Customer Reviews

Uc Ymo: Ultimate Collection of Yellow Magic Orch

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To mark its 25th anniversary since the emergence of YMO, this new best album was released with two discs. Although there have already been a number of 'YMO Bests' and 'YMO Remixes', one of the main differences between 'UC YMO' and previously published best albums is that Ryuichi SAKAMOTO (The Last Emperor; Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence) himself is supervising the album and in charge of the selection of the tracks. Although it is all in Japanese, Sakamoto also gives intriguing commentary on each piece. The re-mastered and improved sound quality is another element that makes this best album worth having, and this also includes very rare material (TV commercial version, 7-inch single version etc.) which has never been published before. This is a Japanese import, and therefore slightly costly, but (1) Sakamoto's supervision, (2) his commentary on every track, (3) the much improved sound quality and (4) the rare material would, I believe, be reasons enough for any YMO fan to consider getting hold of this 'Ultimate Collection'!!

FYI: YMO was re-united for one night only for the Earth Live event from Japan (07/07/07). They were the last group to appear on stage in Japan and played the legendary 'Rydeen' with a new interpretation, which you can see on YouTube.

If you are new to YMO, this album is a great introduction, offering tracks from most or all of their seven studio albums. If you are a fan and completist, this album features tracks not available elsewhere, and excellent mastering that may be superior to versions you have. While the album is expensive, at least they put a lot of good material on two CDs to make it worthwhile.

YMO is one of the early inventors of Technopop, and they have been a major influence on western music. Sakamoto-san in particular is an accomplished pianist and composer, and has won an Academy Award for music for The Last Emperor (which he also starred in). He has worked with many international musicians, especially David Sylvian and Japan. Takahashi-san is a great drummer, and Hosono-san is gifted on bass, and they too have extensive solo careers, but the three together are very tight and work well as a team. The live videos on youtube gave me a whole new appreciation for how well they play together live.

Collecting YMO is tricky, since there are different editions of albums of the same title with different track listings, and even different titles of essentially the same album (e.g. Solid State Survivor vs xoo Multiples, which are mostly the same album except for a few track differences). They have seven studio albums, several live albums, and several collections.

This collection is one of three produced at about the same time. As the other reviewer noted, this one was designed and overseen by Sakamoto-san. The other two collections that came out at the same time were designed and overseen by Takahashi-san and Hosono-san, the other two members of the band.

YMO's most popular albums are their first three, and this collection focuses most heavily on those. Most of the original Solid State Survivor is here, for example. BGM (my personal favorite) has a few tracks, but the album as a whole is great, so if you like the tracks presented here, check out the album.

The first CD opens with tracks that sound like they were meant to stream from one to the next, and they flow very nicely. I do wish the booklet was had English as well as Japanese versions of the commentary, but that's a minor complaint.

Enjoy!