Make Believe Melodies For August 22, 2022
I'm Starting To Think Twitter Might Not Be All That Good For Society
Mass Of The Fermenting Dregs — Awakening:Sleeping
Maturation doesn’t mean having to settle down. Mass Of The Fermenting Dregs appeared to move into more contemplative territory on 2018 post-hiatus full-length No New World, plunging ahead at the same speed as their early days but with the pure force making way for deeper reflection. Awakening:Sleeping shows a balance between both is possible…and sometimes you just have to thrash out and indulge in eight-minute Krautrock jams. What starts out as familiar sonic territory as No New World soon gives way to the sludgier tones of “MELT” and the slow-burning instrumental “1960,” itself a kind of look back but one more interested in psychedelic drives than emotional probing. Fermenting Dregs invite friends into the mix this time around, with the highlight going to Bo Ningen’s vocal firebomb Taigen Kawabe opening up the pit on “Helluva.” By the time the trio reach the final comedown of “Just,” the sweetness and melancholy feels earned, while serving as a nice reminder that exploration both musical and emotional doesn’t stop. Get it here, or listen above.
Monari Wakita — “La Shangri La”
The dream of the 2010s carries on! Former Especia member Monari Wakita links up with early city-pop revivalist / afternoon-disco demigod Dorian on “La Shngri La,” and while the neon-bright glow of their work last decade hangs overhead, this actually stays moving forward. Dorian picks up the pace for a late-night club strutter, moving quickly enough to avoid too much reflection (and adding in an acid breakdown for listeners to lose themselves in, for good measure). Wakita keeps up the pace, showing a skill to navigate swifter songs like this and remind of her versatility. Listen above.
nonamera — My name is…
Last year’s “Dye In Lily” charmed with its delirious pop mutations, and now nonamera offers a whole EP worth of modern musical trip-outs. Despite an image leaning in on the trippy and prescription-pill-after-effects, nonamera works best when moving quickly, and letting her voice warp into its own multi-layered force, twisting around drum ‘n’ bass or buzzsaw electronics. Listen above.
e5 — Fairy Egg
Sorta in the opposite direction, the latest EP from e5 follows up the frantic HyperPop wave of Cassette with an exploration of roomier numbers allowing her space to stretch out. She’s not taking a breather — e5 is still turning her voice into a musical whip, even when the tempo is a touch less rave-y — but seeing how she fits into different sonic spaces, and what she can do with them (see also: “Mine”). And she ends with one fireworks display on closer “You&Me,” a dank-club banger showing how she navigates more sustained melodies rather than fidgety SoundCloud creations. Listen above.
Ali — “Don’t u Know”
Everyone wants to be emo, nobody wants to let their emotions consumer them like a giant, moody whale. Ali teases now ubiquitous guitar melodies pointing towards sad-sack musings, but instantly ups the ante by letting bass burbles and synth stutters take over. A good way of using sound as a way to up the feeling within, rather than just a signifier of “I’m not happy : (.” Listen above.
STUTS, Julia Wu And 5lack — “World’s End”
Come for the continued intersection of Japanese music with the greater Asian artistic community (here through Taiwan-based creator Julia Wu), stay for the late-song sax. Listen above.
ExWHYZ — “Wanna Dance”
The EMPiRE is over, long live the EMPiRE. Specifically, Universal Music scooping up the outfit, rebranding them ExWHYZ, and prepping them as an outfit backed by all-star domestic and international producers ahead of a fall debut. Not sure what that can mean, but I’m pro “Wanna Dance,” from its light TRF-referencing video (just a smudge of ‘90s nostalgia) to the Shinichi Osawa-produced track propelling the six members forward. Specifically, I’m a sucker for the “dance with me” break, not going full goofball like vintage Toshinobu Kubota but adding enough levity to an otherwise dramatic offering from the Mondo Grosso mastermind. Listen above.
Shine Of Ugly Jewel — Sookon
Pretty light vibe this week…let’s change that with the latest from Kyoto’s Shine Of Ugly Jewel, starting with constricting waves of sound and capped off by…something dubbed “witch phonk?” And it delivers on that promise! Get it here.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of August 08, 2022 To August 14, 2022
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.
M!LK —”Kiseki Ga Sora Ni Koi Wo Hibikaseta” (29,092 Copies Sold)
Guys, guys! The usual suspects are away this week, get in here! We got some unfamiliar faces for these parts putting up garbage numbers, c’mon in!
No Johnny’s, no idol outfit ending in a number, no K-pop, not even a surprise enka hit. Instead, we get Stardust Promotions’ M!LK with an upbeat number that reminds…even if the names atop the chart change, the same peppy idol sound persists. Though I don’t see any HYBE sharing a “pool version” of the song, complete with audible splashes.
Second place went to Love! Live group Liella!, who I actually saw at Summer Sonic this weekend, which…transition time!
