The Throwbacks !! ^_^ Mari Hamada's 1991 album "Tomorrow".

This time around I felt like posting some Jpop from the early 90's. And few acts were ruling the Japanese music scene back then as Miss Mari Hamada.

Mari started her musical career very early on. In 1983, at only 16 years old, Mari released two albums: "Lunatic Doll" and "Romantic Night" that would immediately establish her as the "heavy rock idol". In Japan, the idol industry is huge. Idols are very young girls that step into the music scene for a couple of commercial pop singles, pose in demure & angelic clothes in sensual photos for magazines and calendars, and... get forgotten within 6 months. Well, Mari escaped such destiny because of a particular quality in her: talent !

The first phase in Mari decades-long career would find her singing rock and hard rock, releasing an album per year, and collaborating with consecrated musicians that worked for international artists such as Pat Benatar and TOTO, among others.

Yeah, that's right: you wouldn't guess it from the album I'm posting today, but this chick was fierce as a rocker ! Check out this video of her performing her hit "Blue Revolution", out of her 5th album of the same name from 1985. Pay attention to the final high note in super-head voice !!:

Mari then switched to a more poppish sound in the early 90's, for the second stage in her career. Precisely, "Tomorrow", released on October 19th 1991, reflects that transition. It is Mari's 13th album and included her hits "Paradox" and "Telecontrol", which were put out as singles, together with c/w songs "Missing" and "Rainy Blue", respectively.
To this day, she's still in the music biz. Her last album ("Elan") was released last year and, though her popularity is not the same as that of the late 80's & beginning of the 90's, she's still fondly remembered as the "Queen of Jrock".

In the rock department her torch was passed to Nanase Aikawa and other members of the female Jrock younger generation, but her voice still soars, specially in her celebrated ballads. Her success as a balladeer led her to release two special compilations of slow numbers ("Sincerely" I & II).

Two of my favorite tracks of today's album are the ballads "Tomorrow" and "More than ever" (the third one would be the uplifting "Precious Summer" ^_^). Take a look at her performing "Tomorrow" in the following clip courtesy of lostgeneration2 @ YouTube. Now THIS is show(wo)manship ! Whoever this person is, he/she uploaded A LOT of videos of Mari in concert so just keep browsing them...

You won't believe it, but I found this CD in a regular used CD store in Buenos Aires ! Thank God for globalization ! :-P In recent years, Mari has diversified her interests as an artist, trying her luck in acting and even as a seiyuu (voice actor) ! She was cast as Natoru in "Neko no Ongaeshi" (a.k.a "The cat returns" for Western audiences), a Hiroyuki Morita animation film of 2002 that was backed by no other than Studio Ghibli ("Howl's Moving Castle", "Spirited Away").

Here's the album. Enjoy its early 90's pop/rock sound.

Kiroro's album "Diary"

Hi, peeps ! I'm switching to some easy-listening music for the post of today. You know what I'm talking about: nice, infectious melodies -often with simple arrangements and warm vocals- that makes us smile, sometimes feeling guilty afterwards! Well, there is no guilt in me when I listen to Kiroro's music...

Kiroro is a female duo that puts its all into their music. They have been writing their own stuff for the last ten years and performing it to great succes, often with just a piano as the only instrument on scene. They became a local success in 1996 in their hometown Okinawa but nationwide popularity arrived in 1998 with their breakthrough hit "Nagai Aida", out of their debut album "Nagai Aida: Kiroro no Mori".

Kiroro is formed of Chiharu Tamashiro on main vocals and Ayano Kinjo on piano. Chiharu's voice is really touching, specially in slow numbers, which are their signature mark. I am posting today the album "Diary", released on March 3rd 2004. If you listen to the first song ("Mou Sukoshi"), you will get acquainted with the sound Kiroro is mainly known for: soothing ballads with just piano and voice (well, and some strings or guitar on the background). This has proved to be a hit formula for the girls, since their biggest hits have been ballads that followed this trend, such as "Nagai Aida", "Suki na hito", "Mirai he" or "Aitai".

"Mou Sukoshi" was released as a single, and so was "Bokura no Message", which was used as the OP of the anime TV series "Mujin Wakusei SURVIVE". Here you have that clip, courtesy of alictam23 @ YouTube:

A year later, another song from theirs ("Ikitekoso") would be used as the OP of the TV series "Kabutomushi Ouji Mushiking - Mori no Tame no Densetsu" ("King of Beetles", for short...). Up to now, that has been all of its connection to animation, but undoubtedly there'll be more to come, since the girls have the nice habit of releasing an album per year... Check out next the OP for "King of Beetles", courtesy of pturna @ YouTube:

And here's the album for your hearing pleasure ! Take the time to drop a comment on what you hear...

Kanaete's first month on the Web

Hi everybody ! I apologise for the lack of updates, but this last 10 days were extremely busy at work. You'll have a Kiroro album soon to make up for the long wait ^_-, I promise...

Today my blog is one month old and, before uploading again for you guys, I thought about posting an open letter just to thank you for your visits and, specially, for the feedback from those that leave messages or comments to the albums. Anybody out there hosting a music blog can tell you that it takes a lot of effort, dedication and patience, but it is all worth it when you realise music is bringing joy to others and you actually get a couple of words from people telling you so. I do want you to drop a line to praise/criticise the music and the artists, tell me a bit about your favorite tracks and hopefully start the discussion and the exchange of information that this blog was conceived for. Your album contributions, of course, are also welcome and I will give you full credit for the music you sent to me. If you don't know how to upload to a free server, tell me so via email and I'll get back to you with the instructions... ^_^

In sum, thanks for the support and keep on letting me know you are out there enjoying Jpop and anime soundtracks ! ^_^

Moving on to... Classic Soundtracks !

