Yellow Magic Orchestra
Active Years
- 1978 – 1983, 1993, 2007 – current
Musical style
- Mechanical solid Sound without grooves
- But not too simple like post-punk in that era,or rather, the layers of synth sounds make it bold
- Some of the songs let listeners feel pathos,bustle and busyness of Eastern places
- The band used to pursue experimental sound in the beginning but also made pop-album like “Naughty Boys(1983)” in the later years
Influenced by/for
- Krautrock such as Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream
- Japanese designer and painter, Yokoo Tadanori let Hosono(bass) know
krautrock - Khruangbin, the Thai-funk influenced American band plays the cover of “Firecracker”
Short topics about members, songs, etc…
- The loop sound starts from the beginning of “Rydeen” is imitation of horse running sound of the movie “Seven Samurai” directed by Kurosawa Akira.
- It all started that they wanted to create Japanese Disco Music.
- The band haven’t gotten famous at all at its debut in Japan unless they did concerts in US.
- The word “Yellow Magic” was created by Hosono,he considered it was a idea which was equal to White Magic(= White Music) and Black Magic(=Black Music).
- Yokoo Tadanori has been offered to join the band as fourth member
but he put priority to his job as a designer at the day of the press conference to announce the band formation, so it didn’t come true. - “Behind The Mask” is famous for covering by Micheal Jackson and Eric Clapton
Album(s) to must listen to
- Yellow Magic Orchestra(1978)
- Solid State Survivor(1979)
- Naughty Boys(1983)
Song(s) to must listen to
- “Firecracker(Yellow Magic Orchestra)
- “Cosmic Surfin’”(Yellow Magic Orchestra)
- “Tong Poo”(Yellow Magic Orchestra)
- “Rydeen”(Solid State Survivor)
- “Technopolis”(Solid State Survivor)
- “Behind The Mask”(Solid State Survivor)
- “君に、胸キュン。(Kimi-ni Munekyun)/My Heart Beats For You”(Naughty Boys)