History Music / Technodelic

* UsefulNotes/CulturalRevolution: Referenced on the second cover for the album, which features a stock photo of a smiling woman from Maoist China against a red backdrop.

* UsefulNotes/SouthKorea: The setting of "Seoul Music", as the name implies.

* {{Feelies}}: LP copies came packaged with the lyrics in a small pamphlet; this is replicated in a miniature size on the 2019 SACD reissue.

''Technodelic'', released in 1981, is the fifth studio album by Japanese SynthPop {{supergroup}} Music/YellowMagicOrchestra. The second of two albums that the band put out that year, it marks the culmination of the increasingly [[AvantGardeMusic avant-garde]] direction that they had been taking throughout their discography (barring the one-off comedy album ''Music/{{Multiplies}}''). The songs on the album are even icier in sound than ''Music/{{BGM}}'' months prior, with haunting, minimalist arrangements and even less conventional song structures, aided by the band's continuing embrace of advancing technology.

* VariantCover: The original release sported cover art (pictured above) of three Polaroids of the individual band members in Kabuki makeup, all laid against an off-white background. The European release swapped out the cover with one [[https://t2.genius.com/unsafe/1418x0/https%3A%2F%2Fimages.genius.com%2F51dcae4382fd939c18a3239904d43cae.600x600x1.jpg featuring]] a stock photo of a woman in Maoist China against a red background; this cover was later incorporated into Japanese reissues, becoming standardized worldwide and consequently eclipsing the original cover in recognition. Since 2003, CD reissues include both covers on different sides of the liner notes pamphlet, allowing one to flip it around and insert it back in based on which cover they prefer. The "Polaroid" cover would eventually be reinstated as the canonical one in 2019, via the 40th anniversary remaster.

''Technodelic'' was supported by two singles: "Pure Jam" and "Taiso", the latter of which got a music video directed by none other than American PostPunk band Music/TalkingHeads (fronted by, sure enough, David Byrne).

* ChromaKey: An intentionally shoddy variant is used at the end of the "Taiso" video, nodding back to the music video for "Music/OnceInALifetime" by Music/TalkingHeads (who directed the "Taiso" video).

* ParodyAssistance: Curious about why the "Taiso" video seems to be such a spot-on parody of "Music/OnceInALifetime", right down to the StylisticSuck ChromaKey? That's because the members of Music/TalkingHeads themselves directed the video.

** The music video for "Taiso" recalls that of "Music/OnceInALifetime" by Music/TalkingHeads, featuring the band members performing in suits in a WhiteVoidRoom among various ChromaKey backdrops. This is somewhat explainable by the fact that ''Talking Heads themselves'' directed the video.

''Technodelic'', released in 1981, is the fifth studio album by Japanese SynthPop {{supergroup}} Music/YellowMagicOrchestra. The second of two albums that the band put out that year, it marks the culmination of the increasingly [[AvantGardeMusic avant-garde]] direction that they had been taking throughout their discography (barring the one-off comedy album ''Music/{{Multiplies}}''). The songs on the album are even icier in sound than ''BGM'' months prior, with haunting, minimalist arrangements and even less conventional song structures, aided by the band's continuing embrace of advancing technology.

* CerebusSyndrome: The album is even bleaker in sound than ''BGM''.

* IdiosyncraticCoverArt: The disc labels on early Japanese [=LPs=] are nearly identical to those for ''BGM'', featuring the same hot spring logo and zodiac design, albeit with a red background instead of white. Most later LP copies in Japan use standard beige labels, though the 2019 remastered [=LPs=] would reinstate the red zodiac one.

* NewSoundAlbum: Compared to ''BGM'', ''Technodelic'' is even more avant-garde and trades out the dense, TR-808-driven music for more minimalist, sample-based work. What drum machine elements ''are'' present are provided by the LMD-649 instead.

* ReverseCerebusSyndrome: Contrary to the darker sound, ''Technodelic'' features more overtly comedic lyrics than ''BGM'', which relied heavily on abstract and artsy WordSaladLyrics.

