Credits

I would like to give credit where credit is due. Videos are from YouTube and other sources such as NicoNico while Oricon rankings and other information are translated from the Japanese Wikipedia unless noted.

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Yellow Magic Orchestra -- Ballet(バレエ)



This is another track...in fact, it is the first track....from Yellow Magic Orchestra's "BGM" album (1981). "Ballet" was written by YMO drummer Yukihiro Takahashi(高橋幸宏)and current media personality Peter Barakan with Takahashi also providing the music.

Not as much of a fan of this number as I am with some of the other tracks on "BGM" such as the cool and percolating "U.T.", but it still leaves an impression. My imagination has woven, especially from the intro, an absinthe-driven haze in a smoky German cabaret from the 1920s...with banks of synths. The J-Wiki description had Takahashi saying that his lyrics were inspired by a foggy Warsaw and the Polish painter Tamara de Lempicka (that must have been some absinthe!). I'm not sure if Takahashi had meant to do so, but I keep hearing shades of David Bowie in there for some reason.

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