I found this a while back and loved it - a full gig by one of the great bands. I love this band for so many reasons. It's just three insanely talented people having fun with their music. There are the odd moments where one catches another's eye and they have a wry smile - the smile you get when you are onstage with your mates and just enjoying it.
I have seen Sakamoto quite a few times and am heartbroken never to have seen YMO - if the world needs anything post-lockdown, it's a few gentle Japanese gentlemen with awesome talent and a wicked sense of humour. We can only hope
Last edited by Dave B on Tue Jun 23, 2020 9:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
YMO are a bit of an enigma - some of it was cutting edge, some a bit silly (they did enjoy playing up to various stereotypes as a joke), some just luscious, some a bit off the wall - a real mishmash and I can't point you at any one album as a definitive example of what they were. They also tended to get lots of albums overlapping in songs as the albums got released in different territories, so you do end up with lots of repetition. Somewhere I had a great 4 LP box set that I had to import (hey kids - yes, we would have to get stuff imported specially from other countries : this was the days before Amazon!!!) which was a great collection. There is a 'Super Best of' double CD which has a good selection.
The first album is basically a continuation of Sakamoto's 1000 Knives (his first) album so lots of lovely old analogues driven by an MC8. But with drums and bass as well. And vocals. The Solid State Survivor is a good selection of the early songs before they got into very hard edge rhythms on Technodelic and BGM (but they still contain some great songs as well). The last album 'Service' is just beautiful songs again (Perspective being a real fave for some reason).
Jump on board the evil Spotify or do a few youtube searches. They are well worth checking out. Especially their version of Archie Bell and the Drells' Tighten Up ...
Dave B wrote:Jump on board the evil Spotify or do a few youtube searches. They are well worth checking out. Especially their version of Archie Bell and the Drells' Tighten Up ..
Thanks for that recommendation Dave - thoroughly enjoyed the experience!
Around that same time period I remember getting slightly duped by promoters into going to see what we all that was YMO at the South Bank, but it turned out it was actually their 'Human Audio Sponge' thing, and sounded rather similar to that set...
Mind you, most of that set list is from proper YMO albums, whereas at the gig I went to, there was literally only about 3 YMO tunes.
In that case, it's more a case of 'naughty promoters' rather than the band's fault. In fairness, if they were calling themselves HAS (or HASYMO) then they were being upfront about things. In any case, they'll play Rydeen and Tong Poo so I'd be happy. But then I'm easily pleased ..
