Make Believe Melodies Logo

Category Archives: Music @ja

New Sapphire Slows: “Keep Beating”

Posted on by

At this month’s SonarSound event in Tokyo, Sapphire Slows played in the middle of a heavy storm, the sort bordering on being typhoon-like. Her music, which swirls around and hides an unsettling edge, managed to sound even better when matched up with the heavy winds and buckets of rain that turned a nearby food court into a wading pool. I don’t remember if “Keep Beating” ended up in that night’s set, but if it did it would probably be one of the only one of her tracks not to match the mood – this unreleased song, which Gorilla Vs. Bear premiered and will appear on an upcoming compilation of all her previously released material, is Sapphire Slows at her calmest and most comforting. Whereas the bulk of her previous material creates tension between dance beats and wispy electronics, they all converge on “Keep Beating” to create a warm, group-hug of a track. Listen below, and check for more from one of Japan’s best artists going as the year progresses.

New Taquwami: “T Eyes”

Posted on by

Tokyo producer Taquwami just uploaded a new track to the Internet, which means I must accept not going to bed early to post it. I’m OK with this. “T Eyes” features the same vocal-chopping technique that dotted last year’s great Blurrywonder, but whereas that album especially emphasized the skittering, here the chopped singing is balanced out by the sort of woozy music that caught our eye when Taquwami was just dipping into the online world. Best touch – the Greek-like chorus lurking in the back of the mix. Get it here, or listen below.

Spectors: meeshiieee

Posted on by

The blockbuster comes later, but let’s start from the beginning. What hooked our ears to meeshiieee was actually a song the self-described “slovenely” songwriter labelled as a discarded track. “Umi E” is an incredibly simple song – a strummed acoustic guitar, singing, a few backup vocals – yet the delivery of this song is absolutely devastating. The bedroom-recording sound goes a long way, exposing the rough edges of meeshiieee’s voice when she shoots for the high notes while also making the verses sound slightly distant, like she’s trying to break through some sort of audio fog to get to you. And then those angelic backups sneak in, and this turns into a homemade prayer. If this is discarded, the other stuff must be REALLY good, yeah? It is – “Kataomori” features a muted groove that lends it a poppier side, while still exploiting the lo-fi vibe (good luck figuring out the singing).

The best, though, turns out to be a cover of The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby.” Most immediately – meeshiieee totally ignores the famous drum beat that opens up the song and has since been bitten by countless artists over the years, to the point it’s as cliche a drum pattern can get. By bypassing that – something deeply associated with the original – meeshiieee finds an immediate portal towards putting her own spin on the song. She turns it into a longing campfire strum-along, focusing on the lyrics while also lending a ghostly air to the background with what sounds like her own trailing voice. Listen below.

International Waters: mus.hiba Teams With Shisa And Choongum For “Dreamy Clouds”

Posted on by

Sorta surprising that Tokyo producer mus.hiba ended up being one of the dudes from this metropolis to score a surprising amount of international collabs. It isn’t that his music is all that weird, just that it makes use of a technology you more or less never see pop up in Western songs – Vocaloid, specifically the voice of user-created digi-idol Sekka Yufu. Maybe the world is ready for the possibilities the singing-synthesizer program offers, because first mus.hiba partnered up with Calumn Bowen for a winter-wonderland of a song, and now he’s hooked up with two American producers – Shisa and Choongum – for “Dreamy Clouds,” off the lovely Seascape 64 album by those two Americans. It’s tough pinpointing the exact sounds mus.hiba brings to the song besides the broken croon of Yufu – the synths bring to mind a more cheerful “Magical Fizzy Drink,” while the drums rattle off on something approaching American trap music – but the three artists create an entrancing atmosphere that envelops the ears. As Vocaloid becomes more prominent…or at least known in the West…artists who push the boundaries of the instrument like mus.hiba are vital to showing what can be done with it. Glad Shisa and Choongum know what’s up. Listen below, and buy the whole album here.

Spirit In The Amp: Head On The Sofa’s Live With Her Ghost

Posted on by

SHoegaze often gets saddled with negative connotations – “my god, it’s full of stars,” one music critic mocked on Twitter when My Bloody Valentine’s MBV dropped earlier this year, with plenty of others calling the group (who stand in for shoegaze) nerd music or weed music, neither of which were meant in a positive context. Even though these folks were just being spoil sports at the time, their complaints could easily be directed at a large chunk of stuff that came in the afterglow of Loveless. Shoegaze can get pretty…gazey.

Which is why Head On The Sofa’s new EP Live With Her Ghost is such a surprise. Here, fuzzed-out guitars aren’t being utilized for maximum floor staring – nope, these dudes are conjuring up a ghost. As evidenced by the title, Head On The Sofa are dealing with some sort of spirit here, and the band use feedback-heavy guitar sounds to drive home the otherworldly-ness of the songs as far as they can. Part of the EP’s charm lies in how the vocals interact with the guitars, clear enough that they are audible but blotted out enough to sound like they are coming through a wall. It’s a technique that makes the grind of “Inside Of Minds” works, and is downright vital on “Her Ghost,” where the band’s lead singer avoids words in favor of an unintelligible swoon meant to sound like, well, a ghost. And even when they approach more well-worn ground, they still sound good, like on the fast-paced closer “You Have The Light.” Get it here, or listen below.