BGM

YMO's glory time was their first two albums, and the giddy fast-paced synthesizer music, some of which included sounds inspired by video arcade games of the time. When you get an anthology, it always includes this pop music. And I love that music.But BGM is where YMO REALLY got interesting. Instead of crisp, tight arrangements and sounds, the music got more abstract and "wobbly" sounds, at times bleak and sterile, at other times quite organic and natural. They started using unusual sounds for rhythm. It tends to be slower than their pop songs.I enjoy listening this album from beginning to end. You will often find a few tracks from this album on YMO collections, but it did not generate many "hits". If you hear them and they take you at all, you can expect the rest of the album to follow the same off-beat path.Part of what is going on is that the individual musicians, having made commercially successful music, now felt free to pursue the directions of their muses. Ryuichi Sakamoto, who does a lot of the more involved compositions, had been busy with solo efforts, including "The 1000 Knives of Ryuichi Sakamoto". That album has an alternate version of "1000 Knives", very different from what's here. Takahashi and Hosono were also doing solo work.This album also influenced many musicians; I have heard sounds from this album (not direct samples, but apparently inspired by this) on a wide range of other artists.I think this album is the least-dated sounding album they did. Give it a good listen. A few listens: the first one may not completely take you. I hope you get to enjoy it as much as I have.Incidentally, while I have seen many editions of this album, they all have the same track listings in the same order. Sound quality is quite good on the inexpensive edition, so you may as well by that instead of an expensive import and save some bucks.

Great synth pop and electro album. I b boyed to this in the first Breakin movie. I was the little kid popping in the end of the second Breakin movie when they protested the community center being demolished.

Dope.

This was a staple of my collection when I first was released

Great synth usage from these crazy dudes! There are some really excellent tunes on this disc, and some that are not excellent. I bought this strcictly for "Cue" and "1000 Knives" die to the nice synth work. Strictly for fans of obscure 80's Japanese synth-rock bands. Purely electronic - not a drumstick or guitar pick in the entire band.

I can't remember when I bought this album. It must have been some time in the early 1980s. I was listening to the music of John Foxx, Japan, Ippu-Do, Bill Nelson, David Sylvian, Brian Eno, Jon Hassell, Harold Budd, Fad Gadget, S.P.K., Sandii & The Sunsetz, Cabaret Voltaire, Kraftwerk and Deutsche Amerikanische Freundschaft at the time. Yellow Magic Orchestra were unique, and they are, still.BGM is not really an album of songs, it is really an album of instrumental pieces and "soundscapes", partly instrumental and some with vocals, and some with fragments of singing and spoken words. The music is all quite atmospheric and rich in instrumental lines and textures. Some of the pieces could be easily arranged for and played by an orchestra. "Mass" and "U.T." sound like orchestral music over a drum machine. There is some acoustic drumming here from Yukihiro Takahashi (a very fine drummer) and, possibly, Ryuichi Sakamoto (he drums in the video clip of "Cue"). The keyboard playing is, of course, sublime and it is clear that the three members of the group let their imagines run free on this album. They were superstars by this stage and they could more or less do whatever they liked .... and they certainly did!I loved to contrast the music of D.A.F. with Y.M.O. - DAF were the quintessential "Minimalist" Punk band - one keyboard line and drums; YMO could have been described as "Maximalist", in comparison, with their multi-layered and contrapuntal music. Like Kraftwerk and Cabaret Voltaire, YMO didn't always rely on words and lyrics alone to carry the meaning of their songs, the sounds, instrumental timbres, harmonies, melodies, rhythmic contures and song structures provided their music with internal rhetoric.BGM, overall, is a "moody" and atmospheric album. I have recently seen some of the songs performed live on YouTube (I never saw any promotional videos at the time!) and I am [still!] impressed with the intensity and power of YMO live. In some ways, all the music on this album would have sounded even better live, I'd be willing to wager! Alas, YMO never toured Australia.BGM is quite unlike anything else Yellow Magic Orchestra recorded and it is very unlike anything else anyone else recorded before or since. Hmmm, okay, maybe "Radio Fantasy" by Ippu-Do owes something to this album - "Magic Vox" and "Radio Japan" could easily be played back-to-back with any of the tracks from BGM and not cause the listener to flinch.It is a pity "Radio Fantasy" is not readily available on CD.However, If you want to get an insight into YMO - check out the video of "Cue" (one of the their best songs) on YouTube. Stunning!

Any fan of Sakamoto-san's YMO efforts will be the first one to admit, they have their ups and downs. Fortunately, somewhere right in the middle, YMO managed to straddle that fine line between overzealous orchestration and poncy techno-pop. BGM is like the Eastern version of David Sylvian's "Japan". Grinding electro-rhythms and spooky art school sensability combine to create what may be their most focused, least self-absorbed effort. The finest electronica in my collection. Right after this album, it was crash and burn for YMO. Oh, Sakamoto and Sylvian later realized their kindred styles and worked together on Sakamoto's "Heartbeat" It's not a bad little album.

Great to see YMO's stuff out on CD - I had this (and a pair of their other releases) on vinyl when I was in middle school, and after many years, it's still great stuff. YMO stood alongside some of the Krautrock groups (especially Kraftwerk and Can) as something way ahead of their time, and Ryuichi Sakamoto has crafted an extremely fascinating solo career over the last 2 decades.In any case, the shimmering electro-pop here was immaculate - catchy, futuristic, funky and smart.Check 'em out.-David Alston

The best of YMO

Amazing pressing and delivered promptly. LOVE this LP and everything from Music on Vinyl.

Disque avec plus de 30 ans mais qui sonne très actuel. Grand rythme, un rappel de la musique de Kraftwerk.

オリジナル音源自体が籠り気味で、音圧が弱く広がりがないため、このユニットの作品にしては全体的に音質が良くありません。但し、綺麗な音質だと本作の空気感が出ないと思います。暗い音質の中でもリマスタリング効果は絶大で、違いは「CAMOUFLAGE」や「来たるべきもの」が解りやすいです。前作の大成功でムーブメントを起こしたのですが、少なくとも、リーダーは全面的に売れることが良い出来事とは思っていなかったようです。発売当時は肩透かしを食らった方が大多数でした。本作はこのユニットの踏み絵的な作品。松武のプログラミングも前作までだったら、捨てた音を本作ではメインに持ってきております。「千のナイフ」はソロやライブで聴いたことがありましたが、、3人＋1人で演じるとこんなに凄くなるのかと、素晴らしいです。「Ｕ・Ｔ」はユニット名義ですが、おそらく曲は坂本が書いたものと思われる名曲。「ＭＡＳＳ」はリーダーの傑作です。3曲とも前奏の15秒で鳥肌が立ちます。日本人が本気で世界を意識した、素晴らしいユニットの傑作。ジャケットと作品タイトルから、本作がこのユニットの「日常」です。

当時、ライディーンやテクノポリス、そのイメージでの期待のニューアルバム、前衛的すぎて中学生の私には難しい音でした。しかしそれから20年ぐらい経って、レコードせいりのためある日ふと聴くと、とんでもない傑作と思わされました。それ以来CDを買い直してなおいまだにの愛聴盤です。ymo世代の人には今さらです。ぜひ若い人に聴いてほしい。日本にもとんでもないバンドが存在してたことを。