Tough month, but we toughed it out 😉

It was particularly tough because there was *SO MUCH* this month in the way of Japanese music! Granted, it’s always been a lot and it’s only starting to feel that way for me the more I familiarize myself with different bands and artists but hey, overabundance doesn’t seem like the worst of troubles to have, especially in this hobby 😀

Anyway, enough about me and my problems (lol). Welcome to the Monthly Recommendation Roundup!

Real quick, if this is your first time here and you’re not quite sure what you just walked into, here’s a short primer on what the Roundup is all about ー

Basically I put together a post featuring Japanese music that I’ve listened to and subsequently recommend to you guys at the end of every month. Keep in mind that these songs don’t all have to have been released within that time frame, as they might also be just songs that I only just discovered myself, or songs that I just want to feature and recommend on a whim (XD)

The songs that I’ll end up featuring will all come from YouTube links of their respective PVs so there is a fair bit of restriction on what I’ll be able to put on here, but I find that keeping it all to one platform ensures the most universality (with remedies easily available in the case of region restrictions). This also allows me to put together a playlist for every song that gets put on the Roundup that I’ll update and share at the end of each post.

Let’s get right to it!

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Sus4
by SILENT SIREN
Welcome back!

It’s been a hot minute since we last saw SILENT SIREN; one of Japan’s most beloved Girls Rock bands and a veritable icon of the genre in the modern age, along the likes of SCANDAL and AKAIKO-EN. There’s been a lot of speculation online (some more unsavory than others) as to whether or not the band’s indefinite hiatus was the result of a fallout between now-former ‘SaiSai’ drummer Umemura Hinako and the other three members. Of course, as is most often the case, whether or not any of the rumors surrounding the whole situation is even remotely true is beyond any of us at this point. However, always want to err on the side of optimism when it comes to these things and as such I do hope the split between the two parties was amicable. Regardless, the remaining members of SILENT SIREN have now officially resumed activities with the release of Sus4. What’s interesting about this song is that it’s a call back to one of SaiSai’s earliest singles, Stella☆, both in terms of sound with its similar chord progression, as well as in sight as the PV is even filmed in the same location (Suu even walks to the center of their performing are the same way at the start which I thought was pretty neat).

サーチライト/search light
by CLAN QUEEN
“Creative Neo Rock” is what they’re calling it. I’m down.

I have a sneaking suspicion that these two bands (CLAN QUEEN and the next band I have queued up, muque) will take over my music listening for the foreseeable future. I mean, it’s way too early to be calling anything now, but what I’m also saying is I wouldn’t be surprised seeing either band if not both show up in my awards post at the end of this year in some capacity. I have *that* much belief that they will be able to deliver sooner rather than later. First up to the plate is CLAN QUEEN who have slowly and methodically managed to put out banger after banger track over the course of just a year and a half whilst also generating some fairly impressive numbers already in terms of viewer and listener traffic both on YouTube and Spotify respectively. Search light only shows you a fraction of what the band has to offer, in what they call “Creative Neo Rock”, which to me sounds like a blend of Rock and frenetic Jazz elements alongside a twin vocal setup comprised of yowa and AOi for an extra layer of musicality. I’ve since found myself to be particularly fond of the former’s inflections when she sings, which also contrasts nicely with the occasional gruff-sounding rapping of the latter.

my crush
by muque
I love the energy that this band brings

It’s not too much, it’s not too little; it’s just right – the Goldilocks principle, as some would say. Towards the end of last year the Roundup managed to finally catch wind of muque with the release of their design EP and in typical Leap fashion it did leave me feeling somewhat disappointed at myself for not finding out about them sooner, as I would then quickly dig further down their existing discography and realize what I’ve been missing out on. That’s part of the reason why I’m actually a bit grateful that the band went and revisited one of their older tracks here in my crush to do a PV on, making me feel like I’m not *too* late to be an early adopter of muque before they go on and become famous (JK XD). I do genuinely think it’s neat though that they did this as my crush one of the best showcases of what the band brings to the table, which is this interesting mix of Garage-y Surf Rock and beatmaker-type beats. I also have a hunch this is actually signaling for an upcoming album release from them some time this year as the song more than likely makes it to the track list for that. You heard it here first. Side note, if muque goes back and does a PV for escape, that’s gonna be my song of the year.

あした天気になあれ/ashita tenki ni naare
by 35.7
This song probably kills at a live show

When we last 35.7 here on the Roundup, it was to feature their song Shukujitsu Tengoku which now has *4.4* million listens on Spotify compared to the 1 million it had when I first talked about it. Suffice for it to say, the song remains to this day the band’s biggest hit; something that they have yet to replicate in subsequent releases, but not for lack of trying. 35.7 had since put out six singles and just recently their second EP to varying degrees of success, most being generally favorable, albeit just not at the same capacity as Shukujitsu Tengoku. While the popularity of that track might be more so attributable to it having gone viral on social networking services (or SNS) over in Japan for a brief period, it can’t be denied that the band does good work regardless, as you’ll hear here in Ashita Tenki ni Naare. They do just about everything right in this song: the guitar and the drum work are on point, Takahashi’s singing is as strong and clear as ever, and the gang vocals in particular go in at the perfect times. Solid track all around.

ファンファーレ/fanfare
by SCANDAL
Took me a second to realize why I started feeling nostalgic

If you managed to attend this month’s J-Music Advance Party over on my Substack (sign up for the newsletter if you haven’t yet!), you would’ve seen me talk about SCANDAL in anticipation of their latest album which dropped this month, LUMINOUS. I specifically go over how SCANDAL seems to always be able to adapt with the changing of the times and adjust their sound accordingly as a testament to their longevity. Though I say that, the band still can’t help but come out with songs such as Fanfare here which (to me at least) sounds and feels like vintage SCANDAL. RINA’s drum work has may have gotten a lot trickier, TOMOMI’s bass and MAMI’s guitars might be a notch more technical, and HARUNA’s singing lends itself to more in the way of post-production, but I listen to this and all I’m thinking is how it reminds me of BEAUTeen!!; a song that I haven’t thought of in a long while. Granted, maybe it’s the vast blue sky in the PV that’s making me think of it too (bonus points if you get the reference) but I want to believe there’s something in Fanfare that makes me feel this way otherwise.

Side Step
by 柴田聡子 (shibata satoko)
Bet you you’ll be singing this one after we’re done here

On the subject of albums that came out this month, one release that I *didn’t* get to talk about but definitely would have had I known about it sooner was the album Your Favorite Things by singer-songwriter Shibata Satoko. While I had known about her by association (as her name would often come up in the context of AcoGui S-SW-types, of which I’m a huge fan of and always on the lookout for), it actually wasn’t until I got exposed to her composition work (specifically with the songs she wrote for idol group RYUTist) that I truly started to understand have an appreciation for her music. What I love the most about her arrangements, and you’ll find that too here in Side Step, is how she’s generally able to make expand them and make them grow over the course of the song; almost as if the first three-fourths of it she devotes solely as a means to build up to a massive last quarter filled with her unique musicality.

Satellite
by Awairo
I really don’t mind KAMITSUBAKI being a v-singer monopoly

In what appears to be a recent-ish talent acquisition, KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO adds to their ever-growing roster once more with the inclusion of singer WaMi, whom they’ve chosen to pair up alongside longtime producer yunosuke who himself has been with KAMITSUBAKI since its inception to form the unit Awairo. Despite most of her notoriety being the result of her years as a cover song artist, the Japanese-Korean hopeful has since also amassed for herself a decent following off of her original songs as well, wherein she’s proven that she can deliver with the right dance partner. Interestingly enough with regard to that, her first (and most popular) single Navy, which at the time of writing is sitting at 1.8 million Spotify listens is an early collaboration with the very same yunosuke who she’s now working with again now. They might be trying to recapture the magic from her debut single with their collaboration here, with yunosuke perhaps bringing her on board based on their past chemistry. Whatever the case may be the, sound very much speaks for itself, and it’s looking like another W for KAMITSUBAKI.

Decadence
by Hakubi
Another Draft call up!

If you’ve been following the Spotify J-Music Playlist Draft, whether this season or last season, you’ll be about as familiar with Hakubi as me at this point with how often they end up on there (XD) That being said, they weren’t really batting a 100, where there were definitely times where a song of theirs wasn’t clicking with me. One such instance was their very first Draft appearance back in Week 20 of Season 1, where I talk about their song Akatsuki, and how I thought that that kind of song wasn’t their “speed”. I specifically mention in there too that I thought that the band would do wonders with something a bit faster in tempo and with Katagiri singing in a lower pitch. That’s exactly what they go for in Decadence here and, lo and behold, it works to tremendous effect. I personally really liked the layering of the vocals here as well as that nifty rap section that they spliced in there at around the 1:20 mark. Happy seeing more call ups from the Draft here on the Roundup, and I’m genuinely looking forward to seeing who the next one’s gonna be.

GIG
by CHIANZ
This has the potential to blow up in a massive way

And I say that, mostly in respect to eill specifically, who has become quite the star in her own right these past couple of years. Whether or not some of her fame and notoriety would transfer over to this new band venture of hers remains to be seen, but that’s what I’m hoping for at least as I do think they have something here. CHIANZ, described as a band made up of ‘childhood friends’ sees eill link up with former PLUSONICA stablemate Foi (here’s them performing together all the way back in 2017) as well as guitar/bass pair YABIxYABI, in what they’re dubbing as “GIRLS CRUSH ROCK BAND” that aims to be bold and cool with hopes to expand internationally. The latter portion of their vision here is neither here nor there just yet, but GIG is most definitely the former. Now, if I’m being completely honest, it does feel predominantly like an eill song still in terms of lyricism (with some choice eill-isms like ‘savage’ and the numerous ‘Ooh yeahs’ in particular being largely prominent) but that can easily be worked on in subsequent releases should they choose to address it. Also just loved seeing Foi in particular in a band setting here.

A Million More
by reina
It was only a matter of time

Last year I randomly came across an album titled You Were Wrong by R&B artist reina as a recommendation for me to listen to on Spotify. As I am wont to do, I gave the album a spin despite not knowing anything about reina and what kinds of songs she sings. That would’ve been around February or March of last year right when the album came out and, by the time December rolled around I ended up naming it my Favorite Blind Pickup of 2023 in the Roundup Awards. Suffice for it to say, she made a fan out of me with that release. Curiously enough, she dropped a subsequent release last month in an EP titled A Million More, almost exactly a year since You Were Wrong. I gotta be honest, despite the EP having not as much songs as her debut album, I think I might actually like it even more as a whole. I dunno. I might still be in a honeymoon phase with it so we’ll just have to see. But gosh darn if A Million More isn’t a vibe then I don’t know what it is.

MUST LISTEN:
“Search light” by CLAN QUEEN and “Side Step” by Shibata Satoko
I’ve gone back and forth in my head between having either CLAN QUEEN’s Search light or muque’s my crush in the featured spot here but I ultimately decided to go with the former. It’s technically the newer song of the two, and CLAN QUEEN also has an album coming out in less than a week’s time from now so I figured might as well give them the shine. Again though, I do genuinely believe that both bands are great and I hope to see them do well this year. Also want to give special attention to Shibata Satoko’s Side Step and *her* album Your Favorite Things. It’s a fantastic album that’s well worth everybody’s time and since I didn’t get a chance to talk about it in either avenues through which I get to talk about music albums (both here on the blog and on my Substack), I thought I’d make good on it here by telling you guys to check it out should you be inclined.

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The YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Music playlists have now been updated with this month’s featured tracks. Make sure you follow them on your preferred listening service so you never miss a beat 🙂

How did you guys like this March Roundup? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments! Likewise, if you have your own music recommendations, share them down below as well! I would love to hear ’em 😀

The J-Music Advance Party was held again earlier this month where we ended up talking about SCANDAL’s LUMINOUS as I mentioned earlier, along with a good handful of other albums and releases. If you missed the premiere though, don’t fret; you can always go back to it (and even past Parties as well!) over on my Substack newsletter. Signing up is 100% free so don’t wait and secure your invite for the next Advance Party. We have the next one booked for April 6, 2024. Hope to see you there 😛

Week 5 and Week 6 of the second season of the Spotify J-Music Playlist Draft are now in the books. Things are starting to heat up as we move on to the second quarter of the year so if you haven’t yet started tuning in, now’s an excellent time to do so!

Al and I didn’t get to put out our album reviews last month in time, so to make up for it we got an incidental J-Music Exchange/Rate double feature *this* month! That’s four album reviews between the both of us! Our theme for February was favorite blind pickups, which had us reviewing Kaneko Ayano’s Sansan and BED ROOM by CICADA. I thought I’d switch it up for March and had ourselves do a good ol’ wheel spin to determine a specific release year for albums that we were to review. As a result of that we got to review some choice albums from 2017 in POLKADOT STINGRAY’s  Zenchi Zennou and BAND-MAID’s Just Bring It. If you caught or choose to catch all of these reviews, you’re a real one.

And that’s a wrap! Thank you guys so so much for dropping by whenever you do. Hope you all had fun as always, and I look forward to seeing you in the next one as well.

Happy Listening!