RE-RELEASE: Genre Bending

We're taking a little break to do some birding, cloud spotting, and maybe even some trippin'! In the meantime, we hope you enjoy this re-release of “Genre Bending" with some bonus giddiness at the top. And we'll be back on July 28, commemorating the completion of the World Cup with an episode dedicated to sports songs. 

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What happens when music refuses to stay in its lane? It gets some major Stereothematica love. 

This week we talk about the artists who blur boundaries, break molds, and bend genres in ways that feel both surprising and inevitable. These are sounds shaped by curiosity, contradiction, and a refusal to be easily defined.

Videos:

Arthur Russell: This is How We Walk on the Moon (1994)

Yellow Magic Orchestra: Simoon (1979)

Extras:

Psycho Killer feat. Arthur Russell playing cello

Wild Combination documentary

"My favorite song" by Ramesh Srivastava

“‘I Want to See All My Friends At Once’: Arthur Russell and the Queering of Gay Disco” Journal of Popular Music Studies

Live Version of Simoon

The Music That Shaped Haruomi Hosono

Crafting the Sound of the Future

Michale Jackson cover of Behind the Mask

De La Soul Sampling YMO in Big Brother Beat 

Reddit - Let’s Talk Music: YMO 

The Amazing History of YMO

YMO on Soul Train - Tighten Up cover 

Archie Bell and the Drells: Tighten Up 

YMO on Soul Train - Firecracker 

Firecracker Samples:

Afrika Bambaataa: Death Mix II

Mariah Carey: Loverboy

Jennifer Lopez (Featuring Ja Rule): I’m Real

De La Soul: Funky Towel

2 Live Crew: Mega Mixx II

Connect with us on Instagram (to share your song picks or troll us), Spotify (for our ever-growing playlist), and Stereothematica.com (for extra fun)!

If you like what you’re hearing, please subscribe, and if you love it, a five-star rating and review would send us into the exosphere of excitement.

And email us at stereothematica@gmail.com! We will write back! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey y'all. We are taking a little bit of a break while we catch our breath and look at the clouds.

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Yes, I'm excited for that.

SPEAKER_00 0:08

And we wanted to share, uh reshare one of our episodes from last year. It's our genre bending episode. So in case you haven't heard it yet, it's a bender.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Oh yeah. It's one of my favorites.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Yeah? Yeah, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

You know why? Because of YMO. I was gonna say YMO is so magic, especially this song. And you know that the Greek theater is going to be the Hosona House come September 20th with the release of his new album in the Yours Sincerely tour. I cannot wait. I have tickets. That's so cool. I'm so jealous.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

And Toro and Wah is playing with him too. That's very cool. So, yes, we hope that you enjoy this re-release. Maybe you're listening to it for the first time. Maybe you're listening to it for the 20th time. Yeah, whatever it is. Enjoy our discussion about Arthur Russell and YMO, aka Yellow Magic Orchestra.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Let us know what you think.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Yeah, right in.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Oh yeah. Remember, Christina likes mail. Shoot, I have to still do that one. I gotta send you something. Yes. Okay, great. Enjoy. Hi, I'm Christina. And I'm Christine. Welcome to Stereo Thematica.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

Music is the heartbeat of our lives and the connected tissue of our friendship. Christine and I met at work in LA, but when I moved to Texas, we started a weekly challenge. Pick a song that fits a chosen theme.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

This game opened us to new perspectives on each other and deepened our understanding of the songs that shape our lives. Each week we recreate the magic of our song exchange on a broader scale.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

Christina, I've been meaning to ask you about music in a very specific genre. Ooh. Andor. It's not just music, it's musicals. Uh-oh. What have you heard about me? Nothing. And I'm I actually have a sense of how you feel about them, but I want to hear it straight from the horse's mouth.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

I will say this. I just don't like musical.

SPEAKER_00 2:05

Nailed it.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

However, when I look back to my childhood, I do have some very specific musicals that I loved.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Which?

SPEAKER_01 2:14

Well, okay, are we talking musicals like going to see and in the theater or musical like comedies? Are we okay with musical comedies? I don't even know what you mean by a musical comedy. Like Meet Me in St. Louis.

SPEAKER_00 2:25

Um, that is musical.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

Okay. So Meet Me in St. Louis, thoroughly modern Millie. Yeah. You know that one? Yeah. Victor Victoria. Yeah, yeah. Sound of music. These are all musicals. Yeah, and Sound of Music. All of them Julia Andrews. Yeah, Julie Andrews, yeah. So I think I guess I do like some musicals.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

I just don't like any contemporary musicals. How's that? That's totally, yeah. And I'm actually surprised to learn that you liked any musicals at all. But did you know that I love Andrew Lloyd Weber? I didn't know that. Isn't it embarrassing? I mean, it depends. What is your favorite? Okay, so definitely Phantom. Oh my god. Love Phantom. Yeah. Oh my listener, Christine just spit out her water. Like she was laughing at me so hard.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

I I hesitated even mentioning it. I did see that like in high school. And even then I was like, wow.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

I mean, well, I was like, this is the best. Even though it's Christine is the main character. That's so funny. I didn't even think about that until just now. Cats I saw as a kid freaking loved cats.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

Really? Yeah. That was another one that was like, like just knowing that it existed was hilarious, but like not like enjoyably hilarious.

SPEAKER_00 3:35

I was listening to the soundtrack the other day. For fun. Yeah, for fun.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

Not funny, just for fun.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

For fun. Okay. It is insane. Weber is insane. I'm saying all of this because when I went to New York recently, my sister and I went to go see Sunset Boulevard. Do you know anything about this play? Not the play. The movie, of course, but of course, one of my favorite movies.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_00 3:59

Yeah, for sure. I love it. But I don't know why I'm such a ding-dong. I didn't realize it was a musical until we're literally sitting in our seats, and I'm like, this is a musical. Because like I saw that it was written by Andrew Lloyd Weber. And I was like, that's shocking. I don't know him to not make musical. But then I also realized, so Nicole Scherzinger, do you know who she is?

SPEAKER_01 4:21

Yes. Wait, from the Pussycat. Yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

She used to be their lead singer. She was the lead in this who I saw on Broadway. She also just won the Tony for her performance in this run. And I think she had gotten the Olivier Award for her performance in London. Wow. And was I will say incredible in the role. But it was so funny because I'm watching the whole thing and I'm like, first of all, I think he wrote it in like the 90s and like the early 90s. It's so Weber. It's like just it's phantom, but based on Sunset Boulevard. It was really, I liked it. Like I had a really good time and it was a very fun experience. But the whole time I was thinking, Weber, you freak.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:05

What's your deal?

SPEAKER_01 5:06

What is his deal?

SPEAKER_00 5:07

He is a freak. But I like, I'm also a freak. I love oh my god. Okay, so this is the last I'll say about musicals. I was driving on the freeway one day. I think I was on my way to pick up Andrew from the airport. My Andrew, not Andrew Lloyd Weber. I was listening to the Phantom soundtrack so loud and just really singing along to it. And then there was an insane car crash that happened in front of me to the point that I had to swerve two lanes. And I was like, bitch, turn this off. Because if they recover your dead body and there's just phantom blaring out of your speakers, you're yeah, that's embarrassing.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

That is although I mean very classic too.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

It would be on brains for me. I mean, they'd be like, she died doing what she loved.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

I did not know this about you. This thing I'm actually glad. Yeah, it's surprising. I actually thought you were going to connect with me on the fact that I don't like musicals.

SPEAKER_00 6:05

Sorry, girl.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

Okay, really quick though. Hamilton.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

Never saw it. Me neither. No interest.

SPEAKER_01 6:09

Yeah, right? Yeah. Interesting. Whoops. Very controversial.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

We lose our entire listener base.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

No, I'm kidding. Well, do you remember during the pandemic they showed a televised version of the musical? I must have blacked that out. I couldn't get through 20 minutes.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

Oh, really? You tried watching?

SPEAKER_01 6:27

We tried because Thomas wanted to watch it. Actually, it took us four days to get through 20 minutes, and I'm like, forget about it. This isn't working.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Were you like psyching yourself up?

SPEAKER_01 6:37

I had to. I'm like, I want to see what the fuss is about. People have been talking about this for years, and I'm like, I just can't get into it.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

I am so glad that we are at least aligned on this. Not a genre for everyone. Well, speaking of genres, you know, I often find them hard to define. And it's like when people ask you what's your favorite genre of music? Well, girl, I know what you're gonna say. What? What am I gonna say? Klesmer music. No, but really, when somebody asks you like what kind of a genre, is it easy for you to say, I like this, I like that?

SPEAKER_01 7:15

No, because it's again, I think it is so hard to categorize, and I think the best music probably is hard to categorize. Yeah, exactly. Like I do like music that is not in English. Yes. I'll say that. I prefer that.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

And I don't want to say people would call that international music, wouldn't you?

SPEAKER_01 7:31

Yeah, exactly. And and even that saying that is controversial. Yes, yeah. So I mean, I have my favorite types of music in various countries throughout the world, which I guess is is world music, but world music is not a genre. Yeah. But I do like hearing music that is from different places because it is so much richer. And I do think it actually like music in other countries, especially non-Western countries, like definitely there's a lot of genre flexibility going on there.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah. And I think it's kind of neat because I think we are aligned in liking music that doesn't fit neatly into a category. I think we both like things that are like if we were both like, hey, I love rock and roll, and I want to start a podcast with you about rock and roll music, I'd be like, no.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 8:25

That's not interesting to me. But one thing I think that, and I'll I'll get to our theme this week shortly, but like one thing I do like is when you have a musician or maybe a band or whatever who bends their genre. They they might be a little bit into one category, but then they they step out of those lanes. And so that's why this week I chose genre bending for our theme. How'd that land with you?

SPEAKER_01 8:50

Perfectly. Because I love that. And I as as I kind of was just saying, like some of my favorite music is definitely just very fluid and going in different directions. And yeah, I love the theme. For sure. Okay, good.

SPEAKER_00 9:05

Yeah, I thought I thought you reacted nicely because and it did seem like something you would pick too. So hopefully I didn't scoop you. No, but when I thought of who I like that Ben's genres, this artist came to mind because I cannot put him into a box. And I really like that about him. Um, and this is an artist I only learned about like maybe seven years ago, but I wish I would have known about for much longer, especially I think when I was like maybe in my early 20s, because I feel like there's music that he creates that is very like it's so perfect for kind of being unsettled and kind of unmoored. And I'll I'll jump right to the chase. My artist's pick is Arthur Russell. I know that you are familiar with him because you shared the version of Psychokiller that he did with the Talking Heads, where he's playing cello in our theme song episode. How did you find that?

SPEAKER_01 10:03

So I did not know about Arthur Russell as a musician, singer, performer until I found this video. And that was just me like doing, you know, trying to find interesting things about my theme song Psycho Killer. And I came across that and I did share it, and I talked about it in our episode, but Arthur Russell was not somebody I was still familiar with. It was just like some cellist, truly. So I I'm very excited to hear more from you about Russell.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

Awesome. And I want to preface this by saying, like, Arthur Russell is like a he's almost like a cult following musician. And I think that it will be hard for me in our short time together to give justice to his body of work. He has a truly incredible body of work, and I'll tell you a little bit more about him. But I think I want to just preface this by saying anyone who hears maybe this song and hears a little bit more about his life and his work, I encourage you to go learn more about him, listen to his music, and know that I'm not an Arthur Russell expert. I'm just a big fan. So the song I've chosen of his for this episode is This Is How We Walk on the Moon from his 1994 album, Another Thought. Move in, it's moving me up. Like you said, he's a cellist, beautiful cellist, very good, very good singer. And this album was actually released two years after his death in 1992. And I want to jump in a little bit about who he is and where he's from because it impacts his work so much. Arthur actually grew up in Iowa and studied cello and piano in his childhood. He wanted to be in the marching band, but couldn't wait for the time frame. So he decided to play cello because he could join the symphony right away, and also because his mom played the cello, which is kind of sweet. It features very heavily in a lot of his music, which I think is really interesting, and it's also one of the big genre-bending elements for him. Really sadly, he ran away from home and went to San Francisco kind of at the perfect time. It was the late 60s, around the summer of love. He did eventually study North Indian classical music at the Ali Akbar College of Music and Western Composition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. And then that around that time he met Alan Ginsburg and worked with him, performed with him. I believe at one point they were lovers. He also studied electronic music eventually at the Manhattan School of Music. So if this is all very interesting to you, there's a very cool documentary called Wild Combination, where you can it's short too. It's only an hour. It's really neat to see how many incredible musicians he had an impact on and who he collaborated with. It talks about like when Punk was just really taking off, he went in the other direction, wanting to do like sweet pop music. And he worked with like some of the members of, you know, like Jonathan Richmond and the Modern Lovers, like some folks from that band. And his Medwestern upbringing really impacted his work. Um, even though he had such a range of genres that he experimented with, like you can sometimes hear like country elements and some fulky stuff. And I don't know if you've like checked out any of his music beyond that, the one that I shared with you. But it is like I don't know, it's very hard to say that he's he's anything very specific when it comes in terms of what his genre is.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

No, and it's funny because you do kind of or one, me especially, wants to like kind of try to not categorize it, but but like compare it, and and there is some songs that I was hearing, like a little Nashville Skyline Bob Dylan's yeah album, which I I liked, and that was like my way of like, okay, I like this, but I did listen to some things and I wasn't like I wasn't connecting with it that much. Yeah, it was a little too maybe not genre-bending, but maybe too calm for me.

SPEAKER_00 14:11

Sure. I I think I know what album you're talking about, and like I think that there's some really beautiful songs that he has that feel to me like a little bit country, a little bit singer-songwriter. Yeah, and then it's funny because this song, like, you'll hear his beautiful voice and then some distortion to the music, which is like really haunting and jarring. Arthur Russell, I I do I feel like I could wax poetic about him is that he was constantly experimenting, and he was experimenting with different styles and techniques and instruments, and you know, you'd hear the cello at times when you wouldn't really expect it. And I think he probably could have been a really very successful singer-songwriter, but he kept trying out new styles and types of music, and he did have some success later on in his career, but he was the musical director for a short time of The Kitchen in New York City. Have you heard of this? It was like a um avant-garde performance space with lots of really fascinating folks who would come through. Like Philip Glass as someone who was friends with Arthur and collaborated with him, and Philip Glass called him like truly the most avant-garde person, which to me is funny because Philip Glass is someone who like I can't listen to.

SPEAKER_01 15:41

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_00 15:41

Because it's too much for me.

SPEAKER_01 15:43

Even the soundtrack music. I mean, I guess like the hours.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

Yeah. So yeah, so some of it is, but one cool thing is that Arthur Russell did have success in disco. What? Yeah, I know. So this is exactly, and I'll talk a little bit more about like his identity later. But he he had a club hit where he was, I believe, a producer and a writer with Kiss Me Again, which was performed by Dinosaur, which I'm I wasn't familiar with. And it's a long track, it's like over 10 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 16:13

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

But I listened to it for the first time when I was researching this episode, and there's so much Arthur Russell influence in the song, even though it's like a disco club hit. So that I mean like dance, it's it's yeah, it's like it's if you were to hear it, it's almost like I mean, not Donna Summer, but like something you'd hear like dancing in the club, and like kind of a cool, like when you're thinking of like what I don't know. When I'm thinking of disco, of course it's such a broad genre, but like thinking of Donna Summer, like what's that iconic one? I feel love. Yeah, it's not that, but it's like you can hear his influence in the background, which is really yeah. Well, and let me let me cut to the chase. So Arthur Russell was a queer man, and that wasn't how he always presented, like it took him a long time to come into this identity, and I think his identity as a queer musician was really important because uh there was this point where disco even was very like divided between queer and straight in the scene. So there were people who were like, This isn't for the gay community, and then there were the gay community who was like, This is us, like we are disco. And like when you think about like, of course, like some of that fluidity, like I'm thinking of Studio 54 and stuff like that. But I found this incredible paper, and I did not have time to read the whole thing because it's like an academic paper, but it's called I Wanna See All My Friends at Once, Arthur Russell and the Queering of Gay Disco. And I can share a link to it in. I'd like to read that. Yeah, but it talks about disco as an opportunity for queer music experimentation, and I just thought that was fascinating because again, Arthur was constantly experimenting with new genres, and very sadly he died of complications related to AIDS at the young age of 40. So so much of his work is actually unreleased and unfinished. Like he was a perfectionist and he wanted things to be just right before he released them, but that meant he recorded an incredible amount of work, but was not putting it out because he didn't feel you know it met his standards. Like the album that my song pick is on. There were several other albums that came out posthumously, like The World of Arthur Russell and Calling Out of Context, which they both came out in 2004, so like 12 years after he died. So I I think considering you know, I didn't find out about him for seven years, probably a lot of people never were able to appreciate him in his lifetime, like so many artists. But even many years after he died. You know, again, I I can't do him justice despite chatting. So I hope that our listeners, if you're intrigued by this musician, dive into his genre bending tracks. And it it's fun because some are very accessible and approachable, and some are a little bit more like, whoa, this is this is early out there. And I think it's almost fun because there's like Easter eggs that you'll find when you're listening to. And yeah, I'm excited in case anyone's hearing about him for the first time, that you might go learn more. But also for me, like I had no idea that he even did all this disco work.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

No, I'm I'm very excited to learn more.

SPEAKER_00 19:26

Yeah, and I feel like you will love that one song just because it's I don't know, disco for me is not a genre that I gravitate towards, but this gives me more of an appreciation for it, knowing that there's like really cool musicians in the background who are have a hand in it. So that's my genre bending. And I I can't wait to learn about yours because you already have such a genre spanning taste in music. So this is exciting for me.

SPEAKER_01 19:53

Okay, so I was kind of hoping to share a song that you hadn't heard. So I actually went to something that I only recently came across back in January, and I have a mutual friend to thank for that. Our colleague, well, your former colleague, my current colleague Joe. Shout out, Joe, for sure. Hey Joe. The song is Seamoon, and it's from Yellow Magic Orchestra's 1978 self-titled debut album. I remember when I started listening to this, Joe sent it to me in an email, and I was just a couple minutes into the song, and I got so excited. I'd never heard of Yellow Magic Orchestra before, but I recognized the name Haromi Hosono. And I'd recently gotten into his solo album, Hosono House. And so I was like so excited. I saw his name there. I'm like, oh my God, I got out of my office. I went to talk to Joe. I'm like, oh my gosh, why did you share this with me? I love what I'm hearing. Did he just randomly email it to you? I think we were talking about the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:02

And so, like, we were talking about music. So it wasn't completely out of the blue. Yeah. He thought I would like it. I mean, as simple as that. He loved it and thought I would like it.

SPEAKER_02 21:12

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 21:13

Yeah, I love that. So you never know. You gotta share music with people because you never know it's yeah. No, because some things, yeah, some things you're gonna be like, eh, whatever. And then other things you're just gonna be like, oh my gosh, this this changed my life. So when I go to Joe's office, I'm it's only been like two minutes into the song, and I'm like so excited, I just like can't wait. And and you know me, like I don't leave my office off. So that was a big deal. So we were, I think, in our podcast life, we were about to record instrumental song that could have been a hit. And I was actually like even thinking, oh, I should change it to this song because this is so cool and probably more appropriate for the theme. But then as I continued listening, I saw that it did have lyrics, but I knew I'd want to share it at some point and then. Your genre bending theme just like felt perfect for this.

SPEAKER_00 22:03

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 22:03

Are you familiar with Yellow Magic Orchestra?

SPEAKER_00 22:06

No, but when you shared this song with me, I got really excited too. So it's like kind of funny that it has that effect on people. Like, and I have to say, I actually wasn't expecting to get this from you. Like when you shared it with me, it was like big woo, like eyes when I'm like listening to the song. So I'm like, whoa, this is so it's just so different.

SPEAKER_01 22:28

I wonder what part exactly like, was it the electronic part that maybe you were thinking, oh no, based on previous conversations we've had.

