Make Believe Melodies For June 21, 2021
Are you a cool enough person to buy me the Negicco trash can?
Noah — “Gemini — mysterious lot”
The latest single from electronic artist Noah is presented as “a new start,” but the feeling “Gemini — mysterious lot” conjures up feels in line with the escapist sounds she has crafted during the last decade. Her music works best as an introverted experience, with 2015’s Sivutie remaining her inner-looking masterpiece, a song inviting listeners to step into her own little world and share some time. Six years on, she’s still ushering us into another place behind strings and a muted club thump, over which she sing-speaks in French, lifted up by a chorus of Noah’s adding grace to an otherwise nervy dive. Get it here, or listen above.
tofubeats — “SMILE”
A blast of positivity with some potential unease lurking within — the video with its emphasis on temperature-check tech and masks turns the hook “I just wanna see you smiling” into something a little more desperate considering you literally can’t see people doing this out on the street. However much COVID-19-realities you want to read into it, tofubeats offers up a confident pop-rap that continues a strong run he’s been on since Fantasy Club. Listen above.
Kaede — Youth — Original Soundtrack
Not to dive into my personal wants and desires, but I was trying to find a Negicco baseball hat the other night (the Yankees-inspired onion one, maybe the best piece of J-pop merch in the 21st century) and was reminded of just how prolific this group has been by looking over their online goods store. Just look at all this stuff!
Gimme the garbage can!
What’s more surprising is realizing how a group that initially existed to promote agriculture continues to evolve, whether by being at the forefront of the idols-can-have-lives-too movement (all three members are married and still going) or just challenging themselves with new musical ventures. Member Kaede has been particularly inspired over the last year, and after releasing two of 2020’s best albums she returned recently with a soundtrack to an imagined film, the sort of concept I’d expect from like For Tracy Hyde. Youth — Original Soundtrack plays around with spoken-word interludes, but the strength lays in the pop, created with Yusuke Sato. They run from sunny strolls to Ghibli-core piano jaunts to outright funk jams. It’s a fun place for Kaede to let her imagination run wild, and she makes it count with a varied and sun-dappled set of songs. Listen above.
NTsKi — “Kung-Fu”
Orange Milk Records releasing an album from NTsKi this August = instant summer highlight. Advanced taste “Kung-Fu” finds the discombobulated sample barrage favored by the American label wrapping around NTsKi’s vocals, like she’s trying to build a sweet pop song inside a collapsing sandcastle.
Pictured Resort — “Sunrise”
Savoring the last sunny days before rainy season settles in with a Kansai band excelling at those warmer-clime vibes (bonus: they put out a five-year-anniversary edition of their peak tropical indie-pop album All Vacation Long, a set worth your time).
It’s….Showtime!
Good chance to catch up on POD48 this week, because we’ve been going through it and it only gets wilder and wilder. Listen to the first two episodes now.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of June 7, 2021 To June 13, 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.
Nogizaka46 — “Gomenne Fingers Crossed” (589,751 Copies Sold)
I mostly just want to obsess over the Fast & Furious indebted music video, such a simple idea (“idols doing X”) embraced and taken to a zany extreme. If it looks like it could have appeared in the “Gingham Check,” I’m here for it. While clip takes the checkered flag (gahhhhh), it is worth pointing out that the song is pretty solid too, a darty number keeping the pep back a bit. That piano melody running throughout the song also makes me think YOASOBI’s influence is truly seeping into everything, as the pace of this one brings to mind a more aerobic “Yoru Ni Kakeru.”
News And Views
My priorities are completely mixed up thanks to doing a podcast about Produce 48 — I’ve spent substantial time watching ex-AKB members livestreaming Apex Legends to eight people, real broken wota stuff — but the biggest J-pop news of the week was Sakura Miyawaki graduating from HKT48 this past weekend. End of an era (and leads to an interesting vacuum in the AKB-verse as they…are now lacking star power), and it will be interesting to see where she ends up next in the wake of this and IZ*ONE’s contract ending. You can watch a sentimental farewell video here…or just watch Sakura play Resident Evil below.
On the domestic festival front, a lot of movement from the big four gatherings. Fuji Rock shared initial breakdowns of who will perform on what stages, while Rock In Japan revealed initial performers, including YOASOBI, which will play their first fest out in Ibaraki. Supersonic really is going through with a Western-heavy lineup of DJs, while Rising Sun Rock Festival up in Hokkaido…cancelled for the second straight year.
TV station TBS has partnered with Korea’s CJ ENM for…something involving content.
Podcast news, because “audio” comes close enough to “music” for this newsletter. Sony Music acquired UK podcasting company Somethin’ Else (they should have thought of “somethin’ else” to name their company) in a bid to enter the shoulder-to-shoulder podcasting race.
Yet a similar race exists in Japan, where podcasting isn’t really enjoying the same type of boom it is in other parts of the world. Spotify is looking to change that by transforming podcasting into something cool…and no better way to achieve that than by working with TV Tokyo on a podcast-themed drama set to debut this July. I wrote about it for this week’s Japan Times Pulse column.
Johnny’s getting all the boys vaccinated (though I’ve heard pretty much every major talent agency is also accelerating this for staff and performers).
Streaming up, but not enough to catch up to physical decline, based on early 2021 reports on Japan’s music industry.
I’ve been interested in the tension between Ado’s anti-conformity image and her various commercial tie-ups…something we talked about a little bit in our interview…and this dimension continues to play out via her new spot for housing company Tama Home, wherein she sings their trademark jingle in her scream-centric style.
Shy Thompson has a great dive into Japanese Environmental Music for Bandcamp Daily.
I looked at Tokimeki Records — and how the Japanese music industry is adjusting to international trends and digital distribution — for Otaquest.
Kyary Pamyu Pamyu….travel vlogger???
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies