Make Believe Melodies For June 23, 2025
*pigeon cooing sound*
iVy — Konransuru Appetite
There’s something familiar but just askew about the world contained with duo iVy’s dreamy debut Konransuru Appetite. This became clear midway through, when a skit-like interlude plays. It features the Mac-talk robo voices most associated with Nico Nico Douga…or, for younger people today, YouTube as gateway to Aughts nostalgia. It’s an unlikely moment to pop up on a set of songs dabbling in shoegaze haze, but it’s those very left turns that make it so inviting and so reflective of the 2020s.
The music iVy makes exists within the paradigm of 2020s shoegaze mutations, using the feedback-splashed rock sound as a foundation but building out in a more unconstrained way that’s free to incorporate elements of dance, hip-hop and beyond (very “angelic post shoegaze” of them). A song like “pupu6” starts as dream pop escapism, but turns urgent via its rapped verses, the voices slowly warping until the guitar playing gets faster and what first felt like a cocoon bursts open into a synth-stabbed sprint. Next track “tea time mystery!” almost feels like a Gen Z update of “Strobolights” in how it uses repeating synth melodies to create something hypnotic.
These wrinkles to familiar styles and signifiers abound on Konransuru Appetite, existing alongside the decade’s best attempts at trying to find new angles on the now nostalgic while retaining the romantic, at times sekai-kei drama powering it forward. Familiar, but just off. Listen above.
F!C!O! — F!C!O!
A Trekkie Trax trio comes together to make a fittingly frenetic and surprisingly oddball supergroup. As the letters make clear, this is Fellsius, Carpainter and OnJuicy linking up for a madcap set of songs touching on dancehall and reggaeton among other uptempo styles. What makes it work well are the left-field touches, especially on the first two songs which use the sounds of dogs barking and pigeons cooing to add to the beat. I think the three also understand how to use human rapping right too, because the way OnJuicy gets seamed into these songs rather than dumped on top to take up attention — something that I find can distract from his solo work. Here, he’s a hyper man working in tandem with horses and ravens to create something bonkers. Get it here, or listen above.
goku sasaki — sid and goku
An album that sounds like the surface is already being peeled off layer by layer. The music powering sid and goku sound deliberately chipped, with tracks practically falling apart midway through. That’s all part of goku sasaki’s charm though, as he zig-zags between these bedroom beats to deliver vocals sometimes playing like a straightforward rapper and other times sounding like he’s on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Not blown out like hyperpop, but more like rap found on a crusty USB drive. Listen above.
Till Yawuh And Cwondo — “BLUETOOTH”
Kyoto’s Till Yawuh has always made music approaching the blurry, with last year’s Still Sounds often feeling like a bleary booze-stained stumble through youth. If you want to truly disassociate, though, call on Cwondo to help. “BLUETOOTH” finds the young creator’s voice merging with the electronic wooze around them in a way they’ve never done before, mutating with it as if just another instrument to play around with. For all of this ethereal feeling, they do add a nice beat to it at times to keep it sturdy. Listen above.
Nano Ayasaka — “Night Mirage”
Yes yes, “city pop” nostalgia can be an empty pit of imagined neon skylines and funk, but retro-ist Nano Ayasaka hits on something genuinely unnerving (big positive connotation) with “Night Mirage.” Some of the best tunes falling under the city pop umbrella embrace maximalism to an almost uncomfortable degree, and this is the sparkly lane Ayasaka’s latest cruises down, with seemingly every available space filled with fat bass, syncopated beats and vocals carrying a purple glow to them. Sure, sounding chill can be cool…but creating something this manic might capture life in metropolis during any period much better. Listen above.
harmoe — i k i
Idol groups can always benefit from a strong set of producers behind the scenes. Duo harmoe have tapped into Japan’s electronic community since debuting, and latest mini-album i k i works best when pairing their bubbly melodies with adventerous production. Tomggg flexes his versatility on the opener, putting the sonic toy box away in order to play around with traditional Japanese palettes, without losing the fizzy lift that fits so well with the duo, though anyone longing for the more dizzying can turn to yuigot’s contribution on “En no Manimani.” Still, it takes true veterans to deliver a highlight on the closing number, as long-running techno-pop trio TECHNOBOYS PULCRAFT GREEN-FUND come through with a funky bit of glitz working wonder with harmoe’s singing. Listen above.
Addiction — Addiction series
The ever-elusive Charles.A.D values the transient nature of music, with the majority of the house rippers he shares on Bandcamp eventually vanishing into the void. A good reminder to shell out for the art you love before it goes away in the streaming age, but it’s an approach I appreciate as it makes every transmission feel more special. Now, the producer introduces a new project called Addiction, wherein he moves away from the floor-focused house of his Charles name in favor of something “deeper.” I think that’s code for dubbier and more space, because this one still features the same grooves that get me bobbing in my office chair. It’s just a slightly different perspective on his sound, with everything great about it still intact…until it slides into the ether too. Get it here, or listen above.
Consider Upgrading To Paid!
Those who enjoy the newsletter can upgrade to paid ($5 USD a month) and get one bonus post a week, even when I’m swamped with work! Last week I tapped into the past for the premium post, going back ten years to revisit my quest to interview K-pop act CL for Pitchfork. This one has industry takes AND personal growth.
Make Believe Bonus: Put It On Ice, Bitch, Dr. Pepper
The sun is setting over Seoul's Olympic Stadium and all eyes focus on CL on the eve of her efforts to become a global superstar. First, though, she gives the crowd at Ultra Korea 2015 some of the songs that brought her to this point.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of June 9, 2025 To June 15, 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.
Kenshi Yonezu — “Plazma / BOW AND ARROW” (281,121 Copies Sold)
OK, sorry for the indulgence…but can we just soak this screen shot in for a second.
Beating out a female idol group designed to take advantage of fandom is one accomplishment…trouncing HYBE’s latest copy-of-a-copy-of-a-copy-of-a-copy males group is even more noteworthy. Honestly, I was getting a little nervous that the script on J-pop in the 2020s was about to flip towards re-heated group pop, but Kenshi Yonezu’s dominant physical week for a pair of songs attached to two of the biggest hit anime of the year is a nice reminder that no, the actual cornerstones of J-pop aren’t getting dislodged for boring boys.
Especially warranted because “Plazma” and “BOW AND ARROW” are two of the best mainstream hits of 2025 so far, and among the finest songs period. At this point, Yonezu absolutely could chill out and phone it in — he’s arguably the foundation for everything this decade, having truly shown how Vocaloid ethos could be applied to J-pop proper. Yet he continues to tinker, and these two numbers find him dipping more into electronic territory, particularly the nervy tempos of glitch, future bass and drum ‘n’ bass. It’s a fitting continuation for the speed of the country’s sound — Creepy Nuts used up all that Jersey Club juice, so gotta find somewhere else to keep the momentum going — and a nice pivot from a creator who squeezed a lot out of rock and balladry in recent years.
I will say, this triumph on Oricon behind a physical release of tunes that have been out for month does get at a kind of weird wrinkle to this all. This number-one ranking gives Yonezu something approaching a seal of approval to his year so far, because while “Plazma” and “BOW” are both hits, neither have felt like…the sort of year-defining hit they very well could be. I think that’s due to the combination of him having two big anime smashes at about the same time coupled with the fragmented-even-more state of Japanese entertainment, where a series like the new Gundam installment is massive but in a way where the music doesn’t necessarily dwarf it1. Here, though, two worthy numbers get their roses, and remind of their creator’s continued central role in J-pop.
News And Views
TOKIO member and TV host Taichi Kokubun stopped activities indefinitely owing to “compliance issues.” What those are is left vague, and reports indicate a lot of them happened in the past rather than recently, but it also wouldn’t be surprising given the scrutiny falling over TV stations and male talents in the wake of the Fuji TV / Masahiro Nakai scandal from the start of the year.
One of the big buzz crimes of the year has been “online casino” usage, with multiple comedians and athletes being busted for using these services. Add a pop star to the list, as JO1’s Shion Tsurubo suspended activities due to this too. It’s a sorta kinda complicated issue — taking part in “online casinos” isn’t illegal but betting money is, and these things are advertised all over the place — but I’m guessing we will see more notable names get snared up in this.
NENE of Yurufuwa Gang went scorched earth on Chanmina, SKY-HI and BMSG in a new song. This was going to be one of the tracks highlighted this week but it started getting long and I realized this should be a standalone post later this week. Hear it now though!
Look out J-pop, Sunsun the puppet is debuting as an artist this week.
In other debut news, Hoshino Gen’s “fake” persona Nise Akira will release his debut song soon. Fun gag…or secret attempt to pull a Chris Gaines?
tofubeats and Peanuts-kun, together at last.
Gabriel Szatan of Resident Advisor talks to ¥ØU$UK€ ¥UK1MAT$U.
Yuki Chiba dropped two albums last week! I’m getting old because I need to schedule time to listen to all this…
Peter Barakan went on the Unpacking Japan podcast, and has a lot of great stories, including many music-focused ones.
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
Check out the Best Of 2025 Spotify Playlist here!
Obvious example of the opposite — “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born,” which was bigger than the show it was attached to almost immediately (and a show, I’ll add, I have heard barely anyone talk about. Creepy Nuts won that one).