YMO poll: Sakamoto vs. Hosono vs. Takahashi

must admit i know nothing about any of the non-sakamoto dudes. i'd be surprised if there's any criteria for not voting for ryuichi however.

― goole, Thursday, 27 October 2011 18:59 (1 year ago) Permalink

I don't know anything about frogbs other than people don't like him so it always makes me really happy for some reason that when all the krautrock and ymo threads get bumped it's usually only posters i think of as serious heads of w/w like milton parker and geeta, and then frogbs

― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Thursday, 27 October 2011 19:01 (1 year ago) Permalink

or w/e

― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Thursday, 27 October 2011 19:08 (1 year ago) Permalink

Very tough indeed, almost impossible Harry maybe.

― sleigh tracks (1933-1969) (MaresNest), Thursday, 27 October 2011 19:12 (1 year ago) Permalink

i'd be surprised if there's any criteria for not voting for ryuichi however

They both have a ton of solo albums. Especially Hosono, who has been in a ton of other bands (mostly short-lived) and whose name showed up on nearly every Japanese technopop release in the 80's. IIRC he's also written songs for Miharu Koshi and Jun Togawa, plus produced the first Pizzicato 5 and Guernica albums. The thing with Sakamoto is that for all his talent and compositional skill I never felt he had a true identity, where you could listen to something and say, "that's definitely him". Hosono on the other hand never seemed afraid to do anything and didn't care how goofy he sounded (i.e. "Rap Phenomena"). Takahashi has his own niche as well and was responsible for a lot of the good beat/synth driven stuff in YMO like "Pure Jam" and "La Femme Chinoise"

― frogbs, Thursday, 27 October 2011 21:41 (1 year ago) Permalink

The thing with Sakamoto is that for all his talent and compositional skill I never felt he had a true identity, where you could listen to something and say, "that's definitely him".

u crazy!

― goole, Thursday, 27 October 2011 22:09 (1 year ago) Permalink

Geniuses all, Hosono however is the Geniusest.

― dsb, Thursday, 27 October 2011 22:14 (1 year ago) Permalink

Yeah, Sakamoto is tempting, but my heart lies with Hosono even if *only* for working with Jun Togawa.

― emil.y, Thursday, 27 October 2011 22:16 (1 year ago) Permalink

I must confess I don't really know any solo Takahashi, but 'La Femme Chinoise' is probably my most-repeated YMO jam.

― emil.y, Thursday, 27 October 2011 22:17 (1 year ago) Permalink

Hosono, for this album if nothing else :

Also YMO was basically his project wasn't it? Dunno if I'd favour any of them over the others for the songs they wrote for YMO, tbh.

― |III|||II|||I|I||| (Matt #2), Thursday, 27 October 2011 22:30 (1 year ago) Permalink

for me the difference between Sakamoto and Hosono can be summed up right here, in a traditional Okinawan folk song that they both covered:

Sakamoto's version is beautiful and pitch-perfect. Hosono's is both of those things, but it adds a little dash of the surreal (some of the vocals even sound backwards masked), and in the end it is a lot more fun.

― frogbs, Thursday, 27 October 2011 22:34 (1 year ago) Permalink

Possibly not familiar with their respective discographies enough to vote, but if I do I'll be voting Hosono, approx 99% for the song "Sports Men" (off Philharmony), which is a jam

― how do i shot slime mould voltron form (a passing spacecadet), Thursday, 27 October 2011 22:35 (1 year ago) Permalink

Hosano's stuff is generally the weirdest. not that the other guys don't get weird, but stuff like coachin moon and mercuric dance just sound like nothing else to me. and he rules for producing the early pizzicato five stuff, which i love.

― blank, Thursday, 27 October 2011 23:46 (1 year ago) Permalink

Sakamoto went on and made "Forbidden Colours" with David Sylvian. Still one of my all time favourite tracks. Nuff said.

― Hongroe (Geir Hongro), Thursday, 27 October 2011 23:53 (1 year ago) Permalink

I couldn't even... Nope. This one's impossible.

― Lawanda Pageboy (Capitaine Jay Vee), Friday, 28 October 2011 02:55 (1 year ago) Permalink

Hosano's stuff is generally the weirdest. not that the other guys don't get weird, but stuff like coachin moon and mercuric dance just sound like nothing else to me. and he rules for producing the early pizzicato five stuff, which i love.

if you really want to hear something bizarre, try The Endless Talking. about half of it are 'remixes' of some of his 80's stuff, turning them into something very creepy and uncomfortable. I don't think he was on any drugs but he definitely seemed to be in an altered, dark state of mind for this, it's a total headfuck

― frogbs, Friday, 28 October 2011 16:16 (1 year ago) Permalink

found this video very interesting:

basically its a comp of all the commercials these guys did in the 80's (and a little beyond), and there's a ton of them. suddenly the reformation for that Kirin commercial doesn't seem so out of place. I'm not entirely sure exactly how big these guys were in their heyday so its very interesting to see, especially the Sapporo commercials w/ Sakamoto. in America you'd never see a beer commercial featuring a pianist playing a song to himself.

― frogbs, Sunday, 6 November 2011 16:35 (1 year ago) Permalink

Wow some of those are great! Thanks for posting that, i had seen the Hosono Namco ones before but had no idea they did so many.

― dsb, Sunday, 6 November 2011 18:47 (1 year ago) Permalink

Thanks for that Frogbs, very cool indeed.

― sleigh tracks (1933-1969) (MaresNest), Sunday, 6 November 2011 19:06 (1 year ago) Permalink

Looks like Arto Lindsay popping up at the end of that first Sapporo ad.

― sleigh tracks (1933-1969) (MaresNest), Sunday, 6 November 2011 20:27 (1 year ago) Permalink

I, too, have become a bit of a Hosono convert over the years — not only for Cochin Moon but also for this:

― Naive Teen Idol, Monday, 7 November 2011 18:39 (1 year ago) Permalink

you ever hear any of the F.O.E. stuff? there's maybe 2 full-lengths of this stuff, much of it pretty good, including a collaboration with James Brown believe it or not

― frogbs, Tuesday, 8 November 2011 19:56 (1 year ago) Permalink

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

― System, Wednesday, 9 November 2011 00:01 (1 year ago) Permalink

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

― System, Thursday, 10 November 2011 00:01 (1 year ago) Permalink

Cochin Moon is just such an insanely wonderful album--more sophisticated and yet so much more loose and "organic" than most YMO work, a totally enveloping sound-world. Shame it's not better known--should be in the canon of truly great electronic albums.

― Soundslike, Thursday, 10 November 2011 00:41 (1 year ago) Permalink

Close!

― Naive Teen Idol, Thursday, 10 November 2011 06:04 (1 year ago) Permalink

Kinda emblematic of the band in general.

― sleigh tracks (1933-1969) (MaresNest), Thursday, 10 November 2011 10:02 (1 year ago) Permalink

Really want to start a "there is so much more to Hosono than Cochin Moon" type thread but I don't want to marginalize how great it is that anyone knows that album at all

― frogbs, Thursday, 10 November 2011 14:47 (1 year ago) Permalink

... but I've only heard two of his albums and I didn't like the other one. Don't know the other guys' solo work - well, Sakamoto a bit and Takahashi not at all tbh. I'm no expert on YMO but I've always kinda imagined Takahashi was the pop guy so he would have got my vote if I'd actually voted.

― R. Stornoway (Tom D.), Thursday, 10 November 2011 15:31 (1 year ago) Permalink

what was the other one, out of curiousity?

i always found Cochin Moon's popularity a little confusing, not that it isn't great, just wonder where it got its reputation from when his other solo works are such obscurities - it isn't even one of the three or so Hosono albums that's in print outside of Japan

― frogbs, Thursday, 10 November 2011 15:41 (1 year ago) Permalink

Because you can find it on the internet fairly easily perhaps? "Paraiso" was the other one.

― R. Stornoway (Tom D.), Thursday, 10 November 2011 15:54 (1 year ago) Permalink

I'd guess that coachin moon has crossover appeal to krautrock/Mutant Sounds types who aren't necessarily into technopop or whatever

― where is fake disneyworld (blank), Thursday, 10 November 2011 20:54 (1 year ago) Permalink

yeah I think it must have been featured on a few blogs somewhere, I do think it's probably his most impressive album from a historical standpoint (like, "I can't believe he was doing this all the way back then...")

that said, I actually like Paraiso better, which is a unique and revolutionary album in its own right - certainly much less "abstract", but still used electronics in a way that perhaps no one had before.

― frogbs, Thursday, 10 November 2011 21:03 (1 year ago) Permalink

Whither Patrick South?

I'll always take Harry. Love the New Orleanskinawa records too much not to.

Takahashi's "Saravah" is his great overlooked tropical disco-pop gem

― Deverly (Bangelo), Friday, 11 November 2011 05:27 (1 year ago) Permalink

yeah I wish South or r1o or lou1s were still around, oh well

kinda weird that all three of them released disco-pop albums at the same time

― frogbs, Friday, 11 November 2011 15:47 (1 year ago) Permalink

I am still around--I can just never seem to remember my password these days! (Got it.)

In the past year or two, I have noticed more and more YMO/technopop threads on the internet, and it makes me happy. I'm thinking that Youtube is responsible?

Takahashi made my favorite YMO songs, and I love the pure synth-pop of his solo albums. He's also the most charming singer. I love Sakamoto's synth work from the '70s to the mid-'80s (especially his production work for Taeko Onuki), but his solo albums were always too experimental and dull for me.

Hosono is the one. He's the greatest songwriter, he created YMO (and invented technopop for my money), and his songs are the most magical/exotic. I didn't realize he was in so many ads in the '80s (I assumed it would be mostly Sakamoto), so I'm glad that he is so clearly recognized as a genius in Japan.

― Patrick South, Friday, 11 November 2011 16:32 (1 year ago) Permalink

I do love how he can turn songs that are supposed to be lush and simple into something utterly surreal. On Omni Sight Seeing there's a cover of the old 30's jazz standard "Caravan" which sounds like Hosono just set up all his machines to emulate jazz instruments and turn everything into a crazy, somewhat off-key jazz session. Even his voice, the way he sounds so off yet fun to listen to, such good stuff and a clear influence for Cornelius to basically do the same thing

― frogbs, Tuesday, 15 November 2011 17:06 (1 year ago) Permalink

I voted Hosono and I don't think I've ever heard Cochin Moon! Sportsmen is my all-time favorite YMO-cru song.

― Dan I., Wednesday, 16 November 2011 14:39 (1 year ago) Permalink

New YMO single called "Fire Bird" supposedly released today!!

― frogbs, Wednesday, 1 August 2012 19:28 (9 months ago) Permalink

I may have posted this elsewhere, but Ryuichi Sakamoto wins for most essential solo album.

This is a must-have for YMO fans. All 4 YMO members appear on this album, making it practically a YMO release. It definately sounds the most like them.

That's right, I said all 4 members. The poll leaves out the very important '4th member', Hideki Matsutake. Another must-hear is Unit by Matsutake's project, Logic System.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXO5IIIhVy8

― 3×5, Monday, 6 August 2012 23:59 (9 months ago) Permalink

Sorry, forgot to take the 's' out of https:

― 3×5, Monday, 6 August 2012 23:59 (9 months ago) Permalink

Yeah, that album is perfect, IMO.

I love the Hideki Matsutake album Edo (actually it's a collaboration with two other people). Mellow Tangerine Dream-ish mixed with more traditional Japanese acoustic stuff.

― windjammer voyage (blank), Tuesday, 7 August 2012 00:08 (9 months ago) Permalink

Which one is perfect? Thousand Knives is close, except I don't care for the song Grasshoppers. I think this keeps the album from perfection. Also, sometimes the songs feel too long (Thousand Knives is almost 10 minutes long).

I like 2 3rds of Logic (which I mistakenly named Unit. Matsutake's Digital Moon has some pretty excellent covers of James Bond songs.

― 3×5, Tuesday, 7 August 2012 02:57 (9 months ago) Permalink

Ha I really like "grasshoppers", actually. I just think the album's a wonderful long playing experience; melodic, exotic, truly a pleasure from start to finish.

― windjammer voyage (blank), Tuesday, 7 August 2012 03:18 (9 months ago) Permalink

thousand knives, I mean

― windjammer voyage (blank), Tuesday, 7 August 2012 03:20 (9 months ago) Permalink

"Unit" is quite possibly my favorite YMO-related track.

― Naive Teen Idol, Wednesday, 8 August 2012 01:48 (9 months ago) Permalink

here's a really great track from Coincidental Music, this is a good indicator of what planet Hosono was on, even after YMO's split

― frogbs, Wednesday, 8 August 2012 02:05 (9 months ago) Permalink

I found this on a Libary Music blog and I thought it was a pretty dead-on YMO record. I posted it to a YMO listserv and the other YMO nerds didn't think so, though.

Marcello Giombini - Libra

― 3×5, Wednesday, 8 August 2012 02:50 (9 months ago) Permalink

it definitely feels like the first YMO record

― frogbs, Wednesday, 8 August 2012 03:11 (9 months ago) Permalink

Complete Service (After Service remixed/resequenced by Eno) was at Aboeba for $75. *groan*. I know a lot of people are down on later YMO but I really like After Service, especially the arrangements of the earlier songs.

― windjammer voyage (blank), Wednesday, 8 August 2012 03:19 (9 months ago) Permalink

After Service remixed/resequenced by Eno

Whoah, really? When? I need to hear that.

― Naive Teen Idol, Wednesday, 8 August 2012 15:31 (9 months ago) Permalink

It's not really super noteworthy. I have both After Service and Complete Service and sonically there isn't much of a difference. In my opinion the best live YMO era was 1979-1980, when they were still improvising quite a bit; the 1983 stuff is good but it doesn't really add much to the studio versions, y'know?

― frogbs, Wednesday, 8 August 2012 15:36 (9 months ago) Permalink