This is the ugliest piece of POLL I've ever eaten - Yellow Magic Orchestra's TECHNODELIC

I don’t know this band or album but am curious to check it out. That a title!

WHAT a title!

Here we go!!!

Prediction: Taiso will not win.

However, I cannot guess what will.

What is ILM without a YMO thread in new answers?

WHAT a title!

otm & otm

Haha thread came very close to being called 'wrapped in a POLL-like substance'. But then I thought 'ugliest piece of ...' would encourage folks to listen to the album to find out what the ugliest piece actually is!

I could make a good case for almost every song on this record. The first time I listened to it, I felt very 'WTF' about the music, but was completely drawn in by the strangeness of the lyrics. Those gorgeous, Beatles-y 3-part harmonies singing... *that*. By the second or third listen, it completely clicked, the rhythms had hooked me.

Key is a great deep cut but I’m voting Taiso because it unfailingly makes me dance around

I could make a good case for almost every song on this record

Omit that "almost" and that's me. No exaggeration. What's ridiculous is that sometimes I'm not positive this is in my favorite three YMO records. At the samr time, I wouldn't hesitate to call it in my top ten favorite albums of all time. Like I wrote somewhere in one of these family threads, Hosono broke my ranking brain

But even though I go into raptures about every song on here, I know exactly what my favorite is, because it's (still) my favorite Yellow Magic Orchestra song, period.

Every minute, every second, I can feel it getting closer

Taiso makes me get up and do calisthenics along with the band. Which at my age, is possibly unwise. But maybe if I do Taiso for 4 minutes and 21 seconds every day, I will eventually stop feeling sore!

NuNu, I was about to ask you the title but as soon as you said Every minute, every second, I can feel it getting closer the song automatically started playing in my head.

Jam, Taiso and Key are all strong contenders but I think I need to listen to it about 6 more times to make sure.

Can I get through any thread without shoehorning in a B-T reference? Of course I cannot.

The off-kiltre bassline on 階段 gives me the vibes of the wandering bassline on 神経質な階段 but I don't know if Yutaka is as much of a Hosono stan as his bandmate. Maybe staircases in Japan are just really unstable or it's a common metaphor.

The repeated 'fuku' sample used as percussion on Seoul Music catches me out every time. Is he really saying what I think he's saying? No, no he is not. But they're such a playful band I'm sure they were aware of what it sounds like to an English speaker.

灯 also has such an incredible bassline. Hosono is really showing off on this record! The interplay in the rhythm section is what makes the whole thing so compelling. No matter what style of music they play around with, when Hosono and Takahashi lock tight, literally any kind of strange noises can whirl around them and it still sounds great.

I've tried with this album and so far failed. But Light in Darkness is a fantastic track - the broody synth washes, the pointillist synth sparkles, the fractured drums, the funky wandering bass, all travelling different paths but cohering into something wonderful. I want to hear a thousand different tracks like it but I can only find echoes here and there.

Taiso all day, great video too.

Hosono is really showing off on this record!

BGM was an experiment in extremely simple basslines (rarely more than 3-4 notes, and usually it's Hosono banging the same synth key ten times in a row; simple in terms of notes, I should add, not rhythms) and Technodelic was the pendulum swinging all the way to the other side. Agreed that the Light in Darkness bass is epic beyond words

I could really (or........ should? if not now, when?) write a love letter to every song.

Oh, also: BGM had so few Sakamoto contributions (he was pissed off, depressed, hard to work with, all kinds of bad news) that Producer Hosono decided Technodelic would be Sakamoto-centric, to balance things out (again: pendulum). This worked out great because Sakamoto felt embarrassed about his bad attitude in the BGM sessions, and what he wanted most for the new album was for all three of them to collaborate full force.

That's another reason the band tried to break up after Technodelic: all three were 100% happy with it, and convinced that they'd never top it.

I could really (or........ should? if not now, when?) write a love letter to every song.

Yes! Yes! Please write a love letter to every song on this album.

(Signed, one simple madness man)

the wandering bassline on 神経質な階段

This was amazing (whole song, not only the bassline) and not what I expected. I believe the time has come to recognize the prods I've been receiving from the chronological side of my spirit, give up my trip through your historical write-ups, settle into Aku no Hana, and move forward through Buck-Tick album by album, in order, referencing what you've written as I travel.

And thank you for the enthusiasm! Mission accepted!

Not to derail my own thread, here! But if you do end up doing a chronologial listen, please leave your impressions on the other thread. I think listening to their albums in order is definitely the way to go, once you've been bitten by the B-T bug. Last year, one of the longest-time English-speaking B-T fans organised a series of listening parties where we listened to ALL of the albums in order (and not just the studio albums, but non-album singles, compilations and solo projects, too). It was really interesting to hear how they developed and changed musically over the years. And doubly fun hearing the experiences and contemporary observations of someone who had been a fan for 35+ years.

I think I might also have to do a 'make the case for each song on Technodelic' experiment myself because I am genuinely unable to choose.

Instinctively voted for Key but maybe should've gone with Light & Darkness.

I think I might also have to do a 'make the case for each song on Technodelic' experiment myself because I am genuinely unable to choose.

Do it! It'll be fun!

this being the "Sakamoto-centric" record makes total sense to me, particularly in the way the sampler is used in the rhythms - reminds me a lot of B-2 Unit and Esperanto. "Pure Jam" reminds me of "Riot in Lagos" in how it sounds like something from the early 90s...I first heard it on a compilation and was stunned to find out what year it actually came out in. yes I know YT wrote that one but I'm referring more to the overall sound of it.

that said I have to go for "Gradated Grey" here for personal reasons. by which I mean it's one of those rare songs that just reaches a part of my soul. partly because of the tune itself, partly because of the overall sound. I've heard it performed by Sketch Show and even YMO on their last reunion show but something about the particular digital tones here is really special. I think my obsession with this tune was what won me over on Hosono...I hadn't really connected with his solo career the way I did the others. that obviously is not the case now :)

Wait frogs have you seen Sketch Show and YMO live?

I wish! I'm talking about live recordings.

The 2003 Sketch Show version is very much worth a listen if you like the original. Makes me wish they would've done an album where they re-recorded YMO classics...not that they'd ever do such a thing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6JaenTfVnQ

Oh that’s lovely! Somehow warmer and more organic, yet keeps the groovy dance feel. Thanks for posting it!

if anything I've started appreciating these albums more over the years because they all have such a distinct sound to them. every track could be an example but something like Seoul Music, nothing will ever sound like that again. outside of something that's a deliberate throwback. but even then, those often don't sound quite right. you can replicate the sound of the synths but not the limitations that led to them being used the way they are here. and nobody's toying around with this sort of equipment anymore to wring cool sounds out of them. so like that sound in Gradated Grey that comes in every two measures...like a siren smoothed down into a fuzzy little ball...who's making sounds like that right now?

i picked "taiso" bc its transcendent but "seoul music" is a fuckin banger, i love ymo so much

oh and "Key", I remember hearing it for the first time in 2004 or so and thinking "what the hell was that?"...I was getting into Kraftwerk at the same time and as much as I liked them nothing they did really wowed me like that

Pure Jam probably but I'm going to listen to the album today to refresh my memory.

Just checked and I said before on ILX that this was my favourite YMO album, which I don't remember saying and I'm not sure is true... might be though.

This is definitely my favorite YMO

Key is the song that made me fall for them so it has to be that.

This is definitely my favorite YMO

If we're talking pure sonics, I would say Technodelic. B-but the debut has, the Side B suite! A-and BGM has, that epic Chrono Trigger 2300 AD gloom / Johnny the cyborg motorbike's apocalyptic abandon AND Hosonian spiritual weight on top of that; and then Naughty Boy makes me cry, like, seven times a listen. There is no choosing between these four, it cannot be done

But I'd probably go with Omni Sight Seeing above them all if I had to, and my favorite YMO member's favorite project is still (on a guy emotional level) Happy End, and and and I am very, 3?very brok.en

*gut emotional level, but also "guy emotional level" is not wrong because I have the most serious mancrushes on Hosono, Matsumoto, Ohtaki and Suzuki allllll, honestly even Keiichi Suzuki who sat in on piano that one show

which is not to undersell my mancrushes on Takahashi or the Professor, or how beautiful I think Miharu Koshi is

I still have not decided on my favourite YMO album and I'm trying very hard to form my own opinions of them, not just go with the one my own mancrush Hisashi thinks is the best. I think some of the other albums might have higher peaks. But Technodelic has the highest quality across the board. There's no dud or jokey track to skip. (The jokiest track is Taiso and it's a pure banger)

Go, Hosono, go!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgxuHs3Icjg

has never heard taiso or the rest of the album. even without prior knowledge as to which one was the single, taiso still was the standout, imo. gonna try to learn that one on the piano

I agree with Steve Jansen that this is YMO's best album ("cyclical and sexy", he said). Apart from the quality of the compositions, it can hardly be overstated how forward-thinking the arrangements are. At a time when Western musicians were using the colossally expensive Fairlight CMI as a novelty factor (orchestra hits, breaking glass sounds), YMO had realised that their custom-built sampler could be used to create looping textures and even entire backing tracks ("Neue Tanz").
I think its tasteful austerity is why Technodelic has aged so well. It still sounds fresh, nearly 45 years later.