Make Believe Melodies For March 8, 2021
Now everyone is into CDs again
Hallkarimaako — TERMINAL
All the hook you need is “three underrated artists who make upbeat, hooky pop get together to…make upbeat, hooky pop.” Hallkarimaako brings Hallca (former leader of Especia and recent solo act), Seira Kariya (electro-pop goodness and tofubeats collaborator) and AmamiyaMaako (dance-pop creator) to highlight each of their strengths. Debut EP TERMINAL gives the members a chance to show off their songwriting chops thanks to the closing run of songs, while also allowing the other two to play in their sonic sandbox. The highlights, though, come with the all-united opening of the title track and “Glitter,” which channel all of the trio’s strongest elements (skippy paces! retro-tinged instrumentation! slightly disorienting touches) and refashions them into something they all can use to create uplift. Listen above, or see the video for “TERMINAL” below.
tomodati — “You Just Like Me”
Tokyo project tomodati has veered between pure electro-pop bliss and more unnerving creations since starting out in 2015. Here’s the best meeting point between their two sides, matching a chirpy enough melody with a digital squiggle that feels close to collapse throughout. Bonus points for a music video getting the “something seems just off here…” vibe of their music just right. Listen above.
LAUSBUB — “Telefon”
A pair of Sapporo high schoolers went viral at the start of January thanks to uploads of them creating acid-stained rock music. It’s delightful!
I failed to connect that they were LAUSBUB, a group @3_2_7M had asked if I had listened to on SoundCloud…turns out I had! While “Telefon” is nearly two months old, it’s still one of the more exciting indie songs to emerge out of Japan this year, channeling the netlabel-born curiosity of a group like Pasocom Music Club while establishing a wonkier rock foundation around that beat (Buffalo Daughter as comparison point…I can dig that). Listen above.
Crystal — “Refraction Overdrive”
A little reverence for the age of techno-pop paired with a healthy dose of irony. A nice reminder that, for all of the neon-soaked vibes ‘80s Japanese pop inspires in digital natives around the world, it’s something to have some fun with and goof on just a little back in Japan. Listen above.
GOTH-TRAD — PSIONICS
Another benefit to Bandcamp Friday…it helped get this, the rare fifth album from Tokyo dubstep staple GOTH-TRAD, into the world. PSIONICS follows up the uneasy groove of post-3/11 masterpiece New Epoch with more club tunes for a dimly lit world, featuring some of his dankest material to date. It also concludes with “Deadsong,” GOTH-TRAD’s collaboration with heavy metal legends Boris. Get it here.
Various Artists — OMOIDE LABEL SAMPLER
Everything’s online now, so you’d think the concept of a “netlabel” would be archaic by now. Yet the spirit those early online collectives forged in Japan remains necessary as the artistic freedom the web provided becomes steamrolled by corporate interests and curiosity-weakening algorithms. Omoide Label has been helping to keep this corner of internet music alive, boasting one of the largest catalogs of music, touching on all kinds of sub-styles from dubstep to footwork to rap. It can be intimidating, but OMOIDE LABEL SAMPLER, compiled by one half of anime-remixing dance unit THE LASTTRAK offers a comprehensive first step into one of the best labels still going in the country today, and one helping keep old ideals alive. Get it here.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of Feb. 22, 2021 To Feb. 28, 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 drip down…the Oricon Trail.
Kis-My-Ft2 — “Luv Bias” (213,738 Copies Sold)
You could say I’m “biased” in that I find ballads like this a total snooze (though bonus points for getting one of the guys who worked with BTS…albeit on one of their boring slow songs for the Japanese market…on board, that at least looks good).
News And Views
Celebrated Japanese songwriter Eiichi Ohtaki — also a former member of Happy End and a pivotal player in the “new music” / city pop sound that has become internet loved (alongside, uhhh, real life loved) — will be the latest musical heavyweight to have their musical catalog arrive on subscription streaming. To coincide with the 40th anniversary of his landmark A Long Vacation, 177 songs from the Ohtaki catalog go up digitally on March 21. It’s part of a larger celebration of one of the most critically acclaimed Japanese albums ever.
Also, I ragged on algorithms above…but YouTube did push this in front of me so, gotta give some credit to Alphabet (and interest in Japanese pop from decades ago reaching a point where it can slide into the “steamed hams” bit).
Meanwhile, on the other end of the streaming spectrum…I’ve been fascinated by the Kakao M / Spotify kerfluffle, which resulted in a whole bunch of K-pop vanishing from the streaming service. Mainly, it has been wild watching this after a decade (plus!) of people piling on the Japanese music industry for its slowness in coming around to these very same platforms. Not to say said industry was putting its fans’ love of music above sweet sweet profit…but turns out big tech isn’t really a great partner for art after all.
Back to the “look at Japanese music go” side of things…Pitchfork with two great reviews this week, first giving the Heisei No Oto compilation a best new reissue, and then celebrating Yellow Magic Orchestra’s BGM as part of their Sunday review series.
Nikkei discovered that anime music exists. Eye rolls out of the way for framing, the story does underline an important development in that anime music is working with overseas listeners as well — recently, Shinsei Kamattechan’s theme to Attack On Titan performed well on viral charts. Of course, the real story here is how freakin’ huge anime has gotten in the last few years…I didn’t think the industry could reach the hallowed days of the 1990s, but I think it’s happening, and this article really lays it out. (And, to thread the needle, these songs are available on…streaming, another huge move forward).
TOKIO ducking out of Olympic torch relay they were heavily promoted to be part of.
Let’s actually stick with the Olympics because…it’s starting to look like they will actually happen, albeit without foreign spectators, complete with athletes pledging to go. This means it’s time to start also thinking about music festivals, especially the huge summer ones that all postponed last year. I’ve started seeing smaller gatherings promoting, ranging from the traditional Arabaki Rock Fest to the camp-centric Fuji & Sun ‘21 event. Music festivals have happened during the pandemic — see Osaka’s Rush Ball last August, which went off without any hitches — but they’ve been rare. The Olympics were the bellweather for them, so if they happen…can a Fuji Rock happen? Or how about a Super Sonic? Seeing as letting people into the country will remain tough…would they shift to all domestic? It’s speculatin’ season!
Live venue Mogra held an “ANIME / CHILL” livestream on their Twitch recently…plenty of stay-at-home options still abound!
Billboard Japan’s team has an in-depth review of YOASOBI’s first show…I missed that the group had encouraged fans to write reviews of it on Note, which is kind of like the Japanese equivalent of Medium.
Got a long list of things I want to actually do — “finish year-end list ahahahahahaha” — and catching up on Chuang 2021 is definitely in there. Now they’ve got Koki on as a mentor!
This Side Of Japan’s series on Hyadain from last week is fantastic, start from the beginning and go. Highlight for me is, unsurprisingly, also the entry on the songs I consider his best — Dempagumi.inc’s “W.W.D.” and its sequel, which also includes a top-ten music video of the decade.
Wish Dempagumi.inc’s version of 2020 had been the ACTUAL 2020
Bandcamp Friday is over, but hey you should still go support artists via Bandcamp. Here’s a list I made.
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies