This week’s features include:
ITSUKI MUSIC, 美的計画 (biteki keikaku), 謎女 (NAZOME),
クレナズム (culenasm), Penguinrush, and こゑだ (KOEDA)

Squeezing in a third round of the Spotify J-Music Playlist Draft before the end April because that’s just the way it is; y’know, It’s like when you get three paydays within a single month or something (XD)

Before we get started, if this is actually your first time here ー

The Draft, inspired by player drafts in traditional sports and draft formats from popular trading card games like Magic: The Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh, is a bi-weekly series where we try to answer the question;

How good is Spotify at recommending songs to me ?

In this series I will test Spotify’s ability to recommend to me songs that I would like based on songs that I already do like in the form of my own Recommendation Roundup Playlist on Spotify. Specifically this involves making use of Spotify’s built-in suggestion feature on user-created playlists to gather a total of 5 (five) songs for me to check out and listen to. Songs that I like will get “drafted” and go on a separate Draft playlist, where the goal is to see just how big said playlist will get by the end of the year.

If it makes it past a hundred, Spotify gets the W over me, and if not, we get to declare the Recommendation Roundup playlist as the vastly superior playlist (XD)

Let’s see if Spotify can close out April on a good note.

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Let’s see what we got:

Biteki Keikaku and culenasm are straight up about to be the stars of this series, lol

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x Starry night by ITSUKI MUSIC feat. Ricky

I mentioned in the January Roundup that one of my most listened genres for the previous year (at least according to Spotify) was Japanese Hip-Hop and R&B, and I think me getting recommended ITSUKI MUSIC’s Starry night here is the direct result of that. Specifically I would think me listening to a lot of Dedachi Kenta and SIRUP got me this one but unlike those two I wasn’t feeling it here.

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♥ 文読む私/fumiyomu watashi feat. NAZOME by 美的計画 (biteki keikaku)

Biteki Keikaku is back in the Draft once again with another track from BITEKI in Fumiyomu Watashi here this time featuring guest vocals from the mysterious NAZOME. In as much as I think Raisan might go down as my favorite Kawatani Enon project, I am very much a fan of what he’s doing with Biteki Keikaku. In particular I really like hearing how his style translates for doujin-esque/indie singers.

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♥ 白い記憶/shiroi kioku by クレナズム (culenasm)

I have a feeling that by the end of this year culenasm is gonna end up being the most represented artists here on the Draft which I do think is kinda cool as if anything I feel they’re actually a bit *under* represented in the Roundups. Like, I do want to feature them and their music more on the blog, especially their older songs like Shiroi Kioku here so I’m glad I’m finally getting to do so.

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♥ 月草/tsukikusa by Penguinrush

Penguinrush is a band that seems to have flown under my radar, perhaps due to another band that uses ‘penguin’ in its name that happens to be a little bit more popular. When I realized they were not, in fact, PENGUIN RESEARCH I was actually a little bit surprised to find out that Penguinrush sounded the way they do, which is this neat Jazz-y Pop/Rock sort of sound. Big ups for Tsukikusa.

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x パープル/purple by こゑだ (KOEDA)

If you’ve been watching Anime for as long as I have, you might remember a quaint number by doujin band supercell titled My Dearest, used as the theme for the at-the-time much anticipated Guilty Crown. The guest vocals for that track was none other than KOEDA here and it was nice to randomly run in to her here in the Draft. That aside though, Purple is actually *too* Anison-y for me.

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This Week’s Total Likes:

x ♥ ♥ ♥ x

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This week’s picks have now been added to the Draft playlist 😀

Spotify is able to quite comfortable bag another three songs in what’s looking to be a bit of a consistent groove it has going on right now in terms of recommendations. At the very least, it does feel like the algorithm is continuing to learn more about my tastes as the series progresses, so it’s going to be interesting how its recommendations are going to look like the further along we go.

Do you feel the same way? Or do you think Spotify has always been giving me bangers since the first week and I’ve just been very nitpicky (XD)? Lemme know in the comments! Likewise, what were some of your favorites from this round of Draft picks? I’d be curious to know.

April Roundup in just a couple of hours from now so stay tuned 😉

Happy Listening!