Currently Listening To...

[Tokyo Jihad]

I have been anxiously awaiting for this month so I could finally make a "best albums of 2011" list (because I just fucking LOVE making lists.) However, this is proving to be immensely difficult. There was so much good stuff this year.

(PRO-TIP: if Dai-Hakken is on of your fav albums this year, you might want to expand your collection!)

CLT: everything from the Smith Westerns album released in January to the Nujabes thing released a few days ago.

[deadgrandma]

Everything was pretty shit this year for me actually.

Cept for Opeth, Tokyo Jihen, PJ Harvey, Puscifer, Today is the Day and Jane Zhang.

The rest I've forgotten or was re-releases.

And don't tell me to expand, I refuse to listen to Animal Collective and whatever other scarfcore you throw my way :-p

The worst: Night of Hunters and Lulu. The first cause I really, really dislike everything about it and the second cause it's Lulu.

Worth mentioning: The King of Limbs and Biophilia, that gave about 2 months enjoyment each.

Ultimately, the prize will go to:



Which is the best of the best of the year, stands strong in her back catalog and always sounds fresh.

[Tokyo Jihad]

Theres plenty else to listen to besides AnCo. Have you listened to WU LYF's Go Tell Fire to the Mountain?

WU LYF - We Bros

Just saying, I used to be one of those "all music sucks this year, except for the same five shitty acts I've listened to since the dawn of recorded history," then discover all the great year's albums three or five years down the road.

[Carlx]

Originally Posted by hoopra

stumbled upon this on someone's tumblr page
electricmole's favorite plucker lol

I like that song and particularly love that video. There is another one from the same session:

Nagaoka Ryosuke (PETROLZ) - Ame

[TeslaGuy]

YMO - Technodelic



My favorite YMO album, but one that, to be honest, was not a big favorite of mine when it was released. I thought it was kind of weird, and as I was buying albums 10 or more at a time, it was never in heavy rotation until I rediscovered it in the mid-80s. I by that time understood recording better and also had higher quality weed and stereo equipment, all of which augmented my listening experience. But back in 1981 I dropped my needle on the first track, listened to the lyrics, and went WTF?

Pure Jam

Anyway, aside from a few weirdo lyrics by Peter Barakan, an outstanding album. "Seoul Music" is my favorite track, but all are excellent.

Next, some other people's stuff about Technodelic.
And I should mention that they released the album BGM earlier that year, which was also unusually good, even by YMO standards.

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Wikipedia:

Technodelic is the fifth studio album by Yellow Magic Orchestra, released in 1981. The album is notable for its experimental and heavy use of samplers which were not commonly used until the mid-to-late 1980s, resulting in a more minimalist sound compared to their previous work.

It is considered the first released album to feature mostly samples and loops, influencing the heavy use of sampling and looping in popular music. Yellow Magic Orchestra's approach to sampling music was a precursor to the contemporary approach of constructing music by cutting fragments of sounds and looping them using computer technology.

Most of the sampling was made with an LMD-649 - a hand-made sampler developed by Toshiba-EMI engineer Kenji Murata, and a much cheaper alternative to the Linn LM-1 drum machine and Fairlight CMI sampling synthesizer available at the time. Notable samples used include Indonesian kecak chanting (Neue Tanz), gamelan and short looped vocals ("paa", "fuku", "chiki") for percussion in Seoul Music, and the final two tracks feature factory noises. The album also features use of speech through a two-way radio, a prepared piano, Prophet-5 synthesizers, and a TR-808 drum machine. In another departure from previous albums, Haruomi Hosono has a more prominent role playing the bass guitar as opposed to playing bass lines on synthesizers (this trend appears again on the album Service).

As with many of YMO's releases, song titles are printed in both Japanese and English. For "Seoul Music", the kanji "京城" are used, referring to Gyeongseong (경성; known as Keijou in Japan), the name of Seoul when Korea was under Japanese rule. "灯" simply translates to "Light". "Neue Tanz" is German for "New Dance", while "Taisō" is Japanese for "gymnastics" or "calesthenics".

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53rd and 3rd review:

My 10 New Wave Favourites All Time: #1 – Yellow Magic Orchestra – Technodelic (1981)

Yellow Magic Orchestra – Technodelic (1981)

Released on November 21, 1981.

The Band:
Haruomi Hosono: bass
Yukihiro Takahashi: drums
Ryuichi Sakamoto: keyboards



Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) was formed in 1978 and is a major influence in Japanese popular music and for pioneering the techno-pop music genre.
The band was originally conceived as a one-off studio project by Hosono, the other two members being recruited session musicians—the idea was to produce an album fusing orientalist exotica (of their cover version of Martin Denny’s Firecracker) with modern electronics. However, the first album (with its cutting-edge production) was very popular, and the studio project grew into a fully fledged touring band and career for its three members.
Sakamoto first worked with Hosono as a member of his live band in 1976, while Takahashi recruited Sakamoto to produce his debut solo recording in ’77 following the split of the Sadistic Mika Band. Hosono invited both to work on his exotica flavoured album “Paraiso”, followed by electronic material for the anthology collection “Pacific”. Following the release of the debut “Yellow Magic Orchestra” a live date at the Roppongi Pit Inn was seen by executives of A&M Records of the USA who were in the process of setting up a partnership deal with Alfa Records. This led to the YMO being offered an international deal, at which point (early 1979) the three members decided the group would be given priority over their solo careers.
An advertising deal with Fuji Cassette and the group sparked off a boom in the popularity of electronic pop music (called “Technopop” in Japan) that had an impact similar to that of The Beatles and Merseybeat in 1960s Britain. A testament to the influence of YMO on fashion is how many middle aged Japanese businessmen still have the “Techno cut” haircut, modeled after the group.
Making abundant use of new synthesizers, samplers, sequencers and digital recording technology as it became available, as well as utilizing cyberpunk-ish lyrics sung mostly in English, their popularity and influence extended beyond Japan. Generally the band are highly regarded as pioneers of electronic music, and continue to be remixed and sampled by modern artists.
Solid State Survivor, released in 1979, was YMO’s pinnacle recording in Japan, winning the 1980 Best Album Award in the Japan Record Awards. It featured English lyrics by Chris Mosdell, whose sci-fi themes often depicted a human condition alienated by dystopic futures, much like the emerging cyberpunk movement in fiction at that time. The album’s major single and YMO’s biggest international hit, “Behind the Mask”, with lyrics penned by Chris Mosdell, was later revised by Ryuichi Sakamoto for a 1987 solo release of the same name.
The band had stopped working as a group in 1984, after the release of their motion picture “Propaganda”, the three members returning to their solo careers. The group were careful to avoid saying they had “split up”, preferring to use the Japanese phrase meaning “spreading out”, and in fact the trio continued to play on each other’s recordings and made guest appearances at live shows. Takahashi, in particular, would play YMO material in his concerts and as “lead singer” was arguably best placed to do so. To dodge lawsuit and “spread out” creatively they released the next one-off reunion album, Technodon, and credited it to ‘NOT YMO’ (YMO crossed out with a caligraphy X) or YMO in 1993. Instead of traditional vocals, about half of which features field audio recordings and samples of authors and scientists reading their work.
The early 2000s saw Hosono & Takahashi reunited in a project called Sketch Show. On a number of occasions Ryuichi Sakamoto has joined in on Sketch Show performances and recording sessions. He later proposed they rename the group Human Audio Sponge when he participates. Barcelona performance at Sonar festival and Wild Sketch Show DVDs chronicle these reunions, and include a tongue-in-cheek Japanese text only history of the group that spans to 2036. The band have reunited in 2007 for an advertising campaign for Kirin Lager which lampooned their longevity and charted No.1 on various Japanese digital download charts (including iTunes Store chart) with the song “Rydeen 79/07″, released on Sakamoto’s new label commmons.
Recently performing live as Human Audio Sponge; Hosono, Sakamoto and Takahashi did a live performance together as Yellow Magic Orchestra for the Live Earth, Kyoto event on July 7 2007, which raised money and awareness of a “climate in crisis.”
In August 2007, the band once again reformed, taking the name HASYMO or HAS/YMO, combining the names of Human Audio Sponge and Yellow Magic Orchestra. Their first single under this name, “Rescue”, was written for the film Appleseed EX Machina. They released a new two song single titled “The City of Light/Tokyo Town Pages” on August 6th, 2008. HASYMO played two live concerts in Europe in the summer of 2008, one at the Royal Festival Hall, London on 15 June, as part of the Meltdown festival of music curated by Massive Attack and another in Gijon, Spain on the 19th.[3]. Although the primary YMO members (Yukihiro Takahashi, Haruomi Hosono, and Ryuichi Sakamoto) are effectively known as HASYMO and played both these concerts, these concerts were billed simply as “YMO” but featured only 4 YMO songs in each concert while the rest of the concert featured Sketch Show, HASYMO music and member’s solo works.
A cover of “Kimi ni Munekyun” was used as the ending theme song for the 2009 anime Maria Holic, sung by Asami Sanada, Marina Inoue, and Yū Kobayashi, the voice actresses of the main characters. A documentary film about lyricist Chris Mosdell and his various collaborators, Ink Music: In the Land of the Hundred-Tongued Lyricist, is slated for screening in Tokyo in June, 2009. Mosdell is featured extensively as an interview subject, as are two of his YMO collaborators, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Yukihiro Takahashi. The film’s soundtrack also features several of YMO’s songs, and solo recordings from Sakamoto, Takahashi, and Mosdell’s cult album Equasian.



Comment about the album:
Widening their vision of synth-pop to include the darker strains of urban/R&B as well as a few vocals indebted to Roxy Music, 1981′s Technodelic proved a high-quality album that showed Yellow Magic Orchestra had the talent and inspiration to grow beyond Kraftwerk-derived electronic pop heavy on the novelty but a bit light on bending genres. Though they aren’t exactly melancholy, “Neue Tanz” and “Pure Jam” distinguish themselves through a clever use of synth and effects rather than through the simplistic melodies of previous work. There are some acknowledgements to acoustic music (such as the piano on “Stairs”), but for the most part YMO pursues a new direction with the same synthesizers they’d been using previously.

Here is the video from “Gradated Grey”, my favourite electro song of all times:

Gradated Grey

Another song: “Seoul Music”

Seoul Music

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Prog perspective::

The intro tune 'Pure Jam' sounds remarkably similar to the Sylvian / Sakamoto ep. 'Bamboo Music' - but with vocals which are almost identical to Steve Strange from 'Visage'. This is an excellent, mostly electronic upbeat album that runs parallel with 'Japan's' - 'Tin Drum' - but is more synthetic in sound and has a heavy reliance on a handmade Sampler, which gives it a lot of vibrancy. I'm sure there's bits of Gamelan in there.
'Light in Darkness' begins off sounding like the intro to 'Rio' by Duran Duran - but in a far cooler way - before lurching off with Sakamoto's airy keyboards which create a memorable instrumental tune.

Everything sounds ahead of its time for 1981. It's true that they're sometimes compared with Kraftwerk - but they're more lively and less robotic. Full of catchy tunes, with particular praise going to Sakamoto with his superbly played 'Prophet' keyboard.

Not recommended to Prog fans, but a big thumbs up if you're into New Romantic New Wave (which I've always had a soft spot for).

I've been listening to this trying to cheer myself up during the unfolding tragic events in Japan. Unhappily, this doesn't help, and it's no fault of 'Technodelic' - which on any other day I'd be shouting it's praise from the rooftops.

Music is just music. It feels a waste of time even writing a review for an album at the moment. My mind keeps wandering to more important things. One thing's for sure, the Japanese have gone right up in my estimations with the way they've comported themselves during this calamity. Civilised, ordered, polite and calm. Now, if this happened in Britain, there'd be looting and unruly behaviour everywhere. Guaranteed...

Dobermensch | 3/5 | 2011-3-17

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Substix:

With noted electronic composer Ryuichi Sakamoto's first band, Yellow Magic Orchestra, you could always be sure that each album would bring something new and thought-provoking. From 1978-1983 YMO consistently broke new ground, beginning as the Eastern-mode equivalent of Kraftwerk (but more inspired by 8-bit videogame music and the classical training of their respective members), going on to pioneer electropop and finishing on a high note with 'Naughty Boys' - probably the only J-Pop album that is essential listening - which made them huge stars in China of all place (having already become more of a 'Japanese Beatles' than even the Spiders ever were).

