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Category Archives: Music @ja

Disorienting: Young Juvenile Youth’s Anti Everything

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Jemapur was just another Japanese electronic music producer, posting songs to SoundCloud and popping up at events sometimes. Yet, as more and more young music makers use the Internet as a platform to get their original production out, the field has become very crowded and standing out has become tough. Jemapur has made good stuff before…and he popped up on an INNIT compilation a while back, which is one of the strongest seals of approval in our mind…but he’s never stood out. Yet he might have just found his way out – he recently teamed up with singer Yuki (only info available) to form the group Young Juvenile Youth, and they’ve just put out an EP called Anti Everything that is a hell of an introduction. This brief collection is strong, and one of the year’s most disorienting listens.

All three original songs here – there is a Jemapur remix of the title track, which seems funny since dude is already in the group – deal in minimalist form, Jemapur’s electronics vamping along as Yuki sings over them, jumping between languages. “Anti Everything” is guided by a simple but chilly beat that leaves plenty of room for Yuki’s vocals, which are mostly delivered straight-forward-like save for a few instances that ramp up the drama. It’s already unnerving enough – the synths in the back practically sound like they are playing in reverse – and then Yuki’s voice starts rolling over itself, making everything all the more dizzying. “Anti Everything” is the highlight, but the other two numbers here are strong too – “Daydream” is even sparser, putting the emphasis further on the vocals. “No Red Lights,” meanwhile, emphasizes the strength of the production, a glitchy-but-reserved production that works wonders when matched up with Yuki’s car-centric lyrics. Listen to the whole EP below.

Kyoto’s Hotel Mexico Break Up

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Kyoto band Hotel Mexico announced on their website tonight that they have officially split up. It means one of Japan’s finest indie bands of the last few years – and one of the first to receive attention from Western blogs and music websites – is calling it a day.

Hotel Mexico began in late 2008, according to this solid introduction to the band by The Japan Times’ Ian Martin (here’s another good starting point, too). As that article says, Hotel Mexico were quickly tagged as “chillwave,” not an inaccurate marking but one that sells the band somewhat short. They were hardly capitalizing on a trend – their music could sound downright majestic, epitomized by breakout single “It’s Twinkle.” Signed to hometown label Second Royal Records, Hotel Mexico released their debut album His Jewelled Letter Box in 2010. Make Believe Melodies reviewed that album, and named it the 22nd best Japanese album of the year. Make Believe Melodies also named “It’s Twinkle” the 12th best song of the year – with time, though, I can safely say it’s one of the five most memorable tracks from 2010, and one of the best Japanese songs of the young decade.

Hotel Mexico would continue releasing various songs here and there, with Second Royal and with American imprint Double Denim. They received attention from Pitchfork, Gorilla Vs. Bear and many other prominent publications. Earlier this year, they released their second album Her Decorated Post Love, their finest collection of songs to date and a lock to make Make Believe Melodies’ top Japanese albums of 2013 list. They toured internationally (read more here) and played many great shows across Japan too. I interviewed them before they went to New York City. They will release one final song in November, and have also posted a live performance from Kyoto’s Metro, which you can watch below.

Before the year is out, we will surely feature more about this band (I will probably write some more personal stuff over on Tumblr this week). For now, some of Hotel Mexico’s best songs for your enjoyment.

It’s Twinkle

Starling, Tiger, Fox

Dear Les Friends

A Space In The Loveless Field

A.I. In Dreams

Live At Kyoto Metro

Unbearable Happiness: Tomggg’s “Vivi”

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“Hey! Hey you, over there! With the frown on his face! What’s got you down? You hate the world? You think everything is pointless and the human race is doomed? Reading too much Tumblr? You watched the Emmys, geez why did you do that? Look, I got the thing just for you. Ya ever hear of this guy named Tomggg? Nope, I’m saying it right, three ‘gs.’ He’s a Japanese music producer and he just released this song called ‘Vivi’ which is insanely happy. Rainbows and red pandas, but in sonic form. He might be using a program called Vocaloid to supply these second-long vocals, but I am not positive. What I do know that this song is incredibly cheery, to the point of being crushing in its glee. It even has like a Disney-ready twinkling bridge! Few songs I’ve heard all year are committed to a single emotion…in this casejoy…than ‘Vivi.’ Feel better now?”

New The Moments: Faraway EP

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Indie-pop in Japan has, without a doubt, reached a bit of a bubble phase at this point. In late 2013, there are just so many outfits leaning towards the twee side of the indie-rock spectrum…and new ones pop up all the time online. The question now is, “what are they aiming for?” There have been exceptions, but at times this year it feels like Japan’s indie-pop scene has resigned itself to being a glorified social club, wherein bands simply are content performing for one another instead of trying to reach new people and push their artistic skills further than before. Nothing wrong with this mindset at all, but it’s resulting in a lot of so-so music just not really worth writing about it.

The Moments find themselves in an interesting position with the release of new two-song EP Faraway. This Nagoya outfit were one of the groups at the very outset of this indie-pop boom, and their “Short Trip” remains one of the best cuts to emerge from this period. Their new duo of tracks build off the galloping, guitar-centric approach established on “Short Trip,” to the point that the title track sounds like a very bare mutation of “Short Trip,” complete with vocals that sound like they could have come off a Field Mice 7″. Same goes for “Drift,” which isn’t quite as fast out the gate, but features a guitar line that brings to mind…well, something we already mentioned.

Here’s the dilemma – these two songs are plenty good. They are catchy, and highlight everything good about The Moments that we’ve already known. They just aren’t daring…which you can’t hold against the songs that did end up in the world. Yet like indie-pop as a whole in Japan circa 2013, it all seems a little too content to be pleasant, a little too reserved in trying to break forward. Get it here.

New Gloomy: “Roller Girl”

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It’s a simple trick, but one that young music-maker Gloomy pulls off well on “Roller Girl.” It’s the old “upbeat meets crushing” formula, of mashing something sunny against something not so bright. On “Roller Girl,” the sunshine comes courtesy of Gloomy’s vocals which practically skip, even when she starts to adopt a cadence bringing to mind The Knife’s Karin Dreijer Andersson late in the song (check the way she says “do”). Yet rubbing right up against her cheery melodies are the backing electronics, an aggressive array of steel-cold sounds one would expect from House Of Tapes or, like, Clipse. Or The Knife. Listen below.