Make Believe Melodies For December 5, 2022
"All Night Thing" aka my timeline for putting these newsletters together
Sayonara Ponytail — Yoru No Dekigoto
Sometimes you have to stop and think about how weird an idol’s life can actually get. I remember interviewing multiple groups back in the day, and learning that…since they were all technically under the legal drinking age when they were acting as performers…they’d have to wake up for like 5 a.m. sets at clubs, because that technically when they could take the stage without breaking any rules. That image has always stuck with me — a bunch of young kids just suddenly appearing in someone else’s all-nighter, to sing ahead of first train.
I love that Sayonara Ponytail’s new album focuses on the night, and offers music matching the mood after hours, which is often at odds with the zip idol groups…even the alternative ones…have to provide. The songs on Yoru No Dekigoto unfold at half speed, or offer staggering funk (“Curious Girl”), or even dip into something approaching city pop (“Sunset”). It’s reflective and a little bit lonely, even when focusing on lightweight topics like eating late-night pizza. It’s a pop snapshot of what being out late really feels like, in both its glory and gutter-worthy moments. And it makes me think of how much the members of this long-running group have experienced after the sun sets, and how it shaped the groove of this full-length. Listen above.
Cwondo — “Baby Kasutera”
Reflection doesn’t have to be, like, clean cut. Shit can get strange. “Baby Kasutera” is meditation Chipmunked, with sampled voices pitched up over delicate soundscapes…which themselves turn into vapor in the second half of this song. A real sauna-like trip. Listen above.
JUJU — “WATCH WHAT YOU BE”
We all deserve a night out at the club, even if staying out past last train might end up detrimental for us in the week after. I associate JUJU more with upscale jazz bars than Shibuya dancefloors, but on “WATCH WHAT YOU BE” from the otherwise placid Hana EP she teams up with Shinichi Osawa to cut loose. Backed by a jubilant beat, JUJU lets off some steam and shows some welcome sonic variety. Listen above.
STARKIDS — “REDLINE”
Pure adrenaline rush made stronger by bass revs from a group that excels at delivering the fuel of youth in music form. Listen above.
ASP — “I Won’t Let You Go”
WACK youngsters slow down from pop clanging to offer some well-earned reflection. Yet this near-ballad ends up every bit as experimental as the more mainline ASP numbers, using vocal effects, and a swirling of guitars and machines to generate a warm sonic backdrop for the group to play around in. Turns out they can do the heartfelt stuff just as well as the anarchy. Listen above.
Lucky Kilimanjaro — “Hitosuji Sasu”
Lucky Kilimanjaro primarily work with a Technicolor assortment of colors — they are a Gymboree class built for the big stage, celebrating the magic of creativity and experiencing music, in as unsubtle a way as possible. Here, then, is an unexpected mood — being in a state less than 100%. Lucky Kilimanjaro use less syllables than usual to express loneliness and longing, coming the closest they’ve been yet to being a Zoomer-ready Sakanaction in using dance music structure to create an all-together-now number (it’s probably the closest they’ll come to the tension-release of this). Uplift finds a way, but via a feeling they’ve tried to sidestep. Listen above.
Cuffboi — turbooNe.
Thank goodness the internet-first approach ethos found with hyperpop-adjacent artists remains relatively strong in Japan. Cuffboi could easily be trying to flip his whole thing into a more mainstream-baiting enterprise if he wanted…and yet here he is, just dropping three songs of digi-blow-out on SoundCloud for all the world to hear. Listen above.
Dempagumi.inc — “Augmented Ojichan”
Idols might not be at the center of J-pop in modern times…but that’s only because they’re out on the frontier, blazing the path all Japanese…and, eventually, global…artists will find themselves on. We salute your service.
Dempagumi.inc asks…what if we fast-forward through the Y2K revival and go straight to the Nico Nico Douga re-evaluation? As much as I wish this was the reason for it all, the truth is an emergent interest in all things late 2000s has started seeping up in Japan, powered by YouTube creators leaning into the robo voice featured at the beginning of this clip (though I’ve also seen Nico Nico club nights at smaller venues…we long for 2007). Complicating it all, Dempagumi center this song on…an augmented grandpa, who like, has weird cyborg memories of 2000s Akihabara? In the video, when he puts on the Dempagumi shirt I considered buying multiple times in like 2012, a chill runs through my body.
Everything about “Augmented Ojichan” is kinda perfect in both how it approaches and skewers nostalgia. That it all comes wrapped in the frantic style of pop Dempagumi.inc has always done well — dempa song melting down into all kinds of sub-segments, yet working together with the main thrust — is comforting, like seeing Mona. A sign of…some times. Listen above.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of November 21, 2022 To November 27, 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.
Kenshi Yonezu — “KICK BACK” (300,563 Copies Sold)
Again…I still haven’t seen a second of Chainsaw Man.
What I continue to appreciate about Kenshi Yonezu is how he can do whatever he wants and register a hit. If he’s not still the biggest J-pop act going in the country (only because he isn’t releasing new music at a social-media-age clip), he’s achieved a status where when he does decide to do something…say, drop a Monster-Energy-ied anime opening number…everyone pays attention. “KICK BACK” is a hit, dominating Billboard and scoring Global Viral success in part owing to its anime connection, but it’s also weird as hell. A jack-knife rock number that turns into Soviet-style fanfare come the breakdown before revving up one more time…and like, Yonezu puts on fake-juiced arms in the video so he can combat the dude from King Gnu. Shit is weird, and that this is such a dominant hit reminds me of why I love J-pop in contemporary times. Listen above.
News And Views
I threaten to write posts all the time without delivering on them…but maybe I’ll write more about this [lolz]? ‘90s J-pop trio Black Biscuits, who scored a defining Heisei hit with “Timing,” got back together for a TV appearance this weekend. You can see it here until it inevitably gets pulled. Anyway, stay tuned, it’s an important development for both how the ‘90s get remembered and the story of how J-pop traveled internationally.
Next year’s Primavera Sound will feature Perfume, Boris and Kyary Pamyu Pamyu on the bill.
Arama Japan!….is now Nante Japan.
Ryuichi Sakamoto has a lot of projects coming up, including a streamed live show next Sunday and a tribute album out now featuring “remodels” courtesy of Thundercat, Devonte Hynes and Fennesz among others. That “among others” is actually important because…this is probably the first significant encounter Western media will have with Cornelius since the 2020 Olympic Opening Ceremony scandal. While Japan and the bulk of Asia moved on from that (the number of festivals across the continent Keigo Oyamada has played just this fall is kinda staggering!), the English-language press tends to hold on to these things longer…but now, we get a test case. So far, most outlets have mentioned Cornelius in news postings (not a forgone conclusion!), but keep an eye on any reviews that come in the next few days.
Related-ish…Light In The Attic announced a new edition of their Pacific Breeze series of city pop reissues for a February 2023 release. While the immediate hook has been on how all three members of Yellow Magic Orchestra are featured in some role on the songs selected, I’m mostly struck by this being an effort to kickstart a Shibuya-kei revival…most obviously from the inclusion of Pizzicato Five, a group bridging the gap between “city pop” and ‘90s cool.
HYBE group formed through TV show to put on performance next week.
Let’s check in on the Kanye subreddit…
uhhhhhh “cool, Japan!”?
Number Girl to perform on a Japanese morning TV show next Friday. Brace yourselves, housewives and Twitter users sharing morning show content exclusively!
I talked with author and Cool Japan Ambassador Benjamin Boas about his new book From “Cool Japan” To “Your Japan,” a history of how Japan has been recieved globally along with critique of the Cool Japan apparatus and proposition on how to do it. Great chat, and came at a time when Cool Japan was once again in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
Choreographer MIKKIKO coming to…a superstar figure skating event.
Pitchfork followed Otoboke Beaver around.
Fuwachan met Maroon 5. Fuwachan, be careful in the DMs!
I don’t even know where to begin with Tumblr’s year-end lists looking at what users on the platform were most interested in. I guess this is solid starting point:
I don’t know how big Tumblr really is in 2022 — it is a site constantly referenced by online culture writers, especially in the wake of the Elon-ing, but I also am not sure how much of that is owed to a group of journalists needing to dig into every nook and cranny to find something to talk about — but it’s a good example of our fragmented reality, and how you can’t just turn to a single ranking and / or space to make decisive comments about anything in the 21st century. Tons to unpack for Japanese pop culture, but for the purpose of this newsletter…gaze upon the “music groups” offering and witness AKB48, Dir En Grey and Nogizaka46 all make the top 50. Sure, K-pop gets siloed into its own lists (as does anime), but still…what a world.How does Japan keep winning in the World Cup???1 Well…
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
Follow the Best of 2022 Spotify Playlist Here!
Sent before the Croatia game, just in case.