty solid. There's very little information about her, all of it so far on Idol.ne.jp. She was born in 1959 and hails from Kanagawa Prefecture. In 1982, she was a DJ on a mini FM radio station called "KIDS RADIO STATION".  Now, as to what a mini FM station is, it's a radio station that doesn't require a license and has a weak range according to J-Wiki, so I'm assuming that it's probably akin to some of those very local community stations that I've seen through the front windows of shops in Shibuya such as Tower Records' own little broadcast operation. Under Japan's broadcasting laws, it's not even considered to be a broadcasting station.

Anyways, getting back to Asuka, she only released one single in June 1983 which was followed by an album in July, "Merry-go-Round KIDS". "Special na Night" is one of the tracks on the album and it's got that combination of 60s go-go boot pop and 80s pop arrangement. Lyrics were written by Yuuho Iwasato（岩里祐穂）with the melody provided by Pineapple Boys（パイナップル・ボーイズ）.

I did find this 1993 broadcast from a mini FM station called FM Popcorn based in Ota Ward, Tokyo which had its run between 1987 and 1996.

Cider Girl -- Cinderella（シンデレラ）

 

I've heard about the manga for some months and then came the announcement for its adaptation into anime which seemed to take forever and a day to complete. However, finally, it made its debut earlier this month. From what I've read, "Komi-san wa, Komyu-sho desu."（古見さんは、コミュ症です。...Komi Can't Communicate） has already garnered a lot of fans from the source material alone so anticipation was very high and my curiosity was also piqued.

Even though it looks like the powers-that-be are working even harder to insure that whole episodes don't show up on YouTube, various funny excerpts are popping up like mushrooms and it looks like "Komi-san" is becoming an early favourite this season. I've enjoyed the punny names, the quicksilver fluid animation sequences from time to time, the oddball characters and the fact that the seiyuu for the nearly mute Komi-san herself, Aoi Koga（古賀葵）, voices a far more verbose anime high school girl. If I recall, even Kaguya-sama had her own issues with cellphones in one episode.

The opening theme for "Komi-san" is the pop-perky "Cinderella" by the rock band Cider Girl（サイダーガール）. This is the first time that I've heard of this group which currently consists of guitarist/vocalist Yurin, guitarist Tomo（知）, and bassist Fujimura（フジムラ）. Cider Girl got their start in 2014 and during their early indies period, they released four mini-albums before going major in 2017. Since then, Cider Girl has released five CD singles and four digital singles along with three albums (No. 4 will be coming out in December). "Cinderella" is their fourth digital single written and composed by Yurin which was released just a little over two weeks ago.

Ah, I've also written up the article on the ending theme.

Miho Yonemitsu -- Fall in Love, It's Forever

I first spoke about former 90s aidoru Miho Yonemitsu（米光美保）from Tokyo Performance Doll when she gave her lovely cover of Minako Yoshida's（吉田美奈子）"Koi wa Ryuusei" (恋は流星）in her October 1995 album "Forever".

As such, I'm still hoping that I can get a copy of that album, especially on hearing this other track from "Forever", "Fall in Love, It's Forever" which is, I gather, the title track. Written by Yumi Kadoya（門屋祐美）, it's composed by one of the princes of City Pop, Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）, but despite the beats in there, I don't quite think that the song itself is quite a member of that particular urban contemporary genre, although there is a feeling of contemporized 60s pop and even some sophisti-pop. But may I say that it has a lovely Fender Rhodes intro thanks to Shingo Kobayashi（小林信吾）and a trumpet solo to die for by Masahiro Kobayashi（小林正弘）?

"Fall in Love, It's Forever" is quite the classy uplifting tune, true to that feeling of the title and I still love those tender and flying vocals by Yonemitsu. As kaz-shin remarks in "Music Avenue" in the review of the album, the song has that refreshing feeling of morning although that buzz saw guitar at the end is a bit jarring. Interestingly enough, once it's done, it then goes into that cover of "Koi wa Ryuusei".

Ah, just noticed that I passed the 5 million view mark! Thank you very much, folks!

Monta & Brothers -- Akai Umbrella（赤いアンブレラ）

 

This is the first Monta & Brothers（もんた&ブラザーズ）article that I've written since "Dancing All Night" nine years ago although leader Yoshinori Monta（門田頼命）has shown up on the pages of "Kayo Kyoku Plus" a number of times but just under that his own name. Whenever I hear the name Monta & Brothers though, it's always going to be Monta's rasping voice with the funky uptempo "Dancing All Night", the band's debut single in April 1980, that comes to mind.

And that is why Monta & Brothers' second single, "Akai Umbrella" (The Red Umbrella), is quite the left turn here. Released half a year after "Dancing All Night", it's the emotion-drenched (and perhaps rain-drenched considering the title) story of love broken forever where the howling winds during a storm feel less stinging than the sight of the former love's tears trailing down. If that sounds a tad florid, have a listen to the melody by Monta himself which takes on the epic downfall of a Greek tragedy, and the singer's ragged vocals complement the emotional breakdown in "Akai Umbrella". Taeko Tsugao/Togao（栂尾多恵子）provided the lyrics.

I couldn't find any scenes or trailer for the movie on YouTube, but apparently according to the J-Wiki article on Monta & Brothers, "Akai Umbrella" was used as an insert song on the 1985 Japanese movie "Love Hotel"（ラブホテル）. However, there is a Wikipedia article on the flick.

Ai Furihata -- Cinderella Time（シンデレラタイム）

 

I guess that I was rather curious about what Halloween in Tokyo might look like this year so I just took a gander at the back footage from "SHIBUYA COMMUNITY NEWS"  on YouTube which has that live camera pointed straight at the Shibuya Scramble intersection. Nope, I gather the 23rd is considered to be a bit early and perhaps still somewhat gun-shy because of COVID-19, people were not coming out. But according to the website for "The Japan Times", it seems like the area is getting ready for a return of the masses or at least some fraction of them in their Halloween best or worst. I'll keep an eye out over the next several days.

Anyways, Halloween might also be the opportunity for all sorts of folks to come on out as Sailor Moon or characters from "Evangelion" or something as traditional as Cinderella which is why I'm bringing this song here tonight. "Cinderella Time" is another track from Ai Furihata's（降幡愛）September 2020 mini-album "Moonrise" which also has the first song by Furihata that I ever introduced, "CITY".

My intro for the "CITY" article whimsically posed the question of what if an aidoru-esque Midori Karashima（辛島美登里）and Michael Sembello from the 1980s had collaborated. I answered my rhetorical query with "CITY". I'll be doing the same over here. What if Furihata channeled all sorts of melodic goodness from Yumi Matsutoya（松任谷由実）and Taeko Ohnuki/Ryuichi Sakamoto（大貫妙子・坂本龍一）of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Well, I think "Cinderella Time" may be the result.

"Cinderella Time" is actually the brainchild of Furihata on lyrics and Akimitsu Honma（本間昭光）on music but there is that dramatic longing of a Yuming（ユーミン）pop tune from that period of time that I hear in this one along with the some of the synthpop blippity-bloppity quirks and chord shifts which I've also come across in the Ohnuki and Sakamoto collaborations. Furihata's lyrics basically tell the age-old tale from Cinderella's vantage point if she were Japanese and living in an old danchi in Takashimadaira. "Cinderella Time" doesn't break any molds but it's still an interesting song to listen to considering the influences.