Make Believe Melodies For June 25, 2024
Enter The Cube
CVN — Xeno
Let’s take a moment to appreciate AVYSS, the online magazine zeroing in on Japan’s underground music community. It’s really so much more — besides being one of the best music sites period in 2024, it’s also home to a podcast, organizes playlists and puts on live shows allowing artists from across the country (and across styles) to connect in a real way. The site is operated by Nobuyuki Sakuma, who has a history of helping connect those operating on the experimental edge. He’s an electronic producer once operating under the name Jesse Ruins, and who helped found the critical early 2010s collective CUZ ME PAIN. Even after embracing a solo pivot as CVN, he’s welcomed other creators in similar lanes the chance to work together…with AVYSS being an even more ambitious way of cultivating something new in the nation.
CVN’s latest album Xeno works as both a celebration of this community spirit Sakuma has fostered in recent years…and as a wonderful snapshot, coming right at the halfway point of 2024, of where Japanese experimental pop sits.
There’s an editor’s ear present throughout Xeno, with this set offering Sakuma the chance to continue dissecting sounds (something he’s been doing since all the way back with CUZ ME PAIN, albeit accelerated by embracing the CVN moniker) while also highlighting the sonic qualities making current Japanese underground movements so exciting. Flashes of scuffed pop come courtesy of “crack my heart” and “wicked eye,” the latter also pairing guest vocalist RIA’s voice with snatches of emo-inspired guitar melodies. Sakuma continues to show a curiosity for a wider world of sounds, once again exploring the sounds of neoperreo, while also getting really disruptive by inviting sonic pranksters BBBBBBB to help craft floor-ready discombobulation. Xeno showcases the continued growth of CVN’s experimental spirit, but is just as important as an effort to help connect disparate corners of the country’s underground. That’s something Sakuma has become dedicated to, with this album being just his latest undertaking to advance it. Get it here, or listen above.
pppppfffffuuuuuiiiii — Mofu in’
Something central to Xeno and coming across clearly on the newest KAOMOZI offering via artist pppppfffffuuuuuiiiii is that pop isn’t something to be repulsed by, but rather something to warp into whatever you want. Across Mofu in,’ that means letting catchy melodies dissolve into digital gunk and reveling in rhythms suddenly going haywire, without losing the catchiness completely. The other important development here? This is one of the first albums I’ve heard where Hakushi Hasegawa’s influence on a younger generation comes through very clearly, with younger acts now using what they do as inspiration but trying to find their own perspective on it. Get it here, or listen above.
Pasocom Music Club Featuring Cwondo — “Hello”
A track highlighting both the versatility of Pasocom Music Club’s production (here they move away from the woozy pop of last year’s FINE LINE and instead go for something more minimal) and Cwondo’s singing (maybe I’m just used to his firecracker side, but here he does mellow and sorta sad wonderfully). Listen above.
FM TOWNS — “Pastel Night”
Yuri — “Peaky Peaky”
I don’t even think this is all that daring a prediction anymore…Sasuke Haraguchi is definitely the next great J-pop producer.
Like…kid is on fire, and starting to just be everywhere with a sound completely his own. If Hakushi Hasegawa represents the classical and jazz-based being thrown through a 21st-century woodchipper and reassembled, Haraguchi offers a more purely online type of chaos-pop capable of really smooth moments. Since he is apparently not busy enough, he’s formed a new project with De De Mouse called FM TOWNS, allowing him a chance on debut track “Pastel Night” to play around neon-tinted city pop sounds, something he used to do back when he was just a pop prodigy. It’s a reminder of his melodic sense, which exists in the more disorienting work he puts out, but comes across particularly shiny here. Listen above.
But who am I kidding…I love the way Haraguchi fits into modern attempts at J-pop proper, and how he’s able to muck it up. I completely missed “Heart 111,” the debut single from the artist Yuri — possibly because I saw it and confused it with the deeply uninteresting Yuuri — which is my bad because it bangs. In large part, it does so thanks to Haraguchi’s high-impact samples, disrupting but invigorating the music. Her second song came out recently, and it’s about being drunk! Well, at least partially, but turns out Haraguchi’s sound works perfectly for this situation too. Listen above.
lilbesh ramko — “I WANNA DIE 4 U”
All hail the good folks at Sony Music, whose short story platform Monogatary helped jumpstart the current era of J-pop by serving as the home to the piece of fiction that inspired YOASOBI’s “Yoru Ni Kakeru.” The site is now putting together a compilation of songs similarly inspired by pieces on the site…and if it gets lilbesh ramko more attention, I’m all for it. Listen above.
harmoe — “HyperLoveSong”
Tomggg helping assemble this one, and he’s melded his kawaii side with a harder-hitting sonic palette working in tandem with harmoe’s sweet delivery. Also check out the whole album this one comes from, featuring even more Tomggg along with a lot of other very welcome contributors from the electronic scene giving this one a unique sound (Aiobahn! KiWi!). Listen above.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of June 10 2024 To June 16, 2024
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.
≒JOY — Taikukan Disco (104,604 Copies Sold)
I’m not sure if it counts as a J-pop blind spot per se, but I’m certainly not really deep in the world of “=” groups, which clearly have fans but lacks the mainstream sizzle of -46 projects. To some degree, a group like ≒JOY (“Nearly Equal Joy”, get the hell out of here with this) is perfectly designed for Oricon. I don’t see them as having any sort of presence in day-to-day life here in a way that, say, Creepy Nuts or Mrs. GREEN APPLE (or even Nogizaka46), and I don’t think any of the idoly idol songs included here have much presence. Yet they have folks snapping up copies of these meh offerings, proving they are popular by at least one metric.
News And Views
J-pop star Ado has a new album out in July (full disclosure: I’m writing the English bio going along with it) and that means a new wave of promotions for the young artist. These include a collab with sushi chain Kura Sushi and special pop-up events. Yet most attention-grabbing…and, I say as someone technically paid by her label…is that Ado will hold her first-ever handshake event for fans. A common practice for any pop act, but Ado is famous for hiding her identity and face. So how do they deal with that? Stick her in a big cube.
Love it love love it. We need more ridiculous pop ideas, and putting a young superstar in a cube and having fans reach into the cube to shake presumably Ado’s hand is great.
Megan Thee Stallion has a new album out this week, and Yuki Chiba (formerly KOHH) guests on it. Pretty big moment for the “Team Tomodachi” mastermind. AND YET…I find the presence of a song called “Otaku Hot Girl” even more exciting.
Kenshi Yonezu announces next album. The young folks go crazy!
Southern All-Stars announce next album. The older folks go crazy!
Bread & Butter announce special anniversary collection. I go crazy!
Totally forgot to share Colombian artist Feid’s entry in the Tokyo-centric music video race. It’s got anime parts!
Crunchyroll lands right to distribute a LiSA concert film.
Prepare for another Creepy Nuts anime song later this year. Also prepare for…an interview with Creepy Nuts by yours truly very soon.
Hoshimachi Suisei’s latest single — a hit! — will be getting a CD release soon, with bonus goodies included.
Media company THINKR is separating from Avex to become its own entity.
Billie Eilish appeared on Music Station last week…a savvy move! I’ve written at length about the importance of Western acts actually coming over to Japan rather than relying on online connections, and it is smart for someone who had huge momentum in the country prior to the pandemic like Eilish to get out here and in front of TV audiences with a new album out. And she took a selfie with a gaggle of boys!
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
