Patrick St. Michel - The Japan Times

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Patrick St. Michel

Patrick St. Michel is a Tokyo-based writer with a focus on Japanese music. He runs the blog Make Believe Melodies, which has focused on Japanese independent music since 2009. Besides The Japan Times, he also contributes to MTV 81 and The Atlantic.

For Patrick St. Michel's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Jul 17, 2013

Slow Beach "Lover Lover"

Slow Beach is somewhat of a supergroup in Tokyo's indie-rock scene. The group finds Dai Ogasawara, founder of twee-leaning netlabel Ano(t)raks, hooking up with producer Kai Takahashi, who is responsible for some of the most interesting electronic compositions of the year, including a chilled-out remix of Phoenix's "Entertainment." They have teamed up with Yuriko Ohno (keyboard) and Keito Taguchi (bass) to create "Lover Lover," a collection of tropically tinged songs arriving just in time for summer. Slow Beach isn't just floating on beach imagery and surf-rock guitars, though, as "Lover Lover" conceals some good sonic experimentation and a melancholic heart.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Jul 3, 2013

Homecomings' harmonies help them stand out in a twee herd

All a university really needs to get its students to come out to an event is the promise of free food.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Jun 20, 2013

The title of miwa's first two releases, "Guitarissimo" and "Guitarium," seemingly announced her musical niche. Those top-selling albums (her debut made her the first Japanese performer born in the 1990s to take the Oricon album chart's top spot) revolved around guitar, in the form of frantic rock numbers and slow ballads. Her early work featured some strong moments, but mostly sounded derivative of other unadventurous singer-songwriter types (Superfly, Angela Aki). Given this history, it's surprising to find miwa exiting her comfort zone on her latest full-length, "Delight." It's a document of a young artist figuring herself out, and one of this year's strongest J-pop collections yet.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Jun 20, 2013

May.e "Mattiola"

Thousands of people have uploaded videos of themselves to YouTube playing acoustic covers of well-known songs. Armed with a guitar, a voice and dreams of viral stardom, the covers tackle everything from contemporary pop to hip-hop, and more often than not are done with an ironic nod to the viewer.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

May 23, 2013

Guitarist Dustin Wong brings singer Takako Minekawa out on a 'Toropical' journey

Guitarist Dustin Wong hesitates for a split second. It's a pause that would go unnoticed during most other sets, but Wong has spent the last 40 minutes seemingly in a trance while playing guitar and looping the notes via an array of pedals in front of him. The flurry of interlocking sounds he's produced at Tokyo venue Eat And Meets Cay in early February came out rapidly, as if Wong plotted them out on graph paper beforehand.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

May 16, 2013

Noah × Sela "Split EP"

Over the course of its six-year existence, Flau Records has carved out an identity as a record label offering intimate music. The actual sonic styles of the artists represented by the acts signed to the border-hopping imprint differ — some make proper songs, some just produce beats, and sometimes there will be a blend of both. One thing in common is that every Flau act sounds like it is whispering in the listener's ear, from the enveloping warmth of Cokiyu to the kitchen-sink production of Madegg to the sinister hair-raisers Neon Cloud.

CULTURE / Music

Apr 18, 2013

Kis-My-Ft2 "Good Ikuze!" (Avex Trax)

Odds are, Japan Times reader, that you do not like Kis-My-Ft2. Maybe you've been unable to escape the bleating "Wanna Beeee!!!" while out strolling in Shibuya, or maybe they lost you at, "From the people who brought you SMAP and Arashi!" So this review should be quick, right? A nice hatchet job with a couple good jokes thrown in, and we're out.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Apr 18, 2013

i-fls "Diary of Spectre" (self-release)

The first song I ever made — and I'm willing to wager many who graduated high school in the mid 2000s share this experience — was using Apple's GarageBand, a software application that lets people make music on their computers. "I made a killer techno track last night, dude," I overheard one classmate say, so off I went to the school's computer lab to fiddle around with the program. I created one "song" that was pathetic, and surrendered my dream of being the next Daft Punk.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Mar 28, 2013

April: Karl Hyde to headline SonarSound

The next month features a great mix of concerts for all sorts of live-music fans. Several long-running bands visit Japan in April, as do some of the most hyped-up young outfits in the world today. Whether you like apocalyptic postrock or Swedish indie rock, the next 30 days have you covered.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Mar 21, 2013

Japan needs to rebrand for SXSW

The purpose of the South By Southwest (SXSW) Music Conference and Festival in Austin, Texas, is for musicians to woo new fans and industry insiders. The five-day festival, though, hasn't been about bands for a while — it's about brands.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Mar 21, 2013

Various Artists "Upwards and Onwards" (Ano(t)raks)

Fledgling online-only label Ano(t)raks takes a somewhat needless risk with their second compilation album, "Upwards and Onwards." Founded late last year, Ano(t)raks highlighted bedroom-made indie-pop, a style defined by simple guitar playing and equally basic lyrics about love. Indie-pop has been going strong since the 1980s ... and has barely evolved sonically since then. Nobody expected Ano(t)raks to deviate from that, but "Upwards and Onwards" nudges the gates open and features more electronic-leaning artists and jammier collectives. It makes the album an engaging listen, and establishes the imprint as an incubator for all sorts of promising young artists.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Mar 21, 2013

NMB48 "Teppen Totande!" (Laugh Out Loud Records)

Contrary to popular hemming and hawing, the big problem with Oricon chart-dominating act AKB48 isn't their music. Their discography certainly contains misfires, but producer Yasushi Akimoto and company can pen great material for the dozens-strong group. Last year, they boasted two of the best songs in all of Japan: "Sugar Rush," one of the best songs Shonen Knife never wrote, and the surging "Uza." The real problem with the AKB48 model is how thinly stretched everything is. Besides the main group, the AKB empire includes many sub-groups and sister outfits based in cities across Japan and Asia. Osaka-branch NMB48's debut album "Teppen Totande!" highlights this problem, the majority of the songs sound like recycled ideas from AKB48.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Mar 7, 2013

There's no battering the Tempura Kidz spirit

The members of Tempura Kidz have danced in front of thousands of strangers at sold-out venues across Japan, including Tokyo's famed Budokan and the Summer Sonic festival. Yet on a Thursday night in a Harajuku office building, the teenage quintet is nervous.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Mar 7, 2013

Ram Rider to take his energetic electronic music and glow-in-the-dark antics to Los Angeles

Music producer Ram Rider's first encounter with any sort of computer came when, during the 1980s his parents bought something called an MSX while he was in elementary school. He would plug the early home computer into a TV and fiddle around with the various programs. That's how he got into making his own songs.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Feb 28, 2013

March: Grimes, Andy Stott head east and west

March means the (eventual) return of nice weather, so you no longer have to bundle up or stay indoors cursing the cold world beyond your apartment. And as the climate warms up, for those in need of more incentive to venture outside, there are several great gigs going down across the country.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Feb 7, 2013

Dirty Beaches draws from Serbian film on new album

Alex Zhang Hungtai is constantly in motion. The Taiwanese-born artist, who performs under the name Dirty Beaches, has said in interviews the idea of "home" doesn't mean much to him. He's lived in Taipei, Honolulu, Shanghai and Montreal, and is an avid traveler on top of that. This feeling of always being on the move is something Hungtai says comes across in his performances.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Jan 31, 2013

February: My Bloody Valentine returns

January featured a ton of great concerts across Japan, but February might be even better — hope your wallet isn't too thin this month.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Jan 23, 2013

“Mr. Children 2005-2010 ”

My Japan Times colleague Ian Martin nailed the state of Japanese pop music when he wrote that it was "clinging on to the hoary old remains of the past." The Oricon Chart's top albums of 2012 list was dominated by "Best Of" compilations, with the top two spots going to a pair released by rock band Mr. Children, put out to celebrate the quartet's 20th anniversary. "Mr. Children 2005-2010 <macro>" sold 1.16 million copies and was 2012's best-selling CD. It's a fitting representation of the state of J-pop entering 2013 — a serviceable collection of songs with a few strong moments, but ultimately an exercise in playing it safe.

Japan Times

CULTURE / Music

Jan 23, 2013

Shortcake Collage Tape "Spirited Summer"

Creating music meant to purposely evoke the past can be tricky. Recreate the sounds of a specific decade too closely and the music becomes too nostalgic, pining for a time the artist never even knew existed. On the other hand, approach bygone times too cynically — as the Internet-born microgenre "vaporwave" does by perverting old commercials and corporate sounds — and it starts to sound like a joke. Tokyo's Shortcake Collage Tape, the solo project of Azusa Suga (who also fronts indie-pop trio For Tracy Hyde,) takes an alternate route on the new album "Spirited Summer." Suga splices samples from various time periods to create original songs that radiate warmth and good times but also conceal a melancholy for lost moments.

CULTURE / Music

Dec 20, 2012

Tokyo Girls' Style to perform first solo gig at legendary Budokan, but first — homework

The members of Tokyo Girls' Style have a lot to juggle in the next couple of months. This Saturday, the five-member pop group will perform a solo show at Japan's storied Budokan arena — a huge milestone for any musical outfit here. About a month later, their third album "Yakusoku" ("Promise") will hit stores. On top of all that, the teenage performers have to stay on top of their schoolwork.

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.

[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Things may look perfect to the outside world, but today's mom is fine with some imperfection at home.

How 'Reiwa moms' are reshaping motherhood in Japan

By Mai Yoshikawa

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Spotlighting a Niigata castle town through sushi

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