Make Believe Melodies For October 24, 2022
Has Cap'n Crunch Gotten Worse?
Suiyoubi No Campanella — “Nabe Bugyo”
Change and an openness to younger perspectives has been part of the Suiyoubi No Campanella project for years. “[KOM_I] got bored with it. She said she wanted something that was more in line with ‘young music,'” producer Kenmochi Hidefumi told me a few years back, referencing the group’s then vocalist’s desire to use less guitars in their music. “I started learning about new music because of that, learning about future bass — things with ‘future’ in it.”
Nearly five years later and with a new, Gen Z singer up front, the project once again shifts to reflect the times. Guitars are back, but they have to navigate an avalanche of other noises — electronic beeps, smartphone samples, vocalist Utaha’s clipped and mutated voice — all sewn together to make something coherent albeit still chaotic enough.
“Nabe Bugyo” (“Hot Pot Commander”) technically serves as the ending theme to an anime about demons, and it’s possible the lyrics…basically instructions on how to make some mystical dish that might be tied to the show itself (part of the official English description of season three: “it's harvest season, and time for the annual test where students wade into the expansive and extremely dangerous (!) jungle to compete for food!! Classmates become rivals, and what erupts is a gargantuan battle of brawn and wits?!”). Yet you don’t have to try to figure out what’s going on there to appreciate the rapid-fire sounds and vocal twists, to a song that Joshua Minsoo Kim gets as signalling “a transition from millennial to gen z sonic aesthetics in a v j-pop way.” It’s a lot, at once, but digestible.
It’s also a wonderful reminder of Hidefumi’s sonic curiosity…even as he has become, seriously, one of the most important producers in modern J-pop, working with emerging names and Johnny’s groups in equal measure. Reaching that position could easily lead to creative atrophy, yet beyond this vaguely HyperPop-punk splatter, he’s recently gone full country fried for the new Batten Girls album (a definite highlight worthy of more words in the near future), sharp-edged dance for virtual duo KMNZ, and early evening funk for Takashi Fujii among others. That thrill might be the biggest reason I see “Nabe” as a highlight in a year full of them for the group, and how change has actually turned this project into something as vital as ever before. Listen above.
Yoyou — “5wim!”
Yoyou returns with a heartfelt rumbler, starting slow before adding in additional rhythmic elements and warping her syllables to create a sweet example of Japanese HyperPop with all the wrinkles expected of the micro-style coming through. Listen above.
1NDV — Japanese Juke Jungle
Juke remains beloved by producers in Japan — would love to have seen how many got out to the DJ Taye show at Circus this last Saturday — with new releases always coming down the digital piepline. Omoide Label offers this brief but bangin’ set from creator 1NDV, showing how creators here continue to find their angle on the Chicago style. Get it here.
Suzui Yubae — Kurai Mizo
Man, the kids are really getting up to things in the Japanese experimental community right now. Suzui Yubae says they are a 15 year old, and maybe that adolescent mindset explains the three twinkling and tipsy songs on Kurai Mizo, released by top-notch oddballs Ukiuki Atama. Imagine Hakushi Hasegawa filtered through a bucket of cold syrup, and you get something like the muffled “Kizuku,” which shimmers until it topples into itself. Most importantly — for all of the high-wire melodies and twists, this trio of songs is fun as hell. Keep it coming, youth. Get it here.
Philosophy No Dance — “Clap Your Hands”
I’ve generally found Philosophy No Dance to do their best work when time traveling. The idol outfit has offered up awesome takes on city pop and Y2Kstep, but whenever they try to be more of the moment…even if that just means “more idol-ly”…they sound a lot less special. “Clap Your Hands” is a highlight from Red Carnival thanks to nods backwards that still work today, most notably a drop of new jack swing. Listen above.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of October 10, 2022 To October 19, 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.
JO1 — “MIDNIGHT SUN (SuperCali)” (492,168 Copies Sold)
Quite possibly the best merger of K-pop and J-pop to date, because it identifies something both industries have done well — an ability to be a little silly. The hook is largely them just saying “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” but delivered with stone-faced sincerity, backed by Korean creator’s ability to tap into contemporary trends but aided by a very Johnny’s flair for the dramatic (not to mention a slight dash of Halloween spice to give it an Oogie Boogie bash dimension). That this builds up to a genuinely bonkers bridge, where the tempo goes haywire and we get a genuinely good detour, not the sort of forced “eight songs in one!” populating so much contemporary K-pop (and K-pop-indebted J-pop). A real highlight from this project that cashes in on the hype.
News And Views
The Tokyo club ecosystem is healing…kind of. I went to Mogra last night and had a blast, further bolstered by the site of so many people having fun while following the club’s continuing COVID-19 protocols (masks on, temperature checks, so forth and so on). Yet more telling is the return of the last-second superstar artist appearance at a Shibuya club, a common occurrence pre-pandemic. Last Tuesday, new spot BAIA hosted a late-night performance from Skrillex and a guest appearance from Bladee. Looked fun!
Besides being a return to normalcy, it also offered a snapshot of the new landscape of Tokyo clubbing. BAIA is somewhere between a Trump Room and a Womb, with a splash of “shouldn’t this be in Roppongi?” for good measure. If spaces in the capital are getting smaller, BAIA reminds exclusivity and catering to a higher-end demographic will still play a part in these new times. People on Twitter noticed how the prices for entrance were different for men and women, prompting others to wonder if this and the general inflow of the worst kind of influencers was good for the community. Clubbing is back, baby, as is all the questions!
The situation might be a little less rosy in Kansai, though. Last week I sang the praises of Kyoto and how part of the city’s exciting electronic scene was how venues largely weathered COVID-19. Now a double whammy…prominent club Metro’s planned Metro One People Festival — a pretty substantial attempt at a Fuji-Rock-ish camp festival — was called off after the organizers found out that government subsidies they thought they would get for the event actually weren’t coming their way, and by holding a festival totally out of pocket Metro might go under. At the same time, prominent club West Harlem…where a lot of artists from the city have come up through…announced they will close at the end of the month. They have hopes of opening up a new spot next spring, but still the geography of the city’s club scene has now been shaken up.
At least we have the Family Guy bar.
OK, back to the complications of globalized life and the ethical challengs of being an artist in 2022. This weekend, Live Nation Japan (with support from Coca-Cola) present Tonal Tokyo, a new festival / event being held at Ariake Arena, a venue built for the Olympics. The main stage features names such as Charli XCX, Years & Years, Tohji and more, while they' also announced a sidestage in collaboration with Boiler Room featuring electronic creators.
Yet one name coming over has raised concern since the very first announcement. Canadian act Rhye, fronted by Mike Milosh, plays Tonal Tokyo, despite Milosh being accused of sexual and physical abuse. It’s not just a Tonal Tokyo problem…Rhye has played across Europe and Mexico this year…but it has clouded the event, and lead to confusion from artists such as Diana Chiaki, who shared a post about her trepidation about performing at the Boiler Room event due to all this. Chiaki really wrestled with this and went as far as to contact Milosh’s alleged victim to talk about it, and Chiaki really feels conflicted, but ultimately decided to go on with the performance this weekend (helped by the fact her stage is separate). No easy answers, but hardly the last time this kind of situation will appear, I’m sure.Several Japanese acts — including Haru Nemuri and Otoboke Beaver — plan to play next year’s South By Southwest.
“Overdose” more like…over with fans around Asia, because it’s doing well on viral charts.
Sheena Ringo’s remix album postponed due to the controversial card case resembling a “help mark” needing to be redesigned. What happens to all the ones they made though? Bury them in a forest perhaps?
K-pop industry moving away from Chinese market, putting even more emphasis on Japan, which…has felt true for a while now? I’d say Japan is their key market, unless you really think a bunch of newer acts can pull a BTS in the American market moving forward.
Marty Friedman is not putting up with this subpar cereal any longer!
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies