My Late Year Idol Discoveries

Again this year my good friend Ryo has invited me to share my top 10 Japanese songs (in my case, idol songs) for their newsletter This Side of Japan. It is always a very nice exercise and I find myself thinking all year "this song is probably going to make it into my top 10." After I submitted my choices, I ended up listening to a few more great songs that could have made the cut, so I decided to dedicate an entire post to these very honorable mentions.

SKE48 - Jikan ga Nai (時間がない)

I have been a long-time enthusiast of AKB48 and its related groups, but I confess that SKE48 was never a group that standed out for me. That has changed last year when they announced they would be collaborating with none other than Tetsuya Komuro. I have yet to listen to all of those songs, but in the meantime they announced another partnership with city pop extraordinaire Night Tempo, releasing an EP with 4 songs. This EP is probably one of the greatest releases of the year to me.

Blueberry Soda (ブルーベリーソーダ) - Tenshi ga Tooru (天使が通る)

Blueberry Soda is a collaboration between actor agency Tanabe Agency and Yasushi Akimoto. Therefore, it is no surprise that this song sounds a bit like some releases from AKB48 and company. I put it in a category of "waltzy" songs like Yurina Hirate's "Yamanotesen" and AKB48 "Negaigoto no Mochigusare," however it feels like "Tenshi ga Tooru" is taking it one step further, refining this delicate feeling.

Yufu Terashima (寺嶋由芙) - Koi no Atoaji (恋の後味)

"Yuffie" has been going strong on the retro sounds for a few years now, but "Koi no Atoaji" sounds like a very authentic 80's ballad to me. Not much else to say, in a positive way... Just a warm, cozy love song perfect for this season.

Nogizaka46 (乃木坂46) - Ato no Matsuri (アトノマツリ)

One of my favorite idol groups, lyrical school, is going through a lineup revamp, which means no new release for a while. I feel like this piece by Nogizaka46 has been a good substitute for the time being. Even the music video reminds me of some of lyrical school's videos such as "Tokonatsu Return." A very solid approach to rap by some of the group's best voices with a self-made video that is a very nice change from the high production of what is probably the biggest female idol group in Japan today.

Ringwanderung - Pulse (パルス)

Ringwanderung is a group with a very distinctive sound and looks, always choosing a dark blue and red palette for their costumes. My partner usually describes this sound as "my cat is strolling on the keyboard" and I think it is a good way to describe it. Every release from this group is a personal highlight, an expected sound but always very pleasing, and I hope this group gets some more traction in the coming year.

I finish this post by wishing Happy Holidays from Portugal to the world, wherever you are reading this from. Here's to another year of great Japanese music from the past and the present.

Toshiki Kadomatsu -- Space Scraper

 

Folks who are trying to get on their way to their tropical getaways down south today might be going through the gauntlet due to today's Snowmageddon at the airports. Personally, I will never approach Pearson International during this time because of the chaos during a regular weather day in December. I can't even imagine what it's like there now.

Of course, in happier climes and times, it was all about hitting the airport just before the weekend to get that quick two-night stay in some tropical resort. Haneda Airport in Tokyo has been perfect for that; once the office workers are done for a Friday, they pick up their bags, head to the airport, get on that plane for Saipan, enjoy the good life and head back for work again on the Monday.

But back in April 1982 when Toshiki Kadomatsu（角松敏生）came up with his second album "Weekend Fly to the Sun", I think that Haneda's cachet was heading downwards due to the then-rising star of Narita Airport out in Chiba Prefecture. So, perhaps along with Kadomatsu's labels of singer-songwriter, musician and producer, prognosticator could be added. 

"Weekend Fly to the Sun" had that concept of enjoying the weekend holiday, and though I haven't written about the album in its entirety, I have given my articles on at least a few of the tracks including "Brunch". Well, after "Brunch" is "Space Scraper", a good old disco stomp with that wonderfully beefy bass. Considering its position in the album, I think that it's probably Saturday afternoon when "Space Scraper" is taking place, and the holiday folks are trying out some parasailing from what I gather from Kadomatsu's lyrics whose translation is at Lyrics Translate. Parasailing was developed only in the late 1970s according to Wikipedia, so I can only say that Kadomatsu was really on top of his prognosticating game.

Wow! Knock on wood, but I managed to get my Friday four in while the power is still on here. But still, I would prefer for the power to last through this storm.

Ryoko Yano -- Downtown de Tsukamaete（ダウンタウンでつかまえて）

 

Ah, Kamiya Bar（神谷バー）...literally around the corner from the NOVA that I used to teach at in Asakusa. Despite its reputation, I only went there once and tried their famous Denki Bran cocktail. The following 12 hours were then excised from my memory forever.

