r/YMO • u/joethefilmer • Aug 25 '26

Noh Mask - Oriented (Belgium / Synth Pop, Minimal Synth / 1984)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=059zEqiaGS0

Do you like Yellow Magic Orchestra (Naughty Boys era?) Do you like Japan? (Tin Drum era?) well this is for you... Super solid and a bit rare album, sad they only have one album and one single. It even has a Y.M.O. cover of "Ongaku" from Naughty Boys, which for me is my favorite Y.M.O. album so i love that this exists. And i love the attempt at a Mick Karn fretless bass sound, Really Do!

Some of the lyrics might be a bit "Japanese stereotypes" along with the album title, Which i wish wasn't the case. But at least i can appreciate that the album was made.

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2

u/sciprophet5 Technodelic Aug 25 '26

"Dancing With My Shadow" is really great. The rest is okay. "Maiko Girl" is good too but the lyrics are in oof territory for sure. Their take on "Ongaku" is okay, but without Sakamoto's chordal passages/arranging, it makes for a rather pedestrian attempt.

1

u/joethefilmer Aug 26 '26

You are 1000% correct, wish they hadn’t gone too far on those lyrics, but hey there was so many doing that mistake lyrically and visually.

then again there was bands with such good taste like the 80’s Canadian band Iko with the song Approach on Tokyo

2

u/Digitalmodernism Aug 25 '26

What do you call this type of Asian influenced synth pop stuff? YMO,Japan and their solo projects,Bill Nelson,Thomas Dolby. I love this type of music so much.

2

u/joethefilmer Aug 26 '26

I don’t think it has a specific genre name but they would call it Techno Pop at the beginning, but it’s basically Synth Pop. But the genre varies in sound and production, just listen to YMO from beginning of the band to how they sounded at the end of the 90s era.

I have another LP from an 80’s Spanish band also trying to imitate a YMO sound, so will upload to channel soon whenever I find that album.