SPEAKER_00 22:37

I think I remember sharing with you that I was like, they have like a video game music element to it. Which yeah, I think no, and this isn't like no shade to you or anything. I just wasn't like expecting that kind of and maybe it is the electronic part, because usually you're very like that's not your go-to.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

Well, yeah, that was on hunky dory, that was the song, the Andy Warhol song, because of the electronic sounds in the beginning are what made me skip it. But no, it's this well, this song in particular is just it's so special. But let's start from the beginning with Yellow Magic Orchestra. They were formed in 1978 in Japan, according to the liner notes of the album. So, right after finishing the album Para Iso, Hosono, who had already had a successful solo career as a jazz, folk, rock, bassist singer, pitched a new idea to two of the musicians he had collaborated with on Paraiso. Ryuichi Sakamoto was a composer, synth wizard. He is a trained classical musician. He actually later won the Oscar for the last Emper soundtrack with David Byrne. So another David Byrne connection there. What hasn't he done? I know, right? He also approached Yukihiro Takahashi, who was a drummer and vocalist, fashion designer and actor. Sakamoto and Takahashi have both died somewhat recently in 2023, but Hosono is still touring at the young age of 77. Nice. Each of these guys, though, are legends in their own right and probably deserve a deep dive. But today we're just gonna focus on YMO as Yellow Magic Orchestra is sometimes called, and not just Simone, because I feel like I need to go back a little to the plan, Hosono's plan. So when he's approaching his friends, he's worked with them before and he's like, okay, we're gonna record an electronic disco cover of Martin Denny's 1959 Firecracker and sell four million copies. So, Christina, any familiarity with Martin Denny and the genre called Exotica? No. Good. No, I mean you could probably figure out a little bit about exotica, but yeah. So Denny is considered the father of exotica. And that is a genre of music from the 50s to mid-sixties. Yeah, you know, you know where I'm going. That was shaped by Western perceptions of Asian culture. Oh no. So the original firecracker, which I will not be sharing, was loaded with stereotypical sounds, xylophones, vibraphones, gong crash, oh no, temple blocks. You got it. The album was actually titled Quiet Village: The Exotic Sounds of Martin Denny. So, I mean, what do you expect? This is what happens when you don't study abroad. Yeah. Yep. So YMO reprogrammed this exotica fantasy using digital sound, and their version of Firecracker is a send-up of that Western orientalist fantasy. And it treats exotica as like a psychedelic space detached from any fixed identity. So that's really cool. And then, of course, the name Yellow Magic Orchestra is a tongue-in-cheek nod to Exotica, the Yellow Magic being a reference to how the West often casts Asian culture as mysterious or like magical. So good for them. Yeah, right? Very cool. This is all happening late 70s. Now I know I'm talking a lot about Firecracker, and that's not my pick. But I feel like you need to know the context of like their big, I don't know if it's their big hit, but like their most famous song to appreciate the context of Seamoon. So Seymoon is Arabic for Sandstorm. And according to Hosono, the song was inspired by the desert scenes in Star Wars. Oh yeah. And like right? You can't not hear R2D2's voice and some of those electronic sounds. Totally. Yeah. And I think that's what I like. I mean, I'm not obviously like I do like this album. I don't like all of it. Some of it is a little too like video gamey for me, a little too electronic, but I can handle it when it has a little bit more soul and a little sweetness and warmth.

SPEAKER_02 26:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:44

And I feel like this song especially has that. It's it's my favorite song on the album. So the vocals do appear eventually about two minutes into it, and they're sung in this like sultry lounge-like English. It's barely audible, but so dreamy and like very alien cabaret, sweet and silly. And again, it's that warmth that like makes this such a special song. The lyrics were written by Chris Mosdell, a British-born poet who moved to Tokyo in the 70s and kind of just became immersed in its avant-garde and music scenes. He wrote some other YMO English songs, and his words just add a nice sensual air. His lyrics, I don't know if you'll be able to hear them in this clip that we're gonna play, but it's very sweet. He carries her off down to Palm Breeze Oasis behind a sand dune croon's. I can't listen to the song and not sway to it, right? Like you just want to move your body. Yeah, yeah. It's so easy to get like lost in it. I've listened to a lot of their music since learning about them, and while some of their other songs don't quite hit me like Simone does, they're all such a delight to listen to. And what I found most interesting about YMO is that their influence stretches across genres into hip-hop, techno, modern synth pop, and of course, like we talked about that that video game music. Okay, get this. According to the website Who Sampled, Firecracker, this YMO version was sampled 27 times.

SPEAKER_00 28:28

Whoa. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:29

And like by Africa Bombada, J-Lo, Mariah Carey, De La Sol, and Two Live Crew.

SPEAKER_00 28:36

That's so cool. Right. I want to go listen to all those songs.

SPEAKER_01 28:38

No, I know. And then Michael Jackson recorded a version of their song Behind the Mask. And that was like during the thriller sessions, but it wasn't released until 2010. And and one more thing that's very interesting to mention, I think. Yellow Magic Orchestra performed on Soul Train in 1980. Oh my god. Yeah. Is there a video? Oh yes. I want to see that. And we will share it. So they did Firecracker, and then they did a super Cynthia cover of Archie Bell and the Drells Tighten Up. Oh, sick. Are you familiar? I'm they're from Okay, yeah. From Houston.

SPEAKER_00 29:10

They even say it in Tighten Up. They're like, Where are Archie Bell and the Drells? From Houston, Texas.

SPEAKER_01 29:15

No, exactly. It is such a cool performance. That's so cool. We'll share with that.

SPEAKER_00 29:20

Oh my god, I want to see that. Are they dressed so cool?

SPEAKER_01 29:22

They are. It's like kind of Devo vibes. Oh, really? I was expecting not exactly Devo, like they're not wearing like hats, but they're just cool. They just look so cool and they're all dancing around and people are loving it.

SPEAKER_00 29:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:37

It's so fun to see this because, like, you know, Soul Train like mainly showcased black soul funk in the RBX, but then you see this, like these Japanese electronic musicians, and they're playing this music that is just moving everybody. And they're it's like it is almost an ecstatic experience.

SPEAKER_00 29:56

Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Oh my god, how cool!

SPEAKER_01 29:59

I know, I know. And it's weird because I can't help but think, you know, with all these like budding musicians and and hip-hop artists, like maybe they saw this performance, and maybe that's why they're like, oh, let's sample this.

SPEAKER_00 30:11

Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. Like that's really like, and one of those things like where, okay, you're finding out about music like at the record store and whatever, but maybe they don't get YMO at your record store. So then you see them on Soul Train and you're like, What is this?

SPEAKER_01 30:25

No, and they're doing all this different shit with like drum machines and vocoders and synths, and this is like real genre bending. Like they're they're like not just mixing sounds, but they're crossing borders and like they're they're planting these seeds that would blossom. Oh, I love that. Like it's so cool. Definitely going to share those performances, and Don Cornelius talks to them after they perform. It's so great. And they talk about craft work being one of their influences and how they love disco and funk.

SPEAKER_00 30:53

I am really amped to hear that, and it is really cool. Like, I love knowing that I they they have to have influenced so many people. I mean, considering they've been sampled 27 times. Yeah, that's just that one song, too. Yeah, I didn't mention this, but you know, I know Arthur Russell, I'm sure, influenced so many musicians, and like even saw that like L C D Sound System counted him as one of their influences. And like, of course, lots of bands, I'm sure I like that. You know, it's just neat to think about these folks who are defying genre and allowing people to kind of say, Yeah, that I also don't want to fit into a tidy little category. So I'm so excited to watch the Soul Train video.

SPEAKER_01 31:36

It's very cool. And it's I'm grateful to Joe for sharing the song, and I'm grateful to you for sharing Arthur Russell because, like I said, I found him playing on the Talking Head song. But this makes me definitely want to like learn a lot more about him.

SPEAKER_00 31:50

Unless we both talked about David Byrne in our songs. Do you think he will be on the show? I think he's gonna be. He loves collaborating. Yeah, I think so. He's got to.

SPEAKER_01 31:59

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:00

Cool. Thank you for being such an influence in my genre bending capabilities too. I really like that you introduce me to a lot of new genres all the time. Well, thank you. What if you gave us a clue about next week's theme?

SPEAKER_01 32:12

Okay, so we're we're loving it up right now, but I think next week we might actually have a fight.

SPEAKER_00 32:18

I can't wait, you know I love to fight. Thank you for listening to Stereothematica. If you're enjoying our genre bending, please consider a review, a rating, or sharing with a friend.

SPEAKER_01 32:28

Subscribe now on your favorite podcast platform and follow us on Instagram where you can share your favorite genre benders.

SPEAKER_00 32:35

Don't forget to visit stereothematica.blog for more fun.