The Music of Japan.

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As a side note not too far off topic, a few years ago I made a post about anime that had music themes at its core. As I see more interest in J pop/rock on the forum than I anticipated, this might be a good time to check it out again:

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/threads/music-themed-anime.27346/
Some folks might have an interest in watching these but don't know where to find them. That varies of course, and changes with time. For example Your Lie in April was on Netflix for an extended time but is gone now. So check the usual steaming sites and there are also anime specific streaming sites, legit ones, I would be glad to help anyone track down a title to watch. And all of those I've mentioned in the earlier post are available on DVD/Blu-ray from the usual places.
 
A couple of tunes from YOASOBI

「ハルジオン・Halzion」




Yasashii Suisei ・ A Gentle Comet (from the anime Beastars)

 
As I mentioned earlier I am not a big fan of Hikaru Utada but her popularity in Japan can't be ignored. It seems there a big promotional event of re-releasing her eight albums (I thought she had more) on vinyl.

https://japantoday.com/category/ent...of-all-albums-pop-up-store-opening-in-shibuya
Do note that Tower Records is mentioned in the article which is alive and well in Japan.

A shout out to @Lute : maybe you can check this out & report back? QQ's Man on the Street in Tokyo!
 
As I mentioned earlier I am not a big fan of Hikaru Utada but her popularity in Japan can't be ignored. It seems there a big promotional event of re-releasing her eight albums (I thought she had more) on vinyl.

https://japantoday.com/category/ent...of-all-albums-pop-up-store-opening-in-shibuya
Do note that Tower Records is mentioned in the article which is alive and well in Japan.

A shout out to @Lute : maybe you can check this out & report back? QQ's Man on the Street in Tokyo!
I haven’t been to Shibuya Tower Records in a while but I believe its doors are still open for business. They have a lot of events with various singers and bands. I have seen some nice mini-concerts there over the years.
 
Doesn’t look like Shugo Tokugawa has been mentioned - if you dig Cornelius you’ll LOVE this guy. An incredible musician, quirky with both pop and prog sensibilities, and I might say more organic than Cornelius. I heard his album In Focus? a few years ago and it immediately blew my doors off.

https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kLcGyu6CBNbTsIIaitnsyBc-jN4V8VO6k&playnext=1&index=1
https://music.apple.com/us/album/in-focus/591824524
Man the hits just keep on coming. I really like thye Circle track by Tokugawa. Rather than Cornelius I think I would say: if you like Beck's Morning Phase you'll like this. I will check out more of his work.
 
Anime theme music is a whole 'nother wonderful monster of its own. It can be anything classical or jazz to death metal & everything in between. It can be a tune previously released by a Japanese artist or something made specific for the show. And there's plenty American/British music used as well. Even with this huge range of material I find most all of it is pleasing & engaging. Indeed there are many CD's out there that are compilations of nothing more than opening/closing theme songs from an anime TV series.

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending the local/regionalNaka-Kon. anime convention, Lots of media to be had & I scored two beauties for myself:

CITY HUNTER RECORD.jpg


Yes indeed, brand new (at least un-used) 45 RPM records! It seems this is a common thing in Japan. I've seen pics posted with huge amounts of 45'ers from TV shows on display in record stores.

This is a special find for me as City Hunter & Cats Eye are related. In City Hunter Ryo Saeba is a "sweeper"... he sweeps crime off the streets of Tokyo with his 357 magnum. The local hang out for his activities is the Cats Eye coffee shop, managed by a tank of a guy named Umibozu. Interestingly he has a cat phobia. Interestingly the shop is actually owned by 3 sisters who are (you guessed it), cat burglars. Not the bad kind, you know the kind that steal stuff to return to the rightful owners. And of course the trio is known as the Cats Eye trio.

So this relationship between CH & CE developed slowly over the 10 million episodes of CH and eventually they their own spin off. Since I can't play these for you the least I can do is post a link:



and



For some strange reason the CH theme is a bit slower tempo than it should be. I think it's a good example of how a song with lyrics having absolutely nothing to do with anime still fits perfectly. The 1st 30secs of it is my ring tone. People that hear it says it seems very discoish. I don't make that connection. What do you think?And I like the the Cats Eye them almost as much.

Sorry for the rather low quality but it's the best I could find.
 
A new T~Square album on SACD which comes with a blu ray disc. No further info available

https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/OLCH-10024

That's probably because it's in Japanese :)
Google translation...

"T-SQUARE alpha" started its activities as a unit form of Takeshi Itoh and Satoshi Bandoh 44 years after his professional debut in 1978. The name T-SQUARE alpha has the meaning of plus alpha that something is added freely to the next. This album has wonderful support members and guests who deserve such a name. Japan's world-class top jazz guitarist Kazumi Watanabe (Gt), ally Hirokuni Korekata (Gt), Masato Honda (Sax), who will participate in T-SQUARE for the first time in more than 20 years, and Keiji Matsumoto ( Key). Furthermore, as Japan's top horn section, Eric Miyashiro (Tp), Koji Nishimura (Tp), Eijiro Nakagawa (Tb), Nobuhide Handa (Tb) who lead the Blue Note Tokyo Jazz Orchestra. Rock-solid support members indispensable for T-SQUARE Shingo Tanaka (Ba), Akito Shirai (Key), Yudai Sato (Key). In addition, there are already a lot of great young musicians in attendance. There is no doubt that this album, in which the top musicians in Japan are participating, is suitable for the new T-SQUARE! Comes with a Blu-ray (contents undecided).
 
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