Yellow Magic Orchestra

Hot on the heels of finishing <i>Paraiso</i> in early 1978, Haroumi Hosono invited session musicians Ryuichi Sakamoto and Yukihiro Takahashi to his apartment for lunch. Over grilled onigiri, Hosono gave a bluntly economic pitch for his next concept: The three would would record an electronic disco cover of Martin Denny’s “Firecracker” and sell 4 million copies. Sakamoto and Takahashi agreed—and Yellow Magic Orchestra were born. “Firecracker” would appear on the group’s 1978 self-title debut. And, like some of Hosono’s previous work, the song was simultaneously a send-up of Western ideas of “Orientalism” and a celebration of the strangeness that appears within, seeing “exotica” not as an affront to authenticity, but a psychedelic nowhere-space untethered from existing notions of cultural identity. With synth expert Hideki Matsukaki brought into the fold, Yellow Magic Orchestra were able to give the piece a rigid, Giorgio Moroder-style clockwork as Hosono had imagined, which also inadvertently solidified its place within dance music history: In America, “Firecracker” became a favourite not only with Afrika Bambaataa and the emerging breakdancing scene, but also at underground disco clubs like the Paradise Garage or David Mancuso’s Loft, where its syncopated pulse slotted perfectly into increasingly grid-based DJ mixing. Soon, the song’s mechanistic drive would become one of the building blocks for Detroit techno. Expounding on this meta-Orientalism concept, the rest of <i>Yellow Magic Orchestra</i> quickly fell into place. Along with “Firecracker”, the album includes Sakamoto’s “Tong Poo” (“East Wind”), a jubilant exercise of disco with Chinese characteristics, based on a propagandistic children’s song from the CCP’s teaching curriculum. Despite the song’s initial cheeky premise, “Tong Poo” would over the years become known as one of his greatest compositions—a staple of YMO’s live sets, as well as Sakamoto’s solo piano concerts for the rest of his career.