Make Believe Melodies For July 29, 2024
Right After Fuji Rock, So Apologize For Exhaustion / Briefness
iga — BLUESKYFISH
Flights of fancy come from the seemingly mundane for iga. Trips into the musical surreal come about because of train rides, or visits to popular designer-goods second-hand shop 2nd Street. His favorite artists can jump start it across new EP BLUESKYFISH, as can anime. Whatever the spark, iga uses these thoughts to imagine a better place to escape into across the 17-minute release, blurring rap with emo with SoundCloud-born electronic haze to seek something new.
BLUESKYFISH condenses the vibe the Fukui-based iga explored on last year’s excellent Aft. He’s warping his voice while imaging ways to break the dullness of everyday life (“Nikes”), or speeding up the tempo to reach an imagined country built just for him and those he loves more quickly (“pallet”). The music aims for is a blur, but his rap delivery revels in details, with his influences referenced by name over the course of the EP (Frank Ocean, Ken Carson, Young Mason). He wants to build another world, but does so with the references of the one he already knows. Get it here, or listen above.
LAUSBUB — “I SYNC”
The duo LAUSBUB broke out because they reminded a lot of people about the music they loved growing up…specifically, Yellow Magic Orchestra and techno-pop from the early 1980s. “I SYNC” reminds that what has made them much more interesting since going Twitter viral is a focus on being distinctly themselves rather than something from the past. The electronic melodies here constrict and nearly collapse, with the group’s vocals going from clear to lost in the sound. I haven’t had a chance to listen to all of the duo’s new album…but this offers a promising preview of the modern touch they’ve flexed in recent years. Listen above.
higma Featuring COKO — “Skyline”
A similar delirious to the above two inclusions relayed via singing-synthesizer tech. Producer higma calls on the digi voice of COKO to glide over the synth-pop rush. While the lithe construction of the song paired with the computer-generated voices can make for some tension, the real beauty of higma’s work likes in how pretty they get COKO to sound while zipping along this song, including some particularly sticky parts when they up her intensity. Listen above.
Avec Avec And Nagase Yuka — “Princess Q”
Now here’s my comfort food — big, bright Avec Avec production with a little ‘80s sheen for good measure (oh the percussion), backing up a virtual singer. Listen above.
yuzuha — Love Notes
Thanks to the pace of culture and the internet, the “sub” part of “subculture” feels more and more murky to unpack in the 2020s. Like…it’s easier than ever to surface anything that could be considered under the surface in the first place, with whole-ass sites dedicated to it. We’re at the point where someone like Bloodpop (or someone on his greater team) has come across a specific corner of Tokyo youth culture, and transforms it into para-para pop geared towards the very-much-not-niche global market.
What I appreciate about something like Love Notes by yuzuha is the reminder that the communities powering subcultures contain multitudes of ideas within them, and aren’t simple hashtags to share. The creator behind the just-under-20-minute collection works in close proximity to similar post-hyperpop kids in the capital, down to turning to the ‘90s for sonic and aesthetic inspiration. Yet she’s mostly interesting in a sound closer to Oricon favorites from the later part of the decade (more guitar, more TV-show-ready melodies0, rather than the Eurobeat side (though she’s happy to let loose a little on “Shining Bright Star”), though the strongest stylistic comparison I can draw is a slightly more bedroom Her Ghost Friend. Listen above.
e5 And KUROMAKU — “DAWN”
Really though, I could have just pointed to the burgeoning career of e5 to make the same argument above, because she’s constantly mutating her own sound and showing just how flexible music borders in Tokyo’s underground are becoming. Here’s her latest, a collab with beatmaker KUROMAKU showcasing her at a particularly existential and urgent. Listen above.
Rie Ishimatsu, Tachibana Miruku And Kaede Yoshida — Tsuki Note Zawari
A mix of poetry / pure storytelling courtesy of Rie Ishimatsu, who appears to mostly read like children’s books, narrates and dabbles in music, colliding with electronic sounds. It’s the sort of experiment only a netlabel like Omoide Label could foster.
Recently, Omoide Label founder YZOX went to the hospital for sudden heart failure, and has asked for financial assistance. A very vital person in the world of Japanese netlabels, and someone helping to allow music like the above to exist, so I’d recommend helping if you can! Listen above.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of July 15 2024 To July 21, 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.
AKB48 — “Koi Tsunjatta” (295,877 Copies Sold)
A fun little song about screwing up a relationship! Mostly, it shows how the base sonic elements of AKB48 can be used to create something zippy and playful…while underlining how annoying it is when they choose to not go that direction.
News And Views
I got back from Fuji Rock Festival this afternoon…hence the probably delirious tone of this entire newsletter. Organizer Smash hasn’t released details about attendance, but based on my feeling of spending three days at Naeba — it felt pretty crowded, especially on the Saturday of the event. Of course that’s just going through ~ vibes ~ and numbers will clarify a lot, but I felt like the doom and gloom surrounding this year’s version of this event was a little overstated. I’ll have more on the festival later this week in The Japan Times, but my biggest takeaways are: no event boasts a better atmosphere in the country quite like Fuji Rock; if the weather turns out ideal in Naeba, Fuji Rock is easily the most sustainable gathering of its type going forward; and lots of artists really see Fuji Rock as special, underlining why it’s such an important part of the Japanese music ecosystem.
One of the most noteworthy parts of this year’s event — Kraftwerk taking time out of their Saturday headlining set to pay tribute to Ryuichi Sakamoto.
Among the benefits of going to Fuji Rock this year…I fully missed out on what appear to be a bunch of very stupid news cycles, including some goofing looking takes related to the Paris Olympics’ Opening Ceremony (also not seen). This reminded me that MISIA put out a French-centric video for her Olympic theme for local coverage.
Well hey look at that Nikkei Asia noticed Japanese music is getting more attention in the States, keep up gang!
Mixing it up a bit around these parts…here’s an interesting interview with conductor Yoshimichi Hamada at Bachtrack.
Creepy Nuts remixed Dua Lipa’s “Illussion”
The Ministry Of Economy, Trade And Industry shared a big ol’ report about the “Ideal Business Model for a New Era in the Music Industry.” I probably should do an entire post just on this (but…give me time lolz) BUT what jumps out from the intro alone is a government body saying Vocaloid culture is fundamental to the new era of Japanese music. It gets quite into the nitty gritty — details about Content ID on YouTube — but is an important document as the country’s industry turns towards new global opportunities.
Always need a funny video to end these things…thank you Pikotaro for coming through in a very lean week…
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies