2 posts tagged “electronica”

On my second trip to Japan, I stumbled across this fantastic singer Bird [her site | my fan page]. Primarily known as a soul/R'n'B singer, she also belts out songs dipped in many flavors - bossa nova, salsa, electronica, folk, jazz. For the first part of her career, she was under the wing of super-producer Osawa Shinichi. But from what I understand, he parted ways with Bird after three popular albums. But showing gumption, Bird - still with Sony - stood up on her own, putting together a stripped down, organic album called "Double Chance." After that came a return to high production with "Vacation" and her latest "Breathe" (2006), which - from the clips on her website - is electronica-fueled dance pop.

These two songs are from her eponymous debut album, both ballads. They are more J-R'n'B than J-electronica. But the beats are chunky and the melodies strong.

This is indeed the best part of waking up. Dusty Springfield’s “Just a Little Lovin’” was written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, and it’s basically an open call to have sex in the morning.

Now if that’s not a platform on which to win the presidency, then I don’t know what is.

Just a little lovin’
Early in the mornin’
Beats a cup of coffee
For starting off the day

Just a little lovin’
When the world is yawnin’
Makes you wake up feeling
Good things are coming your way

I wish I had a copy of it for I’d post it here.

Instead I have a cover of it by the Fantastic Plastic Machine, the playground for DJ Tomoyuki Tanaka. He drops most of the original lyrics, adds some others and includes an intro of radio-dial nonsense, which means we have to work up our excitement about this version for other reasons (like the beat).

Tanaka, from older pictures, looked more like a preppy comedic actor than an innovative producer. But here, he’s looking tight.

By the way, lovin’ is one of my favorite words that I don’t use all that often. It’s a fairly innocuous word. But once you add a slight Elvis (or would that be Elvisian?) twang to it, people know exactly what you’re talking about.