Note: After a bit of a vacation, we are back and aiming to post more in the near future! Thanks for your continued support of Make Believe Melodies. Growing up and calming down doesn’t have to be a drag. Tokyo artist Kisadori has been active in making EDM-glazed dance tunes for the last few years,…
Tokyo’s Peanut Butters keep it simple as can be, and the three-song Peanut Butter release via Ano(t)raks only finds them digging their heels deeper into the bouncy-but-somewhat-shady sound of a band still casting a large shadow over the Japanese indie-pop scene. Peanut Butters draw from The Drums, and do so very clearly, down to letting…
The corner of the Japanese experimental music community that Kenji (Wasabi Tapes, also known as Mayor Kenji among other names) connects so fiercely because the chopped-and-sliced approach to samples reflects modern life so well. Hip-hop melodies smash into radio station bumpers before echoes of a pop song play off behind some crystalline synth twinkles and…
Some pairings just end up working so well that dwelling too much on the how of it all seems a little pointless. Yonkey is an electronic producer signed to Asobisystem (seems fast!), while AAAMYYY is a member of the band Tempalay (responsible for one of the better albums of 2019) and also a solo artist…
Sort of double dipping with this one, but I think it’s worth it. Every week, streaming services put a spotlight on new Japanese rappers trying to take advantage of the always-coming-never-really-arriving moment where Japanese rap finally blows up. Some are good, most of them…are not. You usually have to go a layer beyond the “Apple…