News And Views
Summer Sonic happened! The final big fest of the summer schedule played out concurrently in Tokyo (well, Chiba but close enough) and Osaka, featuring a mix of big-name international acts and domestic performers. I attended both days of the Tokyo leg, and will write something more detailed for The Japan Times later this week, but for the majority of it I mostly felt like…the vibe was perfect, and this was the closest to a “normal” music festival Japan has seen in the COVID-19 era. Foreign acts seemed genuinely thrilled and at times overwhelmed to be performing in the nation, while I got the sense Japanese groups really brought their A-game, and I saw some really fantastic stuff. Lots of fun, too! Megan Thee Stallion cosplayed as Sailor Moon! Fun fun fun!
Well, fun at the venue. The moment you turned to Twitter, controversies emerged. Saturday saw a pair of trending incidents involving Japanese acts. Long-running metal goofballs Maximum The Hormone allegedly made fun of non-Japanese performer’s attempts at Japanese during their set, though…and I’m working on this…no video of this occurrence has appeared online and nobody has provided an actual quote of what is said, just general “can you believe they did that?” reaction.1
Later, quartet King Gnu found themselves in the crosshairs after their drummer put tape over his nipples in reference to Eurovision winner’s Måneskin’s bass player Victoria De Angelis, who performed with black “x’s” over her breasts during the Italian group’s preceding set. He said “I’m Victoria,” and…that was it, a quick gag. This lead to a lot of anger on social media, and essays about the state of Japanese music based off these two incidents.
One set of people who seemed to not care at all…Måneskin, who snapped a picture with the band the next day in Osaka. There’s also a whole thing about how King Gnu lent the Italians a snare during their Tokyo set, and that the whole thing was more lightheartedNow today, online outrage…I think?…has turned to ONE OK ROCK, who put on a packed and high-energy penultimate set at Chiba’s ZOZO Marine Stadium last night. Lead singer Taka urged the audience to sing along with the band, despite COVID-19 restrictions urging people to not do that, though he said you should and “he’d risk being banned to do this.” Japanese media has zoomed in on this — again, though, only online voices — but are totally ignoring how nearly every Western artist did the exact same thing. I saw this! Part of the backlash stems from other Japanese acts — Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, HYDE, Wanima, King Gnu (!) and several more — making a more pronounced effort to tell the crowd to avoid singing, and instead clap.
Hmmmm, starting to think Twitter might be bad for society. Ahhh well, I’ll keep using it.
Snow Man, take us away from this, to the not-at-all-problematic land of TikTok! The Johnny’s outfit launched an official TikTok account, a big step for the once internet-phobic…but now at least open to it…agency.
God, so much happened the last few days that I forgot that Ado and Sheena Ringo collaborated on a song. That was the biggest news before the weekend! One generation passing the baton to the next (to a creator who also clearly idolizes Ringo, natch).
Speaking of Ado, I wrote about her second live show ever, held at Saitama Super Arena, for The Japan Times. I think it’s pretty fascinating how any modern pop star can go so far while shrouding her face in total shadow!
While on the self-promotion train, I interviewed Nanako Sato. Extremely lovely person with a fascinating life story…an aspiring gymnast whose career was derailed by memory loss and the writer behind Pizzicato Five’s “Twiggy Twiggy”…and who invited me to a Thai film screening afterwards (I had errands to run). She’s an artist capturing the the last days of “new music” before the bubble consumed it all.
TERIYAKI BOYZ performing at an 88Rising event…INI at KCON…good week for J-pop in LA.
Tatsuro Yamashita appears to still be getting into performance shape following a bout with COVID-19, with two big shows at Nakano Sun Plaza postponed.
Look, I’m going to be honest with you…sometime around Girls Planet 999, my interest in singing survival shows flatlined, not helped by Japan’s absolute abundance of them over the past year. So yeah, I’m not following HYBE’s wolf-themed program &Audition — The Howling but I guess Scooter Braun will appear on the finale. Uhhh, cool? Sure that will swing the voters on Weverse towards a certain pack (I assume they do packs or something given the theme).
Aina The End is…Janis Joplin.
RIP a viral hit
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
Follow the Best of 2022 Spotify Playlist Here!
Still in the process of sorting through this…but the big point of contention is that Maximum The Hormone were specifically making fun of The Linda Linda’s with this…but based on everything I’ve heard, including from interviews I conducted today with actual eyewitnesses, this just isn’t true, and is projection stemming from (seriously) one blog post. If I were to offer some informed speculation at the moment…the band did a more general, still dumb but not nearly as transgressive as Twitter is making it out to be, gag where drummer Nao said since Summer Sonic is a big international festival, she would pretend to be an international artist. That’s when she said “konichiwa” with a slight accent and made a food joke. Dumb…this is Maximum The Hormone we’re talking about…but ultimately not as malicious as Twitter voices have presented it to be (and…won’t include this in any story…I swear I saw them do the exact same routine at Summer Sonic 2013, their first time ever at the fest, complete with food jokes). Stay tuned for more.