May 2024 - A Quick Trip Around the World, and a Lot of Time in Africa
Albums
Atarashii Gakko! - Ichiji Kikoku
At Coachella 2024, they handed over a stage one night to 88rising, a label/promoter/management company that specializes in Asian artists. As you might expect, a lot of what was there was K-Pop, J-Pop, hip-hop, and pop-pop, and most of it was stuff that I didn’t care very much about.
But there was also Atarashii Gakko!, my new obsession.
I suppose you’d be forced to say that they’re a girl group. They even do the thing where they have “roles” (there’s the cute one, the “funky” one, the bookish one, etc). I suppose you’d also be forced to say that they’re pop, and since they’re Japanese it’s tempting to say that they’re J-pop, but I think they fit pretty uncomfortably under that label. For one thing, their music is often much, much harder than what we normally call J-pop, and for another, their sound is wildly varied, including hard rock, hip-hop, and occasionally a hint of jazz. Sometimes all that happens within a single song.
Of course, the inevitable question with a group like this is like, well, are they really the artists or is this a manufactured idol thing? I want to take some time with that question and break it down into some component parts.
Did they write this music?
Mostly not. They’ve worked with a lot of different collaborators over the years, including yonkey and H Zettrio, who are largely responsible for the compositions. I find the answer to this question a little unsatisfying, though, because for the most part, I don’t care about the stuff those artists do under their own names (with the exception of the H Zettrio piece I linked to just now). So the impulse to say “oh, well they’re fake I should listen to the real artist’s music” doesn’t actually lead anywhere. And one has to ask, why are they doing something so different (and so much more interesting) for Atarashii Gakko!?
Did they write these lyrics?
Yes. And the lyrics are actually pretty interesting. Take their recent single “Tokyo Calling” for example. It’s a pretty negative take on Tokyo’s culture of overwork and isolation. That’s pretty unusual for Japanese pop music, and gives them a bit of cred in my book. It also features an abrupt tonal shift at the end which could give an American listener whiplash, in which they’re suddenly declaring “we are marching” over and over. I assume is meant to imply that there’s a brighter future ahead or something?
Another good example is their track “Giri Giri.” The first ten or twelve times I heard it, I thought to myself “there’s no way they’re actually saying ‘hentai’ in the chorus, right?” But no, they are. It’s a song about a high school student trying to keep up with the intense cramming that the Japanese school system is famous for, and also trying to protect herself from a teacher who’s making advances. Again, for a Japanese pop audience, this is kinda racy stuff.
Are they responsible for the choreography?
Emphatically yes. The fact that this is a blog means that unless you’ve been clicking on my links all this time, you might not know how freaking weird the choreography really is. It’s very weird. And not just weird to an American; it’s weird to the Japanese market too.
Are they actually great performers?
Well, I haven’t seen them myself, and I’m EXTREMELY ANNOYED at the lack of an official video of the Coachella performance with decent audio quality, but this looks like a pretty good time to me, and I think you’d have to agree that the lead, Suzuka, has a startlingly powerful voice.
All this has led me to think a bit harder about the fact that music, especially mainstream music, is such a collaborative process. We’re used to thinking of it in terms of “an artist” who does “their thing,” but in fact there are teams of people working everything from sound production to stage set to marketing to choreography, and all that stuff is what we think of when we think of a given artist. Billie Eilish comes to mind immediately as someone who has been very frank about the fact that her music is actually a collaboration with her brother, and she just has her name on it (and then of course there’s an army of producers and so on as well). If it’s some punk band you’re seeing at a local dive bar, it might really just be the band and their girlfriends/boyfriends deciding everything. Anyone who’s on tour though? They’ve got a team.
Post-script:
In this little blurb, I’ve linked to that Jimmy Kimmel performance several times because I love the shit out of it. Jimmy Kimmel saying “Making their US television debut, Atarashii Gakko!!” is wonderfully surreal. There’s nothing wrong with the way he says it - that’s the standard thing to say, after all, and he pronounces it with admirable ease - but the fact that a guy who came to national attention on The Man Show and Crank Yankers is forced in his middle age to know something about this weirdo Japanese girl group is just wonderful. Next time you’re about to hate on Gen Z, remember this moment.
Gary Clark Jr. - JPEG RAW
Even though he’s often described as a blues artist, Gary Clark Jr.’s sound has always been pretty eclectic. He’s said many times that he likes to avoid being pigeon-holed and tries to avoid doing the same thing twice.
JPEG RAW is even more wild than ever, bringing in elements of West-African music (which seems to be a theme on this blog these days), hip-hop, blues, gospel, rock… it’s a great variety of influences, and (mostly) resolves to a single vibe nonetheless. For my money, the title track is one of the best (I love a good “unh!”) and also “Don’t Start,” about a jilted lover who’s about to kill his rival. You know, traditional blues stuff.
