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Category Archives: J-Pop

Bright Lights: L.E.D.’s “Kara Mizu Ni Naru” Featuring Salyu

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J-Pop singer Salyu deserves two superlatives:

1. Best voice in J-Pop today

2. Most misused voice in J-Pop today

Salyu’s voice is a thing of wonder, part Bjork-ish while also being able to hit high notes a bit better. Yet for the majority of her career, she’s been saddled with songs meant for traditional J-Pop singers when she’s anything but. She might be the biggest misuse of talent in Japan of the last decade…if not more. There have been exceptions, though. When she pretended to be Lily Chou-Chou…and thus wasn’t herself…she was fantastic, and two years ago Cornelius liberated her by copying her voice and creating music based around multiple Salyus. That move resulted in the singer sounding more free than ever before, and the Salyu X Salyu album remains her finest full-length to date.

Her latest collaboration, with the band L.E.D., doesn’t require her to change her identity or to be broken into atoms to be rejuvenated musically. Here, she’s simply given a new sonic backdrop to sing in front of, and it’s refreshing. L.E.D. construct a hi-definition synth flurry for her to sing over, their synths sometimes overpowering her voice. That’s an interesting development, as she doesn’t usually have to battle the sounds around here…but now she has to break through 8-bit walls. It never sounds as thrilling as what Cornelius did with Salyu X Salyu, but for the singer who has long dealt with mediocre music, this 80’s blizzard is a nice change of pace. Listen below.

New Kyary Pamyu Pamyu: “Invader Invader”

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One of my grand theories…the sort you start scribbling notes on in Tumblr before being like “nah, gotta develop this a bit more” before hitting the big ol’ “X” in the corner…is that Yasutaka Nakata is secretly one of the major influences of contemporary EDM. One day, I’ll actually write that, but for now we have “Invader Invader,” the latest single from Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, produced by Nakata, and his most overtly brostep song to date. He’s flirted with the wub before, but here he’s dropped (heh) an honest-to-God Skrillex-aping section into one of his tracks, one designed for maximum flipping out to. Yet this is Nakata were talking about, and he isn’t one to simply subscribe to tends (give or take a song here or there). The brostep part of “Invader Invader” is only a small portion of one of Kyary’s most ambitious singles to date yet, one featuring robo-backed singing and an energetic chorus that stands out thanks to the drama (and wildness) around it. Listen below.

UPDATE: The video also just came out (maybe that’s where the audio above comes from) watch below

New Perfume: “Magic Of Love”

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This year saw a first from techno-pop trio Perfume – a dud. “Mirai No Museum,” a song written for a Doraemon movie, was greeted with mostly shrugs and “ehhhhh, hope the next one is better” from the group’s usually rabid fanbase. It did alright sales wise, but failed to ignite even real hate from anyone – it was just sort of a disappointment. There have been a handful of Perfume singles that have split the fanbase – “Spending All My Time’s” glorious Calvin Harris impersonation springing right to mind – but this felt like a whiff everyone just wanted to move on from.

So that puts new single “Magic Of Love” in a weird position for Perfume – a highly anticipated track that seems extra important following a miscue. The group debuted this song on their radio show this week, and it might be a little too soon to tell whether this is a legitimately great song or it’s just so much better than what came before it I’m overrating it a bit. A whole bunch of spins, and I’m leaning towards the prior. “Magic Of Love” manages to retain the bright cyborg sound they’ve made their own, while Yasutaka Nakata adds enough intriguing details to make this more than just a solid Perfume single. The hook brings to mind Capsule’s “Step On The Floor,” but that’s not really a bad thing. Yet it’s what exists around the chorus that makes this great. The most noticeable moments come when Nakata pushes the members of Perfume away from the digital fuzz they are always splashed in and we here them just singing. He’s done this before – the climax of “Spice” being the best example – but it works well here. Less immediate is what Nakata does between verses, playing around more than usual with his electronics, like he’s just throwing vials full of rainbow-colored liquids into a pot and seeing what happens. “Magic Of Love” always seems to be changing in some small way…something the lockjawed “Mirai No Museum” failed at. Glad to have you back Perfume. Listen below.

New Shiina Ringo: “Irohanihoheto”

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May 27 marks the 15th anniversary of the debut of Shiina Ringo, an artist who has released a few classic albums and has had a huge impact on a generation of Japanese music fans. To celebrate, she’s releasing a new single on that day and…it presumably hit the Internet sometime today. It’s called “Irohanihoheto” and it’s a refined number. It moves at the pace of her earliest songs, but done up in the string flourishes that glazed her later albums…and her last single, which wasn’t that long ago. This isn’t Shiina Ringo emerging on the anniversary of her debut to reveal a(nother) new form, but rather her reminding the Japanese music landscape that she’s still here doing her thing wonderfully.

And hey, let’s talk about that chorus. She adds in dramatic spikes…see the new set of strings that rise up the second time around…and manages to wring a whole lot of tension out of this song as a whole. It’s her best single in quite some time…and that’s including Tokyo Jihen…and a nice reminder of what one of Japan’s best is capable of. Listen here.

New Kyary Pamyu Pamyu: “Ninja Ri Ban Ban”

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Fresh off a European tour and preparing for two big shows in America, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu has released the video for her new single “Ninja Ri Ban Ban,” above. The song finds Yasutaka Nakata channeling traditional Japanese sounds and melodies into the song…appropriate given the subject matter focuses on being in love with a ninja. Features what sounds like a shamisen…in a song that also features some video-game-ready synths. It’s another colorful bit of production from Nakata, who sounds like he’s having a bunch of fun working with Kyary. The video, of course, is great too – it features a koi pun, laser arms and Kyary dressed as a ninja. Another winner from one of J-Pop’s best going.