Idol Watch #21: March/April 2024
Rounding up the best idol songs from the past two months, featuring YUION, ASP, courtesea and more, plus a look back into the great catalog of MIGMA SHELTER
Hi! Welcome to Idol Watch, a bi-monthly companion newsletter to This Side of Japan that’s all about Japanese idols! You can check out January/February’s edition here.
As MIGMA SHELTER announced the dissolution of its current line-up this March, the most pained response about the news came from Brazil, the idol group’s longest-standing member. “A discussion about breaking up the group was brought to me many times, and I firmly turned it down every time,” she wrote. “I really didn’t want to give up on my dreams. I wanted to deliver MIGMA SHELTER to the world. I wanted to dance together with everyone forever.” If they had yet to be close to an international breakthrough almost 8 years in, they were more than prepared to please bigger, festival-sized crowds with their arsenal of trance-pop. Their latest releases yearned to shake a larger stage as dreamy synth beats built into an epic spectacle that easily outsized many of the beat drops from the past.
The group’s music only grew more ambitious in scale as well as concept, and so the decision for MIGMA SHELTER to disband its current iteration came as rather a surprise considering the momentum behind them. The call to split was perhaps also unexpected for fans, especially for those who’ve been following them since their early years, as the members seemed in it practically for life. Their most defining period saw a tight-knit family of idols who charmed with their closeness as they awed while proudly performing their music. Their lone full-length, ALICE, is a testament to how well-conceptualized idol music could be, but moreover, it’s a document of a group at its most in tune to their chosen style but also established line-up.
The latest member additions seemed to inspire MIGMA SHELTER into their new chapter, even as key names of the past began to graduate. Their last string of EPs, what they dubbed the OZ trilogy, hinted at more growth in style and, of course, the scale in which they wished to operate. It’s uncertain if or when the group will return, but in whatever form they choose to come back, they will pick back up a spectacular legacy.
Until then, we can celebrate all the accomplishments of MIGMA SHELTER by tracing back their great catalog. Here’s the history of MIGMA SHELTER in 6 songs.
For more on MIGMA SHELTER, you can check out our past feature The Conversation: MIGMA SHELTER, published in 2020. This feature is dedicated to the memory of our contributor and friend Myrna.
“Joint” [Svaha Eraser EP, 2017]
If their predecessors in Bellring Shojo Heart threw everything at the wall to see what would stick as their sound, MIGMA SHELTER arrived nearly complete from the jump with their debut EP, Svaha Eraser. Psychedelic trance as a genre defined them musically, and later, conceptually, as they tapped into affiliated works like Alice in Wonderland to deepen their visual identity. While the meandering “Deeper” from the EP finds them still figuring how to fully adapt their chosen genre into a more pop form, “Joint” succeeds in fashioning the signature sounds, cresting builds and progressive arcs into a tightly structured dance-pop song.
See also: “Svaha Eraser,” “Compression: Free”
“Spider Line” [Names EP, 2019]
About a year in, tragedy struck for MIGMA SHELTER: all but one member graduated from the group, placing them in an indefinite hiatus. They fortunately managed to slowly build themselves back up going into as a duo in 2019 after a new recruit, marking the beginning of the act’s new era. Despite them starting practically from scratch, their production during this period sounded more solidified and purposeful as it further explored the range of its chosen genre.
Out of that year’s two EPs, Parade’s End and Names, “Spider Line” from the latter best realized their psych-trance concept. Languid synths set the scene with an euphoric glow. But the production wastes no space, tightening any loose, meandering ends to ensure the idols can deploy a sharp, fierce attack. What may have been accessories in past singles, the cybernetic synth bursts or the galloping drum loops, are now weaponized in the explosive chorus. And that rapturous bridge sustains the intensity just so, the thunderous crescendo building into the final round of the chorus. All the parts fit just right to assure maximum power. Despite the odds against them, MIGMA SHELTER figured it all out.
See also: “Parade’s End,” “69”
And here are some of my favorite idol singles from March and April…
“Chuki Chuki! Mamimumemo!” by Buttobi! Pandemic [RIN]
“Chuki Chuki! Mamimumemo!” isn’t sugar-coated as it is like sinking your teeth deep into cotton candy, with it maddeningly sweet as it is calorie-less: The titular hook is simply baby words—“I wub you,” the first half seems to say—and a string of syllables. But after laboring over many different, and frankly clunky, metaphors just to say “I can’t stop thinking about you” in their past songs, this formless yet straightforward expression is precisely the way to go for Buttobi! Pandemic. They are clearly at a loss for words, their minds so preoccupied by their crush that they can only reach for pure sounds. And the frazzled dempa beat fires off as restless as the idols’ synapses completely rewired from their infatuation.
Listen to it on Spotify.
“Deep Drip Trip” by YUION [self-released]
“Over to the undiscovered part of the map / I’ll take you,” YUION declare in the chorus of “Deep Drip Trip,” and the hyper-speed future-bass beat warps into a blaring pots-and-pans drop once the idols signal BANG! The restless pacing keeps the group on their toes. Yet they respond to every beat switch with finesse as they adapt their personality to every curve ball thrown, pivoting from cute, starry-eyed pop-group to tough-as-steel hip-hop unit seamlessly on cue. Especially arriving after the lite idol-pop work of their latest full-length, Musubi, YUION’s tackling of loud, zigzagging future bass in “Deep Drip Trip” comes off a lot more inspired.
Listen to it on Spotify.
“Update” by EMOOTE [Universal Music]
For a longtime Yasutaka Nakata fan, EMOOTE’s debut EP should be a treat from how much of its electro-pop songs trace similar styles as the producer’s output during the 2010s, like the toybox pop of “PONPONPON” or his dip into future bass. “Update” in particular reaches a bit further back in Nakata’s production timeline, the electro-house period during the late ‘00s to be exact. The trio’s production is sleeker in feel than the brash bass lines of, say, GAME, yet the whizzing neon synths driving the four-on-the-floor dance-pop beat radiate with a similar colorful heat. (If I had to choose a Perfume song it resembles, I’d pick the sticky, Kylie Minogue-like “Fushizen Na Girl.”) Paired with that tech jargon inspiring its titular hook, “Update” pays a proper homage to their electro-pop predecessors.
meme EP is out now. Listen to it on Spotify.
“Aosugiru Sora, Owaranai Uta” by Solaris in the Rain [#DSPM]
It’s tempting to posit “Aosugiru Sora, Owaranai Uta” as a return to form for Solaris in the Rain. The group’s output this year, including this one, has certainly gone back to the math-y, indie-rock sound of their early days after flirting a bit with funk-backed pop that’s closer in spirit to the stuff of their co-parent company Dear Stage. But despite the nostalgia-inspiring music rushing behind them in their latest single, the idols insist on looking nowhere but ahead. “I won’t hear the reason / but please always be open going into the future,” they shout in the chorus. While they’re faced with an impending separation that opens up a well of old memories, “Aosugiru Sora, Owaranai Uta” finds the idols prioritizing what might lie ahead.
Listen to it on Spotify.
“You Suck!” by New Radio Taiso Club [self-released]
The self-produced duo have been going through constant re-invention since their name change to New Radio Taiso Club last year, testing the waters of bubbly idol-pop, indie Casio funk and chaotic EDM. This wonderfully titled drop from February finds them in girl-band cosplay. “You suck for being someone else’s / I wanted to be all yours,” they wallow in the titular chorus, and paired with the bratty pop-punk, this new form fashions the duo into an act like Tokyo Shoki Shodo who wear their newly single heart boldly on their sleeve. While the two have already moved on to the next sound as they’ve wont to do, “You Suck!” showcases a worthwhile personality for New Radio Taiso Club to return to.
Listen to it on Spotify.
“MAKE A MOVE” by ASP [Avex Trax]
In their heavier B-sides as of late, ASP have pitched a reality where the lode star of WACK and its Gen-X punk attitude lie in acts like MAD CAPSULE MARKETS, Atari Teenage Riot and The Prodigy—thrash and trash channeled through electronica. Acid squelches and sludgy nu-metal riffs find equal footing in “MAKE A MOVE,” while the idols’ hip-hop cadence harnesses a rap-meets-punk energy similar to the mixture-rock acts during the turn of the 2000s. Amidst all of that noise, ASP never lets you forget their idols first and foremost, with the music in support of their performance, not the other way around.
Listen to it on Spotify.
“Utakata Katari” by SATORI MONSTER [THISTIME]
For “Utakata Katari,” SATORI MONSTER split the difference between idol funk and the sprightly power-pop that their new label THISTIME has also been privy to. The group adds a slight jazzy touch to their guitar-led band sound, and the flair extends to the lyrics as the idols sing about the idol life in flowery, somewhat suggestive detail. While the group’s flirtation with the concept of hustling and show biz seems outside of their wheelhouse on paper, SATORI MONSTER smoothly play out what’s been given, earning a new style to their set in the process.
Listen to it on Spotify.
“Koihajimari No Diary” by courtesea [DRAWAPPS]
The MOR breeze flowing in the group’s typical production lends a classic idol-pop feel to the songs of courtesea, and yet their lyrics about youth and romance are hardly encased in nostalgia thanks to the slick, modern dance-pop touches. Their freshest stylistic update so far, the break beats in “Koihajimari No Diary” fuels the intense rush of infatuation driving the song: “This is a problem / I can’t write it in full / all because of how charming you are,” the idols sing in the chorus as they update their metaphorical love diary. But it also adds a jolt to the otherwise dreamy track, like a pinch to the cheek to tether the idols to the present moment and eventually inspire them to fully embrace their true feelings.
Listen to it on Spotify.
“Doshiyokkana” by Sakina Tonchiki [APPEAL]
While her other sister in femme fatale continues to indulge in the group’s clattering synth-pop for her solo work, Sakina Tonchiki takes off on a mental vacation in “Doshiyokkana.” Whimsy flows in the MOR production but also the idols’ bubbly cadence and wide-eyed lyrics that channels the track’s songwriter Satoko Shibata and her head-in-the-clouds personality: Sakina announces that she has grown a set of wings at one point, ready to spring into warmer climes. But out of all of the goofy asides, it’s this no-fuss lyric that captures the happy-go-lucky spirit behind the song: “Might as well try, even if I can’t do it / I got a feeling everything will turn out alright / today!”
Listen to it on Spotify.
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