Make Believe Melodies For July 17, 2023
Sea Day Special
Mariana in our Heads — Landscapes
Indie-pop has never felt like an effort to escape the world around oneself, but rather a chance to build a sanctuary to sort through your own twisty emotions. It’s a quality that is, for better or for worse, very adolescent — of wanting to get away from the head-rush of teen life to have sometime for yourself — and one I can identify in the Japanese indie-pop I’ve encountered, to the point where it’s a pointed move when a band like For Tracy Hyde embraces politics in a largely apolitical space.
That vibe is especially present for Kansai quartet Mariana in our Heads, started in 2014 and constantly seeking out refuge in their blur of guitars and synthesizers. First full-length album Landscapes uses nature and the desire for untouched, perfect places (how teenage!) as artistic inspiration, with mixing and mastering courtesy of Koji Takagi of Pictured Resort.
Here, the band’s use of synthesizer is lusher than ever before, using electronic sounds to add a warmth to opener “Ether” and movement on their biggest stab at Beach House-esque swell on “Shadow.” “Arkham” opens as downright “synthwave” before the percussion and vocals cast the mood down, while sparks surround even the jaunty indie-pop cuts. It adds an air of reflection and spaciousness to Mariana’s songs — if the group craves an innocence like untouched nature, they require room to figure out what that really means to them.
Yet even when seeking solace, you sometimes have to sprint towards it. The four-piece outfit remain at their best when picking up the pace, whether on the machine-assisted stomp of “Garden” or the speedy stroll of “Nostalgia,” soaked with ennui but refusing to stop. By the final stretch of Landscapes, the mood improves as they hop along “Bloom” and aim to settle it all down come closer “Peace.” It’s the indie-pop experience captured just right, delivered by a band having lived it in Japan for nearly a decade. Listen above.
Local Visions And Yuka Nagase — OACL
I can’t imagine a compilation designed more for me than OACL — standouts associated with online-born label Local Visions team up with a singer that’s part animated idol / part VTuber hailing from Riot Music to create an album where everyone can showcase their strengths. Yuka Nagase proves flexible enough a singer — capable of a sing-speak hop-scotch on producer upusen’s nervy synth blankets and traditional pop charms alongside Tsudio Studio’s neo-city-pop update (saxophones!) — to work with everything the roster throws at her. And they are showing off their personal quirks, from joyfully disjointed synth-pop retro-isms (Sonic Module) to zero-gravity electronic (AOTQ). While all over the place sonically, OACL offers a snapshot of Local Visions’ overriding artistic aesthetics — specifically, a playfulness towards the path colliding with an interest in the now, with human voice pouring out. Get it here, or listen above.
Milky — so empty, so sad
The title alone should make it clear this one is indebted to the current youth movement in Japanese underground music, but whereas many artists coat their glumness with hedonism and blown-out bass, Milky aims for constriction. so empty, so sad features a layer of fuzz and echo closer to the claustrophobic sounds of 2010s producers like Cemetery or even a Gen Z update on the sparseness of Noah. The title track is a highlight. a dizzying rush of electronics and beats smothering out Milky’s voice, creating something much more personally harrying than the catharsis others find in ravin’ out. Listen above.
Yurufuwa Gang — Journey
Every trip this duo takes ends up being into their own head. Already boasting plenty of mileage — remember their Goa trance EP??? — Yurufuwa Gang’s follow-up to career-best GAMA embraces a conceptual frame of travel, something they’ve long dabbled in but here made more clear. Though with Yurufuwa Gang, clear truly holds a fuzzy definition, as that’s all just a diving board for them to get weird, from drum ‘n’ bass costume parties (hear NENE adopt an absolutely bewildering cartoon girl voice on “Ms. Groove & Mr. Freaky”) to something approaching their takes on techno-pop (“I can’t believe it”) and the Minions’ song “Happy” (“Because,” rougher around the edges but weirdly Pharrell like, at least until the rap parts). It doesn’t all land, as the more explicit travelogue pieces like “On the ground” sound like overly exotic souvenirs, but when they let their minds wander…well, it doesn’t matter where they’ve been because you are being pulled right into their noggins. Listen above.
Proxi — “Memai”
I’m a sucker for electronic tracks that are the equivalent of being spun around really fast in an office chair. Listen above.
ZEN-LA-ROCK Featuring Kick a Show — “Keizoku Wa Party”
I’ll always be drawn to the hoarse voice of ZEN-LA-ROCK, and an appearance from Kick a Show…low-key having a fantastic 2023 as he probes the lonelier side of last train…is a great bonus. But I’m all in on “Keizoku Wa Party” because of producer Pharakami Sanders of Kool Switch Works adding extra muscle to this rubbery shout-along, while also making ZEN-LA-ROCK’s delivery flow all the better. Listen above.
Kyozo Sasaki — Metafuuikushon(-_-)zzz
If a band like Marianna in our Heads seeks to carve out space for self retreat via their indie-pop, composer Kyozo Sasaki aims to blur reality via their left-field pop sketches. Perhaps their is some generational lesson lurking within this high schooler’s debut work, presented as a meditation on “what if an anime character came to life?” I’ll save the age-centric analysis for a sociologist, but Sasaki’s first fits in nicely with a new wave of young electronic artists aiming to mess with the perception of pop sounds, often with Aughts-era sounds (see: Telematic Visions, Mimi Chuka) as part of the palette. Here, minimal beats and piano melodies intersect with Vocaloid voices, creating a tension between bedroom doodling and electrified pop, especially apparent when Sasaki reaches their finale. No need to hide from the world when you get self-augment what is around you. Get it here, or listen above.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of July 3, 2023 To July 7, 2023
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.
SKE48 — “Suki Na Nacchatta” (313,448 Copies Sold)
Think we’ve been spoiled by all these -46 singles lately, so hearing some boilerplate -48 fare is “pleasant” at most. Great use of an empty water park in the video, though!
News And Views
K-pop-centric music / water festival WATERBOMB was supposed to make its Japanese debut this past weekend in Osaka, but tragedy struck prior to the event. A staff member was accidentally shot in the face with a blast of water going about 75 miles per hours while checking a water canon, which killed him. The festival cancelled the two-day event in Kansai, though it appears it will go ahead with upcoming dates in Nagoya and Tokyo.
Internet influencer, TV talent and LGBTQ+ advocate ryuchell died last Wednesday, with reports indicating they died of suicide. They overlapped frequently with the music world, most notably for a series of singles released in the late 2010s.
“Idol” topped YouTube’s global songs chart. In other YOASOBI news, they’ve somehow been added to Bring Me The Horizon’s Japan festival…uhhhh, OK.
The members of former Johnny’s Jr. group IMPACTors announced they had joined TOBE, the latest Johnny’s performers jumping over to the new agency. Now known as IMP. (errrrrr, work on it), they’ll begin working from the fledgling company.
Forgot to share this last week during the news deluge but…hololive1 have linked up with Universal Music Japan to form a new label called holo-n. Big step forward for VTubers in the music lane.
Fuji Rock links up with Family Mart’s line of apparel for official fest merch…excited to spend a month’s income on this.
On the topic, the heads of both major international-leaning music fests sat down with Rolling Stone Japan for their yearly chat. A lot of optimism following successful 2022 editions of both, carrying over to this year it seems.
Kenny G (not the Japanese rapper who keeps getting arrested) made a surprise appearance on Japanese TV.
Hoshino Gen serving as MC for a new Netflix show coming this August.
AKB48…back to 48.
Recochoku share midyear info, which follows in the footsteps of Luminate’s midyear report.
In an incredibly inspired move, Toyo Keizai Online interviewed a PR strategist about Tatsuro Yamashita’s comments regarding Johnny Kitagawa. I love this…it’s great to take a step away from the emotionally charged reactions and instead dig into the optics dirt to understand what went wrong, with plenty of valid points. It also underlines one of the wilder parts of the whole kerfuffle…the PR whiz dings Yamashita for being “too honest” instead of sticking to a conveyed point which, as I argued, made this one of the extremely rare moments of someone in the Japanese entertainment industry being wholly truthful…even if they absolutely should not have been for their own career status.
How do you live? I mean, don’t throw that on me right now, man. That’s the central riddle of Studio Ghibli Masetro Hayao Miyazaki’s latest film Kimitachi Wa Do Ikiru Ka? which will be named…The Boy And The Heron outside of the country. Part of the charm of the latest “Miyazaki farewell film” is there was no info, promotion or much of anything ahead of its release, beyond the title and a poster indicating a bird was involved. I watched it opening day — want a bonus-post review, smash that like and subscribe!!!! — and will say the experience of going into a hyped-up piece of art knowing nothing was exhilarating in the face of the marketing nightmare-scape most art enters in the 21st century.
Part of that in-the-darkness was having no idea who would be involved with the music, though Joe Hisaishi being central would have been a safe bet. Turns out one long simmering rumor came true…Kenshi Yonezu provided the end-credits song, and in a lengthy tweet, wrote about how he came to be involved in it (Miyazaki liked “Paprika?” God of taste). That tune is now on Spotify, listen below.
One other J-pop surpirse which is now public knowledge and doesn’t impact the plot so I feel OK sharing it…Aimyon provides a voice in the movie! And she does a good job!
There’s a story going around about the United Nations investigating Johnny & Associates over the reckoning with founder Johnny Kitagawa’s alleged sexual assault of minors and…look, I think the general media coverage of this has been very well done and hasn’t leaned too much into spectacle given the serious issue at the center, but woooof be careful with this one media types. Reported by a weekly tabloid using anonymous sources (uh oh!), media still ran with it despite no real evidence this would happen and the fact this sounds like a stretch. A government official even answered a question posed by a reporter about it, saying that this issue isn’t why the UN group is coming to Japan and not part of their itinerary.
A whole side ripple of this reckoning involves Japanese media, specifically how they didn’t broach this scandal in the past, and how that makes them seem bad overall. I think outlets both Japanese and in other languages need to be careful not to turn a serious and necessary story into a “can you believe this?!?” affair. Then, the whole apparatus really hasn’t learned anything.Great article on Y3K fashion with plenty of intersection on the music side.
Great account of a night out in Tokyo by Elizabeth Beattie in The Japan Times.
The draw is the Parannoul song, but this forthcoming collection looks incredible and is loaded with great Japanese artists.
It’s time for high school baseball tournaments in Japan, leading up to August’s beloved Koshien tourney out in Osaka. Bring on the novelty comedy singles topping the YouTube Japan Trending tab!
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
Follow the Best of 2023 Spotify Playlist Here!
full disclosure: I have PR connections to hololive AND Universal Music Japan, this is a double whammy of transparency for me.
Ooh, Landscapes and the Kenshi-Miyazaki song are fantastic!