I was just pulled out of my weekend slumber by the closing story on NPR’s Weekend Edition a profile of a Japanese alternative pop singer called Ayano Tsuji, who specializes in simply presented songs featuring mostly her voice, melodies with an insistent quality, and a ukelele. The segment may have been originally produced for the NPR afternoon magazine The World, which has a more extensive page on a story about the singer by the same producer, Robert Rand. That story aired in November, though, so maybe Mr. Rand is just a fan. It does seem that I’m not alone in my interest in the material.

As I listened to the story, I became more and more interested in the woman’s music, which sounded to me very much like some of my very favorite Dale Lawrence songs, the tunes that Dale was writing just at the end of his time with the Gizmos.Certainly, at least, Tsuji’s aesthetic lines up with the simplicity of some of Dale’s songs from that era.

I am blogging this so that my memory of the songs doesn’t erode away under the winds of sleep, and so that I can unearth Tsuji’s material for a closer look.

Happily at least one song, Neko no Onagaeshi, is available in transliteration. This song appears to have been used in the anime film “The Cat Returns.” Cori Chan also has a few lyrics and a translated song or two. Here are a few more English translations.

Here’s an MP3 of Kaze Ni Naru, which may actually be “Neko no Onagaeshi”. This does apppear to be that song, which is a fully-orchestrated version. It seems that there was also an acoustic-only release which I have yet to dig up. In general, it seems that her older releases featured simpler, sparer arrangements, based on commentary by others out in the intarweb.

The artist’s extensive site at her label, Speedstar Records, includes listenable samples from a recent release, Calendar Calendar, which appears to be a concept album of sorts. Interestingly there is one track (for July, it seems) produced by James Iha, late of Smashing Pumpkins, so perhaps I’m not imagining that Midwestern thing.

The label page also links to the artist’s official site. Kawaii!

Happily, she is appears to be an active blogger, which Google semi-successfully translates.