How about posting some BGM, instrumental music for a change ? I've been sharing a few albums of Jpop artists and speaking about the animation series to which they may have contributed songs, but I think it is time for you to enjoy a full soundtrack and let yourself be carried away by outstanding pieces of music specially conceived to provide background to a scene. In this sense, there aren't many composers out there better than Miss Yoko Kanno. I truly think this woman is just the epithome of talent, and if you don't know her, you are about to hear why.

Yoko Kanno (born on May 19 1964) had already worked in music composition for commercials and a couple of video game titles when she got a call from Victor Entertainment to do the music for an upcoming project they were readying: the anime adaptation of the shojo manga "Please, save my earth". The music was mostly credited to another composer and arranger, Hajime Mizoguchi. This man would become Kanno's long time collaborator and eventually her husband as well (awwww... :-P). On a side note, the soundtrack to PSME would also feature the vocals of no other than Miss Akino Arai herself.

The OVA series (Original Video Animation; that is, animation released straight on video) of "Please, save my earth" would make Kanno famous among animation fans in Japan, but her international consecration would come after being commissioned to compose the music for another celebrated OVA series: Macross Plus, in 1994. Since then, she has been a regular staff member of some of the greatest oeuvres in animation, either on TV or on the big screen. The list of projects she composed the sountrack for includes Cowboy Bebop, Brain Powerd, Wolf's Rain, Earth Girl Arjuna, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, and The Vision of Escaflowne, among many others.

Precisely, today I'm posting the OST (original soundtrack) to the Escaflowne movie in which she collaborated once again with Mizoguchi. The movie was released in 2000, in the aftermath of the phenomenal success of the TV series of "Escaflowne". The motion picture offered a whole reinterpretation of the story seen on TV. Do yourselves a favour and if you haven't checked this series or the movie out, do it now ! It's from 1996, but it's still looking fresh... the true blueprint of a classic. Take a look at this special trailer released to promote the movie for Western audiences, featuring one of the main pieces of music of the soundtrack. The video is courtesy of solidsnake1mgs @ YouTube. It's in Japanese, but you get to appreciate the quality of the animation and of the score:

The Warsaw Philarmonic Orchestra and Chorus did a magnificent job performing Kanno's & Mizoguchi's compositions. As it was the case for the TV series, in the movie we still have plenty of camera music, but there is also pastoral, and some of those "weird" tracks Kanno is famous for, in which she combines percussion, samples of voices, made-up languages, etc. Kanno has been known for her experimentation in music and for her mastery of diverse music genres that she uses interchangeably for setting the right mood or ambiance on the scene.

In this soundtrack in particular, tracks 3, 7, 8, 11, 12, 17, 20, and 22 were composed and arranged by Hajime Mizoguchi; the rest are Kanno's. The file below includes ED song "Yubiwa" (Ring) as track 1, performed by Maaya Sakamoto. The English version of that song is plainly horrible, so skip that track ! (#25). Hidden track # 26 is another nice Sakamoto song, also included in her album "Hotchpotch", which I hope to post someday in the future.

Here's the soundtrack for you all; enjoy it and let me know your thoughts on it:

A dosis of Spitz for everybody !

Hi everybody ! Today I thought about introducing you to rock quartet "Spitz", one of my favorite Jrock bands. They have been around since 1987 but debuted officially only in 1991 with their self-titled album. They would achieve massive popularity four years later, with the release of the album I'm uploading for you this time around: "Hachimitsu" ("Honey").

This CD is one of their best, in my opinion. It's their 6th album and it included their 11th & 12th Singles: "Robinson" (considered their breakthrough hit) and "Namida ga kirari", respectively.

The album was released on September 2oth 1995 and sported a very easy-going rock sound in songs like the title track, "Ai no Kotoba" or "Robinson". Their melodies are infectious and, well, I have to admit that "Y" is one of my favorite ballads ever. As a first taste of their music, here you have the clip to the opening song of the album, also entitled "Hachimitsu", courtesy of Azil14 @ YouTube:

The group is composed of Masamune Kusano on vocals & guitar, Tetsuya Miwa on guitar, Tatsuo Sakiyama on drums & Akihiro Tamura on bass. I'm a big fan of Kusano-sama's vocals; his voice is very expressive and has some range ! ^_^

Their songs have been featured in Japanese TV shows, though up to recently not in animation at all. That was until the release last year of the anime series "Hachimitsu to Kuroubaa" ("Honey & Clover"). This show -which had a run of 26 episodes in Fuji TV from April 14th 2005 to September 26th- had several Spitz tracks as Insert Songs. An "Insert Song" (IS) is a song featured as background music during a certain scene, but that it is neither the OP nor the ED of the show itself. In the case of Honey & Clover, two tracks from the album that I'm presenting to you today were chosen: "Hachimitsu" in episode 1, & "Y" in episode 14. The latter track is one of my favorite ballads ever. Here you have the clip of the series featuring that song, courtesy of shadow03422 @ YouTube:

Try to check out the anime; it has received rave reviews from the public and I personally think it's one of the best for the season 2005.

And here's the album. Let me hear your thoughts on it: