Day 388: Masayoshi Takanaka – Seychelles
Japanese City Pop has been on my list of things to explore for a long time now, so it’s finally time to delve into it. And today’s artist is especially interesting because of how he rose to fame again in the 2010s – Masayoshi Takanaka was big in the ‘70s and ‘80s, but he got a host of new fans in the mid-2010s when the YouTube algorithm started pushing his stuff to a new fanbase.
Album cover courtesy of Kitty Records
Masayoshi Takanaka is a Japanese guitarist, composer and producer who started off playing in various bands, including a band called Escape that played on U.S. military bases in Japan. He got his first big professional break while he was still in high school, as he went to see the rock band Apryl Fool and they asked if anyone in the crowd could play guitar. Takanaka got on stage, still in his school uniform, and filled in for the guitarist.
From there, he joined a prog band called Flied Egg, then a rock band called Sadistic Mika Egg, which was the first Japanese band to tour the UK. However, his most iconic work was the work he released as a solo artist. He released his debut solo album Seychelles at only 23 years old in 1976. It’s an inventive and relaxing fusion album that combines pop, rock, jazz, soul and funk, and it landed him at number 11 on the US Top Contemporary Jazz Albums chart.
Seychelles is an album of happy, warm and hopeful music that, true to its name, does make me want to sit on a beach somewhere warm and beautiful. A tropical holiday might be off the cards for me at the moment, but this album is sunny enough that I’m sure even an autumnal evening somewhere along the Scottish coast would feel toasty. I think it’s a travel album, it just transports you somewhere into a completely different world, and I’d like to spend as much time in this world as possible.
I always talk about how a big part of this project is finding new things that make me happy, and this makes me very happy. The best way I can describe this is that Masayoshi Takanaka makes me feel like I’m in a cartoon and I’m floating because I’ve just smelled a pie on someone’s windowsill. I don’t think I could ever have a bad day hearing this, the vibes on this album are just so immaculate. Apparently there’s been a boom in Japanese City Pop from the ‘70s and ‘80s when they were experiencing a huge economic boom, because it’s happy music from a hopeful time. I’m sure we could all use a bit of that today.
It’s another huge win for this project, Masayoshi Takanaka is getting a place in my ever-expanding list of musical tools in my wellness arsenal. During the first four or so songs I thought we were on a way to a 10/10, but I think it takes a bit of a dip in the middle – it’s not a 10 throughout, but it’s still a fantastic album. I’m giving it a 9/10. I’ll whack this on when I need to feel a bit of hope as my antidote to modern times.