Make Believe Mailer 51: Bandcamp Friday Special October 2022
Really Good Month!
I used to write a feature for OTAQUEST rounding up some Japanese recommendations for Bandcamp Friday. I’ve decided to keep doing that for the remaining installments of this campaign. Here’s the October 2022 edition…feautring a lot of really good offerings hitting on the full spectrum of Japanese music!
1797071 —D1$4PP34R1NG
Ms. Machine’s self-titled debut remains the highlight of Japanese music in 2021 for me, and feels destined to be one of those “how did nobody hear THIS!” discoveries down the line. One of the specific details making it linger so much personally is how internet-genre-turned-Urban-Outfitters-BGM-turned-punchline witch house factored into it, primarily via beats and electronic touches created by member Mako, who cites the style as being especially pivotal for her personally. The trio embraced with house, finding new uses for it long after tastemakers abroad threw it in the recycle bin. .
Mako builds even further on that appreciation as 1797071, with her first solo album and one coinciding with…round up or down a bit…the ten-year anniversary of witch house’s heyday. Part of the thrill of listening to D1$4PP34R1NG — now that’s how you do a witch house-indebted title! — is hearing a strand of Ms. Machine’s sonic DNA isolated, learning how Mako herself approaches songs. Yet divorced from that trio, this is still a strong listen and welcome experiment in seeing how to find new angles on Tumblr memories. It’s unnerving and often muffled, though Mako delivers some melodic brightness over drowsy electronic backdrops throughout (“ka 4 ko sen” being a particular revelation in how much she can let her voice loose). Absorbing, and a testament to an earnest embrace for all styles and a curiosity about what they still conceal. Get it here.
ItoShin — Shine On
I can already tell this is going to be a nighttime staple during post-sunset work for me, as the last ItoShin release on Fruit Parlor did. Alongside the sample-centered house jubilation of “Get one’s swerve on” and “Shine on,” ItoShin dips into jazzier romps on “Back in 2010” and picks up the pace with the drum ‘n’ bass plunge of “Velocity.” I’ll save the gushing over the sax runs on “Line” for the inevitable year-end blurb. Modeled after a night out, Shine On offers revelry at any time or tempo. Get it here.
Naco — Noian EP
A short but effective burst of club cuts from the Kyoto producer, putting the emphasis on shambling beats and unrelenting energy. Get it here.
Master Kohta — Sense EP
Sticking in the ancient capital, producer Master Kohta has been a staple in the city’s dance scene for years, operating cafe La Siesta and creating 8-bit bangers. On this EP released via promising new Kansai-focused label finestylewest, he switches up generations to the SNES, drawing samples from titles released for that system and adding a floor-ready sound to them. The cartridge-nature shines through at times — “Candy Beats” happily lets the ‘90s gamer era load up — but it is Kohta’s variety of sounds merging with those sourced sounds that makes this a highlight. Get it here.
At Her Open Door — FLIR
Electronic project At Her Open Door has been kicking around the edges of Japanese online music for nearly a decade now — I can recall seeing, like, new songs coming out at a constant clip in my SoundCloud stream back in 2013 — and never struck me as a group worried about making a cohesive statement when digital loosies would suffice. That’s changed, as At Her Open Door have started stitching together more fleshed-out longplayers, including an effort last year merging techno-pop with modern Gqom. FLIR, released by Chinabot, offers one of their finest to date, mainly by finding At Her Open Door lean into the heavy vibes and suffocating atmosphere they’ve long played around with, and explore it for a longer period. Underneath the weight, the project offers up some speedy dance tunes — if you can get past the heavy breathing playing out over them. Get it here.
Boys Age — “Depressing Reflection”
Usually zonked out, Boys Age let the ennui flow on “Depressing Reflection,” a wispy number where sadness snakes through a zoned-out keyboard melody. Get it here.
Madobe Rika — Baklava EP
“She is a virtual girl” goes the description for this one, and what exactly that means remains…a touch mysterious, though she has been active for a bit now. Whatever the story is, she’s a perfect fit for Virgin Babylon Records, with this EP going from heartfelt electro-pop recalling Meishi Smile to frantic smash-and-go experiments. Virtual artists can head to the corners too. Get it here.
