KICA-7873: KUKEIHA CLUB pro-fusion ~TOKIMEKI MEMORIAL~

[Revoc]

If only Hirokuni Korekata is a guest, I can conclude that Kazuki Sakura, Keiichi Shiraishi, Koichi Namiki and Toshihiro Tsuchiya were Kukeiha Club members too... or not necessarily. I'm not sure abut Toshihiro Tsuchiya, for instance.

[XISMZERO]

Unlike previous Kukeiha Club pro-fusion albums, this is the only one to not include a detailed breakdown of guitar soloists and performers on each track. Here's an attempt of what I can make out.

Neighborhood Park
Performance: Motoaki Furukawa & Koichi Namiki
Solo: Motoaki Furukawa

The Ambition of Cultman
Chorus: Motoaki Furukawa & Koichi Namiki

Breathing in Synch
Solo: Koichi Namiki

Bowling
Performance: Motoaki Furukawa & Koichi Namiki

Botanical Garden
Solo: Hirokuni Korekata

More than anyone else in the world
Solo 1: Motoaki Furukawa
Solo 2: Koichi Namiki

Koto
Solo: Motoaki Furukawa

Fancy Shop
Solo 1: Motoaki Furukawa
Solo 2: Koichi Namiki
Solo 3: Hirokuni Korekata

A Slight Happiness
Performance: Motoaki Furukawa

[XISMZERO]

The arrange of "Fancy Shop" here sounds exactly like the piano solo one Sakura arranged for Piano Collection 2.

[XISMZERO]

Originally Posted by Revoc

If only Hirokuni Korekata is a guest, I can conclude that Kazuki Sakura, Keiichi Shiraishi, Koichi Namiki and Toshihiro Tsuchiya were Kukeiha Club members too... or not necessarily. I'm not sure abut Toshihiro Tsuchiya, for instance.

By this time, I estimate the decision to use "Kukeiha Club" in name was likely Furukawa's choice even if the real band had dissolved. The musicians here are session players and arrangers who were doing other or like projects at Konami during the time this was made, including some friends and Konami alum.

I'd say the most solid make-up of Kukeiha Club (jazz-fusion band) members were Motoaki Furukawa, Mami Asano and Tappy for Salamander, Twinbee and HOPE albums. Even the first Kukeiha Club album was really just a T-Square album fused with Furukawa's direction and mostly a fusion project led by Masahiro Ando and big name fusion-jazz players who've played with T-Square.

[XISMZERO]

Koichi Namiki "memo"realized his time on the album, from his Twitter post from on Mar 26, 2024:

@k_namickey
#ときメモ３０周年
というハッシュタグを見かけてふと思い出す。
矩形波倶楽部 pro-fusion 『ときめきメモリアル』
ギタリスト、と一部アレンジャーとして参加しました。
懐かしいな。本当に色々大変なレコーディングでした。

Translated from Japanese:
#ときメモ３０周年
I saw this hashtag and it suddenly reminded me.
Kukeiha Club Pro-fusion "Tokimeki Memorial"
I participated as a guitarist and part of the arranger.
It brings back memories. It was a really difficult recording session.

[GoldfishX]

Originally Posted by XISMZERO

By this time, I estimate the decision to use "Kukeiha Club" in name was likely Furukawa's choice even if the real band had dissolved. The musicians here are session players and arrangers who were doing other or like projects at Konami during the time this was made, including some friends and Konami alum.

This looks like it extends to Yurica Nagasawa, in regards to folks working on other projects. Her name is on a few Konami releases at the time (Lightning Legend, Mitsumete Knight and she had a few Tokimeki-related songs, while not one of the main VA's). First time I looked into her, but I always thought her two performances were standouts on this album and overall had a different "feel" than the main song collections.