BLU-SWING "FLASH"
Interview & Text by: Hideo Miyamoto
In this dazzling season, spirited new jazz band creates a new path to brilliant pops - a flash of light brighter than ever shines the way of the five!
BLU-SWING has been keeping the band activity at their own usual pace since their major label debut in 2008, when a kind of a mild boom of domestically produced house and club jazz was on. Therefore, they are not at all swayed by the trend of the times. Instead, the polished and well-produced "TRANSIT" in 2013, billed as the first album in the 'trilogy,' as well as those released thereafter can be seen as a result of the prolific band's having learned how to select the best card for the trend of the times. Their keen sense of trends successfully sheds light on an aspect of the times in this new album "FLASH," which has been released about a year after the release of "ARRIVAL" last year. With that said, they are arguably in perfect condition.
The 5 members are Yusuke Nakamura (Keyboards/Programming), Shinji Hasuike (Bass), YU-RI (Vocals), Show Kojima (Guitar) and Tomoaki "Bhutan" Miyamoto (Drums). While continuing the band activities, each member is also engaged in other musical activities. In particular, widespread activities of Nakamura as a composer and a producer undoubtedly have played an important role in making BLU-SWING's presence widely felt. Not only he is famous for his electronic music-tinged solo album released from the Italian IRMA Records and producing dancefloor-friendly songs as a member of the Japanese 3-piece unit Tres-men, but he is also probably well known for having composed dance tracks, as a remixer of the production duo with TJO, for Kumi Koda (Japanese pop singer), CREAM (Japanese hip hop group), Angela Johnson , Earth, Wind & Fire, GACKT (Japanese musician, singer, songwriter and actor), Tokyo Girls' Style (Japanese idol girl group) and others.
Although this album "FLASH" welcomes the horn section that has made a guest appearance on albums by Brand New Heavies and others, including "Michite Iku Taion," a number of songs YU-RI sings in Japanese form the core of the album. Its catchy feel coupled with an acid jazz approach successfully made it more listener-friendly than ever before. As a result, compared to their recent albums that are easily described as city pop, this album has an atmosphere that one would want to call J-Pop, directly delivering excellent songs. With the release of this third album of the 'trilogy' starting with the above-mentioned "TRANSIT," they have completed their transit, haven't they? Looking forward to seeing how BLU-SWING steers on a new course.
