No problem — the fun of sharing stuff I already know is seeing the reactions of those not already familiar. It's always awesome to see more people get into BGM.
― corey, Monday, 11 April 2011 14:11 (thirteen years ago) link
Yeah...it's kind of the Sgt. Pepper or whatever of the genre; one of the few early synth albums that really "plays up" to whatever speakers you have...if you have subs, there's such a big kick-thump on tracks like "Ballet"...not even Kraftwerk had that! And "Mass" continues to scare the shit out of me in any situation
― frogbs, Monday, 11 April 2011 14:23 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah it's one of the few records of that era that lets the bass in the 808 kick come through in the mix. compare BGM to a Soft Cell record from the same period and you'll see what I mean
there's a different mix of "Happy End" w/ a straight 4x4 808 kick drum that's well worth tracking down
― ur reading from a season in hell but u don't know what it's abt (missingNO), Monday, 11 April 2011 14:42 (thirteen years ago) link
is that the one on Sakamoto's Arrangement EP?
btw "1000 Knives" is definitely one of the high watermarks of 808 beats
― frogbs, Monday, 11 April 2011 14:49 (thirteen years ago) link
agreed on BGM. just played it on my living room setup last week and it sounded great.
that sympathy nervous track is excellent!
― original bgm, Monday, 11 April 2011 14:54 (thirteen years ago) link
Read somewhere that YMO playing "1000 Knives" live was the first concert appearance of an 808? Not sure if that's true or not but I believe it.
― corey, Monday, 11 April 2011 15:06 (thirteen years ago) link
Who else was using them in 1980/1981? It didn't really become popular until the mid-to-late 80's.
― frogbs, Monday, 11 April 2011 20:10 (thirteen years ago) link
Roland (coincidence?) Bocquet's "Robot Bleu" has a few tracks that use it. Tangerine Dream was using them too in their live shows, but they were using them essentially as "rhythm boxes" and not really realizing their programming potential the way YMO did.
― corey, Monday, 11 April 2011 20:15 (thirteen years ago) link
I'm thinking the Germans would have been among the first, thought maybe Cluster had used them at some point but I guess not. I thought Kraftwerk used them for Electric Cafe but just found out it was a Linn drum machine.
― frogbs, Monday, 11 April 2011 20:21 (thirteen years ago) link
Oh wait, it was on "Musique Non Stop"
― frogbs, Monday, 11 April 2011 20:24 (thirteen years ago) link
xxxxxxp; i really like the Sympathy Nervous track; seems to have ties to some of the really old experimental electronic stuff I've heard...not a dig on the music, but I'm kind of surprised it came out as late as 1980
― frogbs, Tuesday, 12 April 2011 02:01 (thirteen years ago) link
my favorite japanese new wave song, talk back by logic system. first heard it in the late '90s and i still find it fresh today.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXO5IIIhVy8
― Sébastien, Tuesday, 12 April 2011 22:41 (thirteen years ago) link
was thinking about uploading that album some day; that one's pretty good but I haven't really found any of the other Logic System albums worthwhile. he doesn't strike me as much of a composer...
so are you guys going to take over next week or should I keep going?
― frogbs, Thursday, 14 April 2011 13:31 (thirteen years ago) link
I'll do Monday.
― corey, Thursday, 14 April 2011 19:42 (thirteen years ago) link
i'll take the week after then, if that's cool
― ur reading from a season in hell but u don't know what it's abt (missingNO), Friday, 15 April 2011 07:14 (thirteen years ago) link
Does anyone have any early Maki Nomiya or Portable Rock? That YT upthread is great, would love to hear more, SLSK not yielding any results.
― bRon To Run (MaresNest), Sunday, 17 April 2011 23:07 (thirteen years ago) link
I actually don't have time to do this atm, but if someone else wants to go they're more than welcome. Sorry :\
― corey, Monday, 18 April 2011 03:37 (thirteen years ago) link
that's ok; if anyone else wants to post something up go aheadotherwise i'll maybe put something up
― frogbs, Monday, 18 April 2011 14:51 (thirteen years ago) link
anyone doing next week?? or should I put a few more up?
