btw, i got all of these records for about $20 a pop at this discogs store: https://www.discogs.com/seller/teebeetee/profile
each one came in absolutely perfect condition, even though the condition of all three items was described as
Media Condition: Very Good Plus (VG+)Sleeve Condition: Very Good Plus (VG+)Media: EX (some hairlines. some foxing spots on labels.) / Sleeve (with insert & obi): EX (some foxing spots & some wear)
A+ seller, would buy again, and if i ever find this person's store in Tokyo I'm going to go bankrupt, and by that i mean i'd spend $200
― But guess what? Nobody gives a toot!😂 (Karl Malone), Saturday, 28 December 2019 21:05 (four years ago) link
This is a great thread, you chose wisely :)
― Maresn3st, Saturday, 28 December 2019 22:07 (four years ago) link
amazing
― budo jeru, Saturday, 28 December 2019 22:39 (four years ago) link
Ah yeah my "Neuromantic" has the booklet as well! Still love BGM above all other YMO albums, personally.
― SQUIRREL MEAT!! (Capitaine Jay Vee), Saturday, 28 December 2019 22:40 (four years ago) link
actually did not know a lot of that
a Hayashi/Sato/Hosono YMO would've been something to hear. super thankful it didn't happen though
YMO records are pretty tough to find around here. I got BGM & the US version of Xoo Multiplies but other than that I've never seen one. Much less a YT solo album. I've heard the s/t album makes its way around sometimes but it must get snapped up quick.
currently listening to YT's recent live album "One Fine Night", which spans his entire career in 33 songs...very nice
― frogbs, Monday, 30 December 2019 14:38 (four years ago) link
Still can't quite believe that I saw them together at the London Hosono gig, even though I saw the HAS/YMO Meltdown thing in 2008, which was a bit limp to be honest.
― Maresn3st, Monday, 30 December 2019 15:00 (four years ago) link
that's so awesome KM
― clouds, Wednesday, 1 January 2020 18:49 (four years ago) link
:)
this is going to be a very ymo year because my partner is now super into that whole scene and has started finding and recommending things for me to check out. i feel like we're now experiencing exponential growth :) it also helps that after years of repetition and reading this and other threads, i'm finally beginning to put the pieces together. like i was reading some more about hideki matsutake (the "4th member of YMO" who was basically their resident computer programmer nerd for their early albums), and then realized he recorded as Logic System, and it's just so much more satisfying to understand that connection on a slightly deeper level.
― But guess what? Nobody gives a toot!😂 (Karl Malone), Wednesday, 1 January 2020 18:59 (four years ago) link
what a kickass album cover (1982)
https://i.imgur.com/IibvSLc.jpg
― But guess what? Nobody gives a toot!😂 (Karl Malone), Wednesday, 1 January 2020 19:01 (four years ago) link
Yeah I love that cover. “Clash” off the first album is amazing if you slow it down (thank u DJ Harvey)
― brimstead, Wednesday, 1 January 2020 19:08 (four years ago) link
great posts, btw, KarlThis solo album of his: https://www.discogs.com/松武秀樹-今藤小苗長十郎-小松原まさし-江戸-Edo/master/902345Is cool sort of 70s style electronic mixed with some trad Japanese sounds. Very fun listen if you’re into like the epic euro kind of electronic stuff that preceded YMO (TD, schulze, vangelis etc)
― brimstead, Wednesday, 1 January 2020 19:11 (four years ago) link
Acc to Discogs I think all the YMO albums were reissued last year on vinyl. Some of them have weird super pixelated covers. They’re official though, looks like. Haven’t seen em in stores myself (I see the early hosono albums everywhere which bemuses me)
― brimstead, Wednesday, 1 January 2020 19:14 (four years ago) link
yeah, I've seen those around in a few stores. so expensive! and since the old pressings are not exactly uncommon and sound nice enough to my ears, I think I'll pass.
― (⊙_⊙?) (original bgm), Wednesday, 1 January 2020 21:57 (four years ago) link
even though I saw the HAS/YMO Meltdown thing in 2008, which was a bit limp to be honest.
well, now I don't feel so bad for missing it!
not much of a fan of the recordings from that era either. it's cool that they didn't want to repeat themselves but... I don't find those rearrangements very satisfying at all. like, this isn't bad or anything but I can't really think of any situation where I'd prefer to listen to this version of "rydeen" instead of the original -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po1rPMoGXm4
― (⊙_⊙?) (original bgm), Wednesday, 1 January 2020 22:06 (four years ago) link
your experience as original bgm must be different from the average person, but yeah they are expensive! i prefer to hang back and eventually become a world traveler to that record store in tokyo buy $200 worth of it, possibly even $250
― But guess what? Nobody gives a toot!😂 (Karl Malone), Wednesday, 1 January 2020 22:11 (four years ago) link
i don't know if you lot saw this already, but you might be interested in the studio mule album 'bgm' that came out last summer which had covers of ymo ('ballet'), mariah, taeko ohnuki etc. rediscovered it the other day while i was going through stuff i'd saved on spotify. it's very pleasant btw
https://thevinylfactory.com/news/obscure-japanese-gems-reworked-studio-mule-band-album-bgm/
https://open.spotify.com/album/4O0IKN2qIUKd5e6x1v23mW?si=Q5OQSsBHRZ-vTjGMynwWbQ
― NickB, Wednesday, 1 January 2020 22:28 (four years ago) link
your experience as original bgm must be different from the average person, but yeah they are expensive!
heh. well, ymo-related stuff has gotten much pricier the last few years but... those were something like 50¥+ a pop when I saw em. and the covers are ugly! seems like weird rabid collector bait.
― (⊙_⊙?) (original bgm), Wednesday, 1 January 2020 22:46 (four years ago) link
it's missing a ton (and much of it isn't available), but here's a first stab at a ymo + solo chronological playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3wiA1XXpeNR07R680rvJRg?si=j0zTWq5ISA-FN-hhl0Kmvw
― But guess what? Nobody gives a toot!😂 (Karl Malone), Thursday, 2 January 2020 00:22 (four years ago) link
― eatandoph (Neue Jesse Schule), Thursday, 2 January 2020 00:31 (four years ago) link
Ah thanks for the info
― brimstead, Thursday, 2 January 2020 00:36 (four years ago) link
How I wish somebody would write a book on YMO.
― disastrous sixth series (MaresNest), Monday, June 21, 2010 9:39 AM (nine years ago)
did this ever happen? or at least on one of the members? did anyone ever do a 33 1/3? i would devour that shit
― But guess what? Nobody gives a toot!😂 (Karl Malone), Friday, 10 January 2020 20:51 (four years ago) link
Not in Eigo, to my knowledge.
Here's where they seem to be at with the 33 1/3 Japanese Music series.
http://www.norikomanabe.com/33-1-3-japan
― Maresn3st, Saturday, 11 January 2020 15:43 (four years ago) link
It's maddening to me, cause their whole story is so fucking deep, you could write acres of material about each member's solo work and pre-YMO work alone.
― Maresn3st, Saturday, 11 January 2020 15:44 (four years ago) link
Just listened to BGM immediately followed by Technodelic and I gotta say, while the former is cool weird, the latter is them going to the next level entirely. I love the fusion of their style with Bill Nelson and Japan's post-punkness. So many cool sounds and ideas all jumbled together.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Sunday, 12 January 2020 01:41 (four years ago) link
We should poll them, who would win, Hosono?
― Maresn3st, Sunday, 12 January 2020 12:33 (four years ago) link
Totally agreed about how odd it is there's not a book on these guys yet. Don't know if the recent surge in interest piqued some interest in writing it over in Japan, but like MN said, there is sooo much to write about!
Hosono would probably win, yeah.
― Le Bateau Ivre, Sunday, 12 January 2020 12:52 (four years ago) link
YMO poll: Sakamoto vs. Hosono vs. Takahashi
― Kim Kimberly, Sunday, 12 January 2020 15:59 (four years ago) link
Ah, there we go :)
― Maresn3st, Sunday, 12 January 2020 16:41 (four years ago) link
Still, my memory lapse has sent me off to listen to Bon Voyage Co whilst tidying the house
― Maresn3st, Sunday, 12 January 2020 16:55 (four years ago) link
thread title is still accurate
― frogbs, Saturday, 26 September 2020 04:18 (three years ago) link
the part on "Rap Phenomena" where Hosono loops himself going "WOOP WOOP WOOP WOOP" is so fucking funny
― frogbs, Saturday, 26 September 2020 04:24 (three years ago) link
he sounds so despondent telling everybody to rap
― brimstead, Saturday, 26 September 2020 04:30 (three years ago) link
― disastrous sixth series (MaresNest), Monday, June 21, 2010 7:39 AM (ten years ago)
otm
― sleeve, Saturday, 26 September 2020 04:43 (three years ago) link
Surely it must already exist, and needs to be translated? If anything they taught us about the free market is correct, even one thing, this book has to be out there already. Otherwise, maybe the uncomfortable feeling we’ve all had over the years is actually the free hand, harassing
― Karl Malone, Saturday, 26 September 2020 15:02 (three years ago) link
I had a mooch around the book dept in Disc Union in Shibuya a few years back, there looked to be some YMO related books there but the poor chap behind the counter's eigo was non-existent and he was petrified of the wacky westerner asking daft questions.
― Maresn3st, Saturday, 26 September 2020 16:03 (three years ago) link
There's a chapter on Happy End/YMO/etc. in Michael K. Bourdagh's Sayonora Amerika, Sayonora Nippon: A Geopolitical Prehistory of J-Pop. I got it out of the library just to read that chapter, and now I have to say I can't remember much about it! It was engaging Japanese pop's ambivalent relationship to the West post-WWII, which seems pretty obviously key to what YMO was. But I think I wanted a bit more of your conventional rock biography stuff, about recording the albums, relationships in the band, the industry, etc.
― eatandoph (Neue Jesse Schule), Saturday, 26 September 2020 16:28 (three years ago) link
I'd like to think that W David Marx would be a good candidate, his book 'Ametora' is fascinating and his music blog writings were always pretty great.
http://neojaponisme.com/category/music-3/
― Maresn3st, Saturday, 26 September 2020 17:20 (three years ago) link
Japanese pop's ambivalent relationship to the West post-WWII, which seems pretty obviously key to what YMO was
Can you elaborate on this point?
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Saturday, 26 September 2020 18:19 (three years ago) link
Maybe calling it "key" or speaking of "the West" here is imprecise, but something of the sort was certainly part of the group's conceptual foundation. Calling themselves Yellow Magic Orchestra ironically incorporates Western racism into the name of the group. They do giddily ironic covers of "oriental" easy listening exotica on synthesizers. Their techno-futurism conjures Japan's newfound position as a producer of premier appliances and automobiles such that the country is admired but feared and loathed as a source of economic threat and potential decline in US hegemony. Some of this is gestured at pretty clearly in the English-language skits on X∞Multiplies. Mind you, I don't perceive this theme so much after that point — someone who knows the history/Japanese would be better equipped to address the question. I'd like to read that book too!
― eatandoph (Neue Jesse Schule), Saturday, 26 September 2020 22:21 (three years ago) link
here's one cool thing I just discovered - you know that bit on "Ballet" where the French woman (same one from "La Femme Chinoise"??) has that speaking bit? well, apparently this is what she's saying:
Je suis fatiguée du même vieux chaosJ'en suis malade Il devrait y avoir une sortie à ce cul-de-sac
which is the same as the bridge from "Cue"
I’m sick and tired of the same old chaosthere must be a way out of this cul-de-sac.
― frogbs, Wednesday, 13 January 2021 14:29 (three years ago) link
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/yellow-magic-orchestra-bgm/
pretty nice write up, hope this encourages a few more people to check it out
― frogbs, Sunday, 7 March 2021 21:28 (three years ago) link
Enjoyed that, interesting to see that the writer quotes from a Peter Barakan interview I did a few years back, kinda emblematic of the paucity of information on the group in English, frustrating given their stature, collectively and otherwise.
― Maresn3st, Sunday, 7 March 2021 22:57 (three years ago) link
I never knew Sakamoto sat out for a big part of the album’s writing process!
― SQUIRREL MEAT!! (Capitaine Jay Vee), Monday, 8 March 2021 07:21 (three years ago) link
Happy 40th!
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1373528906315278&set=gm.4276693085709147
― Maresn3st, Sunday, 21 March 2021 15:52 (three years ago) link
Listened to YMO a lot last week and I think "Technodelic" is my favourite. "BGM" second. I'm not really a big fan of the first two albums, tbh.
― Duncan Disorderly (Tom D.), Sunday, 21 March 2021 16:10 (three years ago) link
I kinda feel that a lot of the first two records comes alive in a concert setting.
― Maresn3st, Sunday, 21 March 2021 16:14 (three years ago) link
their first one is my least listened ymo I think. I listened to SSS about a trillion times while playing Super Nintendo (in college, as a burnout)
― Zach_TBD (Karl Malone), Sunday, 21 March 2021 16:37 (three years ago) link
I've been on a YMO kick recently (again) and was thinking about how I'd rank their albums. I think it would be something like this.
Naughty BoysSolid State Survivor BGM Service (this jumped up my list recently, especially as I discovered the European version on vinyl which doesn't feature the skits)TechnodelicYellow Magic Orchestra Multiplies
I still haven't heard the reunion album.
My latest discovery is how great the Naughty Boys instrumentals are. Such joyful music.
― kitchen person, Sunday, 21 March 2021 18:53 (three years ago) link
I really like "Multiples"!
― Duncan Disorderly (Tom D.), Sunday, 21 March 2021 18:57 (three years ago) link
Oh I do really like it too. They're a rare band where I kind of love all the albums I've heard by them. That's just the one I play the least.
― kitchen person, Sunday, 21 March 2021 19:01 (three years ago) link