Make Believe Melodies For November 30, 2021
Lord, Give Me One More Post
Toki Asako — Twilight
City pop — or more generally older Japanese music — stays viral. The latest incarnation comes courtesy of a 1978 Taeko Onuki song, “4:00 AM,” a cut that’s been popular on YouTube for years but recently has charged into the Spotify Viral rankings, sitting at #32 globally right now, and appearing higher up on individual country’s charts (most notably, #15 in the United States, though I’m tickled by it getting even closer to the top ten in Chile). I’m sure the path towards this moment of greater discovery is twisty — initial rediscovery, easier access through reissues and streaming uploads, etc etc. — but all signs point to “TikTok” as to why this is happening. A quick look at a few example posts, and it seems like…anime and depression? That “lord, give me one more chance” lends itself well to both, at least.
The continued discovery and meme-ification of this era of music prompts a lot of thinking…but one topic I always come back to is thinking about how the Japanese city pop revivalists of now will be looked back on. While the genre has been earthed up abroad in the last few years, it never went away in Japan, even after the Bubble popped. It became a foundational inspiration for Shibuya-kei and by the mid 2000s was a source of nostalgia all its own. You can still find plenty of creators playing with it and the concepts it embodies, often nudging it into interesting new spaces.
Toki Asako, formerly of Cymbals, is one of the earliest artists of the Aughts to dip into the memory pool. She’s been putting a 21st century spin on city pop for nearly two decades now, but rather than continually pine for bygone times, she grows through those sounds. Newest album Twilight lays this out plainly, with press material around it finding her reflecting on her own “twilight.” The songs here are reflective without becoming maudlin (“Neon Fish,” written and produced alongside Shin Sakiura, performed in a less electornic version above) while still celebrating the mundane things that are often overlooked in youth but become anchors as the years go by (“birthday song,” “Apple Pie In The Sky”). She’s also still playing around sonically, made clear on opener and highlight “Solemn,” glazed in Auto-tune and moved forward by a herky-jerky machine beat.
There’s a risk in looking back so much of reducing music to a diorama of “better times,” but artists are never that static. Onuki grew and challenged herself after becoming a “new music” darling, eventually taking stock of life through her music. Now Asako follows a similar path, reminding that there’s so much more to uncover with this style.
NiziU — “Twinkle Twinkle”
Not sure what to make of NiziU’s debut album yet — “Chopstick” feels childish in a bad way, but those older singles still go — but this is the best new song featured, slowing down ever so slighty and forgetting about #dancechallenges in favor of finding a mature spin on a nursery rhyme. Listen above.
MAISONdes Featuring Pii And Meiyo — “Rally, Rally”
In a recent newsletter, I expressed hesitation about next-big-thing MAISONdes, as the project felt a little too downtrodden and a bit late to the pity party. Leave it to them to instantly flip my thoughts over with “Rally, Rally,” which reminds that sad people dance, too. It’s a shimmering dance-pop number built around a table tennis metaphor — complete with the sound of ping pong balls bouncing around a table, a great ASMR touch — that isn’t upbeat lyrically but sounds like something getting lost in. If this is the pivot J-pop takes in 2022, let’s power through this last month. Listen above.
YUC’e — “Tokimeki Holiday”
Balancing bass freakouts with sunny-day skippiness. Listen above.
TOYOHIRAKUMIN — “ohne”
Not sure why, but I’ve been revisiting a lot of vaporwave recently. Maybe this is my version of “wow, ‘80s Japan, so bright!” — wow, Tumblr circa 2012, look at all these Mediafire links! Anyway, perfect time for Japaense vaporwave creator TOYOHIRAKUMIN to share some new laid-back loops. Listen to one above.
Metome — “Demo1125”
New Metome…even in demo form…is an instant include in any round-up. The Osaka producer’s approach to constructing discombobulated dance sounds just as good today as it did nearly ten years ago. Listen above.
Subway Daydream — “Pluto”
One of the many new-to-me bands from 2021 I’d love to spend even more time with…Osaka’s Subway Daydream carries on the indie-pop chug of so many Kansai bands I remember seeing in tiny livehouses across the region, balancing peppy melodies with more melancholy thoughts. Their BORN EP is a highlight from this year, and “Pluto” offers a more minimalistic approach to their sound. Listen above.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of November 15, 2021 To November 21, 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.
NEWS — “Mirai He / ReBorn”
The first side of this single is hey-ho clappy stompy pop pulled right out of 2013. Completely disposable. The other offering, meanwhile…
…isn’t a ton better, but at least finds the veteran Johnny’s group trying out rock, which sounds alive at least. Really, the third number included on this release is the one I want to hear, as Taku Takahashi produced it, but NEWS is one of those extreme digital holdouts, and I’m not spending the equivalent of $10 on this physical single.
News And Views
Best fallout from 2021 Kohaku Uta Gassen lineup announcement so far…first-time act BiSH doing their usual pre-show chant (“chinpo” which translates to “dick” or “penis” if you are more scientifically oriented) while NHK was filming them at the introductory press-conference. Prepare the fainting couch, because people were aghast at this! At least enough were where every major daily tabloid put out articles that looked like this.
Similarly, singer/songwriter Aimyon appears to have faced some online backlash after she appeared on Music Station recently…because some of her older songs feature the word “sex?” Somebody think of the children! I think it’s important to take both of these “controversies” as “isolated Twitter outrage” picked up by larger media but maybe not reflecting more widespread interest or shock. Though when considered alongside this year’s much more present “Usseewa” kickback from parents, it does reveal greater parental fretting broadcast on social media…which mainstream outlets are then happy to spotlight.
JO1 to appear at this year’s Mnet Asian Music Awards. I have a feature on the group out later this week, stay tuned.
Johnny’s getting a hang of this “everything is available everywhere” thing, as they plan to release an Amazon Prime Video Documentary series about Naniwa Danshi worldwide.
Big week for Ichiro Yamaguchi of Sakanaction. First, BTS’ RM shared a playlist of recent favorites, featuring delightful Bubble-throwback “Wasurenai No,” helping to bring the band more attention (Kirinji was on there too, but I nobody was throwing digital confetti over that?). Will this be like the time G-Dragon shared an Instagram video of himself spinning around while Fishmans played? Maybe, let’s check the Rate Your Music charts in five years.
To celebrate, Yamaguchi joined the biggest video game YouTubers in Japan to play Uno. Oh, and also announced a new Sakanaction album for 2022.Tomonori Shiba interviewed Tony Elison, the new director of Spotify Japan, for Rolling Stone Japan and it’s an interesting look at where the platform has come from in the country — plenty of talk about early hesitance from companies about sharing their catalogs on Spotify — while also going over specific developments made specifically for the Japanese market (karaoke-like features, audio liner notes, etc.).
Great Pitchfork review of Ichiko Aoba’s 2020 highlight from Shy Thompson, extremely happy to see the site spotlight this release even if it isn’t timely (more publications should do that!). Next, give some attention to the last Mei Ehara release…
This was a blast…talked with Ryo over at This Side Of Japan about JPN, Perfume’s second best album but the one that quite possibly changed the trajectory of their entire career. It celebrated its ten-year anniversary recently, and holds up!
I sounded off about Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop, but really it’s a vessel for me to talk about the manner which Japanese pop culture travels in the world…a bit niche, but burning longer and often proving to be deeply influential. That applies to music too!
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies