RFI: Yellow Magic Orchestra

http://www.musiconvinyl.com/catalog/yellow-magic-orchestra/naughty-boys-instrumental#.WIUPcU0rJhF

this is the pressing i got. comes with the follow-up instrumental remix LP that is also awesome.

YMO mean so much to me, there's acres of depth in their respective solo careers and the endless productions, collaborations and associations, they're basically the three pillars of modern Japanese mainstream music.

I like "kimi ni mune kyun" and "kai Koh"

Was Naughty Boys meant to be a parody, or at least somewhat tongue-in-cheek? I mean the "Kimi Ni Mune Kyun" video gives it away a bit, but without understanding the lyrics it's a bit hard to tell. There's just something a bit off about it.

Do wish they'd included "Chaos Panic" because that song absolutely rules - strange they never thought to release it as a single

"Kimi ni mune kyun" roughly translated means "my heart is yours". Just another silly love song ...

Best Answer: The easiest way to say it would be, "I'm crazy about you." "Kyun " is onomatopoeia, or a word that means what it sounds like, as in "click" or "bomb." You know how your heart makes the funny sound when you think of someone you love. To put it more literally, it means "My heart is pounding hard for you."
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070315014444AASUtzi

Is there a vocal version of "chaos panic"? I just know the version on the naughty boys instrumental album. It reminds me of "girls just wanna have fun"

Yeah - it's on the Greatest Hits album I have (Kyoretsu na Rhythm). Definitely one of the hookiest songs they ever did.

"Chaos Panic" is cool but it doesn't sound like Naughty Boys to me at all – it sounds much more in keeping w Hosono's stuff ca. S.F.X and Philharmony.

Honesty, I've always been a bit torn on Naughty Boys – the Japanese verses make things a bit inscrutable and musically it sounds like a completely different band from the first several records, with Sakamoto's heavy synth pads and Takahashi's gated drum sounds replacing the Kraftwerk-ian production from before. I stupidly sold this back in college but "Lotus Love" was the only song that really had stuck with me. Listening back now, the rest ("Expected Way," "Focus," etc.) still sounds largely like kind of generic J-pop, albeit with sometimes slightly more melodic choruses.

For my money, I'm a much bigger fan of BGM's development of their sound but I'll give this another shot.

it most definitely is a different band - though to be fair most of their records sound completely different, to me

I agree with most of what you're saying, but with one caveat - it may sound like generic J-pop, but to me it's kind of the perfect J-pop album - I love every song on it.

there is nothing generic about Naughty Boys -- no another album like it. if you have an example of 80s j-pop with production that dense and detailed, show me please.

Yea I'm referring mostly to the songwriting there. Though even then, songs like "Lotus Love" are quite strange - hard to think of another by-the-numbers ballad that seems to be constantly fallonh apaet like that.You're right that its got a very unique sound to it.

Ok phoneposting is weird :)

Can anyone recommend a J-pop album with songs as good as Naughty Boys? As much as I love earlier YMO albums and members' contemporary solo albums (especially Technodelic, B-2 Unit, and Philharmony), Naughty Boys is my favorite--it's just one perfect song after another. If it's "generic J-pop," then please give me more of that shit.

Surprisingly tough, Naughty Boys is a high bar, Tadiama by Akiko Yano perhaps?

not into picking apart songcraft, esp w synthpop, where the sound of things is the main appeal.

i like other YMO albums but they are more recognizable as bands in the studio playing instruments, where "Naughty Boys" sounds like it fell from the sky wholly formed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4cyBlFs_RY

The commercial for BGM included there is wtf, wish it was longer.

omg. thank you. this is awesome.

There are so many cool YMO things out there like this. i've been listening to them regularly for several years now and i still feel like i'm barely scratching the surface

one of YMO's early producers' son is the director of atlanta.

these fuji tape commercials are amazing

Rabbit hole awaits you - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbjcQtiyNcA

<3<3<3<3

Thank you mates nest !
Does anyone have mp3s of these?

So glad to see YMO threads at the top of ILM so often. I have dug around for YMO-related albums for years and I can tell you the three I think are the best. I should mention that my favorite YMO is their first album.

The first is Thousand Knives of Ryuichi Sakamoto. I think this is his best album and a must-listen for any YMO fan. I would share a Youtube video, but this album appears to be scrubbed from Youtube.

The second is Unit by Logic System. This is the side project of Hideki Matsutake, sometimes called the unofficial fourth member of YMO, although he should have been an official member because they wouldn't have sounded the same without him.

The third is Orient by Hiroshi Sato. I think this album is an absolute gem. Hosono plays bass on this album and it's clearly very in line with what YMO were trying to do -- in fact, Sato was one of the first musicians Hosono approached to be in YMO, though he declined. He later appeared on their albums and on tour, and is considered part of the 'YMO family'.

Thousand Knives and Orient were released in the late 70s, when YMO was at their best, IMO. If you like this side of YMO, I would recommend the stuff Hosono did for the CBS Mastersound series. Also check out the "Summer Nerves" album by Ryuichi Sakamoto & Kakutougi Session, and Sakamoto's collaborations with Kazumi Watanabe.

YMO is in my top 3 bands of all time, but I think they were downhill from Technodelic on. And unfortunately, most YMO-related material seems to come after this point, so it has a more J-Pop sound and less of their original sound, which i think of as a combination of experimental electronica, jazz fusion, disco and self-referentially oriental exotica.

I have a disc of sakamoto's commercial music, it's positively delightful. Contains akiko yano singing the most beautiful song about diapers ever

hiroshi sato is fantastic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUQjdwRno5g

Question about this Hiroshi Sato album: Discogs lists it as a compilation (from 1985). If this is true, what does it compile, and from which albums? Japanese characters make it impossible to tell. I really love Orient but that's the only one I've heard so far, and I really love this "Say Goodbye" song and need more of that pronto

I am busy spending my morning face down on a pillow, but you could probably just dump the text into google translate and it'll point the way

"This album released in 1985 has become sought after album for the 80’s Japanese boogie lovers. It features a revisited version of “Sweet Inspiration” originally released on Hiroshi’s previous LP Sailing Blaster in 1984. This album also contains the amazing track “Say Goodbye” that was originally released on his 1982 album Awakening (featuring singer Wendy Matthews)."

Is all I could find

Thanks! I've done a little poking around and it looks like I need to buy a copy of Awakening.

Only on ILX can I, while waiting for tea to steep, innocently open a thread about YMO--a group I like based on the three albums of theirs I own--and find myself, two days later, in a deep city pop rabbit hole, desperately trying to outbid vaporwavers on eBay

wimmels, i'm pretty sure it's a comp of singles and non-album tracks but i might be wrong. there are no tracks from orient afaict.

These Miharu Koshi records may be of related interest too, if you didn't already know them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASUSdIw4n9o

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

xp yeah, I noticed that, but only because Orient is the first one I downloaded and, while good, none of it reaches the heights of "Shiny Lady" or "Say Goodbye" imo

Non-album tracks, though, that's too bad, because as far as I can tell, This Boy is a relatively tough one to find (though probably a lot easier to find than the original singles!)

xp thanks! Don't know these at all. Pretty new to this stuff in general. This thread has been awesome / devastating in this regard

^^^

It might be my favorite ILM thread

City pop in a non vaporwave, irony free way has definitely been making some kind of small comeback among Japanese musicians and producers it seems.

Toki Asako's new record Pink for instance is pretty upfront about it, using producer Tomi Yo who is regarded a a big City Pop stan.

Okay I always try to resist mentioning mine and my friends little radio show and sounding like a shill but I've caved in, mainly because we do play a lot of late 70s early 80s stuff of this stripe and the inevitability of a YMO connection is at the running joke stage, particularly Hosono.

It seems the more we keep digging the more great stuff we find that they've had a hand in somehow, be it mentoring, producing, releasing, guesting, it's madness and unending.

Kate NV's album "Binasu" has that Hosono-produced Miharu Koshi vibe all over it (did I already mention this upthread. If so - sorry).

The YMO-produced rabbithole can be a great one to fall into. For me the Akiko Yano albums that had YMO - or iterations of - playing with Sakamoto producing are the top example of how wonderful this stuff can be.
Hosono-produced stuff can go from shiny, glorious synth/sample based pop to fairly standard commercial production. As the '90s loomed the guys seemed to fall in love with cheesy "rave" sonics and lost much of their charm. I like the glitchy "clicks-n-cuts" approach of HASYMO and the Hosono/Takahashi collabs of the early '00s but - again - they seem to have gotten stuck in this sound, or at least Sakamoto has, for the last 10 years or so.

more ppl need to hear binasu

I will confess I am struggling a bit with Hosono's singing voice. Assuming I'm alone on this one?

it took me a while but now i love his weird voice

There's a ... a...."Sesame Street" quality to his voice that I find comforting.

Kate NV's album "Binasu" has that Hosono-produced Miharu Koshi vibe all over it (did I already mention this upthread. If so - sorry).

frogbs mentioned it earlier:
RFI: Yellow Magic Orchestra

and i fucking love that album. it's one of my favorites of 2016 in retrospect

Oh yeah! Thanks frogbs - I discovered "Binasu" through that post!

me too! i have found very little about NV elsewhere. i have no clue who she is but whatever she releases next is my most anticipated release

Never had a problem with Harry's voice, it took me a long time to get used with Yukihiro's excessive Bowie/Ferry/Sylvian style though.

Oh man, this thread has got me looping Hosono's 'Pleocene' over and over, it's truly the best thing ever.

Recent Kate NV interview. there's a cool solo live set up on YT as well - just her and a couple of instruments doing "Binasu" stuff. And she's gorgeous.

http://thequietus.com/articles/19916-nv-glintshake-kate-shilonosova-interview

Actually meant to post this recent interview. Other link is a year old.

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/a-glimpse-of-alternative-russia-through-the-music-of-kate-nv