Make Believe Melodies For October 28, 2024
Make Believe Melodies For October 28, 2024
Unwrapping Gliiico
Gliiico — The Oath
I’ve been hearing about Gliiico for years, murmured about for how cool and good they are far more than actually hearing the band’s music. The most-with-it kids you know on the edges of Daikanyama were hyping them up over the last four years, and the siblings making up this three piece inspired Instagram curators Sabukaru to declare them “new sensations” of the Japanese alternative scene, while also comparing them to…the Jonas Brothers? Despite having next to no greater presence in the J-pop ecosystem and dodging the internet-guided tastemakers fond of Japanese indie, Gliiico appeared in a Phoenix music video, jammin’ out with guest Ezra Koening, and when I interviewed J-pop star Chara for The Japan Times, she told me Gliiico were the most exciting young group she knew.
From a sociological perspective, Gliiico exist as a cooler-than-thow proposition for an era where the concept was supposed to die away. It’s a group in theory for Setagaya types and questionable foreign cool guys to latch on to, their “discovery” as they they try to re-imagine the hipness map they only share with one another. It’s always on the verge of breaking through, but always under the radar.
Gliiico has been a victim of atmosphere — I have no idea what drives the three brothers at the core of this group, because I only can pick up on how others use them as fodder for their own relevance in Tokyo’s economy of cool. On new EP The Oath, the band itself define what it is…which is out of time, out of step and being far more of a head trip than its reputation would imply.
The hacks trumpeting Gliiico position them as paradigm shifts in the Japanese indie scene, but The Oath lays down a very clear through line that I find far more interesting. They represent a post-Mac-DeMarco indie community in the capital, as the Canadian goofball with a heart of gold had became the leading inspiration for an era of Tokyo indie rock. Traces of that mellow rock construction come through with Gliiico, but they smudge it with a touch of psychedelica on the hip-hop-glazed “Amiri Jeans” and highlight “Tell Her,” made discombobulated via vocal samples lurking deep in the mix. At its best, Gliiico represent a perfect distillation of “genreless” music in the internet age. They nod to rap and dance while being grounded in rock, while seemingly revel in subverting expectations. Booster Chara guests on “Tragedy,” but mostly serves as sonic texture on a lo-fi rock-ish experiment…whereas following song “Tell Her” actually kind of sounds like a Chara song. All the reference points come through clearly, but they refuse to let them settle.
The Oath is Gliiico saying just what it is, which happens to be something far more slipperier and exciting than any of the puffed-up hype pieces around them ever presented. Critically, it’s not some total sea change, but rather a mutation on movements already laid down, offering a different perspective on something much bigger. Listen above.
Kotetsu Shoichiro — “Sweet Lovers Acid Break”
Acid house used to craft romantic delirium. Producer Kotetsu Shoichiro sets the stage with fever-dream vocals bordering on whispers of how dizzying this new attraction feels like, before letting the titular touch plunge the song into a care-free hop. It’s a great house track, hiding an extra layer of intrigue thanks to the singing. Those were made using Synthesizer V, the same software tofubeats utilized on this year’s NOBODY, which get tagged as AI but is probably closer to a singing-synthesizer a la Vocaloid. “Sweet Lovers Acid Break” teases a dive into tech confusion — scroll down for that, or I guess direct your anger at the DALL-E video above — but at its core is a human approach. Listen above.
Cuffboi — FLiP MOTiON
Hyperpop this, hyperpop that…what about when a very-young-very-online artist makes you go “dang, is it 2008, because I’m feeling the electro-pop power with this one!” The bulk of the latest from Cuffboi continues the creator’s fascination with exploring the jittery edges of web-born sounds, but man when they pivot into rollicking cuts like “Suiso Station” I transport straight back to the late Aughts and the early 2010s of netlabels. Makes sense — all of it was and is shaped by online, and this is just a new twist on a familiar facet of the 21st century. Listen above.
