Make Believe Mailer #98: Bandcamp Friday Special December 2023
Another Year Down, Whoa
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 December edition!
Hey, another year in the books…a real up and down 2023 for Bandcamp, but the site still carries on despite massive changes. Let’s get into the musical selections for the month.
Various Artists — THE RAVING SIMULATOR
It’s December 1, and I’m rushing to finish a variety of end-of-year stories while balancing all the other deadlines I’m perilously close to approaching. Part of the process…besides, you know, writing…is turning 2023 over, and figuring out what the big overlapping trends are. One of the clearest playing out on a more underground / mid level of Japanese music is all the interaction. I chock it up to an energy artists and fans across the country have found following the lifting of pandemic regulations, that were clamping down IRL intersection for two years. Those vanished this past spring, and in Tokyo at least the subsequent thrill of people going out and finding their footing in the capital has been clear. And some of these lineups…man, they’ve been beautiful. The cliques and gates that once defined the city for me have weakened, and there’s an eagerness to get out and play, whether it’s at a WWW in Shibuya or a Drift in Asagaya.
THE RAVING SIMULATOR captures this collaborative jump, in the same way seen on top-of-list (spoiler) albums from PAS TASTA and Le Makeup. Just look at the names coming together, and you get micro scenes mixing to create absolute jolts of music, like Spraybox went from being a dance label to a fusion laboratory. Youthful rappers like MEZZ find themselves working over carbonated house shuffles, while a veteran like Toriena finds new sonic terrain to challenge alongside producers Nizikawa and Oblonger on “In Your Verse.” The headline song finds the ever lugubrious — and 2023 viral surprise — nyamura link up with producer Takaryu on the speedy “your winter,
though I’m partial for Spraybox going full doors-open and letting VTuber Peanuts-kun flex all over the opening track. The beauty of THE RAVING SIMULATOR, though, is this mish-mash, allowing ever corner to seep in and blur together. Get it here.
Various Artists — SAKURA V.A. 001
OK, so this is like the above compilation, except it’s the whole range of Japan’s experimental oddball world coming together to remix a solo song by a member of BBBBBBB from the start of the year.
A silly tune that leads to a lot of wacky remixes, but the names on here offer a great snapshot of the many weirdo corners of the country right now. Perfect Young Lady does her bedroom supermarket-pop thing, while the legend that is emamouse transforms “Sakura” into a piano number full of gusto (junior high schools looking to spice up the graduation ceremony…check it out). There’s all kinds of high-energy mutations, with Osaka producer SHITTY HUNTER2 stealing the show in my personal opinion, while woopheadclrms reps Aichi with a fittingly manic interpretation. Low key a great gateway into this world. Get it here.
Stones Taro — Stoned Camel EP
NC4K head honcho Stones Taro returns with four tracks of rhythmic release, with just a little bit of late-night blurriness to keep listeners on guard. Stoned Camel is a particularly funky set, made clear from an opening salvo titled “Got Funk” but one that stays just as loose limbed as it progresses, whether adding some electronic stardust on top (“Non Sticky”) or keeping the whole structure minimal (the title track). Get it here.
Guchon — Fake House
The Guchon drought is over! The most joyful producer in all of Japan returns with Fake House, a set dabbling in a little bit of everything and making sure to have fun with how they experiment. “Fake Ska” loads up on horn blurts to create a dizzying house workout, while “My Phonk” teases the Eastern European style referenced in the title but surrounds it by a steady beat and barrage of vocal samples to let some sunlight sneak in through those concrete synths. Couple all that with straight-up good time house like “Bad Orange,” and you have a classic Guchon release. Get it here.
seaketa — Glamouflage
Completely worth it for opener “Gloomburst” alone, Kyoto artist seaketa’s artist at interpreting the grace of orchestra sounds through their usual oft-kilter interpretation of sound. It’s a triumphant number frayed around the edges, and turned downright unsettling courtesy of the bell chimes. The rest of Glamouflage treads the preferred experimental mode of modern day Japanese composers, full of skittering samples and disorienting electronics (“Chillax”…most certainly not), though it’s the glimpses of lurching beauty that make it special. Get it here.
W.ANNA.W — “0 / Kenkatabami”
A textural treat courtesy of electronic artist W.ANNA.W. The first track is all calm colliding with bass burble, while “Kenkatabami” utilizes pounding taiko percussion and koto stabs to create a suffocating mutation on traditional Japanese sounds. Get it here.
Cola Splash — “Galaxy Donuts”
A delicious dish of vocal samples layered over one another to create a sugar rush electronic track. This is the Cola Splash sweet spot (no more, I swear), aiming for pure pleasure via maximalism. Get it here.
