My J-Music Favorites of 2007

I’ve never been a person who makes big plans for New Year’s Day. I think I was out on the streets at midnight once, a few years ago, and I went for the company of friends more than any perceived importance of observing the day itself. Nope, I’m the kinda guy who’ll just sit at home and do nothing, and be happy for it. Maybe I’ll have a beer or something, play some more World of Warcraft, or spend some quality time with the boyfriend. But, I will admit that the new year does give me a decent prompt for blog writing. I think I’ll celebrate the occasion of incrementing a digit on the calendar by writing an entry on the most remarkable j-pop discoveries I’ve made this year. Some are genuinely brand-new finds; some represent a newly-vested interest in a group I’ve known about for a while. All are very important to me and are artists I hope to be listening to for a while. So let the sharing commence:

Yasutaka Nakata. Number one on my list is a name that may not be directly familiar. Nakata is the man who, at only 27 years old, is the producer for such luminary acts as capsule and Perfume. He has a number of intriguing side projects like COLTEMONIKHA, runs his own record label (contemode), and has recently produced varying amounts of work for artists such as Ami Suzuki (“FREE FREE” and “SUPER MUSIC MAKER”), Leah Dizon (remix of “koi shiyou” which, I should point out,  totally kicks the ass of the original), and MEG (her entire BEAM album, released earlier this month).

In addition to his impressive list of collaborations, Nakata is also amazingly prolific: capsule alone had three full-length album releases in 2007. Nakata, in addition to production work, generally writes all the music and lyrics for his projects, and has even directed his own promotional videos in the past. If you’re looking for someone to really show you up as far as career accomplishments go (by the way, I’ll be 26 in February. Grumble.), Nakata’s your man! Oh, and did I mention that his genre of choice these days is insanely catchy, over-the-top vocodered electro music?  Yeah, this music pushes all my buttons, including ones I didn’t even know I had. Check out the samples, and if this is your thing as much as it is mine, don’t hesitate to check out the albums Sugarless GiRL, FLASH BACK, or FRUITS CLiPPER from capsule; Complete Best from Perfume; BEAM from MEG; or any release from COLTEMONIKHA.

Yuka Funakoshi. Interestingly, I discovered this artist from domestic channels. I first stumbled across Funakoshi’s music on eMusic, where customer reviews hailed her as being a “Western-style” Japanese pop artist. I was intrigued and purchased her album Silent Sun. What I found was a young woman with a gorgeous voice, self-composing and writing her own lyrics, and even playing keyboards (a prominent element in many of her songs). I’m not sure how “Western-style” she is, as that’s a term I find difficult to qualify, but I can say that she is a definite far cry from most other Japanese pop (as in popular) music.

Best of all, Funakoshi’s music is completely accessible: her albums are available not only on eMusic, but also on iTunes as well as Amazon’s MP3 Downloads store. I don't work for eMusic, but I should point out that if you don't mind paying $10 for a basic 30-track subscription (which can easily be canceled after the first month if you prefer it not to recur), they are by far the cheapest option. Anyway, corporate shilling aside, I didn’t fall head over heels for Funakoshi like I did for Yasutaka Nakata above, but her music is relaxing, intelligent, and very well-done overall. The albums of hers that I own are Silent Sun and Pool no Nioi no Natsu; both are highly recommended.

Morning Musume. “But Fox, they’ve been around for years!” Yes indeed, and I’ve known of them for years as well – but 2007 is the year when I finally sat up and started to pay attention. Their July single “onna ni sachi are” grabbed me and held on tight for months afterward. The song was catchy, it was well-performed, and with just nine young women in the group I found it fairly easy to “get to know” all of them with regards to their various personae. Recent single “mikan,” while not as impressive to me, helped seal the deal, and while I don’t own any album releases yet, you can bet I’ll be buying the next one that comes out.

Of course, nobody told me that getting into one Hello! Project group means potentially-fatal levels of exposure to the entire idol milieu created by Tsunku and Co. (It probably doesn’t help that I read International Wota on a daily basis, of course.) It may be too late for me, I’m afraid, but you can still save yourself! Under no circumstances should you listen to the samples I’ve provided! Run… run far away… but y’know, I was nice enough to put the links right there for you, so…

 

Koharu Kusumi. “But Fox, she’s in Morning Musume. And she can’t sing for crap.” Well, dear imaginary reader, those were the exact reasons I ignored her solo releases under the Kirarin Revolution banner for so long. But hey, guess what popped up on the US iTunes store just recently? Why, nothing other than Ms. Kusumi’s second solo album, Kirarin Land. Fancy that. I was bored at the time, so I decided to give it a download. I expected the worst, since the short samples I heard of the tracks weren’t doing much to bring me around. Well, let’s just say that I listened to the entire album, straight through, twice in a row today – and that’s just today.

Koharu may not be able to sing very well (although she is slowly improving, it seems), but the beauty of the music on Kirarin Land is that nothing requires her to sing well. One track, “Konnichipa,” has Koharu hamming it up in a way that both showcases and somehow glorifies her lack of technical ability, to the point where I don’t think a more accomplished vocalist could pull it off quite as well. Other album tracks, like “koi no mahou wa HABIBI no BI!” (worth it just for the title) and “Ramutara” have her bouncing along, gleefully singing half-nonsense verses like no one’s listening, and it all works. It works shockingly well, actually. Seriously, buy this album. (This may be a little late for a truly justified addition to a “best of 2007” list, which isn’t really what this entry is anyway, but I still consider Koharu’s solo work an important discovery for me because it’s made me do a complete 180-degree turn in my perception of her.)

I listened to a lot of new and new-to-me music in 2007, and while I don’t exclusively listen to Japanese music (and also could compile a list of great English-language albums I bought this year), I can confidently say that the above-mentioned artists are the ones that kept me playing and replaying their songs well past the point of total memorization and into the depths of addiction. (Seriously, I listened to nothing but capsule during my work commute for a good two months.) Here’s hoping that 2008 will be as fruitful for my ears and as draining on my wallet.