Music / Yellow Magic Orchestra (Album)

"Des notes sans fin des visages identiques."

^{Click to see the original Japanese cover.} 

Yellow Magic Orchestra, released in 1978, is the debut studio album by the Japanese Synth-Pop supergroup of the same name. The album marked the finale of a particularly productive year for the band's three members, with Ryuichi Sakamoto, Yukihiro Takahashi, and Haruomi Hosono collectively putting together a total of five different solo albums over the course of 1978 (Sakamoto's Thousand Knives, Takahashi's Saravah!, and Hosono's Paraiso, Pacific, and Cochin Moon) that featured the three collaborating together and experimenting with blends of Electronic Music, traditional Japanese composition methods (plus some added Indian flare on Cochin Moon), and western exotica music. The trio had already spent the past two years working together, and because of this it only seemed inevitable that the three would come together to make a grand master project representing the culmination of their efforts.

During work on Thousand Knives, Hosono became curious about the potential of creating an instrumentally-oriented album like Sakamoto's that could appeal more broadly to an international audience, his prior solo material having been intended solely for domestic listeners. Taking note of two major trends in the west at the time, disco and Orientalist exoticization of east Asia, Hosono decided to make an album that acted as a parody of both, and brought in both Sakamoto and Takahashi to assist him with the project. The idea was that they would create an album that centered around a Cover Version of American exotica artist Martin Denny's 1959 song "Firecracker", plus a number of original songs that followed up on the style of it, satirizing and subverting western exoticism and its sociopolitical implications regarding the lens through which it depicted east Asia, acting as a Spiritual Successor to Paraiso. As the album was intended to be a one-off, Sakamoto and Takahashi were hired simply as session musicians, and the album was simply called Yellow Magic Orchestra; this name both followed up on Paraiso's billing of its session musicians— which included Sakamoto and Takahashi— as the "Yellow Magic Band" (which riffed on Japan's faddish fascination with Black Magic at the time) and tied into Sakamoto's incorporation of Classical Music influences on the record, contrasting the loungier jazz fusion sound of its artistic precursor.

To realize the album's central concept, the trio made use of innovative new technology that allowed for greater amounts of flexibility with composing and performing songs. Most notably, the album was the first by any band to make use of the Roland MC-8 Microcomposer, a control voltage/gate music sequencer that had been introduced the previous year (though it wasn't the first album overall to use it, having been beat to the punch by Thousand Knives). With the assistance of programmer Hideki Matsutake, the band were able to adjust multiple elements of their synthesizers virtually on the fly. The musicians would go on to describe the MC-8 as a technological lynchpin for their sound, with it allowing them to craft a denser and more overtly melodic sound than what was typical of synth-pop at the time and enabling Sakamoto to more adeptly flex his background as a classically-trained musician, embodied by the use of an overarching and unbroken suite throughout the record's second side. The MC-8 would end up gaining a wider following among electronic musicians after this album, being adopted by the likes of Tangerine Dream, Giorgio Moroder, The Human League, and Kraftwerk in its wake. Alongside the MC-8, Sakamoto, Hosono, and Takahashi made use of a wide array of other then-new electronic equipment, including the Korg VC-10, the Korg PS-3300, and the Pollard Syndrum, as well as older, more preestablished instruments like the Fender Rhodes piano and Jazz Bass.

Despite the one-and-done approach Hosono took towards the album, it wound up being a surprise success, peaking at No. 20 on the Oricon LP chart and No. 17 on the Oricon CT chart. Inspired by this, the trio decided to take the album on tour throughout Japan. At one show at the Roppongi Pit Inn, the band caught the attention of an executive from A&M Records, who at the time were working out a partnership with Alfa Records (through whom Yellow Magic Orchestra had been released). Impressed by the album's style and confident in its western commercial potential, the label worked out a deal with the three musicians to put out Yellow Magic Orchestra in both the United States and Europe through A&M imprint Horizon Records. To make the album more western-friendly, A&M tapped acclaimed engineer Al Schmitt to remix the record, adding on reverb effects and re-equalizing the album to get a punchier, more overtly danceable sound out of it without sacrificing its musical ethos.

Released in 1979, this remixed version of the album didn't quite achieve the same mainstream success as it did in Japan, reaching only No. 81 on the Billboard 200, but it was a much greater success on the R&B charts at No. 37, proving Hosono right in its ability to appeal across national and geographic boundaries and giving his project considerable international clout. Lead single "Computer Game"/"Firecracker" also became a hit dance single on both sides of the pond, peaking at No. 17 on the UK Singles chart and No. 18 on Billboard's R&B chart (on the mainline Hot 100, it peaked at just No. 60).