until then, here's a song that's kind of taken over my life lately...I even had a dream about it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oE903xV53E
― frogbs, Friday, 22 April 2011 06:28 (thirteen years ago) link
uh yeah i was gonna do tomorrow but i have to pull out now, as soon as i get a home internet connection i'm back in
― ur reading from a season in hell but u don't know what it's abt (missingNO), Sunday, 24 April 2011 11:22 (thirteen years ago) link
ok, here are a couple more:
Haruomi Hosono - Paraiso (1978)http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_WdV28slTW00/SsYG7zwzh4I/AAAAAAAAAFM/xLAJZTRHlpQ/s400/front.jpg
Not really "new wave" per se but still one of my very favorite albums. Hosono was the founding member of YMO and wound up quite famous as a composer of ambient and electronic music. However, before that, he was the bassist in a couple of rock bands (including Happy End) before taking an interest in tropical and exotica music. By 1978, he was starting to incorporate electronics into his work, most famously on Cochin Moon, released the same year. This is more song-based, and holy cow is it magical. It's catchy, relaxing, and otherworldly. Has the feel of a good exotica/folk album but the electronic textures make everything off-balance. And then you have Hosono's goofy vocals, which are charming (if not very good on a technical scale). Hey, I like his voice. Check out the cover of the Okinawan folk song "Asatoya Yunta", which almost sounds as though the vocals are sung backwards. Creepy, but in a good way. Lots of great music here.
click here to get it
Akiko Yano - Japanese Girl (1976) http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_WdV28slTW00/StJvfF833tI/AAAAAAAAAF8/jQGDQZk0dPk/s400/624daceb.jpg
You might recognize Yano's name from her husband of nearly two decades, Ryuichi Sakamoto (they have since split). She often played live with the group, especially in their 79-80 era, and they would sometimes perform a few of her songs ("Kang Tong Boy" is probably the one you've heard if you follow YMO). She's also a pretty prolific solo artist, regularly releasing solo albums since 1976. On this, her debut, she must have been a teenager when she wrote most of the songs. But it's a very enjoyable listen with some very memorable tunes and a lot of neat Japanese instrumentation. It was recorded in L.A. with members of Little Feat. The tune "Helicopter" in particular is stunning. Rolling Stone rated it the 26th best Japanese album of all time, whatever that means.
― frogbs, Tuesday, 26 April 2011 04:23 (thirteen years ago) link
japanese girl is a stone classic, easily as good as anything YMO ever did. good picks
― ur reading from a season in hell but u don't know what it's abt (missingNO), Tuesday, 26 April 2011 05:20 (thirteen years ago) link
Love that Akiko record, iirc it has *all* of Little Feat as a backing band.
― the crap gig in the sky (MaresNest), Tuesday, 26 April 2011 08:36 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah I wasn't sure whether to put that or Gohan Ga Dekitayo up, as it has a lot more electronics and definitely is more of a New Wave album, but ultimately it lost out because it's so damn long...right now I only really have her early stuff, are the later albums worth getting?
― frogbs, Tuesday, 26 April 2011 13:39 (thirteen years ago) link
Trying to catch up on this thread. Love this stuff so much.
― emil.y, Tuesday, 26 April 2011 14:03 (thirteen years ago) link
XP - I have 'Honto No Kimoch' from 2004 which is pretty great, has elements of the first album sound I guess, haven't listened to it in a while, will revisit.
― the crap gig in the sky (MaresNest), Tuesday, 26 April 2011 14:08 (thirteen years ago) link
Later Akiko Yano albums are great! Highly recommended.
― Winky Dinky Dawgz (Capitaine Jay Vee), Tuesday, 26 April 2011 21:37 (thirteen years ago) link
any in particular?? i'm trying to go chronologically but theres just sooo much of it
― frogbs, Thursday, 28 April 2011 14:41 (thirteen years ago) link
Try 'Honto No Kimochi', I'd be interested to see what you think.
― the crap gig in the sky (MaresNest), Thursday, 28 April 2011 14:57 (thirteen years ago) link
i'm way behind on this thread but i just wanna say that i'm am completely and utterly in love with Sim City
― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Thursday, 28 April 2011 17:26 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah, sim city is so, so good. been spinning it a bunch.
― original bgm, Thursday, 28 April 2011 18:40 (thirteen years ago) link
you guys should check out the P-Model albums I posted a few weeks back thendefinitely much more technopop oriented, but they're also really good.later P-Model albums sound a lot like the solo ones, very epic and dense, maybe I'll put some of those up
― frogbs, Thursday, 28 April 2011 18:59 (thirteen years ago) link
I did, actually. sorry that I didn't comment. was a bit of a crazy work week and mostly listened while doing crazy work stuff. liked em tho!
― original bgm, Thursday, 28 April 2011 19:26 (thirteen years ago) link
that p-model youtube sounds pretty great. that's from the later era I'm assuming?
Yeah, it's from their last album. That tune hits me in a weird way - it's currently my ringtone and is always running through my head. It's the only real straightforward song on the entire album IIRC.
― frogbs, Thursday, 28 April 2011 20:05 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah, I dig the way this goofy keyboard riff anchors the whole thing but much of the rest of the track is almost arranged like a ballad.
― original bgm, Thursday, 28 April 2011 20:34 (thirteen years ago) link
japanese girl is quite nice btw.
― original bgm, Thursday, 28 April 2011 20:37 (thirteen years ago) link
The BGM thread kind of goes into the great later Akiko Yano's but "Gohan Ga Gekitayo" and "Ai Ga Nakucha Ne" are awesome and have more YMO interaction plus Sakamoto produced them ( I think).
― Winky Dinky Dawgz (Capitaine Jay Vee), Friday, 29 April 2011 01:02 (thirteen years ago) link
Sorry - "Gohan Ga Dekitayo". And "Tadaima" is excellent, too. All very synthy and Akiko Yano at this time was the closest I've heard to someone reaching those sort of eccentric young woman with keyboards vibe that early Kate Bush mined.
― Winky Dinky Dawgz (Capitaine Jay Vee), Friday, 29 April 2011 01:07 (thirteen years ago) link
my fav Akiko Yano album is Brooch, just minimal note perfect piano/voice arrangements of Schubert and Debussy and Stravinsky and stuff -- later sampled by Carl Stone on Mom's
check this shit out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK0XJ-09ZYU
― ur reading from a season in hell but u don't know what it's abt (missingNO), Friday, 29 April 2011 08:19 (thirteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixKpH17Zz9g
*heart emoticon*
― ur reading from a season in hell but u don't know what it's abt (missingNO), Friday, 29 April 2011 09:12 (thirteen years ago) link
couldn't watch the second video (embedding disabled?) but that first one is very nice! she definitely has quite an amazing voice. one of the first times I heard her was on the song "Radio Silence" by Thomas Dolby...even now I question why anyone would want to use her as a background singer. I do have a really good live album of hers from 78 or so; all the YMO members are on it, it has some really cool versions of some of her album tracks and some tunes I haven't heard yet. the best part is that she really sounds like she's having a lot of fun on it.
― frogbs, Friday, 29 April 2011 12:16 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah... "good heavens, miss Sakamoto, you're beautiful!". just another example of how fucking cool this YMO satellite scene was in the early 80s -- Thomas Dolby, Andy Partridge, Japan, Bill Nelson, Arto Lindsay, Ippu Do, Hajime Tachibane, Kiyohike Semba etcetcetc, all hanging out w/ each other and playing on each other's records. so cool yet so rarely celebrated
here's her English version of Ravel's "Chanson Française". such a beautiful beautiful voice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=463r4pdC7Co&feature=youtu.be
― ur reading from a season in hell but u don't know what it's abt (missingNO), Friday, 29 April 2011 12:53 (thirteen years ago) link
afaik Partridge is credited on B-2 Unit, which didn't make sense to me until I realized that he did that dub album around that time.
also, P-Model used to open for XTC in their White Music phase - not at all surprising, the two bands used to be quite similar!!
― frogbs, Friday, 29 April 2011 14:08 (thirteen years ago) link
After reading missingNO's post above I was wondering, could we compile a straight-up list of people to check out?
I know a fair few names (although finding the music is hard) but I know there's a load more out there and I'm really interested in delving further.
Also, frogbs, might I hit you up on slsk? I know you offered a while ago when we were talking about that big P-Model t0rr3nt that's around, but I can't seem to find the post to get yr username.
― the crap gig in the sky (MaresNest), Friday, 29 April 2011 18:58 (thirteen years ago) link
Also any J-wave blog sites/t0rr3nt sites that are worth knowing about?
― the crap gig in the sky (MaresNest), Friday, 29 April 2011 18:59 (thirteen years ago) link
I'm on as JAMOOL, send me a message and I'll add.
This site hasn't been updated in a while, but it has a lot of good stuff and the links mostly still workhttp://saltyka.blogspot.com/ (its more of a general New Wave blog but it sorta revolves around the YMO axis)
Jpopsuki has a ton of stuff on it, although it's hard to find anything you wouldn't on slsk, it does surprise me sometimes ; I think you need an invite though, luckily I should have a ton (because who do you give them to?)
― frogbs, Friday, 29 April 2011 19:24 (thirteen years ago) link
Hey frogbs, thanks man, I'd really appreciate an invite to Jpopsuki.
― the crap gig in the sky (MaresNest), Sunday, 1 May 2011 19:38 (thirteen years ago) link
i can put a couple of albums up today
― ur reading from a season in hell but u don't know what it's abt (missingNO), Monday, 2 May 2011 01:11 (thirteen years ago) link
unless somebody else plans to?