Make Believe Melodies For Jan. 23, 2021
Whispering! Jeans! TikTok! Everything You Could Ask For This Week
aymk — Cocooning
The songs on Cocooning practically hide, while still playing with the same tools other rappers and producers are using to create in-the-spotlight numbers. This isn’t “whisper rap,” a sorta-genre tagged to DAOKO, Izumi Makura and Bonjour Suzuki among others who incorporated a rap-like delivery over music that wouldn’t typically be classified as hip-hop outside of the vocals. aymk moves alongside Gokou Kuyt or Vividboooy, owing much more to the “SoundCloud Rap” generation, but whereas that corner of Japanese rap is starting to step into the light, aymk remains tucked behind a wall. Opener “faith” rumbles forward but she keeps everything else sparse, resulting in something falling between Flau Records and sadboiclique. So it goes for every song here, with aymk herself navigating the beats but never moving into frame, always keeping a distance that gives Cocooning an air of mystery and intimacy all its own. Listen above.
STILL DREAMS — “Live With Excuse”
Of course this dollop of synth-pop escapism comes from the Kansai region, a part of Japan where twee rockers and electro-pop tinkerers do their thing to create head-nodders with a layer of ennui. A little personal bias is coming through here — my formative years in Japan were spent closer to Osaka than Tokyo — but duo STILL DREAMS nail the balance between melodic giddiness and heavier emotions just right on this song, from a single release featuring a pretty nifty B-side too. Listen above.
CHAI — “Action”
I’m really not feeling music peddling messages of “stay upbeat” at the moment, especially as the slow trickle of “COVID pop” anthems has already begun, and the forced smile delivering “it’s gonna be fine!” copy at a time when…nope. While not specifically pandemic related , CHAI’s “Action” embraces a call of “it’s OK / it’s OK / everything is OK,” which…I have to disagree with you there. The band, though, have figured out one important detail to help this rise above eye-rolling messaging which is…actually make cool sounds around it instead of a flacid ballad. “Action” is CHAI cashing in on their long-shared interest in electronic music, and while the lyrics read bright, the actual song feels more metallic and disorienting thanks to the synthesizer-centric construction that bends throughout. I might not be up for the message — let’s check back in six months — but the sonic elements offer something that makes me excited to…at least see what CHAI are up to on their first Sub-Pop album. Listen above.
SNJO — “Silence”
A Local Visions affiliate creating a number practically falling apart at every turn, but always holding together despite all kinds of pitch shifts and sudden melodic pivots? Sign me up. Listen above.
Lucky Kilimanjaro — “MOONLIGHT”
Wherein usually hyperactive outfit Lucky Kilimanjaro dial it back just a bit to create their version of a late-night meditation, full of lovey-dovey declarations and synth flashes. It’s a chance to spotlight the songwriting versatility of the project, which can sometimes be obscured by their all-in adoration of the artistic process itself.
ZOC — “DON’T TRUST TEENAGER”
Oomori Seiko gifts her bombastic side to the idol group she produces for this shout-along of a song, except Oomori is right there alongside performers a decade younger than herself, screaming and adding extra intensity to a hell of a hook. There might be a bigger cast around her, but this is an Oomori song throughout, with a ramshackle energy that’s defined a lot of her best work over the last few years. She doesn’t always have to be part of it to get her artistry across — see 2017 highlight “Lady Baby Blue,” where she grafted her musical and emotional complexity onto a duo once relegated to weird Japan ephemera — but here it doesn’t hurt for her to be in the fray, howling alongside with her pop team. Listen above.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of Jan. 11, 2021 To Jan. 17, 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.
Johnny’s West — “Shuukan Umakuiku Youbi” (227,490 Copies Sold)
News And Views
Start with the worst news first — Ryuichi Sakamoto announced he was diagnosed with rectal cancer, writing that he had surgery and was now undergoing treatment.
Arashi are on hiatus, and that means all of the Johnny’s groups that sprung up in their wake now have the chance to enjoy some of the air that outfit had taken up for two decades. Enter KAT-TUN, joining the 21st century of entertainment by opening a Twitter account. Get those likes while you can, until the cruel reality of how big that Arashi-sized gap actually is!
Not totally music related but…Chinese company ByteDance (perhaps you’ve heard of TikTok?) plans to invest heavily in Japanese tech.
Speaking of TikTok…I’ve followed Miki Matsubara’s viral success via that platform a lot in recent months (and…stay tuned because I have more on that one coming in the near future), but another older Japanese pop song is enjoying newfound international success. That would be Ai Otsuka’s 2003 single “Sakuranbo,” enjoying attention in South Korea and, according to this article breaking down the phenomenon, spreading to the rest of Southeast Asia. Like the best TikTok stories, there’s a lot going on here beyond “teens…aren’t they something?,” including a comedy duo in Japan using it, Korean actors taking it to the short-form-video app, and YouTube covers.
The main drive, the writer argues, is how it reflects a generation that came of age after the Korean government started allowing Japanese pop culture to gradually enter its market in the late 1990s, and that this era of younger folks are more open-minded to Japanese entertainment than those before them. Things get a little overly ambitious near the end — trying to tie this to K-pop’s international success is a bit of a stretch — but as a snapshot of how pop culture travels between two nations often presented in media both domestic and global as “yikes,” it’s a great dive into exchanges often overlooked.Lets get away from the heavy, techy and long to instead focus on the fact Perfume are appearing in Levi’s ads running in Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Nothing deep here, but what looks!
Spotify and Apple Music are loaded with fake artists and imposters trying to earn that sweet, sweet $0.01 per stream off of established acts…including in Japan! Tokyo Jihen spoke out about this practice on Twitter, joining the likes of Do As Infinity and Snail’s House in publicly criticizing this scam.
SIGN THESE KIDS!
This article in Japanese looks at the shifting state of idols in J-pop, highlighting how the idea of what an idol is has changed in recent years. Negicco get a lot of attention for each member getting married and carrying on with their career, with other examples showing how pregnancy and age don’t necessarily derail one’s career anymore.
I’m…not entirely sure what is going on in this story but uhhhh, I guess Yakuza 5 has a J-pop idol storyline? I’d watch a lets-play of that.
Yoshiki of X JAPAN is the next Japanese artist to be featured as part of Disney+’s My Music Story series.
Oh boy, COVID-19 corner. Huffington Post Japan has an insightful albeit not surprising article looking at how the recent surge in cases and subsequent requests to limit activity from businesses which include live houses and clubs is pushing many venues to the brink. Meanwhile, the news that Glastonbury is off for 2021 makes me wonder…is there anyway Fuji Rock Festival and Summer Sonic (let alone every other music festival in Japan) happen this year? I’d guess “not likely,” unless they pivot to domestic line-ups (and that Taro Kano pulls off his vaccine plan).
AiNA THE END went on The First Take this week, and it is gradually getting buzz online. Ahead of her solo debut next month, don’t expect this to slow down — it feels like she’s being set up to be a (at least potential) breakout star of the year. Watch her performance below.
Other hair-raising performances? How about floppy-eared Sanrio creation Cinnamon cooking up some beats.
I’m back at The Japan Times’ Pulse with a forecast of the online influencers to watch in 2021.
Programming Note: Best-of-year list…next week? It has been a busy week (excuses, I got them), but I am inching closer and closer. Let’s get it up before quarter two!
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies