Make Believe Melodies For June 20, 2022
Hyper-inflation Pop
Haruko Tajima & BAILEFUNK KAKEKO — Jikyuu 5000 Cho-en
Ahhhh, nothing like a malfunctioning set of songs inspired by real world events to short-circuit too as the summer sets in. Haruko Tajima excels at reading the moment and making it absurd — her entire discography features moments of tapped-in lucidity, and she’s a Zoomgal after all, helping construct a defining single from pandemic year one — so of course here she comes with BAILEFUNK KAKEKO to craft what they describe as “hyper-inflation pop.” Here’s the soundtrack to your inner meltdown over Mos Burger raising prices.
Tajima is pure dynamite throughout, whether ripping her way through the inner workings of data-driven modern capitalism on the title track or bragging about fast she is as the sounds around her increase in speed on “FAAAAAAAASTEST.” She manages to shapeshift her way through one of the rare Japanese songs to be about capitalism — and not in a boring “everything is capitalism” way — and how crushing the time-is-money mindset can be…while still making the whole thing a total spectacle of the absurd (the whole number revolves around demands for being paid “5000 trillion yen” an hour, while a subsequent tweet laying this out somehow makes it even more wild, complete with closing sentence “maybe trees will go extinct”). Two songs later she’s singing a gabber samba about…herself.
As energetic and ridiculous as she can be, shout out BAILEFUNK KAKEKO for making all this nervous, yen-watching energy blow up into something really kinetic. There’s a lot going on here — pitched-up voices, guitar shrapnel, mutating beats, NOISE — but every detail clicks into place just right, even if that place has been previously hit with a Molotov cocktail. They make a great team, and one creating high-energy electronic songs apt for the moment…and also way more ridiculous. Get it here, or listen above.
Seira Kariya — ALWAYS FRESH
A decade-plus in the making, but Seira Kariya has blessed the summer with a debut full-length full of electro-bops to be cherished. Most of them have been out in the wild for upwards of six years now — though that doesn’t stop “Colorful World” from still being a pure plunge into serotonin — but all gathered in one place, they create as jubilant an electro-pop album you’ll find anywhere this summer, give or take Perfume. Just don’t be afraid to breeze by the acoustic numbers to get to the pure pop rush. Listen above.
Nerd Magnet — “Your New Favorite Band”
Lucie, Too — “Heartless”
Everyone talking about “rock is back” or “xyz artists are taking the aesthetics of pop punk and updating them for the TikTok age!!!” Meanwhile, Japan continues to pump out the guitar-based songs uninterrupted for decades now, and doing it better than most. Here’s two new songs from the Thistime Records stable, excelling in fuzzy rifts and come-together-now hooks begging for festival season placement. Plus, in the case of Nerd Magnet, a slight wink at cycles of cool, noting how fast one’s favorite group can become just a memory. Groups may change, but rock being the core sound of Japanese music probably won’t. Listen above.
Yurufuwa Gang — “Moeru”
Not ready to get into this full beast yet, but…been thinking this is one of the few albums that could challenge Bad Mode for me personally on top of mental album rankings AND YET Utada’s latest still manages to be part of the DNA of Gama, via the sample drifting through this song. Listen above.
eill — “HAPPY BIRTHDAY 2 ME”
Best way to standout in a crowded group? Get a little goofy without losing your fun side. Up until now, eill has had her moments as she navigates the shoulder-to-shoulder space of aspiring female vocalists in modern J-pop, but mostly has felt like a wispier version of iri more than anything else. Not so with this talk-box-assisted slice of pop solitude. eill ups the playfulness, with an extended intro and “Happy Birthday” piano breakdown leading into a conga, though the spine of the song is a sturdy bit of party-starting funk offering good cover for her bad vibes. This is about being alone on your birthday…like, not even a lover, no friends or anything! She goes from coping with reality to making the best of it (“hey me / let’s celebrate!”) to sort of losing it, singing about how everyone should party until the end of the world before shouting out cartoons, soda and Pizza-La…while reminding Siri not to cut the music off yet. This one’s a party popper of charm, feeling really intimate in detail but universal in sound. Listen above.
macaroom — “mugen”
Spacious and inward looking, Tokyo electro-pop duo macaroom tease fourth album inter ice age 4 with a meditation. On “mugen,” they let words ripple across a persistent but hardly pushy beat, letting them hang even as macaroom introduce new elements (claps, a keyboard, a guitar) to the steady groove. Even when it starts whirring and spinning a bit more near the end — nearly rotating off the tracks during one interlude — they keep the singing centered, making even slight chaos feel like part of the plan. Listen above.
