Yellow Magic Orchestra discography | |
---|---|
Studio albums | 9 |
Live albums | 15 |
Compilation albums | 10 |
Singles | 23 |
This is the discography of Japanese electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO).
Year | Album details | Peak chart positions | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
JP [1] | US [2] | |||||
1978 | Yellow Magic Orchestra
| 17 | 81 | |||
1979 | Solid State Survivor
| 1 | – | |||
1980 | ×∞ Multiplies (a.k.a. Zoshoku)
| 1 | 177 | |||
1981 | BGM
| 2 | – | |||
1981 | Technodelic
| 4 | – | |||
1983 | Naughty Boys
| 1 | – | |||
1983 | Service
| 5 | – | |||
1993 | Technodon
| 2 | – |
Year | Title | Director(s) [15] |
---|---|---|
1978 | "Yellow Magic (Tong Poo)" | |
"Computer Game" | ||
1979 | "Technopolis" | |
"Rydeen" | ||
1981 | "Taiso" | Haruomi Hosono, Norimasa Okumura [16] |
1983 | "Kimi ni Mune Kyun" | Hajime Tachibana |
Yellow Magic Orchestra was a Japanese electronic music band formed in Tokyo in 1978 by Haruomi Hosono, Yukihiro Takahashi and Ryuichi Sakamoto. The group is considered influential and innovative in the field of popular electronic music. They were pioneers in their use of synthesizers, samplers, sequencers, drum machines, computers, and digital recording technology, and effectively anticipated the "electropop boom" of the 1980s. They are credited with playing a key role in the development of several electronic genres, including synthpop, J-pop, electro, and techno, while exploring subversive sociopolitical themes throughout their career.
Haruomi Hosono, sometimes credited as Harry Hosono, is a Japanese musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is considered to be one of the most influential musicians in Japanese pop music history, credited with shaping the sound of Japanese pop for decades as well as pop music outside of Japan. He also inspired genres such as city pop and Shibuya-kei, and as leader of Yellow Magic Orchestra, contributed to the development and pioneering of numerous electronic genres.
Yukihiro Takahashi was a Japanese musician, singer, record producer, and actor, who was best known internationally as the drummer and lead vocalist of the Yellow Magic Orchestra, and as the former drummer of the Sadistic Mika Band. He was also a member of the group Metafive.
×∞Multiplies is a mini-album and the third studio album by Yellow Magic Orchestra released in 1980. It contains a mixture of songs and instrumentals by YMO, interspersed with comedy sketches. These sketches are performed by Snakeman Show in both Japanese and English, with YMO participating in some of them.
BGM is the fourth studio album by Yellow Magic Orchestra, released on March 21, 1981. The title stands for "Background music", though Japanese TV and press advertising alternately used "Beautiful Grotesque Music". This album was produced by Haruomi Hosono. Recording started on January 15, 1981, in an effort to release the album by March 21, 1981. The album was the first of any kind to feature the Roland TR-808, one of the earliest programmable drum machines; YMO had already been the first band to use the device, featuring it on-stage as early as 1980. In addition to the TR-808, this was also their first studio album recorded with the Roland MC-4 Microcomposer.
Yellow Magic Orchestra is the first official studio album by Japanese electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra, who were previously known as the Yellow Magic Band. Originally released by Alfa Records, in Japan in 1978, the album was released by A&M Records in Europe and the United States and Canada in early 1979, with the US version featuring new cover art but without the closing track of "Acrobat". Both versions would later be re-issued in 2003 as a double-disc format, with the American version as the first disc.
Solid State Survivor is the second album by Japanese electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra, released in 1979. Later, Solid State Survivor was released in 1982 in the UK on LP and cassette, also in 1992 in the United States on CD, but many of the songs from this album were compiled for release in the US as the US pressing of ×∞Multiplies (1980), including the tracks "Behind the Mask", "Rydeen", "Day Tripper", and "Technopolis". Solid State Survivor is only one of a handful of YMO albums in which the track titles do not have a Japanese equivalent.
Technodelic is the fifth studio album by Yellow Magic Orchestra, released in 1981. The album is notable for its experimental approach and heavy use of digital samplers which were not commonly used until the mid-to-late 1980s, resulting in a more minimalist and avant-garde sound compared to their previous work.
Public Pressure is Yellow Magic Orchestra's first live album, released on February 21, 1980. It was their second number-one album in Japan, setting a record of 250,000 copies sold within two weeks of release.
Sandii & the Sunsetz were a Japanese synthpop band that collaborated from 1979 until the 1990s. The Sunsetz, led by Makoto Kubota, and Sandii started as separate artists, and each have a separate discography. However, their collaboration provided a particular body of work that is representative of the period, and which successfully blended Eastern, Western and pop influences.
Christopher John Mosdell is a British lyricist, poet, author, composer, vocalist and illustrator based in Tokyo, Japan, and New York City, United States.
YMO Versus The Human League is an EP released in Japan and Asia in April 1993. It was released by Alfa Records and is a collaboration between Japanese electropop/synthpop band Yellow Magic Orchestra and British new wave/synthpop band The Human League. It was the first release by The Human League after their abrupt dismissal from their 14-year-long recording contract with Virgin Records 10 months previously.
Sketch Show was a Japanese electronic music duo formed in 2002 by two of the three former members of Yellow Magic Orchestra, Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi. In some live shows, Ryuichi Sakamoto joined in band performances, which eventually led to the three readopting the YMO name in the latter half of the decade.
UC YMO: Ultimate Collection of Yellow Magic Orchestra is a compilation album by Yellow Magic Orchestra. The songs were selected by keyboardist and pianist Ryuichi Sakamoto. The album was also released as a premium edition. The premium edition came with a long-sleeved white shirt emblazed with the yMo logo as well as a yMo bandana that the band wore on the 1980 world tour 'From Tokio to Tokyo', along with a special Liner Notes Booklet and an autographed print by drummer and sometimes singer, Yukihiro Takahashi. It was cataloged as MHCL 291-4 and sold in Japan for 21,000 yen.
"Behind the Mask" is a 1979 song by the Japanese synth-pop group Yellow Magic Orchestra. The band member Ryuichi Sakamoto wrote the first version of for a television commercial. This was expanded with the band and the British lyricist Chris Mosdell for inclusion on the Yellow Magic Orchestra album Solid State Survivor the following year. In the US and the UK, it was released as a single from the album X∞Multiplies in 1980.
WORLD TOUR 1980 is a live album by Yellow Magic Orchestra. It was recorded during the band's 1980 international tour. This is the only YMO live album to include songs originally released on X∞Multiplies; it also features six songs from YMO members made for other projects and two covers. It was released, with a book with photographs taken during the tour, as both a 2-CD set and a 3-LP set, which had a bonus track. "Jiseiki Hirake Kokoro" was originally made for a Fujifilm cassette commercial. It was included in Snakeman Show's self-titled album in mono so that the lyrics, which reference Fujifilm cassettes, could not be understood properly; it was presented here in stereo, and was included in the UC YMO compilation.
WINTER LIVE 1981 is a live album by Yellow Magic Orchestra. It was recorded during the band's 1981 tour of Japan during the winter season of November and December 1981. A set of performances were first released in Betamax and VHS in 1983, featuring illustrations by Yakov Chernikhov. This is the only YMO live album from the BGM/Technodelic era of the group ; although this album only features one song that wasn't in either BGM or Technodelic, YMO also performed "Technopolis" and "Rydeen", as well as more songs from BGM and Technodelic and the unreleased "Loop".
Technodon Live is a live album by Yellow Magic Orchestra. It was recorded on the band's second and last show at the Tokyo Dome in 1993, and is the only full music album of the band's Technodon era. It is composed mostly of Technodon material with a few songs from Yellow Magic Orchestra and Solid State Survivor performed in the Technodon style. During the live performance, special audio effects were performed by Goh Hotoda, who also mixed both Technodon & this album, and computer graphics created by Daisaburo Harada were projected on a screen on the back of the stage.
EUYMO – Yellow Magic Orchestra Live in London + Gijón 2008 is a live album compilation by Yellow Magic Orchestra. It collects two live double-disc YMO albums, LONDONYMO - Yellow Magic Orchestra Live in London 15/6 08 and GIJÓNYMO – Yellow Magic Orchestra Live in Gijón 19/6 08. It is performed in the style that the group built up as Sketch Show and as HASYMO. Unlike all other YMO live albums, these only have three songs from YMO albums. Most of the songs played are Sketch Show/HASYMO material, as well as songs from the individual members' solo careers. Two tracks are performed in the way they were on the "Tribute to Haruomi Hosono" album. Both albums are very similar, with the main distinction between them being GIJÓNYMO having its songs on a different order, fewer songs, and "Riot in Lagos" being performed differently.
Sandi A. Hohn, professionally known as Sandii, is a Japanese singer and vocalist who was a member of the Japanese band Sandii & the Sunsetz. Hohn is also notable for her work on the Japanese animated television series Lupin III Part II.