It was one of the first albums to feature the Roland TR-808,[7] the most influential early programmable drum machine, along with YMO member Ryuichi Sakamoto's solo album B-2 Unit (1980).[8][9][10] YMO was the first band to use the device, featuring it on stage in 1980.[11][12] In addition to the TR-808, this was also their first studio album recorded with the Roland MC-4 Microcomposermusic sequencer. The album, particularly its use of the TR-808, was influential on the development of electronic, hip hop and dance music.[2]
"1000 Knives" is an electro/techno rendition of Ryuichi Sakamoto's electronic track "Thousand Knives" (1978).[6] YMO's 1980 Budokan performance of this track was one of the earliest uses of the TR-808 in a live performance.
The title stands for "Background music".[1] However, Japanese TV and press advertising alternately used "Beautiful Grotesque Music".[13]
Alfa Records, YMO's record company, had installed a 3M 32-track digital recorder in its studio shortly before YMO started recording BGM. Since Hosono was not fond of its overly sharp sound quality, he recorded all the rhythm sections for BGM on a TASCAM 80-8 analog recorder first and copied them with the 3M machine, resulting in the fuller, much compressed rhythm tracks. Unfortunately, no known working samples of the 3M recorder exist in Japan today, making it quite difficult to play the master tape.
The then brand new Roland TR-808, prior to the drum machine's official release in 1980, was rented out to YMO. One of the earliest uses of the TR-808 for a live performance was by Yellow Magic Orchestra in 1980 for the song "1000 Knives", an electro/techno rendition of member Ryuichi Sakamoto's "Thousand Knives" (1978).[6] The 808's chief engineer Tadao Kikumoto was unaware Roland had rented out the machine to YMO before release and was surprised to hear it on a live FM radio broadcast of YMO's Budokan 1980 performance.[14] The hand-clap sound was later publicized on this album, being used again on "1000 Knives" and in "Music Plans", another of Sakamoto's songs.
Peter Barakan debuts as YMO's co-lyricist, replacing Chris Mosdell. Barakan had previously provided lyrics for Ryuichi Sakamoto's solo track "Thatness and Thereness".[2] Sakamoto himself was often absent from the BGM recording sessions due to creative differences with Hosono; he notably refused to play on "Cue", and his distaste of the song was so strong that he refused to play the song's keyboard parts live, instead switching to drums while Takahashi played keyboards. Sakamoto turns in "Music Plans" as his only new composition for the album, since "1000 Knives" (from his 1978 debut album Thousand Knives of Ryuichi Sakamoto) and "Happy End" were new recordings of his earlier materials.[2] Sakamoto's version of "Happy End" was released as the B-side to his solo single "Front Line" in April 1981. Another song, "Rap Phenomena", was an early attempt at electronic rap music.[1][5]
"Loom" is a re-working of "The Infinite Space Octave" by YMO computer programmer Hideki Matsutake, and features a slow, upward Shepard tone glissando anticipating the Deep Note, THX's audio logo. A similar sound was previously used by YMO members Haruomi Hosono and Ryuichi Sakamoto for their 1978 album Cochin Moon. Like most YMO albums, song titles were printed in both Japanese and English, as listed below. "来たるべきもの" more accurately translates to "What should come".
When released in 1981, the album's reception was positive. Stereo Review described the recording as "crystalline" and the performance as "the twain meet", praising the album for its "remarkable" blend between "East and West", its "catchy tunes", its "ambitious collection of electronics" and for "pushing at the frontiers of electronic rock", but noted that this affected the album's accessibility.[4]
In 2021, Noah Yoo of Pitchfork gave it a positive review. According to Yoo, BGM "presented a startlingly prescient glimpse into electronic music’s future." He noted "BGM hones in on the “techno” aspect of the groundbreaking trio’s “techno-pop,” channeling each member’s unique personality into a monument of electronic music history" which "is a foundation for all manner of “synthetic” music that would follow, from synth-pop and IDM to hip-hop and well beyond." He described "Rap Phenomena" as having "subtle echoes of its resonant groove and polyrhythmic vocal sample manipulation everywhere" in modern electronic music, "Happy End" as "a progenitor of the ambient techno that would emerge in the following decade from artists" such as Carl Craig or The Orb, "1000 Knives" and "Camouflage" as demonstrating the TR-808's "relentless mechanical hi-hats" and "crisp" claps later used in hip-hop and dance music for the next several decades, "Camouflage" and "U.T." as anticipating the "the skittering drum programming" of Aphex Twin, "Mass" as anticipating the "ominous drama" of synthwave, and the ambient "Loom" as having "a patiently ascending, two-minute-long Shepard’s tone" that anticipated the THX trademark Deep Note.[2]
Malachi Lui of Analog Planet also gave the album a positive review. He called it "the group’s most experimental, forward-thinking work" to date. He noted opening track "Ballet" has an IDM-like electronic soundscape that combines "electronic drums, persistent hi-hats, and sustained synths" with a "melancholic emptiness." He also described "1000 Knives" as a "techno re-recording" that "lacks the 1978 original’s subtleties," praises "Cue" for its "exuberant synth-bass with beautifully cold" synth melodies, and described the "slow, sweeping electronics" of "Loom" as "predictive of Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works projects." He concluded "BGM’s influence is evident in most current electronic music" 40 years later and that "BGM, equally cutting edge as it is alluringly imperfect, will always sound like the past, present, and future."[6]
Chuck Clenney of UnderMain Magazine noted the album's significance in the early history of hip hop, describing its "use of the 808 as an instrument, played with character and emotion" as "groundbreaking." He describes the 808-driven "Music Plans" as where "the beginnings of that funky, electronic boom-bap vibe of hip-hop beats start to emerge" and the similarly 808-driven "Rap Phenomena" as "an aural Australopithecus of electronic rap music." Hip hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa cited the BGM tracks "Music Plans", "Ballet" and "Cue" as influences.[5]
All CDs released between 1984 and 1998 feature an alternate take of "Happy End", with audible differences throughout the second half of the track. The original version appears on all CD and later vinyl releases from 1999 onwards.
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