Ymo

The unbelievably prolific Haruomi Hosono is one of the major architects of modern Japanese pop music. With his encyclopedic knowledge of music and boundless curiosity for new sounds, Hosono is the auteur of his own idiosyncratic musical world, putting his unmistakable stamp on hundreds of recordings as an artist, session player, songwriter and producer.

Technodon is the eighth and final studio album to date by Yellow Magic Orchestra and released in 1993, a decade after the band's original breakup. Because the name Yellow Magic Orchestra was owned by former record label Alfa Records, the band were forced to release the album under the name YMO (typically stylized as the "YMO" initialism crossed out by a large "X"). For the tour that followed, they were billed as Not YMO. Future releases by the band would be made under the names Human Audio Sponge and HASYMO. At the time of recording, Haruomi Hosono and Ryuichi Sakamoto were incorporating many world music elements into their sound, which is still evident on Technodon, though slightly pared down and featuring simpler technopop arrangements. Yukihiro Takahashi mainly used drum machines for the record as opposed to a drum kit.

Ryuichi Sakamoto's first solo album appeared before he formed Yellow Magic Orchestra in late 1978, after the young keyboardist had earned his M.A. in music from Tokyo University. Six long instrumentals make up this CD, but apart from a taste for Asian-sounding synth lines, they hint at very little of what was to come in YMO. "Thousand Knives" is a long disco-lite jazzy workout with a very un-synthesized guitar solo by Kazumi Watanabe (who would later join YMO on tour and have his solo album produced by Sakamoto)…

Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) was formed in 1978 and is a major influence in Japanese popular music and for pioneering the technopop music genre.

Ryuichi Sakamoto's death in March, 2023 at age 71, left a gaping hole for anyone touched by his legendary compositions—a long list of people. Sakamoto initially rose to fame as a member of the much loved and pioneering Yellow Magic Orchestra, influencing virtually all genres with an electronic element, from synth pop to house to hip-hop and beyond. After YMO's hiatus in 1984, Sakamoto's focus shifted to his solo career and composing scores. He created a string of film scores for renowned directors such as Bernardo Bertolucci, Brian DePalma, Takashi Miike, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, and others, all while composing music for video games, working on collaborative albums, and even writing a song for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

2020 marks the 25th anniversary of The Human League’s seventh studio album ‘Octopus’. Featuring 7 previously unreleased tracks, the 2CD format includes the original album plus a second disc of demos, singles and edits. Also featured are two bonus tracks that the band made with Yellow Magic Orchestra - “Behind The Mask” and “Kimi Ni Mune Kyun”.