Caoli Cano & Haruo Chikada -- Mechanica（メカニカ）

 

Considering the music and age of this particular album, this might be one of the rarest of the rare. And yet, I would like to explore it further. According to the explanation underneath the YouTube video, this is "Tokyo-teki"（東京的...Tokyo-esque） from March 1993, a compilation of songs under the aegis of Haruo Kubota（窪田晴男）who had been a band member of Haruo Chikada & The Vibratones（近田春夫&ビブラトーンズ）and a music producer.

With each of the nine tracks on the album addressing some aspect of Japan's capital city, the first track is "Mechanica" which was written by singer and sake brewer Caoli Cano（かの香織）and composed by Kubota's old boss Haruo Chikada. Kubota himself was on the keyboards here. It's quite the way to start things off with Cano's light and breathy vocals fronting a half-strutting, half skulking House beat, it seems like, as if some guy or lady in a red convertible is making Shinjuku or Roppongi their territory on a Friday night.  There are also a couple of times when this musical flourish suddenly bursts forth like a fountain going several metres up into the night sky which in a way reminds me of some Pet Shop Boys tunes. This album may be quite the ride in my old stomping grounds.

Chiyono Yoshino -- Icy Doll

 

Chiyono Yoshino（吉野千代乃）may not be the most well-known singer even within the City Pop umbrella that I've often associated her with, but she has had performed her material with sophistication and grace such as has been the case with her "Birthday Eve" from 1994. This came from her album "Crescent Moon" which was her final album until her 2018 "Canary".

Going to her debut album "Rain Ballade" from March 1986 then, it was a bit of a revelation to hear one of the tracks "Icy Doll". It is indeed Yoshino's resonant vocals but the melody and arrangement sound so mid-1980s European synthpop that I'd expected to see a couple of songwriters from halfway around the world responsible for this. Instead, Kyoko Matsumiya（松宮恭子）took care of both words and music. There's something about it that sounded rather Gazebo to me and I'd also expected to hear some French mumbling during the instrumental bridge.

Testpattern -- Souvenir Glacé

 

One of the many amazing things that I learned during my time in Japan was something of a gastronomic nature. I realized that chestnuts could be used for dessert! All this time growing up in Canada, I only knew chestnuts could be roasted and sold in brown paper bags in front of Maple Leaf Gardens here in Toronto to eat as a salty snack. But chestnuts as sweets?! Mon Dieu! 

But the Japanese certainly love their French pastries and so there I learned and enjoyed marron glace (glazed chestnuts) in the higher of the two videos and Mont Blanc in the lower video. It was just like when I discovered the joys of eating my first pumpkin pie.

Well, speaking about marron glace, I've come across "Souvenir Glacé" (Frozen Memories), a track from the 1982 album "Après-Midi" by the technopop duo Testpattern. I first wrote about the musical odyssey that graphic designers Fumio Ichimura（市村文夫）and Masao Hiruma（比留間雅夫）had taken under the tutelage of Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）of Yellow Magic Orchestra fame when I wrote about another track from the album, "Techno Age", back in 2022. However, I have to give my apologies and note that it wasn't just Hosono who helped produce "Après-Midi", but also Hosono's YMO drumming and singing bandmate, the late Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）. 

As for "Souvenir Glacé", Hiruma was responsible for the melody while someone named Linsui took care of the all-French lyrics which come across as rather avant-garde. In fact, I'd say that the lyrics could be taken apart into separate parts and used as oral signs and countersigns between two spies during a tradeoff somewhere in Berlin. There's something about mint promises and someone named Billetdoux but things don't get much more legible than that. In any case, Hiruma's melody is haunting and classical in a Kraftwerk crystalline way. It really stands out and away from anything that YMO has done which I believe that Hosono and Takahashi would have been proud about.

Momoe Yamaguchi -- Shikaranai de（叱らないでね）

 

Wow! It's been around 13 years since I first posted the article on Momoe Yamaguchi's（山口百恵）1973 debut single "Toshigoro"（としごろ）onto "Kayo Kyoku Plus". Going back to my earliest memories of the 1970s aidoru when she was already in the latter half of her career in the persona of that seen-it-all and done-it-all world-weary woman, it was rather surprising to hear her all the way back to her first single when she was indeed acting and singing as the high school kid she was.

