scrmbl contributor Patrick St. Michel runs an email newsletter called Make Believe Mailer, an offshoot of his long-running blog Make Believe Melodies. Every week, he shares essays and round-ups of new Japanese music, from J-pop to independent releases, including albums that might have flown under listeners' radar. Starting this month, he shares some of the highlights from the past month with readers of scrmbl.

Telematic Visions — opposite mirrors

Tension between restraint and release lurks throughout opposite mirrors. Electronic artist Telematic Visions third full-length offers a set of songs that initially seems like an experiment in capturing the sounds of nature via DAW but mutates into something of a display of how the younger creator approaches sonic textures, featuring both their most minimal creations to date and some of their most euphoric. 

Percussive choices feel more immediate on songs such as “each dreams” and “forecast,” while tracks like “library (motionblur)” explore a barely there sound built almost entirely around the beat, with other elements just whipping by like wind. From a purely production point of view, this feels like Telematic Visions taking a Pasocom Music Club-like leap, revealing new depth to how they create and pointing towards exciting new possibilities.

Yet there’s plenty to love in the now, with the best moments of opposite mirrors capturing a familiar longing found in the producer’s work and pairing it with electronic wonder. There’s an i-fls-like ennui on the hiccup of “springfield,” and joy in the sprint of “library.” At the end is “interface,” a daydream of a song built around the synthetic sighs of Kasane Teto, a digital voice delivering something deeply human. Get it here, or listen above.

SUSHIBOYS — Hi

The duo behind SUSHIBOYS have always been hard to pin down, but the project feels particularly slippery on latest album Hi. The sound of the songs here features distorted vocal samples, skittering percussion, sing-rap focused on the daily observations picked up during a hum-drum day in Japan and a various nervy energy that feels very internet. It’s not far from the likes of Peterparker69, e5, STARKIDS or other acts who have come up in the last half-decade, yet the energy racing through this one also feels closer to the 2010s netlabel world, aided by production courtesy of long-running artist PARKGOLF and an in the blue shirt remix. Perhaps that’s the challenge and draw — SUSHIBOYS manage to avoid being pinned down to anyone style or time. Listen above.

hachigatsu_news — Haiyaku Kaiite Oideyo

Internet-centric rock outfit Sleepinside strike a good balance between the too-online and the urgency of the genre, with recent songs nailing a certain kind of late-day dreaminess. Member hachigatsu_news solo output, meanwhile, offers a little more room for eclectic experimentation and something approaching SoundCloud rap mutations. On his latest, hachigatsu_news plays with piano melodies stained with digi splotches, and pairs guitar melodies with a sound palette ranging from what sounds like a haunted music box to Auto-tune-dipped lyrics about the Nintendo DS and McDonald’s coupon codes…along with more emotional reflections. It’s a little more freewheeling, but an impressive tightrope between the logged-in and out. Listen above.

killwiz — Schizophrenia

Formerly of SoundCloud-rattling outfit Dr.Anon, solo artist killwiz uses her latest release partially to celebrate the Tokyo underground scene she and others have helped foster in recent years, complete with appearances from fellow web-damaged creators. Yet it’s also an achingly personal collection, finding her staring down a mental disorder she herself has had to wrestle with, adding an intensity to these pulsing and pounding numbers. Her guests show up hard — shout out e5 with one of the fiercest verses she’s had in a second — but it’s killwiz’ own gliding vocals full of conflict that make this one hit. Listen above.

Various Artists — Hello, Anxiety

Always up for a compilation aiming to capture the weird, wonderful sounds of young artists in Japan and beyond. Hello, Anxiety comes courtesy of P-Vine, and captures a new generation of web-born, nervy artists excelling at blurring genre lines and showing how 21st century sounds can evolve. What’s most noteworthy about this one is the heavy use of synthesized singing (though not entirely so…check the melancholy lullaby courtesy of wani), wrapped up around shoegaze swells and electronic theatrics. Whatever form the songs here take, they mix a wide variety of sounds together while capturing a very young type of nervous energy. Listen above.