Customer Reviews

Solid Pleasure

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

An album so good I dropped all of their contemporaries (Residents, Snakefinger). This album flows well, it takes you out there and then back with songs like Downtown Samba and Night Flanger. This is real pioneer work and therefore not all palatable like the latter stuff. However, I feel this one is the key to understanding the dynamics of all the other albums.

Many of the pioneers of electronic pop have been acknowledged in the past few years, but nobody says much about Yello (at least in the U.S.). This record may not have been groundbreaking like Kraftwerk, but it is tremendously entertaining. It is eclectic, adventurous, and very funny. It has that smart/stupid dynamic that works so well for Fatboy Slim. I won't vouch for subsequent Yello records, but I just love this one.

Yello doesn't get much weirder than they did on their first two records. Claro Que Si, and it's predecessor Solid Pleasure, are both rich with outlandish soundscapes and musical ideas. If you've never heard Yello before "Oh Yeah" then you're sure to be in a shock hearing the band's earliest material.

The creative interaction between these two men makes for an intriguing musical juxtaposition. If Boris Blank seems intent on conjuring otherworldly sound effects, it's lyricist/ vocalist Dieter Mier who keeps matters down to Earth with character studies in the lamenting loser study of "Bimbo" and "Rock Stop". "Bananas to the Beat" is pure goofball fun.

Side One of Solid Pleasure (I still think of this as the cassette copy I used to own) is a suite of sorts of miniature pieces stitched together like the second side of The Beatles' Abbey Road. This section contains some freakishly dark ambient moments ("Magneto", "Massage", "Assistant's Cry"), as well as some slick dance tracks ("Night Flanger" and "Bostich").

Unlike most re-releases that tack on ho-hum bonus material, the bonus tracks to this remastered edition are all welcome additions that deserve repeat listens. "Thrill Wave" and "Smirak's Train" are two selections from a movie soundtrack that would have fit quite nicely placed in the above mentioned ambient suite. There's also an extended mix of "Bostich" that is much superior to the slight album version. "Gluehead" is simply one of the most insane Yello tracks I've heard.

The CD comes in a digipak case with a booklet of lyrics, band photos, video stills, and various album art and memorabilia from this time period.

Favorite tracks: "Night Flanger", "Magneto", "Blue Green", "Bostich"
Final rating: 5 out of 5 stars.

If you are a fan of Yello, you gOTTa have this record.
I play it regularly and it is permanently on my iPod.
There are 6 Yello CD's in the remastered release series, I have and recommend buying them all. It's a great montage of Yello with this album being the first of the bunch.
{The rest are: 2.Claro Que Si; 3.You Gotta Say Yes To Another Excess; 4.Stella; 5.One Second; 6.Flag.}

This debut album is their strangest and weirdest- it runs the gammut of styles from trippy psychedelia to pseudo-reggae. Their later releases were more popular but this album is definitely the most creative. Also check out Claro Que Si and other Ralph Records bands for ultimate strangeness.

Since the beginning of the electronic music era in the early 70's many musicians and composers began searching out ways in which to combine it into other established mediums instrumentally. It wasn't until later in the 70's and more over the early 80's that anyone really ever thought of bringing other styles INTO the electronic genre. A whole subgenre of new wave called synth pop was born out of this concept and a good deal of it was actually pretty poppy stuff designed for radio airply. In Switzerland in 1980,born out of this whole crossroads of musics came Dieter Meier and Boris Black with Yello,a group who would go on to have one major hit that would put them on the map but at this point were very much an obscure group little known outside of European countries. That being said no one could ever accuse them of not being musically eclectic but the significance came with how the went about it.

Predating Art Of Noise's blend of a few live instruments with synthesizers and tape loops. One of the things that destinguises Yello is that they seem to be more obviously influenced by early hip-hop. They use funk groove oriented rhythmic patterns on a lot of their music and many of the lyrics are spoken or "rapped" as opposed to sung. Sometimes the music is plain innovative and other times it's sly parodies on the culture such as "Coast To Polka",a tongue-in-cheek reminder that polka beats were as important to disco based dance music as funk was and often not as often discussed in the broader relm of Eurodisco. The opening "Bimbo" and "Night Flanger" are snazzy jams,based to some degree in the same mixtures of funk and lite reggae influences that charactarized early hip-hop,the latter with a strong bassy shuffle and that video game electronic style. "Downtown Samba" is my favorite on the album-one of early synth pop's hybrids with brit funk in this case with an obviously pronounced latin percussion flavor.

That reggae flavor pops up more obviously on "Rock Stop and extends to the Caribbean funk flavors of the closer "Bananahs To The Beat",with it's jumping multiple synth bass lines and multi tracked and somewhat askew bass vocal harmonies. There's also "Bostich",a strong electro funk proto dance number with a garagey flavor that was at this time unique for electronica. While other tunes such as "Megneto" and "Blue Green" have more of a cinamatic and textural atmosphere more typical of European electronica this album with it's bumping and unique uses of rhythms and electronic accents was an important progression at this time. Caught somewhere between British acts that were far better known and had more credibility such as Ian Dury and Soft Cell,Yello added a quirky and left of center wit to their lyrical AND musical humor and this ended up being the beginning of something really new and ear catching-as it was for me.

I was just listening to this album for the first time and thought I was hearing something totally contemporary. With electro being hot in the clubs, one can put on an early Yello song, and younger crowd would have no idea this was relaesed in the early 80s. Besides the fact this sound has made its comeback now, it also tells us that this band has created something timeless over 20 years ago. And it's not weird, it's art!

Lots of people have stated how weird and eclectic this album is. I think it is one of thier best. Sure, it takes a little getting used to, but if it took me no time to digest the wonderful sound these guys were making when I was only 13 years old (1983) then I see no reason why people don't digest it so easily. Anyway, long live Yello (which apparently they are) and buy all their CDs. It's an order.

Yello are the pioneers of electronic music! Yes, they are weird... but the best thing is they're not conventional. Solid Pleasure is a journey into the experimental, jungle, space-world - a great trip! I also recommend: You Gotta Say Yes To Another Excess, One Second and Stella!

Wish I could see them live!

Vanbraun

This album was, I think, first released by the residential Ralph label in 1980 (correct me if I am wrong, but at least they DID release it)! At first listening me as a Residents fan was pretty much disappointed and began to have suspicions that Ralph was turning "disco" or "commercial" which would have been anathema. Even though the flip side of the first 7" was no problem the rest seemed a little too "trendy" to suit the Ralph league.

After repeated listenings however i discovered the innovativeness and the daring avantgardish mixes and ideas, even though the beat in some instances still disturbed me. After the many years that have gone by the ideas are not new anymore, neither is the way of creating music as Yello did new. These recordings today are but historical archives of a synthesizing pop culture that has turned over into digital sampling. Although these pieces are very 80ish in most regards, they have that playful and respectless attitude with them that signified the Ralph artists. And that's the thing with them that keeps them up.

I never became a big fan of Yello although I bought all I could get of them up until '86. But the first one, Solid Pleasure, is definetely the place to start as for early Yello - and it is still their best album to date.