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Make Believe Melodies’ Favorite 2017 Japanese Albums: #50 – #41

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Year-end list season has become a kind of exhausting exercise, at least when giving a cursory glance at the social media feeds of music fans, industry types, writers and more. Reaction to bigger rankings tends to be more “sure, fine” then excited, while Resident Advisor even made a big deal about dropping lists all together this year (and still seemingly felt pressured to make something in list format). Scaling down seems to be the move.

Naturally, Make Believe Melodies put together its largest year-end list to date.

While jotting down all the albums released by Japan-based artists that I enjoyed this year to start this exercise, I initially teetered close to 100…and that was before late-year gems from Sleet Mage and The Neon City appeared after I thought the Google Doc was settled. I listened to way more music from Japan this in comparison to outside sounds, to the point where U.S. lists are generally surprising me for the first time in years. Ultimately, I just think there was a lot of really good music from this country in 2017 — while the year lacked a lot of coherent narratives running through everything, which meant great music was hidden about all over the place.

And besides, I know exactly what function this list serves. This might be the favorite albums from us here at Make Believe Melodies (so…from me, a single person), but it’s really a portal for discovery. Because while some strides have been made, lists and year-end features like this remain the best way to learn about music existing outside of the North-American-and-Brit centric realm most English-language music media exists in. So here’s 50 albums you may have missed — or heard of, but got lost in the shuffle — worth checking out if you are in a curious mood. The potential of discovering something great is why these yearend rituals still feel important.

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New Kindan No Tasuketsu: “Twilight (Bell Rings Ver.)”

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Kindan No Tasuketsu aren’t afraid to dig into their song catalog and keep exploring. “Twilight” has existed in other forms and versions before, but recently the group gave it a winter rework via a “Bell Rings Ver.),” which…well, adds a lot of bell sounds. The emotional core of the song remains intact, though, as does Kindan’s ability to turn blurry pop into something immediate. Listen above.

Idol Movement: Trolleattroll’s “Lost”

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Had you told me that Ladybaby would have gone on one of the stranger routes in recent J-pop memory, I wouldn’t have believed you. What started as a dippy meme in the wake of viral success via the likes of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and Babymetal became a surprisingly dramatic divorce, wherein the hulking Australian wrestler that gave them their identity left the group. While he went off to see how far one idea could be stretched, the two Japanese women became The Idol Formerly Known As Ladybaby, which shouldn’t have worked…but kind of did? It at least resulted in one of 2017’s best songs, which came out of nowhere but retains a drama few idols…or any J-pop artists…can pull off. Naturally, that group also fell apart, possibly in equally twisty ways.

So now one half of that group, Rie Kaneko, has started a new project called Trolleattroll. And if first song “Lost” is any indication, she’s going off in a more left-of-center style quite detached from her former existence as an idol. To really drive that point home, she worked with Foodman and Shuichi Mabe, who produced the track. That easily explains the foggy atmosphere surrounding the song and the off-kilter percussion. It all works in tandem with Kaneko’s singing, a touch muted but fitting for a song about saying farewell to her teenage years (“19” being a repeated lyric, the age she just moved on from). Coupled with the unsteady music, “Lost” captures the unease of leaving the safety of the past behind for an uncertain way forward. Listen above.

Sad But Good: Sleet Mage’s Astral Body Boi

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For me, a lot of Japanese rap ends up the missing mark not because artists are taking heavy cues from American artists, but because they forget to build from that base and find their own voice (which, funny enough, is a trapping of artists around the world, and in America too). It doesn’t take long to figure out who Sleet Mage gets inspiration. The Tokyo-based artist draws from the corner of “SoundCloud rap” where emo is every bit as influential as hip-hop, best exemplified by the late Lil Peep (who Sleet Mage followed closely). But on their second mixtape Astral Body Boi, Sleet Mage makes their own voice come through clearly.

Across its nine songs, Astral Body Boi features familiar sounds — trap-adjacent beats, Auto-tune smears, an N64-era fairy telling you to, hey, listen. There’s one moment of aggressive release, on the quick-paced “Parimanimage (Freestyle).” Yet Sleet Mage becomes intriguing when getting quieter, which is the direction the tape goes the further it moves along. The beats become centered around guitar, and Sleet Mage’s voice often teeters on becoming a mumbled whisper. “Nostalgic Mikasa City” moves at half speed, while mixtape highlight “Sleepy Trippie Mage” sounds exhausted, the sonic equivalent of sagging eyelids. It’s just the right backdrop for Sleet Mage’s delivery.

Where Sleet Mage finds their own identity is with the vocals themselves. It’s not simple replication of the emo-glazed anger appearing in “SoundCloud Rap,” but I’d argue it veers closer to Japan’s domestic rock output — and, unless Sleet Mage’s hair is tripping me up, a little bit of the drama of visual kei? Take “Mmoonn,” above. There’s no angst, just longing delivered via lines that would fit in a back number song (“when I think of you / you’re just like the moon”). Yet the way Sleet Mage delivers it — and how it gets interrupted by speedier verses — sets it apart. Same goes for the icy “I don’t say good bye” and especially so on closer “We Will All Die,” a piano-driven number that goes all in on its over-the-top emotion (see: the title) that reveals itself as…a critique of Japanese society, complete with big climax and the tenderest delivery of “skrrt skrrt” I’ve ever heard.

Alongside Gokou Kuyt’s #teendreamtape, Astral Body Boi stands as a late hint at where Japanese rap…or, at least the edges of it…will go in 2018. And that’s a good sign. Get it here, or listen above.

New Seiho: “Purple Smoke”

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In recent times, Seiho has been exploring space. Last year’s Collapse and March’s “Unreal” single allowed for stretches with plenty of room to stretch out, often for experimentation. On “Purple Smoke,” he shifts the other way, with exhilarating results. The single — rounded out by two other songs — opens with wisps of noise, but then the beat creeps in, joined by keyboard and eventually sharper electronic stabs. Then, “Purple Smoke” blows open. It just rushes forward, noises colliding with one another and producing a rush. “Cherry Pie” finds him hooking up with rapper Kid Fresino, and the Osaka-born producer makes the MC work at his pace, laying down a frantic number for him to zip around, even warping his voice at times. Closing it out is “Memories Of Crying,” another one teasing reflection before bursting into a neon dash. If Seiho spent some time seeing how space could suit a swirl of sounds, “Purple Smoke” finds him controlling the chaos. Listen to it on Spotify or Apple Music, or buy it on iTunes.