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City Pop: The Late 70s-80s Funky-Smooth Japanese Music Phenomenon
- Thread starter HotHamBoy
- Start date
jongkookie
Member
Holy shit this thread is awesome, I've been on a Yung Bae, Macross 82-99, and Waterfront Dining binge the last few weeks lol.
Love music like this!
Are there any playlists for Apple Music?
And to whoever liked the stuff from Casiopea, go check out T-Square(aka the dudes who wrote most if not all the original jazz in Gran Turismo), Issei Noro Inspirits, and Trix. I'd also throw out Kaori Kobayashi(one of the best female sax players today imo) but she's more of a traditional jazz musician than jazz fusion like those guys above.
Now the question is, should I risk it and open this thread while I'm at work tomorrow? Lol.
Love music like this!
Are there any playlists for Apple Music?
And to whoever liked the stuff from Casiopea, go check out T-Square(aka the dudes who wrote most if not all the original jazz in Gran Turismo), Issei Noro Inspirits, and Trix. I'd also throw out Kaori Kobayashi(one of the best female sax players today imo) but she's more of a traditional jazz musician than jazz fusion like those guys above.
Now the question is, should I risk it and open this thread while I'm at work tomorrow? Lol.
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
The funkiest Wukongs, for sure. I'll never forget the lyrics and crazy synth work in this one.
I'd argue T-Square (formerly The Square) is closer to instrumental kayokyoku (City Pop) fusion than Casiopea, and they're somehow more underrated on GAF despite their co-leader Masahiro Ando writing original music for Gran Turismo games. Definitely take a listen to some of their early stuff for City Pop vibes, like Make Me a Star and Rainbow. Japanese pop fusion like this and Toshiki Kadomatsu is quite something to get into.
Pretty sure Kazunori Yamauchi is a T-Square otaku since he contracted Satoshi Bandoh (one of the band's recent drummers) to do some GT tracks.
Her '80s work is also really good, with more genre variance and plenty of vocal expression. Sadly there's a lot of Japanese pop media which could really benefit from huskier singers like her and MIQ, rather than squeaky clean voices even when they don't fit.
City Pop shouldn't have been lost in translation to begin with. I guess the similarities between '70s/80s kayokyoku and its influences from overseas made all these artists seem more like copycats than something worth spreading and talking about. Thankfully we've crossed a threshold and plenty more people are talking about this style.
Holy shit, another T-Square fan ninja'd me! Thank you. I like Kobayashi a lot too, though she and Masato Honda get a bit too sickly sweet on their jazz fusion albums.
That whole album is amazing, I really like the first track as well, perfect 80's J-pop confection, makes me so upset I was too young to ever experience a Tokyo sunset in mid-80's Japan.
https://youtu.be/q8K0zJ5x_GE
Also can't recommend Taeko Ohnuki's Sunshower enough, her voice is sweet, with an underlying sense of melancholy and sadness to every line that makes it stand out from the pack.
https://youtu.be/98fqXx-KFgI
The connecting DNA is T-Square's soundtrack for Fuji TV's F-1 Racing broadcasts from the late 80's / early 90's:
https://youtu.be/ZAHLRVTWoRU
TBH I'm a bigger fan of the instrumental fusion jazz stuff like T-Square and Casiopea than of City Pop, but I love all of it. I bought a crap ton of Casiopea and T-Square CD's when I was in Tokyo in March, less worried about them getting damaged in transportation than vinyls.
admiraltaftbar
Member
As someone who somewhere tries to follow reissue of older Japanese music do you know where information on these reissues (when they are coming mostly) are?
jongkookie
Member
Lol.
Does this sound familiar to you and to any other Gran Turismo fans out there?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl3fvvZ3YhY
Yes, this is the original version of Moon Over The Castle called Knight's Song before it got remade for GT and renamed MOTC.
ShineALight
Member
Yeah, they're all great and can't reccoms them enough to anyone enjoying the classic stuff in this thread.
lol.
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
Japanese jazz fusion will always fly under the radar, as City Pop's resurgence in our part of the Web shows. But at least T-Square's doing well into old age and ex-Casiopea members (especially Akira Jimbo) have it made. I also really like Soil & Pimp Sessions, though they lean more towards a frenzied contemporary jazz than fusion.
Discogs is really the best you can use outside of tracking down Japanese fansites.
admiraltaftbar
Member
Yeah that's been my approach along with checking hmv occasionally for upcoming releases. From the post I was replying to, it just sounded like there might be some us/Europe labels getting the licenses to reissue some of these albums (similar to George Clanton reissuing Software's Digital-Dance album, WRWTFWW Midori Takada releases, or Light in the Attic slow stream of various Japanese albums).
How about some Bay City?
This is a dangerous rabbit hole that I fall into every once in a while. My Soundcloud still hasn't recovered.
This is a dangerous rabbit hole that I fall into every once in a while. My Soundcloud still hasn't recovered.
I'll proxy you original cd presses found at bookoff for extremely high proxy fees
These songs seem to be from an OutRun game that doesn't exist.
Tashiki Kadomatsu -Midsummer Drivin'
Tashiki Kadomatsu - Sea Line
Like, god damn perfect.
Tashiki Kadomatsu -Midsummer Drivin'
Tashiki Kadomatsu - Sea Line
Like, god damn perfect.
zeioIIDX
Member
Wow. This shit is right up my alley. Thank you for this thread OP!
Edit: Okay, so I'm not getting any sleep tonight it seems. So much new music for me to discover (o_0)
nobody has mentioned the Tatsuro Yamashita's OST to Big Wave, it's worth a listen to hear a mirror world of English vocals to city pop
future funk is roughly city pop made with city pop, etc samples
the sega sound devs were heavily inspired by the genre
Yeah, it's really clear. Like my post up above suggests, Hiroshi Kawaguchi must have had that shit on loop.
But even as recent as Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast you have tracks like this:
Station Square
That sounds a hell of a lot like those two tracks I just posted above:
HotHamBoy said:
Station square seems more of a variant/style that uses midi instruments a whole lot. style adjacent?
zeioIIDX
Member
I said DAMN. Tried to stop my body from bouncing to the beat. Mission failed. This is just too nasty.
It's more jazz fusion than City Pop but the midi is probably just cause they didn't use live instruments. Probably more of a technical choice than an aesthetic one.
Jun Senoue - Windy and Ripply (Emerald Coast) Sonic Adventure again
as far as contemporary artists with this style, this probably veers a little more vaporwave than city pop (and her other stuff is definitely more reggae inspired), but I was surprised just how strong Natsu Summer's "Hello Future Day" is
Cosmic Bus
pristine morning snow
I generally hear about them through other boards, also just on Discogs when I'm looking for deals, heh. Euro and Japanese labels have been reissuing assorted things over the last few years (Hosono, Sato, the CBS/Sony series, etc), Light In the Attic and Forced Exposure are helping distribute some things in the US although some of these are more on the avant garde end of things (but no less important and often even harder to track down)
City pop is cool as hell, learned about it on /mu/ just a couple months ago
Tatsuro Yamashita was king of the scene and his music brings to mind some 90s anime too slick and too dreamy to ever actually exist
Tatsuro Yamashita was king of the scene and his music brings to mind some 90s anime too slick and too dreamy to ever actually exist
Muppet of a Man
Member
This stuff is crying out to be played in supermarkets and elevators. Would bring back memories of my childhood.
I got your back fam
Taeko Ohnuki - 4:00 AM [1978]
Another great track;
Kimiko Kasai - The Right Place
thanks for the great thread, OP
here's a bandcamp artist that works with a lot of city pop: https://nighttempo.bandcamp.com/
here's a bandcamp artist that works with a lot of city pop: https://nighttempo.bandcamp.com/
PartTimeWarrior
Banned
Yung Bae and Macross were that dudes. Check out Architecture in Tokyo if you feel those
Right? I'm listening to a track or two of this stuff on YT already, and I'm like "Damn, Loose Ends would've killed on this beat."
Can't forget about Dress Down
So many names and albums to look up. 😧 Gotta scratch that itch.
So many names and albums to look up. 😧 Gotta scratch that itch.
admiraltaftbar
Member
Cool thanks, I wasn't sure if there was a new label that had somehow got the rights to a bunch of city pop or something. Light in The Attic's output had been killer this year and they seem to be looking to push even harder into releasing great Japanese music, which is pretty exciting because their other releases of rare foreign and Native American music have all been great.
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
This really is a /mu/ pet genre. I first learned about City Pop when I stumbled on Sugar Babe's album SONGS, which helped pioneer the style and led to solo success for Yamashita and Taeko Ohnuki. And it struck me just how much influence this style of kayokyoku had on video game musicians in the '80s.
One artist to really look out for, if you want the alternative side of this musical period, is Akiko Yano. She ranged between art-rock (Japanese Girl), low-key singer-songwriter/City Pop (Dinner's Ready), synth-pop (Tadaima), '80s new wave (Home on the Mountain Pass), and other cool stuff. She's one of the best singers I can think of and invested a lot in great arrangement/production.
PK Strawstorm
Member
Been cruising around to the Kiyotaka Sugiyama albums in my Miata all summer. It's like I am living Outrun, minus the blonde and the running into signs and flipping over.
chronos4590
Member
This is awesome. Subbed!
TickleMeElbow
Member
Merry-Go-Round by Tatsuro Yamashita was always a fav of mine.
Most Japanese people haven't either....which is kinda laughable.
CopperPuppy
Member
Subbed for later.
FuuPhoenix
Neo Member
Haha, I wanted to say this. Slow it down, repeat the beat, add some aesthetic nonsensical Kanji/Katakana to the artwork/video, done.
It's a pretty cool subgenre actually, gives you a good feel of life in those days
.Brian_FETO
Banned
As someone who lives for SEGA music and the Yu Yu Hakusho opening, this thread is greatly appreciated. Cheers
ran into this song on a whim yesterday, i guess this stuff really is seeing a resurgence out of nowhere