Make Believe Melodies For June 29, 2021
Abbreviated "Help, Multiple Projects Due This Week" Edition
Hakushi Hasegawa And Yukichikasaku/men — “Sukuinote”
Two of the most thrilling young artists in Japan come together for a fittingly bonkers number always on the verge of collapse, but ultimately holding together while working in plenty of catchy segments. I’ve celebrated Hakushi Hasegawa’s madcap sonic surgery before, so let’s give a little love to Yukichikasaku/men, a project dabbling in similar left-field pop for a bit now and responsible for a very good album from earlier this year. “Sukuinote” pushes their respective skills to the limit, offering as refined an approach to chaos possible (this is like if HyperPop went to finishing school). Listen above.
tamanaramen — “hazama”
A nearly ten-minute electronic absorber sprinkled with poemcore spoken word? Don’t mind if I do! Listen above.
red go-kart — “Jellyfish”
Half-speed indie-pop ideal for rainy season. Get it here, or listen above.
Foodman Featuring Taigen Kawabe — “Michi No Eki”
No surprises that Foodman’s first album for Hyperdub is one of 2021’s highlights. Here, he reunites with frequent collaborator Taigen Kawabe of Bo Ningen for a darty number that rearranges Foodman’s texture into something more urgent. Listen above.
GENERATIONS From EXILE TRIBE — “Make Me Better”
J-pop matching up with contemporary dance-pop sounds…which are all just varying shades of retro…and actually doing it better than a lot of other songs out there. Listen above.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of June 14, 2021 To June 20, 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.
Kenshi Yonezu — “Pale Blue” (156,438 Copies Sold)
Kenshi Yonezu is the biggest active J-pop artist going. Here’s all the proof you need.
Yonezu beat out NMB48 and a branch of EXILE (more than doubled up on them) on the physical-only ranking, the one space where he shouldn’t be on top. Sure, he’s put out multiple special editions of the single, including a “puzzle edition” (everything is AKB48), but he’s still outpaced two acts that have long excelled at playing the chart game, even if the absence of a Johnny’s act removes the one true chart hurdle in this situation. And that doesn’t even feel like a surprise at this point.
News And Views
On an Instagram livestream — one that was primarily supposed to find them interviewing Hideaki Anno — Utada Hikaru announced that they identify as non-binary.
Perfume will be among the panelists on the upcoming Japanese version of The Masked Singer, with their next single serving as the theme song to the Amazon Prime offering.
Just going to let the tweet do most of the major lifting.
OK???? This implies Akimoto is just working with Smith’s Westbrook agency on an adaptation of his book (haven’t read it, looks dumb), but allow your imagination to run wild! Will AKB48 get the chance to repeat their D.C. charm offensive on the west coast??? Will Gemini Man stans urge Smith to stop working with him? Never know!
Worlds collide when Sapporo-based electronic artist DOG NOISE crosses paths with virtual YouTuber Gawr Gura.
All of the major summer festivals in Japan have laid out their initial plans for 2021…so now comes the smaller regional events. Rush Ball 2021 in Osaka is a go. Fun fact — they were the first festival at all in Japan during the pandemic, holding a successful gathering in late August, back when COVID numbers dipped low nationwide.
Kizuna AI drama? Kizuna AI drama. She’s missing shows due to malfunctions, and fans are worried, especially seeing as other prominent Virtual YouTubers are stepping away from their agencies. Digi performers, real-world dilemmas.
Respect to Sayonara Ponytail, making their latest release available only on cassette. True commitment to “physical media,” which…remember when everyone was all in on that earlier this year? Tears in the rain….
“Japan's NexTone launches global-facing digital music division ArtLed for independent artists,” intriguing!
Billboard Japan interviewed MANON, which is partially a reminder that AsobiSystem still has big-time sway with media, but there’s some interesting bits scattered about. I found the bits about how she wasn’t even alive for gyaru culture the most intriguing, especially because it hints at an impending ‘90s boom that’s going to take a bit of the sparkle away from the all-things-80s mood dominating now. Also, really good song still!
Porter Robinson talked to Hakushi Hasegawa for CINRA about the influence of Japanese music and pop culture, especially on latest album Nurture, and there’s a lot to go through, but if you have time, really dig into how Japanese electronic music — among other works — shaped it.
If you’ve ever wanted to see YouTuber Hikkakin and billionaire Yusaku Maezawa unbox look at and sometimes smell (?!?) the clothes BTS wore in the “Dynamite” video…well, get excited, your dream has come true.
This is the most interesting part of the video minus Maezawa sniffing up some old hats.
Huge week for idol graduation behind-the-scenes uploads, with looks at Miyawaki Sakura’s farewell from HKT48 and Sayuri Matsumura’s departure from Nogizaka46.
Take me to the airport live.
Programming Note
As the sub-head notes, am currently deep in non-writing project hell, so weekly round-ups might be shorter for the next month! Thanks for your continued subscription to this.Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
