Make Believe Melodies For March 28, 2022
Spoopy Times
Daoko And Yohji Igarashi — MAD
Who doesn’t dream of an indulgent retreat? Daoko spends nearly all of the MAD EP imagining drives down the highway, literal holidays or slips into the absurd. She’s spent plenty of time wrangling with confounding emotions and unspooling artistic dilemmas — 2020’s anima was her confronting changes both personal, physical and creative, and she’s pivoted to independence in the years since. Let her have some fun! Or at least imagine what that might look like in pandemic times.
In producer Yohji Igarashi, Daoko finds a partner providing the busy soundtrack to her reality break. He’s been gaining buzz as a trackmaker for a few years now, recently finding a spot as rising act Hiyadam’s go-to creator. Here, he offers up a pair of club clangers designed for spending the post-midnight hours out, along with a sample slice-up on “Spoopy” and a faster-tinged track on closer “Cha Cha.” It’s the ideal backdrop for Daoko to sing, rap and sing-rap about literal escape (“Escape”) or more imaginative visions of the dancefloor (the stream of consciousness title cut).
Thing is, this escape doesn’t always sound fun. Daoko wants a night out or a trip out of town, but downer realities are never far off. Flights of fancy like “Spoopy” are marked by real world details ranging from the funny (a shout out to McDonald’s McNuggets, which she praises as being a good value) to deflating (shitty men, all over the place). COVID-19 lurks over all of this, with references to masks that could possibly be metaphorical…until she mentions the infection count. “Escape” starts sounding a lot less like a delightful getaway and more like a necessary move.
Igarashi’s music becomes suffocating, the sound of space vanishing or the world getting weird. It’s a trick he does really well, and was also on display recently via Hiyadam’s “I RAVE U,” a deceptively high-energy work punctuated by a voice stressing “I’m a mess” and lyrics about not wanting to die young.
What elevates MAD is Daoko’s attention to detail and ability to read the emotional moment just right. Midway through “Escape,” the song slows down and Daoko practically breaks the fourth wall, dropping the theme and instead just rolling things over for a second. She wants a break, but she’s also eager to poke at the chance and get at what it really means, all over constricting dance beats.
Yuzi Zapping — “Countryside”
Imagine the club stuffed into a bulky 8-bit cartridge. That’s what Yuzi Zapping — who recorded this bleary dance track at Osaka’s Socore Factory — manages over this resilient bit of home-created catharsis, which runs the course from bleary-eyed to rave-ready to free-spirited via chord experimentation in the final rush. The dusty sound surrounding all of it only adds to the homebuilt charm, and makes for one of the more delightful tracks of the year so far. Listen above.
nonamera — “Dye In Lily”
Half of FRUN FRIN FRIENDS embraces the void. Or…how a just-off interpretation of club sounds can result in a delirious song rising above any efforts to tie it to specific period (we see you, DDR references). The longer it goes, the more warped it gets, and that’s a plus for all involved. Listen above.
LSTNGT — “Kimi Ni Muuchu (SAD MODE)”
Producer LSTNGT takes the inner turmoil and self doubt of Hikaru Utada’s “Kimi Ni Muuchu” and puts some real heavy vibes on top of it. A fantastic example of how addition doesn’t have to smother out emotions, but can rather make them more intense. Listen above.
lyrical school — “Find me!”
Emotional-wreck modern rock arrives to the world of idols…well, at least to slightly more prominent outfit lyrical school, let us never forget Los An Jewels pioneering work on this front. The real noteworthy development on “Find me!” — perfectly good song, though I’ll always personally enjoy lyrical school’s more giddy offerings — is LIL SOFT TENNIS providing production and writing, alongside the rapper Valknee. It’s a creep towards Japan’s very-online experimental community arriving in more mainstream places, which is intriguing to say the least. Listen above.
tamanaramen — “new perfume”
“Unease” is a word I lean way too much on in…pretty much every aspect of life, from writing to conversation (“those clouds…makin’ me feel uneasy”). I had to check myself upon first listening to “new perfume” and stop myself from instantly going to the aforementioned vocabulary, even though the way the synths and tamanaramen’s voice blur together do conjure up some…oh, you know. But really, the standout element is how lushly tamanaramen layers her singing, resulting in a dizzying dance cut in the lineage of Sapphire Slows. Listen above.
Various Artists — Version.
There’s nothing all that guffaw-worthy about the rise of Virtual YouTubers in Japanese entertainment. While the idea of “digital character doing people things” has some novelty to it, the way VTubers have found space in the country’s entertainment industry is very familiar. This is just a social-media-age mutation on “talents,” the jack-of-all-trade entertainers appearing across platforms in the country for decades (though, really, this also explains influencers except with a digital origin). Of course VTubers would get into music! Kizuna AI linked up with electronic artists as soon as she could, while recent stars in the space like Mori Calliope has put out a full-length album of….gothic electro-swing?
The Version. comp by Motto Music sticks to a time-tested approach to nudging creators from one field into music…just pair them with a talented behind-the-boards type. The songs here find VTubers working with electronic acts from across the country’s scenes, including appearances from Avec Avec, KOTONOHOUSE and EmoCosine. It’s a lot like when Maltine acts (uhhh, like Avec Avec) would work with idols in some capacity, allowing their sound to play out over something slightly pop adjacent but with smaller stakes. It results in one of the better VTuber-centric music projects to date, balancing between experimentation, energy and catchiness just right. Listen above.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of March 14, 2022 To March 20, 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.
