In his recent and much appreciated missal of the Japanese charts, our friend Kaz-san () writes: >ORICON ALBUMS TOP 20 >LW TW TITLES ARTISTS >Install Mplayer Debian Wheezy Vlc here. - 10.Techno Bible YMO >Great TMN!! Their two live albums occupy top 2 position this week.

>Behind these titles Jun Sky Walker(s), one of the most successful >pop punk band in Japan, debuts at No.3. YMO fans' collectors item >'Techno Bible' debuts at No.10. For the curious, here's a short description/review/look at the above.

I'm cross-posting it to our black-clad friends in rec.music.industrial for such a techno-contingent there as may be interested in a little history. It's shameless technopop, so the glowering industrial types might want to hit the 'n' key now, as will all Nihongophobes. New YMO: a quintessential collection, a first look.

YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA Techno Bible (Superb 1992 Japanese 5-CD Box Set comprising Early, Middle, Later and Live discs, a bonus CD featuring alternate takes and remixes by The Orb, Altern 8 and 808 State, plus a superb 160-page book - complete with wraparound tracklisting obi-strip and still sealed!

It's pop [proto-techno, but not proto-industrial], it's staggeringly well done. Well, it arrived in the mail this morning. Our pal Kaz shows this box entering the Japanese album charts up at 10 or so. It's an absolutely fantastic selection of stuff (just about everything you could want), a disc of rare stuff that really *is* hard to come by, and a bound booklet with all kinds of useful information in excruciating detail [a marvelous discography of *everything*, track listings, timings, people and all]. So what's the catch? Well, it'll run you about a hundred bucks stateside for the 5-disc box [given the current Japanese prices for single discs, this is a bargain. For the newbie, I'd still suggest you check out the Restless single disc compilation 'Kyoretsu Na Rhythm', or perhaps the Japanese 'YMO Sealed: Best Selection' if you're up for the slightly cheaper 2-CD Japanese import (everything except 'Expected Way' on 'Sealed' is included in Techno-Bible).

Having said that, I'll follow by saying that this is a typical Japanes boxed set - done right. Three discs grouped historically, roughly two YMO releases per disc.

I'm a little surprised at the fact that the compilers seem to have thrown out precisely those tracks I'd have dropped. The live CD has a sizeable chunk (about half of the box CD comes from it) of the recent 1991 'Fakerholic' live YMO tour CD from their 1979 tour. In fact, it would appear that they're taking pretty serious efforts to present YMO as a *live* outfit [and from the selection, I think you'll buy the argument].

The rare disc includes a bunch of outtakes from their final live disc 'After Service' [which came out after YMO had gone their separate ways], along with some B-sides and DJ-only remixes from the late 70s/early 80s, and a passell of recent remixes by our British cousins along the lines of the recent 'radical remix' disc 'High Tech No Crime' (more on this later). The accompanying booklet has extensive notes on everything in the box: tracks/players/lyrics/dates, a bunch of little written tributes, a short interview with Haruomi Hosono, an exhaustive Chronology/little bios, a truly fine discography [exhaustive, too, including all *non-Japanese* YMO releases, etc.] and translations of all the lyrics what ain't in English - 180-odd pages worth of data. I'll avoid my usual discussion of what I believe YMO's place in the canon might be [proto-techno stuff, one of the first attempts at a 'global' pop band, the degreee of their acheivement using the technology of the time, mention of the solo careers of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Haruomi Hosono, and Yukihiro Takahashi, etc.] and end with a listing of what's here and where it comes from: So remember: 'YMO - Techno Bible' (Alfa records ALCA 371-374, H12-19). Check it out.