two groups on haruomi hosono and yukihiro takahashis' YEN records. very little information online except that both released an album each then seemingly disappeared. the music is great, deep and melodic, with strange rhythms and occasional subtle vocals. testpattern sound more in debt to ymo than interior, but think sakamoto on b2 unit or the weirder songs from left handed dream, rather than solid state survivors. they definitely have their own thing. thankfully there is some stuff up on youtube:
interior "technobose"
testpattern "ring dance"
― michael jatas (r1o natsume), Monday, 15 June 2009 11:03 (3 years ago) Permalink
test pattern "friday"
― michael jatas (r1o natsume), Monday, 15 June 2009 11:05 (3 years ago) Permalink
This stuff is really good, thanks.
― Posters that beg the Question: What the Hell were You THINKING? (Noodle Vague), Monday, 15 June 2009 13:44 (3 years ago) Permalink
found a copy of the interior lp on yahoo auction. amazing sleeve:
― michael jatas (r1o natsume), Monday, 15 June 2009 14:15 (3 years ago) Permalink
Plone's album on Warp cops a lot of this sound, don't know whether that's intentional.
― Posters that beg the Question: What the Hell were You THINKING? (Noodle Vague), Monday, 15 June 2009 14:16 (3 years ago) Permalink
You might dig the Haruomi Hosono record called "Medicine Compilation from the Quiet Lodge" - it's him and Laraaji and some other folks and it's a weird, warm combination of nu age and bogus ethnic muzak and proto-techno.
― Neotropical pygmy squirrel, Monday, 15 June 2009 14:54 (3 years ago) Permalink
Whoa, my heart just burst with happiness at the thought of Hosono and Laraaji on the same disc. Gotta track that down, thanks!
― a passing spacecadet, Monday, 15 June 2009 15:10 (3 years ago) Permalink
man "technobose" is such a beautiful song. what the hell happened to these guys?
will definitely track down that hosono record, the man is basically a god to me
― michael jatas (r1o natsume), Monday, 15 June 2009 20:33 (3 years ago) Permalink
nice, may i call this electretro?
― meisenfek, Monday, 15 June 2009 22:32 (3 years ago) Permalink
found some more beautiful japenese cosmic music fro inoyama land:
― damo tsu tsuki (r1o natsume), Monday, 3 August 2009 15:06 (3 years ago) Permalink
^^^so beautiful
― geheimnis (r1o natsume), Wednesday, 19 May 2010 12:40 (3 years ago) Permalink
The first two tracks at the top are excellent. Nice find!
― your original display name is still visible. (Display Name), Wednesday, 19 May 2010 14:29 (3 years ago) Permalink
Finally found the Interior album. It is every bit as good as I had hoped.
― Janet Privacy Control (corey), Saturday, 7 August 2010 00:09 (2 years ago) Permalink
Have listened to both the Interior and Testpattern records. Both of them are obviously indebted to YMO but they are very different. Interior sounds more like a "band" with some great ambient guitar work like Bill Nelson's stuff around the same time and great subtle drumming. Pretty much all the tracks have a sort of stillness that I associate with Talk Talk's "Colour of Spring". Really beautiful stuff.
Testpattern is a bit more exclusively electronic with a couple jumpy and silly pop songs similar to YMO on X∞ Multiplies and some lovely monochromatic synth work. The track "Catchball" from the latter half of the album is particularly great. I was also surprised to hear what sounds like Oberheim drum machines (it's that low-bitrate clap sample) rather than the TR-808 I've come to expect with YMO-related stuff.
― Janet Privacy Control (corey), Sunday, 8 August 2010 23:25 (2 years ago) Permalink
Ahem, also:
super secret non-illegal link
― Janet Privacy Control (corey), Sunday, 8 August 2010 23:27 (2 years ago) Permalink
the group i really want to hear from yen records is inoyama land. from the little i've found it sounds like they heard music for airports and decided to form a band
― that habit kick man (r1o natsume), Sunday, 8 August 2010 23:41 (2 years ago) Permalink
Currently in the midst of leeching that from someone on s1sk, will report here (and share) once I've heard of course!
― Janet Privacy Control (corey), Sunday, 8 August 2010 23:45 (2 years ago) Permalink
i LOVE the inoyama land album, danzindan pojidon, its a nice mix between synth-pastoral and more paranoid tracks. "pon" makes me feel like i'm an npc in an awesome old school RPG just doin my thing in my little house in a quiet village.
― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Tuesday, 28 September 2010 02:51 (2 years ago) Permalink
Not Yen/YMO-related but I think fans of the Interior and Testpattern stuff would enjoy Mariah's "Utakata No Hibi". Atmospheric pop with a female vocalist and lyrics in Japanese — the synth work/production sounds a lot like "Left Handed Dream"
Have a Youtube:
― =(^ • ‿‿ • ^)= (corey), Thursday, 23 December 2010 20:32 (2 years ago) Permalink
Struggling for months to find the Interior & Testpattern records, and also the Yen Manifold vol. 1 compilation with tracks by both bands & Kôji Ueno, if anyone could provide some digital files to downlaod, I'd be very, very grateful… The Yen output needs a new reissue!!!
― Coryphe, Friday, 18 February 2011 12:32 (2 years ago) Permalink