Make Believe Melodies For June 14, 2021
Wow, I Miss Kyoto!
Handsomeboy Technique — Technique
Kyoto used to be like a resort town for me when I first moved to Japan. Whereas Osaka and Nagoya were straight shots from Nabari Station, a trip to the ancient capital required more time and maneuvering to get around. Trekking up that way meant I had to make the most of a day there, which wasn’t too hard. After those initial visits erased any personal desire to ever see a temple again, Kyoto became a place for musical indulgence. It might be the best city in the country for a music lover, with Jet Set Records, Club Metro, Kyoto Muse, mogranBar at Club Nano, random indie-rock flea markets in the subway concourses and Second Royal Records. That last one defined Kyoto for me during those early years, fostering groups like Hotel Mexico, Homecomings, Turntable Films along with electronic artists like Halfby and Handomseboy Technique, who offered an often silly interpretation of sliced-up-sample dance music that could still work wonders in a live setting.
Technique feels like a neat little time capsule of those days, with Handsomeboy Technique packaging the laid-back atmosphere of early Kyoto summer 2012 into a career-defining album. A lot of this charm comes from his selection of guest vocalists, all connecting to Second Royal in some way (Keiichi Sokabe being the only real stretch). Ayaka Tatamino of Homecomings and Moto Kawabe of Mitsume swing by to add sweetness to the strumming of “Slow Fish” and “Long Slow Distance,” capturing the bridge between dance and rock the label walks. Even without voices, the producer himself turns samples of singing and strings into lush tracks. It’s an ode to a very specific period and music community, relatively under the radar but overflowing with warmth. Listen above.
punipunidenki And Kan Sano — “Zurukunai?”
Two contemporary greats come together for a raucous song begging for the State Of Emergency to end already so nights can extend later than 8 p.m. The not-so-secret charm here comes from a pair of creators who excel at poking at the norms of established sounds linking up to do that with on-trend jazzy pop. Listen above.
Oomori Seiko Featuring Noko — “Shunkan Saidai Me”
Oomori Seiko has been keeping really busy lately, releasing new songs such as the slow-burning “Rude” and making her idol dreams a reality via ZOC, who just put out an exhilarating two-disc album. When it comes to her recent material though, give me the goofball charm of this collab with Shinsei Kamattechan’s (and Vine legend) Noko, which lets loose without losing any of her intensity. It also touches on my personal favorite form of Oomori, which is her dabbling in EDM. Listen above.
NTsKi — “Misty”
Cuffboi And Cyber Milk — “Keyboard2000”
MANON — “GALCHAN MODE”
HyperPop — or at least the idea of whatever you want to label as “HyperPop” — is thriving in Japan right now. Here’s three recent examples of how it is mutating and diverting across the country, from the club-born experiments of NTsKi to the pop-opportunities seized on by Asobisystem talent MANON. The purest form, though, comes from Cuffboi and Cyber Milk’s “Keyboard2000,” a warped rap number featuring shout outs to Hatsune Miku and the McDonald’s Happy Meal (language fun: a “Happy Set” in Japanese). Listen above.
Perfect Young Lady — PYL DEMO AND…
Like the soundtrack to a drama someone has played out in their head for like, eight years. I know very little about Perfect Young Lady other than that, based off Twitter, don’t see anything they do as being "finalized,” resulting in this set of bewildering and bewitching demos, which tightrope between charming bedroom pop (“COLLECTION”) and jingle beauty (“No Caffeine”). This is one of those albums that appears out of nowhere and then refuses to leave your head…for fans of Emamouse, Ventla, rummaging through closets, local commercials and anything “found.” Get it here, or listen above.
It’s….Showtime!
POD48 has a doozy this week, as we get into the self-intros and evaluations. Tune in to this biggie-sized episode to hear Allen Huang and I revisit our favorite Produce 48 YouTube content, watch silly dances and wonder how Miyawaki Sakura earned an “A.”
Oricon Trail For The Week Of May 31, 2021 To June 6, 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 trip down…the Oricon Trail.
