Haruno feat. Chiaki Sato -- Venus Flytrap

 

I've got a couple of friends heading out to Japan for vacation in the next few days so I hope that they have a safe flight considering some of the meteorological turmoil that's been wracking parts of the country over the past week or so. 

How about some nice contemporary groove to start off Friday's edition of "Kayo Kyoku Plus"? Haruno（春野）is a trackmaker and a singer-songwriter who may have started in 2020, and he first began his career through showing his wares via streaming services and YouTube. According to musician and former actress Chiaki Sato's（佐藤千亜妃）website, Haruno's sound is characterized by smooth, groovy tracks that blend genres ranging from Lo-Fi hip-hop and jazz to contemporary pop. 

As for Sato herself, the Iwate Prefecture-born singer is into alternative rock and began her career in 2007. She was once the vocalist, guitarist and songwriter for the rock band Kinoko Teikoku（きのこ帝国...Mushroom Empire） which lasted between 2007 and 2019. In February 2023, Haruno and Sato collaborated and put out a digital single called "Venus Flytrap", a groovy Neo-City Pop number that can accompany a nice stroll through some of the byways of Tokyo in the early evening just before the action really gets going.

Tsuzuko Sugawara -- Shima wo Deteyuku Katahansen（島を出てゆく片帆船）

 

Kinda going along the Towada photo line that I started with SUPERCAR's "cream soda" a half-hour ago, I've got another photo from Brian Mitchell up above. I don't know what it's showing although the house is pretty fluffy-looking. 

But in comparison with the alternative rock of "cream soda" from the late 1990s, I take you back to the late 1950s and to another person who hails from Towada City in Aomori Prefecture. Tsuzuko Sugawara（菅原都々子）, who just celebrated her 99th birthday in August, is someone who already has a presence on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" with her 1955 hit "Tsuki ga Tottemo Aoi Kara"（月がとっても青いから）. Tonight though, I offer you her 1957 single "Shima wo Deteyuku Katahansen" (The Single-Sail Boat Leaving the Island). An industriously jaunty yet somewhat bittersweet enka about sweet sorrowful partings, Sugawara's vocals has her singing happily on the outside but crying on the inside as a loved one takes off for other destinations. I'm laying odds that she'll be at the port everyday until his return. The lyrics were by Ryo Inomata（猪又良）and the music was by Akira Mutsu（陸奥明）.

SUPERCAR -- cream soda

 

Commenter Brian Mitchell was very kind in sending me some photos of Towada City in Aomori, the prefecture where he and his family have been living, so the above is one such shot. In return, I've decided to write an article about any music act that comes from that area.

After looking up Towada City in J-Wiki, I discovered that the 1990s-2000s band SUPERCAR had members who hailed from the area. And since I haven't posted anything by the group in several years, it is time to make amends. 

I mentioned in the first KKP article for SUPERCAR's "BGM" that though the band ended up as a technopop group of sorts, they had initially begun professional life as an alterative rock act. Their debut single from September 1997, "cream soda", shows that genre in spades. There's a lot of that indies feel in their crashing and rocking but vocalist Koji Nakamura's（中村弘二）own creamy voice has a nice tempering effect in a way that seems to sound like "Hey, I know it's noisy out there but follow me, and you'll be all right.".

A couple of trivia tidbits that I got from the J-Wiki article for "cream soda" is that the yellow car used in the video was borrowed from bespectacled comedian George Tokoro（所ジョージ）. Plus, the single cover has an illustration of a car that was created by Italian automotive designer Giorgetto Giugiaro. SUPERCAR must have had some pretty super connections!

From Yahoo Auctions

Blondie -- Call Me

 

I recollect that an earlier trailer for "Supergirl" used this particular song to show badass Kara is.

Well, Blondie's "Call Me" was a hit song that I will always associated with the 1980 film "American Gigolo" starring Richard Gere. That's how I first heard about the actor but it wouldn't be until his other big role in "An Officer and a Gentleman" a couple of years later that would be my first Gere film to watch. But I was still struck by the poster of "American Gigolo" and though brand names weren't a thing with me back then, Giorgio Armani was another name that came from my relatively scant knowledge of the movie.

Of course, up to that point, I hadn't known anything about gigolos. All I knew was Fred Garvin: Male Prostitute.

Anyways, Blondie's tough and sultry "Call Me" was released on February 1st 1980 as a single and among the band's singles from that time including "Rapture", it's been the one that I knew or listened to the least for some reason. In fact, I had to listen to it again for the first time in a long time to remember what the whole song sounded like and I'd never seen the official music video until tonight. Of course, the chorus has stayed rent-free in my memories for decades. "Call Me" ended up at the top of America's Billboard chart for six straight weeks, and it also hit the top spot in Canada and the UK.

The closest Oricon chart to the release date of "Call Me" was the one for February 4th. What were the top three singles back then?

1. Crystal King -- Dai Tokai (大都会）

2. Saki Kubota -- Ihojin （異邦人）

3. Off Course -- Sayonara (さよなら）

Susan -- Koi Se yo Otome（恋せよおとめ）

 

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to discover one of the rarest of the rare...the music of a half-Japanese and half-French singer by the name of Susan Nozaki（スーザン・ノザキ）, although she sometimes went by the mononym of Susan. Although it seems as if she'd started her career back in the 1970s as an aidoru, she opted for a New Wave/technopop direction going into the 1980s.

Of course, when one thinks about technopop during that time, Yellow Magic Orchestra pops out of the memories, and sure enough, a couple of their members came on board to help Susan on her technopop way. Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）wrote and composed her September 1980 single "Koi Se yo Otome" (Fall in Love, Girl!) and I think that's indeed YMO drummer Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）helping out on the vocals while Susan goes for a cute and squeaky approach that gets downright operatic at times. Yeah, it does sound New Wave. As comparison, I'll really have to take a look at her earlier discography. But you can also give my first two articles regarding her a try as well: "My Love" and "Ah! Soka".

Noboru Kirishima -- Tanoshii Sasayaki（楽しいささやき）

By Norman Bruderhofer via Wikimedia Commons

 

In terms of my lifeline, I don't quite go as far back as the gramophone above; my parents probably did though. For me, it was still that huge RCA Victor stereo seemingly hewn out of a trunk of a mighty oak tree.

But I did want my thumbnail to reflect the age of this song here although I don't know how popular gramophones were at the turn of the decade between the 1940s and 1950s. And this song is right from August 1949. What I'm writing about is "Tanoshii Sasayaki" (Delightful Whisper) by the crooner Noboru Kirishima（霧島昇）.

The last time Kirishima got his due on the byline was through Noelle's December 2023 article on his collaboration with Ms. Columbia for their "Tabi no Yokaze" (旅の夜風), so I figure that it was time to see him again. The interesting thing is that I gather singles back then didn't have both sides filled with the same singer's songs; it was also the case that there was a bit of a "roommate" thing where different singers occupied the two sides. 

It turns out that Kirishima's "Tanoshii Sasayaki" shared vinyl with the prodigy Hibari Misora's（美空ひばり） debut single "Kappa Boogie Woogie"（河童ブギウギ）. Compared with that jazzy boogie by the future Queen of Kayo Kyoku, "Tanoshii Sasayaki" had more of a "beautiful music" sensibility as designed by lyricist Ko Fujiura（藤浦洸）and composer Takaaki Asai（浅井挙曄）. It's just as playful as the A-side but perhaps more innocent and there are some shifty key changes which feels like the song repeatedly switches from happy kayo to something slightly moodier and Latin and back again.

Kojiro Shimizu -- Summer of 1985

 

Summer of 1985, eh? Well, I'd just finished my first year at University of Toronto. I don't remember anything about that time aside from a few days working at a restaurant. Less said the better about that experience.

From the sounds of it, singer Kojiro Shimizu（清水宏次朗）probably had a far better time of it during the hot season forty-one years ago. His "Summer of 1985" was the first track on his September 1987 album "$1,000,000 Night" and with that sort of title for an album, he probably had an amazing time that summer. It's a good-time pop and rock tune and when I found out that it was Tetsuro Oda（織田哲郎）who had composed the song, I just went "Ah...naruhodo...". Oda is the master at that sort of sound that brings back nostalgia as much as sunnier days. Ginshiro Akiya（秋谷銀四郎）was responsible for the lyrics. 

Y'know...I don't think the song was ever used as a commercial jingle, but when I hear "Summer of 1985", I get this feeling that it would have been ideal for Pocari Sweat or some sort of isotonic drink.