One of the unintended
themes of this month has been finding musicians of amazing longevity. Yellow
Magic Orchestra is no exception, having begun recording in 1977. They have had
off periods and performed under different names, but even in the band's down
times the individual members have been very productive.
I do not remember
anything about them from their first time around. Their song
"Firecracker" was mentioned in Mad World (Mad World: An Oral History of New
Wave Artists and Songs That Defined the 1980s by Jonathan Bernstein and Lori Majewski). "Firecracker" became
a song of the day when I was going over music from there, but I also made a
note to check out the band later.
I'm glad I did. If
"Firecracker" was all I knew, YMO could fit into the field of random
synth pop instrumentals, like "Music Box Dancer" or
"Popcorn"; they are so much more.
"Computer Game"
goes in the realm of chiptunes, which I can't listen to for very long. That was
the first other song I heard, which was discouraging. There was still more.
That may be one of the
most impressive things - how much YMO did and did early. They sampled and
reconstructed and were cutting edge for a few different genres, some more
trippy and some more poppy. They can be suggestive like on
"See-Through" (I guess the name kind of sets you up for that).
"Thousand
Knives" and "Rydeen" are good listening. I especially liked
"Kai-Koh" and "Expecting Rivers". Still, I don't think anything matches
the joyousness of "You've Got to Help Yourself". And it's odd,
because there is a subdued delivery to the song, that seems incongruous with
the joy, but that's still how I end up feeling.
One of the most
frustrating parts of listening is that there were skits on Service, and I have no idea what they were about. I
suspect they were smart, and had points that mattered.
At least music is
universal.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment