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Written: Aug 22 '04 (Updated Oct 23 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: YMO might be one of the most influential Japanese pop bands of the eighties
Cons: Sakamoto doesn't quite seem to fit into the band (at least at this period)
The Bottom Line: Too good that I only paid five bucks for this one
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| spacefrog's Full Review: Bgm by Yellow Magic Orchestra |
Given my interest in Ryuichi Sakamoto (I actually own 13 of his albums), it was quite predictable that I would want to check out the Yellow Magic Orchestra (also known as YMO), the band that Ryuichi Sakamoto founded together with Yukihiro Takahashi and Haruomi Hosono, back in 1978.
Ryuichi Sakamoto once said in a radio interview that YMO was created with the intention to write and perform techno-pop in the vein of Kraftwerk that would sound just as Japanese as Kraftwerk sounded German. This statement actually gives a good idea what to expect from albums like BGM. There are some more differences between Kraftwerk and YMO though: YMO uses less noises and vocals and more keyboards and computers. Compared to Ryuichi Sakamoto's solo albums YMO appears to be more pop oriented, notably because of Takahashi's and Hosono's input.
BGM was released in 1981, the same year as Sakamoto's third solo album Left Handed Dream.
As far as BGM is concerned, it is interesting to have a closer look at the master minds behind each track. Only two tracks are composed by all YMO members. This hints to the fact that YMO might be seen as a common platform rather than a real group.
The tracks composed by Takahashi are quite distinctive and almost sound as if they were taken from Takahashi's solo album Neuromantic. Well, Neuromantic is one of Takahashi's better albums, and those tracks are actually not too bad. In my opinion, Takahashi's weakest track off this album is Ballet, while Camouflage is his best contribution, almost equaled by Cue. My major complaints concerning Takahashi would be the constant use of a pattern of chorus-verse-bridge and Takahashi's English vocals with sometimes quite cheesy lyrics.
Hosono proves to be more uneven than Takahashi, since he contributes the totally ridiculous Rap Phenomena and the quite good Mass.
Sakamoto's contributions are the major let-down of this album. The track 1000 Knives had already been recorded for Sakamoto's first solo album. The YMO version drops the vocoder introduction and Kazumi Watanabe's guitar part, and what is worse, drowns the actual melody under tons of keyboard and percussion effects. Happy End sounds like an outtake of Sakamoto's experimental solo album B-2 Unit and fits quite badly to the other tracks. Even Music Plans is just an ok track.
All in all, there is just enough interesting material for an E.P. with the fast and yet melodic U · T and Camouflage as the only two outstanding tracks.
I'm willing to believe that BGM with about 50% of not quite interesting tracks may be one YMO's weaker albums. In any way, Takahashi and Hosono have apparently not enough to add to Sakamoto's compositions to keep me interested in YMO.
Track listing
1. Ballet
2. Music Plans
3. Rap Phenomena
4. Happy End
5. 1000 Knives
6. Cue
7. U · T
8. Camouflage
9. Mass
10. Loom
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
spacefrog
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Member: Martin
Location: France, Europe, Planet Earth
Reviews written: 38
Trusted by: 24 members
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