Make Believe Melodies Favorite Japanese Albums 2021: #30 - #11
Make Believe Melodies Favorite Japanese Albums 2021: #30 - #11
The list marches on, and we are at a better pace than 2020!
The 2021 list continues! Same as last time…trying to keep myself to one paragraph, though from #15 onwards it might start getting a bit more blurry. Catch up with the first half here, or #50 - #31 here.
#30 LIL SOFT TENNIS Bedroom Rockstar Confused
Welcome to the top 30, and we start with an album acting as a snapshot of multiple sonic trends playing out in Japan 2021 colliding. LIL SOFT TENNIS crooked-grinds himself between “HyperPop,” J-rock and the experimental underground, singing pop-punk tunes but coating his voice in enough digital distortion to get invited to K/A/T/O Massacre. Bedroom Rockstar Confused revels in all these dimensions, featuring truly oddball explosions of sound like the distorted “Medicine” or the spacy haze of “Oracle” (featuring a hell of an appearance from Le Makeup), while also including stuff that would get whoever tunes into Space Shower TV headbanging along (“Bring Back”). The true secret to it announcing LIL SOFT TENNIS’ arrival on the emerging-artist scene? Something that’s going to be common heading forward on this list…dude knows how to write a great song with a hooky center, whether he’s trying to be weird or Warped Tour. Listen below.
#29 Various Artists Asagaya Drift Compilation + Rave Racers LAP1, LAP2, LAP3 And Speed Way EP
Another year in the pandemic, another 12 months spent not going to shows. I would be lying if I wrote that I’ve somehow made peace with this — whenever I see a great line-up or am reminded a behemoth venue like ageHa is closing, I glance at case counts and feel deflated. Not helping matters in 2021 was a new space opening up literally five minutes from where I live. Asagaya Drift is a car-themed sound bar tucked away next to the Chuo Line tracks, featuring an automobile-themed deck and an honest-to-goodness slot machine on the bar counter. I stopped by for 30 minutes in the fall to fill that live longing, and was teleported to better times — smoke-soaked, blitzed-out, noise-complaint-earning joy at just getting into a potentially poorly ventilated area to listen to killer tunes. While not truly offering that same IRL rush, Asagaya Drift Compilation excels at delivering a similar rush of music, with a variety of Tokyo creators offering their most revved-up and raucous tracks for a set doubling as a welcome reminder of how vibrant the capital’s electronic community remains. That carries over to the Rave Racers crew, a similarly hyped-up set of creators pulling in regulars (including the wonderfully named DJ Steiner Brothers) and special guests to create tracks begging to blast out of a club system. Their entire 2021 output is a blast and, along with Asagaya Drift Compilation, the closest shot of getting lost in a live setting from the comfort of home. Get the comp here or listen below, and just get everything here.
#28 Spange Call Lilli Line Remember
Spangle Call Lilli Line define consistency in rock for me, but that’s more in terms of mood than approach. The songs on Remember, an album arriving to mark their 20th anniversary since releasing their debut full-length, almost play out like the band’s history in miniature, from locked-in numbers like “after squall” to the under-the-streetlights mood-stroll of “maleana” to something resembling the jagged and lost-to-streaming beauty of lead singer Kana Otsubo’s NINI TOUNUMA solo project on “millim.” There’s also reminders of an outfit still challenging themselves, via the synth-splashed strut of “zou” and the giddy new-wave bounce of “spring.” Connecting all of it, though, is the same feeling that has underlined nearly everything they’ve done — a tender ennui anyone can carry with them on the daily commute or after-hours walk, which the trio have mastered. Listen below.
#27 Gokou Kuyt U Deserve It! EP
Perhaps I’m playing the role of overly optimistic fanboy here but…this feels more like a hint of something bigger on the horizon from one of the best digital-native rappers going. Even the snapshots of what could be next, though, tower over other acts’ full-lengths. U Deserve It! splits its 10-minute runtime between funny, self-aware cuts (“Type Beat & SoundCloud,” which dissects digital platforms while also finding space to flex) and jubilant celebrations of Western Tokyo life (“Suginami Town,” an ode to just kicking it in Koenji and picking up some sausages while around). There’s also the pure release of “Clutch,” which reminds of the emotional heft lurking in Gokou Kuyt’s work. Listen below.