Suzi Wu - Teenage Witch
Apologies for the grainy image. As a rule, when you’re looking for images of album art, bandcamp is the place to find the best ones, and this is what was there. I’m not sure whether it’s intentionally grainy - it would make sense, since she seems to be taking a mirror selfie - or if it’s just because she produced all this in her bedroom when she was 19. To be honest, I like it either way.
This EP is pure teenage angst. It’s extremely catchy and lackadaisical in that high school “fuck you” kinda way. Unfortunately, I haven’t been crazy about the stuff she’s done since, but clearly there’s talent here, so I’ll keep listening.
KABEAUSHÉ - “HOLD ON TO DEER LIFE, THERE’S A BLCAK BOY BEHIND YOU!”
(sic) on all the above.
Awhile back I highlighted the track “THESE DISHES AIN'T GONNA DO THEMSELVES” from this album, and was recently reminded that the whole rest of the album is pretty incredible. It’s a wild collage of sounds, rhythms, and influences that all comes together into a single explosive, apocalyptic sound. It’s got some of the best handclaps I’ve ever heard.
KABEAUSHÉ is (or was?) Kabochi Gitau, a Kenyan pop artist. He’s doing a little bit of play with his identity à la David Bowie or Lady Gaga, in which the character and the artist are difficult to pull apart. As he said:
Interviewer: How was KABEAUSHÉ born from your previous name, Kabochi?
KABEAUSHÉ: Oh! He got executed - Kabochi was trying to save the world by curating the softest tissue ever that would save humanity from all its madness and he didn’t know that there was someone that was out for him, and so he got executed, and Kabeaushé is who is sat in the chair now.
I’m not going to be able to pick that apart at the moment. Almost none of the interviews I’ve found are in English, and I’m a little nervous about trying to understand the nuances of his character via Google Translate. It’s pretty clear that there’s some kind of playfulness happening about who “he” is. I couldn’t resist the temptation to link to a friend’s recent book about how David Bowie’s identity shifted from album to album, and the question of “who” he was was intentionally obscure.
This album is a huge leap from KABEAUSHÉ’s previous, The Coming of Gaze. That one was quite a bit simpler and softer. According to him, The Coming of Gaze is a collection of songs he wrote while he was still in Kenya and his exposure to music outside of the country was quite limited. It wasn’t until he was noticed by Nyege Nyege, a Ugandan label, and sent around the world that he heard a lot of music we take for granted in the US, like Lil Wayne and Kate Bush. This album, meanwhile, was written on that international tour while he was being inundated with new sounds and aesthetics.
The other thing to know about KABEAUSHÉ is that he’s always incredibly cool-looking.
Dead Pony - Ignore This
At this point, I shouldn’t be surprised about how each generation of rock music tosses everything from 20 years prior into a blender. That’s the whole deal with rock music! And almost any music at all. And really almost any art at all.
Even so, I’m surprised about Dead Pony. It’s a blend of girl rock, pop-punk, nu metal, and indie rock - that’s not so surprising on its own - what’s surprising is that I love it. I absolutely hated at least 60% of Dead Pony’s influences when they were fresh, but Ignore This is just so hard and so catchy that it’s kind of undeniable. Although admittedly, some of those influences were kind of guilty pleasures at the time (*ahem* Powerman 5000 *ahem*).
The other thing that blows me away about this album is how freaking long it is. 16 tracks? And almost all of them really good? That’s pretty amazing. I really hope I get to see these guys at some point because I bet it’s great.
Tracks
Keleketla! & Coldcut - Future Toyi Toyi
I haven’t quite wrapped my head around exactly what Johannesburg’s Keleketla! Library is. I think that like a lot of music things, it’s somewhere between a music studio, a practice space, an artist’s collective, a promotional group, and a record label. Whatever it is, they collaborated with Coldcut to create this interesting combination of African genres and Western dance music. There’s a lot of other good stuff on this album (also called Keleketla!), so definitely give it a listen if this appeals to you.
Jamie XX & Honey Dijon - Baddy on the Floor
Jamie XX is pretty much always spectacular. I don’t know as much about Honey Dijon, but if she’s the one responsible for the disco house horns and piano vamp, I’m a fan in the making.
Kreidler - Polaris
Kreidler has been around for a long time now. This track is a wonderfully dreamy post-rock/krautrock thing that makes for an amazing late-night drive.
Guedra Guedra - Seven Poets
As you can probably surmise from the glut of African music in here this month, I recently went on a bit of a tear exploring modern African electronic scenes, and the thing is, uh, there’s a lot of it. Which like, obviously there would be, it’s an entire continent for crying out loud. It would take a long time for me to understand the nuances of all these unfamiliar genres and rhythms and cultures, and I’ll admit here that I probably never really will, but I’ll do my best to at least provide some context.
From what I gather, this album Vexillology comes from a variety of North African cultures, which makes sense since Guedra Guedra is in Casablanca, but it’s also very heavily influenced by juke/footwork and Chicago drill. It’s interesting to juxtapose those genres - it turns out that those wild polyrhythms and looping vocals are a useful throughline. There’s a lot of great stuff on Vexillology, and I very nearly put it in ALBUMS.