This is actually the first time though that I've gotten to hear the B-side to "Toshigoro", "Shikaranai de" (Don't Be Mad). When I saw the title, my assumption was that the song would be a rather melancholy ballad about a relationship going sour. Instead, it's arguably even more happy-go-lucky than the A-side. The same folks behind "Toshigoro" also took care of "Shikaranai de": Kazuya Senke（千家和也）on the lyrics and Shunichi Tokura（都倉俊一）on the melody and arrangement. The tempo is even a slight bit slower as those lyrics describe a young girl getting all gushy with her beau and leaving the big decisions up to him. I don't really know for sure, but my impression is that B-sides don't usually get performed on stage or TV but if it had been performed by Momoe, I would imagine a lot of young couples behind her doing some very cute choreography.

WONK -- Cyberspace Love

 

I haven't posted an article on the experimental soul band WONK in over a year so I was happy to find this one called "Cyberspace Love". But it isn't available on any of the band's singles or albums it seems. Instead, one can find it on an October 2017 compilation album titled "MONK's Playhouse".

The chill modern club vibe is there in "Cyberspace Love" although the feeling is almost as if the song was really meant to be played while listeners were actually on their computers or smartphones finding their ideal match via the Internet. Personally, I would just like to enjoy a martini in such a club while listening to this one. The music video is also kinda Kafkaesque as four friends separately see a well-dressed man pop up in all sorts of bizarre environments including one of the guys' coffee cup; I'm not sure but I am wondering if the mystery man is supposed to be the legendary jazz musician Thelonious Monk. As it turns out, the four friends are actually the members of WONK themselves. I never would have thought that I would actually be Neo-City Pop grooving to an animated version of "The Twilight Zone".

Noriyuki Makihara feat. Taeko Ohnuki -- Tokai（都会）

 

Talk about the gift that keeps on giving. "Tokai" (The City) is one of the famous tracks from Taeko Ohnuki's（大貫妙子）1977 album "Sunshower" that has always given me the melodic image of being in the city and enjoying its benefits while at the same time, Ohnuki's lyrics relay the message that it's time to leave the metropolis. Considering the massive breakdown of the Yamanote Line in Tokyo yesterday, I can understand the feeling of commuters there perhaps wanting to flee, but still, I'll go with the hopeful and lighthearted and funky melody.

I'm not sure how many covers of "Tokai" have been done over the years but I do know of the one that the funkster Yasuyuki Okamura（岡村靖幸）and the late Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）did on the 2013 album "Tribute to Taeko Ohnuki"（大貫妙子トリビュート・アルバム）which amps up the funk even further. And just a few days ago, I became aware of a new version by singer-songwriter Noriyuki Makihara（槇原敬之）joined by Ms. Ohnuki herself in the final verse. It's been released as the 5th single in a series of cover songs commemorating the 55th anniversary of the Panam record label. Compared to the original and the 2013 cover, this 2026 version feels a little more 80s AOR (funk is still there) with an electric sitar joining in. Yoshiyuki Sahashi（佐橋佳幸）arranged the song. 

To think that "Tokai" is approaching its 49th birthday...quite the timeless tune, and one that I'm happy to incorporate as the first 2026 entry on KKP!

Kei Ishiguro -- Camel no Nioi（キャメルの匂い）

Museum Rotterdam via Wikimedia Commons

 

OK, I have to admit that I was glad that I hadn't been imbibing anything when I first came across this song since I probably would have done a major spit take all over my computer screen. Please imagine: "Camel no Nioi" (The Smell of Camels); from what I heard about camels, they don't really smell too good. And I was a bit worried that singer Kei Ishiguro（石黒ケイ）may have been confessing to some sort of weird fetish.

So, I was somewhat relieved to find out that the title was actually referring to the distinct aroma of Camel Cigarettes...not that I can remember what those smelled like. Back in my childhood when cigarettes were still socially acceptable on a wide basis, there was that general smell of burning tobacco but I guess that Camels must have had something special since they included something Turkish. Still, there is the danger of secondhand smoke and all that.

Anyways, "Camel no Nioi" is a track from Ishiguro's 1984 album "You Remember Me", and it's one of those songs that are delectably difficult to categorize one way or another. There is the City Pop and the AOR, but I could also pick up a bit of New Wave in the first few measures. Yoichi Takizawa（滝沢洋一）was behind the introspective melody with Machiko Ryu（竜真知子）weaving the story of a woman's memory of a one-night stand and the lingering smoke of a Camel. After all, people have got to deal with the afterglow.🚬