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New Monari Wakita: “Gozigen Lover-Joi”

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Look, if a former Especia member does something musically, this blog will almost certainly cover it.

If parts of this HALLCA release lean in on nostalgia for Especia, Monari Wakita’s solo career has been an effort to take similar ideas and turn them into livelier numbers that seem to be a bit more focused on potential mainstream play (they play much more boring versions of her funk-pop all the time here, so why not her?). “Gozigen Lover-Joi” doesn’t offer any changes to what she’s done in the past, but rather offers up another bouncy synth-assisted number playing into the pure pleasure center of pop. It’s shaped by past trends, but so energetic to zoom past any of the trappings that often brings about. Listen above.

New Sleet Mage Featuring Gokou Kuyt: “Pink Dreams”

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These two internet-squatting rappers have hooked up together in the past, but “Pink Dreams” finds them both showcasing their best skills while in one another’s orbits. Set over an appropriately bleary-eyed beat, Sleet Mage delivers sing-song lines jumping from J-pop t-shirt material (“I feel like a shooting star”) to more ripped-from-context shout outs to Gucci and “two cups.” They make it sound aching, though. Gokou Kuyt, meanwhile, does a great bit of whisper rap on the verses, planting some melancholy that really sprouts come the return to the hook. Listen above.

New Chelmico: “OK, Cheers!”

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After a few years kicking around on independent labels, duo Chelmico have arrived on a major label. It’s a logical step up for a group who have done as good a job merging pop with rap over the last few years, and new album Power out August 8 comes at a time when a lot of labels in Japan are trying to make “kawaii women rappers” a thing. “OK,Cheers!” capitalizes on what has made Chelmico a standout act over the last few years, finding the pair tagging in and out over a brassy backing track nodding to their lineage in this J-hip-pop lane. Besides being a reminder of how vital timing can be for an artist’s career — the difference between this song and Lyrical School’s most recent material isn’t that vast, but only one got stuck with the idol tag early on in their career — it shows how energy can go a long way, and the right way to find that sweet spot in the middle is to make sure to always have everything moving at a speedy pace. Listen above.

New Daisuke Tanabe: Cat Steps

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Long-running Japanese beatmaker Daisuke Tanabe has teamed up with Mumbai independent label Knowmad Records to release Cat Steps, a set of sparse tracks that see him splattering sound about and seeing what sticks. He elevates beyond lo-fi hip-hop by keeping these numbers in constant motion, adding in surprise elements that send ripples through the music. Opener “For The Twin” integrates something kinda close to a juke beat set against naive electronic notes out of the Boards Of Canada playbook, but as everything moves forward Tanabe shifts it up, speeding the song up or removing elements. “Cat Step” and “Your Tube” go even more minimalist, a move that puts Tanabe’s small changes into a clearer light. Here is beat music that mutates at a molecular level. Get it here, or listen below.

Haruka Tominaga, Formerly Of Especia, Is Now HALLCA, Shares “Milky Way”

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It would be a little silly to give Especia unearned influencer points for the state of Japanese pop music today…but the now-defunct group were way out ahead on the current city-pop-revival that has carved out space in the mainstream. And unlike a lot of the Tumblr-esque recycled moods of bands now scoring theme songs and nationwide tours — not to mention non-Japanese interpretations of the same thing — Especia approached it all from an actually creative angle by way of a pretty unique interpretation of vaporwave filtered by actual Bubble-Era signifiers.

But those days are over, and the members of Especia have all gone off to do other things. Haruka Tominaga recently returned as HALLCA, a new project that sees her reunite with sometimes-Espeica producer PellyColo for a lot of the songs shared thus far. Ahead of her first EP out this Wednesday, she shared “Milky Way,” a PellyColo number that leans a little bit on Especia nostalgia (aided by the producers interpretation of ’80s sounds…that guitar solo!). This is easy-going stuff, offering space for Tominaga to show off her voice, which drifts nicely through the space conjured up on this sparse number. Better numbers can be found on the EP — “Diamond” is the real push forward for her — but this is a solid number to soak in, and one that fulfills some longing for a time now gone. Listen above.