Hunter Hunted Soundtrack - The Taste of Flesh
I was planning to put Fat Dog’s “All the Same" here, but it reminded me of this video game soundtrack from the 90’s, and well, it turns out that the Hunter Hunted soundtrack was way better. I believe the artist’s name is Loudmouth, but I haven’t been able to turn up much by them. I wonder how much of my current taste in music is a result of being 11 years old in my basement at 1am, blasting a minotaur with a shotgun.
Julie - catalogue
Why do people give themselves names like this?? 90% of “Julie” bands are terrible.
Yard Act - Petroleum
I’m doing my best to forget how much I loved Yard Act’s first album The Overload and just enjoy their new music. It’s a lot like eating a veggie burger. It’s good, it’s just not a burger. This track has a great Beck-esque drawl that totally works as its own thing, it’s just not that other album (and that’s ok! …I think).
Creepy Nuts - Bling-Bang-Bang-Born
Stay tuned for next month after I go on a deep-dive into this Japanese hip-hop duo’s catalogue. For now, enjoy this wild marimba-laden Japanese-language rap with some System of a Down/Simple Symmetry vibes.
Kondi Band - Shake Your Tumba
We’re back in Africa again, this time Sierra Leone, for a collaboration between Sorie Kondi, a blind busker on the streets of Freetown, a London producer named Will LV, and an LA producer named Chief Boima. Kondi seems like an interesting guy - he plays a custom-made 15-pin thumb piano called the Kondi, and has lived through civil war, occupation and poverty. This track is kind of a chant with swirling production in the background. The album, We Famous, is an interesting listen too.
Justice & Tame Impala - Neverender
Tame Impala + Justice sounds like a good idea, and it is. Overall, I didn’t fall in love with Justice’s Hyperdrama (who expected another Justice album? Not me), but this track is great.
Nosaj Thing, HYUKOH, & Martyn - We Are (우리는) (Martyn's Come Back Mix)
I haven’t heard much Martyn recently, which is on me because he’s usually pretty good.
JB Dunckel - Dolphin
Once in awhile you really just want a beautiful nocturne, something simple and lovely with lots of arpeggios.
Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard - Therapy
It took me a moment to understand what Tom Rees was talking about when he said that he struggled to get over his shame of loving rock music. But now that I’ve given it some thought, I realize that coming of age in the era of The Darkness and Jet would give you a stilted view of what rock is about. We went through a period of rock as self-parody, a sleazy joke, campy self-aware nonsense, Evil Dead 2, or maybe even Army of Darkness. I love Tenacious D, but they didn’t help the situation.
I’m glad we’re past all that, because I love rock now. Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard came to my attention because The Bug Club called them out as one of their favorites. It’s not an obvious connection, but it makes me love The Bug Club even more because it belies their insistence that they just sort of make their music happen without trying.
Pye Corner Audio - Symbiosis
For those who have been waiting for some slow-burn electronic ambiance, here it is. I’ll be revisiting Pye Corner Audio this month and you will likely see more of them next time around because this stuff is great and I need more time to explore.
Anika - Finger Pies
This kind of art rock totally has its place - a dreamy ethereal instrumentation, a bass groove, a lady saying some arty stuff - that’s a formula for success. My only objection is that the whole album is basically this. Also, I feel like the lyrics should be evocative of something slightly more specific, no? Idk, maybe just me.
Coals - nowy świat
It seems like Poland is a good place to be if you’re interested in weird, theatrical electro pop. “nowy świat” nails a hypnotic midtempo sound with just the right amount of major/minor play.
Early James & Sierra Ferrell - Real Low Down Lonesome
This kind of bluesy lounge music has to hit exactly the right tone in order for me to be interested, and “Real Low Down Lonesome” does it. Sierra Ferrell nails the swells on every chorus. Sometimes it’s described as “inevitability” - a payoff for every verse. It’s also just great to hear a duet once in awhile. They don’t actually happen all that much anymore.
Okvsho - Con mis perros en la niebla
I haven’t gotten any jazz on here yet, so I want to be sure that I make a certain amount of space for it. The key here is the drums, I think, along with the restrained atmospheric keyboards. It’s a great groove.
Joy Orbison - flight fm
Joy Orbison is great and this is a fantastic example of the kind of deep, complicated groove that he became known for. It’s delicious dance music that makes me pine for 2017.
Jane Weaver - Perfect Storm
I keep waiting for a Jane Weaver album to hit the highs of Loops in the Secret Society, but I think this single is as close as we’re going to get for awhile, at least. It’s a great psychedelic pop track where repetitive guitar and keyboard let you just get lost in the vibe.
Alex Perez & Flowdan - Militia
Hot take: Flowdan’s voice is awesome (no one considers this a hot take).