Foodman — “Percussion Oyaji”
Seventeen-minutes of percussion skitters courtesy of Foodman, with a few other knuckleball electronics and what sound like memories of train crossings scattered throughout? Hell yes. Listen above.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of June 06, 2022 To June 12, 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.
SixTONES — “Watashi” (471,469 Copies Sold)
This group’s way more interesting as a new-era representative of what Johnny & Associates wants to achieve than anything happening in this song. Stick with the Vocaloid imitations.
The actual most interesting development in the Oricon Charts this week? The soundtrack to Top Gun: Maverick barrel rolled into the album chart top five, a new high for the release. Besides underlining the appeal of the film itself, it’s also…one of the most successful Western full-length releases of the year in Japan, a country that has decided most pop from outside Asia isn’t worth it’s time anymore. Good work, Tom Cruise (and Lady Gaga, tour this fall will probably dominate).
News And Views
If you follow this newsletter and the Especia anniversary live show performance didn’t tug at your heartstrings…man, I don’t know. Brought me back to randomly heading to Daikanyama Unit on a random weekend night early in my Tokyo life to watch them.
Japanese music company tries to up the quality of streaming music.
Anime Village in Jeddah update — another notable Japanese music act flew out to Saudi Arabia for a show. This one is particularly notable as the group in question is ALI, responsible for a theme to popular anime series Jujutsu Kaisen. That’s a legit hit, and seeing it appear here alongside other funk-pop numbers is an interesting development.
Bandcamp Daily digging into Japanese music this week. First up, Jude Noel dug into the history of gorge, an electronic music sub-style born in Japan as an effort to riff on trendy styles but creating lots of great music while offering a wink. A few days later, Shy Thompson focused on artists drawing from the sounds of Hokkaido’s indigenous Ainu people in their work.
Miyavi prepping a whole bunch of stuff, including new label partnerships and a 20th anniversary tour of North America this fall. Also, because he’s clearly not busy and altruistic enough, he met with refugee children in Moldova forced out of their home of Ukraine by Russia’s invasion of the country.
The Cool Japan Fund finds itself in even more debt after COVID-19.
Give me the Hatsune Miku soda.
“Is the AKB48-style idol singer promotion system limiting Japanese music’s global appeal?” Was this article written in 2014, or 2022? The answer will surprise you! (Fair critique corner: both this blog post and the tweet inspiring it completely miss that…everything is AKB48 in 2022. The difference is in distribution. AKB emphasized in-person meetings and physical sales [though also…kinda radically ahead of the curve in terms of utilizing YouTube!], while K-pop…which is the counter from both critics…embraced digital. But Korea still engages in all the “idol” stuff…that’s what they’re called, and they even have all the controversies!…and it all boils down to a relationship between customer and artist, the difference being in where that plays out. Anyway, all this can be ignored, because both music critic and Rocket News anchor this to AKB, a group whose relevance skidded away five years ago. Stick to writing about buff-dude hotels!
Japanese cover of Vietnamese pop song that went viral on TikTok for this specific sped up version. The 2020s good path, in the spotlight.
The Trash Taste podcast sat down with anime and game composer Kevin Penkin for a chat.
Tatsuro Yamashita season is upon us. Following the fantastic Yahoo! Japan interview from a couple weeks back, Brutus magazine’s latest issue is devoted entirely to the pop tinkerer.
Since I can’t stop myself from buying magazines and books like this, I got this almost immediately. It’s the most extensive dive into Yamashita’s career from a publication I’ve ever come across, featuring a massive chat between the pop star and talent Chris Matsumura spanning his entire career, along with separate artist interviews with the likes of Taeko Onuki, Akiko Yano and Haruomi Hosono (!?) about Yamashita. There’s also lists of every song he’s written, singles artwork galleries and 15 reviews of his new album from 15 artists (tofubeats! Hitomitoi! one of the guys from Yogee New Waves!). Absolutely absorbing offering, and one I’m only just starting to plunge into.
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies