If you like bands, I have a Roundup for ya.

Hello, hello! And welcome back to the Monthly Recommendation Roundup! Yes, it is in fact, that time of the month once again 😉 For those in the know and have been following the Roundup for some time now, y’all know where to go from here, BUT if this is actually your first time on the blog and you’re not sure what this is exactly 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.

As I teased in my little intro there before the cut, we did end up with another fairly band-centric month; featuring a good mix of Roundup favorites and returnees as well as some up-and-coming bands making for a stacked lineup if I do say so myself.

Let’s see how it really fares though 😁

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はじまりの声/hajimari no koe
by 明くる夜の羊 (akuruyo ni hitsuji)
There was no way I wasn’t gonna feature Akuruyo Sheep at least once this year

Especially not after the release of their second full album pointillism, which came out just a couple of months ago, and is actually one of my favorite albums to have come out thus far in 2024. I kept an eye out on the band ever since I came across them earlier last year via their first album being recommended to me through Spotify funnily enough. Something to note is that more than likely it was because I had become such a fan of Atomic Skipper towards the end of last year (their own debut album Orbital being our Runner-Up for the Favorite Blind Pick Up award in the 2023 Roundup Awards) that the algorithm thought to also send Akuruyo no Hitsuji my way. Of course, it’s still a bit too early to say whether “Akuruyo Sheep” would end up following suit and win an award of their own this year, but as I said at the start, I do very much adore their sophomore album. Vocalist Kawano Yui is still at her commandeering best at the helm, with the band also keeping the same infectious energy that their music tends to bring as you’ll hear here in Hajimari no Koe (which, to tie this all together is also the opening track *to* poinitillism; so yeah, give the album a listen!)

nevermind
by muque
Speaking of albums

I called it. I manifested it. However you want to describe it. I’ve been talking about it all the way back to the literal beginning of the year, and now it’s official: muque will be dropping their first full album in October of this year (!!) In all honesty though, it did (to me at least) feel like the writing was on the wall after the band started gaining major traction right towards the end of 2023. muque also running back their most popular song in my crush and giving it the PV treatment after well over a year since it got released as a single I noted too as something that would hint towards an eventual album release so yeah, right on the money. It’s just that eas- The other thing I was projecting was for the band to take over my entire year and considering how this feature of nevermind here now makes their fifth appearance on the Roundup in 2024, you could argue they already have. I dunno. There’s just something about muque’s SNS-brained (lol) songs with their drum loops and vocalist Asakura’s catchy hooks that I can’t get enough of whenever they come out with one and this track is no exception.

good morning
by a子 (ako)
Yep. Still Ako. Nothing to worry about.

On the subject of long-awaited albums, Ako’s first full album (and also her debut album under a major record label in PONY CANYON subsidiary IRORI RECORDS) was a topic of great interest for fans leading up to its release earlier just this month. I went over it a bit more in detail in the July issue of the Advance Party (which, to those unaware is a separate newsletter where I talk about upcoming releases every month; sign up if you haven’t yet!) but one of the prevailing narratives about the album was in whether or not Ako would start to show changes in her sound following her record label signing. This came about in light of her first songs after the fact (namely Wakusei and LAZY) notably being more bright and vibrant in contrast to her earlier work. I had hoped that GENE, in that regard, would provide an answer. What I didn’t anticipate however was the album pulling including so many of her older songs for anyone to truly say. That being said, we do still get a decent handful of new songs from her and as evidenced by good morning here, the “old” Ako is still there and we can all rest assured.

MAZE
by NEK! (neki)
I think they made the right move sitting on this one for as long as they did

MAZE would be one of the first of NEK!’s songs that they were teasing when the band put out a trailer for their debut EP EXCLAMAT!ON (which we *also* talked about in this month’s Advance Party), with the song notably being the one used as the main clip, and while the footage does show they already this PV for it in the can as well, it wouldn’t be until the album actually launched that they would put it out. I mean, from a promotional standpoint it’s a no brainer that you would of course sequence it like this, but they did also have two other songs in Get Over and Reigen Shoujo to potentially headline the EP instead. My thinking as to why they went with MAZE is that it was the best received song in live houses. That is to say, of the songs that the band currently has out now, I do find myself favoring it the most. Of course, I do still want them to use Bassist Kanade’s slap bass more sparingly, at the very least during the choruses and from the second verse onwards. I said it last time as well when I talked about Get Over but I feel like it distracts a little bit from the other nifty things that the other members are doing (for instance vocalist Hika’s runs during the first verse). Overall though, I do again like the song a lot as it was also reminding of an old favorite of mine too in Rick Rack/FERN PLANET’s Soldier Girls.

遊泳禁止、天ノ川/yuuei kinshi, amanogawa
by チョーキューメイ (ChoQMay)
Such a powerful title

Yuuei Kinshi, Amanogawa roughly translates to “Swimming is Prohibited (in the) Amanogawa (river)”. While that sounds like a nondescript, even tongue-in-cheek like phrase, there’s a couple of things (mainly two) to note here that give it a bit more meaning. First, while also being an actual river in Japan, “Amanogawa” is also a word used to refer to the Milky Way Galaxy (as “amanogawa” translates to “heavenly river”). Second, the lyrics on the whole loosely references the Miyazawa Kenji novel Night on the Galactic Railroad, which involves a character meeting their untimely end in a *river*, and also depicts the Milky Way as that which leads to the great beyond. Going back to the song title, combining what we now know about the significance of the Amanogawa, one can then interpret the meaning behind the song as that of not allowing someone to even dare swim in the Amanagowa out of fear that we may lose them. It’s a play on words, but the emotion behind Urara’s words as she sings them is evident, if not amplified to the utmost by this being fully acoustic; highlighting Urara’s very moving vocal work. Including the chirping of the birds in the final recording was a nice touch as well.

jitensha
by kurayamisaka
Those drums, man.

kurayamisaka won the hearts of many (Japanese music fans out here in the West in particular) with the release of their debut EP kimi wo omotte iru back in 2022. This unassuming release that seemingly came out of nowhere from a band that kept a very low profile spread like wildfire in the Japanese shoegaze community as soon as it found itself in people’s recommendation pages. Suffice for it to say, the band very quickly became a favorite of fans of the genre. While some part of that might just be that kurayamisaka is filling in for a Kinoko Teikoku-sized hole in Japanese shoegaze fans’ hearts, I also don’t want to take too much away from what kurayamisaka themselves offer. One can even argue that what the latter is doing right now is closer to more traditional Shoegaze than the former. Of course, that’s not to mean that that makes one better than the other, but something that was notably lacking from Kinoko Teikoku’s music that kurayamisaka does so well is this dark looming wall of noise present in their songs as you’ll hear here in jitensha. One thing that I would like to point out that the band does really well is their rumbling drum work that shakes your very soul (I mean, even the PV is shaking, lol).

執心は操人形を縊り殺して/shuushin wa oyatsuriningyou kubirikoroshite
by Soirée
There’s nothing quite like *that* moment

I’m sure a lot of you guys reading this now too have experienced this before where there are times when *something* happens (the way the song starts, a beat drop, a switch up, anything really) during the first time you listen to a particular song, and you just… feel the need to pause whatever it is you’re listening to (XD) Now, what you do after hitting pause might be different from person to person. Some might let out an expletive or two, others might reactively get up from where they’re sitting from. For me personally I take a deep breath and I exhale slowly, like I just took a long drag from a cigarette. This is largely reactive on my part (as I imagine it is for you guys as well) and I just catch myself doing it, but the times I do it more often than not is when I feel I was completely and utterly won over. That moment happened to me again at 00:16 of Soirée’s Shuushin wa Oyatsuriningyou Kubirikoroshite with their switch up that absolutely floored me. Fair play to this pair of 18 year-olds from Nagoya, as they certainly grabbed my attention here. Well done.

Crack!
by Summer Whales
We got Hammer Head Shark, now we have Summer Whales!

Though unlike the Japanese shoegaze standout, Summer Whales’ music rings a bit closer (at least in my opinion) instead to the “neo”-garage rock stylings of the Roundup Awards’ Favorite Discovery of 2022, Chilli Beans., specifically with their similar inclinations towards older, more West-originating genres. Considering how Chilli Beans.’s popularity have since shot up in relatively short order, I would argue that Summer Whales could potentially find themselves in a similar trajectory should the algorithm allow for it, which is what I would attribute to a lot of Chilli Beans.’s early success. If anything else, I believe Summer Whales is actually in prime position to blow up both in the West as well as in the English-speaking parts of the world, given the band’s penchant for writing their songs predominantly in English. While some of you might think that this would cause reservations among their immediate fanbase in Japan, it’s important to note that many Japanese music fans, especially youths, find the use of English in songs (and in general) to be cool. So, really, it’s a win-win.

夜窓/yoru mado
by cephalo
Surprise! More shoegaz-

While we’re on the topic, a band that seemingly has gotten caught in an initial wave of being algorithm’d is the Tokyo-based 4-piece shoegaze band cephalo. Maybe there really is something to having your name be in the Latin Alphabet. Then again, I don’t think the band needed that much in the way of a leg up considering what we just went over with kurayamisaka a minute ago and how the West in particular do just love Japanese shoegaze, so at the very least they have an entire fanbase waiting in the wings for them once their music makes the rounds. Of course, that’s not to say fans outside would eat *anything* up, but as you’ll hear in Yoru Mado here, cephalo make more than a decent account for themselves as a shoegaze band to look out for. Also present here is wall of noise that we talked about earlier too coupled with some really nice distorted guitar riffs that give the song a bit more of a dream pop feel in some parts which I thought was neat. Special shoutout to vocalist Fuki’s singing in that regard for being able to both cut through the noise as well as be ethereal at the same time.

狂う/kuruu
by CLW
I know what you’re thinking

And yes… this is quite a ways from being clean audio. There’s artifacts all over the place and the whole track feels a little muffled. However, if you then go check out CLW’s *older* songs should be quick to note that pretty much everything they released prior sound perfectly fine from a post-production standpoint. Thus, coupled too with the camcorder-like quality of the PV here for Kuruu, I am of the belief that the track being as rough-sounding as it is is by design to evoke this indie feel sort of self-made PV feeling to it. I mean, I’d be curious to hear know how this song actually sounds on the physical release (it’s currently not out on Spotify yet at the time of writing) just to see whether or not that’s actually the case. If it is, I… would hope it’s just a one off thing first and foremost (lol), but also too admittedly I do find it cheeky if not even charming in some respects. If anything else, what you can definitely take away from this is CLW has character. That, and despite the purposely shoddy recording, vocalist Ono is still able to bring it all home with her strong deliveries.

MUST LISTEN:
“Yuuei Kinshi, Amanogawa” by ChoQMay and “jitensha” by kurayamisaka
Something to note about Yuuei Kinshi, Amanogawa is that, despite Urara having on multiple occasions shown that she also plays acoustic guitar, it’s actually the first time the band would put out a completely acoustic track. In addition to that, Urara is actually slated to perform her first acoustic one man live in the next couple of months. With that, I have a sneaking suspicion that ChoQMay might be coming out with a release (maybe just an EP, but I wouldn’t mind a full album in the slights) that’s comprised of acoustic versions of their popular songs. I would love it if that’s how they close out the year. I’m also positive kurayamisaka was able to win over even more fans from this past weekend’s FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL, but if you didn’t happen to catch the stream or you weren’t interested seeing acts you weren’t familiar with, I do implore you to at the very least give jitensha a listen. If you’re even remotely a fan of Japanese shoegaze, you’ll be right at home here.

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

The new Roundup EP for July 2024 is now live! Check out what other songs I’ve been listening to these past couple of weeks apart from the ones we just talked about.

What are your guys’ thoughts on this month’s Roundup? Lemme know down in the comments which of the featured songs you liked the most! While you’re at it, feel free to throw is some of your own recommendations in there as well!

The J-Music Advance Party was held yet again at my Substack newsletter where, as you just saw, we got to go over some standout releases for the month. If you weren’t able to attend this month’s Party at launch, you are always free to check them out after the fact, along with previous ones as well if you missed out on them too! Don’t forget to sign up for the newsletter to get monthly invites for future Parties. The next one is scheduled for August 4. Hope to see you there!

We also had Week 14 and Week 15 of Spotify J-Music Playlist Draft Season 2 this month. Be sure to catch yourself up on the Draft if you’re not already caught up (kudos to those who’ve been tuning in week-to-week!).

A brand new pair of Japanese music album reviews have since dropped as well, courtesy of course of the one and only J-Music Exchange/Rate! It was my turn this month to decide on the theme for the month’s albums, and so for fun I thought we could try and review the oldest (*according to release date) albums in our respective music libraries! The oldest album he had in his collection was Rhymester’s RESPECT (catch my review of it here!) The oldest album in *my* library is ACO’s Kittenish Love. You can check out Al’s review over at Omunibasu.

And that’s it! Thank you so much for dropping (more so too if you made it all the way down here! lol). I appreciate your guys’ time and, as always, I can only hope I was able to make it worth your while 😊

Happy Listening!