Make Believe Melodies For July 7, 2025
A Whisper Gaining Momentum
uami — Mi Oboe
Fukuoka artist uami’s go-to description online is “a whisper.” It’s a fitting choice for the music emerging from their world, spacious and a little fragile and animated by uami’s own hushed sing-speak. Since starting to share work online almost a decade ago, this intimate feeling has defined their experimental sound, with even the oddest sonic turns being delivered as something private.
That muted air lingers on Mi Oboe, uami’s first full-length album in four years, with its minimalist construction and wispy vocals fleshing out the sonic world they’ve long been building. Yet it’s the instances of that whisper growing into something louder…even just occasionally…that makes it special.
The songs uami makes have always pulled listeners in via a sense of closeness and a slightly off-kilter interpretation of pop. They toy with verse-chorus structures across Mi Oboe, but either the sounds propping them up bend in unexpected ways or uami’s own voice wanders towards someplace else. It gives this album a welcome warp to it, with otherwise pretty numbers such as “Yarazu No Ame” a surreal touch. There’s also instances of a different kind of minimalism to uami’s creative process, with “Suna” being just their singing and piano…that link remains, but made real-world visceral.
Mi Oboe’s quieter moments are absorbing, a welcome return to uami’s sonic universe. Yet the glimpses of something more cathartic give it extra energy. See the club rumblings buried deep down on “Yokare,” or the glitchy propulsion of “Kusumi,” maybe the most upbeat and pop-centric songs they’ve ever made. Those instances aren’t common, but the thrill they bring reveal new corners to their world. Listen above.
kaza — “Anonagame”
Stretches of kaza’s “Anonagame” marinate in an electronic mist, with the artist’s own voice luxuriating in the atmosphere to the point of digi-cracks showing up in her delivery. Yet those moments of stasis last for only so long before everything turns into a dash, the content turned frantic. That urgency is helped big time by producer elli mia, responsible for a whole album of such fast-slow gems for Omoide Label. Listen above.
Yuri — “dempatomatoma”
One of my favorite details about the creative process between Yuri and Sasuke Haraguchi is how at the start of every month, the latter asks the prior to write down a bunch of words, and he goes from there in creating sounds for her to trampoline around. Clearly, she had technology on the mind, as latest number “dempatomatoma” uses the Japanese for radio waves as a bouncing off point for a song about communication. It’s one of the cleaner backdrops Haraguchi has created for her yet, bordering on the dreamy…which makes sense, since at points she practically whispers over the track. The wild energy remains, but delivered in a after-eight way. Listen above.
DJ SEKIS — Still in Motion EP
Tokyo juke creator DJ SEKIS offers as close to a beachside interpretation of the Chicago-born style across the Still in Motion EP. The track bookending this Kool Switch Works’ release use samples of guitar breezes and light percussion to craft its vibes, more Pacific Ocean than Lake Michigan. Yet SEKIS turns those breezy elements into something skittering when it comes time to slice and get the beat going. Between that pair, he gets a little funkier on the fun workout of “Side Winder.” Get it here, or listen above.
seaketa — “koku”
The flute notes flutter above the electronic cacophony beneath, joy above chaos…before all of that recedes and electronic artist seaketa turns it all into a piano-guided exercise in slightly wobbly ecstasy. Listen above.
Tomoyo Harada — “Hoho Ni Kaze”
Long-running musician and actor Tomoyo Harada lets the wind run across her face and relays the feeling on “Hoho Ni Kaze.” Featuring assistance by Hiroshi Takano and Goro Ito, Harada creates a driving dance-pop song in the style of Hitomitoi’s lither moments about the act of driving away from it all, complete with GPS-style voices offering directions on where to go. Apt for the summer, or anytime one feels like getting away from it all. Listen above.
Suiyoubi No Campanella — “Chateaubriand”
The immediate compliment to pay this one is for the video. I most certainly initially had the oh-too-common sensation of wondering “is this AI generated?” when starting up the clip for “Chateaubriand,” but as the MV plays out (and I did further research on all the people involved), it’s clear this is just director Nao Watanabe fucking with us. He’s done similar things before — see this xiangyu clip from a few years ago — but this one’s directly playing with modern AI aesthetics, through humans and CGI.
That’s all great, but I don’t want to underplay the song too. Suiyoubi No Campanella remains a playful space to tinker with what’s possible with J-pop — something I’ve come to really really appreciate in 2025 after visiting the States and being confronted with retrograde trends in the air — and here Kenmochi Hidefumi creates a driving house-pop cut featuring odd percussive touches and voices deep in the mix to offer a surreal edge to a song largely listing off cuts of meat. See also the NY-drill-dappled dash of “Summer Time Ghost,” which I didn’t really appreciate until binging through Kowloon Generic Romance1 recently. Listen above.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of June 23, 2025 To June 29, 2025
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.
Sakurazaka46 — “Make or Break” (474,781 Copies Sold)
My immediate reaction to “Make or Break” is how the opening salvo of oh-oh-ohs reminds me of Sakanaction’s “Yoru No Odoriko,” which probably partially explains why I like it.
It’s not just my early onset 2010s J-rock nostalgia setting in, though! A good idol group gets to the emotional point, regardless of how busy and buzzy the music around them gets. There’s a lot going on sonically in “Make or Break” — points to the piano melody dashing about, the zero-gravity synth floating in and those bass burbles — which is a fitting sound for a song about the all-or-nothing intensity of romance. There’s a line here about how love is like a knife being stabbed at you, at that captures what makes this all work. Like attraction itself, it’s dizzying and maddening and a little bit discombobulating, but the reason for it all cuts through clearly. Listen above.
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Paid subscribers to Make Believe Melodies get one extra post a week. Sometimes it’s about a concert, or a music event, or probably this Mrs. GREEN APPLE creampuff from Lawson I bought the other day. Yet it can also be about theme parks!
Make Believe Bonus: Seibu Yuenchi And The Showa Dream Within
An amusement park needs to transport visitors away from reality into a world unlike the one they know. Perhaps that’s to the American frontier, or the Mushroom Kingdom, or where the characters from Frozen live. Key is, it has to be something different than the grind guests are used to.
News And Views
There were multiple big Japan-media-related events over the last weekend — Anime Expo and Japan Expo — that I’m still trying to sift through news wise. Yet what I know is clearly the biggest musical development of the week…hololive Night at Dodger Stadium returned, giving us this scene. Unfortunately for LA, they could not repeat the magic of last year and fell to the Houston Astros.
Everyone interviewed Togenashi Togeari since they were in Los Angeles for Anime Expo, as were a bunch of other J-pop acts.
Mrs. GREEN APPLE became the first J-pop artist ever to achieve 10 billion streams in history. Even for a group big enough to warrant a nationwide Lawson collaboration, this is pretty surprising. I initially thought the bulk of this would have come domestically…but I actually think the reason they’ve hit this mark is they also have a sneaky international presence via anime themes.
I interviewed KOM_I and Foodman for The Japan Times about one of the year’s best releases.
The Kanto area live venue landscape keeps changing. Coming soon…a new arena in Makuhari.
Creepy Nuts took over Shibuya crossing to perform its latest song.
m-flo landed a world record for most versions/remixes of a song released at once.
Endon announces plans to disband following a show in September.
I saw Yuki Chiba’s Budokan show last week…maybe more on that soon!…but at said concert he announced plans to move to Los Angeles in an effort to win a Grammy.
QUADLIPS to challenge the United States next year. Why not!?
Alright, it wouldn’t be a news roundup without an update on the many beefs of NENE. There’s no update on the Chanmina / HANA / SKY-HI front (the group appeared on THE FIRST TAKE), but someone else entered the ring to spar with the Yurufuwa Gang member. So while all of this was happening, I initially missed that artist Nina Utashiro called out NENE for biting her ideas for her initial song in the scuffle…the one with the bit about being on your mood board. According to Utashiro, she had a song called “Mood Board” with a similar line ready to go, which she released soon after.
Now this is where it gets more complicated. I’d initially say that the concept of a “mood board” isn’t that top secret, but NENE does appear to run in similar circles as Utashiro and the seem to share a stylist. This video breaks all that down. It’s also totally possible this is just the case of the stylist…who seems to be in the worst position, honestly…is just lady and using similar styles for both. Anyway, Utashiro followed up with another, even more pointed song aimed at NENE, below.
NENE responded…with a GIF.
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
Check out the Best Of 2025 Spotify Playlist here!
Great series! The rare time in the 2020s where saying “it’s about trauma” isn’t a joke about how dumb it is, but an accurate snapshot of it. Also about as smart about the draw and drawbacks of nostalgia I’ve seen from anime.