Make Believe Melodies For August 9, 2021
With One More Detour Into The Lost Opening Ceremony (I Hope)
NTsKi — Orca
Multiple strains of Japanese experimental music swirl together on NTsKi’s Orca, transforming a pan-archipelago community pushing sound and vocals into new directions into a unified statement. NTsKI is a perfect candidate to not just synthesize all of this, but present it in a way where it never gets too heady, approachable to those planted in left field and the Mad-Decent-adjacent comments in equal measure. She has floated in numerous intersections of this experimental era — contributing to EM Records comps (the label also putting this debut out, alongside Orange Milk Records), working with CVN, appearing at Tokyo party K/A/T/O MASSACRE — while being in Kyoto puts her in the same general geographic zone as like-minded creators.
Some of them actually appear on Orca, specifically fellow Kansai denizens Le Makeup and Dove on the incense-burn synth meditation “On Divination In Sleep.” For the most part, though, NTsKi is channeling the clattering sonic Tetris of Foodman, CVN, Wasabi Tapes and more (the delirious “Kung-Fu,” the stutter stepping “Lán sè”) and the bedroom electronic bliss of the aforementioned Le Makeup and Dove, along with like tamanaramen and even indie-pop acts from the last decade (“H S K,” “Plate Song”). She further nods to deeper roots by covering a Miharu Koshi techno-pop classic.
The references ring throughout, and as a sonic culmination of a variety of trends, it’s fantastic (see also: 4s4ki’s albums from last year, which saw a decade of netlabels, club music, SoundCloud rap and J-pop come together into a new vision forward). It’s one of 2021’s best releases, though, because NTsKi isn’t just pointing to what came before her, but putting her own stamp on it and showing how it remains a sandbox for experimentation (see also: 4s4ki’s albums from last year). That Koshi cover isn’t simply a cool choice, because it’s apt for what NTsKi does so well — like Koshi, she can tie whatever sound is around her into something immediate and catchy with her voice. And she can pivot to pop too, highlighted by Orca’s two curves in the chipper “1992” and the reggae-glazed (!?) closer “Labyrinth Of Summer.” Get it here, or listen above.
valknee And hirihiri — “LIP LACQUER”
Producer hirihiri continues a hell of a HyperPop run in 2021 with this collab, alongside rapper / Zoom Gal valknee for a nice marriage of sound and singing.
Duran Duran Featuring CHAI — “More Joy!”
More notable for how far CHAI has gone in the greater world of music than being a good song (it’s fine). Also because it underlines the general CHAI ethos, at least the one picked up by those outside of Japan which is…cheeriness, but also a touch unsettling. Basically, CHAI made Kyary Pamyu Pamyu’s whole vibe more obvious to a worldwide audience, and are going a long way with it
Soshi Takeda — “Floating Mountains”
This is what staring at a Magic Eye sounds like.
XENO=TEMPEST Featuring cyber milk — “Don’t Forget Anymore (D,F,A)”
Welcome to this week in Japanese HyperPop, a new recurring feature as that’s what 90 percent of my SoundCloud feed looks like now. This hyperactive number illustrates one of my favorite wrinkles to the Japan-specific crop of artists playing around with the title. Whether on purpose or because culture just goes in a loop and someday precocious teens can call it their own by accident, this sounds not too far removed from like Bemani, and is also pure netlabel madness from like 2010. That’s for the newsletter writer to geek out over…most can just get behind the chug of this. Listen above.
Various Artists — Variations Kou
Speaking of netlabels, here’s a perfect check in on that side of Japanese music. A no-concept compilation from Omoide Label, with 36 tracks all over the place absorb. I chose one randomly just now and it was Vocaloid rave-out, so you know it’s a winner. Get it here or listen above.
uami — Hitoi
If NTsKi shows the fleshed-out dimension lurking within Japanese music’s experimental communities, the second album from Fukuoka’s uami reminds how much intrigue rests in the rough sketches. Hitoi serves up a collection of short dispatches (as uami writes it: “my digital sound pack of original pure village songs. there is beauty but uncultivated yet”) that could maybe mutate into something more, but invite listeners into another sonic world all their own (when I said NTsKi was channeling bedroom pop, this is the lane I had in mind). Get it here, or listen above.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of July 26, 2021 To August 1, 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.
Johnny’s West — “Dekkai Ai / Kidoairaku” (202,798 Copies Sold)
Perhaps I’ve just had enough of a bummer summer to miss other developments, but it feels like Johnny’s has just dominated this side of the Oricon charts all season. That shouldn’t be read as surprise however — seeing this feature only looks at the physical-sales dimension of the ranking, that makes sense (“Butter” sits pretty at two on the all-considered list, which feels way more accurate). Still, it’s starting to become a little exhausting, especially when encountering total duds like this from Johnny’s West. Boring rock gestures would have been snoozers in 2010, but now the agency can point to groups doing the style well, making cosplay like this totally unnecessary. Maybe the discomfort at so much Johnny’s isn’t because of the sound of music, but because a lot of the groups taking the top spot have felt so behind the times.
News And Views
Fuji Rock announced they had cancelled Keigo Oyamada’s performance as Cornelius at this year’s Fuji Rock, while METAFIVE will now be represented by…a couple members from the supergroup and some other players. Not surprised on that front, though if you do want a snapshot of how Japanese festival culture differs from elsewhere, there’s no wording approaching the “we won’t stand for this” presentation of, say, Lollapaplooza removing DaBaby from their lineup. Still, the main move stands.
Speaking of…Fuji Rock is still happening! The general buzz in the air now, with COVID-19 cases rising to record highs in Japan, is…will this really go down at the end of August? Until Niigata Prefecture steps in (a la Ibaraki Prefecture for ROCK IN JAPAN), the answer is yes! Here’s how they are hedging their bets.
LiSA and her husband are going on temporary hiatus, probably because the latter was allegedly found cheating on the prior.
The Olympics…over at last! For all of the tension and scandal swirling around the Tokyo Games, the two weeks devoted purely to sports went off about as well as possible. Thankfully, the opening ceremony continues to offer enough fodder to rage at. Around the same time the ho-hum closing ceremony kicked off, Shunkan Bunshun struck again by publishing even more of the scrapped plan created primarily by MIKIKO. Read through it here to feel even worse, though I have a thread hitting on a few major points (video games, were gonna be more prominent!)
Bunshun Shukan ended the Olympics with one final bang...they've gone and shared NEARLY THE ENTIRE MIKIKO PLAN FOR THE OPENING CEREMONY bunshun.jp/denshiban/arti… Something a lot of people were curious about...video games (especially Nintendo) featured much more in the original plan
YOASOBI’s 2020 defining hit “Yoru Ni Kakeru” once again placed behind an age restriction on YouTube. Totally don’t get that…you can find no shortage of “hmmmm does this COVID-19 vaccine actually work???” videos, but this is the thing that needs to get flagged.
Mnet settled with 11 out of 12 contestants on Produce 48. Are you one of the 11? Are you the 12th? Get in touch with me!
KOHH wrote a song for Johnny’s group V6 — check the results below. Skittery trap beat!
NiziU…smashing it for JYP, it appears! J-pop wins again (I kid, I kid).
I interviewed former AKB48 member, Produce 48 participant and Mystic Story trainee Miyu Takeuchi for The Japan Times. This obviously hits on a lot of things I’m fascinated by, but I do think the main focus should be on her efforts to go independent…a move that is becoming more and more common.
The Masked Singer is coming to Japan…and here are what the costumes will look like. Which one will Pikotaro be in?????
To close it out…some city pop miniatures.
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies