Make Believe Mailer 92: Bandcamp Friday Special October 2023

Hmmmmmmm well uhhhh let's hope for the best

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 a dive into Japanese releases worth your time, attention and money from September. Welcome to the October edition!

And this one comes at…a new time of uncertainty for Bandcamp. Epic Games sold the music platform to Songtradr last week, throwing into question what would happen to the site moving forward. Here’s where I urge you to support the wonderful people working at Bandcamp, with one easy way to show solidarity to sign this petition. Especially after Songtradr announced people will lose their jobs moving forward…despite them not having control of the company yet. No idea what will happen with Bandcamp (or Bandcamp Daily), and I won’t do doomer speculation, but will say it’s a weird moment for a pretty vital music platform.

botsu vs nul — Revolver

Dos Monos’ Botsu aka NGS teams up with producer Naked Under Leather for a disorienting set that adds physical heft to the more vaporous corners of internet music. Familiar elements of Botsu’s main group slip into Revolver — dusty samples serving as the spine of songs, to the point where that’s how the whole album begins — but here the pair have a little bit more freedom experimenting and breaking sounds apart, like designing a funky room and then smashing everything in it with baseball bats. Looped samples disintegrate on songs such as “nazeloop 65” while they embrace bubblier source material (the stomping “shhh”). The duo are more open to messing around with Botsu’s voice, lending a surreal edge to the jazzy “onzon” and transforming “all x” into a pitch-shifted fever dream where practically five Botsus clamber over one another. There’s moments this creeps towards the ethereal rap sound of contemporaries like Tohji or Loota, but rather than let his voice blur into the electronics around him, Botsu always stays physical, punching forward even if he’s dissolving. Get it here.

Nishioka Diddley — Memory of Tashiro Isle Trip

A playful example of contemporary exotica being deployed to remember some cats. As their artist name implies Nishioka Diddley loves 1950s and ‘60s era American rock, ranging from early electric guitar chuggers to the beach-adjacent sounds of instrumental acts like The Ventures. To commemorate a (real or imagined, who can tell) trip to “cat island,” Diddley channels surf rock and “Telstar” appropriate passages to conjure up an image of far-flung American coasts…but undercut by 8-bit notes and dub touches to throw the timeline all out of order and create something much more interesting. Get it here.

TOYOHIRAKUMIN — Bank Of Toyohira

This month’s edition of the Bandcamp round-up comes at you from a trip out to Kansai, with this specific blurb coming to you from the Shinkansen. It’s the perfect setting to listen to some vaporwave. The internet microgenre has become one of the trickier styles of the 2010s to unravel a decade on — it’s clearly the most prominent internet niche style of that decade, having influenced sounds and sights alike, but also remains like a deep Tumblr dive. One of the elements of the style I appreciate (and this is true of all slowed-and-or-screwed music) is the feeling of coming unglued from time. I feel that very clearly while riding high-speed rail and listening to Bank Of Toyohira, a set from one of Japan’s longest-running makers in this space, who slows down sampled sounds and voices to a pleasant crawl. The effect — of feeling whisked away from reality — works even better when zooming by the landscape, the tension between physical fastness and sonic slowness making for a pleasant dizziness. I’m sure it sounds great while sitting at home too, but consider breaking it out next time you have a long trip ahead of you. Get it here.

Rayons — “Aqua Spirit”

An immersive string-saturated tune from the Rayons project via Flau, aching and absorbing all at once. Get it here.

i-fls — Alpha EP

Another month, another collection from bedtown emotional archivist i-fls. On Alpha, the energy is up, like one of those Monster give-away groups came to their station and started handing out caffeine-addled drinks to anyone within reach. Tracks like “boys” and “allow” move at a quicker pace than i-fls is used to, and also contain a certain joy sometimes buried under the suburban melancholy of their music — here though, there’s giddiness, bordering on downright excitement (see the fake out of “girls” for maybe the best example of that). It’s great to check in regularly and see an artist in flux. Get it here.

Littlefoot — Goose Fair Gurner

For those looking for something a little less enveloping and much more propulsive, producer Littlefoot has you covered. Their latest via Spraybox is head-down-straight-ahead dance dashing between house revelations and UK garage blasts. Get it here.

Fetus — Mitite EP

While I love a good bit of dancefloor escapism, I’m also a fan of artists taking sounds that should be pure joy and locating the sinister undercurrent within them. Via Trekkie Trax, producer Fetus burrows into speedy contemporary electronic sounds and instead of creating something of pure effervescence, the focus on the clanging and heavier side of sounds, all without losing the physicality. Check the dankness created by the beat and vocal samples on “Dog Sleeper” or the malfunctioning melodies of the title track. Get it here.

WRACK — Miburo EP

Tokyo DJ and producer WRACK does something similar, albeit with a much more global vision of sound. Their latest EP continues to find the creator taking cues from gqom, dembow and more, focusing on the aggressive sides these sounds focus on to create hard but dancefloor-ready tunes. Get it here.

machìna — Action IV

Two more driving techno tracks courtesy of the Tokyo-based performer, who writes that she was inspired by watching gymnastics while touring China to create these songs. Get it here.

Kizuari — Kizuari2023

Like all instruments, creators continue to find new applications for Vocaloid and reveal the many ways it can be utilized against an array of backdrops. Kizuari presents what might be the most natural application of a synthesized voice — dance music — and reminds of the pleasures of this approach while showing new angles. The outright electro-pop bounce of “Kizuari?” and “Memory Deficit” are classic Vocaloid deployment, while “Asteroid” imagines how the familiar digi-sing could play out in a particularly jagged hyperpop setting. Get it here.

kinoue64 — Hokago No Geijutsubu

Now, for a match that isn’t quite as obvious…but as time goes on becomes a perfect sonic terrain for Vocaloid to run loose over. If not the artist I find most intriguing in all of Japan right now, kinoue64 is definitely in the top five, having found a way to blur the computer-generated delivery of Hatsune Miku over guitar feedback and driving rock built for livehouses instead of PC speakers. Their second release of the year, this is just further proof of how synthetic vocals can be layered just right over guitar to create something just as dreamy and emotionally powerful as the human voice, and how much room remains to be explored in this specific lane. Get it here.

tennis circle — tennis circle

This is how you do ragged rock, at least in my humble opinion. Let the rough edges come through clearly, but just make sure they feel earned (the vocals of “neco,” the general sogginess of “week”). Get it here.

TANAKA — TECH JUKE EP

All their in the name — an icy set of juke tracks, built around finely sliced vocal samples and restless beats. Get it here.

aymk, Kazuki Koga, pìccolo, and Seaketa — Decadence In Pale Fire

Here I’ll cop to wrapping up this post quite late — above, when I’m talking about riding trains? That was so long ago, now it’s after midnight, and I’m in an Umeda-adjacent business hotel dreaming of sleep. But the names involved in this alone make it a must listen, even if…I haven’t yet, because it’s late and I’m sleepy. Yet just look at those artists! Here’s an experimental collective sure to come up with something at the very least interesting. Get it here.

Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies

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