"BGM" by the Yellow Magic Orchestra is the greatest electronic pop album ever.

huh, that didn't work--damn you, nu-ilx: http://twitpic.com/5j8zs5

YMO in the studio, early 1980s:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgkj7-VCmEw

I wish so hard for an "official" release of the SF show. I remember hearing a boot of Sketch Show playing "Gradated Gray" and it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard. Such an underrated tune.

YMO as covered by... KEANE??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A59Yps4pQq8

Not the weirdest cover when you consider Clapton did "Behind the Mask."

idd

weirdest thing to me has gotta be that "behind the mask" almost made it onto thriller

...which got re-recorded by Phil Collins and sung by Eric Clapton. Point: Clapton's version.

anyone seen the ridiculous "Kimi Ni Mune Kyun" video? really cheaply made but it's hilarious. i've never seen such miserable dancers!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HTyPPELmY0&feature=player_embedded

ha! that is really endearing.

Yeah I saw that a while ago, one of those clips that sums up exactly why I love a band so much.

i love how they apparently didn't even bother to do a second take on any of it, it's just so terribly made (then again, what videos in 1983 weren't?)

The Taiso video is pretty funny too.

hahhaa, forgot about this video. even the camera angle is terrible. kind of 3 feet above them, so it feels like you're watching your children doing the worst dance ever

i guess they were trying to play up the image of being "fun boys"

they should've change their name to fun boy 3

possibly a stupid question, but what is the "fun boy" image?

you know — they are boys, they like to have fun

it looks like they are being forced to have fun at gunpoint

I prefer YMO as waxy aliens meself.

its really kind of amazing how many radical changes in style these guys went through in the span of only 5 years

hahaha, sorry, i didn't know if "fun boys" was a japanese thing in the 80s or something

mei fun boys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3JulFmtvgM

the 'wild ambitions' video from the YMO movie is really awesome. just hosono and a kid, hangin, learnin thangs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeMVSNTogG8

love the archery part!

cool alt. mix of the song too.

awesome - that's definitely my favorite tune on Naughty Boys, an album that I think gets underrated in general.

yeah, agreed on naughty boys and "wild ambitions". but the album does get a little soggy in the middle imo!

also, the 30 sec version of "you've got to help yourself" is hilarious

it is but i'd love it if the real version were on there. i'm not too fond of Service. that said it doesn't need it...I don't feel it lags at all

yeah, service is easily their weakest.

as for naughty boys, they're not bad or anything, but I feel like "ongaku"/"opened my eyes"/"lotus love" are the low points of the album and bookended by better tracks.

ongaku! the e-bow!

Alright, I'll give you that one!

i like all three of those - "Ongaku" is gorgeous - but I have to say the new version they are doing of that as HASYMO knocks it out of the park
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFs880dNtmM

as for "Lotus Love", it's a real oddity, sort of downtempo in a weird way, as though it's about to fall apart at any time. it's also one I really like but I really dig it any time Hosono tries to write a pop song

"ongaku" is def better than I remembered. so, you guys got me there. but I can't say I prefer the HASYMO version. guess I'm just not really a fan of the smooth, glitched-out, old man YMO rearrangements. they always strike me as pleasant enough but not much more than that. I've never heard one I'd listen to over one of the original tracks

still think "opened my eyes" is not so hot (worst track on the album imo) and "lotus love" is decent and would sound cool if it played while I explored some ancient mine in a dragon quest game.

i like the old man YMO stuff! just not so much when they do actual YMO tunes, outside of "Ongaku" and "Gradated Gray". i will say that the Sketch Show/HASYMO era is so much different than what they did in the 80's that it's not really fair to compare them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wqshDrNBaU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0laEwhW2vqw

happy end and 1000 knives sound esp. good in 8-bit mode

someone on the excellent kayokyoplus blog translated that weird middle section of "U-T":

Hosono: Hello, I'm your host, Haruomi Hosono. Appearing on the show today are Yellow Magic Orchestra's Yukihiro Takahashi and Ryuichi Sakamoto. Welcome gentlemen.

Takahashi: Thank you.

Sakamoto: Thank you.

Hosono: First, I'd like to ask Mr. Takahashi....do you know about U.T.?

Takahashi: Well, I know YT, but this is the first time to hear UT.

Hosono: Ah, really? Well, then, Mr. Sakamoto, what is the meaning of UT?

Sakamoto: Yes, that refers to super global existence.

Hosono: Oh, really? By the way, Mr. Takahashi's drumming on this song is amazing, isn't it?

Takahashi: Yes. It is amazing.

Hosono: Ohhhh....will you listen to this song on the "BGM"album?

Takahashi/Sakamoto: ARE YOU KIDDING?

one weird fact about this album is that 8 of the 10 tracks are between 4:30-4:40 in length!! and the other two are 5:21 and 5:23 in length. very bizarre consistent total length, despite the tracks being anything but formulaic.

4:35 ballet
4:34 music plans
4:33 rap phenomena
4:33 happy end
5:23 1000 knives
4:33 cue
4:34 U T
4:35 camouflage
4:32 mass
5:21 loom

(track times via spotify)

both sides begin with 4-minute tracks and conclude with a 5-minute track.

anyway, weird.

and really, i'm sure all of those track lengths could be a second or two off in either direction. were they trying to make them all 4'33?

*television voice*
next week, on YMO mysteries

well spotted!

yea I noticed that too. pretty cool since a lot of those tunes have pretty rigid structures. feel like this album could really use a 33 1/3 book, it feels like there are so many stories behind it

33 1/3 have started a Japan series and there's a YMO one on the way, not stated which rekkid yet though.

https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/series/33-13-japan/

_9. Mass - Great sequencer sounds like Tangerine Dream from around the same time and the melodic line sounds an 80s retro-futurist version of the national anthem of some dictatorial country._


yeah, totally. it sounds like they're almost quoting the imperial death march at points. such a great, weird song.

Posted these on the Hosono thread, but a couple of YMO performances from the Hosono TV special that broadcast in Japan on 2nd January have appeared on Youtube. Includes Gen Hoshino guesting on Firecracker!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_EnF3xN3CA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qpf0uehEJlM

awesome thanks!

Wow, excellent catch on 4'33! Surely it's a John Cage reference! B.ack G.round M.usic !

listening to this with a little 420 and holy hell does it sound weird. all those freaky vocal effects and strange lyrics about metaphysics. the massive amounts of reverb. all those sad, mangled melodies. the really uh...random sense of rhythm on a few tracks. even "Cue", a song I've heard performed a dozen times by a variety of artists, sounds particularly paranoid and disturbed here. I love this album but it's also sort of a nightmare isn't it?

Agreed. I recently started getting into YMO and find this a peculiarly compelling album in that I've played it more than any other this year despite not really falling in love with it. "Cue" sounds like the fading human element working to reconcile himself to life as grinding machine repetition, as if reminding himself that this was, after all, his aspiration.

BGM is really very unique. All the detuned sounds and strange arrangements -- I've rarely heard anything like it.

Yasuaki Shimizu was friends with Ryuichi Sakamoto, and apparently took a lot of notes. Lots of innovative, post-BGM production on stuff he did with Yumi Murata, Jimmy Murakawa or Kazumi Band.

I've also been listening to Shinobu Narita, who had two bands: 4-D and Urban Dance (1, 2). His stuff also blends catch pop melodies with these chromatic, detuned sounds and slightly dissonant accompaniment in places.

I know ILX prefers 80s YMO to late 70s, so I hope you guys like these recommendations.

Whoops, I linked to Urban Dance when I meant to link to Shinobu.