Hello! Welcome back to The J-Music Advance Party! Glad you made it! I hope there wasn’t much trouble finding the place. Grab a seat, grab a snack; we will begin momentarily after a brief word to our new guests 😉
If this is your first time here (and I reckon a lot of you are seeing as this is still a new series), do allow me to answer the question on your mind:
What is The J-Music Advance Party?
The J-Music Advance Party is a monthly publication where I quite simply talk about bands and artists that I personally plan on listening to this month (and subsequently recommend that you too as well) in advance of their upcoming albums and releases in the style of a an album “pre”-launch party of sorts.
These could be bands who have an album coming out that I’m excited for, or they could also be an artist whose discography I feel warrants further exploring starting with their new EP. Whatever the case may be, these are releases that I’m both looking forward to and that I hope to put on your guys’ radar if they weren’t there already.
Make sure to subscribe if you haven’t yet by hitting the button underneath and save yourself a spot! (We made it to second post after all so, y’know, that’s something righ-)
And with that, it’s time to party!
▸ ミセカイ (misekai)
Our first featured act for this month’s Party is the duo of composer/vocalist Amaarashi and vocalist Chisa, Misekai; who made waves in 2022 with the release of their debut single Aoiharu (which, at the time of writing, boasts 2.5 million views on YouTube as well as over a million plays on Spotify).
“Misekai” is a portmanteau of the two Japanese words “mise” (to see) and “sekai” (world), and is at the heart of the conceptual framework behind their music that is "creating songs inspired by visuals". Now, PVs that showcase beautifully drawn illustrations which use the central narratives of the songs as their basis isn’t a novel concept by any means, this much is true. However, something to note here, and why I personally find this duo to be particularly unique despite what first appearances might lead you to believe, is the ordering of the processes involved. You see, Misekai does not make songs that they then have artists do artwork for, but rather they write their songs based on the artwork provided to them. It’s a fascinating crossroads of artistry that you don’t see a whole lot of, and I just think it’s really cool that they are able to put illustrators forward like this.
Talking about the duo’s sound, it’s very clearly the product of a post-Yorushika-influenced world (with vocalist Chisa’s voice and singing style in particular being very reminiscent of Yorushika’s suis), and overall they do generally lean towards this “Yakousei” kind of vibe with their offerings. What’s interesting (though I guess not necessarily surprising given its commercial success) is that it’s also crossed with Japanese Youth/Teen Pop with their songs’ narratives being mostly about of love and longing; which is not too dissimilar to the kinds of songs prevalent in social media and go viral on TikTok and Instagram much like the aforementioned Yorushika.
Misekai will be releasing their much awaited full album debut Atrium on February 7, 2024, which will include all of their previously released singles, notably: Aoiharu, 104Hz, Ever, and many more.
▸ Liyuu
Any Love Live! fan will tell you that the franchise knows no shortage of talent across the good handful of series it has since produced following the project’s inception dating back to to 2010, with each iteration seemingly acquiring prospective artists more than ever. Chinese singer/cosplayer Liyuu is one such recent addition to the the franchise’s growing roster of seiyuu performers (joining Love Live! Superstar!!’s group Liella as the voice of the character Tang Keke in 2020)
Interesting to note is that earlier that same year, Liyuu had also just made her official artist debut, already having performed opening and ending themes for two different shows (Magic Words for the show "Hatena Illusion” and Carpe Diem for “Hyakuman no Inochi no Ue ni Ore wa Tatte Iru” respectively) before even getting the call that she had landed the role. I say “interesting” because, although much more common in the franchise’ earlier iterations, typically with its newer crop of talent the artist debut comes after the exposure granted to performers by the project; with the franchise being a good way to showcase their singing through songs made for the series, along with opportunities to be part of tours and concert, all of which help establish them as artists should they pursue that career path.
Though she had not necessarily set out to be a singer, Liyuu appears to be on the fast track to becoming one, and if anything else has quite the knack for it given what we’ve heard from her so far. In giving credit where credit is due, I do think a lot of it really is in the direction her music has been leaning towards as of late, which has largely been more Synth/Electro-adjacent (the leading track to her most recent EP being a TeddyLoid and JUVENILE collaboration of all things). If you know anything about me and my musical tastes, it’s that I’m an absolute sucker for it and if her newest single Soaring Heart is any indication it seems as though Liyuu might be all in on that which is all the more exciting.
Liyuu is set to release her second full album Soaring Heart on February 7, 2024, which includes the title track Soaring Heart, as well as TRUE FOOL LOVE and bloomin’.
▸ いきものがかり*
Next up is one of Japan’s long-standing and most-celebrated Pop Rock duos, Ikimonogakari, who will be a kind of release that I don’t often get to talk about but is one of my personal favorite ones to listen to. In particular, the duo will also have a tribute album be made for them that comes out a day after, which features an absolutely STACKED lineup of bands and artists performing some of their best hits.
Now, as someone who grew up on a lot of Goose house in my early years of becoming a Japanese music fan, I’ve learned to appreciate covers of songs a great deal. For me at least, covers were one of the key things that helped me connect with music from a previous generation, with cover artists bridging that gap with their renditions. Oftentimes, as I’ve wrote about in the past, they end up becoming as a pathway of sorts to me being a fan of the original work. Tribute albums, I would think, serve that exact same purpose and is largely the reason why I’m very much fond of them whenever one gets made.
