Issue #84: Seasons Move Forward
Digging into best albums of Q2, Yoshimi Iwasaki's "Touch," and the year's favorite boy-group singles so far
Hi! Welcome to This Side of Japan, a newsletter on Japanese music, new and old. You can check out previous issues here.
How has 2024 been for the boys? The acts under the major companies have not let their momentum gone to waste following one productive run last year. The EXILE Tribe had an early start with singles by PSYCHIC FEVER and (my personal favorite) WOLF HOWL HARMONY. But the group that made the biggest headline so far is Number_i, thanks to their appearance at Coachella. Even without their spot at the festival, though, the former STARTO idols already made enough buzz in the press cycle as returning acts but also with the actual music whose chaotic production some would describe as pure noise.
Not much has caught my ear yet from the groups that proposes an alternative from the dominant idol-pop landscape informed by hip hop, disco and R&B. There are the works in the new EP by Genin Wa Jibun Ni Aru, curiously shortened now as GNJB, who recruited Vocaloid producers Jin and Narutan Seijin in their latest If you were EP. Naniwa Danshi, meanwhile, continue to steal my heart in their traditionally idol-like “for my one and only” singalongs despite their best efforts to offer an alternative. But so far, I need to do more work in digging to find more songs deep-fried in synths or those adjacent to visual-kei, either in sound or via the members’ looks.
Maybe it’s right, then, that my top favorite of the year so far double downs on hip hop, both in sound and image. Last year yielded something similar in vibe from one of the great STARTO twins of SixTones, whose turn to the more sentimental has been what I enjoyed most from them. The company presents yet another nod to hip hop now from King & Prince, and the duo sound like they’re having a blast as they don the gear but also the beats and flows of the ‘90s. As you see, I’m easy to please if you strike the intersection of my two loves of idol and hip hop.
Here are some of my favorite idol songs of the year from the boy groups. Here is a list of my favorite idol songs of the year so far, from both the girls and boys.
“Frozen Butterfly” by WOLF HOWL HARMONY [Avex Trax]
Like many pop songs nowadays, “Frozen Butterfly” evoke the early 2000s in a TRL-ruled America, though it’s been a personal thought exercise to figure out just exactly what about it beyond vibes that pins its style to the Y2K decade. I suspect it’s the mix of jingling boom-bap carried on from Max Martin-branded New Jack Swing and the sampled strings that, had this been actually released in 2001, predicts the rise of Scott Storch. But like Backstreet Boys before them, WOLF HOWL HARMONY injects this clanging funk with sweet melodies that call back to classic ‘60s R&B groups—it’s what, I think, gets me playing early SHINee as much as B2K after hearing this. “Let’s run away from this ice blue world,” the boys sing in the chorus, the gothic strings dramatizing it to a degree of life-or-death. Whatever era they choose to depict, the yearning to run off with their one and only, it seems, runs eternal.
Frozen Butterfly is out now. Listen to it on Spotify.
“Aqua” by JO1 [LAPONE]
“Aqua” landed too quiet as a streaming release leading up to what would eventually be the HITCHHIKER EP when it deserved attention in the level of JO1’s actual singles. Perhaps it’s the fate of a decidedly low-key track that resembles more of that fashion-forward B-side from a usually loud, flashy group. That, um, aqueous deep-house beat especially recalls many of my favorite K-pop album cuts from the years a bit after f(x)’s “4 Walls” and SHINee’s “View” made waves—“Replay (PM 01:27),” anyone? Against such sleek yet shadowy production, the group explores a sultry side not often heard in their main-event records.
HITCHHIKER EP is out now. Listen to it on Spotify.
“GOAT” by Number_i [TOBE]
Sho Hirano, Yuta Kishi and Yuta Jinguji hinted at their eventual nosedive into hip hop as Number_i during one of their last runs as part of King & Prince. Though, as in-your-face as “Ichiban” got, it did not prepare anyone in and outside the fandom for how the trio would decide to stuff “GOAT” with, well, everything. Their verses whiz by, offering no moment to catch a breath, and some would argue the buzzing production consists of more noise than sounds. I, for one, am thrilled to see them be this daring to return with such a bombastic song that screeches like a computer blowing a fuse—I need something to roughen up a pop landscape full of glazed disco. They claim to be to nothing other than the G.O.A.T. in the chorus after all. The music needs to sound as audacious.
GOAT EP is out now. Listen to it on Spotify.
For my new readers, I also publish a bi-monthly column dedicated to Japanese idol music called Idol Watch. If you are a subscriber to This Side of Japan, you should have also got an issue of it in your inbox along with this newsletter. It’s usually its own thing that’s sent out separately from This Side of Japan, but partly due to time crunch, I decided to stick on the main newsletter—hope you enjoy.
If you’re not too interested in idol music, fear not: we got a lot more down below from ambient, hardcore punk to Mikugaze, as in shoegaze with Hatsune Miku vocals. And for my anime songs fans, I have a treat for you as I look back at a classic for the Oricon flashback.
Happy listening!
Album Selections: April - June 2024
For the Album of the Week for these couple of issues, I decided to switch it up a bit to highlight some my favorite music from the year so far. This issue covers releases from the second quarter, from April to June. Here are three records worth your time.
Cycle by H TO O [Wisdom Teeth]
*Recommended track: “Play” | Listen to it on Spotify/Bandcamp
The guiding concept behind Cycle by H TO O, a duo of Kohei Oyamada and personal ambient favorite H.Takahashi, offers a way in which to hear the album's sequence of tracks. Though, the music lures through its ever-evolving sounds and phrases without considering whether or not the ebbs and flows of their New-Age-school synth fantasias justly evoke “the different stages of the cosmic cycle.” If the duo does intend to studiously chart a linear arc, then the most active moments lie precisely around the center. The bell-like synths lets in light as the instrumental of “Awake” stretches its legs, shaking off the last of its remain grogginess; “Play” move with glee from the flickering synth loop to its skipping marimbas. The sounds in Cycle may be soft and tender, but the album courses with life.
HEAVEN by KLONNS [BLACK HOLE]
*Recommended track: “Beherit” | Listen to it on Spotify/Bandcamp
For their latest full-length, HEAVEN, KLONNS move beyond their EP’s strategy of obliteration by speed and velocity. Let's not get it twisted: the hardcore-punk act can still knock your wind out with their whiplash-inducing songs, pit-starters like “Realm” and “Nemesis” here standing as proof. But the beasts here groove as much as they shred, the band really letting the fury cook as they pace out their tracks throughout the record. “Creep” indulges in thrash metal as it gallops before it goes into total collapse while “Another” lays out a bobbing beat that gets quickly ripped apart from its slashing solo. The band threads together all these different ends in “Beherit,” making room for the dance as well as the brutal breakdown. KLONN showcase all that they can do in HEAVEN without wasting a minute while filling the bigger space.
Seasons Move Forward by Soccer. [ungulates]
*Recommended track: “IV” | Listen to it on Spotify/Bandcamp
Soccer. rely again on the change in season as they did in “The Summer Will Be Here Soon,” where the post-hardcore band weathered their heartbreak from the hope that the arrival of summer can allow them to restart on a clean slate. From the sound of Seasons Move Forward, those sunnier days are yet to come for the band with their songs still stuck in that dark winter: “Why can’t I see you / where is your feeling,” guitarist-vocalist Taiyo Kinoshita screams out in the chorus of “Winter ‘21” over bruising guitars that sting like ice burn. They rage to fight inertia with all its might through white-knuckled emo-rock yet the band inevitably reach the last drop of fuel: “IV” shows that final flash of energy, its suicidal refrain reduced to half a phrase as if Kinoshita’s too exhausted to bother. Soccer. burn out gloriously in Seasons Move Forward, all in attempt to clear a new path ahead in the process.
Singles Club
“A24” by BANNY BUGS ft. 3House [Team Larry]
A slinky garage-esque beat reanimates the music of BANNY BUGS, whose R&B-laced hip-hop has been laid back in a “beats to chill to” zone since 2021’s iNSPIRE EP. And paired with guest singer 3House’s smooth vocals, the rapper’s new single casts a vibe reminiscent of a Y2K R&B of an act like m-flo, but with a soft quietude more attuned to the late nights. If the production gestures toward a fully retro move, the titular chorus should plant the duo firmly in this current decade. We’ll see in time how well “you and I, we’re like a movie / we’re A24” will age as pop lyrics go, though the message hits sincere especially when wrapped in such a sweet R&B arrangement.
Listen to it on Spotify.
See also: “Picky” by CREAM; “Rolling Stone” by VaVa
“Tegami” by IkaP [Siren for Charlotte]
The beaming rush of shoegaze in “Tegami” hits as a breath of fresh air in IkaP’s latest release, Jisatsu Chokuzen Nikki, after wallowing in the first post-rock numbers. Those few songs can sound depressing to a punishing degree as the brooding music captures the emotional muck which Hatsune Miku attempts to provide some salve from. When “Tegami” arrives, the album whose title can be translated as A Diary Before a Suicide gains its drive from the white-hot guitars that carries the rest of the song in a no-look-back trajectory, like it has finally found the light it has been searching for. The positivity in the lyrics starts to ring bittersweet in the grand scheme of the album, more as a dedication to an innocence lost, but Miku holds on to hope as long as the song will allow.
Jisatsu Chokuzen Nikki is out now. Listen to it on Bandcamp.