V6 — “Bokura Wa Mada / MAGIC CARPET RIDE” (126,319 Copies Sold)
More like “Bokura Wa Meh-da” am I right? Let’s not allow a drab V6 ballad to put us in a bad mood — plus, the one guy hosts a personal fave TV show of mine, can’t bury them too much! Let’s find some other angles to look at this week….
1. This newsletter-exclusive feature focuses on the physical singles sales chart, but it’s Oricon’s combined chart — counting, uhhhh, more than CDs — that offers a more realistic view of the Japanese music landscape. And this week is especially telling! It still feels like Oricon add extra weight to plastic sales, explaining why V6 and a troupe of anime boys take gold and silver, but after that every diverges. BTS and Kenshi Yonezu follow those up respectively (nowhere on physical-only), with only a Hinatazaka46 number following that connects the combined with the physical-only before you get strong performances from the back number, YOASOBI and Fuji Kaze, among others. Oricon has gotten better at measuring popularity…but huge gaps between charts remain.
2. The benefit of the physical-only chart? You get to learn about middling pop groups that can still chart high thanks to lowered stakes. Meet Mr.LOVER, the sort of project that exists to thrive (read: finish 10th) on this standing.
News And Views
Fests are happening this summer in Japan…and soccer teams in Japan’s second flight league will be wearing special uniforms supporting them. Mito HollyHock meets Rock In Japan in a special kit.
Utada Hikaru gave a very rare English interview! She’s very choosy about media1, so definitely worth a read, shout out Dazed nabbing that.
Avex is the exclusive digtal-license holder for the new Marshmello album in Japan which…is a first for Marshmello? They put a press release out about it, most be important.
Narrative forming? SoraNews24 writes on Johnny’s Jr. outfit 7 MEN Samurai and how they signal a “new wave” for the talent agency, citing their approach to social media along with their ability to play instruments, standing out from a world where avoiding the digital spotlight and choosing theatrics over skills is preferred. It’s true, even though all of the Johnny’s Jr. groups have been at the forefront of this since they debuted on YouTube in 2018. Still, this angle is on point…and guess who I think is happiest of all to see it? Johnny & Associates itself, but more on that sometime later.
Young legend Hakushi Hasegawa appeared on Brainfeeder’s THE HIT this week.
*deep breath* I don’t want to spend much time on the fact Perfume released an NFT this week. Here I was, thinking my favorites would never get involved in this…egg, meet face. Anyway, I blame Rhizomatiks.
Produce 101 Japan Season 2 wrapped up this weekend…I have been too busy bathing in 2018 to keep up on it, but keep an eye on it!
Virtual festivals might not be the preferred way to enjoy live music, but it can offer opportunities for Japanese acts that weren’t afforded in a pre-pandemic time. Australia’s Splendour In The Grass is going all online this year, and they’ve invited millennium parade and BAND-MAID to take part. Not sure those two…especially the prior…would get an invite in a regular year, but no centralized space means go crazy!
This isn’t directly related to anything new in Japanese music…but speaks to certain influences quite strongly. China…big on virtual idols, with one Luo Tianyi being a hit according to Bloomberg. Putting aside how shallow the feature’s look into Vocaloid is…imagine, actual music writers covering music! What a dream!…it is weird reading something that implies China is basically at 2009 for this movement. But hey, it gets really exciting!
Other sorta-kinda music news…Spotify has done a lot to turn existing podcasts into TV shows, but in a first they are working with TV Tokyo to create a drama…centered around a podcaster. Besides airing a show, the main character’s actual podcast…which is about eating at chain restaurants and talking about them…will appear on Spotify for people to enjoy. It’s an interesting tactic, but probably a smart one seeing as the podcast market in Japan is still very fledgling, and TV towers over other media platforms.
Loved this article over at Bandcamp Daily about the influence of anime on Mexican underground music, just loaded with great details, context and songs!
Ventla is the hero we need.
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
*gritting teeth as I’ve attempted to get an interview for the last five years*