COVERCHORD CULTURE
CREATORS’ SUMMER PLAYLISTS
SUMMER TRACKS 2025
Summer is finally here. Music is essential for vacations and parties.
We asked top creators from a variety of genres to share their favorite summer songs.
What kind of music inspires those who spend their days creating from instinct and emotion?
COVERCHORD invited a group of creators from various fields to curate a selection of tracks around the theme of “summer.”
Uplifting beats. Nostalgic melodies. Intros that spark a sense of wanderlust.
Each playlist offers a glimpse into the personality behind the selection.
We hope these sounds shift your perspective.
Let this summer, shaped by music, be one to remember.
ACMH
Chris Stoker
1_Unless / The Pale Fountains
2_Daisy High / Khartomb
3_Untitled / Robert Rental
4_Pilot Automatik / Andermole
5_Spirit / Dead Can Dance
Although the summer is usually more of a ‘party season’, I’ve decided to lean in a slightly different direction for this playlist.
Instead of selecting the music I’ve been playing out at festivals and parties, I've opted for the polar opposite and taken it down a few gears.
Here’s a selection of some of the music you might hear on some of mt radio shows, drawing from the more obscure and alternative corners of my collection.
Chris Stoker
Chris Stoker is the creative director of clothing label ACMH.
He is also one-half of Not An Animal Records. A label born from the party debris left uncleaned from London’s infamous Bad Passion parties & one-half of production outfit Ess O Ess. There aren’t many lazy descriptors for any given DJ set by him, but it’d be rare not to hear unadulterated guitar licks, acidic modulations, ritualistic kosmiche drones & “that unheard b-side”, pieced together on a whim. Come as you are, Stay for the night. You’ll feel much better afterwards. Nothing is certain except death, taxes, and staying up all night when you promised an early one.
Instagram_@badpassion_
Instagram_@almostcutmyhair.world
QUIITO
Mayu Kohmura
1_Stumble / Kraak & Smaak, Parcels
2_My Night With the Prostitute from Marseille / Beirut
3_Beautiful Day - Dub Mix / Tantsui
4_Hot Hands / Darius, Darianna Everett
5_30 Groove St. / Nightmares On Wax, Jordan Stephens
Picked out a few tunes to lift the mood and help cool down during the summer heat.
Best enjoyed while slurping on some chilled tantanmen.
Mayu Kohmura
Fashion designer. Born in 1988. After graduating from Tama Art University with a degree in textile design, she joined ISSEY MIYAKE.In 2024, she launched her own brand, QUIITO, focusing on collections centered around reworked vintage pieces. Starting in 2025, the brand is also expanding internationally.
Instagram_@kohmuramayu
Instagram_@quiito_official
RECORD STORE
Lighthouse Records
1_Day Dreaming / Joceylyn Brown
2_Floatation (Subsonic Grid Mix) / The Grid
3_When Summer Comes - 12" Version / Loosefingers
4_Fly Away / Walking In The Sunshine / Laid Back
5_E2-E4 (A reference to E2-E4 by Manuel Gottsching) / Alex Kassian
If I started digging through my home record shelf for this theme, summer might be over before I finished. So I just went with the tracks that came to mind right away.
This selection is more about my personal taste than a curated pick from Lighthouse Records, but each track is one I’m deeply attached to. Hope you enjoy.
Lighthouse Records
A record store based in Shibuya since its opening in 2008.
Known for its well-curated selection of new releases in house, techno/electro, and nu disco/balearic, the shop has earned long-standing support from DJs and vinyl enthusiasts both in Japan and abroad.
Instagram_@lighthouserecords.jp
toe
Hirokazu Yamazaki
1_The Longest Line / NOFX
2_Someone Else / Deb Never
3_I Wanna Be Your Lover / Prince
4_Slide (feat. Frank Ocean & Migos) / Calvin Harris
5_Really into You / Around The Way
6_Again / Shiloh Dynasty
1. Pure sweet and sour. Like summer break―it’s over in a flash, but what a perfect two-minute song.
2. “Don’t fall in love with someone else!” That’s such a summer mood.
3. Prince’s guitar just screams summer.
4. The bass line is pure midsummer.
5. Feels like my personal soundtrack for Shirahama Beach in Izu.
6. Seasonal or not, I just love Shiro-kun.
Hirokazu Yamazaki
Guitarist (the good-looking one) in toe / Founder of Metronome Inc.
Plays in a band, designs interiors, drinks a little too much (sometimes both).
Living life loudly, with “love is all you need” as his daily mantra.
Instagram_@yamayamawo
Instagram_@toe_music_official
Neriage Ceramic artist
Maho Harada
1_Natsupate / Fumio Nunoya
2_Late in the Evening / Paul Simon
3_The Very Thought Of You / Celia Paul
4_The More I See You / Chris Montez
5_Turn-Down Day / The Cyrkle
36°C. The heat dulls your thoughts and slows everything down.
That’s it―time to escape to the beach, to a resort by the sea.
A lazy afternoon under a parasol, tropical drink in hand.
As you doze off, the sun dips and a cool breeze rolls in.
A midsummer escape through music―drifting away on an imaginary trip.
Maho Harada
Neriage Ceramic artist. Born in Kumamoto in 1977. Graduated from the Arita College of Ceramics in 1999, then trained at the Yusuke Aida Ceramic Studio. In 2001, she established her own kiln in Kumamoto.
STUDY
Hiroaki Nagahata
1_The Summer Ends - Live in Los Angeles / American Football
2_So Fresh, So Clean / OutKast
3_Summertime / ANORAK!
4_Calm Down (with Selena Gomez) / Rema
5_Hanging High / Last Days Of April
I selected these songs while imagining that uniquely summer feeling―the fleeting happiness of realizing, “Ah, everything will (or has) passed.” The five tracks differ in texture and genre, but when listened to together, they somehow seem to form a single image.
Hiroaki Nagahata
Editor of STUDY magazine. Born in Osaka in 1987. In 2014, he launched the independent fashion magazine STUDY, which has published 10 issues to date. He is also active as a podcaster on programs such as AfterParty, pursuing forms of expression that go beyond traditional media and editorial boundaries, always guided by his own perspective.
Instagram_@studymagazine2014
Ernie Palo / SLOW
Ryo Yamaguchi
1_Summer Madness / Kool & The Gang
2_Hello It’s Me / Todd Rundgren
3_Lord Knows Best / Dirty Beaches
4_Fake Loathe / Blue Iverson
5_Every Morning / Jamma-Dee, Sarah Jewel
I’ve put together a selection of songs perfect for summer nights.
Ryo Yamaguchi
Ernie Palo / SLOW
ErniePalo / SLOW
In 2020, Ryo Yamaguchi founded Ernie Inc. and launched the unisex brand ErniePalo with its first collection, edition01 (Spring/Summer 2021). Starting with edition05, he presented a showroom during Paris Fashion Week under The Art of Tone, in collaboration with Gallery AELU. In April 2024, he held a pop-up at New York select shop COLBO. In December 2024, he opened SLOW, a wine bar in Yoyogi-Uehara offering small plates and a comfortable dining experience for solo guests.
Instagram_@ernie_palo
Instagram_@slow_wine.tokyo
COOME
Kaho Ito
1_Pull Together / Poolside & Satin Jackets
2_Each Time You Pray / Ned Doheny
3_Freedom / Sampa The Great
4_Speed & Drift / Sainte
5_Summer Revision B / POPS研究会
Growing up in Shonan, summer has always felt like the most special season to me. I complain about the heat, but as it starts to fade, I already feel a little sad... and find myself looking forward to next year’s summer.
In the morning and afternoon, I head to the beach with daytime disco classics like Poolside and beach funk from Ned Doheny.
Tracks 3 to 5 are perfect for an evening drive with the sunset in view.
I hope this playlist connects with your own summer memories.
Kaho Ito
Director of COOME. After studying under Kikuno from 2020, she began contributing to the direction of the women’s brand COOME, launched by Kikuno in 2022. Kaho officially joined as director in 2024.
Instagram @_292312_
Instagram @coomeorg
NEAT
Daishi Nishino
1_Tsuyoku Hakanai Monotachi / Cocco
2_Umi / Southern All Stars
3_Ai no Katamari / KinKi Kids
4_Goodbye / Kazumasa Oda
5_Ienai yo / Hiromi Go
I tend to choose more mellow tracks in the summer.
But really, it’s a strategy―I boost my mood with nostalgic songs I used to listen to.
With longer days and more moments of dusk, summer is the perfect season for throwbacks.
Daishi Nishino
Director of NISHINOYA / Designer of NEAT.
Born in 1983, raised on Awaji Island. While working as an elementary school teacher, he studied at Vantan Design Institute. After graduating, he worked in sales and PR for a classic American trad brand.
He later went independent and launched NEAT, a brand dedicated to trousers. He now also runs the press office NISHINOYA, representing over 20 domestic and international brands.
Instagram_@dddddaishi
Instagram_@neat_tokyo
LISTENING BAR
Pinknoiz
1_Ebb Tide / Bobby Black
2_Swahili / Clark Terry
3_Yègellé Tezeta / Mulatu Astatke
4_Ultima caccia / Giuliano Sorgini
5_Kidus à cent dix / Akalé Wubé
A listening section from the Pinknoiz playlist for summer nights.
Pinknoiz
A hidden listening bar in Mishuku. Opened in April this year. Features vintage audio centered around the Altec A5 speakers.
Instagram_@pinknoiz.mishuku
Illustration_Hirochika Machida
Instagram_@hirochikamachida
