Issue #83: To the Self, With Love
Going through the great albums from Q1 2024, Seiko Matsuda's "Natsu No Tobira" and the Vocaloid songs celebrating Pokemon from Project Voltage
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Hatsune Miku meets Pokemon—Project Voltage did not need to say anything else to reel me as a fan of both Vocaloid music and the monster-collecting games. The music side of the project began in earnest with DECO*27’s inaugural release last September, “Volt Tackle,” that showed love for Pikachu as well as competitive battling through its sample of the fight theme from the first-generation games. As of this writing, 19 producers, both veterans in the Vocaloid music scene and relative newcomers, have shared an original track for the series that pay homage to the Pokemon games. Some aim big in their respects, capturing the adventurous spirit of the franchise; some go obscurely niche, sneaking in minuscule sound effects or burying lyrical Easter eggs. But all express their love for the franchise through their go-to production muse.
For music fans who aren’t all that invested in Pokemon, Project Voltage still provides a nifty guide into who’s who in Vocaloid music. The series invites producers who’ve been around since the turn of the last decade, like Giga and sasakure.UK. You also can spot artists like syudou and Eve, who’ve been responsible for some of the biggest hits in J-pop this decade so far. And the project covers diversity in musical styles, too, with the hired guns providing frantic rock, bombastic EDM, earnest pop ballads and things in between. Like how it displays appreciation for Pokemon, the project goes in length to show the breadth of what can be Vocaloid music.
Conversely, if you’re into the music of Pokemon but not too familiar with Vocaloid producers, let the fun interpolation of tunes from your favorite game be a gateway into a rich music scene. Take it from me, who got a dip into the latter era of Vocaloid music, curiously dubbed yakosei, through this project introducing me to producer inabakumori and their post-punk-esque twist of the Viridian Forest theme—an underrated theme, imo. At its best, the love for Pokemon can lead you a new music discovery, and loops back into a renewed appreciation for the games.
As great as they are, I can’t discuss all 19 artists involved in Project Voltage due to space and energy. (A quick list of honorable mentions: Kairiki Bear, sasakure.UK, Giga, DECO*27) But here, I collected 8 of whom represent the highs of the music side of the series. I hope you can use this list to start your dive into Vocaloid music while enjoying some Pokemon media.
All tracks below feature Hatsune Miku unless listed.
Jin
“JUVENILE”
From his straightforward interpretation to the wholesomeness displayed in the music, Jin presents a solid starting point in “JUVENILE” for what to expect from a Vocaloid project inspired by the Pokemon series. The sentimental guitar riff interpolating the title theme sets the tone for the rest of the score that taps into the spirit of adventure. “Learn what’s sour, bitter and sweet / the sun rises and fades away,” the warbling voice of Hatsune Miku sings in the chorus. “Hold on to the map that’s yet to be explored.” Fitting with the lyrical direction, Jin opts for a breezier guitar tone than the tense math-rock he has honed for his solo material since 2012’s Mekakucitydays, free from jagged edges and coiled knots. It shines with an optimism familiar to the Pokemon series, though as the other contributions will reveal, it will only one of many ways to represent the franchise.
HachiojiP
“PARTY ROCK ETERNITY”
The sinister tune of the Rocket Hideout was a theme that was bound to be used. HachiojiP flips expectations in “PARTY ROCK ETERNITY” however as he arranges the corporate-terror dungeon muzak into a fist-pumping EDM banger as if to say forces of evil like Team Rocket know how to have fun, too. The dance-floor-minded direction may be par for the course for the producer, whose early electro-house singles were a big reason I personally started to dig deeper into Vocaloid music. While the big-tent synths here blare more obnoxious than those tracks from the 2010s, the bombastic instrumental only helps frame Hatsune Miku as a benevolent master of ceremonies.
Yuri Kuriyama
“Hyu~Dorodoro” ft. Hatsune Miku & MEIKO
In the original Red and Blue, Lavender Town has been one of the most memorable game chapters through its sheer creepiness, with the chills heightened through the level’s theme. Yuri Kuriyama takes cues from that ghostly level in “Hyu~Dorodoro” while doubling up on the songs haunted-house vibes by mixing that theme’s sharp, theremin-like synth with another ominous loop from the Rocket Hideout. That said, the producer follows a similar route as HachiojiP, and they spin this ode to terror into an all-out party track. Hatsune Miku sings at her most chatterbox as she gives cheers to drinking the fear away.
inabakumori
“Denki Yohou”
Inabakumori also grabs at an ominous theme like the above artists yet they flip one that I find rather underappreciated: the eerie track for Viridian Forest. And as the producer interpolates the loop, it’s tough to make out the sour riff as a screeching guitar or a burnt-out synth. Similar thing can be said about inabakumori’s own tracks, like “Lost Umbrella” with a jerky guitar riff that also sounds like a wheezing organ. The disorienting sounds from the misshapen instruments pique “Denki Yohou” with a sense of vertigo, and the atmosphere further warps from the zapped voice of Hatsune Miku, whose cold delivery can distract from the references in the lyrics but also the production.
Maybe my most “one for me” blog post for This Side of Japan this year yet—I will take any and all opportunities to talk about Pokemon here. But I sincerely do hope the list above can help you get started digging into Vocaloid music if you ever were curious about the scene. I had a blast checking out albums by the many producers from the project, even the ones I didn’t get the chance to write about. (Can I recommend DECO*27’s Aimai Elegy?)
For those who aren’t especially interested in Pokemon and/or Hatsune Miku, there’s a lot more selections below. More than usual, I hope, as I list a batch of my favorite albums from the year. You will also read the phrases “alien reggaeton,” “blackened metalcore” and “B-more drum breaks” further down as well as a small discussion on the Seiko cut.
Happy listening!
Album Selections: January - March 2024
For the Album of the Week for the next couple of issues, I decided to switch it up a bit to highlight some my favorite music from the year so far. And this issue covers the first quarter, from January to March. Here are four records worth your time.
To the Self, With Love EP by Find Me Alone [self-released]
*Recommended track: “Quarter-Life Crisis” | Listen to it on Spotify/Bandcamp
When Find Me Alone appeared on these pages back in 2022, I wrote that the band “understand that pop punk as a genre makes for a great vehicle to explore youthfulness as much as the bittersweet fading of it.” Is there a more straightforward proof of this concept from the trio than the opening track of their latest To the Self, With Love EP? “I thought it'd be so different / when my twenties came to a close," the chorus goes in “Quarter-Life Crisis.” “I miss the life / I had when I / could see a way forward.” And the band's stark thoughts about heading toward death shades desperation into the furious riffs, like they're trying to claw out of this pit of listlessness. While the light peeks through slightly in the next set of songs, Find Me Alone continue to contemplate the long stretch of time they still got on this earth and how to better spend it.
Y EP by Kaoruko & Stones Taro [self-released]
*Recommended track: “Y” | Listen to it on Spotify/Bandcamp
After mingling with new acquaintances from the hip-hop and rave scenes during her time out at the club in last year’s opal EP, Kaoruko found strong chemistry working with house-music denizen Stones Taro. The unofficial singer-producer duo put out a slinky dance-pop single after the next until they quickly amassed an EP worth, all collected here in Y. Stones Taro follows the UK garage and 2-step influence heard in opal while widening the palette: the production for the title track expands the style pool out to the dubstep and bassline era, peppering the thick wobbles signature to the latter subgenre. And those urban club sounds act as the chic soundtrack for the central vocalist and her nights out chronicled throughout the EP, capturing the glamor but also the fleeting rush.
Monochrome by Rhucle & Asami Tono [self-released]
*Recommended track: “Hira Hira” | Listen to it on Spotify/Bandcamp
Rhucle remains subtle to the touch in Monochrome, the ambient artist’s collaborative album with Asami Tono. For the first few tracks, he places the singer's solemn pianos at the center as he augments the pieces with more aural details. A quietly swelling drone gives dimension to “October Winds”; a softly ringing synth tone and rustling percussion pan across in “Footsteps” like inhales and exhales. So the ear piques when the roles switch in the centerpiece “Hira Hira,” as Tono ditches the piano to take vocal duties, her whispers evaporating along her collaborator's wash of drones as well as percussion that throbs like a distant heartbeat. Reverent as they are with each others' crafts, the musicians of Monochrome are far from conservative as they search for middle ground.
Itsudemo by So Shibano [ebirecords]
*Recommended track: “Gogatsu No Koto” | Listen to it on Spotify
Shimmery, jangling guitars and breezy pop melodies evoke in So Shibano’s latest an indie-rock record ready to take on the thrills of summer. Yet the singer-songwriter makes upfront from the title track on—“I always thought about you / I always think about you,” she sings the titular lyric in the brisk intro—that Itsudemo refers to the invaluable time she thought she could always experience until it all faded away. Shibano sings in the past tense in most tracks, or braces for an imminent end; and the exuberance beaming from the rock music nags with a false sense of new possibilities. Follow the track sequencing, and the album begins to draw up a progressive narrative of the vocalist fighting not to get stuck in this bygone rose-tinted past: “I’ve grown tired of repeating ‘those were the days’ / I decided to walk towards the direction where I've thrown my shoes,” she sings in the penultimate track, aptly titled “sayonara.” The sweeter the music sounds, however, it becomes harder to let go.
Singles Club
“invisible forest” by CVN ft. DAFTY RORN [Orange Milk]
CVN has shaped his abrasive IDM into suitable homes for rappers to lay down a verse before. This industrial-rap sampler from the producer’s upcoming new album, Xeno, though, sticks out through its loose, pop swing. With it rocking a dembow-esque riddim, “invisible forest” resembles a kind of alien reggaeton built from tin-pan scrapings, blown-out buzzers and helium-shot pipsqueaks. Now, I can’t guarantee how well the beat’s metal-on-metal grinding or its gurgling bass line will fare at your typical party. But the producer’s new track is bound to rile up a set somewhere with it being funky as it is off the cuff.
Xeno is out June 21. Listen to it on Bandcamp/Spotify.
See also: “bomb!” by Cuffboi; “nichijou:loopmania” by lilbesh ramko
“Kamioroshi” by nervous light of sunday [Instill]
Sticking busy to the live circuit since the band’s 2022 compilation record, Personality Formation, nervous light of sunday return with new blackened metalcore ahead of their upcoming summer EP. “Kamioroshi” bulldozes along with its pummeling drums and fiery guitars that give off a touch of math until it suddenly switches gears after a third of the way into a half-step breakdown. That lurching mode is made to rile up a room—perhaps better felt in an actual live setting than a stream at home. For those like me who can’t make it out, “Kamioroshi” will be the next best thing as a piece of their shows.
Abnegation EP is out soon. Listen to the single on Spotify.
See also: “BEHERIT” by KLONNS; “Time2Crime” by Nine Percent
“Bae Mastermind” by Stupid Kozo [KOOL SWITCH WORKS]
“Yo, party people, we gotta keep this thing going,” an anonymous MC interjects in Stupid Kozo’s Full Send EP, just as the record begins to cool down a bit from the B-more club breaks of the opening number, “Bae Mastermind.” “You know, the way we used to do it / in the Paradise Garage.” If the DJ/producer takes anything from the birth place of garage, it might be in the “marathon, not a sprint” pacing of its tracks: while a club chant emerges from the clap-happy percussion break to back that thing up, “Bae Mastermind” glides along smoothly with its honeyed ‘90s R&B sample dictating the leisured groove. For those who want it a little faster, there’s always the remix done by Pharakami Sanders, one of the three founders of KOOL SWITCH WORKS.
Full Send EP is out now. Listen to it on Bandcamp/Soundcloud
See also: “Wonder BCN” by Ko Yang; “Deepest Downtown” by Stones Taro
This Week in 1981…
“Natsu No Tobira” by Seiko Matsuda [CBS Sony, 1981]
No. 1 during the weeks of June 8 - June 15, 1981 | Listen to it on Spotify/YouTube
Seiko Matsuda announces the arrival of the new in “Natsu No Tobira” like no other. More than 40 years since its release, what I’ll say is probably not too hot a take, but let’s have at it anyway: Only a few other idol singles can claim to be a better Song of the Summer than this one. The glamorous intro alone signals a dive into a world of possibilities, and the galloping rock music keeps the mood on the up-and-up, capturing the anticipation building inside our central idol. “Open the door into summer,” she sings in the chorus, “and take me out somewhere.”
With a title that roughly translates into “the door into summer,” the song’s only doing what it’s partly designed to do. And when it comes to drumming up excitement, that immortal hook of “fresh! fresh! fresh!” cues the start of the season as triumphantly as the intro. Matsuda barges open the chorus with that hook, and from the bold manner in which it makes an entrance, it’s hard to hear the lyric as product placement for Shiseido’s Milky Fresh moisturizer. Whatever Matsuda and her summer fling take part in within the world of the song, it’ll be as thrilling as if it was their very first time.
For some fans in 1981, the sunny warmth of “Natsu No Tobira” provided a form of course correction. Matsuda’s previous single “Cherry Blossom” was a partial attempt to switch up her image to keep things fresh, starting from its tough rocker intro. “People will grow tired of an idol as soon as she stops giving them something new — so [Muneo Wakamatsu, Matsuda’s producer at the time] thought,” columnist Cynanyacu wrote in music site Reminder. But while it kept the idol’s number-one streak, it received mixed responses from fans as well as the idol herself at the time. Her bubbly image still had a lot of life left. Not only did the arrangement for “Natsu No Tobira” pivot back to the heart-fluttering pop of her breakthrough “Aoi Sangosho,” it built an even more majestic sweep on top of the former as a foundation.
That said, despite the music being a return to form, the idol on record shows a slight change in personality since her breakthrough. The opening lyric winks to her public image, specifically her hairstyle that was already known then as the Seiko cut: “You look a little shy / while you walk in front me / after you told me I look like a different girl / with my new hair.” Stepping in with a fresh summer look, the song gives way to a voice who’s shed her naivete and more in command in her own story. She showcases more humor, too: “You got to be kidding / when everyone’s watching / you got to be out of your mind,” she sings with embarrassment as her crush screams “I love you” to her in public, but also with this slight uplift that finds her not-so-secretly pleased.
Listening back with hindsight to those opening lyrics about her new haircut, I can't help but hear as a foreshadowing for the idol's upcoming promotional cycles until next summer. While “Natsu No Tobira” might have reeled back Matsuda into the bubbly idol path by popular demand, that very character soon began to cause backlash as the season waned—an inevitable lifecycle of a popular cultural fixture. Wakamatsu had the right idea about a need for the idol to change direction though he was perhaps a step too ahead. Winter eventually came, and she would chop off her iconic hair in real life for a different single as if to symbolize a loss of innocence but also the idol blooming anew. In a way, "Natsu No Tobira" represents the last, pure, "first" summer spent with Matsuda, before things start to get more real.
You can listen to all of the songs covered so far in this section in this playlist here.
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Next issue of This Side of Japan is out June 26. You can check out previous issues of the newsletter here.
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I love those piano stabs in the pre-chorus of "Natsu No Tobira", what a good song!