The J-Music Advance Party (June 2024)

Not sure what to check out this month? I got you.

Oh hey! Welcome! Glad you could make it to this month’s J-Music Advance Party! If you’ve already attended one of these, chances are you already have a preferred seat, so by all means proceed to the events area down below and I’ll join you guys there shortly. However, if you’re a first time Party-goer, please allow me a minute or two of your time to explain to you ー

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 to the newsletter if you haven’t yet by hitting the button underneath and secure your invite!

I’m proud to say that our number of Party-goers have been steadily increasing with each month. It’s a joy seeing you guys fill up the room each time out.

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▸ ひかりのなかに (hikarinonakani)

Our first act for this month’s Advance Party is Yamashita Kaho, aka Hikarinonakani.

Originally formed in 2017 at a light music club during their high school years, Hikarinonakani was once a three-piece Japanese Rock band comprised of the aforementioned Yamashita, bassist Takeuchi Hiyori, and drummer Joe. The band very quickly gained popularity as an up-and-coming band to be on the lookout for after having made standout performances, notably winning a live house-sponsored event (Ookayama Peak-1’s TATATA!!), as well as the ROCKIN’ON JAPAN publication’s RO JACK audition, the latter of which earned Hikarinonakani their spot to perform in the annual COUNTDOWN JAPAN year end concert for 2018. The band’s appearance on the widely popular CDJ and the subsequent overall positive reception that they got would catch the eye of AMUSE subsidiary label A-Sketch, who then signed the band in short order in the summer of 2019. Their first official release would come in late February-early March of the following year with the single Long Goodbye.

To say that Hikarinonakani had a fast start to their music career is a bit of an understatement. By that same token though, it was looking like things couldn’t have lined up any better for the band, with fans foreseeing a bright future ahead of them. However, it appears that wasn’t the case for the members of the band themselves, as both bassist Takeuchi and drummer Joe would announce their sudden departure from Hikarinonakani in November of 2020. Something to note is that this would have also been in the midst of COVID19 pandemic which may have very well contributed to their decision. Yamashita would continue carrying the band’s name whilst performing with support members. She would release a single (the aptly titled MOVE ON!) and one more EP Massugu na mama de ii (lit. “just keep (moving) straight”), before she too would announce an indefinite hiatus for Hikarinonakani, citing how she had come to dislike creating music, something she had once loved, because of anxiety; perhaps brought about by the pressures of being the band’s sole member.

Yamashita returned to the stage in May of 2023; her first appearance after announcing a resumption of activities early that year. There (and as recorded in the above) she talks about being filled with a deep regret after she abruptly decided to put a halt to her music career. That despite already becoming a member of society and making a decent living as an office worker, she still loved music after all and that she still sought out to perform. Thus, Hikarinonakani (lit. “the light inside (you/me)”) is back with us once more as Yamashita gives it another go. Truly moving.

Hikarinonakani will be coming out with Charm, her first EP since Yamashita Kaho’s return, on June 12, 2024.

▸ 𝒉𝒂𝒓𝕞𝕠𝕖 (harmoe)

Following that up we have voice actresses Iwata Haruki and Koizumi Moeka, who together form the Dance Pop duo unit harmoe.

I do feel a bit duty-bound having these two here on the Advance Party considering how I had just recently put out a review on their first album It’s a small world over on my blog (you can check it out here if you’re interested!). To briefly summarize though: while I did come away having enjoyed the album for the most part, ultimately I felt it might have leaned a bit too much on the thematic framework of the release; that of fairytales and folklore, which serve as the basis for the majority of the songs on It’s a small world (with the album title too being in reference to the very same Disneyland ride). What I mean by that is, to me, it seemed (to me at least) that there was much more emphasis put in making sure that the listener “gets the reference” so to speak, rather than what I personally deemed to be the more thought-provoking aspect of the album which would be the people who helped work on it. That is to say, while you could piece together that their song Issun Saki wa Hikari is based on Issun-boushi for example, I don’t think I’d be as confident about your chances identifying it as a track produced by yuigot, or that Arabian Utopian, a song very clearly inspired by Aladdin was made by Tomggg, etc etc.

Of course, one can say it’s more an exercise of working within a preset theme, and it’s more on the producer to make something within those limitations, and I totally get that. However, I would also argue that it does feel like a wasted opportunity for harmoe, considering how their team went out of their way to specifically employ the kind of producers that they did (who, interestingly enough, were all names within the Japanese EDM/Dance Pop scene). If we weren’t gonna have these producers do their thing, why even have them on in the first place?

I end my review by saying that I would be curious to see harmoe focus more on being an EDM/Dance Pop unit first and foremost. I genuinely believe that to be appealing enough of a prospect to warrant as much, rather than having the unit continue to lean heavily on the Disney-theming which in my opinion is more of a novelty. Going off of that, what’s fascinating is we actually are seeing glimpses of exactly that in the lead up to their second full album, radii; as evidenced at the very least by what’s looking to be its de facto title track in HyperLoveSong here, which is already sounding like a fun time if this 30 second snippet is anything to go by.

radii is set to come out on June 19, 2024, and will feature another good handful of producers working on the tracks for the album. One track I’m particularly looking forward to hearing is All of Me, which was produced by Aiobahn.

▸ Kroi

Up next, taking center stage, is five-member Funk Rock band from Tokyo, Kroi.

It made total sense to me that Kroi was as popular and well-received as they already were when I first came across them, and I have no trouble believing that their star will continue to shine even further in relatively short order. A lot of that, I think, is definitely luck (in a “right place, right time” type of way) I feel, in that the band was on the come up during a time when Rap/Rap-adjacent styles started to become the *in* thing in the world of Japanese music. Not necessarily the Rap genre itself, but rather incorporating Trap-y breakdowns and a quick Rap verse or two into a song to give it that extra layer of musicality while also making it have a bit of an edgy bite to it; the most notable example of this, of course, YOASOBI’s Idol. Suffice for it to say, it became an immensely fan-friendly style to try to replicate because of how widespread Idol had gotten, changing the overall Japanese music landscape in the process at the extreme.

While there was definitely an uptick in songs that tried to do the same following the mainstream success of Idol, Kroi in that time had instead just naturally come to incorporate Rap into their songs as a matter of course, owing to their adapted musical style (which they categorize as a mixture of Rock, Soul, Funk, and Hip-Hop), that in turn made it easy for them to slot right in to the rising tide of Rap/Rap-adjacent acts.

Do I think Kroi would be as popular as they are now had it not been for the release of Idol? My answer is… most likely yes! I mean, it’s hard to say for certain since we’re not living in that timeline, but it should be noted that the band was already making waves well before that following their successful appearance on the 2019 Summer Sonic Festival which already put the band in a lot of people’s radars; notably the record label they would eventually be signed by, PONY CANYON subsidiary IRORI. Whether or not Rap/Rap-adjacent songs would be as prominent in such a world is hard to gauge, but as you’ll hear in Water Carrier here, vocalist Uchida Leo has the range to also just sing if need be. That being said, I’d be lying too if I said I didn’t personally enjoy that element of their sound.

Kroi is set to release their third full album Unspoiled on June 19, 2024.

▸ CHIANZ

Next up on the Advance Party is Japanese “Gals” Band, CHIANZ.

Derived from the word ‘chian’ (治安) which means public order, “CHIANZ” (治安ズ; the addition of ‘-zu’ turning the word into a play on ‘-chans’ to denote a collective of people with it having a secondary meaning of being a ‘safe place’) was originally the name of a LINE group chat comprised of four childhood friends, namely: singer-songwriters eill and Foi, as well as Chie and Tsukikawa Rei (who together form the guitar/bass pair YABIxYABI). They all first met one another during their time in a youth music program that nurtures up-and-coming talent in the pursuit of a career in music. Having since graduated from the aforementioned program, the four have gone on to make names for themselves to varying degrees of success; with eill finding the most success thus far following her breakthrough single Koko de Iki wo Shite which was used as an ending theme for the widely popular anime adaptation of Wakui Ken’s Tokyo Revengers. Foi and YABIxYABI have also released their first full albums Her and 8○○○○○○Z○○ respectively since then as well. Perhaps deeming it the right time in their respective careers (whether strategically at the behest of their management, or just as a fun thing to do among friends), the four have now gotten together to form a band. You know, as you do (XD)

In all seriousness though, I do find this to be a very interesting venture, not only because of the people involved, but also the potential of what they can come up with. Followers of my Monthly Recommendation Roundup series over on my blog would know that I’ve been a longtime believer and fan of eill’s for years now at this point. While in comparison I admittedly haven’t had the pleasure of checking out YABIxYABI’s work prior to finding out about their involvement here, I’ve instead since been made familiar with and have enjoyed Foi’s work in the past year, enough for her to be my runner-up for Favorite Discovery of 2023. Suffice for it to say, just the idea of these two performing together is already fairly exciting.

Going back to what I said about the potential of what they can come up with, one of the things that stood out to me when I was reading about the inception of CHIANZ was how they were specifically aiming to break into the international market with their music. Now, this can just mean anything. Like, taking it a face value, it could just mean them wanting to have a foreign following. However, those more privy to both eill’s and Foi’s artistry (particularly their songwriting) would know that they are actually multilingual. You see a little bit of it here in GIG and NOT MY FAULT with their predominant use of English, but something to note is that eill has dabbled with singing and writing songs in Korean, whereas Foi has done the same but in Chinese. Thus, I fully expect for them to leverage these aspects of their songwriting for CHIANZ here specifically because of what they’re setting out to do.

We’ll see if that ends up being the case come June 26, 2024, which is the release date of their fully crowdfunded first EP OGYA.

▸ チョーキューメイ (ChoQMay)

Last up to the plate is a band that made quite a splash on the Internet right around this time last year, ChoQMay.

In a track that now looks like an outlier in their existing discography, ChoQMay appeared in the consciousness of the general public seemingly out of nowhere when their song Anata no Koibito ni Naritai all of a sudden became a viral hit after it became popular on Japanese TikTok and Instagram. I don’t even think the members of ChoQMay themselves expected that song of theirs to take off as much as it did considering how Anata no Koibito ni Naritai wasn’t even one of the songs they initially chose to do a promotional video on. If you’ll notice, the PV for it on YouTube was published a year after the song had already come out, and it’s actually only retroactively that Japanese SNS denizens had come across it and used it in their reels. The band was quick to recognize this and, seizing the opportunity, launched what would be a successful SNS campaign focused around the song specifically which broadened its reach even further and in return they were able to amass a number of new fans who might not have heard about them had it not for Anata no Koibito ni Naritai. I mean, I’m not even sure I would have been recommended their album Surudoi Sasakure (which is how I first came across them) if they didn’t go viral.

Looking back, it’s interesting how the song itself wasn’t even the most representative of ChoQMay’s sound, or at least, the portion of it that you *would* hear if it was used in a reel. If anything else, the track does lend itself to being a ‘break’ of sorts in the album it finds itself in, as it’s sandwiched between the two tracks that ChoQMay were pushing for instead in She Side Blue and 3gatsu no Hanayome; neither of which having the same sort of jovial singsong-y energy that attracted people to Anata no Koibito ni Naritai in the first place.

Equally as interesting is the fact that the band seemingly didn’t even try to replicate the success they had with that Anata no Koibito ni Naritai by making another one like it, going by the kind of songs that they would release after the fact. Almost as if ChoQMay themselves understand that the popularity of that song will only be as good as it is relevant, and that people will invariably move on to the next viral hit when the time comes. Sure enough, it does seem as though the band took a little bit of a hit now Anata no Koibito ni Naritai has ran its course (at least going by streaming numbers), but there’s something commendable too about a band like ChoQMay sticking to their guns and just making the kind of music that they want to be making. sister here, I think best summarizes what they actually bring to the table; a unique pastiche of Pop Rock, with Jazz and Classical influences that vocalist Urara skillfully navigates with her voice that she plays like a freakin’ violin.

ChoQMay comes out with their second album 銀河ムチェック (ginga M check) on June 26, 2024.

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That’s gonna do it for the J-Music Advance Party for June!

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 July 6, 2024.
Are you looking forward to any releases next month?
Check back here to see if they get featured!

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