Macross 82-99 released Sailorwave II back in 2018 as a EP after the successful release of the album Sailorwave back in 2013.
Aogashima Island! is one of those songs that has always been in my playlists but never really took a liking to. But recently, something about the song changed my perpective on it and now I have fallen in love with it.
So what is Aogashima Island? It is a volcanic island that is nearly 400km (~250 miles) from Tokyo. As of 2014, there are less than 200 people living on the island.
This is the last track on their 2017 album, Idols, Sakura which is probably one of my favourite Future Funk albums of all time. All songs are great on the album, but it ends with a brilliant track that makes you want to replay it again and again.
Horsey features the vocals of Sarah Bonito. If that name seems a bit familiar with you, Sarah would be one of the members of Kero Kero Bonito. In fact, I have actually highlighted her most famous song Flamingo in Edition #56
If you don’t know that song but recognise the name still, she would have sang the theme tune for the Playstation 5 launch title, Bugsnax!
Horsey is a great beat and Sarah’s vocals accompany the track very very well. It has a great summer vibe and well deserves its spot on the album.
As with most Future Funk songs, the main melody of the song is sampled from T-Square’s Circuit Wanderer which was released in 1991 and was part of the “F-1 Grand Prix World” album a year later. From what I can tell, the album has no affiliation with the FIA Formula 1 World Championship but it would be pretty cool if it was.
English Lyrics:
Waking up early, throwing on clothes Catching the same bus Staring at the scenery outside Driving past these concrete things This used to be a jungle, I think and It’s crazy! Humanity is amazing A certain thought with meaning in My daydream
Just remembered it’s 2014 Do you know what that really means? Looking forward to this with joy It’s the year of the horse that’s running freely It’s actually the year of the sheep but it’s it better if that’s a secret. Aren’t I strange? But I can’t get these images out of my head
I saw a bit of it on T.V. Hair swaying in wind Running freely these beautiful horses All together in a field no ending That summer breeze Unforgettable Let me run with you Let me run with you I’m already running at the same time Oh hell yeah I have a really good feeling
We’re not going anywhere and tomorrow isn’t waiting for us This life is boring
Yeah so come run with me Let’s be free Don’t look back cause we are not coming back No ones gonna ever catch me and ride me Ride me
Yeah so come run with me Let’s be free Don’t look back cause we are not coming back No ones gonna ever catch me and ride me Ride me I’m that horse that I saw on TV
In my previous post, I wrote about listening to a new genre of music, Future Funk for the last couple of years. There has been a sub-genre of Future Funk though which has had a resurgence in the last 10 years, known as City pop.
City pop is a loosely defined subset of pop music that originated in Japan in the late 1970s. … Since the 2010s, city pop has gained an international online following as well as becoming a touchstone for the sample-based microgenres known as vaporwave and future funk.Wikipedia
One of the more popular songs that define the genre is Mariya Takeuchi’s – Plastic Love.
Mariya is a Japanese singer and songwriter who has been performing since 1978. Her latest studio album, Trad, was released in 2014 reaching Number 1 on the Japanese Music Charts.
The 65-year-old recently re-released one of her singles, Inochi No Uta (Song of Life) with a DVD of her live performance of the song.
Plastic Love was originally released back in 1984 and was on her 6th album, VARIETY.
Mariya Takeuchi – Plastic Love
The song became popular in the West in 2017 when a user on YouTube uploaded the song (See above) and became a frequent recommendation for viewers on the platform.
Today, the song has amassed a whopping 31 Million views and is flying the flag as being the ‘mascot’ for Future Funk.
I cannot count how many times I have listened to this song. I only wished that Last.FM had some sort of integration with YouTube to find out that statistic.
More recently, I have come across some remixes of the song on SoundCloud and then discovered a load more on YouTube which brings me to the point of this post.
Rick Astley – Never Gonna Give You Up
3 years after the release of Plastic Love, Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up was released.
A song that has become a staple ‘meme’ within the Internet landscape since the late 2000s, which has also held up very well 33 years after its release with an eye-popping 693 Million views on YouTube.
Rick Takeuchi – Never Gonna Give You Plastic Love
YouTube user, Gemosu, released a video back in August of 2018, mashing the two songs together to give this 80’s lovers treat.
An opposite version of the song was created by Gemosu in May of 2019 titled: Mariya Astley – Plastic You Up
2 absolutely stunning mashups of 2 brilliant songs from yesteryear.
This was the beginning of a new series of ‘The JukeBox’. No ‘editions’ or ‘series’ numbers this time, just posting about music. It’s time for a change in the format and I feel that writing about the songs, rather than just posting lyrics is more enjoyable. Expect more in the future.
This post was initially published on May 22nd 2022 and was last updated on the 6th November 2022.
A genre that I have been listening to a lot in the last couple of years has been “Future Funk”… ahem, I mean “Future Funk 因為ヾ”
A genre born from the illustrious vaporwave sub-genre which was brought to popularity in the early parts of 2010’s with its sampling of music from the ’70s and ’80s English & Japanese pop and disco songs and the incorporation of synth-wave and other sub-genres of vaporwave and citypop.