Yellow Magic Orchestra -- Cosmic Surfin'

A great title for another YMO classic. "Cosmic Surfin'" was a track on the band's very first album in 1978. Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）, Yukihiro Takahashi（高橋幸宏）and Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一） stretched their techno abilities, seeing how they infused into other genres. There was Martin Denny's exotica "Firecracker", Tatooine-and-old-movie-adventure-music "Simoon" and the Asian "Tong Poo" and "La Femme Chinoise". Then, there was YMO's tribute to 60s surf music.

"Cosmic Surfin'" was created by Hosono, and as he mentioned in the liner notes for this song for the band's BEST album, "YMO, GO HOME!", he was a pretty footloose and merry fellow because he had grown up listening to The Ventures. And this song was the answer to the question, "What if they melded The Ventures with techno?" It certainly sounds as if The Ventures were suddenly coated in a layer of computers and synthesizers (heck, YMO even synthesized the surf). When I first heard it, I thought Don Wilson and his mates had actually helped on it....complete with steel guitar. Although the band has become somewhat of a footnote back in the States, they are treated with all of the reverence of musical deities in Japan (something that fans of The Carpenters would understand over there).

However, the concert version of "Cosmic Surfin'" tends to go more for the straight techno aspects, although it doesn't distract from the listening pleasure. And it sounded more muscular...at least in this version at the Budokan in 1980. Always nice to see Akiko Yano （矢野顕子）enjoying herself at the keyboards. And I really gotta have one of their shirts someday!