scrmbl contributor Patrick St. Michel runs an email newsletter called Make Believe Mailer, an offshoot of his long-running blog Make Believe Melodies. Every week, he shares essays and round-ups of new Japanese music, from J-pop to independent releases, including albums that might have flown under listeners' radar. Here are some of the highlights from the past month, shared with readers of scrmbl.
NOMELON NOLEMON — EYE
The beauty of J-pop in the 2020s lies partially in how difficult it is to pin down. Duo NOMELON NO LEMON captures this well. The makeup of the band resembles so many acts to have emerged in the last half decade — take on genre-hopping producer who gained notoriety in Vocaloid, and pair them with a singer who previously was part of a YouTube cover series — but the songs on latest album EYE don’t neatly match up with the style of YOASOBI or Yorushika. Instead, it is a take on pop pleasure allowing for knottier elements underneath without losing its central radiance.
Whatever direction producer Tsumiki nudges the songs here, they always come around to a jubilant hook. “KILLERMOON” indulges in rock theatrics filtered through synth pierces, but all builds to a shout-a-long chorus, while the fragmented hop of “Mitemite” — which Tsumiki has said in interviews is his interpretation of “hyperpop” — ultimately turns into swaggering stadium fare. The best moments find true experimentation within their sound, such as the Pasocom Music Club dash on the verses of “Seawater” or the minimalist shuffle of “Shonetsu,” but what ties it all together is the pop core the pair are so good at hitting. Listen above.
OKAME — DEBUT
The soul of neo-kawaii rock outfit CHAI carries over to members Mana and Kana’s new project OKAME, which channels the dance-pop sound of their previous band while maintaining the upbeat attitude that helped make them reach a global audience. There’s nods to ‘80s synth-pop (the Tiffany-coded “Tamaya”) and loopier moments of catchiness (“Terenaide”), but throughout it all is a familiar charm centered around finding one’s self-worth — or simply celebrating the small things in life. Listen above.
Aiobahn +81 — eau de parfum 〜extended play〜
This EP from electronic creator Aiobahn +81 captures the thrill of modern J-pop perfectly. It’s all about unlikely combinations and seemingly disparate worlds getting mixed up into something exhilarating, all while maintaining a catchiness that moves it above novelty. The heavy presence of Vocaloid Kasane Teto hints at the very-2020s nature of eau de parfum, but it also includes team-ups with other extremely online producers, including a head-spinning reference-heavy collab with collective Explores of the Internet which Ryo Miyauchi correctly compared this to PAS TASTA earlier this month. And then Mori Calliope shows up? An absolute joy of a listen doubling as a celebration of the whiplash that is Japanese culture in this decade. Listen above.
Widescreen Baroque — easy listening
Traces of every project Shuichi Mabe has been involved with creep up in latest undertaking Widescreen Baroque. The general groove and vaguely mysterious aura of Sotaisei Riron certainly seeps through albeit in a more electronic format…and it is even further underlined if you focus on the singing of vocalist Hinano, who isn’t quite as shadowy as Etsuko Yakushimaru but comes close to a sing-speak intrigue on the nervy techno-pop of “Pretty Young” or the lush chamber pop of “NO.5.” There’s also a dramatic streak nodding to his time in Vampillia, not quite metal but with a heavy string presence that adds baroque flair to “UFOLOGY.” Listen above.
Kimiga Shikakuku Narumaeni — Kirameki To Shite Arawarerudearou Arayuru Chisana Sekai No Tame No Prolegomena
A band can be just a band, or it can be a source of catharsis and dizzying optimism in the face of cynicism. Sorta-kinda supergroup Kimiga Shikakuku Narumaeni positions itself as the latter. It features names from across the 2020s Japanese underground world — I found out about it via the presence of Vocaloid shoegazer nerdneko, and it also includes a member of the bercedes men, the guitarist from muk and more — and gathers them into something AVYSS presented as “Sekai-kei Yojohan Music,” referring to a hard-to-pinpoint genre popularized online in the 2000s (think Makoto Shinkai’s work) and a reference to a ‘70s style of folk revolving around memories of life in small tatami rooms, often shared between broke lovers.
That’s heady stuff, but Kirameki To Shite Arawarerudearou Arayuru Chisana Sekai No Tame No Prolegomena links the grandiose with the grounded across these songs.
Before dissecting it though, the actual sound of this debut is tip-top owing to how it's basically an all-star team of band members. Kimiga Shikakuku Narumaeni sometimes can lean a little too J-rock across its first album — “Arayutu Chisana Sekai Notameno Prolegomena” feels built for ROCK IN JAPAN (not complimentary) in its jog, saved in part by the vocals which hold on to that — as you might expect from young musicians who presumably grew up in the 2000s, but features enough novel touches and well done melodic flourishes to rise above. The Sotaisei Riron riffs of “Shinigami-chan” add urgency to it all, while “Dazzling city carries the life of others” shines thanks to a slow-building chug delivering the album’s climatic sonic release (with added help from sidenerds vocalist Miniamaru Miyabi offering a vocal both ecstatic and a touch bittersweet).
What elevates it is the lyrics, which turns these rock backdrops into songs bigger and smaller. Details fill up the lines — the strolling melancholy of “Ai Wo Kuitomete” mentions The Strokes (who reminds our protagonist of a lost lover) and t-shirts, while “Dazzling city” paints a metropolis as choked with exhaust fumes and department stores — to help ground these songs, but threading them together is a love both intimate (the sort captured in shared references and note-like messages) and massive (like this will destroy the world if it ends). Powered by the voice of vocalist Dateiga, who can sell these sides in equal measure via her delivery, Kimiga Shikakuku Narumaeni presents a collection digging into the power of connection as a way to beat back nihilism. How do you prove something matters? Say it does. Listen above.
