Make Believe Melodies For Feb. 14 2021
Nostalgia All Around!
Carpainter — Yamanote Disko Klub
The beauty of Tokyo label Trekkie Trax — and especially cornerstone creator Carpainter’s output — is how the collective have always been more interested in building on the Japanese capital’s rich history of dance music rather than pave over it. Their releases nod to the past, and Carpainter in particular finds a personal angle on the 2-step, UK Garage and rave among others. Yamanote Disko Klub is the artist’s latest love letter to the city’s dance scene, this time building around “funky techno classics,” a sub-style that Trekkie Trax co-founder/Carpainter brother Seimei spotlighted around the time this one reached “now available” status. That thread is a great intro to this one, as Carpainter channels the delirious energy of those predecessors — referee whistles on “Golazooo!” A whole bunch of clatter on “Do Not Clatter!” — processed through his sleeker take on dance. A history lesson that never feels like one (and an album begging to be played in the club, but that can wait). Listen above, or get it here.
Mime — Headlight
An act that has proven to be way ahead of their time, even though they burned out before they could really get a chance to soak in the spotlight? Paellas, who took the “yay young in the city!” sound of “new city pop” and made it miss last train home. They broke up shortly after joining with Universal Music Japan, but they predicted a greater shift to lyrical melancholy (turned into super hits by YOASOBI and, recently, Ado) while also highlighting new approaches to funk-pop. Tokyo’s Mime would have to enter this discussion thanks to six-degrees-of-Paellas — band mastermind TiMT also plays in the group Pearl Center, the project Paellas’ lead singer Tatsuya Matsumoto founded after his old project ended — but new album Yin Yang offers some of the best diet-Paellas music to come out lately. “Headlight” isn’t that one’s best moment, but it is a great snapshot of how Paellas sound has carried on, and is still being nudged into the spotlight. Listen above.
(Bonus nod to city-pop-dioramamakers Tokimeki Records, who work closely with Mime’s lead vocalist Hikari, and who appears on a very glitzy new cut from their project.)
For Tracy Hyde — “Just Like Fireflies”
I’ll leave this one for the “I just interviewed For Tracy Hyde for a forthcoming article, so stay tuned,” but I’ll say that the band’s latest — a set inspired by ‘90s rock and America, yeah, the country — is a delight, full of nods to the past and what is easily the biggest double-take moment I’ve had with a song in a while. Listen above.
Spangle Call Lilli Line — “after squall”
Not sure if it constitutes “nostalgia” when the band in question has never really dipped in quality…but listening to Spangle Call Lilli Line fills me with memories of early years in the outskirts of Tokyo, wandering empty streets past midnight with Sapporo in hand. This is the mood — nocturnal, heavy with thought, reflective — the band have been conjuring up for over two decades, and “after squall” off forthcoming album Remember reminds of how much they can squeeze out of a rock foundation (with a little electronic glaze). Listen above.
Ableton Sisters — Sewing Machine 002 EP
Everything I said about Sewing Machine EP? Ableton Sisters went and made an even better set of tracks a month later, upping the energy and hitting on a richer emotional palette too (“See You Again”). Listen above, or get it here.
Madegg — beat music
OK, here is the real ooey-gooey memory hole for you. Electronic artist Kazumichi Komatsu used to perform under the name Madegg, playing primarily out in Osaka and Kyoto…at the same time I lived within a swift limited express to either. I had the chance to see him a lot, whether at INNIT parties or opening for Brainfeeder acts stopping by Kansai. His sets were incredible, clamoring kitchen sink affairs very much on the same wave length as the then-cresting LA beat scene. beat music collects tracks — previously only found on SoundCloud, long deleted — from 2011, when Madegg was really finding his groove, and creating incredible work fitting in perfectly with a Kansai scene on top of its game (Seiho, Metome, Avec Avec, Magical Mistakes, AVV, list goes on). This is a wonderful document of times gone by, and a time capsule that still sounds welcome today. Listen above, or get it here.
millennium parade — “Bon Dance”
Did…did Rebecca Black add millennium parade to the HyperPop playlist? Someone tell me!
Anyway, congrats to millennium parade for making it on the HyperPop playlist, one of the better examples of “wait what is this thing actually?” seeing as…I don’t really associate the guy from King Gnu as playing in the sandbox as almost anyone else on this list…but it also kind of makes sense? Anyway, great song from a nice album, I’m in favor of Daiki Tsuneta smuggling stuff like this onto the edges of J-pop.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of Feb. 1, 2020 To Feb. 7, 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 drip down…the Oricon Trail.
SKE48 — “Koiochi Flag” (190,570 Copies Sold)
The actual hook of this song: This is the final single to feature Jurina Matsui as part of the extended -48 family, and that’s noteworthy because she was the star of the AKB-verse moving forward, having won the 2018 AKB48 General Election and appearing in Produce 48. She also faced a lot of challenges, which reads as an understatement — she collapsed during a performance at the election she went on to win, an election that also became the once-omnipresent group’s last edition of said spectacle. Health concerns also forced her to leave the Korean competition show early, denying what kinda felt like a lock of her making the final line-up of what we now know is IZ*ONE. As bittersweet as a farewell single can be.
What hooked me, an idiot, in right away: Whoa, a gun cocking and shooting sample, right at the start!? This is gonna be good!
News And Views
Idol industry — stupid rules and performers having to deal with frequent harassment. No good!
Mentioned Ado earlier in this newsletter, so seems like a good point to highlight a little intro I wrote about her and 2021’s first big breakthrough hit for OTAQUEST.
Starting to feel like there was a greater than 0.01% chance that Masahiro Tanaka left MLB to go back to NPB so he could be closer to the Momoiro Clover Z press cycle tied to the album that…he inspired.
Avex might be in dark financial places right now…but they are also heavily pushing the Thai city-pop revivalist Stamp into the Japanese market. He will collaborate with Chelmico, which should be a delight.
YOASOBI held their first live show tonight…from a construction site.
Feel like it was a quiet week for news….so, uhhh, views, my daughter recently saw the Disney character Baymax for the first time, and referred to it as “daddy.” If you’ve ever wanted a visual representation of what I look like, this is pretty accurate:
“Well actually, you could look at AKB48 and accurately say that they predicted the entire global pop model, and while we are on the topic….”
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies