Technodelic

Untitled

Technodelic is the fifth studio album by Yellow Magic Orchestra. The album is notable for its heavy use of samplers which were not commonly used until the mid to late 80's, resulting in a more minimalist and experimental sound compared to their previous work.

Most of the sampling was made with an LMD-649 - a hand-made sampler developed by Toshiba-EMI engineer Kenji Murata, and a much cheaper alternative to the Linn LM-1 drum machine and Fairlight CMI sampling synthesizer available at the time. Notable samples used include Indonesian kecak chanting (Neue Tanz), gamelan and short looped vocals ("paa", "fuku", "chiki") for percussion in Seoul Music, and the final two tracks feature factory noises. The album also features use of speech through a two-way radio, a prepared piano, Prophet-5 synthesizers and a TR-808 drum machine. In another departure from previous albums, Haruomi Hosono has a more prominent role playing the bass guitar as opposed to playing bass lines on synthesizers (this trend appears again on the album Service).

As with many of YMO's releases, song titles are printed in both Japanese and English. For "Seoul Music", the kanji "京城" are used, referring to Gyeongseong (경성; known as Keijou in Japan), the name of Seoul when Korea was under Japanese rule. "灯" simply translates to "Light". "Neue Tanz" is German for "New Dance", while "Taisō" is Japanese for "gymnastics" or "calesthenics".

Track listing

Side one

No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Length
1.	"Pure Jam" (ジャム; "Jam")	Yukihiro Takahashi/Peter Barakan	Takahashi	4:30
2.	"Neue Tanz" (新舞踊; "Shin buyou")	Yellow Magic Orchestra	Yellow Magic Orchestra	4:58
3.	"Stairs" (階段; "Kaidan")	Takahashi/Barakan	Takahashi	4:14
4.	"Seoul Music" (京城音楽; "Keijou ongaku")	Ryuichi Sakamoto/Takahashi/Barakan	Sakamoto/Takahashi	4:46
5.	"Light in Darkness" (灯; "Tomoshibi")		Takahashi/Sakamoto	3:40

Side two

No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Length
1.	"Taiso" (体操; "Taisō")	Yellow Magic Orchestra	Yellow Magic Orchestra	4:21
2.	"Gradated Grey" (灰色の段階; "Grey no dankai")	Haruomi Hosono	Hosono	5:33
3.	"Key" (手掛かり; "Tegakari")	Hosono/Takahashi/Barakan	Hosono/Takahashi	4:32
4.	"Prologue" (前奏; "Zensou")		Sakamoto	2:31
5.	"Epilogue" (後奏; "Kousou")		Sakamoto	4:21

Personnel

• Ryuichi Sakamoto: keyboards, vocals
• Yukihiro Takahashi: drums, vocals
• Haruomi Hosono: Bass, keyboards, vocals
• Peter Barakan: Lyrics (also radio voice in "Pure Jam")
• Hideki Matsutake: Technical assistance