Next, in my continuing series of the redemptive power of house music, I take a look at EPO’s Fire & Snow. I’m half-joking, of course. However, EPO’s Fire & Snow is one of those hidden full album burners that sounds like an anomaly in someone’s discography but has that sound made for them. We had a listen to Noriko and Ivan’s get there before. Let’s see what we can discover about Eiko Sato.
Understandably, some names that sound like small fries in our neck of the woods are huge things elsewhere. Tokyo’s Eiko Sato, justly, is one of Japan’s iconic ‘80s pop idols. From her debut, 1980’s Down Town featuring one of City Pop’s canon songs (its titular track), to her last release 2012’s 愛を 〜Love Is On〜, Eiko has parlayed her well-deserved fame into other fields like modeling, acting and now (apparently) as a licensed music therapist. Far be it from me to even begin to compete drilling down the history of someone who actually has a huge ongoing fan club zine. If you’re a fan of her earlier chromed-out funk albums from her most known period, Fire & Snow should be a revelation.
Let me zero in on this album and this time period, then. Recorded in 1990, far from Japanese shores, it was her first and only stab at expanding outside the Japanese market. Signed to Richard Branson’s Virgin Records, EPO tried to move beyond the ‘80s sound she was most known for and tried to tap into the zeitgeist of England’s burgeoning club music. 1989’s Supernatural was her first attempt to take inspiration from American urban dance music but it seemed (at least to my ears) uneven. She obviously had the vocal range of one of her idols, Minnie Ripperton, but the music had gotten a bit staid not matching her earlier ambition.
Working with London-based producers Steve Lovell and Steve Power (truth be told, two untried “house” producers who were of England’s baggier scene), EPO, thankfully came on with plenty of self-penned music that spoke of a more mature sound she was after and found ways to marry them with their musical aesthetics. A decidedly bilingual affair, half of Fire & Snow was recorded in Japanese and then sung again in English for its “international” release, a genius mid tempo cover of Prince’s even more languid “When 2 R In Love” was sent to UK radio and no one in her record label knew how to capitalize on the should-have-been chillroom-canon “Ambient Love House Mix” of this single. Sadly, nothing would come of EPO’s career outside of Japan and Eiko would largely abandon this style soon after.
As for me, I’m really struck by the sophisticated musicality of all the ideas brought to the table. You know, there was a time that Mariah Carey was actually quite worthy of your time to listen to. Hell, Janet “call me nasty if you ‘wanna” Jackson had some of the most golden of R&B cuts around this time mining this similar nouveau New Jack Swing cum house-like music. As mass culture moves its focus to ‘80s Japan it’s important to remember those brilliant bits of soul music just a tad after.
When I throw back that way, I now have alluring mid tempo burners from EPO like “Love Is A River” or “You’re The Only One” that just put me in that kind of rarefied territory (EG & Alice took their own stab at it, if you remember…). If you look past some of the very small bits of adult contemporary on Fire & Snow — hey, it was ’90s man (Hammer Time!, never forget)– you get tracks like “Over” and “Love Lost Forever” that point to interesting tangents within the actual underground Japanese IDM of that time. And if you know me, the more covers of Carly Simon’s “Why” I can hear the better — and there’s a brilliant one here letting Eiko stretch her pipes.
Hopefully, someday someone else we’ll share the full story behind this album as even Eiko rarely spoke about it anywhere. As for now, with the sun taking its longer stride around, and for the lucky of us enjoying a stroll around, I think it’s entirely appropriate to let loose (just a bit) and enjoy something more immediate like Fire & Snow.