Hayase Yukako

I don't know too much about Hayase Yukako. Archived here on Youtube is either two separate Laserdisc "albums" or a single double-laserdisc. Music is of varying style and quality, from Idol to fusion and some more esoteric material. Definitely continuity between clips, but no narrative to speak of. The album Love Your Life from 2008 is here. Working on finding the older stuff.

This is the second laserdisc album I've written about here, with Dip In the Pool's Dipping being the first. Do any listeners know if this was a common thing in the 80s and early 90s? An interesting format!

Unique vibe to "Sadist", jittery fusion funk mixed with paranoid, haunted house backing vocals. Great video effects in the clip.


"Suiyoubi Madeni Shinitaino" is another successful video, a mysterious presentation of lonely spaces both domestic and public.


Here's an ice-cold clip to close out disc one, "Trois Quarts". Hayase kills herself at the end! This track's Francophilia is in keeping with not only the album (the first track is titled "Last Year at Marienbad") but with Japanese Idol music of the time in general. The second disc (or album?) is much more cheerful (almost "island-fusion") and uptempo.


Fantastic synthesized voice and new age pop on "Anata No No Ga Shiru" from laserdisc number two, which seems to take place in a desert or maybe some tropical island.


Do readers want me to create an artificial album by ripping tracks from the Youtube videos? I'll try to get around to it eventually but if enough folks want me to I'll make it a priority.