Yellow Magic Orchestra was supported by four singles: "Computer Game"/"Firecracker", "Cosmic Surfin'", "La Femme Chinoise", and "Tong Poo". A promotional release of the latter backed with "Firecracker", dubbed the "Special DJ Copy", was also given out to radio stations in anticipation of the album's release.

Tracklist:

Side One

1. "Computer Game (Theme from the Circus)" (1:48)
2. "Firecracker"^note originally by Martin Denny (4:50)
3. "Simoon" (6:27)
4. "Cosmic Surfin'"^note originally by Haruomi Hosono (4:51)
5. "Computer Game (Theme from the Invader)" (0:43)

Side Two

1. "Tong Poo" (6:15)^note retitled "Yellow Magic (Tong Poo)" on the US mix
2. "La Femme Chinoise" (5:52)
3. "Bridge Over Troubled Music" (1:17)
4. "Mad Pierrot" (4:20)
5. "Acrobat" (1:12)^note excluded from the US mix

"I'm troping from far away":

• Album Closure: The one-two punch of "Mad Pierrot" and "Acrobat" both reprise and cap off the musical themes that had stretched throughout the album, featuring both the mock-exoticism and references to The Golden Age of Video Games wrapping up in an upbeat finale; the arcade sounds in "Acrobat" additionally act as a way of book ending the album on the Japanese mix, bringing the music back full-circle.
• Album Intro Track: "Computer Game (Theme from the Circus)", which acts as a short lead-in to "Firecracker", and by extension the rest of the album.
• Alternate Album Cover: The original Japanese release features an album cover of a Circus cabinet and various other pieces of western upper-middle-class paraphernalia against a metallic blue backdrop, with the artwork spanning all across the LP sleeve. The western release, meanwhile, features an android woman in a mock-Oriental outfit (who also appears as a mannequin in the "Computer Game/Firecracker" video) against a blue background, with a photo of the band on the back. These different covers are still simultaneously in use to differentiate between releases of the Japanese mix and releases of the US mix.
• Animated Music Video: That for "Computer Game"/"Firecracker". The first section features animated recreations of footage from the parodied arcade games, while the latter features abstract Orientalist animations that play into the satirical nature of the band's cover. Both are done using Scanimate, an analog precursor to CGI.
• Bilingual Bonus: "Tong Poo" translates to "Eastern Wind", tying in with the breezy style of the song.
• Book Ends: The arcade sounds in "Acrobat" recall the album's introductory "Computer Game" track; this effect is lost sadly on the US mix, which omits "Acrobat".
• Canon Immigrant: The US version of the band's first album was very quickly accepted into their back-catalog, to the point where it was the only version available on CD until 1992 (and the only version available in the US at all). Reissues still prioritize the US mix, and the band would adopt the US logo for Solid State Survivor, ×∞Multiplies, and the Live Album Public Pressure. While the band themselves never gave any official word on the matter, all of the above quietly implied that the US mix is the de-facto canonical one.
• Changed for the Video: Done slightly for the music video for "Tong Poo", which is based on the "Special DJ Copy" given out as a promotional single in the leadup to the album's release. In addition to featuring Minako Yoshida's vocal part that was later restored on the US mix, this version features a wind-blowing sound throughout its runtime (playing off of the song title meaning "Eastern Wind"), heavily increases the amount of reverb on the song, and has Yukihiro Takahashi's drum part come in much earlier than on either the Japanese or American versions.
• Chiptune: The "Computer Game" tracks and "Acrobat" are the trope makers of the genre, with the band using their synthesizers to recreate audio snippets from Circus, Space Invaders, and Gun Fight. It sounds nearly indistinguishable from the real thing.
• Compilation Re-release: The 2003 reissue of the album packages both the Japanese and American versions as a double-CD/double-LP package, with the US mix on disc one and the JP mix on disc two. The 40th anniversary reissues though would re-separate the two across formats.
• Cover Version: "Firecracker" was originally composed and performed by American exotica artist Martin Denny.
• Disco: While not a straight example of the genre, it was a big influence on this album's sound, and the US release sold well among the disco crowd (hence its far higher spot on the R&B charts than the mainline Billboard 200); this would end up building a significant urban following for the band that would result in them acting as a major influence on later musicians in the black-born Hip-Hop, electro, and techno scenes, with hip-hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa especially crediting them as a turning point in that genre's development.
• Distinct Double Album: While the record only takes up a single disc, the 2003 reissue packages it as a two-CD/two-LP package, with one disc for each of the two different mixes.
• Dragon Lady: The title character of "La Femme Chinoise", described as "the Mistress of the Orient."
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The album was intended as a parody of western Orientalism (e.g. "Firecracker", "La Femme Chinoise"). This aspect got all but disregarded on future albums.
• Echoing Acoustics: While not dominant on the US mix, they are audibly present (especially when comparing it to the Japanese mix), having been added by engineer Al Schmitt.
• Epic Rocking: Both "Simoon" and "Tong Poo" go over the six-minute mark, with "La Femme Chinoise" just barely falling short.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: "Bridge Over Troubled Music" is an interlude that bridges the gap between "La Femme Chinoise" and "Mad Pierrot".
• Face on the Cover: Not on the front cover, but a photo of the band is featured on the back of the US mix.
• Fading into the Next Song:
  • The drumbeat that appears in the second half of "Computer Game (Theme from the Circus)" acts as the connecting thread to the start of "Firecracker"; in turn, the synthesized explosion at the end of "Firecracker" flows directly into the low wind sound at the start of "Simoon".
  • The entirety of side two is sequenced so that each track segues into the next, giving the illusion of a single side-long suite. As "Acrobat" was cut from the US mix, the ending of "Mad Pierrot" was accordingly changed so that it fades out before the intended transition can occur.
• Genre-Busting: The album mixes together Classical Music, disco, early Synth-Pop, and exotica, creating a fusion of styles that, while in-line with the band members' previous solo material, came off as completely new and innovative to western audiences. One of the members described their music and its mix of influences as the equivalent of a Bento box.
• The Golden Age of Video Games: The album was released during the early years of this period, and both the "Computer Game" duology and "Acrobat" feature imitations of sound cues from popular titles of the era.
• Gratuitous French: "La Femme Chinoise", both in the title ("The Chinese Woman") and the spoken-word portions.
• Instrumentals: The majority of the album consists of this, with "Simoon", "La Femme Chinoise", and, on the A&M mix, "Yellow Magic (Tong Poo)" being the only exceptions.
• In the Style of: According to Ryuichi Sakamoto, "Tong Poo" was written with the intent of creating a piece that the Beijing Symphony Orchestra could play.
• Japanese Ranguage: On both the "Special DJ Copy" and US mix of "Tong Poo", Minako Yoshida's vocals feature her pronouncing the line "I'm blowing from far away" with the L and R swapped; this is however justified by the fact that she's actually Japanese and was born and raised in Japan. The L-R swapping also ties in well with the album's parodying of western exoticism, even if its inclusion was likely unintentional.
• Japan Takes Over the World: Their first US tour was advertised as "See Japanese people play all those synthesizers they're building." Ironically, any synth anorak worth his salt can tell that the bulk of the synths they used back then were made in the US.
• Leitmotif: A repeating, percussive six-note synth riff acts as a common thread across the tracks on side two, adding to the suite-like nature of their sequencing.
• Miniscule Rocking: Both "Computer Game" tracks and "Acrobat" fall considerably under the two-minute mark. This is especially true for the second "Computer Game", which doesn't even crack one minute.
• The Not-Remix: The US version, remixed by acclaimed audio engineer Al Schmitt, features a punchier equalization and added reverb. "Tong Poo" has Minako Yoshida's vocals from the "Special DJ Copy" restored, the synth organ in "Bridge over Troubled Music" takes up the whole song instead of just the latter half, extra percussion and piano parts are added to it and "Mad Pierrot" (respectively), and the inter-track transitions on side two are altered. Notably, the band seems to have accepted this version of the album as the canonical one, prioritizing it over the Japanese one in most reissue campaigns.
• Non-Appearing Title: A given by virtue of the album's mostly instrumental nature, but this is even the case on the lyrical songs; even "Yellow Magic (Tong Poo)" is devoid of a title drop, naming the subtitle (which, granted was its name on the Japanese release— though there it was another instrumental) rather than the main title.
• N-Word Privileges: The "Yellow" in "Yellow Magic Orchestra" refers to the anti-Asian slur; the incorporation of it into the ethnically Japanese band's name is thus intended to add onto their initial goal of parodying western Orientalism.
• One-Woman Song: "La Femme Chinoise".
• One-Word Title: "Firecracker", "Simoon", "Acrobat".
• Orientalism: Humorously parodied throughout the album, with the overarching joke being how shallowly one-note western depictions of east Asia are compared to the real thing.
• Pac Man Fever: An odd example in that it predates Pac-Man itself: both "Computer Game" tracks and "Acrobat" feature the band using their synthesizers to recreate sounds from popular arcade games in Japan at the time.
• Performance Video: For the most part, the video for "Tong Poo" is this, featuring footage of the three members performing in the studio interspersed with footage from popular arcade games of the era and animations drawn directly onto the film print.
• Rearrange the Song: "Cosmic Surfin'" is a re-recording of a track that Sakamoto, Takahashi, and Hosono originally wrote and performed for Hosono's solo album Pacific.
• Regional Riff: While the ubiquitous Oriental Riff is never heard on the album itself, similar Oriental scales still appear on multiple songs, tying in with the parodies of exoticized western depictions of east Asia.
• Remix Album: The US version is sometimes treated as this, given that the entire record was re-equalized and slightly modified for American audiences.
• Self-Titled Album: Done because it was intended as a one-off project. Little did they know how big they'd become...
• Shout-Out:
  • The "Computer Game" tracks and "Acrobat" recreate sounds from the arcade games Circus, Space Invaders, and Gun Fight, all of which were popular in Japan at the time.
  • Most of the song titles on side two are taken from Jean-Luc Godard films^note "Tong Poo" — Wind from the East; "La Femme Chinoise" — La Chinoise plus the trio of works with Woman in the title (A Flirtatious Woman, A Woman is a Woman, and A Married Woman); "Mad Pierrot" — Pierrot le Fou, hence the Gratuitous French in "La Femme Chinoise".
  • "Bridge Over Troubled Music" is named after the Simon & Garfunkel album Bridge Over Troubled Water and its Title Track.
  • The video for "Tong Poo" features footage from Centipede, Gypsy Juggler, Circus, Asteroids, and Space Invaders. Circus and Space Invaders are additionally parodied in the "Computer Game" tracks on the same album, alongside Gun Fight, and a Circus cabinet designed after a radio is depicted on the Japanese mix's album cover.
  • "La Femme Chinoise" namedrops both Fu Manchu and the 1957 Dale Hawkins song "Suzie Q", comparing its own title character to that of both works simultaneously.
  • According to Haruomi Hosono, "Simoon" was inspired by the Tatooine scenes in A New Hope.
• Siamese Twin Songs: "Computer Game (Theme from the Circus)" and "Computer Game (Theme from the Invader)", while not sequenced directly next to each other, nonetheless exist as a conjoined pair in the sense that they both attempt to mimic the sound of playing Circus and Space Invaders in the same room at the same time, with each song being heard from the perspective of the respective arcade cabinet. Likewise, "Acrobat" (exclusive to the Japanese mix) reprises both tracks and acts as a book end for the album.
• Special Guest:
  • Influential J-rock musician Masayoshi Takanaka, previously a member of the Sadistic Mika Band alongside Yukihiro Takahashi, plays guitar on "La Femme Chinoise".
  • Tyrone Hashimoto provides vocoded vocals on "Simoon".
  • City Pop singer and Alfa Records labelmate Minako Yoshida performs vocals on "Yellow Magic (Tong Poo)".
• Spell My Name With An S: The album credited Haruomi Hosono as Harry Hosono, the anglicized version of his name that he sometimes used professionally at the time. Later releases would stick to using his Japanese name.
• Surreal Music Video: "Computer Game (Theme from the Circus) / Firecracker" features a video consisting primarily of abstract animations themed around the song's mock-Oriental angle.
• Title Confusion:
  • "Firecracker" was the group's biggest hit in both the US and UK, but mistitled in slightly different ways in both:
    • In the US, an edited version of "Firecracker" was released as a single, but somehow the details for the wrong track were listed on the center label, so it was issued was "Computer Game (Theme from the Circus)". As the error extended to the writing credits, Martin Denny went unlisted as well.
    • The UK got a different edit of "Firecracker" with a 22-second extract from "Computer Game (Theme from The Invaders)" added as an intro, and this time both songs were correctly listed on the single, but somehow the "Firecracker" title still got ignored and "Computer Game" was wrongly assumed to be the title of the entire piece. Many sources (including the Official Charts Company website) continue to perpetuate this error, even 40 years later.
  • "Tong Poo" is renamed "Yellow Magic (Tong Poo)" on the US mix of the album; the former tends to be used when referring to the song in general, though the latter is sometimes invoked to specifically refer to the US version.
• Title Track: Retroactively done with "Tong Poo" on the US mix, which retitles it "Yellow Magic (Tong Poo)".
• Writing Around Trademarks: The album simply refers to Circus and Space Invaders as "the circus" and "the invader," respectively, though the mimicry of the games' audio makes it clear what the terms refer to.
• Yellow Peril: Humorously parodied in "La Femme Chinoise", whose title character is portrayed as a Dragon Lady comparable to Fu Manchu.

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