Technodelic is the fifth studio album by Yellow Magic Orchestra, released in 1981. The album is notable for its experimental approach and heavy use of digital samplers which were not commonly used until the mid-to-late 1980s, resulting in a more minimalist and avant-garde sound compared to their previous work.
| Technodelic | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | November 21, 1981 | |||
| Recorded | March 21 – October 13, 1981 | |||
| Studio | Alfa Studio "A", Shibaura, Minato, Tokyo | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 43:29 | |||
| Label | Alfa | |||
| Producer |
| |||
| Yellow Magic Orchestra chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Singles from Technodelic | ||||
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| Alternative cover | ||||
 Cover used on most reissues | ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [1] |
| The Guardian | [2] |
It is considered the first released album to feature mostly samples and loops, influencing the heavy use of sampling and looping in popular music.[3] 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.[4]
In 2008, Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore provided a cover of "Gradated Grey" for the Haruomi Hosono tribute album Strange Songbook (Tribute To Haruomi Hosono 2). In 2016, the Canadian post-punk group Preoccupations covered the track "Key" as a part of a 7" vinyl that came with pre-orders of their self-titled album alongside a cover of The Raincoats' 1979 track "Off-Duty Trip".
Production
editMost of the sampling was made with an LMD-649, a custom-built digital sampler developed by Toshiba-EMI engineer Kenji Murata. The LMD-649 was the first PCM digital sampler, capable of playing and recording PCM samples with a 12-bit audio depth and 50 kHz sampling rate, stored in 128 KB of dynamic RAM memory. It also had sampling drum machine capabilities.[5] 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 LMD-649 was later used by other Japanese synthpop artists in the early 1980s, including YMO-associated acts such as Chiemi Manabe[6] and Logic System[7] in 1982.
The album also features use of speech through a two-way radio, a prepared piano, a Roland TR-808 drum machine (previously used in BGM), and Prophet-5 synthesizers. 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 will appear 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" refers to the light of a lantern. "Neue Tanz" is German for "New Dance", while "Taisō" is Japanese for "gymnastics" or "calisthenics".
For its single release, the track "Taisō" was given a music video directed by Haruomi Hosono and Norimasa Okumura.[8] The video features the members of YMO, dressed in uniforms designed by Yukihiro Takahashi, along with Takahashi's then manager Hiromi Kanai performing calisthenics against various chroma key backdrops, parodying real-world televised calisthenics broadcasts in Japan.[9]
Track listing
edit| No. | Title | Lyrics | Music | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Pure Jam" (ジャム; "Jam") | Yukihiro Takahashi Peter Barakan | Takahashi | 4:30 |
| 2. | "Neue Tanz" (新舞踊; "Shin buyou") | Yellow Magic Orchestra | YMO | 4:58 |
| 3. | "Stairs" (階段; "Kaidan") | Takahashi, Barakan | Takahashi | 4:14 |
| 4. | "Seoul Music" (京城音楽; "Keijou ongaku") | Ryuichi Sakamoto, Takahashi, Barakan | Sakamoto, Takahashi | 4:46 |
| 5. | "Light in Darkness" (灯; "Tomoshibi") | Takahashi, Sakamoto | 3:40 |
| No. | Title | Lyrics | Music | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Taiso" (体操; "Taisō") | YMO | YMO | 4:21 |
| 2. | "Gradated Grey" (灰色の段階; "Grey no dankai") | Haruomi Hosono | Hosono | 5:33 |
| 3. | "Key" (手掛かり; "Tegakari") | Hosono, Takahashi, Barakan | Hosono, Takahashi | 4:32 |
| 4. | "Prologue" (前奏; "Zensou") | Sakamoto | 2:31 | |
| 5. | "Epilogue" (後奏; "Kousou") | Sakamoto | 4:21 |
Personnel
editYellow Magic Orchestra – Arrangements, Electronics, Sampler, Mixing engineers, Producers
- Haruomi Hosono – Bass, Synth Bass, Keyboards, Vocals
- Ryuichi Sakamoto – Keyboards, Vocals
- Yukihiro Takahashi – Vocals, Drums, Electronic drums
Guest musicians
- Hideki Matsutake – Technical assistance
- Takeshii Fujii & Akihiko Yamazoe – Equipment
- Peter Barakan – Lyrics, Transceiver Voice on "Pure Jam"
Staff
- Shōrō Kawazoe – Executive Producer
- Mitsuo Koike – Recording & Mixing engineer
- Yoshifumi Īo – Assistant Engineer
- Hiroshi Yuasa (JVC Cutting Center) – Mastering engineer
- Kazusuke Obi – A&R Coordinator
- Yōichi Itō & Hiroshi Ōkura – Management
- Plan-New Werk – Creative Services
- Masayoshi Sukita – Art director, Photography
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b Bush, John. "Yellow Magic Orchestra - Technodelic". AllMusic. Retrieved June 29, 2018.
- ^ a b Sweeting, Adam (January 8, 2004). "Yellow Magic Orchestra, Technodelic". The Guardian. Retrieved June 29, 2018.
- ^ Carter, Monica (June 30, 2011). "It's Easy When You're Big In Japan: Yellow Magic Orchestra at The Hollywood Bowl". The Vinyl District. Retrieved July 22, 2011.
- ^ Condry, Ian (2006). Hip-hop Japan: rap and the paths of cultural globalization. Duke University Press. p. 60. ISBN 0-8223-3892-0. Retrieved June 12, 2011.
- ^ YMO／松武秀樹の秘密兵器、LMD-649を大公開‼︎ [YMO/Hideki Matsutake's secret weapon, the LMD-649, revealed!!]. ロッキンf [Rockin'f] (in Japanese): 140–141. March 1982.
- ^ 不思議・少女 at Discogs
- ^ Orient Express at Discogs
- ^ Yoshimura, Eiichi (February 5, 2020). Winter Live 1981 (Media notes) (in Japanese). Yellow Magic Orchestra. GT Music.
- ^ Yellow Magic Orchestra (April 22, 2020) [1981]. Taiso (Official Music Video). YouTube. Alfa Music.
External links
edit- Technodelic at AllMusic. Retrieved June 19, 2011.