It goes without saying that this is the silly season for me. While I would like to drop reams upon reams of knowledge on the ins and outs of Ms. Mio Takaki and her New-Tant, unfortunately, I have less time than normal to do so but I’ll do my best. As for those who appreciate brevity, you’ll love this one.
Mio Takaki’s musical career, for all intents and purposes, served as a side project for her more prolific and noted acting career. In her haunts of Sapporo and Yokohama, Mio would grow up performing in stage plays until one day what she thought was a career headed towards the management side of the entertainment industry, on a blind audition, turned into one in front of the screen. From then on her film debut on 1981’s Mōningu Mūn wa Sozatsu ni afforded her various roles in TV dramas (which would be what she’d become most known for). Her debut also afforded her a biforking way to pursue her other passion: music.
As a singer she’d debut in that very same debut movie with a single “Dansu wa Umaku Odorenai” that became its theme. An album, Nada, would shortly be conceived in 1982. Although, showing a heavy visual hand by her management who wanted to push her as this Jane Birkin-esque Japanese idol (with equally provocative photospreads), Mio understood the power of her own voice. Taking full advantage of her smooth, quite sophisticated voice, she decided to pursue music that had deeper roots in the island music of her birthplace in Japan and the influence on it by the cultural feelings of the Pacific Islands and the Caribbean, working with musicians like Jake Concepcion, Chito Kawachi, and Hidetoshi Yamada (to name a few).
Just a year later later Chito would take the reins helping her helm 1983’s 不失花 (Immortal Flower) a furthering of her early tropical pop with new dashes of funk, enka, and folk music. Then later on that same year, Mio would take a left turn, enlisting the help of Hiroshi Watanabe, Akira Inoue, Pecker and a who’s who of Japanese jazz funk (like Tsuyoshi Kon, Shigeru Suzuki, and Hideo Yamaki) to create her turn towards the electronic side of Japanese pop music.
New-Tant must have been a shock to her fanbase. By then Mio was known, and played up by her management, as this “coquettish” madonna, some kind of sexy provocateur behind a long set of locks. Just a few short months later, Mio trimmed her hair, and was absorbing and projecting some kind of androgyny, some kind of ambiguity in her image. Mio’s and Pecker’s fascinating reimaging of the Kai Band’s “射程距離” (Shatei Kyori) as a sophisticated tropical soul ballad was something else. To stick it on the B-side of her biggest hit yet, the admittedly more lightweight “ハート – 降っても晴れても -”, proved there was something far more going on in her musical side that had to come out.
The title track that kick starts the whole thing, “新女類 (New-Tant)”, lays down the groundwork. Mixing post-disco with mutant funk and little ambient dips, it’s as interesting musically as decidedly different than anything Mio had done before. “Diamond Girl”, a roaring rock track leads to the Inoue-arranged “ハート (降っても晴れても)” a song that recalls those early ‘70s easy listening vocal groups. Then as soon you think this album is going down a bad rabbit hole, “ 傷付いた小鳥 (The Little Bird)” rights its course taking us back to that land that works surprisingly well for Mio, that of dancehall lovers rock torch singer. The A-side ends on another high note, a gorgeous number “流星群” that recalls the spirited, emotional Walearic work of Tabo’s project — it rocks but it also hits on a nice spacey vibe that’s a bit forward-thinking.
When you venture to the flip side you get cheerful covers that I can’t quite place like “Only You” with (once again) a deep tropical vibe perfect for all your thirsty City Pop playlist needs. However, the far more interesting tracks are the ones that follow.
From the imaginative electro-lovers rock rework “射程距離” featuring the surprisingly tasteful call and response by Mio and Tsuyoshi Kon, that Akira can’t help but join in that segues into another heavy jazz-funk power ballad called “October Moon” featuring a glorious bridge one must listen to. Pecker once again does his best to let his percussion do the talking by injecting tracks like “乱れ髪” with his imaginative floating carnival sound serving as this see-saw where Mio’s vocals can push-pull the track to her will. If anyone’s heard Yumi Seino’s work (Mio’s closest musical spiritual sister) with Masanori “Hot Taste Jam” Sanoji, you can sort of tell what kind of vibe they all fell under. This wasn’t your grandparent’s enka filtered through the latest doodads, it was a furthering of a tradition for a new generation unafraid to experiment with the past.
The final track “聖母になれない” ends the album in full flight, Mio carving out peaks and valleys of musical drama befitting a heart wrenching movie with various twist and turns, ending on a lovely “Hollywood” resolution. Although Mio would have success with this album, and release one more three years later, she’d shortly refocus her sights on her acting and modeling career before finally letting go this side of her. One does wonder, as one is always wont to do, where else she could have gone if she didn’t have to go that way. I guess there’s only so much potential one can tap into.