Make Believe Melodies For September 6, 2020
Japanese music highlights featuring idols, both of the rapping and animated variety
UNDERHAIRZ “Chinpopo”
“Subversive” has always been a dangerous term to ascribe to idol music in Japan. I have no doubt it stretches further back, but the peak days of BiS in the early part of last decade — with their gabber-adjacent songs, controversy-baiting videos and more — really got that description working overtime...including by me. Yet how much were they shaking things up? Underground idols still operate as idols, and what can look like clever prodding can just be true love with the style (see Oomori Seiko). Is it ever possible to operate in this space and successfully poke at it while still helping the glow-stick-accented gears turn?
Osaka’s UNDERHAIRZ answer that question with a resounding “who the fuck cares, shut up.” The trio have been around for a few years now, and a cursory YouTube check finds them documenting beer trips to Seven-Eleven and drinking lemon sours in the middle of a park. This is behavior unbecoming of your classic Japanese idol — a term UNDERHAIRZ embrace — but they don’t care, as the rap-idol unit just lean all in on embracing who they are and what they like. Chinpopo — it means “dick” — would be worth a listen just for this...but it’s also really good just as a pure listen, even if you have no idea that a whole song here is riffing on the 2020 panic over Strong Zero. Credit a great set of tracks sliding from funk samples to staggering electronics (including an appearance from AVV on the closing number), and just how great the trio work as a tag-team, zooming all over the songs here while keeping it funny (with a few poignant moments too...a “my body my choice” chant along). Chinpopo isn’t interested in undercutting anything, but rather about readjusting what idol means to UNDERHAIRZ. Which might be just as radical.
963 tick tock
Let’s just go on a little idol run while on the topic because — idol music has been pretty good in 2020! Tapestok Records have put out music by groups both familiar and ska-damaged, Negicco has been on a roll both as a group and via solo releases, and RYUTist might have come through with the best of the bunch with an eclectic album veering from wispy music club creations to pure heat. Duo 963 follow a similar model as that last group on tick tock — they recruit a wide variety of musicians and producers to create a musical wonderland for them to get lost in, whether that’s youheyhey helping make their Auto-tune-smeared rap ambitions become a reality on “Seed,” or calling on Indonesian city pop revivalists Ikkubaru and shadowy pop creator Ayumiko to work together and create one of the better revival takes on that glitzy Bubble sound. Rap serves as the unifying thread for most of it, but the charm of tick tock is how it just goes off in whatever direction it pleases, whether that’s a ballad or a woozy electro number from a Trekkie Trax affiliate. It’s a good snapshot of where a lot of artists in idol world are at now — once again out of the mainstream spotlight, these projects are trying to figure out what to sound like, and finding some out-there ideas.
OTMGirls “VIral Star”
Not to give too much credit to a Sanrio character, but this song from the latest season of Aggretsuko has no right to be as good as it is. As I touched on in my take on the series for The Japan Times, it’s a celebration of small aspirations bordering on the foolish —”it may be sad / but I still dream” — backed by string swells and guitar chug.
Kaputt Solitude
The Obake Mask label has done a great job spotlighting electronic artists from Sapporo, and Solitude stands as a highlight from their burgeoning catalog. Producer Kaputt creates an atmospheric beat album with enough details and twists to keep it from being a homework soundtrack. That’s especially true on standout “Tsukinomichi,” which lets vocal samples wisp about and add a very Metome-like melancholy to the track.
Arakur Just kinda little things EP
Japan’s juke community remains as compelling as ever, and here’s a relatively young face in that world seeing how drum ‘n’ bass and Mondo Grosso connects to the Chicago genre.
BENI “Dakedo Hanate”
Is Enon Kawatani winning? It’s tempting to see the guy involved in one of the bigger entertainment scandals of the last ten years — and, like, plenty other of less scrutinized but just as gross transgressions coupled with a pretty sulky personality — continuing to toddle along in the music industry as a moral failing, but it’s also important to remember that once you step outside of a J-pop bubble most people know him as...the Becky guy, with the negativity around that still hovering over him. What’s maybe trickier to grapple with is how this incident remains central to Kawatani’s creative process. BENI’s “Dakedo Hanate” finds the singer-songwriter trying to jumpstart her career by teaming up with the music biz’ resident bad boy for a song full of — flutes and lounge-ready rock. It’s catchy and easily her best song in a long time, and an annoying reminder Kawatani is a good songwriter. Yet it’s also reminder of what fuels him, as this one features lyrics about living regardless of whatever mistakes one has made in the past. Even when he’s behind the scenes, his self-inflicted ghosts still creep in and muddle up an otherwise jaunty pop song.
Negatrax “Social DIstance Tokyo Drift X Tokyo Alert” Featuring Abenomix
Well, we can finally end any debate about who won the “Tokyo Drift” freestyle challenge.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of Aug. 24, 2020 To Aug. 30, 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.
JO1 “STARGAZER (OH-EH-OH)” (283,363 Copies Sold)
The most interesting question surrounding J-pop right now is if groups like JO1 and NiziU are outliers, or a sign of where the country’s industry will head in the 2020s. Right now, they lean closer to the former — their generally upbeat tone and escapist vibe doesn’t match a year where the biggest domestic hits have been about confronting the dreariness of life in 2020 — but both of these outfits built from imported Korean talent competitions (and with some involvement from a Korean company) point towards potential ways forward, especially when it comes to reaching international listeners. NiziU is really where attention should be placed — A-chan is all aboard! — but JO1 isn’t anything to bypass just because the YouTube view counter rests at just seven digits. After all, the STARGAZER EP topped Oricon this week with a number that’s not far off from mid-tier Johnny & Associates figures.
What representative song “OH-EH-OH” reminds is that all the intrigue about these Korean-backed projects rests in topics like business structure and promotion. In the same way that NiziU sounds somewhere between “Candy Pop” and E-girls, this song sits....at the intersection of EXILE and w-inds’ flirtation with trop house? Which isn’t bad — ”OH-EH-OH’s” interpretation of house is a welcome shot after too much Johnny’s, and this thing moves, even for the obligatory rap section. It’s a solid number, just nothing musically paradigm shifting...even the video just looks like LDH’s vision of what yankilife would look like with a biggie-sized budget.
Now, if you want to really make a splash, just follow through on...whatever the hell this is.
News And Views
Tone Glow featured two Japanese artists this week. I interviewed Foodman about life during COVID-19, his relationship with juke and fried fish. Ryo Miyauchi talked to Phew ahead of the release of her new album (which you should definitely check out).
Mary Kitagawa is no longer the Executive Director of Johnny & Associates, in another changing of the guard moment.
Hoshino Gen made a song for Mario re-releases.
Clubasia put on a big all-night event last week…let’s take a look at the precautions in place.
This interview with Arashi is mostly just a series of softballs lobbed up gently towards the J-pop group, but you can find at least a few thoughts on their weird attempt at a Western crossover over the last year.
This week in fascinating Japanese language interviews — Yumi Matsutoya and Aimyon talked to one another, and it’s full of interesting details both about Matsutoya’s time in the 1970s, how Matsutoya thinks Aimyon’s music reminds her of those days (plus French films) and lots of fashion talk. It also comes at a weird moment for Matsutoya, who became a (OTMGirls voice activate) viral star after she went on a radio show and revealed she cried after hearing Shinzo Abe would step away from the Prime Minister position for health reasons. She’s friends with Abe’s wife Akie, which partially explains it, but it quickly turned into a big to-do on social media (you can imagine how it went). Then a college professor went on Facebook and expressed his hope for Matsutoya to die quickly, and people just got angry at him instead. I imagine there are like at least 12 incidents like this in the States everyday.
Let’s end on an upbeat note — the news that Travis Scott would release a “Travis Scott Meal” at McDonald’s reminded me of the true champion of McDonald’s tie ups…
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies