Make Believe Melodies For September 20, 2021
I Only Bet On Perfume Horses
Buffalo Daughter — We Are The Times
Political messages in music can be tricky business. Generally, I say…the simpler, the better. Long-running trio Buffalo Daughter don’t aim to lecture across new album We Are The Times, but rather fill in gaps the rest of the Japanese music community tends to overlook. That’s mostly provided by disorienting highlight “Global Warming Kills Us All,” which uses robo-speak and off-kilter beats to create a woozy and unnerving atmosphere to drive home the title…and not much more. A lot of my appreciation for this song and album — a reflection on the last four gloomy years, with peaks of sunshine reminding of ever-present positivity — was strengthened after interviewing the band for a Japan Times feature out later this week, where they spoke on Japanese music’s general obliviousness to the issue of climate change (say, in comparison to the almost cynical way America goes about embracing it) and their belief that it’s important artists do what they can to at least raise awareness of the issue for fans.
OK, politics out of the way…We Are The Times is also just one of Buffalo Daughter’s best albums in years. They’ve always been musical polyglots, finding common threads between rock and rap and dance over nearly three decades together. Here, that curiosity seems re-sparked, both in returning to familiar sonic strands (they remind of a long-running fascination with acid house on “Times”) and exploring the possibilities of modern technology (an analog-loving band embraces digital on “ET (Densha)”). Get it here, or listen above.
Gokou Kuyt — “Suginami Town”
Listened to this while walking around Koenji, the neighborhood Gokou Kuyt directly references on this upbeat little skipper, and the mood was just right. For all the emphasis on the dourness and borderline nihilism young Japanese creators can engage in, it’s also nice to hear them find joy in local haunts. Especially the best ward in Tokyo. Listen above.
MIC RAW RUGA (laboratory) — “Go Forward”
Pure energy, from opening sample (Kitty?) to late bass freak outs.
Phew — “Days Nights”
In the same way Buffalo Daughter remain intrigued by meshing genre together, Phew still seems fascinated by unnerving after all these years. Very excited for this new album!
Lilly chilly blue stars — “Theme for Lilly chilly blue stars”
Sounds like a transmission from some parallel world lost to static…or maybe it just sounds like 2012 Tokyo indie-rock, when groups like Fancy Books crafted a similar icy sound that obscured vocals ever so slightly. Those strings really bring out some extra emotion, from whatever place this song is broadcasting from. Listen above.
Yumi Iwaki — Juniper
Rather than blur into the background and offer space to drift into, the music Yumi Iwaki creates on Juniper adds in texture to keep the listener grounded. Drift out for a sec on the swirling “Through the Leaves” only to have a crunch or vocal cloud snap you back into your surroundings, or some stray vibrations and tweaks interrupting the twinkling of “Whistling at Night Attracts Snakes.” A gorgeous electronic album intent on keeping one engaged rather than fading into ambience. Get it here, or listen above.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of September 6, 2021 To September 12, 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.
KAT-TUN Featuring AK-69 — “We Just Go Hard / Euphoria” (205,428 Copies Sold)
The ripples from the disastrous August Namimonogatari2021 festival in Aichi Prefecture continue to be felt in the music industry, but the event proves to be not quite toxic enough to deteriorate the thick armor of veteran Johnny’s groups. AK-69 appeared at said event, issuing a post-anger apology that only made netizens more pissed off. Yet alongside KAT-TUN, he’s OK! The nightmarishly titled “We Just Go Hard” has been a winner for the long-running group, despite the prominent placement of an MC currently best advised to avoid attention. Then again, maybe having to be associated with this beat-box tutorial of a single is punishment enough.
Better in a slightly creepy way — “Euphoria,” thanks to the oodles of effects slathered over their voices. It’s like Johnny’s tried to program an AI to “write us an EXILE song” and ended up with this. That proves to be way more interesting though, and fits them better than mean-mug rap.
News And Views
Supersonic happened, and I was there. I’ll have a full report up over at Japan Times soon — that’s why you have to follow Twitter — but my overall impression was, I was so happy to see live music for the first time in 18 months, that Steve Aoki sadly apologizing for not being able to cake anyone actually hit me in the heart. Creativeman did a great job at both presenting a safe-feeling event and going over the top with hygiene theater to scare away any media vultures looking for signs of disaster…which, there were a bunch of, at least half a dozen TV camera crews just waiting outside the venue, hoping to find someone to give them the dirt. I keep saying there’s a push against live music right now, but seeing TV news ready to pounce truly underlined that it’s happening.
