The J-Pop Thread

yeh it's awful, there have been rumours for a while about Seiko being a mess behind the scenes but hearing it for yourself is a whole other thing

yeah, the whole thing is bumming me out, she should take a little breather and definitely step away from this particular project (altho she's basically what made it so interesting, sigh...)

yeah this stuff is depressing, if she's just going to recreate the worst abusive dynamics of the idol industry what the hell is the point

yea exactly

watching this old video of seiko with bis, it was easy (for me) to fall into the narrative of "ZOC is her using the clout she's built up to make a fun dream from when she was younger happen"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXj5yP-OKQM

but turns out she's just been using her position of power to do shitty things (like what happened with bis I guess, hmm), kinda kills the whole thing

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu with "Dodonpa"... or should it be Din Daa Daa?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6xG_zFoE8g

Air ni ni by Hakushi Hasegawa is a pretty wild album - hyperactive synth-heavy jazz-pop/breakcore fusion

here's a spotify link since the only track from it on youtube is the first which is a little unrepresentative of just how wild it gets
https://open.spotify.com/album/1ikOY8ht1sAQAGuK5dTl4k

― ufo, Saturday, November 23, 2019 5:46 AM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

holy shit you weren't kidding, first track makes it seem like some Plus-Tech Squeeze Box thing then it immediately ramps up to like 300 BPM

reminds me a bit of Sayohimebou. this is better though

Wednesday Campanella's new vocalist making a splash

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKiTKAWNvYk

sounds like a solid replacement at least

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBwT2Sgb1yY

oh i like the other new single "alice" more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejAMVcO_kF8

quite enjoying this recent demagumi single which is like, prog-pop-punk/metal

the new kyary album is good actually, utterly bonkers in places (like "Dodonpa" posted upthread)

title track "Candy Racer"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umec0eIhKp8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I6di1S0Mqw

batten girls - "watashi koi hajimetatteyo!"

love this

really like this one!

think I account for half the views on this lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKBWXhKUX8I

LOVE that!

Oh yes, this is good! Liking their 'Blue Baton' as well.

strong CHARISMA.COM vibes, I guess it's the rapping

this is sick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jL4t8ABGmI

"In This World" - Mondo Grosso, Hikari Mitsushima, Ryuichi Sakamoto

so gorgeous, would love an extended mix

Also just learned that BoA re-recorded her vocals for "Everything Needs Love" last year <3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d69btWfh_3o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah5EAnoFGyk

lyrical school are so good

hmm new sakanaction album is very very boring, easily their worst. hope the second album this year is better

agreed - i don't love the retro direction they've been going in. I miss their big rave choruses.

"plateau" is good though

"plateau" is solid but it's pretty by-numbers. they're still good at that one thing though which is enough to make it stand out from the rest of the album.

it's such a short & slight album and the other songs don't really have anything going for them, they're fairly mellow and restrained without their usual big hooks. it's not even like they don't have ideas, there's no reason the talking heads-esque disco pastiche of "shock" has to be so underwhelming - it's not bad but they're clearly capable of so much better. they've made going retro work extremely well before on "wasureranai no" but there's nothing like that here

flipping through it, I like it fine but yeah my general impression of this band is they're too interesting to be doing what they're doing. if this is "easily their worst" that's a good sign for the albums I haven't heard yet

I've liked a few Haruka Kudo (工藤晴香) songs before, but not with enough mindfulness to internalize the kanji and realize that without looking it up. But the new album, 流星列車 (Meteor Train?), is fantastic idol rock all the way through. Highly recommended!

https://open.spotify.com/album/43fD05oNZfTmSg6UZWo6UG

got to say I'm amused that altidol is already in the nostalgia phase with Bellring and Especia announcing oneoff reunions
only a matter of time before WACK scrape together a lineup of Lui and whoever is in the office at the time to do a BiS "hits" tour

anyway Ano has a major label debut single, it's OK?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JeCJ8kDmu

(copy/pasted that wrong)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JeCJ8kDmus

new wednesday campanella EP out today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feiToPhrzcI

it's solid, not special in the way their 2013-2018 run was, but i'm happy to have more from hidefumi

I think it was time for a bit of a lighter vibe. Utaha is growing on me. "Buckingham" goes.

greatly enjoying this debut album from ExWHYZ - first single "Wanna Dance" produced by Shinichi Osawa/Mondo Grosso:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn9EPV_atyQ

hey something WACK related that I actually like, been a while since that happened
(thought it was a 46 offshoot at first just going by the initial haircuts haha)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjzzPdG7RXw

ho6la - "idol fire" goes hard and goes places

ok this is cheating a bit cos they are from Thailand, but this Shimmer Shrimpner song is fun in a late 80s indiepop way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A2AhynBC8o

speaking of cheating, is there a better place to talk about the lexie liu record?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4tyThWCYU0

oh and nakata continues bringing the good stuff again with the new capsule

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXlbYV9RhAM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n8WiBNCZpY

very confused by this sailor moon-themed idol group putting out this weird atonal track produced by hudson mohawke & bloodpop

Sakurazaka46 (formerly Keyakizaka46) have been steadily ruling this year

"Start Over" - such a rush

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJRFD1AdaUE

"Shoninyokkyu" - currently no.1 in Japan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_BjvhMW9TE

love the weird ass tempo changes in this, makes my brain feel like it's being squished together and pulled apart simultaneously

RYUGUJO - Deep Waves

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w--X4i-K1Wk

it's not just tempo but time signature too, extremely bold

Yeah, that's wild.