Make Believe Melodies Logo

Category Archives: Music

New Seiho: Unreal

Seiho is about to do a little tour of the United States in the coming weeks — if he comes near you, obviously go — and ahead of getting on that plane he’s put together a new release called Unreal. It is a three-song “single,” shared via streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music, as while as for purchase in the iTunes store. The last song here — “Bird Scat” — offers a hint of what the whole release sounds like. When that track first emerged last year, I wrote that it struck a balance between the abstract sound he explored on last year’s Collapse and the older style he came up through the ranks with. The title track is the best example of this meeting point to date, featuring soft piano notes and slow-motion synthesizer, but all of it eventually breaking into a more jittery step, marked by snippets of vocal samples and quick-hit percussion. It bends and twists, but retains the new sensibility Seiho has been exploring in the past two years. It is a very exciting step forward. Listen on your preferred streaming service, or buy it at iTunes.

New Ryuki Miyamoto: “Bounce Like This”

Feeling like a very high-energy week in Japanese music, with producer Ryuki Miyamoto’s “Bounce Like This” being an especially fast-paced inclusion. Released via Club Aerobics and premiered on Dummy Magazine, it finds the Kyushu-based creator plunging ahead, the song rarely taking half a breath and blasting forward on a series of heavy-hitting percussion (not to mention somewhat unsettling, very monotonoe vocal sample). It is an energetic cut and one focused purely on the physical side…and in that regard, it works wonders. Listen above.

That Familiar Spring: Mecanika’s “WWM”

I have, over the last six months, associated all things “future bass” with “kawaii” — which is to say, loaded up with chimes and xylophones and maybe the sample of an anime woman talking about cake over some stuttering electronics — that Kyoto creator Mecanika’s “WWM” feels deeply refreshing in how it avoids the sugar rush in favor of something different. Well, and something familiar, as this is how future bass in Japan (and all over the globe…or at least SoundCloud) sounded just a couple years back. Mecanika isn’t breaking new sonic ground here, but he’s doing it very well, adopting tight bass slaps that used to be associated with Seiho and Metome, while also weaving in clever new details, such as the sound of a train crossing (a nice moment of being pulled back to the real world). A nice introduction to the young producer. Listen above.

New Yurufuwa Gang: “Escape To The Paradise”

I talked to Yurufuwa Gang in The Japan Times today, about their forthcoming album Mars Ice House, one of the better Japanese rap albums I’ve heard in recent years. “Escape To The Paradise” isn’t their most Technicolor cut, though it still manages to highlight most of the sonic elements that makes them such a breath of fresh air in the often too-serious world of Japanese rap: ample use of Auto-tune, a playful repetition, focus on simple but relateable themes. The real star on “Escape To The Paradise,” though, is Sophiee, who adds an energy to her verse that gives the song a sudden burst in the middle. Listen above.

Melted In: Koji Nakamura

Producer Koji Nakumara operates in many forms, but what unites the various electronic styles that enter the producer’s orbit is the feeling that they are turning into a puddle right in front of you. Nakamura’s latest number, “Marumari,” moves at a brisk pace courtesy of soft but ever-present percussion and sparkly synth lines. Yet for as energetic as it gets, it also blurs together the further it goes along. That makes for a nice contrast as the song goes on, and keeps “Marumari” interesting for the whole run. “Sex,” meanwhile, unfolds much slower. It is sparse, with minimal beats and just some light vocals floating around. But even with this spartan collection, Nakamura makes them all come together just right, and boil together into something interesting. Listen to that one below.