tofubeats -- I Can Feel It

 

Getting late into Sunday night and I was happy to have a good long chat with KKP veteran JTM earlier tonight over movies and a recent trip to Japan. Hadn't heard from him for a number of weeks so it was good to touch base again.

I also hadn't touched base with singer/producer/track maker Yusuke Kawai（河合佑亮）, aka tofubeats, in over three years...not since I posted "Disco no Kamisama"（ディスコの神様）featuring comedian and actor Takashi Fujii（藤井隆）. So it is nice to have him back on the program as it were, and tonight I have him performing "I Can Feel It", the first track on his April 2024 digital album "NOBODY". 

"I Can Feel It" is straight-on danceable techno-R&B for a Sunday...or even a Friday...night. I don't think I'm even all that flexible anymore but I was still doing intense shifting with my left heel as the song was going for its nearly five minutes above. And it's always nice having a video of nonchalantly driving through the big Japanese city as the song chugs through. If I'm not mistaken, the protagonist in the automobile is stuntwoman Saori Izawa（伊澤彩織）. Kinda got those old Fantastic Plastic Machine vibes once more.

Asaka -- Wayawayawaa—! (わやわやわー！)

 

No special occasion here but I did want to remark about how long seiyuu and singer Ayane Sakura（佐倉綾音）has been around in the anime industry. I first remember her from "Joshiraku" （じょしらく....Rakugo Girls) well over a decade ago, and then came her really big starring role in the "Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?"（ご注文はうさぎですか？...Is The Order A Rabbit?）franchise starting in the mid-2010s. Now, I'm just catching up with her and the rest of the cast in "Dosanko Gyaru wa Namaramenkoi"（道産子ギャルはなまらめんこい...Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable!）which had its run earlier this year. I can see her role as Minami as being very different from Mari and Cocoa.

At the end of January a few months ago, I wrote up the article for the opening theme from "Dosanko", Masayoshi Oishi's（大石昌良）"Namaramenkoi Gyaru"（なまらめんこいギャル）which has been compared to Bruno Mars' "Uptown Funk". Heck, it even has choreography. Indeed, it is quite the funky tune for a cold cold Hokkaido in winter.

The ending theme "Wayawayawaa—!" was also written and composed by Oishi but this time, he isn't the one who recorded it. That honour goes to singer, seiyuu and former cosplayer Asaka（亜咲花）, who has quite the interesting backstory according to her Wikipedia profile. "Wayawayawaa—!" isn't quite the funk fest that "Namaramenkoi Gyaru" is, but it's still fun listening and it reflects the feelings going around the Kitami City newbie character of Tsubasa among the three main female characters including Minami.

"Wayawayawaa—!" was released as Asaka's 14th single in February and it got as high as No. 42 on Oricon. Still have yet to see Episode 4 of the show but will get to that hopefully by tonight.

Nash Music Library -- Sunday Breakfast

 

Considering the title of this song, it's perhaps a tad early especially because I'm typing this after Saturday Lunch (which consisted of a couple of hot dogs, a blueberry muffin, and yogurt). Still, it's a fine opportunity for me to show off this photo of my breakfast at the famous family restaurant Royal Host in Japan. Good golly, they like making their toast nice and thick over there.

Once again, Nash Music Library cordially brings over their menu of whimsical musical delights including "Sunday Breakfast" from their February 2024 collection known as "Morning Chill". It sounds like a very languid version of Burt Bacharach style as if good ol' Burt were waking up way too early after a large night and stumbling about in the kitchen trying to make the usual Sunday breakfast. Perhaps he was only successful in making a cup of coffee by the end.⛾

Shigeru Izumiya -- Shunka Shuutou（春夏秋冬）

 

The first time I ever saw Shigeru Izumiya（泉谷しげる）on television was years and years ago when he still had that fully black hair and full beard and moustache. Unlike the usual entertainers who were goofing and gabbing about, Izumiya rather scared me with his grumpy countenance and angry outbursts, and though it's hard to remember specific incidents at this stage in my life, I think he really was annoyed with his fellow entertainers, but that was his stock-in-trade and I believe that he was standing up for those viewers who were getting tired of the usual shenanigans.

It wouldn't be until years later that I found out that Izumiya hadn't been hired to be the Grumpy Old Man of the geinokai. He actually started his career as a folk singer in the 1970s. And earlier this morning, he had appeared on NHK's annual "Live Yell"（ライブ・エール）music extravaganza which has been treated as a summer version of the year-end Kohaku Utagassen. My impression is that it's an even more heartful music special dealing with specific issues of the year and for 2024, the show was addressing the tragic earthquake in the Noto Peninsula on New Year's Day and the growing isolationism among young people.

My impression of Izumiya is that he's mellowed out considerably and his frequent annoyed utterances are now delivered with a bit of a wink and smile. He performed his 2nd single from April 1972, "Shunka Shuutou" (Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter) with words and music created by him. Describing a man coming from very humble circumstances, he still invites the listener over for a bit of counseling and that although hard times have come in the past and may still come in the future, it's not the time to give up. I'd say that "Shunka Shuutou" is the perfect song for "Live Yell". 

Not sure how long this video will stay up, but this is the actual performance by Izumiya on "Live Yell" today. "Shunka Shuutou" was also the title track for the singer's debut album which came out in the same month as the single. Izumiya made his first appearance on the aforementioned Kohaku in 2013 to sing this song with the purpose of giving his good tidings to all those getting their start in the working world in 2014.

Yutaka Kimura Speaks ~ Japanese City Pop Masterpieces 100: Rie Nakahara -- Dreaming Love（ドリーミング・ラブ）

 

Number: 056

Lyricist: Minako Yoshida

Composer/Arranger: Tatsuro Yamashita

From Nakahara's 1978 album: "Killing Me"

"Dreaming Love" is a sweet soul ballad that is right up the alley of soul freak Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）and makes effective use of the electric sitar. As soon as the arrangement was done in the manner of Thom Bell who had helped produce The Delfonics and The Stylistics, there was probably no one in Japan who could match Tats. And within that, the horns and strings arrangement along with the precise positioning were magnificent.

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

Mayumi Hara -- Nagisa Hotel

 

Looks like Kayo Grace has gotten dolled up for a night in the big city. Meanwhile, someone else has chosen to try out a hotel on the beach.

Well, specifically "Nagisa Hotel" (Beach Hotel) by aidoru Mayumi Hara（原真祐美）. This was actually the B-side to her 5th single from April 1984, "Wakatte My Love"（わかってマイ・ラブ...Understand Me, My Love）, and this one is a rather interesting tune in terms of the key and chords. Plus, there is this combination of the disco strings and 80s rhythm that skirts with City Pop. Written by Yasushi Akimoto（秋元康）and composed by Hiroshi Shinkawa（新川博）, Hara gamely sings in a soundscape that has its dramatic and doubtful verses which shift into a hopeful pre-chorus before things revert to a determined and perhaps heroic chorus. It sounds like one of those gang girl dramas on TV centering on one lass trying to get out of the life but having to literally punch her way through to the light. 

As with my previous Hara outing, "Yuugure wa Love Song"（夕暮れはLove Song）, "Nagisa Hotel" was also a track on her 2nd album "Vert Clair"（ベール・クレール）from February 1984.

Kenji Haga -- City Alone（シティ・アローン）

 

Kenji Haga（羽賀研二）is a long-standing tarento on Japanese television whom I've seen go through all sorts of trials and tribulations, and certainly a lot of his media exposure was due to his romantic relationship with fellow tarento and model Anna Umemiya（梅宮アンナ）beginning from the 1990s. What I hadn't known until I was well into doing the blog was that he basically got his start as one-third of the Ii Tomo Seinen Tai（いいとも青年隊...The Ii Tomo Youth Brigade） , the first group of song-and-dance men to perform on Fuji-TV's long-running noon time variety show "Morita Kazuyoshi Hour - Waratte Ii Tomo"（森田一義アワー・笑っていいとも....The Kazuyoshi Morita Hour: It's OK To Laugh) . Apparently back then, he used to put on the glasses to show off that intellectual beefcake look.

Eventually with his rising profile in the geinokai in the 1980s, one of his powers-that-be probably gave the order "OK, Kenji, you gotta cut a record!" as usually was the case with any entertainer. And indeed, Haga released a number of singles between 1982 and 2004 but with only two albums in 1984 and 1985. The first album was "Kouha Bigaku"（硬派美学...Hardline Aesthestics） and the glasses-less Haga looked all of fourteen years old (he was well into his twenties) on the cover. Maybe it was a Hiromi Go（郷ひろみ）syndrome or something.

Anyways, one of the tracks on "Kouha Bigaku" is "City Alone" (and the above version seems to have been truncated). Haga appears to have taken on that bespectacled dandy-esque character from the top video when he recorded this one. His vocals sound a bit like crooning Yosui Inoue（井上陽水）while the City Pop melody by Kingo Hamada（浜田金吾）provides the atmosphere of the big, bad and lonely if fascinating metropolis. Yumi Yoshimoto（吉本由美）was the lyricist here.