TOYOHIRAKUMIN And SausumaUun — Bazaar
Songs to wander around an empty Aeon too. Get it here.
Various Artists — AniCommune Vol. 1
Can’t go wrong with bootlegs of anime songs from a high-caliber set of electronic artists. Especially worth your time for the presence of The Sub Account and The LASTTRAK, masters in the space of revved-up reworks of animated tunes. Get it here.
SAUCEMAN — Tori No Wasuremono
Footwork with an ethereal atmosphere surrounding it. Producer SAUCEMAN — alter ego of the more loose-limbed D.J.G.O. — has long meshed Chicago-born rhythms with piano twinkles and nature sounds, and latest offering builds on it further, offering a dance showdown in the middle of a national park. Get it here.
A Taut Line — Loss
The latest from Diskotopia co-founder Matt Lyne’s solo project is at times clattering, at times funky and oftentimes a little of both. Unsettling in how sounds and styles clash, but every detail works just right with each other. Get it here.
Tenka — Hydration
Turns out I really like when Daisuke Fujita — Meitei, now also releasing as Tenka — lets his work take its time stretching out. Hydration might be my personal favorite from the Hiroshima electronic artist, in how it takes the similar sonic palette of his Meitei works but approaches it from a more textural perspective, and isn’t afraid to let them play out a little longer. Absorbing and melancholy — as he told me, this was practically therapy for him — while revealing new depths to the artist. Get it here.
Various Artists — Shinen Sampler Vol. 3
One of two compilations Lost Frog Productions put out recently shining a light on underground artists not afraid to fuck shit up (tagline for the second collection… “Nothing tastes as GOOD as a BAD SOUNDS”). I’d lean towards volume three in the Shinen Sampler series, owing to its focus entirely on new artists coming up, which makes it both an exhilarating rush of digi-era sounds slamming into one another and quick survey of emerging minds. Get it here.
Zukai — Chachina Muchu Wo Kuguru No Sa
Ahhhh, teenage longing and loss, what a rush! But what a potentially boring theme to rope your hook-heavy indie-rock debut on to. Osaka’s Zukai recall adolescence in all its complications — but rise above cliche by using this look-back exercise to experiment. This starts out like a solid-enough rock album centered around big ol’ choruses, but it gets good when they let more electronic touches enter the memory bank (and becomes a contender for year-end lists…uhhh, the ones I make…when they glaze their voices over with a digital fuzz on numbers like “Memory Card”). No need to get weepy about high school days…allow yourself a few tears, but also turn it into something cool. Get it here.
WETNAP — gnarled
Sometimes you’d just go out into West Tokyo, end up at some dingy livehouse, and here a rock group rip their way through a gnarled set, all blown out speakers and larynxes. Trio WETNAP probably slay in that environment, though listening to gnarled feels like a pretty spot-on imitation of this experience. Get it here.
Various Artists — OZ DAYS LIVE '72-'73 Kichijoji: The 50th Anniversary Collection
Wrote about this compilation and the pioneering livehouse it aurally captures for The Guardian, which gives you all the background you need…but even stripped of any historical context, fantastic listen! Les Rallizes Dénudés in pupa stage is the most intriguing inclusion, but don’t sleep on Acid Seven’s righteous rock or Miyako Ochi’s free-wheeling take on Beatle-mania. Get it here.
Munetoshi Nakayama — Periodic Function
After all that electronic razzle-dazzle and rock noise, let’s end this month’s installment with a mind-clearing comedown….sorta. Tokyo cassette label specializes in ambient, or at least that “inspired by New Age imagery, Japanese Environmental Music, and a new spirituality rooted in specific times and places.” Munetoshi Nakayama’s latest contribution to Ume offers enough fuzz around the edges and pitch-shifted notes to break up any expectations of dolphin-soaked moods or Muji in-store playlists. I came for something to chill out with, but ended up wowed with the parts that made me feel like a strong breeze creeped into my office. Get it here.
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies