Make Believe Melodies For August 26, 2024

I'm GOOFY (And SLEEP EXHAUSTED)

Gokou Kuyt — I’m BACK

Rapper Gokou Kuyt is back to celebrate the castoffs. Over the course of 18 minutes, he roars back from a two-year hiatus to big up the NEETs of the world, complain about social-media character limits and celebrate the inward-looking artists of the world. Multiple songs on I’m BACK reference the first-person shooter Escape from Tarkov — most notably the woozy “Peacekeeper,” which sent me down a lore hole —  and that feels like an anthem for someone like Kuyt. This isn’t a meek tip-toe back onto the stage though, but rather an artist reminding of what makes them so special and influential as they bumrush the spotlight.

To really grasp the importance of I’m BACK, it’s important to take a step back and appreciate how important Gokou Kuyt is to the current state of underground Japanese music. This dude served as a bridge between rap and what we would now call “hyperpop” corners of the scene all the way back before the pandemic, floating over vital underground cuts and remixing K-rap bops before teaming up with left-field creators. Beyond his sonic versatility, Kuyt offered one of the most unique…and telling…viewpoints of an artist from this period, fixated on the life of a shut-in who still wanted to get out there and live his rap dreams, even if all they amounted to was buying snacks in Koenji.

I’m BACK is pure re-establishment, Kuyt right back in to celebrating the life of the outsider, framed as the champion. On the second song here — “Go!” featuring BHS Svve — he declares everyone who attends Tokyo University as an idiot, while comparing lesser rappers to Verbal while he’s “a NEET.” The beats mostly remain icy and skeletal enough for his worldview to develop, though he’s open to mixing it up, as he does on the rollicking “Bill Evans No Piano,” wherein he compares the object of his affection to…Bill Evan’s piano. Here’s an artist who was once ahead of the times returning after the scene he influenced has gone supernova…and sounding every bit as essential to it as ever. Listen above.

Summer Eye — “Suika”

As the summer comes to a close, I think one of the best performances I saw during the season was Summer Eye at Fuji Rock. For the first song, dude wandered into the crowd, set up a ladder, climbed up it, and then opened an orange-and-white parasol while he sand, bringing weird beach energy to a ski resort in July. The central sound, though, remained the same as it did on a 2023 album that still charms — seaside dance sounds mixed with an indie-rock sensibility. “Suika” embodies all of these traits, while being effortlessly catchy AND ready for the bonfire (the whistling). Get it here.

tamanaramen — “Heart Dance”

Emotion buried deep within the club. Listen above.

xeno(n) — “Fuyu / Desire”

Two songs focusing on the out-of-body feel brought together, to delirious results. The latest from xeno(n) teases Brooklyn Drill as it navigates lither areas, before changing gears and turning totally unnerving (but also emphatic). That it shifts AGAIN towards the revelatory is all the more wonderful. Listen above.

tomodati — “MY LIFE NEVER ENDS”

There’s a small list of artists who I feel like I should write about more, but who are so busy and prolific where I feel like I’m perpetually behind, and thus kind of give up. I think tomodati definitely fall under this category, as this band / project / person (??) releases new songs at a quick clip while performing live all the time, tot he point where I feel I’ve totally missed the chance to feel like I know what wave they are on. Yet I love the romantic swell of “MY LIFE NEVER ENDS,” a vocally distorted number all about the joys of close communication. It speaks to what I love so much about the project as a whole — it feels on a surface level like it’s getting subversive, but at its core it is just some folks getting vulnerable over interesting electronic sounds (bonus points for smudged vocals). Listen above.

milkeystain — mirage

I remain fascinated in the many ways modern creators utilize the voice of Hatsune Miku. Omoide Label presents a way I rarely encounter in 2024…but which feels oddly timeless, via milkeystain’s pop-punk mutations with Vocaloid in the central space. I fully admit to not being well versed in this corner of the style…but am intrigued in how Miku’s digi-sing works so well in the context. Get it here, or listen above.

Tokyo Moso Map — “Hotel New Atami”

As documented around these parts before, I’m fascinated by the ‘80s glitz of Atami, Tokyo’s seaside escape. This corner of Shizuoka Prefecture represents the peak of leisure for the capital, and it perseveres despite the very un-relaxing realities of now. All credit to fledgling idol Tokyo Moso Map for a tribute to the Showa charms of hotels in the area crossed with the reality of needing a break in the 21st century of “Hotel New Atami,” a resort that doesn’t exist. Fitting for a song about the unrelenting march of time…once a place where you’d kill to own property, Atami is now a place to escape to briefly, and a place where suckers buy. Moso Map specifically mentions the property Bubble popping, and how the once luxurious touches of the area have to face the reality of change and adapt to less glamorous change (“wi-fi” being presented as a selling point). Here’s a biting take on how high-status places change over time, complete with vaguely Hawaiian breakdown. Listen above.

Oricon Trail For The Week Of August 12 2024 To August 18, 2024

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.

Morning Musume. 24 — “Nandaka Sentimental Toki No Uta / Sai KIYOU” (103,399 Copies Sold)

Patrick From August 30: Oh, hey me.

Patrick From August 26: Dang, what’s up? You get that Music Magazine “2010 J-Pop Best Songs 100” list written up or no?

Aug. 30: I did, but just barely. You know how it goes…hope you like feeling groggy on a Saturday morning. That’s kind of why I’m here actually…look, I know you’re busy, you are about to spend a whole Tuesday at Narita Airport trying to finish a Japan Times profile by the end of the night, and you are going to be STRESSED. My man, the sauna on Thursday…nirvana. But I do want to incept a little about this Morning Musume song into the round-up.

Aug. 26: Oh, really? Any reason why?

Aug. 30: When I was typing up that 2010s list I was like…where was “Beyond the time and space” on here? It made me realize how shortchanged Hello! Project and especially Morning Musume has been in the years since its late ‘90s peak. To be expected…but they are still making bangers, and I wanted you to stress how this “Sentimental” song is both lyrically clever and musically fantastic. You pick up on this? You hear that line about going to the convenience store and staring at all the yummy products, but settling for the same thing?

Aug. 26: My man, you think I would miss such a relateable lyric? I think you are paranoid about…us. This song is fantastic, one of the wildest productions out of the Hello! Project universe in years…like, this is jazz recorded from three rooms down, during idol dance practice, but the song knowing just when to go maximalist. It’s one of the weirdest idol songs I’ve heard all year…and that’s before the guitar solo playing out from a broom closet comes in…and a reminder that while Hello! Project kinda exists just outside of the mainstream spotlight, the whole universe continues to produce really interesting songs. I thought it would peak with “Now Now Ningen” but nope, still going strong.

Aug. 30: Alright, awesome. I just wanted to check that I didn’t screw this up, I think this feature is so bogged down by STARTO and assorted K-pop-inspired acts and the actual K-pop acts that you hate but are a little too cowardly to come out swinging against fully that it could read as exhausted at times.

Aug. 26: I appreciate it, but I can hear a great idol song…like, truly clever stuff…when it manages to climb up Oricon. Well, thanks for checking in!

Aug. 30: No problem! Try to get some sleep this week!

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News And Views

• One of the more foolish gambits I attempted in recent weeks was applying for a press pass to Fujii Kaze’s “Feelin’ Good” stadium show in Yokohama, in an effort to see what all the excitement about him live truly was. This was stupid because I had family visiting the same weekend, which would have resulted in one hell of a professional-personal tightrope walk. Thankfully, I was rejected, so all good (truly…I’m so wiped out right now). Especially since the whole dang concert was uploaded to YouTube via Kaze’s official page, below, meaning I can watch him play a piano in the middle of a pitch and later perilously ride a bike around said venue at my own pace.

On the second day of the biggie-sized performance, Kaze announced his second Asia tour, slated for later this year, and playing out in much larger spaces as opposed to the intimate venues for his piano-only jaunt from last year. He wasn’t alone…

• YOASOBI performed at Creativeman’s Summer Sonic Bangkok festival this past weekend, and upon its conclusion announced its own level-up tour of Asia set for early 2025. Pretty rosy for Japanese acts, right? Well, let’s splash some water on it…
  

• Late tonight (Monday evening, was having a Saizeriya feast with aforementioned family in town), MILLENNIUM PARADE announced it was cancelling its upcoming September world tour, which would have brought Daiki Tsuneta’s project to North America and Europe. The group cites the inability to bring “the high-quality performances that we strive for at each show” as the reason for calling off the jaunt. That’s totally possible, especially given the high-concept turn the group has taken as of late¹…I’m not sure how many people have noticed, but they’ve introduced a whole like virtual world and intricate story the band is tied to now…though I personally think it probably involves a bit more than that, including a fair amount of miscalculation.
  
  I think this is the first real air ball of the 2020s era of J-pop, at least when it comes to international touring. I think it’s also quite instructive about how the industry needs to approach the global live market moving forward…when I say “miscalculation” above, I’m wrapping a bunch in there, but the biggest one is the MILLENNIUM PARADE team choosing to bypass the Asian circuit and instead zoom straight into the West. This was a pretty daunting undertaking — tied up with Goldenvoice, with shows set up in pretty well-known venues in both continents that were also decently sized². MILLENNIUM PARADE have done alright around the world…but this was a huge plunge for a group that is, to most people, the side project from the guy in the band who did the Jujutsu Kaisen song.
  
  Compare that to Kaze and YOASOBI, two artists whose first propulsion outside of Japan came from the nearby continent…which I’d say is true for Tsuneta and MILLENNIUM PARADE too…and which both prioritized playing around Asia first before heading out West. And neither have forgotten…YOASOBI are coming off a hallmark year of global touring, while Kaze completed a well-received and sold-out piano tour of the States that points to even bigger things ahead in the country, but both announced tours of Asia because they know that’s the true base of what they do. This isn’t some revolutionary strategy either…this is literally what K-pop has done in the 21st century to achieve the status it boasts today, with the Western stuff being a big ol’ cherry on top. This is the foundational market.
  
  The MILLENNIUM PARADE cancellation shows the importance of starting local and then growing outwards. I think there’s practical reasons for this…Asian audiences know Tsuneta through all his machinations, and probably could have given the project some buzz, while a continental jaunt would have also given them more time to release music from this current era, which only boasts two songs as of writing. The folks in his orbit know this too…this is what King Gnu has done³. Yet here a Japanese artistic collective thought they could go straight to what has traditionally been the hardest market to break into without doing the legwork, while those in their orbit know you’ve got to stay connected with the fans closest to you.

• Avex announced plans to livestream the upcoming a-nation festival event, the first of its kind held in four years. A huge step forward for the company, and big news for fans who can’t make it out to the event.
  

• My Summer Sonic report went up in The Japan Times. My hottest take: headliners won’t matter in the future, and hell I think the artists they get to open the festival might end up more important.
  

• Bruno Mars proved his weeb credentials during his last visit to Japan…covering “Heavy Rotation,” ONE OF US…so naturally he had to go a step further to stand out from the ever-increasing crowd. Which is why I assume he decided to star in a fittingly janky commercial for Japanese retail bazaar Don Quijote, below. I actually went to this wonderland of crap recently⁴…bringing my visiting family, natch…and they were basically looping this video in store.

• As the first person to write about Gacha Pop for English media, I follow all news about the playlist very carefully, because I’m batshit insane. This week…Spotify’s editorial / PR arm wrote about Gacha Pop, which is a pretty straightforward overview. YET it includes a small interview with Hoshimachi Suisei, well played.
  

• Real Sound, meanwhile, looks at the rise of “Y2K” era Japanese bands gaining attention overseas. I think this one gets a little shaky…Fishmans is pretty clearly from the ‘90s, and we’ve reached a saturation point in global attention heaped on them, to the point where I’m begging people to listen to anything else from that decade just to mix it up…but I think the attention placed on tommy febraury6 is interesting, and points towards what I think will come next.
  

• New York hololive concert looks like it went well!
  

• I fucked up not going to the NIGHT HIKE event in Shibuya this past weekend. Though I think it was so popular that lots of people couldn’t get in to half the venues?
  

• This probably should be a post all its own once it comes out. Thai pop group Pretzelle (“CRY MORE BABY” goes) announced that they also have a new…animated group called PRETZ, with a debut song out later this month produced by Giga and TeddyLoid. Ado-core goes global, stay tuned for more on the biggest development in modern J-pop making a splash since that Hong Kong group ripped off YOASOBI.

• Speaking of Thai pop, I contributed to This Side Of Japan’s look at Thai songs from 2024 worth checking out.
  

• GOOD POP fan art.
  

• Look, getting ahead of myself here but…if (IF) Oasis get back together and if (IF) the Gallagher brothers can go more than 10 minutes without choking one another out, the Japanese summer festival that books them will be legendary. And honestly…this is a make-or-break moment for Fuji Rock, this could keep them afloat for five years.
  

• United Nations of Miku
  
  Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
  Twitter — @mbmelodies

  Follow the Best Of 2024 Spotify Playlist here!
  

1. Full disclosure: I was hired to write a bio for MILLENNIUM PARADE ahead of the first single from this new era, “GOLDENWEEK,” and I feel its fair to say the biggest challenge was trying to make sense of this immersive world Tsuneta has attempted to build. Maybe I failed too!

2. A quick check of ticket sales sites for any of the gigs that haven’t been taken down yet reveal none have sold out.

3. There’s no pulling back the curtain when I say the real mistake here is…Tsuneta sees King Gnu as geared towards domestic and Asian audiences, while MILLENNIUM PARADE is his vision of what would be respected in the West, which I think is what matters most to him. I gathered this from the time I interviewed him back in the day for The Japan Times. Problem is…people in the West will buy tickets for the project that sounds like King Gnu now, that divide is dead.

4. Family review: “I was pretty let down by it.”