From Che Sent Fri, Aug 21st 1998, 02:13
From Che Sent Fri, Aug 21st 1998, 02:13
At 10:06 AM 8/18/98 -0500, Mr. Gil wrote: >Ryuichi Sakamoto won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and a Grammy >(best original score) for the soundtrack of "The Last Emperor", written >with David Byrne. His soundtracks can be a mixed bag. Take for instance, the Wild Palms soundtrack. A brilliant symphonic main theme, some ok electronic tracks, and one really bad faux rock track. Come to think of it, his albums tend to be that way as well. That's my main problem w/ Sakamoto - he tries to do a little of everything, so the music is competent, but rarely great, and he doesn't really have an identifiable style. I'd prefer he focus on his strengths, electronic & symphonic music. >He can't exactly sing, though, especially in English, which turns many >otherwise excellent Yellow Magic Orchestra tracks into noodle mush. Hey, hey, HEY! Watch out, now! The singing on Technodelic is brilliant, perfectly suited for the music. I like the singing on YMO better than his later, more refined solo records. >All the info you could ever need about him is at: >http://www.kab.com/m/sitekmt/ >(a very visually appealing site) Indeed. At 06:59 PM 8/16/98 -0700, waving AND drowning wrote: >Ryuchi Sakamoto is one of the founding members of YMO. His style runs from >neo-classical to techno to pop and several points in between. Geez...where do >I start? This guy has a - what? - 20 + year career we're talking about here >full of twists and turns. If you can find "Technodon" (is this a Japanese only >release or did it simply never see US domesticity?) by YMO, consider yourself >lucky. That may be the group's >most this-listy thing. I'm kinda surprised this never gets mentioned as it's >(imo) a lovely thing - prolly too poppy at points for the crowd here. No domestic release - be prepared to pay thru the ass for it (maybe the drop in the yen has changed this?). There was also a 4xCD version w/ a live CD & some Orb remix CDs - you'll have to search the web for more info, but I think the 4xCD may be out of print. A few instrumental, very IDM tracks, a couple of spoken word tracks w/ WSBurroughs, a reading of William Gibson poetry by Sakamoto (i think), some Japanese Techno Pop tracks. Done mostly for the money, but brilliant nonetheless. Technically, it's by Not YMO. :) For solo Sakamoto, the litmus is B2 Unit. Early experimental electronica. >"Technodelic" is also a good YMO staple, albeit a good 12 years older than >"Technodon". My fave. As technopop as any Kraftwerk. >You might be more familiar with Haruomi Hosono, who was also from >YMO and whose output (sometimes, anyway) has more of a chance of being talked >about in this neck-o-the-woods. HH's Medicine Box rmx CD has mixes by The Orb, Tim Simenon, and Graham Massey. The recent HH stuff I've heard is more ambient. >As for what you heard on the Ninja thing, the >remixers (Tobin and co.) have definitely left a vast impression on the outcome >of Ryuchi's original product. The symphonic works are the originals, the remixes definitely share the ominous mood. Che rock - rok (v.) - having a conventional and/or boring nature. ex: "Khakis rock". "That Rolling Stones show rocked". syn: suck.