Thru Traffic by Narumi & Etsu -1982 | ALBUM REVIEW

THE HISTORY

The story of this album begins with Tohoku Shinkansen, no not the train line, but rather a singer-songwriter duo consisting of the late Hiroshi Narumi (鳴海寛), and Etsuko Yamakawa (山川恵津子), who also go by Narumi & Etsu. Both of these artists had roots in classical music, but where Yamakawa would begins to draw influence from Group Sounds and wester pop from the 60s, Narumi would venture into the realms of soft rock, R&B, and bossa nova.

Their paths would officially cross at Yamaha Music Foundation which was behind the Popular Song Contest (PopCon). As a young college student, Yamakawa would work part-time at the Yamaha Music Foundation as an office assistant. While there she got to know the staff in the Creative Works "R&D" department, where she met famous composers & arrangers like Mitsuo Hagita, Motoki Funayama, and Osamu Totsuka. While she did her routine duties, she would secretly take a look at the scores that they had created, take notes on some of their techniques and methods.

Before long, Yamakawa was able to work with “Cocky Pop”, a popular radio program sponsored by Yamaha, where she first encountered Hiroshi Narumi. Narumi was still a high school student at the time, but due to his innate talent, he was recognized and his compositions were used as television themes. Copies of his demo tapes eventually made their way to Yamakawa, and she was immediately impressed with his skill as a composer at such young age. Narumi & Etsu would later join the backing band for the female singer-songwriter, Hiroko Taniyama, Etsu as a keyboardist, and Narumi playing the guitar. Narumi's guitar skills would be noticed by his senpai, Makoto Matsushita, and work under him on his 1979 album, Summertime Love Songs.

Soon after, positions opened up in singer-songwriter Junko Yagami’s backing band, The Melting Pot. Narumi & Etsu joined and helped out as both studio musicians, and as stage arrangers for the band. A Yamaha director who had been paying close attention to their work suggested that perhaps the both of them could form their own music unit. Thus began the official duo of Tohoku Shinkansen. While both would handle arrangements and chorus work, Hiroshi Narumi handled the guitar playing on his Gibson Byrdland, Yamakawa was in charge of the arrangement of all of the keyboards along with strings and horns. Other notable musicians on the album included popular anime composer Kentaro Haneda on piano, renowned bassists Tsugutoshi Goto and Kenji Takamizu, drummer Hideo Yamaki from the jazz band Toshinori Kondo & IMA, percussionist Motoya Hamaguchi, and of course, saxophonist Jake H. Concepcion. Junko Yagami herself also joined in the backing vocals, along with British singer-songwriter, Rupert Holmes, and American singer Christine Faith. Singer-songwriter Yasuhiro Abe also provides a song for the album, September Valentine, which he originally wrote for folk artist Yukio Sasaki (佐々木幸男).

While recording the album went comparatively well, the overall production was faced difficulties with alternating staff, disagreements contracts between the duo and the Yamaha Studio, and lack of promotion. Even the odd name of Tohoku Shinkansen came about from the fact that the project's own setbacks mirrored the real-life express trains' own troubled construction. The album eventually released on June 25th, 1982. While it did not sell well and the production disagreements would hurt their relationship with Yamaha, it served as a vital launching point in their careers. A fellow AOR artist, Tatsuro Yamashita, had just released his own seminal album, For You, that same year. When he heard Thru Traffic, he immediately invited Narumi & Etsu to join him as backing vocalists for his live tour.

Narumi also joined Takao Kisugi’s band and would become a producer for artists like Cindy and Kyosuke Kusunoki. His fame grew exponentially later that decade when he participated in Yamashita’s JOY Live Concert in 1989. Harumi's performance on the song “Soubou”, is most notable with his soulful guitar playing. Later on, in 1994, he would put out three more albums with the band Frasco. Meanwhile, Yamakawa also distinguished herself as an arranger and composer, handling a wide area of genres from Jazz Fusion, to AOR, to idol music. In 1986, she would win an award in arrangement for a Kyoko Koizumi song at the Japan Record Awards.

THE MUSIC

• Summer Touches You: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• The album wastes no time and starts off with a smooth summer grove with a Bobby Caldwell rhythm and awesome vocal harmonization done by Hiroshi Narumi.
• Up And Down: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• A smooth jazz number perfect for when you're stuck in traffic, featuring Etsuko's angelic singing, a hypnotizing flute, tight horns, and a groovy guitar solo accompanied by a beautiful string arrangement. The song sneaks a very surprising, split-second cutaway from the music as Narumi & Etsu silently whisper, "up & down" in your ear. 
• 心のままに (Kokoro no mama ni/ As You Please) :⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Narumi channels his inner Christopher Cross, to provide a relaxing yacht rock melody accompanied by yet another great string arrangement, some acoustic guitar, and mesmerizing vocal harmonies. 
• Strange Wine: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• A Gino Vanelli-style soft rock ballad about lost love. The song starts off as a soft, sensual ballad where Narumi croons about reminiscing over his ex while getting tipsy, then the instrumentation swells up until finally, he's wailing sorrowfully, as if pleading for forgiveness, over an electric guitar solo.
• September Valentine: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• A jazz lounge ballad of the Frank Sinatra persuasion, featuring beautiful piano playing, a relaxing bassline, and an angelic, Manhattan Transfer style vocal chorus. 
• 月に寄りそって (Tsuki ni Yorisotte/ Leaning On The Moon): ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Narumi & Etsu exchange verses in this romantic R&B duet.  
• Cloudy: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• A relaxing ballad is sung by Etsu with some Michael Franks style bossa nova influences sprinkled in.
• Spell: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Another Latin-jazz tune, this time as an instrumental complete with a saxophone solo, mesmerizing flutes, and a ghostly sensual background chorus. All tied together with Narumi's excellent jazzy guitar riffs. 
• Last Message: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• The album ends with Etsu's sultry voice lulling us to a 50's style love ballad.

    THE VERDICT

A few years ago I would have told you Ride On Time was my favorite City Pop album of all time. Well, let's just say that my tastes have matured since then. That's not to say it's not one of my favorites, it's still very near and dear to my heart as it has a lot of songs I grew up listening to. But now that the nostalgia glasses are off, I've since discovered other records that represent the peak of City Pop's brilliance, this is definitely one of them. Each song represents a different faction of the easy listening music scene and does so flawlessly. Blending the AOR sensibilities of Gino Vanelli, Bobby Caldwell, in songs like Strange Wine and Summer Touches You, channeling the essence of Bill Chaplinin in Leaning On The Moon, even taking a few pages out of the Great American Songbook with songs like September Valentine & Last Message.

And don't even get me started on the vocals! If you would have told me that this was a collaboration between Makoto Matsushita and Junko Yagami, I wouldn't be the wiser! Narumi & Etsu's singing was top-notch! Narumi's deep voice is just as smooth as the likes of Matsushita or Yoshino Fujimaru, but he's never afraid to hit any high notes. Etsuko Yamakawa has a voice that's so ethereal but manages to sound sultry when it needs to. Thru Traffic is the pinnacle of Japanese AOR and my personal favorite City Pop album. From the aesthetic of the cover to the variety of music styles, everything is done with extreme polish, smarm, & class. If you are a die-hard City Pop fan, then this is a must-have.