Make Believe Melodies For August 23, 2021
The Post-Fuji-Rock Edition
AAAMYYY — Annihilation
More focused and less stuffy than her previous solo works, Tempalay member AAAMYYY delivers an album delivering on all of the dance-pop promise she’s been extended in the last few years. The key development is a confidence in focusing her synth swirls to create songs with actual motion to them, rather than letting everything spin about into a vaguely neon streak. “Paradox” pairs her own ooohs and ahhhs against a stuttering beat, resulting in a lively rhythm building to a delayed response that adds urgency to an artist who has long preferred to hang around. Same goes for the skittering “Takes Time,” or the particularly swaggering “Tengu,” featuring Zo Zhit of Dos Monos in the album’s only guest spot (with some…ironic…longing for the 2010s?). It’s not all about tempo, as simply opening the emotional stakes on a slow burner like highlight “Utopia” transforms her approach from spacing out to longing for something more. Listen above.
Kyary Pamyu Pamyu — “Genten Kaihi”
The latest edition of “how is Yasutaka Nakata holding up?” finds the producer now not wanting to return to the good ol’ days, despite…the entire sound of his 2021 output. While the lyrics try to avoid looking back, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu’s latest single sounds like her in vintage operating mode, with guitar zips and a chorus of Kyary’s hollering together to kick off this pleasant jog. Listen above.
Tokyo Girls’ Style — “Girls Talk”
The A-side charms in a gravity-stopping sort of way, but leave it to the B-side to totally steal this one. While never marketed as such, Tokyo Girls’ Style have always been ahead of the city pop revival, with some of their 2010s offerings dabbling in a brass-ed-out sound minus the aesthetic awareness that Especia would eventually play with. While not quite as obvious as, say, Philosophy No Dance, “Girls Talk” pushes the jazzy touches to the forefront, along with a particularly smooth bass line. The touch that really does it for me, though, is when they let the time warp slip up by smearing a little Auto-tune on the hook. Listen above.
PEARL CENTER — “NEVER TOO LATE”
I’m pretty excited about PEARL CENTER’s debut next month, and this wispy bit of morning synth-pop gets the indie-pop heart inside beating.
sui21 “Just wanna meet you”
As gloopy and earnest I’ve heard any SoundCloud rapper / HyperPop kid in Japan get.
e5 Featuring HAKU FiFTY “TwoHundredFifty”
Though I have nothing against when this corner of Japanese music embraces the occult vibes and turns intimidating with spooky ASMR whispers. e5 is one of the most exciting creators going in Japan right now in my opinion — this one is behind only “One Last Kiss” in my personal song ranking for 2021 — and “TwoHundredFifty” pinpoints one reason why. I’m eternally in favor of artists warping their voices with electronics, and here e5 (and HAKU FiFTY, good job!) takes her delivery from digi-glazed to electro mangled, making for something wonderfully disorienting, ideal for a song lashing out at civilized society (“shut up rotten adults”).
Just as great to see — artists from this space making videos, because this set of creators are also charismatic as hell.
MIYACHI — “CHU-HI”
Yuriko Koike’s nightmares in video form.
This rules though, both in its Shibuya Meltdown of a video and MIYACHI dropping some zingers here, including a real delight referencing the Family Mart jingle. Also, I hope this means Konbini Confessions is here to stay.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of August 9, 2021 To August 15, 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 trip down…the Oricon Trail.
SixTONES — “Mascara” (496,384 Copies Sold)
Everyone and every sound eventually finds its way to the Johnny’s universe. Add King Gnu and their city-shaded brand of rock to the orbit. Daiki Tsuneta wrote “Mascara,” and elements of the newest SixTONES single features familiar Gnu-school traits — the funk-leaning bass, the more downcast lyrics (at least for this type of pop), and especially that chorus, retrofitting what should have been a scream-along into something a touch more smooth for the less guttural voices of this pop group. For SixTONES, it’s another good interpretation of pop-meets-rock, far better than older groups venturing into territory. As is often the case for established names wandering into this corner, it’s pretty minor for Tsuneta — millennium parade’s “U” remains his high watermark for 2021.
News And Views
Fuji Rock 2021 happened, albeit with a level of scrutiny placed over it I’ve never seen before at any point over the decade-plus time I’ve been in the country. While most of the social media attention eventually settled over the actual performances playing out in Niigata — the YouTube livestream continues to be a vital link for many across the world, with King Gnu’s headlining set Saturday at one point attracting well over 450,000 viewers online — traditional news outlets zeroed in on the risk of COVID-19 hovering over the whole gathering. Like, one station’s six o’clock news program started out with helicopter shots of the ski resort Fuji Rock happens on and devoted nearly 10 minutes to Friday’s opening day. Adding to the attention were multiple artists cancelling either due to worries over the novel coronavirus or because members tested positive for it.
Daily Shincho, meanwhile, ran a story detailing the scene at the fest (Fuji Rock says they didn’t give out any media passes this year…Japan Times writers like myself can confirm that…so this reporter bought a ticket themselves), focusing on the high number of cars with Tokyo license plates present at Fuji Rock (a stat confirmed by actual cell phone data released Monday, with 57 percent of punters hailing from the capital), along with how visitors acted. As this is a tabloid, it gets a little eye-rolley as it goes along…feels like jumping around is the e-gads moment here, and it ends on a totally over the top line about “the cries of medical workers couldn’t be heard at Fuji Rock” (are they also not ringing out in…all the bars and restaurants in Tokyo???). Still, a very real concern does hover over this gathering, while also underlining a whole bunch of other tensions (city vs. rural community, Pro Olympic vs. everyone else, etc.). And it’s set to go through next year!This one falls squarely in the “views” category — Daily Shincho leans conservative, like parent tabloid Shukan Shincho. As Fuji Rock approached and then played out, zeroing in on the revelry people were going to have / had became a huge talking point on Twitter and bulletin boards, many from users…leaning conservative. It gave me memories of Japan’s “anti-dancing” laws from last decade. The difference now? I feel a lot more of the general public responded aghast that Fuji Rock was happening.
Pure speculation…and I’m in a bit of an emotional valley right now, so I’m especially doomer… but I wouldn’t be shocked if we see a swing back to politicians pushing to bring back similar laws under the guise of “COVID-19 prevention.” It’s perfect timing, and I think those outside of the fest / club community would lean towards being OK with it given current case numbers. The reaction from netizens, the media and more to Fuji Rock hint at a greater shift in the atmosphere, and it could be a massive setback for an industry seeing giant players like ageHa preparing to shutter.Momoiro Clover Z cancel huge dome show this September due to current COVID-19 situation.
Chinese actor Zhang Zhehan took some pictures at Yasukuni Shrine. Now his entertainment doesn’t exist in China, at least for now!
YOASOBI’s “Yoru Ni Kakeru” passes 600 million plays on Spotify.
Move over CDs, there’s a new physical powerhouse in Japan — anime.
Way too much text right now…here’s an old ad where penguins visit a human zoo. Please not the main headline of “Penguin Times” at the very beginning.
Mary Fujishima, honorary chairperson of Johnny & Associates, died last week.
It was rumored months ago that, after the end of IZ*ONE, former member and HKT48 superstar Sakura Miyawaki planned to sign with Korean entertainment company HYBE (formerly Big Hit). Now those murmurs are confirmed…sorta. Wow Korea isn’t a trustworthy enough source to just go with this as news, so hold back on the potential “is HYBE creating IZ*ONE light?” Just for now though, because this feels right. But hey, just chill before getting expectations too high.
Spare a thought for the culture writer forced to interview someone in character. I’ve done this several times across my life, sometimes with great results (Pikotaro, knowing enough to reveal how his “producer” created the music) and other times more mixed (in college I interviewed members of the Reno 911 cast as they played…their roles from the show. Entertaining, but nothing for a real story!). This interview with comedy music people Kurupt FM about their new Japan-centric movie is all about the goofs so don’t take it seriously…though can you spot the distortions about the country throughout? Game shows, back in the spotlight.
CAPSULE shared a remastered version of FRUITS CLiPPER, one of (maybe the?) best in their catalog.
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
