Search - Yellow Magic Orchestra :: Yellow Magic Orchestra: Us Edition

Techno meets (video game) elevator music

Brian Peabody | Roswell, Georgia USA | 05/11/2003

(2 out of 5 stars)

"When originally recorded in 1978, video games were still in the domain of the arcades and the idea of augmenting the electronic beeps, boops and bangs with a sonic signature -- a video game soundtrack, was cutting edge. Against this backdrop, Japanese synth artists YELLOW MAGIC Orchestra (primarily Ryuichi Sakamoto, Yukihiro Takahashi, and Harouomi Hosono, with programming from Hideki Matsutake, additional vocals by Shunichi Hashimoto and Tomoko Nunoi, and axe work by Masayoshi Takanaka) attempted to meld the decidedly electronic-sounding computer games with disco-era percussion, Eastern tonal qualities and Western lounge music. The result is a mixed bag...Techo fans will consider it a retro anomaly and music historians will recall the days when synthesizer work was more than sampling, but patching together banks of wave-form generators and programming sequencers. Occasionally quite listenable, you'll might then get jarred by a three-second long piece called "Firecraker" (just the detonation of same), or the rudimentary boops and beeps of the computer game selections. The fact that it got re-issued on CD at all--some 23 years later, is as much a testament to this recording as anything I could write."