''Technodelic'', released in 1981, is the fifth studio album by Japanese SynthPop {{supergroup}} Music/YellowMagicOrchestra. The second of two albums that the band put out that year, it marks the culmination of the increasingly [[AvantGardeMusic avant-garde]] direction that they had been taking throughout their discography (barring the one-off comedy album ''×∞Multiplies''). The songs on the album are even icier in sound than ''BGM'' months prior, with haunting, minimalist arrangements and even less conventional song structures, aided by the band's continuing embrace of advancing technology.

** "Pure Jam" was inspired by a thick slice of bread that Yukihiro Takahashi and lyricist Peter Barakan got at the café on the first floor of Alfa Records' headquarters.

** Haruomi Hosono's vocals on "Gradiated Grey" were an attempt at emulating the singing style of Music/GeorgeHarrison.

** The first cover's predominantly red and white palette and depiction of the band in white Kabuki makeup recalls the album art for ''Music/ScaryMonstersAndSuperCreeps'' by Music/DavidBowie; Masayoshi Sukita, who photographed the band for ''Technodelic'', had previously shot the cover photo for ''Music/HeroesDavidBowieAlbum'', and the band themselves previously namedropped Bowie in the international version of "Tighten Up (Japanese Gentlemen Stand Up Please!)".

* GratuitousPanning: "Prologue" and "Epilogue" feature a rattling mechanical sound that plays exclusively in the right channel, with a second rattling noise appearing in the left during the segue between the two tracks.

{{Sampling}} became an integral part of ''Technodelic'', allowing the album to act as an unprecedentedly complex collage of different sounds: in fact, while Music/DavidByrne & Music/BrianEno's ''Music/MyLifeInTheBushOfGhosts'' and Music/JeanMichelJarre's ''Les Chants Magnetiques'' earlier in 1981 had already beaten YMO to the punch of being the first albums to focus on samples and looped rhythms, ''Technodelic'' stood above them both by being the first album where these techniques made up the majority of it from front to back, to the point where even the band's vocals were used as samples. The 649 itself would later go on to be used by other Japanese synth-pop acts, including YMO associates Chiemi Manabe and Logic System. The album's extensive reliance on sampling also acts as a precursor to the sample-heavy approaches of various other artists later in the 80's, from the AvantGardemusic of Music/ArtOfNoise and Music/FrankZappa to art pop acts like Music/PeterGabriel and Music/KateBush to the entire HipHop genre, the latter of which YMO previously influenced with [[Music/YellowMagicOrchestraAlbum their debut album]].

* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: Like ''BGM'', initial Japanese LP copies list the two sides as "Face ⌊•" and "Face ⌊••". Later copies use the typical "Side 1" and "Side 2" labeling, before the 2019 remaster reinstated the original label design, "Face" names included.

{{Sampling}} became an integral part of ''Technodelic'', allowing the album to act as an unprecedentedly complex collage of different sounds: in fact, while Music/DavidByrne & Music/BrianEno's ''Music/MyLifeInTheBushOfGhosts'' and Music/JeanMichelJarre's ''Les Chants Magnetiques'' earlier in 1981 had already beaten YMO to the punch of being the first albums to focus on samples and looped rhythms, ''Technodelic'' stood above them both by being the first album where these techniques made up the majority of it from front to back, to the point where even the band's vocals were used as samples. The 649 itself would later go on to be used by other Japanese synth-pop acts, including YMO associates Chiemi Manabe and Logic System.

* MythologyGag: The original cover art, with its primarily white color schemes, angled text, and angled... whatever that shape in the corner is... recalls the cover of band member Music/RyuichiSakamoto's solo album ''B-2 Unit'' from the previous year. The shape itself even resembles the unknown object on the ''B-2 Unit'' cover.

* {{Sampling}}: This album was one of the {{trope codifier}}s, being constructed almost entirely out of samples.

** The first cover's predominantly red and white palette and depiction of the band in white Kabuki makeup recalls the album art for ''Music/ScaryMonstersAndSuperCreeps'' by Music/DavidBowie; Masayoshi Sukita, who photographed the band for ''Technodelic'', had previously shot the cover photo for ''Music/HeroesDavidBowieAlbum'', and the band themselves previously namedropped Bowie in the A&M version of "Tighten Up (Japanese Gentlemen Stand Up Please!)".

* WordSaladLyrics: The words to "Key" get pretty abstract, featuring emphasis on visual metaphors to describe mental anguish and confusion.

* ChromaKey: An intentionally shoddy variant is used at the end of the "Taiso" video, nodding back to the music video for [[Music/RemainInLight "Once in a Lifetime"]] by Music/TalkingHeads (who directed the "Taiso" video).

* ParodyAssistance: Curious about why the "Taiso" video seems to be such a spot-on parody of [[Music/RemainInLight "Once in a Lifetime"]], right down to the StylisticSuck ChromaKey? That's because the members of Music/TalkingHeads themselves directed the video.

** The music video for "Taiso" recalls that of [[Music/RemainInLight "Once in a Lifetime"]] by Music/TalkingHeads, featuring the band members performing in suits in a WhiteVoidRoom among various ChromaKey backdrops. This is somewhat explainable by the fact that ''Talking Heads themselves'' directed the video.

More specifically, for this album, the band adopted use of the LMD-649, a digital sampler custom-built for them by Kenji Murata of [[Creator/{{EMI}} Toshiba EMI]]. The first PCM-based sampler in the world, the device was far beefier tech-wise than the rival Fairlight CMI and Synclavier that had risen to prominence the previous year, featuring 12-bit audio depth (compared to the Fairlight's 8), a 50 [=kHz=] sampling rate, 128 KB of dynamic RAM, and the ability to double as a drum machine, all of which allowed for better sound quality and wider levels of applicability than its commercial counterparts. With this tool at their disposal, YMO could get far more creative with their songs than they could've ever imagined, exemplified by the record's layered LyricalColdOpen. {{Sampling}} became an integral part of ''Technodelic'', allowing the album to act as an unprecedentedly complex collage of different sounds: in fact, while Music/DavidByrne & Music/BrianEno's ''Music/MyLifeInTheBushOfGhosts'' and Music/JeanMichelJarre's ''Les Chants Magnetiques'' earlier in 1981 had already beaten YMO to the punch of being the first albums to focus on samples and looped rhythms, ''Technodelic'' stood above them both by being the first album where these techniques made up the majority of it from front to back, to the point where even the band's vocals were used as samples. The 649 itself would later go on to be used by other Japanese synth-pop acts, including YMO associates Chiemi Manabe and Logic System.

This highly experimental approach inevitably translated to lower commercial success than its predecessors, peaking at No. 4 on the Oricon LP chart, their lowest chart performance since [[Music/YellowMagicOrchestraAlbum their debut]] three years prior. However, such a peak was still impressively successful, especially for an album still considered pretty out-there by popular music standards. Because Creator/AAndMRecords had already dropped YMO earlier in the year following ''BGM''[='s=] failure in the States, ''Technodelic'' was never officially released in America until Restless Records' catalog-wide CD reissues in 1992; in Europe, however, the album ''was'' officially released on time through Alfa Records themselves... only for it to not seem to chart. Despite its low commercial performance, it was nonetheless massively acclaimed by critics, who both then and now have praised its innovative use of sampling that allowed it to sound far ahead of its time, predicting the similarly sample-heavy approaches of art pop acts like Music/PeterGabriel & Music/KateBush and experimental acts like Music/HerbieHancock, Music/FrankZappa, and Music/ArtOfNoise in the years after its release. While not regarded as YMO's absolute greatest album, being beat out by ''Music/SolidStateSurvivor'' before it, it's often treated as a close rival for the position, and is widely seen as one of the best albums of 1981-- if not the 80's as a whole-- by those who've heard it.