Make Believe Melodies For September 6, 2021
Brain Mush Edition
Toiret Status — brue
woopheadclrms — EXPO!
Japan’s contemporary experimental set remains as strong and surreal as ever. Following Foodman’s re-imagining of the everyday on Yasuragi Land, these two releases further underline the magic of warping wounds into something fantastical. Toiret Status’ composed brue for an exhibition put together by Kai Yoshizawa, and man do I want to know what that was like based on the three tracks featured here. Toiret Status lets sounds zip by and occasionally smash into one another, resulting in chaotic soundscapes that still manage to fit together into something whole. Digitized voices turn to goo on “#141,” gloopin’ all over a beat shifting from bouncy to lurching. “#139” imagines what De De Mouse songs would sound like filtered through a mind machine, while seven-minute-plus closer “#134” comes closest to sounding fitting for a gallery in its early stages, with field recordings (albeit of the “unnerving ASMR” variety…crows, heavy wind, that sort of vibe) before mutating into a nervy electronic number unsure what pace to move at. Get it here, or listen above.
Nagoya’s woopheadclrms mixes a similar playful approach to synth play with a more sample-centric cacophony on EXPO! All the Wasabi Tapes heads out there, rejoice, because the most brain-whirling bits of this release nod to that label’s love of melting down the sound’s of today, starting with radio station call IDs made menacing on opener “Rare.” From there, woopheadclrms takes samples of politicians (I swear I hear Elizabeth Warren in there?) and videos, distorting and Auto-tune-the-news-ing them into oblivion. It’s a joy for fans of feeling completely disoriented, but what really helps it stands out are the unexpected moments of beauty, like the electronic flutters emerging out of the twisted metal of “II.” Get it here, or listen above.
LSTNGT — “Exocrine”
Serving as the closing track for new label Mizuha’s Biosphere compilation, long-time-running producer LSTNGT provides a slow-burning synth release on “Exocrine.” The samples of the real world help give this song a sense of place, though the real power comes late when LSTNGT lets the beat, piano notes and electronics let loose. Yet even after that rush, they find space for serenity amidst it. Listen above.
The Burning Deadwoods Featuring kiki vivi lily — “Turn Me On”
I’m happy to put up with a new “mystery project” if it means kiki vivi lily gets more chance to let her voice bounce along to some easy-breezy weekday disco.
femme fatale — “Club Moon”
I want to write something longer involving this song later this week, but putting it down here nevertheless because it’s a 2021 highlight you shouldn’t miss.
AssToro Featuring e5 — “deus ex machina”
I’m just completely enamored with this type of sound, and think Japanese artists are doing such a good job with it. This song really highlights what about this corner of Japanese music — “HyperPop” adjacent at least, if not totally, though I get the sense a lot of artists involved sort of bristle at the term — I love. Mainly, no fear about warping vocals. As expected, e5 steals this with her fuzz-covered passage, hitting on ennui and anger in her brief passage.
FNCY — FNCY BY FNCY
We live in an age of constant looking backwards…but at least FNCY make it fun. The trio’s newest album is another chance to gorge on the sounds of yesteryear, but delivered by three creators far smarter to fall for simple nostalgia traps. Part of the charm lies in how they dig a little deeper…hip house hasn’t exactly enjoyed a renaissance lately, yet here FNCY are going as far as to shout out the style directly on “Rep Me,” while even indulging in some tasteful G-funk on “him i gotta love.” Extra points for “FU-TSU-U (New Normal),” a COVID-19 directly referencing the pandemic that never feels like a bummer. Listen above.
Oricon Trail For The Week Of August 23, 2021 To August 29, 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.
Hey! Say! JUMP — “Gunjoo Runway” (235,813 Copies Sold)
The Vocaloid gloomification of J-pop continues on with another Johnny’s group embracing the monochrome sound (and look) of now. Hey! Say! JUMP’s plunge comes courtesy of rock band NEE’s main vocalist Kuu, who boasts a background creating Vocaloid numbers. If you’ve read this newsletter over 2021 you know how that sounds, though the real innovation here comes via the video. This is one of the first major efforts to transform this pessimistic pop movement’s visual aesthetic — usually done in animation — to live action, and pulls it off pretty well, with the megaphone bit being a particularly striking image.
News And Views
KOM_I officially departing Suiyoubi No Campanella, with the project introducing new vocalist / center Utahara in her place. Going off of the official statements, KOM_I wanted the group to keep going, and that the other members of Suiyoubi initially considered a rotating vocalist system but instead gave young performer Utahara a shot (she just starred in a video by the electronic act Idiot Pop). What KOM_I does moving forward…not sure. Lots to keep an eye on…including more in this newsletter on this later in the week, hopefully.
