Anyone get a case of the May blues?

If you did, I hope you’re feeling well and better as the month has now come to an end, but if not, do allow me to rid you of it with some Japanese music here in yet another installment of the Monthly Recommendation Roundup! 😀

If you’re new to the blog, and you’re not quite sure what this though 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 😛

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.

Alright, now that we’re all up to speed, time to blast away those blues!

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魔性の女A/mashou no onna A; “femme fatale A”
by 紫 今 (mulasaki ima)
Told you she was gonna be one to look out for

If by chance you were unfortunate enough to not have been around for the 2023 Recommendation Roundup Awards, fret not because you can always check it out here, though more importantly you would have missed me talking about how I believed Mulasaki Ima was one of if not the best prospective debuting artist of that year, earning her our Golden Maya for Best Prospect Of 2023 (prestigious award, I know). Granted, yes, she had already gone viral a couple of times prior to me having her on the Roundup, but it wasn’t even that that made me think her star was going to be even brighter. When I came across her Gallery EP for the first time, there were two main things that stood out to me: her dedication to establishing her own “brand” (like, she already had her own logo barely a year into it), as well as her charisma; both of which we now see in full display in femme fatale A here. The song just oozes confidence in both its subject matter as well as in its intent, being pretty much tailor made to be used in Instagram and/or TikTok which its repeatable hooks clearly sectioned off choruses. I consider her to be head-to-head with fellow SNS hit song maker noa and it’s gonna be interesting to see who comes out on top by the end of this year.

MAYBLUES
by 楠木ともり (kusunoki tomori)
Did I mention I love her?

You know, for someone who claims to be such a huge fan of Kusunoki Tomori, I haven’t had much opportunity to really talk about her music as of late. Of course, that’s more so due to the fact that following the release of her first full album PRESENCE/ABSENCE (half of which we did happen to cover by way of the Exchange/Rate), there hasn’t been a whole lot of activity on her end either, at least on the music side of things as she’s still very much an active voice actress despite her departure from the Love Live! multimedia franchise. Shingetsu is actually her first physical release in almost a year now since the last one. And what better way to do so than with a track produced by L’arc-en-Ciel’s TETSUYA of all people. Now, you might have noticed… that’s not the song I’m choosing to have on here, as it’s instead the B-side for the single MAYBLUES, produced in part by TEMPLIME‘s KBSNK. I’ve said it in the past, but as cool as it is for her to be belting out to a band-oriented Pop/Rock track, Kusunoki Tomori really does her best work singing Pop Synth/Synth-adjacent songs like this. It compliments her natural breath-y singing style very well in my opinion and, given the recent success of her collaboration with MIMiNARI, I do think this is where she should make her home.

desert.
by muque
Take my money

At the very least, I feel like that’s the knee-jerk response I get whenever I listen to a new release by muque. That is to say, I am 100% sold on this band and their music. Rather, given how much I’ve talked about them since the start of this year it should be pretty obvious that I’ve already been sold on them for a while now, and with their Spotify monthly listener count seeming growing by the second, I think it’s safe to assume that the same can be said about a lot of other fans now too. For what it’s worth, I’m happy for the band that more and more people are getting behind the kind of style that they have, as it’s not really the most… exciting one of there. The way I would describe is that it’s very… whelming, if that’s even a word. Like, it’s not overwhelming you with sound, nor is it underwhelming in the slightest. I’ve likened it in the past as being “just right”, where, like desert. here, their songs just put you in a euphoric mood from beginning to end with their guitar and drum loops courtesy (mainly) of drummer/beat-maker for the band Takachi whose praises I can’t sing enough of for his work here in muque.

H@BREAK
by yutori
An unexpected direction

If you had told me two or three years ago that yutori would veer more towards this much faster Youth Pop/Rock style present here in H@BREAK (cute title btw) as opposed to the relatively slower and more emotive “Utsu-Rock” that they were putting out when they first came into the scene, I would have said in reply, “Oh, that means they must have been signed!” That… still isn’t the case today though in actuality and the band still released their most recent EP Luv independently (check it out here). What this feels like is an attempt to re-imagine their approach to something new (at least to them) in the hopes of having it translate to mainstream success and, if I’m being completely honest… I’m not too mad about it. Like, sure, if I had my choice of which version of yutori I’d prefer to listen to, it’d be the one where vocalist Satou Kotoko gets to sing her heart out unabashedly, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say this style also just seems like a nice fit for them too. Kinda reminds me of something Polkadot Stingray would play which isn’t exactly a comparison I thought I would be making when talking about this band whereas before I likened them more to Ryokuoushoku Shakai. Then again when the latter is out there coming out with a Wa-Rock single of all things…

ゲシュタルト/gestalt
by 花譜 (KAF)
Downright killed it with that first line

C’mon “What kind of tart is a Gestalt?”, like, stop, who even thinks of that (XD) In all seriousness though, KAF has just been on a non-stop roll since the previous year. Her collaborations with different artists and producers as part of her “Suite” project have all done relatively well, and the launch of her new side project KAIKA has been off to a great start as well. Suffice for it to say, things have been going swimmingly for the KAMITSUBAKI STUDIO stand out. In particular, ever since she came back from her exchange student program, it feels as though that’s when she really started to break into the mainstream more than she ever has in the past. I’m curious if either the time away or the experiences she had overseas (or even a combination of the two) contributed to this change in that regard. At the very least, that “Drop the beat” at around the 00:40 mark feels like a Mori Calliope influence (lol) with whom she also collaborated with in her most recent one-man live tour in one of the most uncanny valley-like concert performances I’ve ever seen recorded.

地獄恋文/jigoku koibumi; “inferno love letter”
by tuki.
It was only a matter of time

I was bound to talk about the fifteen year-old Pop sensation that is tuki. sooner or later here on the blog and I suppose now’s as good a time as any. Rather, I would be remiss to not have her on the Roundup considering how literally every single one of her songs that she has released thus far have *millions* of play counts EACH which, while insane for one, isn’t necessarily also not something we haven’t seen before. In particular, tuki.’s come up has been largely reminiscent (in my opinion) of TUYU’s quick rise to fame from a couple of years back. On the whole their styles are largely different from one another, with tuki. leaning towards a more modern Pop Ballad type of sound whereas TUYU capitalized more on the growing popularity of Utsu-Rock. Though interestingly enough, Inferno Love Letter here actually sounds like a TUYU song, especially with the abrupt start that it has; something that I would consider as a bit of a calling card so to speak for the latter given how often they would do it for their songs, but I digress. tuki. has a loooong and bright future ahead of her in terms of her career as a musician, and it’s gonna be interesting to see what comes of it. I personally would love to see her try to close out the year with an EP/mini-album release.

G2G
by shallm
Her voice is sooo clear and energy-filled

On the subject of wanting to talk about someone here on the Roundup, shallm’s another one that I’ve been meaning to feature ever since coming across their debut single Sentimental ☆ Lucky Girl which was arguably not-so-randomly recommended to me by Spotify one day. I say that because the recommendations that I get from that service are fairly tailored for me and my tastes (if you’ve been following the Spotify J-Music Playlist Draft you’d have seen it first hand too). What I find interesting about this band project the most is that, it almost feels like a call back almost to when guitar-toting females fronting Japanese Rock bands was best thing you could be. I talk a little bit about this too in this month’s J-Music Advance Party where I go over miwa and how she too was a product of her time, specifically in the wake of YUI’s popularity. Like, I can’t help but be reminded of them whenever I look at vocalist Lia, seeing how she carries herself and hearing the clarity in her delivery. Of course, G2G‘s musical sensibilities are much more modern in contrast to the music from that era, but the feelings they evoke are most definitely similar, if at least for me personally.

革命前夜行列車/kakumei zenya-kou ressha
by 8
KNOTT’s prods with 8 are always so nice with it

This next one is gonna stick out like a sore thumb for some of you who may not be privy to the fact that I listen to a lot of Japanese R&B/Hip-Hop/Rap considering the kind of songs that we’ve gone over prior to this one. It’s definitely a more recent development when taking a retrospective look at my music listening history, which stems mostly from my fascination with production work more than anything else (this I attribute to me following music producers on YouTube do their thing when making a track). There’s just something about melodic guitar loops that really resonate with me for some reason, and producer duo KNOTT’s work is about as good as any. It also helps that you don’t hear much of it in Japanese Hip-Hop/Rap, or even Japanese music in general. Of course, the track is one thing, but you also need a rapper who can effectively rap on it. 8 (yeah… like, the number XD) completes the equation with his melodious flow textured by his otherwise gruff delivery making for a nice auditory contrast as you’ll hear here in Kakumei Zenya-kou Ressha.

ステージ/stage
by さとう。(sato)
This is straight from the heart

If you go and check the video description for sato.’s Stage here on YouTube, you’ll see there that she issued in a request for people to translate the song into different languages. Seeing as no one had yet to do so in the comments section ever since the PV came out, I tried my hand at it. I haven’t translated a song for quite a while now, but I figured why not, since I was also very much curious as to the subject matter of what sato. was singing about because of how she delivers certain lines. What unfolded before my eyes was a vivid, and almost harrowing account of someone coming to terms with a loved one developing and eventually succumbing to cancer. There’s a particular line that really stuck with me and it’s the one that comes in at the 01:05, where she asks god “what stage is (that child) in?” (‘ano ko no stage wa ikutsudai?’) referring to the severity of their disease as opposed to the other meaning of the word that you’d expect her to be singing about. sato. actually switches the meaning around in later parts of the song to refer to the “stage” wherein one would perform on to complete the word play and yeah… A very heartful work that I imagine a lot of people can certainly relate with. Massive props to her for wearing her heart on her sleeve like this.

可惜夜/atarayo
by 不眠旅行 (fuumin ryoukou; “nemuras trip”)
You already know

By that I mean, it’s the last featured song on the Roundup, which should already clue you in as to my overall thoughts on Fuumin Ryokou or Nemuras Trip here as they’ve taken to calling themselves. If I’m not making any sense to you at all at this moment, do know that traditionally here on the Monthly Recommendation Roundup, the last spot is almost always reserved for indie bands/artists who I want to give special attention to as my own way of getting more eyes and ears on them. A lot of the times I feel that the right exposure is all that a band might end up really needing when they already sound fairly solid, which I do genuinely see Nemuras Trip as being. In particular I’m very much fond of the song structure implored here in Atarayo (not to be confused with *the band* Atarayo who do share some similarities with Nemuras Trip in terms of sound funnily enough), which uses repetition of an earlier verse in the song but then altering the stresses and the emphases in a succeeding verse (compare 00:06 to 01:36 for example). Speaking of Atarayo (the band), Nemuras Trip feels like they would be a good fit for the label that the former is under so here’s hoping they’re in ASAB’s radar and that they see potential in them the same way I do.

MUST LISTEN:
“MAYBLUES” by Kusunoki Tomori and “Stage” by sato.
I mean, it *is* May so it’s only fitting that we have MAYBLUES here as one of the must listen songs for the month (loljk). In all seriousness though, I do genuinely think this is going to beat out Nemurenai for me as my most listened to song of hers across everything she’s put out thus far (mind you, Nemurenai ended up being my second most listened to track overall last year trailing just behind ASU’s Light years). She’s really starting to come into her own as an artist and I all but wish she explored this side of her musicality more. I also ask that you guys spare some of your guys’ free time listening to sato.’s Stage at least once. If the song was in fact written based on a personal experience, I imagine she made this song for her to make peace with the reality she faced. If that’s the case, and she’s putting it all now out there for the whole world to hear, I think the least we can do is listen.

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The YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Music playlists have ALL now been updated with this month’s featured tracks. Make sure to follow them on your preferred listening service if you haven’t yet!

We also have the Roundup EP for May 2024 up as well on Spotify for those of you who are still looking to listen to a couple more tunes from this month. Just as a quick heads up to those who didn’t catch last month’s Roundup, each month will come with an “extended playlist” or “EP” for short, which will have other songs that I’d been listening to these past couple of weeks apart from what I feature on the Roundup so as to ensure that we don’t leave anything out before closing out the month.

How did you like this month’s Roundup? Let me know down in the comments section below which of the featured songs you liked the most! Likewise, if you have songs that you would like to recommend, feel free to drop a link below as well!

The J-Music Advance Party had transpired again this month over at its regular venue at the Listening to Japanese Music Substack (rolls off the tongue, I know, jk) where I had the opportunity to talk about what ended up being some pretty banger releases that came out this month. If you weren’t able to attend, don’t worry, you can still check it out at the party site, along with the previous parties as well. Make sure to sign up to the newsletter to get a monthly invite to the Advance Party when it drops. The next one is scheduled for June 8. Hope to see you there!

Week 9 and Week 10 of the Spotify J-Music Playlist Draft S2 are now in the books as well for those of you keeping up with the series. I have a feeling Spotify is gonna walk with this one handedly based on how these past Draft weeks have gone. It might even beat the score before the last week of the season! Check out this month’s picks to see for yourself just how much Spotify has been crushing it with its recommendations.

No J-Music Exchange/Rate album reviews this month, BUT don’t you guys worry, we’ll be back before you know it 😉 In the meantime, Al and I actually have close to a hundred (!) album reviews between ourselves so if you happen to have missed out on some of the older ones that we did, now would be a good time to have a look see 😛 Check out our catalog of reviews here!

That’s gonna do it for this month’s Roundup! Thank you so much for tuning in. Hope you had just as much of blast listening to these songs as I had. Take care. See you again soon. Appreciate y’all always. And of course ー

Happy Listening!