Make Believe Melodies Logo

Category Archives: Music

Right Up: Fuishoo’s Morning

Fuishoo is a producer benefitting from the current status of netlabels in Japan. While this corner of Japanese music doesn’t feel quite as thrilling as it once did — mostly as the bigger players grow and become different entities (or focus on different projects entirely — 2018 has seen a greater emphasis on nurturing young artists. That has always been important to the netlabel community, but Fuishoo is one person who has benefitted from both Trekkie Trax’s new :branch project and now Omoide Label’s continued zooming-in on blossoming talent. Morning is a buzzing set of dance numbers, the single best element being their approach to vocals. Opener “ADFFG-2B” features these smudged electronic voices that eventually burst into squiggly synth lines, while the garage bump of “Eat Banana Cookies” pulls off a similarly rippled effect when singing enters the blurry picture. Every song builds on some sort of existing sound prevalent in the Japanese electronic community (see the “kawaii-bass” slap of “Butterfly Steps,” so familiar but so not) but reveals a new perspective on it. Get it here, or listen below.

New Luby Sparks: “Cherry Red Dress”

Just in time to close out the autumn, Luby Sparks have a new EP of mostly maudlin indie-pop perfect for those who get down when the sun sets a few hours earlier. Save for opener “Perfect” and it’s charge-out-the-gates energy, the exquisitely titled (I’m) Lost In Sadness EP finds the group creating slow-burning downers. “Cherry Red Dress” is a highlight, moving in slow motion while running through a list of downtrodden images — dead Junebugs, on the road home! — coming from a moment the protagonist can’t shake. It’s icy, but with that warm memory grazing the side still. Listen above.

New Daoko And Yasutaka Nakata: “Bokura No Network”

Wherein two artists having very strange 2018’s come together. Daoko fronted the biggest song of 2017, bursting onto a huge stage all of a sudden. The downside of that — and especially of said arrival being a ballad not really representing how you’ve sounded up until that point — is it becomes really tough to follow it all up. And so Daoko has tried out all sorts of things since “Uchiage Hanabi,” some hitting and some missing. Overall, she’s doing well — got that Kohaku nod this year — but still is exploring.

Yasutaka Nakata, meanwhile…well, he’s been all over the place this year too, trying out new things for himself, for Perfume, and for Kyary Pamyu Pamyu. I’d argue the last thing he needs right now is more music work, but now he’s teamed up with Daoko for “Bokura No Network.” And as an update on where both acts are at in their career, it doesn’t make much clearer. Nakata provides a pastiche of what he’s done with Kyary, Capsule and Perfume via the blend of twinkly playroom details and crushing electro-pop elements. Daoko ends up sounding…kind of like she’s making a Perfume song, especially come the digi-glazed hook. In terms of offering a clear path either is going on, it doesn’t add much.

But it is a decently catchy number, and one that does place Daoko in new sonic backdrops, wherein she bounces over it fine. She’s become a J-pop chameleon, and here’s another backdrop for her to do her thing against. But really, people longing for older Nakata should probably be happiest. This is a throwback to a bunch of his styles all at once, the end mix being both familiar and new. Not a road forward, but something with a bit of nostalgic charm to it. Listen above.

New Shigge: “Trapa”

Even Shigge at a more relaxed pace turns wonky really fast. New single “Trapa” finds the Fukuoka producer leaning towards warmer climes, and the opening passage of this song goes all in on piano twinkles and bongo hits, followed by slightly warped (but hardly jarring) vocal samples. So far, so chill. But then everything gets tipsy, but in a way where the generally easy-going vibe isn’t disrupted, just blurred significantly. And the song goes from there, working in more voices and guitar to create a very Yesterday Once More take on summer electronic. “Cabos” is a bit more disorienting, but with enough flashes of seaside lounge sounds to make the moments everything burbles away a touch more tense. Get it here, or listen below.

New Young Agings: “You”

Side projects usually offer an artist the chance to experiment. For Syouta Kaneko of Teen Runnings, it is a chance to probe deeper into the fuzz-grazed surf rock he’s been exploring for nearly a decade now. Young Agings allows him to continue exploring that space, and “You” offers a catchy and breezy entry into his bittersweet seaside rock. It’s sung in direct words that don’t hold back, and Kaneko isn’t afraid of lifting his voice up to get the longing in his words across. Listen above.