DREAMS COME TRUE and Sega have a long relationship together (shout out Daniel for the primer, my lack of video game knowledge coming through once again), but now they have the chance to pose next to Sonic The Hedgehog for promo related to this song.
Hikaru Utada performing well on Billboard’s Vinyl Chart with one of the year’s best songs.
Tough times for rap in Japan. Namimonogatari remains in the conversation, as artists who participated at an event seeming to skirt COVID-19 regulations and featuring a crowd eschewing masks apologized for doing so. Meanwhile, footage of athlete/talent Claude Maki admonishing the Namimonogatari crowd for not masking up went viral, with many celebrating his speech (though some point out the wrinkle that…he’s not wearing a mask while doing this). Bad Hop, which performed at the Nagoya event, quickly postponed a big show set for Yokohama Arena (inside!!! at least Namimonogatari was outside!) following all the bad energy directed at them.
Far more disturbing, Shukan Bunshun reported on the case of hip-hop producer MURVSAKI being sentenced to two years in prison for sexually abusing his stepdaughter. Horrible on its own, but it carries over to the rap scene at large too, as MURVSAKI produced for an array of big names and was a member of the group Mall Boyz, fronted by rising rappers Tohji and Gummyboy. Every member of that outfit then issued a statement, and Mall Boyz is officially inactive at time of writing, with the possibility of all songs featuring MURVSAKI to be pulled from music distribution services (still up at time of writing). The MURVSAKI case played out late last year, meaning Tohji and company’s statements came quite later, with their argument being they couldn’t say anything while the criminal proceedings were happening. Still, this delay in response has been met with heavy criticism (as is releasing a statement only after a tabloid picks up the story). Shukan, meanwhile, found another underage woman involved with the producer.
Quick interlude to change the mood a bit after that last one — watch a member of K-pop group woo!ah! cover “Uchiage Hanabi.”
Summer might be over — it at least feels over, as Japan instantly pivoted from sweltering heat to gloominess interrupted by rain when September started — but music festivals remain in the spotlight beyond Namimonogatari. Creativeman announced that Supersonic — the bite-size version of Summer Sonic created way back when the 2020 Olympics were going to actually happen in 2020 — would not be holding the Osaka leg of their event scheduled to happen in two weeks due to ongoing COVID-19 concerns. Spotlight falls on the main Chiba dates. Local government pressured Creativeman to postpone, cancel or at least reduce capacity for Supersonic, but the company says they can’t without going into the red (which, based purely on past conversations and a bit of guessing, is probably true). I’d be shocked if the Tokyo-adjacent show goes through, mostly because I have a hard time seeing the foreign performers getting into the country for this, coupled with public anger…though, slight twist, numbers are actually going down once again in the region, so timing might be the real problem. Hold this two weeks later and they’d probably be in the clear.
So…what will a fest look like as waves of COVID cases rise and fall? Might look like Music Circus ‘21, happening in late October. Organizers will require attendees to have either proof of vaccination or a negative PCR test from the previous 24 hours to enter. Feels like this is an effort to line up with proposed government approaches to a “new normal” system for other venues across the country.
To truly understand the fallout from Namimonogatari, just look at this picture from a recent Hanshin Tigers baseball game from Koshien.
That’s way more packed than any scenes from Fuji Rock or other festivals pre-Namimonogatari. Like Fuji Rock, most people are masked up and, based on a little poking around, alcohol isn’t on sale at the venue. Yet nobody is having a moral crisis about a packed ball game, and netizens aren’t melting down over the sight of so many folks close together. I don’t see any tabloids sending reporters to Koshien to pretend they are at ground zero of a war zone. Namimonogatari, the one truly botched festival where rules weren’t followed and attendees didn’t wear masks, looms larger than anything else though, and drags down live music in the process, while *cough cough more conservative cough cough* past times can avoid scrutiny as a result. Keep this in mind as we head into 2022, with more scrutiny seemingly directed at music than anything else.
Well that was a lot. Here’s a Japanese article about why Tatsuro Yamashita’s For You is a city pop masterpiece to so many. Putting on my critic hat quickly…I’d say because it has three of the greatest city pop songs ever written (never sleep on “Loveland, Island.”)
I talked to Ms. Machine for The Japan Times! Still think their self-titled is the album of 2021 so far, despite some great competition.
I also had the chance to dive into the cyber occult over at Bandcamp Daily, as I had the opportunity to write about EM Records’ Henry Kawahara compilation. One of the most fascinating…and intimidating!…assignments I’ve had in the realm of music writing, very happy with it.
The Masked Singer Japan is good — just the right balance between celebratory and batshit — and I’ll write more on it later. But here’s a taste to end the week!
Written by Patrick St. Michel (patrickstmichel@gmail.com)
Twitter — @mbmelodies