Make Believe Melodies For February 26, 2024

Yee Haw

Peterparker69 And Tennyson — “skyskysky”

What defines the new wave of young Japanese artists blurring rock, rap and club sounds together is the feeling of togetherness binding it all together. Sure, these 20-somethings dip into depressing and burnt-out territory — as anyone navigating that period would — but central to their art is a sense of celebration at being together. That’s something very clear at club events, especially post-pandemic at parties like Tokio Shaman or GOLD DISC or anything AVYSS hosts. Songs are all-together-now affairs, and often transform into blurry emotions, the meaning of words melting into pure feelings. It marks videos too, from STARKIDS to Mall Boyz to ONJUICY to bala to Peterparker69.

Teaming up with Tokyo-based artist Tennyson, the trio bring a feeling of joy to “skyskysky.” The track itself is a great example of what sets them apart from other genre-crushing projects in Japan and abroad. At its core, “skyskysky” channels country music. Guitar twang lurks within the melody, while you can hear horses galloping, yee-haws and the line “life is just a banjo.” What makes this work is how everyone involved avoids making this a big deal — other artists would have went way too far emphasizing “see, look, I contain Nashville multitudes!” Remember when Diplo started wearing a cowboy hat everywhere? That shit sucked, and too many creators pull a metaphorical version of that.

Yet Peterparker69 and Tennyson opt to instead blur those sonic textures into their woooosh of dance-pop, helping add to that feeling mentioned above, of meaning giving way to pure feeling (“life is just a banjo” does not need to make sense to wow). Not to put too much attention on the accompanying video, but it nails the vibe perfectly — young Tokyo creators gathered together, making something new and letting loose, all together. Listen above.

Kindan no Tasuketsu Featuring Evita And Brazil — “Darlin’”

Kindan no Tasuketsu season returns, with a new synth-pop number featuring artist Evita and Migma Shelter member Brazil on vocals. This is the project working at its most direct, not chasing the Eurobeat but rather aiming straight for the heart with bleary-eyed earnestness. Listen above.

Sasuke Haraguchi — “Mini Hen”

The continued weird-ening of former J-pop prodigy Sasuke continues with another short-circuiting cut built around Vocaloid singing. Perhaps the true beauty of this artistic shift is how many people are eager to listen to his combusting tracks — dude can lay claim to one of the biggest viral hits of 2023 in Japan doubling as one of the most mind-scrambling (positive connotation), and “Mini Hen” is already getting plenty of looks…especially jarring for something featuring a beat screaming Aughts-era Flying Lotus run through Nico Nico Douga. Listen above.

Psykedeliku — “Neuron”

Speaking of the frontier of Vocaloid…a name like “Psykedeliku” should probably give a pretty good hint of what to expect, save for the twist that Hatsune Miku is nowhere to be found on “Neuron.” Rather, it the KAFU synthesizer giving voice to this topsy-turvy creation. Listen above.

One Boiling Point — “Oboitenai”

One Boiling Point has showcased their dexterity over the course of February. Newest single “August in the water” finds them teaming up with Kanagawa-based producer safmusic and fellow melancholy youth suL for a jogging number that gives energy to an otherwise heartache of a work. Still, I’m partial to the slow-building tension of “Oboitenai.” Starting out as an electronic ballad of sorts, it mutates into something much more stream-of-conscious, complete with passages making my brain pull out the word “poemcore” from its deepest recesses. Then…a cathartic release to end the whole thing. Listen above.

Amps — “Don’t Stop Funk”

Simple pleasures done very well. Listen above.

Daichi Miura — OVER

Daichi Miura presents a smörgåsbord of electronic styles for him to add his pop touch too. The J-pop fixture has always been one step ahead of his contemporaries when it comes to identifying exciting underground sounds — he linked up with Seiho and Carpainter very early on — and OVER finds Miura continuing dabble in dance sounds, ranging from drum ‘n’ bass on “ERROR” and even coming close to…plugnb on “Flavor.” Not all of it works, but as an attempt to mix various sounds in a J-pop context, OVER is one of the year’s most intriguing releases. Listen above.

Oricon Trail For The Week Of February 12, 2024 To February 18, 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.

Snow Man — “LOVE TRIGGER / We’ll go together” (1,192,951 Copies Sold)

Alright, well the Oricon winter suddenly ended.

STARTO ENTERTAINMENT’s biggest group comes through with a million seller, setting a high number for anyone else in J-pop to pass as 2024 really settles in. It’s mostly a reminder of the huge fan support still powering this group and others under the agency’s umbrella, and even as older staples of the company leave (see the news section), they still have plenty of star power present.