MEZZ — mezz bunny 2
Something that has been running through all of Tokyo-based rapper MEZZ’ music — but which is especially apparent on her latest — is the excitement of youth coursing through every second of it. Whether flexing facts on “Bitches Outside” or tipsily gliding through the night on the floor-ready “SORRY NOT SORRY” or turning reflective on “99 Baby,” the world MEZZ moves through is one of seemingly endless possibilities. She’s eyeing them from every angle, seeing how they fit her world and her mood as she continues rising through the ranks. Listen above.
huminn — “Secretᐢ”
I’m so used to Japanese SoundCloud rappers being all over the place that hearing one just deliver something…tough is jarring. In a good way! Listen above.
mizchi — summer’s gone
A trio that knows how to use tension to its advantage. The four songs on mizchi’s summer’s gone often start as slow burns that slowly add sonic kindling to the flame, developing a greater emotional heaviness as the guitars grow fiercer and the vocals increase in urgency. Usually they hold themselves back a bit, but at their best like on “no residents,” they let the urgency rush through. Listen above.
STUTS And Taeko Onuki — “Iiyudana”
A song about the power of bathing, bringing together two artists from very different eras. I’m impressed how well they mix, though. Producer STUTS moves in a more relaxed direction owing primarily (I assume) to the focus on soaking in an onsen, while guest singer Taeko Onuki brings a relaxed confidence I associate with her ‘80s works to the daydream electronics around her. Listen above.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of October 14, 2024 To October 20, 2024
Back in the day, the Oricon Music Charts were the go-to path to music stardom in Japan. Acts of all sorts traversed these lands, trying to sell as many CDs as possible in order to land a good ranking on a chart choosing to only count physical sales, even as the Internet came to be and the number of versions offered for sale got ridiculous. Today, with the country finally in on digital, these roads are more barren and only looked at by the most fanatic of supporters needing something to celebrate. Yet every week, a new song sells enough plastic to take the top spot. So let’s take a trip down…the Oricon Trail.
≒JOY — “Hatsukoi Cinderella” (97, 573 Copies Sold)
A month ago I fretted over the lack of hits in the J-pop landscape. Now there’s a new tumble of songs to sort through trying to climb to the top of the zeitgeist.
This plays out alongside this week’s Oricon-topping single and very much not ever-present pop song “Hatsukoi Cinderella.” It’s perfectly adequate idol music, but completely out of step with everything else happening in J-pop. Of course this would top Oricon, a chart completely out of step with everything else happening in J-pop! Though you can find hints of what is really happening when you dig in to the combined chart…you know, the one accounting for the internet, how everyone actually receives music today.
Creepy Nuts did it again. With one surprise hit under its belt already, the duo returned with “Otonoke,” a further plunge into Jersey Club rhythms serving as the opening theme for occult-obsessed anime Dan Da Dan1. It’s a hit in Japan, but also managing success similar to “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born,” which I never would have expected. It’s just fallen out of the top ten on Spotify’s Global Viral 50, and right now it appears on nearly every individual nation’s Viral ranking on the streaming giant.
Yet it’s not that simple. Creepy Nuts keeps trading places at home with summer juggernaut Mrs. Green Apple…along with a new song from rising name AKASAKI. The prior isn’t anything shocking, as that rock trio is clearly one of (if not the) most popular acts in Japan. Yet the latter is fascinating, because they are starting to gain viral steam on the streaming charts too.
The first thing I want to note about “Bunny Girl” is that, from a purely thematic lens, it is quite similar to T-Pain’s “Bartender.” After that…kind of a return to the glum sounds of the early 2020s, with the specter of work hovering over this whole thing (the protagonist trying to unwind after a hard day of it, the cottontailed focus of attention technically in the middle of it) and the only hope for human connection playing out in what is basically a girl’s bar. It’s…kind of a wild hit when you start thinking about it, beyond the very Gen-Z-appropriate melody of the whole thing. It’s currently number one on Top 50 Japan according to Spotify, and doing numbers across platforms. Meanwhile, it sits at number 25 on Global Viral 50, but moving up. The 18-year-old AKASAKI is actually doing better on these charts in Asia than Creepy Nuts. Something interesting is happening.
Though, once again, good luck getting that from Oricon.
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News And Views
OK so just to get it out of the way…full disclosure, I work with Ado’s team at Universal Music Japan to create her English-language bio, which included a new one whipped up ahead of the following announcement, which included an hour-long chat with the artist herself.
Ado announced plans for her second world tour, slated for summer 2025, as part of her birthday livestream last week. Watch the following announcement video.
So I have conflicts of interest galore at this point, but with those on the table…this is easily the most ambitious world tour from a J-pop artist ever (and like…I’m not huge on the pedantic nature of Twitter goofballs “actually!”-ing” on how most world tours are not in fact really world tours, but this is as close as you can realistically get). Ambition, of course, isn’t a measure of surefire success, and I look at the venues featured here and I’m like…how’s this going to work? The United Center? LA’s Crypto.com Arena? Is Baltimore really a safe bet? The economic part of my brain starts stressing, while the part that appreciates narrative and grand gestures has to applaud this, because it’s the opposite of the usual playing-it-safe approach J-pop acts of yesteryear engaged in.
The story of J-pop in 2024 was this new era of acts going out into the physical world. Ado, YOASOBI, Atarashii Gakko!, Awich and many others put on successful jaunts underlining the growing global presence of Japanese music abroad. So it’s looking like 2025 will be something more than just a continuation…how ambitious will J-pop get, and can it actually pan out? The Ado tour strikes me as the centerpiece of this owing to just how big it is, and I think it will certainly be remembered 20 years from now in the history of Japanese music. The question will be….how so?
Speaking of J-pop continuing to venture abroad, YOASOBI to appear at next year’s Primavera Sound in Barcelona.
Remember when the Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan imagined a Grammy Awards for Asian artists based in Kyoto? Well dreams become reality. Say hello to the Music Awards Japan, set to be held in Kyoto in May 2025, featuring a variety of categories (including a Vocaloid one?). You can revisit my thoughts on this idea by clicking the first link in this bullet point, and now add in the image of me laughing hysterically at a name implying next to zero creativity. Stay tuned for how this one plays out.
Qobuz launching a hi-fidelity streaming service in Japan. I don’t think that’s particularly interesting, but the framing in Music Business Worldwide sounds like it’s from 2017 (“lagging behind”). Japan is certainly not a digital utopia for the music market…but streaming services have made headway in the industry, regardless of what this poorly named company wants you to believe.
In much more interesting and somewhat unsettling tech developments…are you caught up on AI-generated city pop?
While it’s been developing for months now, this corner of machine-generated fake nostalgia went viral in Japan over the past month. Writer Yuji Shibasaki — who wrote one of the best books on city pop, period — dove into it for Mikki. It’s a very thoughtful piece weighing the reactions to it — running from “wow, this sounds so good” to “kill it kill it kill it” (OK I’m paraphrasing) — while also getting into weightier topics like “is it city pop” and what I think might end up being the central question around AI music moving forward “active vs. passive listening.” As the video above makes clear, the inspiration is lo-fi hip-hop beat channels, which are all about building a mood.
Others also entered the discourse fray. Top music YouTuber Mino Music watched a different AI city pop compilation and reacted to it.If you have any interest in how AI music moves in modern spaces, this is a great case study to dig into. I’m personally struck by how it offers one of the “better” examples of how AI could become a realistic source of music generation. To this point, I find that nearly every “earnest” attempt at making AI music has flopped, whereas the two areas it has worked are as memes and as background…which these “city pop” attempts2 certainly are.
Perhaps what I find most distressing about this has nothing to do with the music — it’s the English comments below from people saying “this makes me wish I could live in ‘80s Japan” or otherwise acting like this is real. AI might not disrupt music…but it very well could underline how little curiosity some listeners have.Girls Band Cry coming to Crunchyroll. Go watch it!
An idol group on the verge of a major debut faced a major crackdown for a surprise live performance in Shinjuku. Specifics seem very vague…but it sounds surprising for such a move to be taken for a street live.
hololive Eurobeat remix album.
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
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Which I’ve been watching largely because I figured the music from it would catapult up a level given the hype around it — the Zutomayo song is really good too! — but which I’ve been sucked in too because it reminds me of the weird period of my life in late elementary school when my mom got really into paranormal magazines “for research” as a writer (if you didn’t know, the apple truly does not fall far from the tree) and I would flip through them and become terrified that aliens would abduct me and cut me into little pieces.
Mean opinion on what these AI city pop songs sound like — they sound like rougher city-pop-style b-sides filling up all kinds of K-pop albums.