#10 Ame To Kanmuri Nou Welcome to the top ten, where a common thread emerges in the releases Make Believe Melodies loved the most. This year was defined by artists who have been around for a while now hitting the sweet spot of their respective sounds, along with performers who crafted their own little fully-realized…
#20 Suntra Oblivion Summer Coast There were plenty of chances to escape to the sea if you followed Japanese music in 2017. Suchmos broke big with their Shonan-inspired smoothness, while slightly more ragged bands such as never young beach and Yogee New Waves laid out what to expect from their names even before hearing their…
#30 She Talks Silence Sorry, I Am Not She Talks Silence started as a solo project plucking away in the shadows, before becoming a duo moving ever-so-slightly forward, before this year returning once again as just Minami Yamaguchi, somehow taking a bigger step forward but also becoming harder to hear. Sorry, I Am Not is…
#40 Parkgolf Reo Reo found Sapporro-born producer Parkgolf stepping into new territory. Mainly, he tried to bring other voices into his Technicolor world. These new additions revealed previously unseen perspectives on his style — rapper GOODMOODGOKU gets him to craft one of his breeziest beats to date on “All Eyes On You,” while working with…
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…