Make Believe Melodies For August 6, 2024
Continental Chaos
STARKIDS — ASIAX
About a dozen young people flex around what looks like a parking lot. The familiar chant of “team tomodachi!” plays as these kids sporting a mish-mash of Phillies caps, Manchester United jerseys and Raiders shirts among other clothes jump around and mouth along to the Japanese that follows. Yet soon enough, it flips — they are in Myanmar, and when the part where verses start kicks in, they rap in their native tongue, putting a new spin and perspective on the song like so many across the continent have in 2024.
“Team Tomodachi” is just a particularly viral moment spotlighting increased intersection between artists across Asia. Of course musical collision and collaboration has always happened, but in recent years a younger set of creators have accelerated it, thanks to easier ways of connecting and shared energy. Tokyo rabble-rousers STARKIDS’ latest release ASIAX captures this perfectly. Few groups represent the post-2020, Strong-Zero-fueled alternative youth music shift quite like them, and on this EP they link up with a different artist from the region sharing a sonic and lyrical link.
STARKIDS stay frantic as ever, happy to morph their voices and body slam around digital chaos, and now they locate like-minded creators to join in. South Korea’s UNEDUCATED KID adds extra energy to opening flex “BUSY” while Thailand’s TARVETHZ adds a gruff balancing force to the otherwise lithe “DOUGH?” The best comes on nervy closer “NEW SWAG,” where Taiwan’s Losty adds emotional singing to underline why all this self-confidence matters to them. It’s STARKIDS reminding of what they do so well in this space…and finding musical friends beyond their home borders, while becoming part of something even bigger. Listen above.
Pasocom Music Club Featuring tofubeats — “Yuragi”
Surprisingly, this is the first time Kansai electronic artists Pasocom Music Club and tofubeats have appeared on the same song. Sure, they’ve remixed one another and appeared together on how many live bills, but it’s still a nifty moment seeing them come together on the swift “Yuragi,” from the prior’s forthcoming full-length. Here, tofubeats serves as the human core as Pasocom construct a shape-shifting tune around him, going from reflective to racing. Listen above.
POLTA — "Zenkoku Natsuyasumi Taikai Yushoo”
The title translates to “National Summer Vacation Tournament Winner” and the accompanying song delivers on the fantastic title. Long-running duo POLTA don’t sound laid back or even particularly chill here. Rather, they let it sway, capturing the slight slow-motion feel the sweltering weather bring, while celebrating a break that, unfortunately, has to end. Despite that bittersweet fact, they make the most of it. Listen above.
lilbesh ramko — “Usotsuki”
Last week, popular TV show Matsuko No Shiranai Sekai — which finds celeb Matsuko Deluxe learning about a new-to-them “world” — brought on Sasuke Haraguchi to teach the host about “desktop music.” It’s a truly wild piece of television, with time devoted to digging into Vocaloid tutorials and teaching the country about PAS TASTA. One of the best parts come when Haraguchi demonstrates how unique the textures of music from this corner can be, pulling up a lilbesh ramko song (this one, to be specific) and playing it. Let me tell ya, the host and probably the viewership were not ready to hear that kind of digital confusion.
“Usotsuki” further demonstrates what probably left a lot of people dumbfounded…and me super excited. A song is never stable in lilbesh ramko’s hands, and this time around it quivers, breaks apart, buzzes and nearly implodes. Yet key to it all is their ability to thread it together whatever condition it’s in, and come up with something concealing a pop core. Listen above.
callasoiled — EMTE
Speaking of texture, producer callasoiled really gets into it on latest release EMTE. It’s one of their most varied works to date, but one that doesn’t feel like a serious of experiments. For every crunchy and crispy electronic concoction, callasoiled makes room for something like “propagate,” which is surging club fare. Get it here, or listen above.
ONI — “Datsu”
Cwondo and uku kasai have come together to form a new unit called ONI. First offering “Datsu” shows that their underground tendencies — especially uku kasai’s off-kilter production, which gives the track a fever-dream quality — remain intact. Listen above.
m-flo loves Maya — “HyperNova”
Sorry to once again return to a Music Magazine ranking…but one of the great details of its recent 2000s J-pop list is the inclusion of m-flo’s “come again” in the top three. Fantastic song that still sounds fresh and kind of ahead of the curve in 2024 (the jazz elements…man), but one that also deserves the spotlight right now as so many artists around the world go through a Y2K phase and come up with music that…sounds a lot like what m-flo was doing back when the millennium actually arrived.
Fittingly, m-flo itself has stepped back into the spotlight. They never went anywhere really…even the “m-flo loves” series featured a revival not that long ago…but on “HyperNova” they are leaning into the sound of now, which was also the sound of then. Alongside touches of Jersey Club (a genre Taku Takahashi, from seeing his DJ sets and talking with him, has a wild knowledge of), they create a speedy bit of dance-pop anchored by a great vocal from guest Maya, who is a TikTok-famous person of some sort but really steps up for this. The music world has come around to the sound they excelled at…and m-flo proves they can still hang. Listen above.
Consider Going Premium!
You get one bonus post a week. Coming next…a review of Hikaru Utada’s live show in Tokyo from this past weekend.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of July 22 2024 To July 28, 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.
THE RAMPAGE from EXILE TRIBE — “24karats GOLD GENESIS” (219,758 Copies Sold)
Wow, actual intrigue on the Oricon Charts!
THE RAMPAGE beat out a STARTO group to get a number one, and it’s by a really close margin. This is kind of a sequel to the only dramatic moment on Oricon in 2023, when THE RAMPAGE surprisingly held tight against STARTO (then Johnny’s) outfit timelesz1 (then SexyZone) in its quest to get its first number-one single on Oricon. It was a whole to-do, with fans on both sides mobilizing and last second pushes to try to make history…though they fell just short of doing it. The 2024 version of this finds THE RAMPAGE actually triumphing over STARTO, though it isn’t quite as thrilling as it could have been given that 1. THE RAMPAGE actually did get their number one a few months later, making this a little less fantastic and 2. this is a STARTO all-star group releasing a charity single to support the Noto Peninsula following the devastating earthquakes up there at the start of the year. Even the most dedicated Ravers (the, uhhhhh, fan name given to THE RAMPAGE supporters) isn’t going to gloat when the competition is trying to help people.
Yet it’s still a big win for LDH, and a really close sales battle. While not quite as thrilling as what played out last year, this is still one of those times Oricon is useful in modern times rather than a shell of a chart that used to mean something.
(The song is alright, I love maximalism but find the best part of it when they aren’t singing and instead every electronic cliche is getting chucked towards you.)
News And Views
The Quietus asked me to write about the state of underground music in Japan…always a daunting task…but I gave it a go. Thanks to all the artists open to chatting for it! Also working on this made me revisit the inuha album from earlier this year, and I still think it’s 2024’s best.
I also wrote up my report from this year’s Fuji Rock for The Japan Times.
FAKY officially disbands. Honestly…I think they should have actually upped their activities while Anna Sawai continues to get press, which results in outlets like People having to write about a J-pop group from the 2010s.
Yoshiki reached out to fellow X JAPAN member Toshi on Twitter asking “shall we have a talk?” New X JAPAN activities on the horizon? Exciting, but do not let it distract you from how wildly bad Yoshiki appears to be at tweeting. What’s this period at the start stuff? It isn’t 2009 anymore.
I got an email last week announcing that Number_i had signed with Falcon Publicity for English-language promotion. That underlines the trio’s global ambitions. Speaking of them, they grace the cover of Newsweek Japan this week, and I was interviewed by the writer as part of it to talk about how they could fit in the international pop scene.
aespa got the artist behind Pants-Usagi to do a video for their Japanese single.
Clash Magazine call Travis Japan the leaders of J-pop’s new generation.
I don’t have strong opinions on the Ado-produced idol group that recently debuted, but I will say…I saw them appear on a midday variety show last Monday to watch videos of people eating food, and it dawned on me that the group’s main function might be to have actual human representatives for Ado appear on TV, something the singer herself only does as a drawing.
GACKT threw out the first pitch at a Nippon Ham Fighters game.
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
Who will be recruiting new members via a Netflix reality show?!?!?
Faky not getting the promotion they should be getting is really the story of Faky.
Speaking of Y2K, desktop music reminds me of music I was listening to in the late 2000s like FLOPPY. At least no one's reviving that music video aesthetic yet. I hope.