It wasn’t smooth sailing, though, owing to both a typhoon drenching the Saturday leg and Zedd accidentally earning the wrath of “foreigner Twitter” (hey, I’ve seen the people at the forefront of it call it that, I’d workshop it but I try to avoid that scene) for showing off his lavish quarantine conditions. For the producer, that’s just basic aspirational social media content, but he accidentally reminded many of the muddled state of immigration into the country, where many students haven’t been allowed in for upwards of a year but an EDM mainstay can get the five-star treatment. Terrible optics, and I can only imagine how many headaches went around the Creativeman office when that went live.
Last festival tidbit for now — Supersonic might be the last big event for the 2021 calendar, as Smash called off October’s Asagiri Jam.
Mariya Takeuchi’s “Plastic Love” gets a re-release in early November, and a photo actually associated with the single “Sweetest Music” that ended up being the pic uploaded alongside the weird mutant-version of the song that became embraced by the YouTube algorithm and millions around the globe will now serve as the official artwork.
Anime continues to dominate soft power channels. Dua Lipa released an “animated music video” for “Levitating” that is jam packed with anime references.
Billboard Japan does a lot of great stuff, and use their platform to do solid interviews with artists…but man, the executive interviews they’ve been doing lately are so boring. The latest, with Naoshi Fujikura of Universal Music, is like the third in a row they’ve done where they have to bring up “Sukiyaki” in relation to K-pop, revealing a total failure to think outside of chart constrictions (which, and this is way under discussed in music journalism in general, infects every Billboard story). But beyond that…like, every person interviewed says the same thing, which is “wow streaming is important, also the internet.” That’s a drop by Billboard Japan not building off of what they’ve done in the past, and a knock against industry higher ups who can articulate an issue but offer very little interesting in terms of solutions (and aren’t challenged by the interviewer). I don’t know why this one set me off so much, but probably because there are so many Japanese writers who do these stories well!
Example of Billboard Japan doing well…an interview with DREAMS COME TRUE member Masato Nakamura on making the music for Sonic The Hedgehog.
MIKIKO’s vision for the Olympic Opening Ceremony may be a lost dream…but she gets to do choreography for the upcoming ending theme to the Pokemon anime, which will probably spread way more positivity than what played out in the national stadium this July.
Speaking of! Keigo Oyamada (aka Cornelius) spoke to Shukan Bunshun about the entire bullying scandal that got him to resign from the Opening Ceremony committee, and followed it up with a public message. See that below.
The emphasis in the Bunshun interview is that he leaned into the bullying stuff to bolster his solo career post Flipper’s Guitar, in a way to tap into the “bad taste culture” of the day. His personal statement, though, actually pivots more towards blaming the publications for not getting the interview right, including summoning something I’m well familiar with, artists ability to check articles before they run. His statement actually makes all of this a way bigger mess than it was — like, if we take him at his word here, his decision not to do anything about being misquoted for two decades seems…nonsensical? Especially given how quickly popular artists in Japan will go after stories they don’t like (the stories I could tell!). Makes zero sense, and just feels like extra confusion.
Gah, how did we end up back in the Olympics? Here’s a great interview DAOKO did with Tokion about her pivot to independence.
Bandcamp Daily focusing on post-punk band Mir! I will say, this is the group’s best album available on Bandcamp right now (though they used to have a killer version of “TV” on MySpace? Lost to time….?)
ZARD! One of the biggest acts in Japanese music history! Now the latest huge name to be added to subscription streaming.
I was interviewed by the ever-great Tomonori Shiba (probably who I thought of when imagining Japanese music journalists with a high hit rate doing industry stories well) for Shukan Bunshun online about Momoko Kikuchi’s music going on streaming, the continued interest in city pop, and much more. Also allowed me to overly explain vaporwave to Shiba-san. Next essay will actually be my English thoughts on this! Have some Kikuchi-sampling tunes until then.
A horse named Ma Ma Ma Macaroni won a race tonight. Watch the English-language call below.
That…that has to be a Perfume reference right? INDEED IT IS. The stable owning Ma Ma Ma Macaroni owns MULTIPLE HORSES named after Perfume songs. If I ever need to bet my life savings on a horsey, I know where to look.
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies