At some point this fall, Make Believe Melodies turned ten. I’d known this decade milestone was looming — mainly because 2019 also marked my tenth anniversary of moving to Japan to work in the countryside teaching English to bored teenagers “for a year or two, tops” — and toyed around with ways to celebrate. Then life happened…
Since I can’t just copy-paste the general gist of what I wrote last time, I’ll simply say that Himitsu No Merry-Go-Roung works as a kind of booster pack to early 2019 highlight Hoshizora Romantic. It adds the one element not really present on Mikazuki Bigwave’s breakthrough, which is guest vocals, helping transform familiar future funk…
A handful of artists dabbling in future funk are hitting their stride. The internet micro-genre started as “take funk or city pop song, speed up, add kick,” resulting in some catchy moments but mostly a lot of tracks that make you want to listen to the original. But plenty have played around with this format,…
Based off the cover art, this is actually commune310’s Autumn compilation, a yearly happening that follows all of their other seasonal offerings. But hey, we stick with what’s presented out there. Whatever the case, this series (and really, this label) rarely lets us down, and in recent times has become one of the more reliable…
Summer might be nearing a close, but Commune310 refuses to let it pass without a final rush of party-ready tunes. Commune310 Suika gathers tracks from a variety of producers, all leaning towards the up tempo and vaguely summery (which, I guess for me, means fast and/or sweaty). This ranges from the faded future-funk bounce of…