Nakahara Miki 愛のイエスタディ

Trio Records – 3A-116 Released Oct 21, 1973 JAPAN

TRACK B: 愛のイエスタディ (Yesterday)

So here’s another one I am filing under “Mysterious & Unknown”. Another one that has become an obsession, and has that alluring dreamy, misty gentleness. Embracing like a hallucinogenic lullaby from a faraway lost world in another time. But again, that place is Japan, and the year was 1973. Can anyone out there tell me anything about Nakahara Miki?

I can’t explain it, or describe it. There’s something I adore about hazy and quirky foreign and unknown releases from the sixties and seventies. I can’t place them in a category or genre. Somewhat seductive, and with both an outer space and under water atmosphere, and dripping with over the top romanticism. And part of not knowing what the song is about only adds to the desire and intrigue. This track sits nicely alongside the Naomi Chiaki – Asa Ga Kurumaeni track I featured a little while ago.

I could only find one isolated release from Kiki, this only 7″ single. Recorded through the same label as Tonpei Hidari – Hey You Blues , and released the same year of 1973. This makes me really want to dig into the Trio label’s archives to see if I can dig out any other lovely but odd jewels. I have done a bit of searching into the Japanese label’s catalogue, but there’s a fair bit to sift through, and it is ever so varied, with some very strange releases, and definitely not exclusive to Japan only artists.

The feature track is the B side of Kiki’s (possibly) only release. Side A 花嫁の手紙 (Bride’s Letter), is more of a typical soft rock ballad where Kiki uses her range to crescendo through soaring strings along the standard pop beat. She does do a thing I do like, that whole bridge thing where the singer narrates over the top, maybe telling a story or encounter perhaps. It’s kinda cheesy, but it is completely allowed by me if it’s coming from this kind of Japanese context. Hidari also does it in Hey You Blues. I know it was a “thing”, in a time, and in a lot of foreign countries. It’s just adorable!

But the Side B Track 愛のイエスタディ (Yesterday), is astonishingly beautiful… to me. Nothing typical here. So much melancholy from the very start, but it’s pure and just so lovely. The kind of sweetness bordering on”Lynchian”. The chorus is so distant and dream like. And yes again, we get some of that great narration. I suppose I could use some kind if AI app to translate it all. But I don’t need it. I love it all, with or without knowing the story or lyrics.

So if that is it from Nakahara Miki recording wise, then the next thing I do is search the trusty IMDB for any possible clues of film work, via music talents or other. “Nakahara Miki” does come up as an actress that possibly worked on approximately 7 films, between 1974 to 1991. But without any photo evidence and hardly any write ups of any of the films, I’m just not a good enough detective to confirm this is the same artist featured here.

So I’m going to leave this all here, and just wait in hope for someone out their to please enlighten me on Miki. The woman behind this truly beautiful, divine and poetic song I have deeply fallen for. And I hope someone out also feels the same way about it.

– del Piero

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