Patrick St. Michel

1 week ago | mbmelodies.substack.com | Patrick St. Michel

Meg Bonus — New,man“Pop” often fails as a musical encapsulation because of how vague it is. Sure, throw a J- or K- in front of it and you get a touch more understanding of what’s going on (it’s from a specific place), but just leave it dangling all alone? So…is it just catchy, or it follows a formula, or it’s geared towards mainstream acceptance?

1 week ago | mbmelodies.substack.com | Patrick St. Michel

Maybe it’s just the march of time or perhaps this year really has been special…but 2025 feels like it’s going by super fast, no? I can’t believe it’s already April. Which means…we are a quarter through it all. Huh, if you say so calendar. This week, I wanted to highlight five Japanese albums from 2025 that have yet to get their due at Make Believe Melodies for one reason or another.

2 weeks ago | japantimes.co.jp | Patrick St. Michel

Theo Poyer and Margot Magnieres fell hard for Japan on their first visit. It was March 2020, their first trip outside Europe, and they were loving being here — until things got a little too dramatic. “We got one of the last flights back to France before everything was closed,” Poyer says, recalling the chaotic early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

2 weeks ago | mbmelodies.substack.com | Patrick St. Michel

Towa Tei — AH!!There’s always been an odd streak running through Towa Tei’s career. Since the ‘90s, the electronic producer has been fascinated in seeing how he can bend and stretch ideas, whether it was in seeing how sample-based house sounds could groove or how to create smooth dance-pop about Guillermo Arriaga films. Not long ago, he made a whole Sweet Robots Against The Machine album featuring spoken word passages from comedian Bakarhythm.

2 weeks ago | japantimes.co.jp | Patrick St. Michel

What stands out most to Sasami Ashworth about Japan? The hairstyles. “I was just in South Korea, and it seems like most of the men have perms there — but it’s not a trend here,” she says. “There’s just not as much perm action.”It’s about two hours before the 34-year-old American artist, who records as Sasami, plays her first-ever Japan show — an acoustic set at Tower Records Shibuya. She’s recounting her latest observations of a country she’s always felt a connection to.