Make Believe Melodies For February 23, 2026
Swag Comes In Many Forms
valknee — Gear
The arc of valknee’s career to date explores a simple question — how many ways can one express swag?
For her, anything can become a boast. Fake Balenciaga, oshikatsu activities, winter clothing, not getting TV dramas. She’s open to vulnerability, as 2024’s Ordinary made space for more personal probing, but she often shines when stunting via the world around her. Latest album Gear leans heavy on the chest puffing, and results in one of her most fun works yet.
She’s always gone to producer NUU$HI on her releases, but here she’s only turning to them, resulting in one of valknee’s most unified-sounding works to date. It’s rumbling and at times blown out, leaning towards bass murkiness on “ZENBU” and a more rapid-fire bounce on “Puni.” Save for the rock-ified closer “SURVIVE,” the sound of Gear leans towards a mix of trunk-rattling and pogoing, sometimes spilling over to the club (“VANILLA”).
It’s the right backdrop for valknee to offer her most self-assurred set of rapping yet, allowing her ample space to stretch out and compare her “big attitude” to statues, mountains and Burger King’s Whopper (“Dekka”) or celebrate the charms covering her bag (“Acrylic keychain on my bag”). As if to turn all of this flex morality play, she calls on veteran rapper Chinza Dopeness to serve as a kind of Ghost Of Hip-Hop Past on “DAMEDAME” wherein the two — both known for being a little sillier than the tougher MCs central to the style — have a kind of generational showdown featuring nods to Disneyland turkey legs and One Piece. By the end of it, it feels more like an exchange of lessons…which Gear underlines valknee gets. Listen above.
Widescreen Baroque — easy listening
Traces of every project Shuichi Mabe has been involved with creep up in latest undertaking Widescreen Baroque. The general groove and vaguely mysterious aura of Sotaisei Riron certainly seeps through albeit in a more electronic format…and it is even further underlined if you focus on the singing of vocalist Hinano, who isn’t quite as shadowy as Etsuko Yakushimaru but comes close to a sing-speak intrigue on the nervy techno-pop of “Pretty Young” or the lush chamber pop of “NO.5.” There’s also a dramatic streak nodding to his time in Vampillia, not quite metal but with a heavy string presence that adds baroque flair to “UFOLOGY.” Listen above.
Stones Taro — Foglore #1
Stones Taro loves to keep busy, and to add to his perceived load he’s starting his own “self-release series” which appears to exist separate from the NC4K universe. Foglore #1 aims to coat his signature house sounds in the titular effect, though the real new development here is an embrace of dub sounds, made most clear on the hazy pound of opener “Illegalized Dub.” That familiar rumble and vocal style emerges throughout though, making for a turn to Taro’s usual sound without losing the essence. I’d say a pretty good start to his latest undertaking. Get it here, or listen above.
DÉ DÉ MOUSE And TEMPLIME Featuring Kasane Teto — “Losttt”
DÉ DÉ MOUSE’s recent prolific streak has found the long-running producer dabbling in all sorts of styles, but just as importantly it has allowed him to link up with an equally eclectic set of artists. Here’s one of the more frantic examples of that, finding duo TEMPLIME joining in the fun to create a musical backdrop featuring a smooth melody absolutely smothered in elements of Indian music, fragmented electronics and eventually animal samples. Oh, and let’s not forget the other guest, with the voice of Kasane Teto recruited to play the role of surrealist commuter, detailing train lines and stations as the music around her freaks out. Listen above.
Spangle call Lilli Line — “silence”
Sticking with the theme of old favorites — Spangle call Lilli line break their silence with “silence,” a moody mid-tempo stroll spiked by electronic disruptions to interrupt its otherwise melancholy wanderings. Whatever form they take, the band itself can still lay down a stirring hook that turns something leaning sad into a triumphant feeling. Listen above.
AiR NiKAr — agíto
Kyoto project AiR NiKAr combines rock energy with internet-born madness, and latest set agíto works best when zeroing in on that madcap merge. That’s best captured in the title track, where riffs help propel sliced-up vocal samples to create something woozy but upright. Listen above.
Kento Nakajima — IDOL1ST
There’s plenty of criticism both ethically and artistically to aim at STARTO Entertainment…but the sheer volume of music the acts associated with that agency puts out means they’ll stumble on some real gold every once in a while. Not everyitng on IDOL1ST sparkles — there’s some grating attempts at modern male K-pop toughness play that falls flat, and the less said about the electro-swing of “IDOLIC” the better — but the highlights offer some 2026 J-pop delight. Of course, me being me, the best moment comes on “LIGHTNING,” featuring one-third of PAS TASTA handling production and lyrics (phritz and Amane Uyama, respectively) which results in a nervy funk song complete with EDM breakdown that Kento Nakajima sounds like a natural over.
Yet this isn’t an excuse to once again sing the praises of PAS TASTA, because many moments across this full-length offering are great. There’s multiple dips into neo-garage, and on “Gods’ Play” he links up with Naomi Watanabe (!?) for a graceful dance-pop dash featuring great use of syllables as rhythmic POW blocks. Listen above.
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Oricon Trail For The Week Of Feb. 9, 2026 To Feb. 15, 2026
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.
Hey! Say! JUMP — “Hanikami” (224,669 Copies Sold)
This week on Oricon…a snapshot of the two emerging trends of Winter 2026.
Next week will probably be more telling on this front, but good ol’ fashioned idol music seems to be enjoying newfound shine. Groups like Hey! Say! JUMP never needed the zeitgeist behind them to top the physical charts, but it does help that latest single “Hanikami” exists at a time when people are going ga-ga for classic male group aesthetics1. Especially since “Hanikami” is wretched musically, all cloying strings and sickly singing. Feels telling the crowd’s favorite parts of the live video above is when the songs cuts out and they make dumb poses.
That plays out opposite J-pop’s globally minded blockbuster era, where huge name outfits trying to play internationally (something Hey! Say! JUMP most certainly is not doing) link up with popular anime to create big numbers. King Gnu’s “AIZO” comes in second this week, but with a very respectable number given this is ultimately an internet-first outfit, and can also rest safely knowing it is way more present in the greater Japanese pop culture mind than most male idol offerings (except…well, wait until next week). Helping more? It’s a pretty wild song, loaded up with vocal mutations and a relentless pace, making for the nation’s most abrasive hit of the moment.
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News And Views
Fuji Rock revealed the first 66 artists set to appear at this year’s festival in Naeba, Niigata Prefecture. Your headliners are The xx, Khruangbin and Massive Attack, though the Japanese heavyhitters feel just as vital, with a mix of veteran (Asian Kung-Fu Generations, Hi-Standard) and newer (Fujii Kaze, XG) present. I wrote a quick news report about it, complete with my experience watching the announcement with over 100 others in the Shibuya streets.
Summer Sonic, meanwhile, shared that BABYMETAL will perform AND curate a metal stage at this year’s 25th anniversary edition of the festival. A fitting move, as BABYMETAL made their name thanks to shows at the gathering.
Tokyo police arrested XG’s primary producer SIMON aka JAKOPS alongside three employees of Avex over alleged possession of drugs (some reports saying cocaine and dried weed leaves).
LUNA SEA drummer Shunya has died. He was 56.
Mrs. GREEN APPLE landed the #13 spot on IFPI’s best-selling-artists-of-2025 list.
The nominees for the Apple Vinegar Music Award 2026 are out, and it is absolutely stacked. Also, features a lot of artists that will appear in Make Believe Melodies’ own Favorite Japanese Albums Of 2025 list, coming sometime in the future!
Ai Furihata (aka Ruby Kurosawa) will graduate from AiScReam at the end of March, with two new members stepping in to fill her role. She left behind one of the most viral songs out of J-pop this decade, helped big time by her own self introduction.
A member of Def Tech got caught for having weed. He’s probably feeling slightly relieved this Monday.
More details about the Zipangu festival in LA this May have been revealed. Additional note…check out The Japan Times this coming Friday for my interview with the folks behind it.
Bad Bunny to play a show in Tokyo (yay!) but you have to be among the top listeners of his on Spotify to attend (boo!). I actually attended something similar from the streamer last week, and it feels like this practice (prove your fandom on our platform!) is only picking up. A mutant version of buying 100 copies of a CD single to have 30 seconds to shake an idol’s hand.
Ayase of YOASOBI tweeted about how bad the toilet paper at Sony Music’s offices is, which was then echoed by Gotch of Asian Kung-Fu Generation. This blew up, and even gained attention overseas (shout out Electric Bloom for being on top of it and becoming the aggregation source), even if just as an excuse to bash Sony’s AI practices.
I will say…Universal Music Japan’s office has pretty good toilet paper, so Sony really should keep up.Speaking of things that will wreck your ass… here’s a Hatsune Miku commercial from Thailand for spicy noodles.
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
Check out the Best Of 2026 Spotify Playlist here!
Worth noting it crosses gender lines too…the top album this week is a KAWAII LAB’s best-of compilation.