Make Believe Melodies For September 2, 2024
Hot Hot Hot
NENE — Gekiatsui
Japanese rap is always on the verge of being “the next big thing,” but in 2024, that actually feels possible rather than pure bluster. Awich continues to be going strong, and has used her platform to introduce even more artists to a world audience. Creepy Nuts scored a huge TikTok-and-anime-powered hit. Nakamura Minami pops up on the well-recieved (and really fun) salute album. And of course…this is the year of “Team Tomodachi” becoming an anthem in Asia, with Yuki Chiba riding that to a collaboration with Megan Thee Stallion.
Gekiatsui captures the momentum of the moment. The latest solo offering from Yurufuwa Gang member NENE comes after she herself took part in Awich’s Coachella visit (plus other high-level live shows after), and features production from Koshy, a long-time architect of how modern Japanese hip-hop sounds who is also having a huge year as they worked on “Team Tomodachi” AND “Mamushi.” Moments on the 22-minute release lean into global trends in rap not far removed from Koshy’s other calendar-year hits, from the crawling menace of the title track to the Jersey-accented plunges of “HEAT” and “Hebi.”
“NENE is the only Japanese female rapper who can make it to the world,” Koshy wrote on Instagram after Gekiatsui dropped. I don’t know if that’s accurate in a business sense…I guess ask a analytics person?…but I totally get the spirit of the comment. What makes this release so absorbing, funny and oddball is NENE herself.
Of all the artists to spotlight as a potential global ambassador of Japanese rap to the world, NENE is an unlikely one…largely because whether solo or in Yurufuwa Gang, she’s someone unconcerned with anything in the outside world when it comes to her art (when I interviewed the duo back in the day, Yurufuwa Gang struck me as two people building their own alternative rap playground between Netflix binges). Her music is eccentric, and even when hop-scotching over “HEAT” or intimidating on “Spicy,” she’s delivering unique perspectives on sex and flexes nobody else in Japan comes close to matching (the food metaphor running through this whole set helps a bit in this regard). Gekiatsui offers a tidy summary of Japanese rap in 2024…but the person animating is simply just doing what she has always done. Listen above.
T.M.P — Desktop
The internet doesn’t have to be this separate universe barely reflecting the physical world. That’s the feeling T.M.P’s social-media-damaged rock gives me, transforming old Japanese memes and the feeling of being too logged on into something that translates into a very tangible feeling when performed live. Desktop kicks off with a few up-tempo songs shared earlier this year, but I think it’s the back-end where the real catharsis of the EP shines through, especially on the darting “Summer End Supernova,” a very netlabel-ish mixture of breakbeats and rave strobes backed by a J-rock spine. That gets followed up with the most whirlwind sampledelica the duo have created to date. Listen above.
Trekkie Trax Crew And Fire Boys — “Smile for Smile”
You couldn’t think up a combination of artists that would get me as hyped to buy something on Bandcamp like this one. Get it here.
Uilou — “Take a look”
Sad people need to shuffle too. Duo Uilou return with another bit of agoraphobic dance pop, this time being especially muted and melancholy. Perfect soundtrack to your next muted night at home. Listen above.
π And Milky — “transcendent scales”
Built for both the head and the feet, this collaboration between frequent AVYSS-powered-event collaborators bounces until it hangs in the air, practically frozen in time. It’s the two artists’ vocals, though, that give this trip an emotional punch, even when it drops into a more metallic passage threatening to disrupt the dream. That, however, just makes the eventaul rise out of it all the better. Listen above.
STARKIDS Featuring Hatsune Miku — “World Is Ours”
I went to the Tokyo leg of Magical Mirai last Friday, so apologies if I have Hatsune Miku on the brain — I almost made this entire edition of the weekly round-up about Vocaloid, but decided against it in the end (it helps that Bandcamp Friday returns this week…and two albums REALLY shining on this front can get coverage, stay tuned). What continues to boggle my mind about the avatar for singing-synthesizer software is how persistent she remains. I once did an interview with someone about Miku, and he said the average character — so like, equating her to Rilakkuma or Gudetama — has a ten year period of popularity. And yet wandering around Makuhari Messe, it felt like Miku was as big as ever…if not a little more given how many non-Japanese people appeared to have flown out for this event.
