Make Believe Melodies For April 25, 2021
Special SoundCloud-Only Edition, Back To My Roots
If you remember this….you are a Make Believe Melodies tier-one reader. Thanks as always to my old friend Jessica Nguyen — now a doctor!!! — for making this back in the day!
Hoshimiya Toto + TEMPLIME — “Timesurf”
The partnership between vocalist Hoshimiya Toto and electronic duo TEMPLIME has been one of the more fruitful in Japan over the last few years, standing as one of the overall best projects to emerge in the wake of the “female singer / male producer” boom from a few years back. “Timesurf” is the latest standout from the collaboration, finding the production team adding some rock jitters into their dance muscle, creating something that creeps close to a bunch of contemporary “internet music” trends but never really embraces them. That’s mostly thanks to Hoshimiya, who delivers a clean vocal rising above the clatter around her. Listen above.
ORKL — “Riv”
Keeping with the throwback trend — this is the sort of track I would have loved to devote a daily blog to back when I lived in Kansai. There was no shortage of chilly soundscapes being pumped out by bedroom producers, and I couldn’t type “unnerving energy” fast enough into Wordpress (some habits stay the same). ORKL shows this style persists courtesy of a younger generation — the rest of their SoundCloud page is remixes of, like, Saint Vega and group_inou — who still know how to craft an absorbing bit of sound to get swallowed up by, with just enough light poking through (the piano notes). Listen above.
poivre — “State Of Emergency”
Skip Club Orchestra — “Tamafuri”
Good to see regulars from the Japanese juke community still going strong, finding funky and effervescent grooves respectively in dreary modern life. Listen above.
Cuffboi — “My Field”
Not sure if this is actually one song or some sort of broken cross-fade upload…which probably makes it a perfect representation of hyperpop in Japan (though “Hyperking” is probably their better overall creation). Last stretch mostly makes me think tofubeats isn’t appreciated enough as an influence.
Beipana — “hawaiian old songs but it's lofi remixes | beats to sleep/study/relax to”
Beipana literally wrote one of the first major Japanese blog posts diving into the lo-fi beats phenomenon…so who better to transform a set of Hawaiian songs into flaking-around-the-edges study tools? Listen above.
YUKIYANAGI — “Find The Light”
I’ll admit to having no clue if this tune, appearing on this compilation, is a tribute to the video game franchise Atelier (meaning that 22-title series has an active doujin-music community similar to how Touhou Project has inspired years-worth of musical fan works) or something else entirely. What I do know is that this is hardcore hitting a very specific pleasure point, one open to anyone regardless of their knowledge of sprawling video game mythologies. Listen above.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of April 12, 2021 To April 18, 2021
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 the 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 drip down…the Oricon Trail.
Sakurazaka46 — “BAN” (373, 547 Copies Sold)
New name, same tension — the group formerly known as Keyakizaka46 stood out in the J-pop idolscape by flipping a familiar idea central to so much 48-or-46 pop (“I’m young! Eeeek!”) into something appropriate for late 2010s youth (“I’m young. Eeeek.”). “BAN” features near-rapped reflections on the unease of growing up and the feeling of not belonging, presenting 21st century burnout (our protagonist starts the song staying up all night watching YouTube on her phone) as gateway into not knowing if said person can ever belong. Acts from the Akimoto expanded universe have done this sort of soul searching over more interesting music, but “BAN” coming out in the year of Ado and amidst J-pop’s general anxious phase is a nice reminder of one of the universal truths of pop — idols always predict where everyone else will go.
News And Views
Several parts of Japan have entered a new State Of Emergency as COVID-19 cases spike again, and it comes right as the summer music festival season appeared ready to start. The “new normal” is off to a shaky beginning, as the Arabaki Rock Fest in Tohoku announced they would be cancelling the gathering, which was expected to happen next weekend. The next test comes at roughly the same time Arabaki was planned to happen, when Japan Jam 2021 goes down in Chiba (technically not in a State Of Emergency!). Still on for now!
Billboard spotlighted one way bigger events could happen in the near future — an app that sounds deeply convoluted. I think Fuji Rock already just made their own?
The circle is complete — Attack! Attack’s! “Stick Stickly” helped inspire the sound of early BABYMETAL, and now said band has released… “Kawaii Cowboys,” a brief interlude of sorts mucking everything up more by adding in elements of country music.
Shukan Bunshun has a feature online by “the only J-pop critic in South Korea” (!?) looking at why J-pop doesn’t have much recognition in the country, and how that might change. It’s a good overview of the topic, going beyond the usual “these two countries have historical tension” to look at specifics (the Korean government not letting much J-pop into the country at all for a long time) and how that shook out long term (young people don’t even know what J-pop is, though this article does overlook that one TikTok trend). Thankfully, this doesn’t turn into lazy “K-pop vs. J-pop” framing, but rather spends time looking at how the two industries have intersected over the years.
The newest insights, though, come on the final two pages, when the piece focuses on two contemporary acts and how they are received. The first is NiziU, the JYP-produced J-pop project that you’d think could have some reverse-import capability, but doesn’t seem to at all. The second is Ado, who represents the new wave of J-pop artists that have emerged in recent years (and, if you’ve read this or anything I’ve written about in the last two years, you know them too…YOASOBI, Zutomayo, Yorushika, King Gnu, HigeDAN, you get it), presenting a new image of what J-pop can be and offering a whole new set of sounds not found in contemporary K-pop, to the point Korea has YouTube channels of people covering this stuff? Really, this is the story of J-pop re-imagining itself reduced to a single country case.Speaking of NiziU! I did an email interview with the group and wrote about the project and what it means for J-pop over at The Japan Times. Echoing the Bunshun article, it seems like NiziU and JO1 have…no real presence in Korea, save for the occassional “look at K-pop in Japan!” praise pieces from the media. Still, both them and whatever Big Hit is planning remains intriguing to watch.
Mamoru Samuragochi, a celebrated deaf composer who turned out to not actually be deaf, returned to the music world to much online jeering this week. Dude should start a project with Enon Kawatani.
I’m truly jealous of what the South China Morning Post is doing in terms of culture coverage, especially seeing as here in Japan *transmission cuts out so I don’t get in trouble.* Devoting lots of digital space to entertainment that people care about…good approach! So, that said, it is funny that one of the few times Japanese music gets attention from SCMP it’s…Ladybeard. Though, mea culpa, the “big in China” angle here is actually really novel.
One of my biggest regrets of 2021 was not really following Chuang 2021 closely. Maybe I’ll binge it during Golden Week! Anyway, three Avex members made the final group, including Mika from INTERSECTION. And look at this detail!
Free from Arashi for a second, Kazunari Ninomiya has rushed out and started a YouTube channel.
Not totally tied to music but….Demon Slayer: Mugen Train earning the best-grossing opening weekend box office for a foreign film in the States means LiSA is involved in yet more history.
Finally, the age of “Useewa” covers reaches its zenith, with Sally Amaki tackling Ado’s big hit.
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)