KinKi Kids — “Kojyundo Romance” (165,432 Copies Sold)
Here’s a perfect example of why this series exists, and a great example of how Oricon has failed to capture the ways Japanese listeners approach music, even as the institution figured out what “the internet” was.
KinKi Kids…an essential part of telling the tale of ‘90s J-pop and a long-running act with a strong fanbase, for sure. Popular? Certainly. Reflective of Japanese music in the 2020s and what general folks are listening too? No way. “Kojyundo Romance” topping the physical-only charts is understandeable, but seeing them go number one on the all-encompassing chart…with only the above “short” video no YouTube and no presence on subscription streaming, unless you can’t a music box covers set…seems off. Especially considering who came in second.
King Gnu — “Chameleon” (23,993 Copies Sold)
This is going to be one of the biggest songs of 2022 in Japan, and already kind of is. It shot up streaming site rankings almost immediately upon release (it pretty much trades off with Aimer and Yuuri for said spot every three days), and the above video has racked up nearly seven million views in under two weeks, a great pace for a Japanese rock number. It hasn’t topped any Oricon weekly chart, and probably won’t — this would have been its best chance with the arrival of a physical CD single but King Gnu fans aren’t racing out to buy that in the way KinKi Kids supporters gobble up whatever they put out. The prior lean younger, and are web first, and that’s where “Chameleon” shines.
Nobody is losing rest over not getting a number one on Oricon in 2022, but it’s a great snapshot of why the historically trusted ranking feels so disconnected from capturing what’s happening in the country’s pop universe. It’s ultimately just one part of a bigger puzzle, leaving the listener to put it all together.
News And Views
One metric Oricon in its current state can represent well — when an artist truly transforms into a mainstream force. Fujii Kaze was probably already at that point…but holy moly, over 100,000 physical copies on the day of its release??? Superstar moments like this is where Oricon still delivers.
LiSA to get the Netflix documentary treatment this fall…are they going to go there?
One of the better Netflix offerings related to music comes via Eve, whose Adam By Eve is a clever blend of animation and live action, plus an accidental documentary of sorts of where Japanese music is at in 2022. I wrote about it for The Japan Times.
This GQ feature about Japanese fashion director / musical curator Nigo offers little new or interesting information about him or his role in the world of pop culture (cool mention of Pusha T getting involved in corporate diss rap, though), but hey it’s a good reminder that he has a new album out that, in a just world, would be best celebrated for getting Teriyaki Boyz back.
Salute to Japanese music journalism for having the enthusiasm to put together an entire special-edition magazine devoted to HyperPop, both domestic and global. Truly one of the coolest things about Japan’s publishing industry is how they are willing to back total nerd projects, and it results in loving creations to styles that are often overlooked (picture me lovingly staring at the Vaporwave music guide they put out a few years ago).
This Side Of Japan always one of the best, which this week offers a great read on a lot of topics of interest, including Suiyoubi No Campanella, Metome and the original Sailor Moon theme.
While I question the bit about how “music” has transmitted the idea of Japan as cool abroad in recent times (does the Wall Street Journal read my newsletter?????), this article is a fantastic example of the concept of “cool, Japan!” in all its glory (which, vitally, doesn’t mean something can’t be cringey but also important).
It’s incredible and beautiful that an entire YouTube channel could sustain itself with video essays about Vocaloid and Vocaloid-adjacent music, but ubnubmaster manages just that. Their latest, about an Utau creator who just kind of vanished, is quite interesting!
Bad news for Tokyo’s club community — due to structures being demolished for redevelopment, Shibuya’s VISION and Contact will be closing at their current locations this fall. Not sure if they will find a new home somewhere…but (pure views here) I find it hard they could find real estate in the neighborhood that financially make sense, meaning any new versions of these spots will almost certainly be outside of one of the capital’s busiest nightlife areas. The changes keep on coming.
Mr. Children allowed all of their song catalog to be used on TikTok, a huge move from one of the most old-school of the old-school superpowers in the country. While my imagination fails to picture what a Mr. Children dance challenge would look like — based on live experiences, a lot of swaying and me frequently checking my smartphone — the very decision to allow this underlines the big digital shift the industry has taken in recent years.
Tatsuro Yamashita doing a big hall tour later this summer…sorry, less news and more a “try to get tickets for this, Patrick” reminder.
The Lily Chou-Chou soundtrack is getting a vinyl reissue this May.
Sally Amaki providing very important behind-the-scenes footage of a variety show program.
Great Japanese language story on recent tours from CHAI, Haru Nemuri and how women engaging in punk / rock sounds are finding success abroad. Glad someone in Japan is writing about this…most media just ignores the success stories!
Kaela Kimura said some dumb shit about how you should cool water in a bath before draining it to save the environment and netziens roasted her, but hey she made some jams and basically broke Perfume to Japan, she gets a pass this time in my book.
Yasushi Akimoto…enigma…
The Japanese baseball season started last Friday, and I went to the season opener for the Saitama Seibu Lions, as they lost to defending Pacific League champions Orix Buffaloes 6-0. I’ll spare you the sermon about how NPB has been my go-to escape hobby since late 2018, and how much I love it (how could you not love this?), and instead point out…lot of music related happenings at the ballpark! I saw ads for Bang Dream! (though watching highlights today, I must report that Tokyo Dome has a huge space devoted to Uma Musume…much cooler, in my humble opinion), and also caught a Johnny’s guy throwing out a pretty good first pitch.
Fumito Kawai of #ABCZ was on hand and super excited to be throwing the first pitch of the Seibu Lions vs. Orix Buffaloes game last night! "I was more nervous than I am at our concerts, but boy do I love baseball!" #JohnnysUpClose
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies