Yukihiro Takahashi - Murdered by the Music - POLL in the Name of Love

Hahaha NuNuNu you read my mind! I was listening to Neuromantic on a loop yesterday. And I was actually planning to poll that one this week.

So this was on my list to listen to today. I look forward to exploring it. Especially if it's nonstop synthpop bangers. Sounds extremely Hisashi-coded!

Also I was looking to see if ILM hadpolled Technodelic or Technodon and there wasn't a thread for either, sooooo...

OK, 2 songs in and I can't stop singing 'TELEPHONE MURDER 絶体絶命' over MURDERED BY THE MUSIC

Well there we are, sounds promising already! and hooray to all those forthcoming threads

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XPNGCtJS1Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czn0kjzt370

https://tenor.com/bzgav.gif

(if the HTML doesn't work, that's I-Kasu! by Takahashi and FOR DANGEROUS KIDS by B-T and a gif of 'they're the same picture' meme)

Dammit, mostly I like the old school interface of this forum but no preview, no edit button makes it very tricky

For me it's gonna be "Blue Colour Worker"...though I think Hosono actually wrote that one! For one it's super catchy (as most of the songs here are), but the game show chorus really sticks in my head more than anything else. Second...what's happening with the lyrics here? You'd think it was a mondegreen of "Blue Collar Worker" but the lyrics are about a person who only sees the color blue? Who writes a song like that??

Yes, either Chris Mosdell was a very peculiar sort of genius at the time (British eccentric living in Japan in the late '70s, I mean, it checks out) or the boys were feeding him some very bizarre suggestions.

And, Ether: huh.

Every listener to Murdered by the Music: "what, I-Kasu over already?! Too soon!"

Buck-Tick: "hold my beer"

They nailed it. Great sadness in the vocal melody too, *that* wasn't there before.

Mosdell did the English lyrics on Naughty Boys too right? Always was fascinated by some of the weird phrasings on that album, like Mosdell was translating the words and making them rhyme but also retaining the structure of the Japanese language, so the result were sentences that nobody would ever say

ditto for "Radioactivist"...what exactly does that word mean? someone who is an activist against the radio? through some cursory Googling I feel like it's not a word people were really using before - there is a non-profit org called this but it started in 1983. in the end it's kind of a silly song about how you can't avoid the "radio junk". fits into the album's concept I guess.

This is absolutely what I wanted from these Japanese New Wave threads - to understand where Hisashi was getting these crazy ideas from! There's such a clear lineage here, I'm fascinated to discover it.

I loved the pun behind Blue Colour Worker but that's the weird bent that my humour takes.

Mosdell did the '78 YMO, Solid State Survivor, Xoo Multiplies, Eating Pleasure, and Murdered by the Music, and as far as I've been able to figure out, he himself was the main writer -- but Hosono was in such hands-on Album Producer mode in those years that he must have been making thematic pointers behind the scenes... that's my guess anyway!

Come B-2 Unit and then BGM, Technodelic, What Me Worry, the English songs on Naughty Boys, and Service, they were working with Peter Barakan, but he was on board as a translator of Hosono / Sakamoto / Takahashi's own lyrics rather than as writer. Except on YT songs -- those would start as Japanese YT lyrics, but YT loved collaboration, so he would give Barakan a loose rein, and the English lyrics ended up being more akin to Takahashi/Barakan co-writes.

But yes, in both the Mosdell and Barakan halves of the era, there are some really uniquely phrased lines

few things about this album:

1) When I first downloaded it, there was this unique skipping effect on "Stop in the Name of Love" - I was guessing a glitchy rip, but it was such a cool effect (sort of 'speeding up' the tune right until the first chorus) that I thought there was a small chance it was intentional. I downloaded another copy and there was the same glitch! So I remember writing a review of it that focused on how bizarre the use of that effect was. Turns out both copies were sourced from the same bad rip, therefore my review made no sense at all :)

2) The copy I have of this is the UK version, which is worse in a couple ways - one, it has a terrible cover, two, it omits "I-kasu!" for some reason..."Kid-Nap" just fades out! I think a couple other tracks are shuffled around as well.

3) Is it just me or does this album display a weird sense of humor that his other albums don't have? I've always thought of it as a companion to Xoo Multiplies. He seemed to take himself a lot more seriously after this. This was the first YT solo album I listened to and I think it gave me the wrong idea of what the following albums would be like.

no preview, no edit button makes it very tricky

There are "test" threads if ever you want to check your work before actually posting.

The off the wall phrasing and odd concepts are a big part of what I like? Listening to 'this must be the ugliest piece of bread I've ever eaten' in Beatles-y 3-part harmony is a rare pleasure.

Would love to change my display name to 'shapelessly square' because that is me

I was listening to Neuromantic on a loop yesterday

Likewise, i've been listening to that one lately as i've mostly overlooked YT's stuff until now... Looking forward to checking out MbtM.

yeah the phrasing is a big part of it too, sometimes my favorite part of the album is the way he goes "a RadioactivEEEST?", even funnier given it's not actually a word

I actually kinda wonder if he was modeling his vocal approach in those days after guys like Andy Partridge and Mark Mothersbaugh. maybe he was listening to those records and thinking, "that's just how English speakers talk"???

Haha I have a song stuck in my head right now. And I cannot work out which it is, of about 500 different YMO solo project tracks that I have recently listened to. It's got this kind of sideways-sounding glass organ tone going up and down in steps. It could honestly be any of them!

You folks have seriously infected me with the YMO obsession and I love it!

Voted for Blue Colour Worker. It's one of the songs that really made me fall for his solo stuff.

Oh god, I...... I.... I have been underrating this album horribly! YT, I am so sorry.

Yes, this album is lacking in dynamics on a song-by-song level. That's also what makes it such a PARTY. At least until the helicopters come ruin everyone's fun

Also, I didn't realize how much I love the wild west synthpop era of YMO. I always thought Xoo Multiplies was my least favorite YMO record *musically* if not conceptually. I guess it still is. But "least favorite" only goes so far in the ymoverse.

See, now I want a Buck-Tick rewrite of Bijin-Kyoshi at the Swimming School. Good art creates a hunger for more of itself

Blue Colour Worker is like the "peak of the party" version of another grand Hosono/Takahashi collab, Ah! Soka

The synth tones on this thing aren't IN YOUR FACE, YOU HAVE NEVER ONCE HEARD THE LIKES OF ME as on BGM or Technodelic, but they are low-key fantastic

See, now I want a Buck-Tick rewrite of Bijin-Kyoshi at the Swimming School.

You probably want something like CAPSULE TEARS -PLASTIC SYNDROME III- off Seventh Heaven?

Haha sorry. Hearing these early YT albums really helps me to understand where Hisashi's musical influences were coming from. Because BT didn't sound much like the 'classic YMO hits' I knew before digging deeper into the back catalogue (Behind The Mask, Rydeen, Nice Age, etc. - even though Imai did cover Nice Age live)

I think I do actually prefer Neuromantic (was YT an early influence on William Gibson there?) and What Me Worry? to this album but maybe it's just because I haven't spent much time with it. I'll come back to it once I've found that song / sound I've got stuck in my head. Which is very 'listen to this weird synth tone I found. But I really love the weird synth tones!

Any chance it's Pure Jam??? That's the second thing I thought of when I read "sideways-sounding glass organ tone going up and down in steps." The first thing I thought of was Stairs, but that's not organ, that's dark-ass piano. But I'm also figuring it's probably not Pure Jam since you were just referencing Pure Jam's intro. Anyway, let us know when you find it, I'm really curious.

Gonna cue up Capsule Tears right now

Also, yeah, I do love the direction YT took after this album, and What Me Worry? is one of my favorite albums of all time. But today I did realize how badly I've been misjudging Murdered

Looking forward to polling The Beatniks later this summer

Found that blasted riff at last! It's the weird sounding keyboard riff from the background of Rappu Genshou from BGM but for some reason my brain superimposed it on top of the beat from FLOATING AWAY (speaking of William Gibson). Which has a very similar riff, but in a different sound. It's been stuck in my head for days now.

I absolutely love Pure Jam, probably because it's got a similar keyboard sound.

Ah yes, that riff rules. Creepy riff.

Capsule Tears is awesome! It's shimmery circus music! I'm beginning to understand what you talk about when you talk about B-T's stylistic jumpiness

Haha Imai loves clowns, so 'shimmery circus music' is a pretty descriptor of about half of B-T's music.

I have been trying to get one of my B-T friends to join in the Japanese new wave threads here. Say hi if you vote in the poll? :)

Every time I listen to this album I get fixated on a different song.

School of Thought is EVEN better than I remembered.... but The Core of Eden is such a glorious "imagine I were in Pink Floyd when they were recording The Wall" fanboy/superstar moment.... and I never realized how great Mirrormanic is. This decision will require several more listens.

frogbs, any chance you still have the glitched file of Stop in the Name of Love?

no! I deleted it once I realized it wasn't the 'real' version. I wish I hadn't though because it was so cool.

Drat.

Apropos -- there's an Agata album that I'm increasingly sure got fucked up while getting put on streaming, there's a long acoustic based track with several "CD's got a scratch" type skips. At first I thought it was intentional... it could be! at this point I don't think so, but I'm also kinda used to it and glad it's there?

It's down to the side closers. The Core of Eden has always been a favorite, but Numbers from a Calculated Conversation I'd completely overlooked. Fool! It's fantastic!

Discovered recently that there was a VIDEO for the single! It is very charming in an early 80s way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLqKXpIHtl4

Was half expecting the face reveal of the murderer at the end to be Sakamoto or Hosono!

Is there a thread about the phenomenon of 80s music videos featuring mad professors? This, She Blinded Me With Science, Cloudbursting, etc?

Sorry I actually meant to leave a comment about this being an album of two halves, inspired by your post about side closers. That side A is the one full of bangers and new wave, lots of ska rhythms and upbeat pop tunes. I think side B is more reflective and especially the last few songs point the way towards the more mysterious, melancholy, slightly gothic feel of the next two albums. So I'm leaning towards something from the second half.

OK I have narrowed it down to two tracks: Blue Colour Worker and Mirrormaniac. Each of them beautifully showcases a specific side of Takahashi's schtick

Blue Colour Worker is the upbeat, optimistic Beatle-y pop melody, with a dash of the off-beat ska rhythm that characterises this album. I love the way it just tumbles along in a brilliant swirl. The galloping guitar and Takahashi's crisp drums so propulsive! The backing vocals are fantastic, too. Almost a duet between Takahashi and Sandi.

Mirrormaniac is the darker, more haunting track, pointing the way to the gorgeous melancholy of Neuromantic and What Me, Worry. I love the way it starts with that jittering phased-out clicking sound accompanied by hi-hat, like a subtle nod to the famous intro to Rydeen. The synth pads that swoop in and out like breathing sounds on the second verse. (I really associate that particular keyboard sound with The Church, for some reason. Or maybe it's because the rising melody on the chorus evokes It Doesn't Change by The Church?) That sweet little high crystaline Sakamoto keyboard hook in the background!

OK, I love Blue Colour Worker but I think I'm going with Mirrormaniac

amusingly on the UK version I have the side closers are swapped

Oh that is BIZARRE

And Ether, I love those lavish write-ups. Now I'm gonna have to play both tracks again while reading along

This album's a bit of a blind spot for me compared to his first/third/fourth solo albums, so a great excuse to dig in. It's funny how the title track is kitschy surf-inflected new wave yet has absolutely nothing in common with the B-52s, ha.

Calculated Conversation it is! It's like Yuki's work on BGM, except still within an egg.

I haven’t spent much time with this album but I really like “school of thought”. NOW YOU’RE JUST LIKE THE REST

kind of curious who exactly he was patterning his English phrasing after. the line on the title track that goes "He got...what he got...when he got shot!" sounds so funny to me

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Obvious choice maybe but voted for the title track.

The backing vocals on "Radioactivist" seem obviously based on the backing vocals on Bowie's "Look Back In Anger".

Pity about the silly reggae/ska stuff on this album.

But I love Kid-nap!

Yeah, the ska influence all over this album is joyous and fun!

And one of my favourite things about YMO and their side projects is how they completely embrace being silly or cute, while still being very serious with their musical chops.

i do find it amusing that YT's reggae/ska era lasted about 3 days

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

There's no keeping Hosono down, is there?

Ether, next poll's on you!

I am now very glad that I voted for Mirrormaniac since Blue Colour Worker was so safe.

Should we poll Technodelic or Neuromantic next? Decisions, decisions!

Listening to my copy now...man, such a crime to cut "I-Kasu!" like that. I know it's short but its wild that in the midst of being on the bleeding edge of electronic music he was putting a crazy ska track like that on his solo album. it's such a cool and completely out of character moment. I should just get an original copy...for whatever reason YT's classic 80s albums are really cheap, especially compared to his bandmates. were they anticipating Takahashi to be an international star?

anyway, this album rules. it might be a little hard to discern the sense of humor he was going for given the way the lyrics are translated but you can hear it in the melodies he uses. so many of them just sound funny. they're like little game show themes. I mean it makes sense that Naughty Boys is as good as it is. I've always wondered if he had a lot to do with embellishing those tunes. I mean it's kind of hinted at in that music video, right? YT is the only one who really believes in it.

too bad "Stop in the Name of Love" didn't get a vote. I think its pretty interesting what YT's impossibly precise drumming does to that tune. Doesn't quite take the swing out of it but it tilts it foward a bit. it's cool because it's pretty sincere. in retrospect that makes YMO's stuff all the more impressive. like, to produce the kind of music they did when stuff like *that* was among their influences.

That's a terrific post.

I mean it makes sense that Naughty Boys is as good as it is. I've always wondered if he had a lot to do with embellishing those tunes. I mean it's kind of hinted at in that music video, right? YT is the only one who really believes in it.

That's so well-put I started thinking, "Oh wow, yeah" -- but what Sakamoto wrote about the record in his first [unforthcoming sketch of an] autobiography suggests it was still a proper team effort. His words were something like, "We made Naughty Boys because the label twisted our arm. We had no intention of making another album. But once we gave in to their demands, the three of us put our heads down and said, 'Oh well. Too bad about all that, but it doesn't matter. We're gonna give it 110% regardless." And also something like, "Not a lot of bands get to go into an album's recording sessions knowing it'll be their last album ever... TWICE." (Let alone, as it turned out, four times)

Although I guess "twice" *is* more accurate -- none of them really thought of Service as a proper album (Sakamato in his autobio: "oh yeah, that year we also recorded Service") and Technodon was considered more of a "maybe this'll be the first album of our second chapter" thing.

all I'm saying is songwriting credits can often be deceiving - I can think of a few instances where the most memorable part of a tune came from someone who isn't credited for it. I don't really know if YMO worked that way - but I do find it interesting that a track like "Seoul Music", which is a Sakamoto/Takahashi cowrite, sounds so much like a track from Hosono's Philharmony

Yeah, I was just reading the wikipedia jp page about "Kimi ni, mune kyun" (via machine transtation) and apparantly Hosono has said that, despite it being credited to the full band, the song is mostly Sakamoto's work.

Missed this poll but would have voted for School of Thought. The ska/reggae influences in a couple of songs is wild. Core of Eden sounds like Ashes to Ashes then it turns into Firehouse or something for a bit.

I can think of a few instances where the most memorable part of a tune came from someone who isn't credited for it

This is a very good point. I only just realized that those amazing low hums in the back half of Pure Jam are probably Hosono

Don't get me started on the way that, for songwriting credit assignment purposes, music boils down to the main vocal / melodic hook. When so much of what is most memorable about modern pop music is what's going on in the rhythm section

It is funny how every time you think you've reached the end of YMO's official catalogue, it's like, oh no. Here's another one.

Going to poll Technodon after Technodelic!