#10 Wai Wai Music Resort WWMR 1 If total number of plays need to be considered for any favorites list, Wai Wai Music Resort ran away with my 2019. Whether because I needed to concentrate on work or simply wanted a stereophonic sound trip bound for endless summer, WWMR 1 delivered pure breeze. It’s also…
Bedtowns — the places existing just outside of major cities, places that exist for workers to return to after a long day at the office, what you might call the suburbs — have been a point of fascination for musicians in Japan. Probably because so many of them grew up in said places, and they…
#30 Haruno Filia Vocalid remains one of the most intriguing instruments available in the world today, and 2018 saw plenty of artists — many of them outside of Japan — use it in thrilling ways (check Kira’s The Introduction for one good example). Domestically, Haruno’s Filia stuck around in our minds the most this year,…
The music Fuji Chao has been making over the last couple of years has always been visceral. Samples sourced from cartoons featured screams and crying, while the artist herself dropped in spoken-word lyrics that played out like confessions of complicated emotions. Part of this reaction comes from a distance between listener and artist, but it…
#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…