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Category Archives: Music @ja

New Cokiyu With 34423: “Vapor Doll”

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Cokiyu’s recently released Haku EP is a pretty collection of songs, highlighted by a collaboration with Los-Angeles-based-artist Baths. It is a collection very much worth your time. That said…the Tokyo mood-maker’s once-unreleased-but-now-released song “Vapor Doll” is the best track to emerge from the Haku period so far. It’s a collaboration with Tokyo-based sound artist 34423, though at first it sounds purely like a Cokiyu track, all floating electronics that sound appropriate for the early morning as Cokiyu herself sings about “waking up.” Then, though, the song does something none of the tracks on Haku did – take a turn for the urgent. A beat focuses the song forward, and the electronics become sharper. An interlude – possibly courtesy of collage-loving 34423 – finds an unsettling, near-robot voice skipping as it tells us “good morning.”” Then “Vapor Doll” hits the best part – the beat quickens, that android voice malfunctions in the background while Cokiyu sings “I had a dream about you” with a mix of dreamy wonder but also hints of apprehension. The song comes close into dissolving into something more ambient near the end, but the majority of “Vapor Doll” finds Cokiyu at her most unflinching. Get the track at Spinner.

New Nile Long: “Rush To The Groove”

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When The Brixton Academy announced that they would no longer be recording under that moniker but instead as Nile Long, one had to wonder if it would also mean a change in sonic identity. The EP the group released last year seemed to signal that, yes, this wasn’t going to be the same collection of painfully earnest synth-poppers – Nile Long sounded locked in, more concerned with moving feet than moving hearts. None of it was bad, but it also lacked the emotions-on-sleeves charm that defined The Brixton Academy, most of Nile Long’s early output sounding like, well, 80’s-aping stuff a lot of people have been doing.

New single “Rush To The Groove” surprises because it finds Nile Long edging back to the sound they carved out as The Brixton Academy, but still managing to make this new project sound different. The vocals aren’t quite as tight as they were on the Nile Long EP, the band allowing them to sound a little more mournful without ever slipping into the Kermit-The-Frog territory TBA tended towards. The big change, though, is in the music itself. “Rush To The Groove” does anything but, avoiding forced fun in favor of creating a surprisingly melancholy atmosphere where every neon-tinged synth sound like a good time, but conceals drops of loneliness. And despite the more subdued move, this song STILL sounds like it would be great 2-in-the-morning dance-floor material. Nile Long are finally getting the hang of it. Listen below.

New White Wear: Night In Blue EP

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This one is only around for a little while longer, so lets not dilly dally – CUZ ME PAIN project White Wear (formerly :visited and part of Faron Square) has followed up his A Black From White Space EP with another trio of songs, this one titled Night In Blue. You can download the EP here, but you have until Friday before it goes away. This set of songs veers closer to what Faron Square used to do – these are synth-powered dance songs featuring stranger sonic details (vocals/vocal samples mostly), avoiding the ambient leanings present on White Wear’s last EP. Hit the download link now, or listen below.

Cheating But Whatever: Maltine Records Releases New Album From Meishi Smile mYSTERIOUS sUMMER vACTAION

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The guiding principal behind Make Believe Melodies, ever since I founded it all the way back in 2009, was to focus exclusively on music from Japan. Truth is, though, I have certainly broken that guiding principal every once in awhile – I’ve written about Japanese artists who currently reside in other countries, and have even typed up posts about American artists who just sound a lot like Japanese pop acts (remember Fizzy Dino Pop?). I’ve been good about not doing that recently…but today I break the rule slightly by featuring the new album from American artist Meishi Smile. There are connections to make – this release comes courtesy of Tokyo netlabel Maltine Records, and Smile’s himself runs an imprint called Zoom Lens which features Japanese acts (and MBMelodies-loved) mus.hiba and i-fls. Still…this is a Los Angeles-based dude’s music, which isn’t our normal focus.

But screw it, because mYSTERIOUS sUMMER vACATION not only takes tons of cues from J-Pop (Meishi Smile loves the stuff) but also features some fantastic tunes. It’s an uptempo collection, nearly every track hear featuring samples taken from (presumably) Japanese music and set against rollicking beats. Opener “Hougako No Yakusoku (☼ SUMMER BREEZE RMX. ☼)” sets the pace with a follow-the-bouncing-ball beat paired up with synths ripped right out of Club Med promo video. Even better is following number “L/M/B/W/Y (FUCK REAL LIFE ANIME IS REAL LIFE™ RMX.),” which drives forward ecstatically, highlighted by the waves of sampled Japanese singing. From there, vACATION darts towards slightly more relaxed sounds (the just-check-the-title “zZz (LULLABYE RMX.)”) to the dreamier (the next two songs, one of which is a “DREAM POP RMX”). This album…along with most everything else Meishi Smile and those on Zoom Lens has released…shows what can happen when one draws inspiration from Japanese music creatively. Get it here.