久しぶり! Long time no see! It’s been awhile since I’ve made a Mixtape so I’m here to share some of my recent faves. This bunch is introspective and meditative at times, but I hope ya’ll will feel the love and enjoy your night!
yama, Tatsuya Kitani – As I longed for
憧れのままに (“Akogare no mama ni” – “As I longed for”) is a collab between yama and Tatsuya Kitani—a lively technopop song with Tatsuya Kitani’s light and feathery falsetto melting satisfyingly together with yama’s androgynous yet feminine vocals. This song is also a collab with a car advertisement with the concept of city pop of the 70s and 80s—with a sense of “longing for,” it really does express a chill vibe, perfect for a night drive.
While I haven’t listened to many songs by the two artists individually, I’ve had Tatsuya Kitani on my radar ever since I heard his song, “Where Our Blue Is”—which you may have seen as the second season opening for the anime Jujutsu Kaisen. Tatsuya Kitani is also a vocaloid artist known as Hello Tanita-san, the bassist for the band sojou no hana, and the support bassist for Yorushika.
yama is another distinctive artist that I’ve come to recognize for their blue hair and white eye mask, as well as their androgynous and gentle vocals that lend towards collabs with various artists. They are a genderfluid artist with an anonymous personal life who first started off with vocaloid covers; they have their own band called BIN; and they have their own solo career which I first noticed with the first ending of the anime Spy x Family, with their song “Color.”
yama and Tatsuya Kitani both have unique voices that shine even more together in this song. Their technopop/city pop vibe is relaxing and upbeat, so I hope you enjoy!
Oisicle Melonpan – Swirling Summer Fermata
Oisicle Melonpan continues to be one of my favorite bands, so I’m excited for the amount of music we’ve got from them this year so far! Their latest single release is called 渦巻く夏のフェルマータ (“Uzumaku natsu no fermata” – “Swirling Summer Fermata”) which is in addition to two mini albums that we’ve been graced with so far in 2024 and a total of five music videos! This song flows gently and features my favorite poetic talking style breakdown in the middle, and the music video is full of imagery that is somewhat familiar if you’ve been following the band’s music videos since the beginning.
While many of their songs often feature the sea and summer, I really love their melancholic approach to the theme such as in this song as well as in their song “Suisou” (“Sea Burial”).
Check out the lyrics to Swirling Summer Fermata: https://lyricstranslate.com/en/oisicle-melonpan-uzumaku-natsu-no-fyeruma-english
Check out the lyrics to Suisou here: https://www.songtell.com/oisicle-melonpan/1tuh4chmoiko7kfc2w0d9
toe – LONELINESS WILL SHINE
toe is back with another album called Now I See the Light, and a music video for their single “LONELINESS WILL SHINE,” which harkens to everything I loved when I first found them with “グッドバイ” “(Goodbye”). We’ve got a simple yet distinct artistic vision that matches the meditative instrumentals, along with Yamazaki Hirokazu’s melodic vocals, which are featured more frequently on this album than in their past discography. I really appreciate the artistry of this music video, so I hope you will take a few minutes to watch and listen to this song!
Hitsujibungaku – Addiction
If you love 90s grunge and alt rock, then this song will fit right into your rotation. “Addiction” has a cool atmospheric shoegaze feel to it but with a bit more forward melodic vocals that make this song easy to listen to. I haven’t listened to a ton of Hitsujibungaku, but I think this song leans a little bit more grunge than their usual affair, which I am loving. I’m interested to see if they continue this style into their next album, and I bet there is a lot of great music in their discography for me to explore.
Ichika Nito – The World is still Beautiful
When I close my eyes and listen to this piece, I can really feel the essence of “The World is still Beautiful.” The cityscape in the video and simple focus of Ichika Nito playing both Polyphia’s Tim Henson’s signature guitar and then his own signature guitar feels like a warm embrace goodnight. The beauty that this song holds feels vastly longer than its 2 minutes, which is a great reminder that even a moment can encapsulate so much beauty in this world. I’ve recently been exploring Ichika Nito’s music more and more and I’ve really been loving it, so I hope to spread some of that love as I sign off for the night. Enjoy!
Links
YouTube Playlist:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3ak6RpCfPehQ6Yw9J66EoP0_M0OMHtIk&si=q9v0C3PPJLXCmweZ
Spotify Playlist:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/736WWfekN4tZrxtV80Syr3?si=14e8dbb0c9d34b2b
This Broadcast was written by Erin; you can find them on instagram at @thekniterin.