RFI: Yellow Magic Orchestra

awesome will check those recs.

These days, my main YMO jam is Technodelic, which some seems more fun to me than BGM, and the songs are a little less obscured by the recording/technology. It's weird that a lot of people lump YMO into the "sounds like Kraftwerk" bucket, because they were really a different thing altogether. I almost want to look at them as a (fairly radical) extension of exotica composers like Les Baxter and Martin Denny, but using modern technology.

totally and the reclaiming of "Firecracker" is the gateway.

id also put The Ventures in that list.

posting here bc i think y'all will enjoy it + the production is v honoso i(y)mo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17OeCznSm5I

xxp yea I think a comparison like that makes more sense if you consider them to be an offshoot of what Hosono was doing from 76-78, though they quickly evolved into their own thing. it's nuts that the self-titled and Technodelic were only three years apart.

I agree that Kraftwerk comparisons are mostly bogus, if only because these guys were actual musicians and the stuff they wrote was a lot more melodically complex than anything Kraftwerk could do. That said I don't really mind the label, it gets people interested

right now one of my favorite YMO things is this tune from Akiko Yano from when YMO was essentially her backing band. it's 8 minutes long and feels a bit like a showtune medley. there's an amazing electronic drum freakout about halfway through. I feel like this album is up there with anything YMO did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk8NScB_R7Q&t=2675s

there's such a richness/depth to their compositions, they obviously know a lot about classical and tin pan alley (ha) type stuff

xpost One of my absolute favorite albums. Pretty much perfect straight through. Was listening to this and Tadaima before bed last night.

Love the "choir" vocals (throughout both those albums) and tonal shifts in that tune.

I've somehow ignored YMO until recently (maybe because I confused them with ELO, who I also don't listen to?), but finally ended up here after going down a Youtube hole of Haruomi Hosono stuff, all of which is just insanely ahead of its time.

ya Tadaima is maybe even better, though it's just a single instead of a double. gotta love when a skilled and generally tasteful musician just goes off the deep end.

I think it's pretty difficult, and rare, to get the YMO sound right. Honestly, I think YMO stopped getting YMO right towards the end of their careers, and all the solo and Yen records stuff that came after misses the mark and goes into the generic J-pop bin, for me.

For me, the YMO sound is their early sound: self-consciously electronic, self-consciously Japanese, informed by their disco/fusion/lounge sensibilities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE2DQQhGam4

Jazzy chord progressions with a pentatonic melody over the top. Perfect.

hell yeah

Ehhh see I disagree. I think they began losing it after Technodelic. The earlier stuff is kitschier and has Hosono's sensibilities reigning heavily over everything. I think BGM and Technodelic sound like no one else at that time.

But it's all great and I don't want to come across like Turrican or something lol.

I agree that Kraftwerk comparisons are mostly bogus, if only because these guys were actual musicians and the stuff they wrote was a lot more melodically complex than anything Kraftwerk could do.

This is unfair. Hütter, Schneider and Bartos were all classically trained. Kraftwerk's minimalistic style was a deliberate aesthetic choice.

brimstead knows what I'm talking about

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLUgH6ztFes

84 maxell commericial, music by sakamoto. there is a longer version available on two different comps of his commericial/tv work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ25BzokNNU

i love the wireless headsets they used in this performance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4JwpaTnz2U

This doesn't sound much like YMO, though it's also from the same time, also from Japan, also weird electronic pop. Basically I just came across it, love it, wanted to share.

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

It's weird that a lot of people lump YMO into the "sounds like Kraftwerk" bucket, because they were really a different thing altogether.

It's not weird at all - I mean, I can see why people have a tendency to lump YMO in with Kraftwerk, even though at the same time I can see why they shouldn't be lumped together.

I agree that Kraftwerk comparisons are mostly bogus, if only because these guys were actual musicians and the stuff they wrote was a lot more melodically complex than anything Kraftwerk could do.

Kraftwerk were also "actual musicians" and were indeed more than capable of writing melodically complex music, but they made a conscious decision to simplify and limit themselves.

I don't want to come across like Turrican or something

I don't think you've got anything to worry about.

Guess I was unaware of Kraftwerks musical prowess...haven't really heard them play

The prog/fusion musicianly aspect of YMO is the part that interests me least.

Kraftwerk being able to play makes sense and seems evident in a lot of their earlier jammy stuff. "Autobahn" is a 22 minute long song. you can't really sustain a single song for that long if you don't know how to play.

melodic complexity is overrated. it's fine if you have it but it's entirely unnecessary compared to rhythmic invention at least in the modern/pop sphere imo.

YMO seems born out of Japan studio pros, almost more like a synth Led Zeppelin

Yeah I don't know I always thought kraftwerk came from the academy whereas the ymo guys had been woodshedding in bands and jazz combos or something

Not that a group can't do/be both

Hosono was in Happy End who were very successful, kinda like Japan's answer to The Band or CSNY, Takahasi was the drummer for Sadistic Mika Band who had a fair amount of reach into the west, only Sakamoto came from an academic background, studying music composition.

https://image.ibb.co/ccnaLm/22853297_10155371537889877_6830628044043759678_n_1_2.jpg

need some context

It's hanging in the Gare de Paris-Est I believe. There's an exhibition at the Centre Pompidou Metz about contemporary Japanese design.

http://www.centrepompidou-metz.fr/en/japanorama-new-vision-art-1970

This is a slightly bizarre debate. Kraftwerk weren’t total noobs—Hütter and Schneider went to music school—but they weren’t Can or YMO either in the sense that they weren’t already somewhat established as players and composers by the time they got together. Compositionally and performance-wise, their early stuff (Tone Float, I and II, Ralf and Florian) reflects this.

That said, if you cannot hear an enormous (and wonderful) debt to Kraftwerk in a song like Insomnia from Solid State Survivor you have rocks between your ears.

definitely - KW's fingerprints are all over SSS. their instrumental skill comes out on their other records though, particularly the live ones - Public Pressure has some really great performances on it, and I think the work they did on those Akiko Yano albums are top notch. I kinda wish they'd explored that side even more. Even now in a band like Metafive, it's kind of astounding how good a drummer YT still is, even though he (I assume) hasn't really played much in decades.

Much of the very recent live work has seen YMO adopt a more straightforward “band” sound; the No Nukes 2012 album feels really live. And yes, Takahashi is an astonishing drummer.

YMO is amazing and Kraftwerk are a joke band

YMO are both those things

i like this youtube comp of 1980-era recordings:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anxRQNWiVW4

SIDE 1
0:00 - 1. School of Thought [Sakamoto]
4:14 - 2. Tighten Up (Japanese Gentlemen Stand Up Please!) [Bell]
7:56 - 3. Blue Colour Worker [Hosono]
12:28 - 4. Riot in Lagos [Sakamoto]
18:04 - 5. Citizens of Science [Sakamoto]
22:29 - 6. Bijin-Kyoshi at the Swimming School [Takahashi]

SIDE 2
26:40 - 7. Nice Age [Takahashi]
30:24 - 8. Multiplies [YMO/Bernstein]
33:20 - 9. Stop! in the Name of Love [Holland/Dozier/Holland]
36:35 - 10. Thatness and Thereness [Sakamoto]
39:47 - 11. The Core of Eden [Takahashi]
45:59 - 12. The End of Asia [Sakamoto]
47:32 - 13. Here We Go Again (Tighten Up) [Bell]

Tracks 1, 3, 6, 9 and 11 originally from 'Murdered by the Music' by Yukihiro Takahashi.
Tracks 2, 5, 7, 8, 12 and 13 originally from 'X∞ Multiplies' by Yellow Magic Orchestra.
Tracks 4 and 10 originally from 'B-2 Unit' by Ryuichi Sakamoto.

i like this because i always wish X∞ Multiplies was a full album, without all the comedy sketches, and this kind of feels like that.

that's nice, always felt like Xoo Multiplies & Murdered by the Music were companion albums

This may have been shared out elsewhere, but it's ace -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn5biK_zfC4

sunday's soundtrack:

Live all day with a day of Haruomi Hosono / YMO dedicated radio - tune in at https://t.co/Fu5KNRhKIi pic.twitter.com/rQJkwnKLL1

— NTS Radio (@NTSlive) November 26, 2017

https://www.nts.live/schedule/2

A 15-hour tribute to the influential Japanese songwriter, Haruomi Hosono, known from his prolific productions and work in the electronic trio, Yellow Magic Orchestra. Expect mixes exploring his career and adjacent music from NTS' most dedicated Hosono-philes.

looks like visible cloaks is going to be doing a YMO/hosono set a couple hours from now, and then light in the attic a little bit later

one more thing, sorry. i really liked a song that came on near the end of jen monroe's set, and shazam revealed that it's this

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

"zoot kook", from eating pleasure (1980) produced by hosono. the album also features "drip dry eyes", coming out a year earlier than takahashi's version on Neuromantic.

Any possibility this can be listened to at a later time? The livestream/podcast whathaveyou thing that rocked your world today?

i'm not sure! i hope so, because i'm going on my 6th hour of listening and it's been phenomenal. perfect sunday afternoon music.
i accidentally recorded a 2 hour portion of it earlier this afternoon (i meant to record just a certain bit but forgot to hit stop), so at least i'll have part of it!

Would love to hear it! (it's bordering on Monday morning here, still perfect)

there's still about an hour left! i kind of have things i need to get going on but i feel the need to stick it through til the end

Easy for you to say, I'm staring a four hour night max in the eye here! Stick to it, and I'm sure it will surface somewhere. But it sounds like something that's hard to come by for relatively illiterate YMG and related stuff peoples like me.

good news, it looks like it'll all be archived on NTS either monday or tuesday!

Aw yes!

The NTS Hosono Day shows are now all up on Mixcloud (where NTS archive everything) - I've made a playlist here:
https://www.mixcloud.com/mnida/playlists/nts-hosono-day/

(I *think* this was the broadcast order - I can't seem to find the schedule online - but do let me know if there's any corrections!)