#26 CVLTE praystation 2 + HEDONIST EP
The familiar pangs of teen angst get a 2021 update in CVLTE, a group channeling the deceptively catchy K-ROCK playlists of the early Aughts and translating them for the Internet-damaged minds of today. Part of the appeal lies in how disorienting a listen these two releases are as someone who spent high school stuck in traffic and sitting through, like, the melodrama of Blue October and nu-metal remnants populating local radio, and hearing the spirit of that, but joined by Atlanta-born machine percussion and digi-aided voice manipulation, nods to contemporary developments. “heartbreak” doesn’t sound like California rock airwaves in the 2000s, but it also absolutely does (while “hennessy state of mind” would have killed back then). praystation 2 underlines CVLTE as their own entity, both in their explosive rage state and more heartfelt mediations (see highlight “Robbers”), while HEDONIST draws lines to likeminded thinkers in Japan, the group linking up once again with forward-thinker 4s4ki and connecting with a predecessor such as Sleet Mage. What each release howls into your face is that they are bringing echoes of the past into something fresh for their times. Listen below.
#25 Kajuen Soonensaishiki
South Korea’s Mellow Blush and Japan’s Meow create as Kajuen, and reward those who love subtle shifts and warmer weather with their first offering together. Seeing as this is a Local Visions’ release, a certain subversion of nostalgia and time is to be expected, and the duo offer moments where it feels like the easy-breezy acoustic-pop vibes they’ve conceived are scrambling into chaos. For the most part though, it’s about transforming the simple into the scintillating , whether through tempo changes and vocal flairs on the trying-to-stay-happy-though-I’m-sad-in-spring stroll of “Ni No Jikan,” or the out-of-time bossa nova of the title track, which mixes in nature samples and slows down at just the right moments to sell the feelings at the song’s center. Get it here, or listen below.
#24 Nariaki Obukuro Strides
The experimentation of Nariaki Obukuro’s past work exists on the margins of Strides, but this outing he’s more concerned with getting through the working day and spending time with the ones he loves. This is Obukuro after hours, still happy to play around with how his voice sounds, but now focused on savoring the slivers of good time and spending a little bit of time wondering when it will all go away. Musically, this is his most straightforward R&B yet. He’s not trying to upend time-tested formulas as much as see how he can fit soccer metaphors into high-stepping numbers (“Work”) and challenge himself to do stripped-down old soul apt for a smoky late-night lounge (the title track). It all gels together perfectly on the say-a-prayer-for-the-SEO “Butter,” where newfound infatuation collides with food analogies and a persistent concern over just how long any of this bliss can last.
(Will say, would recommend listening or revisiting this one alongside Hikaru Utada’s just-released Bad Mode. Seeing as how Utada and Obukuro have become close creative partners, it isn’t shocking to pick up on a ton of similarities between the two, making Strides a collection that will be worth checking back on a lot). Listen below.
#23 Cuffboi Replica1.0
Whether you want to call this “HyperPop,” or want to brainstorm a new name / branding strategy for it, one element of this sound feels like its constantly overlooked…how fun it is. Cuffboi bearhugs every sonic element of this sound I love — vocals filtered and fucked around with to the extreme, a gleeful embrace of just barreling into plinky-plonk synths and electric guitar chugs in equal measure, songs just like disintegrating in on themselves — but also just treats this like one big dumb house party, inviting over a bunch of contemporaries to headbang in the living room with (Lil’ Steez and Lo-keyBoi on “Never Falling Down”), turn the couch into a bounce house (Palm2ree and Benxni on “Vvv”) and then taking the festivities to the balcony to stare at the stars (Cyber Cider and Cyber Milk, as Pachi Pachi Cosmic Computer!, on “Hoshikuzu Rocket”). A blast of a listen, doubling as an overview to something exciting. Listen below.
#22 Pasocom Music Club See-Voice
In a just world, See-Voice turns Pasocom Music Club into one of the most in-demand production teams in Japan (though, really, the world). The duo’s third full-length album sees them eagerly welcoming new voices into their retro-made-now take on jazzy pop music, with Ayu Tokio finding space between the keyboard workouts of “Listen,” Erino Yumiki nestling in to the room provided on the speedy “Panorama,” and mitsume’s Moto Kawabe singing over the wobbly nautical beats of “Underwater.” This is Pasocom playing with outside vocals, showing how they can fit into their world without sacrificing the playful nature they’ve established on their own. Listen below.
#21 millennium parade THE MILLENNIUM PARADE
Daiki Tsuneta has managed to earn himself the rare artistic blank check in the J-pop industry. King Gnu becomes a massive hit and morphs into a voice of a new generation, and suddenly Sony Music Japan is 100 percent down with letting his left-field electro-funk creators collective release rap-rock tunes begging to score a Bond film and effects-soaked ballads. This is an example of the Japanese music industry’s bloated structure working wonders, because a major label can allow a star’s shapeshifting side project to release a hyped-up album of pop experimentation shaped by the likes of Brainfeeder, INNIT and Seiji Ozawa that leads to them landing on Kohaku and writing the theme song…and maybe their best song, not even here…for a movie currently enjoying global critical laudations. A triumph of letting artists be artists, and as head scratching a J-pop release as you’ll encounter. Listen below.
