Make Believe Melodies Logo

Category Archives: Music @ja

New Lullatone: Falling For Autumn

Posted on by

First, too easy joke – Nagoya dream-crafters Lullatone released an album devoted to the arrival of Fall on a day that saw some of the highest recorded temperatures ever recorded in Japan. Isn’t it ironic, etc etc.

Lullatone in 2013 is not that radically different from the Lullatone of a decade ago, at least when it comes to the overall theme of their music. They’ve always soundtracked small, everyday instances – usually with a childhood bent, songs about raindrops and sleeping and school and plastic toy record players. That hasn’t changed this year, as they went seasonal, first with the Summer Songs EP which celebrated ice cream, meat shopping and suntan oil. Falling For Autumn is every bit as innocent – save maybe for the wheezy carnival jam “An Awkward Dinner Conversation At A Family Gathering,” because too a kid nothing is really that awkward – with tracks titled “Here Comes The Sweater Weather” (which is an easy-breezy guitar-and-whistling number) and, best of all, “The Biggest Pile Of Leaves You’ve Ever Seen.”

What has changed – and it isn’t sudden, but something that happened sometime after (the still excellent) The Bedtime Beat is that Lullatone’s sound became richer. Whereas their earliest recordings were either computer-made bleep-bloop pop, or fuzzy recordings, there music since at least Elevator Music has been shinier. Everything sounds like an audition for a commercial – which is something Lullatone do, and it is to their credit that these tracks can be both jingle-worthy and emotionally evocative (Don Draper is nodding his head somewhere, if he was real) – and Falling For Autumn is just as rich. Every individual sound comes through clear – check the build to the short-but-strong “New Stationary For A New Semester.” Yet despite the increase in fidelity, Lullatone retain the youthfulness that has always made them so great. Get it here, or listen below.

New Pa’s Lam System: “Bit By Bit”

Posted on by

Maltine Records has released a lot of music during their existence – a few gems were bound to slip by. One really fantastic song I failed to write about, from earlier this year, was Pa’s Lam System’s “b00mb0x,” an absolutely thumping number that’s one of Japan’s best pure floor-fillers in 2013. Now here comes the Maltine sequel – “Bit By Bit” is every bit as catchy as Pa’s Lam’s last number from the netlabel, loaded up with female vocals and British rap segment. The draw here, though, is the high-energy way this song moves forward, on pulsing electronics and Jersey-Club-ish beat. Hoping an EP or album is on the way. Listen below.

Youth Maze: Boe Oakner’s Praha.EP And (Jesus Has Given And) XXX EP

Posted on by

Boe Oakner is a 17 year old from Nagano Prefecture, and in the span of three months she has already released two EPs of vastly different sonic styles. The pair – August’s Praha. and this month’s Ano(t)raks-supported (Jesus Has Given And) XXX – are testaments to the confusions of the late teenage years, that awkward period many kids begin figuring out just who they are (usually with the threat of high school graduation thick in the air). For Boe Oakner, her search for identity plays out over two excellent albeit completely different EPs. Praha. passed us by when it emerged online back in the summer, but I am not sure Make Believe Melodies would have written about it without knowing where Oakner would go in the future – it is a completely ambient album, where the closest thing to percussion comes courtesy of the sound of dripping water. Liquid sounds are vital to this collection, the title track featuring the persistent sound of what sounds like a bath tub draining to the aforementioned drip-drops of “Luminere,” which delivers on the title by also incorporating the sound of film reel. Yet the other two songs here aren’t big on natural sound – they are guided by piano and twinkling electronics (“Mariene”) and cinematic strings (the stunning “Lavrentij,” which sounds like a lullaby at first but blossoms into something powerful). Get it here, or listen below.

The newly released XXX is a departure – it’s the sound of Oakner herself coming into frame and, just as importantly, having fun. The musical tricks introduced on Praha. remian – “Waterfloat” is a minimal track centered around more water dripping. Yet now she’s singing, and she’s creating multiple tracks of her vocals, to create the effect of a chors of Oakners singing over the kitchen-faucet sounds. And then she turns the whole thing sweet with violins. “Cherenkov” is a lonely little waltz once again exploring what she can do with her voice and recording software, the most delicate and sweet song here. And it closes with a version of “Praha” now featuring her voice. She sings about Jesus — and seemingly losing faith in him (or it’s a metaphor for love…) — and then in a swerve, breaks into rap to declare “yo, check it out ya’ll/this is hip-hop yo.” It is a playful interlude that shakes up an otherwise contemplative number…the sort of wild detail one hopes youth can provide. Get it here or listen below.

New Sakasa: Sakasa vs Japanese ’80s POP Music Living Dead

Posted on by

Nara producer Sakasa decided to challenge themselves a bit with their newest album. Here are the rules Sakasa imposed while recording this collection:

1. Sample only Japanese ’80s POP music.
2. Use only Ableton Live 8 standard.
3. Don’t use any plugins and hardwares (samplers,synthesizers,drummachines and effectors).
4. This is NOT a remix !!
5. This is NOT a mashup !!

The last three aren’t rules per se, more of clarifications between one dives into Sakasa vs Japanese ’80s POP Music Living Dead, but it is good to know all the same. Whatever Sakasa’s source material, the songs here do not sound like simple reworks or lazy mashups, but rather radical new creations, with several lasting for more than seven minutes. Some, like the hazy “Cloud Tone,” border on the ambient (a few beats breaking through the ether keep it from being pure vapor) while “Crack Of Dawn” reduced the vocals from an older pop jam into a jittery jog of syllables. Many tracks – looking at you “Traffic Jam” – are even chaotic, the sort of stuff you wouldn’t expect to be stitched together from J-Pop samples and Ableton. It’s a cool challenge, and Sakasa made it enjoyable for listeners too. Get it here or listen below.

Monday Morning Round-Up Post: New House Of Tapes, White Wear And K■nie

Posted on by

Monday morning huh? That’s no good. Here’s some new music from Japan to get you through this day.

– Nagoya producer House Of Tapes has been expanding sonically from his original, punishing take on dance music. New track “Mellow Days” isn’t the acoustic hammock-jam that would signal a total about-face, but it is certainly one of the most remixed numbers he’s released yet. It still thumps and at times all the electronics start piling up on one another, close to disorder – but “Mellow Days” is never harsh, and even features the sounds of an acoustic guitar at several points. It isn’t angry but melancholic. Listen below.

-CUZ ME PAIN outfit White Wear has a new album called Black Strings out now, and if you need convincing to get yourself a copy he’s also posted a new cut from that full-length online. “Byakuroku Beat” is a funky number that also hides the label’s unsettling side – see the vocals that creep into the song at various points. Listen below.

– Fellow Tokyo producer K■nie has made a nice new beat titled “I Can’t See U.” It isn’t as absorbing as his last few tracks, but rather a short, whimsical number that still crackles. Listen below.