See also: “The Time Machine School” by kinoue64; “MIDORI” by pear soda
“1RKO” by Shiina Ringo & Nocchi [EMI]
I first had to read it several times over to make sure I am in fact seeing Nocchi—you know, from Perfume, my favorite pop group, ever—on the list of names featured in Shiina Ringo’s new album. But the duet is real, and it is glorious. Whoever’s J-pop dream was to hear our favorite electro-pop bob be the co-frontwoman of a band inspired by Tokyo Jihen, consider your wild wish granted: she snarls and howls over an arrangement stuffed with crooked guitars, jazzy keys and a wah-wah bass line. The top line snakes deceptively smooth, letting the oblique lyrics go down easy. I imagine they're singing with passion to each other about wanting to become better, faster, stronger, in the perspective of boxers like the music video or maybe not. Sorry, but I’m too distracted from witnessing two of my favorite-ever musicians just being the coolest on record, together, to focus on anything else like the meaning of words on the page.
Houseikai is out now. Listen to it on Spotify.
See also: “MIRROR” by Ado; “Ciara” by Gesu No Kiwami Otome
This Week in 1985…
“Touch” by Yoshimi Iwasaki [Canyon, 1985]
Highest position at #12 during the week of June 24, 1985 | Listen to it on Spotify/YouTube
While researching for this entry, I was reminded of an artist featured in this column in the past, of Anri and her getting the call for “Cat’s Eye,” the theme song for the anime of the same name. The singer was not entirely convinced at first on the idea of recording a song for a cartoon. This was in 1983, and this opinion of anime songs as a novelty record separate from pop music persisted by the time Yoshimi Iwasaki put out hers for the anime adaptation of Touch. It was a perspective also entertained by the music labels: Canyon Records executives released “Touch” as a children’s record so it can be exempt from excise taxes until it had to be overruled by the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau in 1986.
“Music that's enjoyed by the youth even separate from the associated program” is roughly my translation of the bureau’s commercial description applied to “Touch” to discard Canyon’s attempts to claim it instead as a children’s record. It sounds like a pop record for certain, blending right in with other hits that charted on the Oricon in 1985. That surf-rock-esque riff of an intro might work to cue the entrance of a superhero. But backed by a slight dance beat, Hiroaki Serizawa's groovy rock arrangement settles with Iwasaki’s other non-anime pop contemporaries like The Checkers—a group who Serizawa had also been arranging their '50s-rock-indebted music for. The music competed with enough quality, at least, to assure Iwasaki that she would be in good hands when working on this record.
To Canyon's credit, the hook of “Touch” somewhat echoes the strategies employed by the earliest of anison tracing back to the '60s, where the song lived and died by the title of the show, resembling a jingle as much as a theme. But as central as the titular lyric plays out in the chorus, with Iwasaki shouting it in sync to the rhythm of the beating drum like a stadium-game chant—“Please, touch! Touch! Right here, touch!”—it hardly sounds self-referential and instead in dialogue with the in-song narrative. “Touch” functions as a proper pop song in other words, even when divorced from the media franchise. And the gears that let it turn and elevate the hooks into parts of an anthem are what makes the song a karaoke favorite 40 years later.
Touch is of course the keyword here: it’s the title of the show after all. But whenever I listen to this song, I’m equally in awe of the phrase stardust loneliness. Lyricist Chinfa Kan, who also penned the lyrics for a few of Iwasaki’s other singles, uses it to express the hopelessness that the singer feels when trying to console her crush but also the secondhand sadness she also suffers from when placing herself in his shoes. I want to think that the producers may have zeroed in on this lyric, perhaps even as the would-be title, had this single been made with no influence of a TV show whatsoever.
Because the music as well as the hook of “Touch” underwrites the melancholy at the song’s core. A koshien anthem has no business being this heartbroken. The powerlessness in the lyrics partially echoes the missed connections that drive the love triangle central to the anime—a tragic romance disguised as a club-sports story that follows twin high-school boys falling for the same childhood friend. “Adolescence is a bruise of the heart / my mind runs in circles / over you who knows too much,” Iwasaki sings in the second chorus. The stomp-and-clap thrust behind the song’s titular chant kicks in urgency but as desperation. Please, notice me, she might as well be saying, as she quietly sobs out of having to bear her feelings in solitude.
The music-listening public responded modestly over Iwasaki’s pleas for attention. “Touch” climbed to #12 on Oricon at its highest while failing to crack the charts of music-ranking program Best Ten. But the TV watchers embraced the song as they were glued to the anime, the song’s popularity following the show’s shot to fame. Touch consistently ranks atop lists of recommended anime series of the ‘80s and so does its theme. It missed the top spot unlike Anri with “Cat’s Eye,” but the anime series granted Iwasaki an iconic record and her most beloved song.
You can listen to all of the songs covered so far in this section in this playlist here.
This Side of Japan has a Ko-Fi as a tip jar if you want to show appreciation. A subscription to This Side of Japan is free, and you don’t have to pay money to access any published content. I appreciate any form of support, but if you want to, you can buy a Coffee to show thanks.
Next issue of This Side of Japan is out July 10. You can check out previous issues of the newsletter here.
Need to contact? You can find me on Twitter or reach me at thissideofjapan@gmail.com