I guess when people went to the World's Fair in the Fifties & Sixties, saw all these automated kitchens and hovercars, they figured that would be what the world was like in 1980. They didn't have those fairs anymore when I was growing up, but when Yellow Magic Orchestra came out in the late 1970s, I sure thought they sounded like the future.The video is pretty funny, totally cheesy analog synths, UFOs, and bad cross fades, but compared to all the hairy rock bands around in 1979, this tune is like Star Wars. Yellow Magic Orchestra was totally huge in Japan and kind of a cult favorite everywhere else. They never made it as big as Kraftwerk, although their contribution to electronic music is nearly as huge. Their best records are Technodelic and Solid State Survivor. The band was three guys, the most successful of which is Ryuichi Sakamoto. More about him later.... And any fan of early video arcade games MUST watch this video:
wassonii says
Great album and cover. Haven't watched the video yet, but thanks in advance for posting it. Have you heard the Uwe Schmidt tribute to YMO; Yellow Fever: Senor Coconut Plays Yellow?
Dale says
At their time, I'm sure they were way out-there, but IMHO their music sounds dated as heck, compared with Kraftwerk. I can still listen to "The Man Machine" and dig it without thinking the synths were cheesy. That's just me, tho.
s69johnson says
Definitely has a Kraftwerk influence, especially the vocoder bits in the first video. Thanks for the post. Very informative. I had not heard of this group before. That what I love about MOG!
ebuzzmiller says
totally agree, Kraftwerk has a timeless thing that YMO doesn't. I don't listen to YMO anywhere near as much as I do Kraftwerk. YMO had an element of J-Pop which kinda doomed them to cheesiness. That said, they were groundbreaking at the time (even played on Soul Train if you can believe that.) And man cannot live on Kraftwerk alone.
Senor Coconut is fun but I can only listen to his stuff with a Mai Tai in my hand..
I guess when people went to the World's Fair in the Fifties & Sixties, saw all these automated kitchens and hovercars, they figured that would be what the world was like in 1980. They didn't have those fairs anymore when I was growing up, but when Yellow Magic Orchestra came out in the late 1970s, I sure thought they sounded like the future.The video is pretty funny, totally cheesy analog synths, UFOs, and bad cross fades, but compared to all the hairy rock bands around in 1979, this tune is like Star Wars. Yellow Magic Orchestra was totally huge in Japan and kind of a cult favorite everywhere else. They never made it as big as Kraftwerk, although their contribution to electronic music is nearly as huge. Their best records are Technodelic and Solid State Survivor. The band was three guys, the most successful of which is Ryuichi Sakamoto. More about him later.... And any fan of early video arcade games MUST watch this video:
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