PAS TASTA is the perfect microcosm of J-pop’s evolution over the past few years. The six-deep crew of producers—Uyama Amane, Kabanagu, hirihiri, phritz, quoree, and yuigot—were first acquainted through the netlabel scene, collaborating in various permutations. When the six of them eventually got together in a Discord server, it wasn’t without growing pains. The group circulated project files, encouraging others to add their own ideas. The laissez faire attitude of the internet imprints they operated under exposed them to vastly different musical approaches, encouraging experimentation without pressure for results. Sometimes there were long gaps from one person’s contribution to the next.
Over time, they attuned to the same wavelength. They all switched to working in Ableton Live, making it easier to share files. Turnaround times shortened to one day. Passing tracks back and forth became a trust exercise, each member deferring to their bandmates’ cuts or changes. “If they say so,” phritz said in an interview with FNMML, “that’s just how it is.” Collaboration became friendly competition as they tried to one-up each other with increasingly wild ideas. PAS TASTA worked almost exclusively through group chats, but still managed to generate buzz and draw in more collaborators. By the time 2023’s GOOD POP came together, the album had ballooned into a sprawling snapshot of Japanese internet music.
GRAND POP broadens the scope further, this time taking stock of the entire J-pop landscape. On “My Mutant Ride” they bring in Taku Inoue—whose long list of credits includes compositions for video games, virtual idols, and online influencers—to play breezy guitar over the syrupy-sweet bubblegum bass track. (Though he’s pop royalty, Inoue calls himself a “PAS TASTA fanboy,” as if he’s the one starstruck.) They pull an even bigger name for “Suburban,” supporting the booming voice of anison legend Tatsuya Kitani with an amped-up J-rock shredder. Guitar by Kitani and synthesized sounds lurch forward and back as Kitani soars over the melody, his voice occasionally glitching into a twisted mass. It has all the energy of one of Kitani’s anime openings, with the unmistakable, welcoming chaos of a PAS TASTA production.
