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Category Archives: Music

New Oyubi: Aspirations EP

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Part of juke producer Oyubi’s charm lies in how prolific young creator can be. Their 2018 output registered as #17 on our favorite albums list, and it helped that Oyubi put out so much to show all the various sides to their approach to the Chicago-born style. No wasting time in 2019 — the Aspirations EP dropped right on New Year’s Day, and further offers plenty of reminders of why they are on the rise. “You Drop Like This” offers one of the more skeletal tunes Oyubi has shared yet, featuring some rough-around-the-edges percussion and follow-the-bouncing-ball vocal samples. But simplicity proves effective on this back-and-forth number. “0069” is just as spacious, but swaps out playful simplicity in favor of chilly and sparse creeps, using deep bass lines and skittering electronic touches — and recorded voices reciting numbers — to create an unnerving side of Oyubi. “U Go” is more of a traditional slice of Chicago juke, while “Tribal Juke” finds the producer integrating slightly wonkier sounds into their universe (the sliced-up syllables and hoots bring to mind Foodman if he made juke…ya know, more direct juke). A strong start for an artist who seemingly doesn’t stop. Get it here, or listen below.

New Miii: The Hanging Forest

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A drop isn’t just a drop in Miii’s hands. The Tokyo producer revels in big neck-twisting blasts of bass and samples, making them the central sonic foundation of their music for most of this decade. The Hanging Forest is one single track of the same name, and highlights this love of fest-friendly chaos. Space and subdued rumbling open the number, but that’s all window dressing. Everything slowly starts picking up the pace, more elements creeping in and everything building for that first, big static plunge. It’s in these stretches where Miii’s real joy comes out, as they just throw all kinds of samples and sounds into the fray, letting all kinds of interesting stuff development (personal favorite: a stray dog bark). Miii doesn’t treat it like a typical drop, letting it play longer and revisiting them like a particularly compelling musical passage — but they also don’t let it get stodgy, remembering what makes them such a blast in the first place. Get it here, or listen below.

New Mom: “Superstar”

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Happy New Year’s from Make Believe Melodies! To celebrate, here is a song that is more of a Christmas cut than anything else. But anything from Mom — responsible for two releases that landed at number three in our top ten album list — peeks our interest, and “Superstar” offers one of the more spacious creations from the young creator. Set against near-malfunctioning twinkles, Mom delivers a pretty understated verse in the mold of group_inou, a large chunk of it about the Dec. 25 holiday. That dates it ever so slightly, but within it are reminders of what makes him such a thrilling youngster to listen to. Listen above.

Make Believe Melodies’ Favorite 2018 Japanese Albums: #10 – #01

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#10 Suiyoubi No Campanella (Wednesday Campanella) Galapagos

I shouldn’t be surprised by anything KOM_I of Suiyoubi No Campanella does, yet back in the early days of summer I watched slack-jawed as she left the stage at a quaint venue near Mt. Fuji and wandered into a field that had been set on fire sometime during the preceding two hours. This group has upended expectations for years now and wowed me enough last year en route to them taking the top spot in the 2017 list, but they always find a way to keep things interesting — even if it involves burning swaths of grass — and add to their own sonic world.

Galapagos spent a little time finding the trio revisiting familiar formulas — see the rumbling mythology-gone-dance-pop of “Three Mystic Apes,” as close to boilerplate Suiyoubi No Campanella as one can get — but mostly captured a group poking around and finding their voice (litarlly), all in search of what direction to pivot next. But even these tests proved, by the end of 2018, to be among the year’s finest. The big development is a risky one — KOM_I, whirling dervish incarnate, drops rapping in favor of singing across all 36 minutes here. But it results in highlights such as the refined theatrics of “The Bamboo Princess” and the understated shuffle of “Minakata Kumagusu,” a song seeing how few parts can be used to assemble an emotionally affecting hook. Half-speed dreampop collaborations with French art types rubbed shoulders with mutations on classic rock stomp. Even the two ballads closing out the album, what felt like noble failures at first brush but have grown into interesting detours for a project operating as far away from soaring end-credit J-pop as possible. Part of Galapagos’ appeal lies in how its a document of a group in flux…I doubt Suiyoubi No Campanella will sound like this a year from now, and they might settle on one specific path to go. But this is them moving in eight at once, surrounded by flames and an endless pool of ideas.

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Make Believe Melodies’ Favorite 2018 Japanese Albums: #20 – #11

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#20 Hikaru Utada Hatsukoi

At their best, pop stars turn the personal into the populist — they make songs for everyone, not for themselves, even if the inspiration comes from inside. Hikaru Utada’s 2016 comeback album Fantome stands as one of the 2010s most fascinating album, wrestling with loss and maturity in a way few albums do. Its raw, and kind of a mess — but then again, that sums up becoming an adult too. But it’s unlike anything else in her catalog.

Hatsukoi wrangles those same feelings and turns them into songs built for everyone. Personal pain and loss gets synthesized into something accessible to everyone, whether on skippy numbers such “Play A Love Song” or more baroque meditations such as “Forevermore.” There’s both an old-school feel to how this longplayer has been constructed — it isn’t available on any streaming service, and that might be OK as it’s the rare 2018 offering that works best front to back, rather than deconstructed — but one also featuring “Too Proud,” one of the most experimental numbers you can hope on a proper marquee J-pop release in 2018. And in one final flourish, Hatsukoi interacts with Utada’s own past, playfully building a bridge to her debut First Love and offering an update. Turns out life remains just as tricky 20 years on, but it can all be made a little easier to navigate when someone like Utada gives you the soundtrack for getting through it.

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