#20 Ableton Sisters Sewing Machine + Sewing Machine 002 + Patchwork + Sewing Machine 003
Man, sorry to return to this personal issue but…I really miss going out. This isn’t pure COVID-19 fallout, it’s more cliche…getting older and having less time to devote to a night at the club. I’ll spare you the first draft of my “millennial aging fall-release full-length” script, and instead point out that I at least have found plenty of artists offering the sonic experience of being in a dank Shibuya space operating online. Few over 2021 have been as good as trio Ableton Sisters, whose Sewing Machine series of EPs along with standalone Patchwork delivered the post-last-train vibe not just to weirdos on the verge of middle age, but to everyone in Tokyo shut out of revelry during a difficult stretch. The three dabble in a wide variety of dance styles over these releases — and, perhaps to my detriment, I’m not including the one where they turned KK Slider into a vocal wrecking ball — and do all of them so well, hitting on the euphoric and the unsettling and a mix of both (“Ginger Ale”). Part of it is relief that, even with an industry in trouble, creators are still finding ways to provide sounds to this portion of the Japanese live music market. Another, much simpler, response is…damn, this is as solid a run of dance tracks out of the country this past year. Get it all here.
#19 Old News Paper Scooop!! EP + Paparazzi!! EP
Breaking the one-paragraph limitation to say — a hip-hop idol unit nodding to journalism!!! How sweet of them! If only that enthusiasm could save the industry, but thanks nonetheless!
Idol music remained thrilling in 2021, but played out primarily through singles rather than albums. Songs could be experimental or heart-racing…or flat-out bops. Rap duo Old News Paper had all of those, and collected them across two EPs, making them ideal as this year’s highest-ranking idol outfit. They reflect where this whole scene is at really well, as they adopt a familiar style (hip-hop) and poke around to find out how they can make it work for them, from 8-bit-accented slow jams (“Bubble”) to tropical fizz (“Summer Vacation”). In just under 40 minutes, Old News Paper offer a reflection of major trends while presenting a fresh take on them that seems a touch ahead of its time. Perfect way to sum up idol right now. Listen below.
#18 Pearl Center Orb
Boring take — if Orb comes out as a Paellas’ album, it’s one of 2021’s surprise best-sellers and a welcome mainstream breakthrough. In reality, post-Paellas project Pearl Center’s debut full-length had to settle for being among the best and most emotionally prickly pop albums from the archipelago this year. The quartet devote most of their sparse synth-pop to longing and loneliness, turning machine-generated grooves into backdrops ennui-drenched vocals on “Orion” and “Clouds.” Yet critical to Orb’s success is how much they allow themselves to give in to a good time, crafting an all-together-now shouter with “Flutter,” a stripped-down shuffler topped off by some great horn on “Games” and the buoyant everyday-turned-ecstatic “Alright.” Listen below.
#17 rirugiliyangugili Negative I Love You
The equivalent of one of those rooms filled with old TVs and antique plates, and some guy just gives you a bat and says “here, work through it.” Loud, distorted, chaotic and a whole lot of fun — sociologists should be studying this, but for the rest of us, let’s just stare into the abyss while rirugiliyangugili and friends bark about promotional tissue packages and then literally barks like a dog later on. The outer limits of HyperPop, powered by bottled coffee, Strong Zero and first-person shooters. Listen below.
#16 Guchon Tropical Pizza EP + Guchon And Pharakami Sanders Summer Cutz EP
Three cheers for Guchon, the Freddie Freeman of the Japanese netlabel community. Long a vital player in the scene, they delivered a career year in 2021 thanks to these releases, blasts of warmer-climes fun standing as personal artistic triumphs. Tropical Pizza is pure summer get-a-way, Guchon drawing from Miami Bass to create a high-energy workout that I looped on end in the months after it came out — if Japanese music has been generally glum, the “yups!” on the title track and commands of “get on the floor, girl shake that butt / c’mon baby drop that stuff” on “Hot Cat” — over a Starburst groove that introduces Speak ‘N’ Spell voices for good measure — offered the coastal escape needed to brighten one’s mood (and awkwardly move from the comfort of one’s living room). Summer Cutz revealed more depth to Guchon in 2021, with the half-speed reflections of “Apple Fantasy,” but quickly followed up by the delirious “Sunset Girls.” Bonus points for associate Pharakami Sanders delivering two of their best on the same release. The history of internet music in Japan wouldn’t be complete without a chapter on Guchon and his various projects, but no need to finalize it when they are operating at this level. Get them here, or listen below.
#15 Yoyou & Efeewma PISS EP
To go waist-deep into internet-genre definition, “HyperPop” does fail at capturing the more reflective, slowly unfolding side of Web-born music, mostly deployed for jittery and caffeinated Eurobeat mutations. Yoyou and Efeewma certainly fall under the term when viewed from their sonic specifics — warped vocals, mid-song switches in tempo, lyrics about being young and kind of lost — but approach the style from the inverse on PISS. Rather than stuff every inch of musical real estate, the pair use space as a way to emphasize that which they do feature. It turns the bubbling and glowing “Rame” into one of the year’s strongest, and makes the eventual late-number pivot towards rumbling hit all the harder. They remind that minimalism can be uber creepy on “648,” and deliver what might be a song (or at least mood piece) about the Tokyo Olympics on “2020Ioc,” while even that isn’t needed to just enjoy the persistent chug and Yoyou’s electric vocal lightshow. It’s a delight sans context, but PISS especially leaves a mark in how it redefines the boundaries of a nascent sound, while highlighting two vital voices within its world. Listen below.
#14 Kabanagu Oyogumane
Let’s indulge in a thought exercise — what do you want J-pop (or, hell, pop period) to sound like in the future? The current excess of downer tunes have made me pine for something a bit more adventurous and bright-eyed, with the same virtuosity that a duo like YOASOBI weave into their work, while still holding on to some freewheeling magic. Music media have already pinpointed who could make this happen — Hakushi Hasegawa, and like-minded creators such as Yukichi Kasaku/men, who bridge technical skill with catchy chops and a netlabel-born unpredictability (though, also, lot of “HyperPop” creators fill these requirements too, but I digress). Add Kabanagu to the shortlist after Oyogumane. Released by Maltine Records and clocking in at just 11 minutes, this serotonin shot packs in countless ideas into its lithe frame. The electronic creator treats their voice like another element to bend, pitch-shifting and doubling their vocals over guitar darts and synth party poppers. The familiar turns dazzling, and Kabanagu retrofits any rough edges into touches that take their work somewhere new. Get it here, or listen below.
#13 RYOKO2000 Travel Guide
Ethereal, but with a drive that keeps pushing forward without trampling over the beauty surrounding the breaks. RYOKO2000 keep it simple on Travel Guide, pairing airy synth notes and samples with breakbeats. They just do it so damn well here, getting hearts fluttering with the glassy percussion opening “Deep Forest” before that makes room for swifter machine hits, while “Oxygen Gum” opens with water splashes and spa-ready ambience before picking up the pace without losing the sense of peace. Who says something enveloping can’t dash ahead, too? Get it here, or listen below.
#12 Shigge Silver Smoker
Fukuoka isn’t a backwater, and the Western Japanese city boasts as rich a musical history as any other metropolis in Asia. Yet it hasn’t felt particularly connected to the greater nation’s electronic community, or at least not heralded as much as it probably should be. Label Yesterday Once More found a great solution to that — create your own world, where local acts could elevate themselves while producers from all over the globe could be pulled into Fukuoka’s orbit. Founder Shigge helped to make Yesterday Once More one of the finest collectives in the country during the 2010s, and now he and his label have their masterpiece. Silver Smoker synthesizes ten years of sample-heavy dance music into one set of songs balancing between joy and melancholy. Part of it is simply Shigge constructed his best tracks, highlighted by the heads-first plunge of “Daisy Cutter,” the woozy sample spin of “Hit The Sack” and the stuttering euphoria of “Woo Ahh.” Yet it’s also a label long producing stellar art putting something out that sums up what makes its entire existence so special, gathered in a single album. Get it here, or listen below.
#11 Kyary Pamyu Pamyu Candy Racer
Like, what the hell did Yasutaka Nakata go through mentally during this pandemic? The J-pop producer’s 2021 output was so markedly wild and nostalgic that something had to have happened in his cranium, even if just being stuck at home made a guy who isn’t fond of reflecting spend a little more time than usual turning the past over. Whatever it is, he found a late-career creative spark, and Candy Racer benefitted big time from it. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu has always been a sonic palette cleanser for Nakata — she arrived right when his electro-pop maximalism was at its peak, and her Harajuku aesthetics prompted him to explore playroom sounds and jumpstart new boom times starting with “PonPonPon” — so it’s only natural that her latest serves as a testing ground, albeit while making room for on-brand cuts such as “Gum Gum Girl” and “Kamaitachi.” Here we get “Kyary as city pop diva” on “Natsuiro Flower” and “Kyary if she boarded the Vengabus” on “Jumping Up.” Everyone gets emotional glancing back on her decade-long career with “Gentenkaihi,” while Nakata transforms Kyary into a club tool on Candy Racer’s biggest curveball, the Club-Asia-dreamin’ “Dodonpa.” Oricon Chart Rankings be damned…Candy Racer shows Nakata and Kyary still at the forefront of what J-pop can be, and how much its Technicolor can be swirled around. Listen below.
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies