Make Believe Melodies For January 17, 2022
Scroll to the end to see what Netflix original movies occupy my time
Koji Nakamura, Foodman And Takashi Numazawa — Humanity
Humanity offers the best-case scenario for an experimental collaboration. Every artistic voice in the mix comes through clearly, while this working situation also allows new perspectives on their own approaches to emerge…even when the sound becomes chaotic.
I think a lot of the success comes from the disparate textural backgrounds all three creators featured on Humanity hail from. Koji Nakamura, best known as lead vocalist and songwriter for Supercar, has long dabbled in thinly-sliced ambient and minimalist electronics (which crept over to his main group’s work). Takashi Numazawa drums for experimental projects and big-time J-pop groups alike. Foodman finds joy and humor from eclectic percussion and samples.
Everything just gels together on Humanity, an early 2022 highlight. A song like “No. 2” highlights the cohesion well — Nakamura’s knack for melody comes through, while Numazawa offers a sturdy beat and Foodman does his stuttering magic over all of it. Familiar, but totally fresh. The trio manage to surprise both on tracks short and long, playing off one another and figuring out how to work with whatever ideas they bounce around. Listen above.
PAS TASTA — “turtle thief”
A sort of Netlabel All-Stars To The Rescue situation, PAS TASTA consists of hirihiri, Kabanagu, Phritz, Quoree, Amane Uyama and Yuigot. They are here to…make some “HyperPop,” or at least a sort of buzzy, busy electronic song featuring mutated vocals and a lot of constant mutation. It’s really good, and then it becomes great in the last stretch thanks to a guitar bit that isn’t shy about shredding. Listen above.
Madaler kid With Cuffboi And XAN — “Future Bitch👽”
Though this group cut perhaps offers a better snapshot of where this corner of Japanese artists is operating right now. If “turtle thief” nods to the role Aughts-era message boards and Maltine Records played in shaping this sound, “Future Bitch👽” captures the SoundCloud-born energy and generally nervy approach artists in this space approach music (also…rapping that sounds like the way Vocaloid producers would have the singing-synthesizer program just spit out syllables? Maybe a stretch, but the artificial quality of the voices here is what hooks me in). Listen above.
Yurufuwa Gang — “Alissa”
Ryugo Ishida just starts rapping in this whiny, high-pitched voice less than a minute into this song, like he’s trying to recreate “4 Da Trap” using only his throat. That’s just the first of like four highlights here, and I’m not even counting the syrupy slow-mo ending portion. Listen above.
FIRE BOYS — “FIRE BOYS”
Keep it simple, you know? This makes me want to tear doors off their latches. Get it here, or listen above.
Oyubi — Earnin It
Japan’s juke community remains as vibrant as ever, continuing to draw from and properly honor the Chicago born sound while finding their own touches to add to it. Oyubi is one of the strongest young voices to emerge from this scene in recent memory, and flexes all sorts of variety here on latest full-length release for Trekkie Trax. At times effervescent (“Atencion 3”) and other times disorienting (“Acid Hat,” “Cling Roll”), Oyubi finds a way to always keep the beat going strong. Get it here, or listen above.
CHAI — “Marugoto”
Pretty frantic week for songs, huh? Let’s close out with a warm blanket of a song courtesy of CHAI, offering self-affirmation over a mid-tempo groove. Bonus points for a great little “ha ha” mixed in during the breakdown. Listen above.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of January 3, 2022 To January 9, 2022
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.
Naniwa Danshi — “Ubu Love” (10,239 Copies Sold)
We are truly in the depths of J-pop winter because the top-selling physical single of the week…came out nearly three months ago, taking number one via an outstandingly low figure even for modern-day Oricon. Hold tight everyone, brighter days are ahead.
The most interesting Oricon debut this week comes from an animated duo. Lynx Eyes are one of the newest outfits from the D4DJ universe, which centers on high school girls becoming big-tent acts. This pair channels the sound of early ‘90s J-pop, nodding to Tetsuya Komuro and even covering TRF’s “EZ DO DANCE.”
That’s what I thought, until I checked the credits and learned…Komuro himself worked on these songs, including new number “#ALL FRIENDS”). Not even sure where to begin in analyzing what this means, but glad the sound of post-Bubble Eurobeat trickled over to cartoon pop projects.
News And Views
I offered up predictions and trends to watch in J-pop for 2022 over at The Japan Times. Bonus one I wasn’t quite brave enough to push into publication but I feel could definitely happen…a Virtual YouTuber scores an honest-to-goodness hit in Japan.
Avex and Johnny’s And Associates formed a new joint label, MENT RECORDING. “MENT” not meaning “we ‘ment’ to push our artists earlier in the global market, we swear,” but rather as a Frankenword combining “entertainment” and “music.” Currently, only two acts reside in the MENT stable, Kis-My-ft2 and Snow Man, but one of those groups has immense potential, which justifies this undertaking all its own. Though hey, Kis-My-ft2 have some solid hits too.
After two years of being postponed due to COVID-19, Coachella announced their 2022 lineup, at least for this moment. Who knows what the spring will be
Could you spot the Japanese act? Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, who was announced for the 2020 edition, remained patient and will be appearing out in the desert this spring (with a fantastic album’s worth of songs behind her, which is a happy accident). Not coming out? Digital pop star Hatsune Miku, originally booked for 2020 but now off the poster, at least for this year.
Omicron continues to surge in Japan, and I’ve already written about how festivals such as ROCK IN JAPAN are bracing for a tough go of it this summer. Smash, the folks behind Fuji Rock Festival, are staying optimistic, as they announced plans to hold the three-day event out in Niigata in late July. I have no doubt they will pull it off…despite domestic media hoopla at the time, last year’s Fuji Rock went off without incident and, alongside Supersonic, showed how to do these large-scale events well amidst a pandemic…but the bigger question will be if any foreign artists can perform, or if it will be a second straight year of local-only acts.
Toilet song kinda goes.
NMB48 graduate and Produce 48 vet Miru Shiroma to debut as a solo act with Universal Music Japan.
Discogs Japan compiled a list of the most popular Japanese releases on the site from 2021, which is an interesting look at what records are earning the most attention (and bucks). Turns out vinyl produced in 2021 did the best, congrats Utada and Mariya Takeuchi!
Idol Master character becomes “tourism ambassador” for Takatsui city, near Osaka. Here’s a city council member announcing the news in tweet form.
Sometimes, you need the lowest-stakes entertainment to fill up your Sunday night (before hunkering down to write a newsletter). I watched the Netflix original movie Mixtape, trailer below, which is half coming-of-age story, half “whoa the ‘90s!” nostalgia mousetrap baited with a cheese clearly scented for a 30-something like me (remember CDs!? remember Y2K?! Did you know Seattle used to have a basketball team…you did, Patrick, you did!).
Anyway, it’s totally fine BUT one of the songs prominently featured in it is The Blue Hearts’ “Linda Linda.” Great song, but skeptical me wondered “what the hell?? Why is this in the movie?” I guess part of the reason is also to market it in Japan, as the clip featuring the song appears on YouTube via Netflix Japan.
While I’m certain some “cool, Japan!” elements factor into this — see also The Linda Lindas — this did make me wonder…like, how popular / cool were The Blue Hearts in the US in the early ‘90s? I’m not sure how their music crossed the Pacific per se, but Mixtape did nudge me to learn they played a show in Portland in 1989, and had a larger tour across the States the following year, which included a stop in Seattle (which…had a basketball team. Nostalgia in action). So in theory, the folks behind this made-for-streaming movie found these details as enough justification for why “Linda Linda” could appear on a mixtape assembled sometime in the early 1990s which…hey, good job research department.
Anyway, the point of all this is…you never know what films geared towards kids that you watch to zone out after a long weekend will teach you. If Don’t Look Up features a surprise RC Succession music cue, maybe I’ll watch it.
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