This is the second article regarding 80s aidoru Ryoko Yano（矢野良子）. Earlier this year, I wrote about her and her 2nd single "Harahara Summer Time"（はらはらサマータイム）from June 1981. It was interesting for its near-City Pop arrangement approaching the disco genre. And so I'm wondering if there had been some plan in place for Yano to be this teenage singer exploring the urban contemporary some years before Momoko Kikuchi（菊池桃子）.

I come to that thought because her 3rd single which was released later in September is "Downtown de Tsukamaete" (Catch Me Downtown), and I think that this time, the song really takes her and us into City Pop. Mind you, the direction here is more into the stylish and sophisticated (almost downright cabaret) of Aoyama rather than the disco of Roppongi. In fact, I think that the arrangement here is more along the lines for Fashion Music singers such as Ruiko Kurahashi（倉橋ルイ子）, and interestingly enough, it's the same lyricist and composer from "Harahara Summer Time" behind "Downtown de Tsukamaete": Yu Aku（阿久悠）and Taiji Nakamura（中村泰士）.

As mentioned in that first article, Yano only had four singles and no albums, but it would be fascinating to hear those remaining six songs from her 45s to check whether they also had a similar tone.

Yuki Saito -- Christmas Night

 

Did forget to mention that along with all of the meteorological sturm und drang in our province right now, Japan has been getting swamped with heavy snow all over the place, especially Niigata Prefecture, so I definitely would like to send out my sympathies to all those affected there.

One thing that is still on my wish list of things to do is visit the community of Unionville just north of Toronto since it has an annual Christmas market that is probably getting back in gear after a couple of years of the pandemic. I was in Unionville back about 20 years ago when my brother got married so there were some photos taken in the scenic area, but I've never been there during the Yuletide season. My impression is that nights during that time there are pretty much Christmas Eve every night (it's just too bad that the above video by Lvfree Adventures only has daytime footage of Unionville).

Again, I've never been to Unionville during late December evenings so I don't know what it's really like, but I get my own impressions of them when I hear Yuki Saito's（斉藤由貴）"Christmas Night", her 12th single released in November 1988. Her whispery voice and the delicate arrangement of Akira Okamoto's（岡本朗）melody paint that mood of a hushed snowy night of the Holidays when a couple realizes their love for each other. It's a tad strange though that the music gets a bit eerie in the middle for some reason.

"Christmas Night" reached No. 49 on Oricon and it was also a track on Saito's 6th studio album "PANT" which was actually released earlier in March 1988 with a No. 4 ranking on Oricon. I've got no idea why an album would be called "PANT" except that the producers caught a glimpse of an overly warm dog. Now as for Akira Okamoto, he was once known as Issei Okamoto（岡本一生）, a person who had his own dalliances in the City Pop field.

Anzen Chitai -- Ichido dake（一度だけ）

 

Well, I'm obviously still here after those ominous warnings I gave in my final article last night about that huge Holiday storm, but how long I stay up today is still up in the air. The heavy rains have subsided but we're still awaiting the dreaded winds and snow which may take down the power lines, so Toronto and the surrounding vicinity are still not in the clear by any means. However, I will try to get my four in.

And it's on that note that I deliver yet another case of sad news from Japanese music. Before I turned in last night, I read on the Yahoo Japan news feed and J-Wiki that drummer Yuuji Tanaka（田中裕二）of the pop/rock band Anzen Chitai（安全地帯）had passed away at the age of 65 on November 17th 2022 according to a December 23rd (Japan time) announcement on the band's website. Tanaka had been undergoing treatment since November 8th for a cerebral hemorrhage.  On the same day as that announcement came word that Anzen Chitai would be appearing on the upcoming 73rd edition of the Kohaku Utagassen as a special guest so there will be some poignancy to this performance.

On that point, I wanted to start off today's urban contemporary session on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" with an Anzen Chitai song in tribute to Tanaka. A few years ago, I put up an article regarding the band's first single from February 1982, "Moegiiro no Snap"（萠黄色のスナップ）, and so today, I'm tackling the B-side, "Ichido dake" (Just Once).

I have taken an instant liking to "Ichido dake" although the protagonist within the lyrics written by the band and Namiko Saki（崎南海子）seems to be a rather persistent and maybe odious or strangely charming fellow bothering a young lady for a few minutes (and if successful with the "courtship", more) of her time. I've seen scenes of those young guys in real life and in anime going on the girl-hunting. For all I know, the guy in "Ichido dake" could be a smiling Koji Tamaki（玉置浩二）himself. The music by vocalist Tamaki and arrangement by Katsu Hoshi（星勝）is a cool button-down strut on the pavements of the metropolis with a mixture of City Pop and rock.

As I mentioned in last night's final article regarding Original Love's "X'mas NO HI", it's always interesting to hear the very early days of a long-existing band or singer. Maybe it's just me but there is something a bit different to "Ichido dake" compared to the hits that Anzen Chitai would come up with going further into the 1980s with that distinctive band sound. Still, I can hear some of that here, too, along with Tamaki's amazing vocals. Incidentally, "Ichido dake" never showed up on any of the band's original albums but is present on their September 1994 BEST compilation, "Anzen Chitai ~ Another Collection: Album Mishuuroku Kyokushuu"（安全地帯 アナザー・コレクション -アルバム未収録曲集-... Non-Album Song Collection） which includes a lot of their B-sides.

To finish off, I found this performance from a 1997 concert featuring Anzen Chitai singing a more unplugged rendition of "I Love You Kara Hajimeyou"（I Love Youからはじめよう...Let's Begin With I Love You) . This time, though, instead of Tamaki, it's Tanaka doing the vocals. The band will be performing this very song on the Kohaku in a little over a week. My condolences to Tanaka's family, friends and fans.

Original Love -- X'mas NO HI

 

Christmas presents on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" can come from various places, and I was lucky to find yet another one via Scott's most recent podcast of "Holly Jolly X'masu". His target was "Mint Sound's X'mas Album" from 1987. Scott has been raving about this one because of the mix of new songs and classics done by an eclectic group of artists from the New Wave, rock or Mod community. I'll be honest and say that out of the fifteen artists and bands involved, I only know two of them. One is the late Kyoko Togawa（戸川京子）and the other is Original Love.

Original Love's contribution to "Mint Sound's X'mas Album" was "X'mas NO HI" (no kanji but the meaning is "Christmas Day"). It's quite the gift for a guy who has known about Original Love and Takao Tajima（田島貴男）since the 1990s with their sunny soul and jazz hits like "Seppun (Kiss)"（接吻）and "Asahi no Ataru Michi" （朝日のあたる道）. But I had to realize that the band had been around years before my discovery of them, going all the way back to 1985.

Formerly known as Red Curtain back in the very early days, Tajima realized that the band needed a bit of a shakeup, so they recruited a new member and changed their name to the current Original Love. Scott gives his own explanation on "X'mas NO HI" at 35:39 of the podcast in which I also found out that it was soon after the indies-era Original Love recorded this Xmas song that Yasuharu Konishi（小西康晴）invited Tajima to join Pizzicato Five. As such, from what I read on J-Wiki, Tajima had believed that with his commitment to P5, he wouldn't be able to release any Original Love albums, so he and the band put out a self-titled album in August 1988 as a memento with "X'mas NO HI" as one of the tracks.

Scott loved "X'mas NO HI" and so do I because it's not only a cool tune but it additionally shows a proto-Original Love sound, so to speak. Compared to what I fell in love with in the 1990s, "X'mas NO HI" has Tajima and company pulling off a laidback rockabilly sound with some nice doo-wop harmonies. But there is no mistaking Tajima's voice in there although it's slightly higher in tone. The singer was behind words and music but the way it sounds, it could have come straight from the 1950s.

P.S. Would like to end this with an announcement that we've got what could possibly be one of the worst snowstorms of the season heading our way in the next day or two. So, it's probable that with any resulting power outages that "Kayo Kyoku Plus" may be in that rare position of not having any articles go up on Friday. It would royally suck so I'm hoping that there will be a meteorological miracle overnight.

Kessoku Band -- Seishun Complex（青春コンプレックス）

 

From seeing a whole bunch of fresh YouTube videos of "Akiba Maid War"（アキバ冥途戦争）pop up this afternoon, that show has finally reached the end of its run, and man, was it a run! It pretty much ended as I'd generally predicted since it was going along the lines of a yakuza flick. I think that I have at least one more song to cover for that series.

However for Fall 2022 in terms of anime, there was another completely different show that has been garnering big attention among the fans. Even my anime buddy has been singing the praises of anime adaptation "Bocchi the Rock!"（ぼっち・ざ・ろっく!）. Originating from a yonkoma manga, the comedy has been fast and furious as the series focuses on a high school girl, Hitori "Bocchi" Goto（後藤ひとり）, who suffers so much regarding any social interactions that she makes Komi-san and Aharen-san look like super-outgoing Miss Congeniality in comparison. Yet, she also has a hidden talent on her electric guitar so it's time to make a band with her buddies. 

The animators must have had an incredible ball making "Bocchi the Rock!" considering all of the weird and crazy transformations that Bocchi herself has undergone. In the scene above, she could have traveled the multiverse and met Dr. Strange and Miss America without even getting off the floor. I will be paying more attention to this anime over the Holidays.

As for that group of musicians, it's called the Kessoku Band（結束バンド...Zip Tie） and they're responsible for the opening theme song, "Seishun Complex" (Youth Complex). Vocalist and Bocchi buddy Ikuyo Kita（喜多郁代）, played by seiyuu Ikumi Hasegawa（長谷川育美）, leads the song which reminds me a lot of the stuff that rock band Porno Graffitti（ポルノグラフィティ）was performing back in the early 2000s. The lyrics were provided by singer-songwriter Ai Higuchi（樋口愛）and the music was composed by otoha（音羽）.