Credit to “LOVE TRIGGER” itself too, as solid sounding a million seller as one could ask for, especially from a contemporary male pop group. The secret to its success comes from the fact funk-leaning band I Don’t Like Mondays handles songwriting, giving it an actual groove. No need to get too flashy when you find something so sticky.

News And Views

• Tsuyoshi Domoto of KinKi Kids will leave STARTO ENTERTAINMENT when his contract expires on March 31. He says in a statement that this is in order to continue on as an artist, he needs to change his surroundings. KinKi Kids, meanwhile, will continue.

• Atarashii Gakko! climbed up into the top 50 of US Radio…and then went even further. There’s lots of charts, and sometimes it feels like you don’t know what half of them mean…but still, them getting on radio at all is kinda nuts, at least for someone covering this industry for over a decade.
  

• Summer Sonic announced its first wave of artists for the 2024 edition of the festival, held concurrently in Tokyo and Osaka. Take a look at it below.

  

  As every summer festival on the planet has grappled with in recent times, Japanese gatherings have been trying to figure out what the next generation of headliners are once the dependable likes of Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers and whichever Gallagher brother is free call it a day. Both Fuji Rock and Summer Sonic have put the spotlight on younger names post pandemic, though the prior appears to be U-turning hard after elevating Lizzo last year only for said artist to be accused of sexual harassment and general meanness days later (this year….Kraftwerk, with a rumor that Noel Gallagher will appear).
  
  Summer Sonic, meanwhile, has been leaning hard into youth — recent fests featured Post Malone and The 1975 topping the bill — and this year’s first reveal is especially ambitious. Eurovision dandies Måneskin head to the top of the post two years after wowing punters at the same event. Meanwhile, Bring Me The Horizon also get the big-font treatment, though it isn’t clear if they are a headliner-headliner or a Mountain Stage headliner (the wording on the official site is vague!).
  

• NME Asia interviewed Creepy Nuts in the wake of the duo having a global viral hit.
  

• imase going out on an Asia tour.
  

• Kikuo heading to North America for shows in Mexico City, Texas (including SXSW) and California.
  

• Hikaru Utada will bring their upcoming tour to Taiwan and Hong Kong for the first time, info to come¹.
  

• And YOASOBI will also play shows in San Francisco and Los Angeles around the time they head to Coachella. It’s wild how far Japanese music is traveling in 2024.
  

• Stones Throw is putting out a cover version of Hosono House. I told you this album surpassed Kazemachi Roman as “the cool ‘70s Japanese album to know.”
  

• I wrapped up my Taylor-In-Tokyo coverage by talking to Swifties, both from Japan and abroad.
  

• Meanwhile, I got to sit down with someone approaching my Taylor Swift — Shutoku Mukai — to talk about the wonderful new ZAZEN BOYS’ album for The Japan Times. Bike rides! Bob Dylan impersonations! So many cigarettes! He lived up to my image and more.
  

• Alright, let’s get to the really important story of maybe the year so far…why is a 20-year-old Chilean pop song originally sung by a ten-year-old girl going crazy viral in Japan?
  

  The short answer is…the internet. Actually, it feels very…2010s internet? Basically, at the end of 2023, people started putting the “Chipi Chipi Chappa Chappa” hook of child-actor Christell’s 2003 Chilean hit over cat videos. That’s it, and these didn’t even have clever names, netizens just call them “cat memes” (literally “猫ミーム” or “neko meme,” at least they tried something with that Cheezburger feline). There’s actually a whole range of cat memes, though the “Chipi Chipi” version appears to be the biggest hit…seeing as the song has been a lock on top of viral streaming charts for like four weeks now? Here’s a sampling of all “cat memes” for you.
  

  The old me absolutely would have written a 700 word piece for The Japan Times about ~ what this means ~ but I think people just like cats and catchy songs. Anyway, “Dubidubidu” became a popular dance choice for people on TikTok too, surely helping it shoot it up further. A Sports Hochi story on the phenomenon talked to someone at Warner Music Japan, who told the publication basically “we have no clue why this is happening.”
  
  Far more excited is the singer of the song, Christell Rodriguez, who told Reuters how excited she was to see the song take off in Japan and other countries. Social media…still doing some good things!
  

  Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
  Twitter — @mbmelodies

  Follow the Best Of 2024 Spotify Playlist here!

1. Full disclosure: I help with English-language PR for Utada.