Make Believe Melodies For April 14, 2025

Slightly Early As I'm At Osaka Expo Edition

Meg Bonus — New,man

“Pop” often fails as a musical encapsulation because of how vague it is. Sure, throw a J- or K- in front of it and you get a touch more understanding of what’s going on (it’s from a specific place), but just leave it dangling all alone? So…is it just catchy, or it follows a formula, or it’s geared towards mainstream acceptance?

An artist like Meg Bonus particularly underlines the trickiness of defining “pop.” At the core of debut album New,man is plenty of pop — bright melodies, sticky hooks, an extremely J-pop turn to balladry on “Haru Ni Nare” — yet its packaged in disorienting, genre-skipping construction that’s not what anyone would call traditionally accessible. It exists in the same Japanese space as PAS TASTA, Mom¹, Templime, Dos Mono and even Hakushi Hasegawa to a point, where the creators themselves clearly have some appreciation for pop (both J- and otherwise) but revel in seeing far the edges around it can be stretched.

On New,man², that’s shared via a giddiness at poking at existing forms. “Kassai” features the sort of cheery melody of a Hoshino Gen song and vocals closer to the delivery of the Sekai No Owari guy…yet those sun beams get clouded out by bursts of saxophone blurts and untuned piano crashes. And that’s all before the song actually pivots into further wooziness. Potentially chill funk-pop turns fragmented on “Vitaminc” while still having an angelic vocal performance, while dancier cuts like “Jet” stutter and freak out while still maintaining a WONK-y main vocal melody. Meg Bonus plays around with the contours of pop, but makes sure an appreciation comes through even while twisting it into something different. Listen above.

Hikari Mitsushima — “LOST CHILD”

The latest song emerging from actor Hikari Mitsushima and MONDO GROSSO’s long-running collaboration delivers a slower, refined song rather than the usual flights of fancy the duo have gotten up to. “LOST CHILD” provides space for Mitsushima to show her vocal abilities, sashaying along with the piano melodies and commanding attention even at her most longing. Listen above.

Toiret Status and uami — “Funuke”

Oddly enough, “Funuke” offers the underground-scene version of “LOST CHILD.” I associate Toiret Status with discombobulating production choices, with chaotic touches being corralled into melodic strangeness that manages to stick together in some way. Here, he links up with similarly abstract singer uami for what might be the most spacious Toiret Status creation to date, with plenty of wonky touches still in tow (synthesizer woosh, samples as offbeat percussive touches, the sound of flies buzzing and lighters being used to set up dank atmosphere) but largely guided by strings and room. It allows uami’s captivating performance — at time gossamer pretty, other times using her voice as a rougher element approaching Bjork-ish gurgling to underline the griminess of the number. Bonus points for including a vocal solo showing just how dizzying her contribution is. Listen above.

i-fls — far

The first dispatch from the melancholy bedtown i-fls resides in since September of last year reminds of something important about the reclusive melody maker. While the Garageband crafted songs making up far definitely capture familiar feelings of suburban ennui and longing — see the synth pangs coming in midway through “limited” or the heart-racing gallop of “astral” — i-fls has always been just as charming in finding a variety of modes to explore out of their limited setup. On far there’s a throb approaching Hard-Off-bin hardcore via “disappear(ing),” a skittery dance track called “2D girl” and a sparser, slower song called “highway radio” which manages to capture the feeling of fading while driving down the road at night and be the first time i-fls has flirted with trap (like, in the way they can). Get it here, or listen above.

Qawaula — Hekomi Kubun, No Nagare Zentai No

For all the talk about pop finding a middle ground with experimentation, it’s nice to hear a four-track offering that fully plays in the latter. Fans of Wasabi Tapes, a De De Mouse CD left in a hot car or Foodman, this one’s for you. Get it here, or listen above.

No Buses — “I’m Your…”

I write a lot about Cwondo’s solo projects, but his band No Buses returns with a new album on April 23, and the same shaggy energy informing his electronic experiments comes across with the group too. It’s not quite as oddball, but there’s a nervous energy and interest with repetition on first peek “I’m Your…” all made emotional via Cwondo’s own anxious singing. Listen above.

KAGAMI — TIME MACHINE

I recently reviewed the new HITOMITOI album over at scrmbl, and what continues to impress me about her is how she keeps on exploring the range of what many call “city pop,” reminding that it’s a much more varied corner of music connecting a lot of disparate scenes than how it often gets reduced by those who came around to it via YouTube over the past decade. It expands what city pop can be rather than just underline what it is already though to be.

That’s absolutely not what TIME MACHINE by KAGAMI does. This release comes courtesy of a duo who should not even be featured in this blog by the very vague rules I’ve given myself, as they are based in Holland. There’s certainly value in hearing what non-Japanese artists find in “city pop” and how they use it as a guiding force in creating their own music, though I think the most interesting part of something like this EP is hearing what strains of the ‘80s has been picked up by the outside world. This is almost a guide to what elements of city pop register with the outside world, down to “ENDLESS MIDNIGHT” repeatedly referencing “blue and moody music” which alright gotcha.

So why is it here? KAGAMI calls on Japanese vocalists to actually sing over these glistening recreations of past pop, and they do a fantastic job over admittedly very well done attempts at capturing a feeling of the Bubble era. I was won over with two songs featuring former Especia member Monari Wakita, with the title cut in particular being a bouncy bit of dance-pop thanks to her hop-scotch delivery. Opener “FRIENDS” calls on kiki vivi lily and Kan Sano to put a twist on the number that actually makes it the least predictable sounding of the bunch, while Natsu Summer unsurprisingly nails the popular feel of what this music must have sounded like on “Itsuka Sonotokia”…so well, in fact, I can’t even be cynical about it because they all make it sound so fun. If you are going to celebrate a Japan-centric style, call on Japanese artists to help out…and just remember to do the grooves really well. Listen above.

Oricon Trail For The Week Of March 31, 2025 To April 6, 2025

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.

AKB48 — “Masaka No Confession” (371,796 Copies Sold)

OK, so same prompt as last week except with a much trickier group to assess in the modern J-pop landscape.

“Masaka No Confession” sounds like 2013. This feels like what far off attempts at capturing the “retro” sounds of the 2010s is going to come across as, from the woo-ooo midtempo skip to the guitar solo to lyrics about putting on a school uniform. Calling this a relic of some bygone time isn’t quite right — there’s always room for this kind of “eeeeek, I’m in love!” idol fare — but even AKB48 itself went through multiple sonic evolutions after the initial rise to the top. Now that we have a new era of idol music taking the spotlight, “Masaka No Confession” comes off as a museum piece. Listen above.

Consider Going Premium!

For $5 USD a month, you can get an extra post every week, even when I’m covering a years-in-the-making event that will probably drive me crazy! Last time around, reviewing Roppongi’s premier live venue.

News And Views

• Osaka Expo 2025 kicked off over the weekend. On the musical front, a Saturday opening ceremony / concert saw plenty of intersection between pop and politics, with Hakushi Hasegawa helping to provide music for an opening film, the presence of the Japanese Emperor and Prime Minister, Atarashii Gakko and imase among others, and Mori Calliope making a cameo. Watch a large chunk of it below.

  Sunday night saw Ado put on a special opening-day concert as the public had its first chance to see what Expo 2025 was all about. Count me as part of that, as I attended the Sunday and Monday of Expo. More details…like, a lot more, across publications…coming soon, but I’ll say Ado’s show at the end of the first day was a highlight, aided by the fact it finally stopped raining about an hour before she started. Think that put the crowd in a good mood…both inside the venue proper, and the thousands more I saw hanging around outside listening.

• Move past the Frost Children kerfluffle…Haru Nemuri announces a new album set for an August release alongside a North American tour shortly after.
  

• New Dos Monos EP on the horizon.
  

• Kieran Press-Reynolds offers a profile of long-running netlabel Lost Frog Productions over at Pitchfork, as a way to look at how Dariacore / HyperFlip has developed in Japan’s electronic scene. Parts of it can be a little online-media-baiting — I’m not sure “blowing up” is the right term for what is happening in Japan with it — but the central focus captures something that has definitely been happening in recent years, and which Press-Reynolds correctly ties to various Japanese internet memes.
  
  I have something on this in the works too, tied to a producer bringing this sound to mainstream J-pop so…stay tuned.
  

• I’m back on the f5ve train after “Magic Clock” but man whoever does their social media needs to chill out a bit, with this recent Goo Hara flap being a great example of being “too online” going awry. Just make good music, don’t be ironic shitposters!
  

• RIP SLYME back together.
  

• I talked to the picopop-inspired outfit Tapeworms for The Japan Times.
  

• One of the most important realizations anyone can come to as a fan of music and sports is that athletes and idols are basically the same phenomenon. That’s beyond clear now for anyone paying attention — please, follow a “ShoBae” account, watch how he’s treated like Kimutaku — yet tension can still exist between pop and sports fans.
  
  Case in point — former HiHi Jets member Yuto Takahashi served as a special guest at a recent Yokohama DeNA Baystars game. The opening pitch went well!

  The talk event with Takahashi meant to be held after the game did not, however. Fans of the idol basically went wild, jamming walkways and refusing to listen to security and generally acting like buffoons. Some alleged they shoved other women and children out of the way, though I don’t see that in any videos. It certainly looked bad though, and they cancelled the whole thing.
  
  The overlap between idol and baseball is well documented, but I do find it fascinating when the two actually collide with one another as is the case here. I do think it’s telling that the pop fans in this case come from the world of STARTO, whose supporters have a tendency to act pretty badly in relation to their faves (to the point of the agency actually cancelling concerts over their behavior). Part of me wants to chalk this up to a greater swing away from pop fandom in general, but that’s more wishful thinking (especially when ignoring the other side is just as fervent). Anyway, this has resulted in fans of the idol and Baystars supporters clashing online. Which is funny, since both have a history of happily overlooking alleged criminal behavior (one with Johnny Kitagawa, the other with Trevor Bauer). More similar than ya think!

Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
Check out the Best Of 2025 Spotify Playlist here!

1. On that note…Mom actually has a new album out that I’ve attempted to write about in the round-up and the recent “quarter-year favorites” post but…I’m still unpacking. It’s great, here’s hoping I can truly zone in on it!

2. The frontrunner for “best album with the worst cover art” aware of 2025.