Of course, that’s not to say that tribute albums are *only* for those who are a generation or two removed. You might have noted, if you clicked on that article of mine that I linked, that I published that back in 2018. I wasn’t as in tune with the music scene as I am now (or as much as I think I am at least, lol). I didn’t really know a whole lot of artists, new or old, back then. I just knew them as Japanese artists and that was it. However, Ikimonogakari is a band that I do know, and have known for quite some time. Not only that, but this is one of the first times that a tribute album will be made for a band whose songs I’m very much familiar with, wherein the bands and artists performing them are *also* ones who I *currently* follow.
As is usually the case with these though, the people who will be doing their tributes have free reign as to how to go about with their rendition, though we won’t know until the album actually drops how exactly these artists have chosen to go about the songs they will be performing. I’m personally looking forward to hearing yama’s rendition of Blue Bird as well as AiNA THE END’s rendition of Joyful.
The album, titled いきものがかり meets (ikimonogakari meets) comes out on February 14, 2024.
▸ arne
arne doesn’t quite have the same kind of name value and recognition that the artists I featured ahead of them, but Roundup followers would know that they are a band that I hold very near and dear to my heart.
I first got to talk about arne when I featured their song, Æter, in one of my Roundups. In it, I go over how I became quickly enamored by Waoshun’s brand of Prog-y Math Rock coupled with Hirame’s ethereal vocals. In the months, and later on years that would follow that fateful encounter, I would continue to hold hope that are would one day garner for themselves a wider audience. That day has, unfortunately, yet to come for the Nagoya-based duo. It does ease my heart though seeing the band continue to make music despite that. All it takes is one after all so, who knows, maybe this year is their breakout year?
arne is set to release their first ever EP this month, with the month having only ever released singles since they debuted back in 2019. I’d be curious to see if they add in any of their older songs or if the EP would only consist of only new songs, considering their most recent single was void from February of *last* year. If they do decide to go the former route, I would absolutely love a potential re-recording of seaside or hailsham, which would be my favorite songs by them. Otherwise, I wouldn’t really at all mind an EP of what would essentially be a whole year’s worth of new stuff either.
The EP, In your somnia will be coming out on February 14, 2024.
▸ BURNABLE/UNBURNABLE
Last but certainly not the least of our Advance Party features here is none other than the eccentrically beautiful Dark Pop of BURNABLE/UNBURNABLE.
I first came across BURNABLE/UNBURNABLE (or simply “B/U”) after I heard Dareka no Furi wa Mou Akita in one of Spotify’s automatically generated playlists and I fell in love immediately. I think, more than anything, I was drawn in by how… subliminally dark (both thematically and atmospherically) the song was on top of how much it leaned towards Trap-like beats and just vibed with that it was trying to do. While I’m personally very much a fan, given the sort of experimental nature of their sound, reception of their music is a bit mixed, with some tracks garnering more attention than others. Halu Halu Ya (in my opinion the best song B/U have put out to date) linked above for example is already B/U’s third most viewed track on YouTube at 216K views whereas you have songs like Fura Fura on there which barely reaches 10K. Spotify has the numbers spread out a little different but the disparity between some of their tracks compared to others is still the same.
It did seem like B/U was finally on the upswing for a brief minute when their videos started to consistently get 6-digit views but at present they’ve trended back down again. I’m an ardent believer though and I do think they fill a niche with their Dark Pop that not a lot of artists right now occupy. Whether or not that’s a genre that people are actually clamoring for is, of course, a different story. That being said however, I do think that A-ko in particular breaking into mainstream consciousness could open up some doors for B/U seeing as how they kinda have the same sort of aesthetic to their music (on a related note, they’re both performing on the same live show this month which I thought was pretty neat).
BURNABLE/UNBURNABLE will be releasing their first full album 空恐ろしい (sora osoroshii) on February 21, 2024, consisting of a whopping sixteen tracks in total.
That’s gonna do it for The J-Music Advance Party for February!
Here’s a quick recap of all the releases featured for this month:
Which release are you most excited for this month? Likewise, which bands and artists are you looking to listen these next couple of weeks? Let me know all of that down in the comments!
The next Advance Party is gonna be on March 3, 2024. Are you looking forward to any releases next month? Check back here to see if they get featured!
I tend to be quite bad at keeping up with release date news so stuff like this ends up being incredibly helpful!
The name liyuu seemed familiar to me so I looked her up, it turns out I do know her, from two songs she worked on for the gacha game Dragalia Lost (rip to the best gacha ever).
https://youtu.be/FFC6bXIw0VE?si=qcsn-Qyhg0wa8dyL
https://youtu.be/aia5PwuYWdc?si=MEUxiElCmySEewer
Two songs I consider amazing, now I’m for sure looking forward to her release this month!
Was not familiar with either arne or B/U, but their music seems right up my alley, yet more music I’ll have to check out this month lol
Apart from those, one album I’m looking forward to the new album from maharajan coming out soon on the 7th. I can always count on them to deliver some vibes~