DJ Desert — demo
One of those “be very careful when hovering around the ‘buy digital album’ offerings, since DJ Desert has priced this at ¥99999 (though in USD, might not be that bad given the exchange rate right now). Sort of a shame, because this collection of demos from the creator I presume to be out in Niigata working with Lowyard Records features some nice dance-floor-facing wooze. The best inclusions here smudge sturdy rhythms with globs of synthesizer (“demo4,” “demo10”) that turn these ravers disorienting, lending them a well-past-late-train energy. Probably shouldn’t shell out that much, but I hope DJ Desert makes these accessible at sometime, because there’s some great ideas taking shape here. Listen above.
DRUGPAPA — The Drugpapa
Sometimes you just have to get the monthly feature out, and you can’t really spend the time you want to with it, so you are left writing something like “this sounds fucking bonkers, you should listen to it.” The Drugpapa sounds fucking bonkers, and you should listen to it. Formed by three artists who met one another in Twitter Spaces, DRUGPAPA represent the overarching ethos of otoChfto records (the group features the founder), which boils down to “hey, just do it.” Samples galore crashing with distorted singing and breakcore pacing, with detours into “indie sleaze” rock experiments and pure noise. Get it here.
Illreme — Illreme / Kamoda Jun
Illreme presents this as a “beat tape and mixtape,” but I feel like that undersells a work titled after both solo monikers that have defined him in the 21st century. It feels a bit more personal than that, jumping all over the place when it comes to its samples (it opens with My Bloody Valentine loops, and spends time with dusty country and lively funk. It’s also way weirder at times, especially when he mutates his voice on “Rats And Roll.” Get it here.
huan cat & shota hara — Kotoba Wa Purple Ni
Imagine the background-ready sounds of lo-fi-hip-hop-to-study-and-or-relax-to featuring jump scares. The duo of huna cat fiddle around with that style along with he sample-centric formula of vaporwave on this collaborative album, but avoid ~ vibes ~ in favor of ~ disruptions. ~ Songs skitter and break apart, and the pair’s percussive choices cut through the digital haze to give these tracks immediacy bordering on creepiness. They use sampled dialogue and cut-up singing to create mutations on the familiar, best offered up by the decaying voices breaking apart on “Yamada Mumbai,” which swipes syllables from peterparker69’s big number and lets them skip into oblivion. Get it here.
Saiko Ni Shiawasena Watashitachi No Sekai — Daate Atashtachi Kawaiishi
Wildly, they don’t even mention an exploration of Eurobeat here all about being a dazzling host (the Kabukicho type). Get it here.
II-L — PIONEER PROGRAM
This album offers a headfirst crash course into “psy footcore,” which takes speedy percussive elements (itself kind of similar to “gorge,” in that a bunch of artists just started creating “footcore” and sort of willed it into existence) born from footwork and breakcore…and here slams into psytrance. That’s a lot of genres being thrown around! But don’t dwell on that much, because the actual music of PIONEER PROGRAM is much more dazzling on its own, full of lightspeed tempos that switch up on a pin, making for an experiment in speed. One second you are zipping off, the next you are moving at zero gravity. Get it here.
Otome Featuring KAFU — Cocktail Party
First off, I have no idea if this warrants full disclosure…as I work with the virtual singer KAF via KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO, but this isn’t the KAF, but rather KAFU, an “artificial singing synthesizer” modeled after KAF and released by KAMITSUBAKI but used by independent creators to make original music. So I don’t know what the hell to think. Damn you need for transparency!
Anyway…I’m sure I’ve just missed it, but this is the first time I’ve encountered an earnest attempt at creating original city-pop-flavored songs using a synthesized voice1. And it sounds pretty unique, with the digital delivery of KAFU’s voice not matching the vocal prowess of an actual human, but adding a much different texture I haven’t heard from any attempts at Bubble-era retroism yet. It helps that Otome’s own synthesized ‘80s backdrop nails the vibe while sounding similarly off thanks to its digital origins. Check the plinky-plonk dance-pop of “Spritzer noise” and the tropical-tinged melancholy of “Pina Colada’s jealousy.” The best takes on older sounds are the ones that find a new angle on it, without losing the emotional core. Get it here.
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
Follow the Best of 2023 Spotify Playlist Here!
This came out at the latest M3, an event I’ve never been to (huge blindspot) but which a friend recently attended and said “wow, it’s incredible meeting so many people not online at all just creating music and selling it here.” Sounds beautiful.