Retronauts Micro Episode 5 - early access
Added 2015-01-19 05:17:42 +0000 UTCHello, friends! Thanks for taking Retronauts over the $2500 mark! Your support keeps us going. And today, we're going with another Micro episode. In this case, a look at Yellow Magic Orchestra. We've touched on YMO quite a bit in the past but (unless I'm forgetting something, which is admittedly quite possible as I enter old age) we've never dedicated an entire episode to them. And, honestly, it might be tough for YMO talk to sustain an entire episode... but it's just right for a Micro post. So, herewith is Retronauts Micro 5, a quick foray into YMO. I've splashed plenty of YMO tunes into the episode as both texture and examples (along with a single Gentle Giant track by way of contrast!), so hopefully this sampler whets your appetite and inspires you to search out more YMO. If not, well, thanks for bearing with us, and please look forward to another full episode next week. This episode's description: "A brief journey into the music of a band that had an incredible influence on the direction and style of game music in the '80s and '90s: Japan's New Wave-tinged synth rockers Yellow Magic Orchestra. Featuring lots of music by, yes, Yellow Magic Orchestra." Thanks as always for listening! And, of course, the early episode release is hidden behind the icon above this post. (Bob is actively working on cracking the early access RSS feed issue, for those of you who would like a more elegant solution — expect news soon!) — Jeremy
Comments
This is a very nostalgic episode for me. A friend of mine and I got into YMO in the early '90s, as he bought Solid State Survivor almost on a whim, it seemed. We immediately became obsessed, and eventually collected all of their albums, watched the Last Emperor and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (which were both scored by Ryuichi Sakamoto, who also had acting roles in both of them), and began collecting Sakamoto's and Hosono's solo stuff as well. Although I love Kraftwerk, their music is quite deliberately minimalist at times. YMO may have taken their inspiration from Kraftwerk at times, but their music has almost the exact opposite feel to me: playful, bizarre (just listen to their cover of Day Tripper, for example), and full of emotion. My favorite song of theirs is probably "U.T", but since I can't find a link to that that isn't a cover, here's one of my other favorites, "Key." Again, this song displays bizarre, playful lyrics that sort of belie the serious sound of the music: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksZy6J7rx3E" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksZy6J7rx3E</a> One final funny story: when I was staying in Japan, my host family took me to a local CD shop so I could buy some music. When I emerged with a Best of Yellow Magic Orchestra 2-CD set, they were shocked. "You bought *this*? But it's so *old*! My husband and I used to listen to them in high school!"
Adam Fitch
2015-01-19 23:11:38 +0000 UTCOh yes. I completely love YMO and Ryuichi Sakamoto. Great topic for an episode...I'm so glad they were so influential to game music composers in the 80's. That's why we have such great music from SST Band, Zuntata, etc...
Normallyretro
2015-01-19 22:07:12 +0000 UTCNow I wonder how long will it take for Jeremy to start queueing up some other Prog outliers as Flower Kings, Triumvirat, Beardfish... and so many other great ones. Great episode as always!
2015-01-19 19:53:30 +0000 UTCDitto here. Never heard of them before last year and was inspired to check them out. Thanks for a great episode!
Cory Hanson
2015-01-19 10:49:04 +0000 UTC
