Make Believe Melodies For December 2, 2024
I'm falling for you (after largely dismissing you)
Yuma Abe — Hotel New Yuma
I have never really been charmed by Yuma Abe. His first band never young beach had its moments, but always came off as cloying and dull during a late 2010s period with far edgier rock outfits going. His solo work, meanwhile, has felt overly reverent. Abe adores Haruomi Hosono — and to his credit, he’s received the blessing of Hosono over the years — but the albums and EPs he’s released in the 2020s feel like sonic dress up, of a guy who loves this older artist and wants to recreate his vibe at the expense of anything defining him. Imagine someone cosplaying as Tropical Dandy.
Accordingly, I didn’t go into Hotel New Yuma expecting much beyond some store-brand soy sauce music. Yet here’s one of the most pleasant surprises of the year…while still flexing his love of Hosono’s tropical period, Abe has started feeling more confident in his own songwriting and peculiarities. Hotel New Yuma plays with nostalgia, but finds a way to make it feel ready for now rather than a museum piece.
There’s admittedly a kind of silly framing as this as a soundtrack for a variety show — I see he took notes from fellow Hosono fan Ginger Root — that results in the very first song here being terrible, and every time I watch the video for it I come really close to deleting all of this. Yet after that one, pretty smooth sailing! Where the opener fails is trying to hard to charm, whereas everything else feels content to unfold more slowly, aiming for vibe rather than energy. The percussion leans spacious and the guitar leaving plenty of room for Abe to stretch out. Female backing vocals add a sweetness to songs both silly (“Yukaina To Kosa”) and tender (“I’m falling for you”), though even without Abe’s able to build sweltering funk strolls that stand as the most fun tunes he’s composed thus far in his solo career (“Sore Ga Kimochii”).
The Hosono worship still bleeds through — again, points to Abe, he chooses the best period of Hosono to draw from — but it’s the little weird bursts of personality that really make this his Hotel New Yuma. He’s playful vocally, getting downright silly on the strut of “Shiranai Futari,” a song also including the spoken-word delivery he breaks out at multiple times throughout the album, which is supposed to sound like a throwback but feels more like his own wrinkle to it all. For the first time yet in his career, Abe looks towards Hosono, but comes out finding himself. Listen above.
4s4ki — “Mona Lisa”
Alright, while here’s an artist I don’t have a complicated relationship with…4s4ki, still out here making emotionally vulnerable electronic pop I’m all in on. “Mona Lisa” features mutated vocals and a club-ready bounce, creating tension between the accessible and the manipulated. Listen above.
rinahamu Featuring SEBii And KOTONOHOUSE — “U:CONNECT”
Who says all this digital-era pop needs to be miserable when it comes to feelings? “U:CONNECT” is downright overflowing with love, with rinhamu and guest SEBii sounding downright bubbly as they float over the electronic fizz beneath them. The MVP, though, is KOTONOHOUSE, who created this effervescent beat and made sure to keep it a touch unpredictable, with a sharper breakdown adding some intensity to “U:CONNECT” that gives way to its sweetest stretch, allowing enough space for SEBii to break out a Dido interpolation. Listen above.
Cwondo — “Wan!”
In contention for video of the year.
Despite opening with like sampled dog barks, “Wan!” quickly reveals itself to be an ethereal electronic track. It’s Cwondo working in his best zone, creating fidgety daydreams that are easy to be swept up in and feel closer to a hallucination (those vocal stutters). Listen above.
chelmico — “LIGHT UP”
Alright screw it, let’s start making some 2025 predictions. Here’s one for ya…Stones Taro’s ascent as an in-demand producer continues and he ends up handling a J-pop-level hit. It’s December, let’s go crazy! “LIGHT UP” by chelmico offers a kind of tease at what’s possible, as Stones Taro handles the music and brings the bleary-eyed madness of NC4K to the rap-pop duo’s world. And it works so well! Listen above.
iga Featuring agul — “Margiela”
I’m so used to iga just letting listeners into their own nervy world that it’s a nice change of pace to see the artist playing with someone else. This collab with agul allows iga room to flex their pure rapping skills over a hiccuping but never too out of control beat. It’s also a good chance to point towards agul’s very charming Kidsroom now from earlier this year, which exists in the same sonic universe as iga’s solo creations. Listen above.
Toki Asako — “Mint Cherry Cake”
Long-running Shibuya-kei fixture / early city-pop revivalist Toki Asako appears to be cooking something up. She’s shared a lyric video for the sentimental and sparse “Lonely Ghost,” but I’m more a fan of the livelier “Mint Cherry Cake.” It features a nice sparkle and chime to it, and moves at a playful pace. Listen above.
Hakushi Hasegawa — “Wonderful Christmastime”
For all the warranted talk of Hakushi Hasegawa as electronic dynamo, experimental whizkid…and hey, spend some time with Mahogakko if you haven’t yet, year-end season approaches…they have an uncanny ability for creating a great cover song. That’s the entirety of 2023’s Bones Of Dreams Attacked!, wherein Soutaiseiriron, sambomaster and Disney’s Aladdin go through Hasegawa’s filter.
Now comes one for the holiday season…a take on Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime.” I’ll spare you my extended thoughts on the original version1 and instead focus on Hasegawa’s rendition, which ditches any of the chunky synthesizer traces for a stripped-down interpretation placing the emphasis on the vocals. Which you know won’t be straightforward — Hasegawa revels in mutating and stretching out their singing, letting it turn into an electronic display and often overlapping with itself to create a more disorienting December tune. Silly and sweet in its own way, while still being very true to the artist’s approach to art. Get it here, or listen above.
NSYNC — “Bye Bye Bye (shigge remix)”
On a similar wavelength…Fukuoka’s shigge offers up a two-step rework of the boy band staple. Tis’ the season!
Oricon Trail For The Week Of November 18, 2024 To November 24, 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.
timelesz — “because” (252,628 Copies Sold)
I have not been following along with Netflix’s timelesz project - AUDITION - though it’s, at least in theory, the most interesting approach to a music survival show in years. The remaining members of the group once called Sexy Zone aim to add new members to the project, which offers a twist from other programs in this genre by 1. in theory seeking out fresh blood for an existing pop powerhouse, albeit with the branding it leaned on for a decade being stripped away and 2. this is basically the closest I ever imagine to STARTO Entertainment making a reality talent show like this.
Latest single “because” makes me realize I need to catch up on this show, “because” this is the last single from the three member version of timelesz before it enters a new era. The song itself is total filler, a vaguely dramatic ballad that’s best looked at as a tip of the cap to fans who have been with this trio for so long, but completely forgettable for anyone else. Hopefully, the show itself leads to a sonic shift for the timelesz too.
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News And Views
PETROLZ drummer Toshihide Kawamura died at age 45. The band cancelled all upcoming shows.
Hey! Say! JUMP make a very Rei! Wa! MOVE by uploading its entire discography to streaming services.
Ado’s “Odo” soundtracks the trailer for the new season of Fortnite. You can also meet Baymax? Does that mean you can shoot him too? Poor guy.
Important Hello Kitty collab, best seen as a surprise.
Sony Music Labels President Manubu Tsujino talked with Music Business Worldwide.
Diamond Online talked to a JASARAC guy who I thin is just spending the whole timed defending JASARAC?
QUBIT will be on tiny desk concerts JAPAN in the near future.
Tate McRae on THE FIRST TAKE. It’s interesting seeing how young Western acts are trying to make inroads in the Japanese market…this being particularly bold as McRae has next to zero presence here.
Joysound released its ranking of what artists were most popular at karaoke this year. Man…lotta people having to suffer through back number songs huh. Keep them in your thoughts.
Korean act Weeekly with a “Pretender” cover.
If you have Amazon Prime, you can stream a show from Hikaru Utada’s 2024 tour now.
Toshiki Kadomatsu prepping his first guitar instrumental album in 34 years.
In the history of Virtual YouTubers and virtual artists, Kizuna AI occupies an odd space. She’s very much the pioneer of both spaces, but given how rapidly they’ve advanced in recent years, she also feels like deep lore in the modern context of each. It doesn’t help that she’s been quiet for a while now, entering hibernation as the world she created zoomed by.
Well, she appears to be coming back based on a video posted to her YouTube channel over the weekend, below. That comes coupled with a countdown that, at time of writing, is 86 days away. Mark your calendars accordingly.Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodiesBluesky — @mbmelodies.bsky.social
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But if you want a bite-size version: great song!
“lotta people having to suffer through back number songs“
No you’re the only one. Keep suffering for the rest of your life because back number’s popularity will outlive you