What has helped Miku stay in the spotlight is a younger generation of fans and especially creators, who grew up with both the character AND the creative community around it. It makes total sense for the chaos engine that is STARKIDS to link up with her on “World Is Ours,” a flip on Supercell’s Vocaloid hall of famer “World Is Mine.” In their hands, it becomes a chance to further boast and display their maximalist sound which, again, works wonders with Miku digi delivery. It’s just another example of how vibrant the universe around Miku remains. Listen above.
babababa Featuring Hatsune Miku — “Brazilian Love Affair”
Speaking of…New Masterpiece came through this week with a Vocaloid song sparked by an Internet trend. Shout-out thecat_mitsu for their drawing of “Brazilian Miku,” which inspired a It’s A Small World-like rush of Miku drawings depicting her from every conceivable corner of the planet. Genuinely wonderful, one of those memes that keeps me on Twitter. It also inspired the producer babababa to create this nifty end-of-summer number inspired by Brazilian Miku. A clever and timely release, but also really fun, merging elements of Brazilian music with fusion sounds to give the familiar delivery of Vocaloid an interesting sonic backdrop. Get it here, or listen above.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of August 19 2024 To August 25, 2024
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.
Nogizaka46 — “Cheat Day” (509,819 Copies Sold)
I mean this one has me from the title alone. I’ll always appreciate idol embraces of Western slang, especially when taken in a whole new direction. A “cheat day” for Nogizaka46 sounds like…skipping school to ride bikes and stare at the ocean? Feel free to dig deeper into lyrics about friends that sound a little closer than that.
“Cheat Day” gets a nice boost courtesy of the slightest injections of rock — like, seriously, someone twisted a knob that says “guitar” from 2 to 3. Yet even that little extra energy helps, even if the core of this one is familiar all-together-now pop battering. Listen above.
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Last week, I shared my selections of songs that should have made Music Magazine’s “Best J-pop Of The 2010s” list. This week…a report from a mini Hiromi Go show in a baseball stadium.
News And Views
I’m a big proponent for the Japanese live music industry re-evaluating the timing of “summer festivals” given climate change — especially after another ridiculous weekend of weather at this year’s Summer Sonic — but the past week offered a counter to the proposition of “just do it later!” Osaka’s Rush Ball cancelled due to worries over the recent typhoon that impacted Japan, and lots of other events had to wrestle with what to do given the potential for extreme weather. Plenty went on, though, and the resulting images were wild. Sweet Love Shower in Yamanashi Prefecture featured copious amounts of rain, leading to some pretty gnarly looking flooding. So…not that simple, because the potential for something going haywire thanks to nature looms large anytime of the year.
Warner Music Japan appointed Dr. Kenji Kitatani as its new chairman.
Fascinated by this garbage AI music video and song some LDP lady is really into. Really underlines how a lot of this “content” is going to be embraced by old people with zero taste.
Shy Thompson doing excellent work, by getting Peanuts-kun onto a Pitchfork “summer songs contender” list. We salute you.
Thai pop group Pretzelle debuted its animated alternate identities (???) PRETZ last week, complete with an anime-style music video and song featuring production from Japanese artists TeddyLoid and Giga. I was all ready to declare this as the first example of Ado-core spreading outside of Japan, and it certainly has qualities of her sound in the verses. Then the chorus hits and a more K-pop / T-pop indebted lift takes off, revealing a new dimension to this one. The lyrics, delivered almost entirely in English, are a touch clunky. The sound, though, is intriguing (and also not what I expect from either of the creators behind the track).
Someone is threatening to digitally attack netlabels such as Omoide Label and Siren For Charlotte, a nice reminder that even in this corner of music, you will encounter a lot of petty folks.
AVYSS hosted a great interview between Pasocom Music Club and Maltine Records founder Tomad. I’ll use this as a chance to note I have a feature on the duo out this week in The Japan times.
This music festival built around Japanese music set to be held this November in Seoul looks super fascinating. If you work for it…get in touch.
Tokyo Weekender profiled viral dance-outfit Avantgardey for its latest cover story…and also talked with ambient artist marucoporoporo about some of her favorite music.
Here’s a member of f5ve covering Miki Matsubara.
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies