Make Believe Melodies For Oct. 25, 2020
With a call for ~ reader feedback ~
Via Space Shower Music Website
SAYOHIMEBOU — ALIEN GALAXY MAIL
Huge week for producer SAYOHIMEBOU — today, an EP they helped shape, punipunidenki’s downright joyous escape into fantasy DENSHI DISCO MITSURIN, came out, though I’ll probably have more on that very soon (wink, wink). About five days prior to that, they released their own ALIEN GALAXY MAIL, an album managing to play out as loving nod to the history of electronic music while also re-framing it all in a way to feel better than a barrage of references. The inspiration spans decades, running from Kraftwerk to Orbital to The Prodigy to Vocaloid to Brainfeeder circa mid 2010s, among others (something SAYOHIMEBOU tweets is right in at least one case, in an effort to fuse well-worn sounds with a future-inspired version). Yet nothing here ever sounds like imitation — dance music’s past gets tumbled up into shiny, busy pop on numbers such as “ON-GAKU” and “Camouflage i-Land,” while even making room for a 22nd century slow jam in the form of “Summer Skate Link.” The idea of netlabels seems antiquated in the always-online days of today, but ALIEN GALAXY MAIL shows the playful spirit of web communities — such as the ones SAYOHIMEBOU grew up in — is still going strong.
Snail’s House — Imaginarium
The best moments on Imaginarium come when Snail’s House turns towards their own art up to this point, and sees what to make of it years later. The whole album is a charmer — as has been the case for a while now, Keitaro Ujiie never settles musically despite having an image / vibe that could help them just coast on Bandcamp purchases and streaming plays, but they continue to actually see what fresh ideas they can siphon out of this, resulting in some dizzying mutations on electro-pop and jazz (“Imaginary Express”). Yet it’s a creation like “morph” that offers the most intrigue for anyone following this project for a long time. It’s a song constructed almost entirely out of samples of Ujiie’s own work, here re-arranged Tetris-like to create something new from the familiar. It’s sweet about hearing Ujiie return to these sounds…but not to dwell necessarily, but to further explore how they can grow. Get it here.
tricot — “Itazura”
I’m of the opinion that tricot have been pretty consistent over the years in balancing their plot-graph playing alongside unpredictable vocal outbursts, and few bands anywhere have done as good a job refining a single sound as this. So it goes with latest album 10, which veers between loud songs with soft parts and soft songs with loud parts, done by a band capable of pulling off both well. The above is a highlight, and a reminder of their not-quite-math-rock-craftsmanship.
aimu — gingascape EP
It’s M3 season, which means a whole bunch of electronic releases from independent artists slowly appearing online after their creators fold up the table and take the extra CD rips home. Here’s an early highlight to emerge from the crop, a zippy set that shines thanks to aimu’s production. The vocals on the lead track…maybe not my speed in their “generic J-pop” nature, but the music around it makes up for it. Get it here.
KOM_I “Upopoy CM Song”
The benefit of watching TV programming geared towards toddlers on a daily basis is I now am caught up on Japanese commercials, with plenty of surprises along the way. Like…how KOM_I just provides vocals for this song promoting the recently opened Nation Ainu Museum and Park in Hokkaido. It mostly makes me miss Suiyoubi No Campanella both for nostalgic reasions and because…those last 10 seconds sound fantastic.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of Oct. 12, 2020 To Oct. 18, 2020
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.
LiSA “Homura” (67,530 Copies Sold)
The past 12 months have seen a significant number of songs become hits that point towards a new future for J-pop, or at the very least a changing of the guard as the Reiwa Era gets underway. LiSA’s “Homura” is not one of those numbers. Rather, it’s a classic example of a single turning massive thanks to its placement in a movie that just crushes it at the box office. “Homura” functions as the theme for Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Infinite Train, which boasted the biggest opening weekend for a film ever in Japan. Apparently it will come to North America sometime in the next year, though good luck finding a theater still in business to enjoy the slaying of demons.
Like “Let It Go” and “Zenzenzense” before it, “Homura’s” success can largely be attributed to a truly significant film completely gobbling up all corners of the entertainment world right now (if my experience as a junior high school teacher during the time of Frozen can be trusted, “Homura” must be inescapable within the halls of schools all over the nation). Still, there’s a bit more going on here — LiSA has been on the rise for a few years thanks to her work for numerous huge anime (including, it should be noted, the Demon Slayer anime theme, which got her on Kohaku last year), and “Homura” has become an example of the “The First Take”-ification of J-pop (literally!).
“Homura” might end up being the sales heavyweight of 2020. It has topped subscription streaming (nudging BTS out of the top spot), performed really well on YouTube and even sold the most physical copies this week, landing LiSA on the summit of Oricon. It isn’t a song that should be the first example of where J-pop was this year…but it could be the one people go to when talking about the biggest entertainment developments.
News And Views
Maisa Tsuno of the band Akai Koen died on Oct. 19, of suspected suicide. She was 29. Besides leading that group, she was also a prolific songwriter for J-pop artists such as SMAP and assorted Hello! Project groups.
Japanese jazz trumpeter Toshinori Kondo died at the age of 71.
Forbes Japan put out their 30 Under 30 list, featuring four musicians: Qrion, Namichie (a member of Zoomgals who also put out a great album on her own earlier this year), Ayaka Wada (Hello! Project member) and Mitski (hey, nobody can accuse Forbes of pulling a Mercury prize).
This list of the top-performing YouTube channels in Japan over the summer includes only one music-centric one…but tellingly, it is Kenshi Yonezu coming in at six.
NiziU inspired something called “air jump rope?” Yeah, sure, OK. What they definitely did inspire…a line of forthcoming sweets at Lawson.
Honor the great tweets when you can.
How could Quibi have survived? Perhaps by doing what just-launched Quibi-clone smash is trying by saturating all of its 5-to-10-minute-long programming with Johnny’s idols.
Three years ago we had cryptocurrency idol groups, now we have idol groups making crypto-blockchain-whateverwhatever trading cards.
Wonder how I missed this clip of AKB48 making music with bottles going viral? Probably because my Twitter feed exists in depths of existentialism and dread, not content that generates “this made me smile today :)” posts.
Feedback Corner!
This week, I have two questions for readers of this newsletter (and if you’ve gotten this far down…I truly value your time). I’m looking for comments on two questions related to this…please respond to this newsletter or reach me at patrickstmichel@gmail.com!
Question #1: Year-end list season approaches and…I don’t know what to do about my usual “Favorite Japanese Albums” feature. Mainly, I’m not sure…how to do it, because I usually spotlight 50 releases from the past year, broken into five parts. That seems excessive for a newsletter though…like, getting five emails over one week? Should I do that, two 25-album-long entries, just dust off the ol’ Wordpress login and resurrect the blog for a week. I don’t know, all thoughts welcome!
Question #2: Given the niche-push all media seems to be heading towards, I’m not sure…how deviating from core topics is received at the moment. I’ve had a few ideas for longer pieces / essays that aren’t centered around J-pop (more about “global pop” and…always a winner…music media). Would writing about non-Japanese-music topics every once in awhile prompt mass unsubscriptions (my ego, my precious ego!)? Should I just dash off a Medium or Note? Or get over my recent fear of pitching publications and try to take them there?
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies
I’m preferring this email newsletter to the Wordpress blog. But I think that’s just showing my age! I found that harder to keep up with. I’d be happy with five emails in a week. It’s a special event after all.
I’m also happy with whatever topics you want to write about. Maybe an opportunity to test out a sample on a topic before pitching it to a publication?
Heyo,
I prefer email newsletter format 100% and five emails with ten releases each sounds digestible! (1c)
Likewise, I'm also keen to read what you write about non-Japanese music! I'm a rusted-on reader so it wouldn't trigger an unsub from me. (2c)
That's the full two cents. Cheers!