YMOMG - zsazsa's mefiswap mix - feb 2013

This mix explores the music produced by the members of the seminal electronic pop group Yellow Magic Orchestra: Haruomi Hosono, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Yukihiro Takahashi, both before the band was formed in 1978 and after their breakup in 1984. The mix also features music by three performers closely associated with YMO and their live performances: Hideki Matsutake and Akiko Yano, who collaborated with the band in their early days, and Keigo Oyamada, who has performed with them in recent reunion shows. I was inspired to do this mix after discovering the range of genres that the members of YMO have performed in over their long careers, from folk, to funk, to glam, to pop, to electro, to ambient, to unclassifiable.

1. Arigato - Chu Kosaka & Haruomi Hosono - Arigato (1971)
We start off with a few songs involving Haruomi Hosono, pretty much because his musical career goes back the furthest. In fact, he was in a psychedelic rock band called Apryl Fool in the late 60s with Chu Kosaka, with whom he did this song. But I'm not including any Apryl Fool songs because I don't really like any of them. As for this song, here's an interesting page about the song's lyrics, which are a bit less thankful than you might expect.

2. Dakishimetai - Happy End - Kazemachi Roman (1971) (Hosono)
This song leads off Kazemachi Roman, Happy End's most acclaimed album (in fact, it's #1 on Rolling Stone Japan's list of the 100 Greatest Japanese Rock Albums of All Time). Happy End was formed by most of the members of Apryl Fool.

3. Rose and Beast - Haruomi Hosono - Hosono House (1973)
A further evolution of Hosono's style into soul and funk.

4. Black Ship - Sadistic Mika Band - Black Ship (1974) (Takahashi)
Yukihiro Takahshi was the drummer for Sadistic Mika Band, who apparently had a bit of a following in the UK after opening for Roxy Music. In fact, the album this song comes from was recorded in England, and produced by the prolific Chris Thomas. The name Black Ship refers to the Black Ships of Commodore Matthew Perry.

5. Kikyuu Ni Notte - Akiko Yano - Japanese Girl (1976)
Akiko Yano performed often with YMO, and was also married to Ryuichi Sakamoto. This song was recorded with the American rock band Little Feat when Yano was just 19 years old. Don't be freaked out by the air raid siren-like noise at the end of this song... it's just Yano going crazy on an ARP Odyssey, the first appearance of many synthesizers in this mix.

6. Plastic Bamboo - Ryuichi Sakamoto - The Thousand Knives of Ryuichi Sakamoto (1978)
The Thousand Knives of Ryuichi Sakamoto was recorded by Sakamoto with Hideki Matsutake basically right before YMO was formed.

7. Person to Person - Logic System - Logic (1981) (Matsutake)
Matsutake was YMO's "fourth member" and music programmer. YMO was in full stride when this album was released, but it was a solo effort by Matsutake.

8. Body Snatchers - Haruomi Hosono - S·F·X (1984)

9. Main Theme - Ryuichi Sakamoto - Aile de Honneamise (1987)
Ryuichi Sakamoto was involved in a lot of soundtrack work starting in the 80s, and this is pretty emblematic of it.

10. Heliotherapy - Haruomi Hosono - N.D.E. (1995)
Hosono does ambient techno.

11. Traum 6.6 - Sketch Show - Loophole (2003) (Takahashi & Hosono)
Sketch Show was a project by Takahashi and Hosono, which eventually grew into a fully-fledged reunion of YMO by the end of the decade.

12. Too Good to Be True - Yanokami - Yanokami (2007) (Yano)
Yanokami was a collaboration between Akiko Yano and the late electronic musician Rei Harakami.

13. The Burning Plain - Towa Tei - Sunny (2011) (Takahashi)
Takahashi sings in this song by DJ Towa Tei.

14. Sailing Days - salyu × salyu - s(o)un(d)beams (2011) (Oyamada)
Keigo Oyamada, better known as Cornelius, has performed with YMO in their recent live shows. He has a very distinctive, meticulous production style, and it's quite apparent in the album that this song is from, which explores to what extent his collaborator Salyu's voice can be used as an instrument.

Bonus tracks (self-covers of songs earlier in this mix):

15. Body Snatchers - Harry Hosono & The World Shyness - Flying Saucer 1947 (2007)
A very different version of Body Snatchers, but the bluegrass/rockabilly style suits it very well.

16. Sayonara/Kikyuu Ni Notte - Yanokami - Yanokami (2007) (Yano)

ian @ polpo . org