From: ross-c@scs.leeds.ac.uk (R Clement)
Newsgroups: rec.music.synth,rec.music.misc
Subject: Re: YMO's new collection CD
Date: 7 Oct 92 00:06:19 GMT
Followup-To: rec.music.synth
Organization: The University of Leeds, School of Computer Studies
Originator: ross-c@csparc2

In article <1992Oct6.173905.16269@netcom.com> metlay@netcom.com (metlay) writes:
>
>The new YMO collection from Alfa Records in Japan, Techno Bible, has five
>CDs of their music with a 200-page book. My main gripes: the book is almost
>entirely in Japanese, so I can't get anything out of it, and for someone

Heh heh heh heh.... I knew that past alter-ego as ross-c@kiwi.tutics.tut.ac.jp
would come in handy some day. [just being arrogant for no good reason]

>who knows their catalog as well as I do, Techno Bible is not repeat NOT
>a substitute for owning the entire YMO catalog on CD, unlike the excellent
>Asylum CD sets from Alfa (which compiled EVERYTHING Gary Numan did until
>he formed his own label). If, however, you are a fan of techno music and
>dance-pop, and would like to get a snootful of one of the great founding
>bands of the movement (as important in their own way as Kraftwerk and 
>Tangerine Dream), I recommend it highly.

Actually I think that nearly all of what YMO did was done much better in
subsequent solo albums. I've got a collection of most of the catalogue,
I don't know how many but 30 - 40 albums. Just being arrogant again but
hey! I've got to be the rec.music.synth.authority on *SOMETHING*

>The set showcases, in approximately evenhanded treatment, the band's
>three stages (early, with traditional instruments mixed with
>bleep-bloop modular synths and Syndrums (TM), middle, politically
>relevant headsmash dance music, and late, oozingly sexy dance/romance
>trax with piano and Sakamoto's and Takahashi's crooning). The band's

If you mean "Naughty Boys", as late, it was company pressure that produced
that album. I've even got video (NTSC - Damn!) of Takahashi virtually
admitting it. Fittingly enough the first person to play me that album
was a teenage girl.

>refusal to take itself seriously is well-documented as well, including
>a live version of their hideously mutated cover of the Beatles' "Day

On the CD "Service" YMO tracks are interspersed with comedy tracks by the
ensemble "Super Eccentric Theatre". One one of them (S.E.T. + Y.M.O) YMO
join in. Takahashi produced and did most of the music for S.E.T's own
album "The Art of Nipponomics", where oftimes YMO lyricist and television
newsreader Peter Barakan joined in. Includes hilarious parody of a C.B.B.
documentary on Japan. Takahashi also does manzai style comedy at his 
concerts. Also, the Beatles day tripper cover is almost certainly Takahashi's
influence showing. He always records one cover version per album, often 
Beatles songs, and was one of the prime movers behind the "All We Need is Love"
Beatles tribute album, blah blah blah.

>Tripper" (you can hear the audience going, "HUH?!"), a remake of
>Archie Bell and the Drells' "Tighten Up" that out-Devoes Devo, and the
>lovely song "Pure Jam," which has a sweet, echoed four-part vocal
>harmony singing, "This has to be the ugliest piece of bread I've ever
>eaten...."  Besides the three CDs of the three periods, there is a CD

But speaking of Technodelic. What is that *CONTRAPTION* pictured on the
back???

>of live tracks and a CD of remixes by many of the now-famous artists
>who were inspired by YMO (Orb, etc.).
>
>While the whole set was good, I was particularly fond of the live
>stuff, which they do very well. Only a small bit of what is on Techno
>Bible comes from their 1983 farewell concert album, After Service
>(GRIPE: the CD of After Service throws away at least two songs, maybe
>three, from the original double LP, to fit on one CD. FEH!); the rest

Throws away some good ones too. I've got the video of the concert but 
IT'S IN %^%^%$ NTSC! But if you want live concert recordings, I've got
the one (originally taped from a radio broadcast) where Takahashi's click
apparantly disappeared and he couldn't hear himself. Then during "1000 Knives"
Sakamoto plays some bits with his fingers at a constant offset from where
they should be. (Not that I personally should be pointing this out as I'm
very far from being a technically proficient musician).

>is from a recently released CD of a 1979 tour called FakerHolic. The
>band tours with Akiko Yano, later Mrs. Ryuichi Sakamoto, vocalist in

Interestingly enough there have been Akiko Yano tours *after* YMO split
up which featured all of YMO supporting. Sakamoto and Takahashi albums
from that period also feature the full cast of YMO while Hosono seemed to
prefer being left alone with his machines. Interestingly enough, in a 
recent Music Technology interview, Ryuichi Sakamoto was quite open to 
the idea of a YMO reunion for an album and/or a tour. Could happen since in
1989 (90?) Takahashi's pre-YMO band, The Sadistic Mika Band reformed for 
an album and tour, and Sakamoto played keyboards on that.

>her own right and guest on Thomas Dolby's first album ("Radio Silence"
>and the woman to whom Magnus Pyke refers when he cries, "Good heavens,
>Miss Sakamoto-- you're BEAUTIFUL!"), and guitarist Kazumi Watanabe,
>who had not yet established himself as a jazz-fusion guitar godling.
>The net effect is almost exactly like Allan Holdsworth backing up
>Kraftwerk with K*te B*sh as a chick singer. WEIRD!
>
>Metlay sez check it out if you can afford the $90 it'll set you back.
>Otherwise, look for their live stuff on CD (After Service, FakerHolic,
>Public Pressure) and start from there. Word. (Kanji?)
>

Yeah, send me a clear photocopy.

Cheers,

Ross Clement

School of Computer Studies
University of Leeds
Leeds LS2 9LA.
Newsgroups: rec.music.synth