Sakamoto (keyboards) went on to collaborate with just about
everybody and win Oscars, Haruomi Hosono (bass) and Yukihiro Takahashi (drums) maintained electro-god status in the Far East; in a way they were a pre-emptive super group. On top of that YMO were the first Japanese band to aspire to, and attain, worldwide acclaim and influence; the shared vocal duties were multi-lingual (Korean, Chinese, French, and English lyrics written in collaboration with Chris Mosdell) displaying a desire to break down perfunctory international barriers that have no place in music. They even got on Soul Train with their hit cover version of the anything-but-tight 'Tighten Up'! You'll find it's actually nigh-on impossible to listen to classic hip-hop or the various nascent dance musics of the 80's without hearing YMO samples...



This album, 'Technodelic', is their fourth, which as well as being a marked development from their first two bonafide classics (I don't have the third) is probably my personal favourite.
It's well known amongst DJs and dance pioneers as being one of the first albums to make extensive use of samplers, and I don't mean just a drum break or the odd bit of speech. On 'Technodelic' you can hear the beginnings of the ethno-funk, anything-from-anywhere-goes style that Sakamoto is famed for, but it's not the whole story. This one is darker in places, with a wider palette than anything YMO had previously attempted, but it retains that sense of playfulness that makes them SO much fun to listen to; and the whole thing's propped up on the prodigious playing skills of the trio.
I first encountered Yellow Magic Orchestra (a name one assumes is tongue-in-cheek) upon reading a magazine review of all the newly-remastered albums back in 2004. It timed in perfectly with a borderline-Japanophile phase and my discovery of the African polyrhythms of Talking Heads, and I ended up getting four Why 'Em Ohs on CD.

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Taiso

Stairs

Key (Live)

[Superficial Fan]

As Falls Wichita. . . is the only Pat Metheny album I really care about at this point. When I was in high school I knew someone who would get me to say the full title over and over again, which would make him laugh like a little kid. He found it an almost impossible to say tongue-twister. He was a drummer. (I'm not making this up.) He wasn't the brightest guy around, though he was reportedly a pretty talented drummer. Slight digression there.

Classic Frankie Ruiz song, penned by Tite Curet Alonso. And it's from the 80s, though that's not obvious (unless maybe you have a really good grasp on the sometimes subtle changes that have occurred in salsa over time, but in that case you will know the song itself):

Frankie Ruiz - La Cura

(Sorry, none of the rips I found on youtube have sound that actually does this justice.)

And I only have a few favorite albums this year:

Boy Better Know - Tropical 2
Kate Bush - 50 Words for Snow
Kimbra - Vows
Maria Rita - Elo

Sorry, that's all I've got.

[Superficial Fan]

Originally Posted by TeslaGuy

I was 17-18 in 1981, and it was one of the peak years of my first and most significant period of music acquisition, which lasted roughly from the beginning of high school through the end of college. By 1978 or so I had successfully evolved into an alienated adolescent, and concurrently concluded that all popular music on the radio was absolute shit, and that the only stuff worth listening to was performed by weirdos and/or foreigners. This perspective was of course a temporary, pretentious affectation; its transience obvious to anyone familiar with my participation here and at other similar forums.

Funny, I always assumed you were younger than me. I tend to assume everyone on this forum is younger than me (since most are). I went through a similar phase at around the same time, except I was a couple years younger.

For the most part the 80s music I listened to in the 80s (especially the early-to-middle 80s) hasn't held up for me very well.

[hoopra]

laetitia sadier

never knew latitia sadier of stereolab had an album out
this song is groovy

[TeslaGuy]

I meant to stick to golden oldies only this month, but got sidetracked by this, which I must have watched 20 times in the past few days. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's new song is a real snooze, so its nice to have found a new deliciously ridiculous tune this quickly.

BABYMETAL - Doki Doki Morning

[Superficial Fan]

Brous - Streamers

Another good new voice (literally). Pretty retro, but I don't see how all those individuals regurgitating the 80s sound any fresher.