''Solid State Survivor'' is the second album by Japanese

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroa ...

band

Yellow Magic Orchestra Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO for short) is a Japanese electronic music band formed in Tokyo in 1978 by Haruomi Hosono (bass, keyboards, vocals), Yukihiro Takahashi (drums, lead vocals) and Ryuichi Sakamoto (keyboards, vocals). The group is cons ...

, released in 1979. Later, ''Solid State Survivor'' was released in 1982 in the UK on LP and cassette, also in 1992 in the United States on CD, but many of the songs from this album were compiled for release in the US as the US pressing of '' ×∞Multiplies'' (1980), including the tracks " Behind the Mask", "Rydeen", "Day Tripper", and "Technopolis". ''Solid State Survivor'' is only one of a handful of YMO albums in which the track titles do not have a Japanese equivalent. The album was an early example of synth-pop, a genre that the band helped pioneer alongside their earlier album ''

'' (1978), and it also contributed to the development of

techno Techno is a Music genre, genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally music production, produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempo often varying between 120 and 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central Drum beat, rhythm is typ ...

. ''Solid State Survivor'' won the Best Album Award at the 22nd

Japan Record Award is a major music awards show, held annually in Japan that recognizes outstanding achievements in the Japan Composer's Association. Until 2005, the show aired on New Year's Eve, but has since aired every December 30 on TBS Japan at 6:30 P.M JST a ...

s, and it sold two million records. In 2020, Jonathan McNamara of ''

The Japan Times ''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc.. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched b ...

'' listed it as one of the 10 Japanese albums worthy of inclusion on ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'''s 2020 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. That same year, review aggregator site '' Acclaimed Music'' placed the record at No. 2876 on the most recent revision of its list of the 3000 most critically lauded albums, the band's only album to be featured on the list.

Overview

The album is also known for " Behind the Mask", which YMO had first produced in 1978 for a

Seiko , commonly known as Seiko ( , ), is a Japanese maker of watches, clocks, electronic devices, semiconductors, jewelry, and optical products. Founded in 1881 by Kintarō Hattori in Tokyo, Seiko introduced one of the first quartz watches and the ...

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica ( silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical ...

wristwatch A watch is a portable timepiece intended to be carried or worn by a person. It is designed to keep a consistent movement despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is designed to be worn around the wrist, attached by ...

commercial. YMO made use of synthesizers for the melodies and digital gated reverb for the snare drums. The song has had numerous

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

s produced by other artists, most notably

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

. Alongside

Quincy Jones Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (born March 14, 1933) is an American record producer, musician, songwriter, composer, arranger, and film and television producer. His career spans 70 years in the entertainment industry with a record of 80 Grammy Award n ...

, Jackson produced a slightly more dance- funk version of the techno classic with additional lyrics, originally intended for his best-selling album '' Thriller'' (1982). Despite the approval of songwriter Sakamoto and lyricist

Chris Mosdell Christopher John Mosdell (born 9 November 1949) is a British lyricist, poet, author, composer, vocalist and illustrator based in Tokyo, Japan, and New York City, United States. He has collaborated with an extensive array of musicians and artist ...

, it was eventually removed from the ''Thriller'' album due to legal issues with Yellow Magic Orchestra's management. Nevertheless, various cover versions were later performed by

Greg Phillinganes Gregory Arthur Phillinganes (born May 12, 1956) is an American keyboardist, singer-songwriter, and musical director based in Los Angeles, California. A prolific session musician, Phillinganes has contributed the role of keyboards to numerous alb ...

, Eric Clapton (with Phillinganes as part of his backing band), Orbital, and

The Human League The Human League are an English synth-pop band formed in Sheffield in 1977. Initially an experimental electronic outfit, the group signed to Virgin Records in 1979 and later attained widespread commercial success with their third album ''Dare' ...

, among others, before Jackson's cover version eventually appeared on his posthumous '' Michael'' album in 2010. "Technopolis" is considered an "interesting contribution" to the development of

, specifically

Detroit techno Detroit techno is a type of techno music that generally includes the first techno productions by Detroit-based artists during the 1980s and early 1990s. Prominent Detroit techno artists include Juan Atkins, Eddie Fowlkes, Derrick May, Jeff Mil ...

, as it used the term "techno" in its title, was a tribute to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

as an electronic mecca, and foreshadowed concepts that

Juan Atkins Juan Atkins (born September 12, 1962), also known as Model 500 and Infiniti, is an American record producer and DJ from Detroit, Michigan. '' Mixmag'' has described him as "the original pioneer of Detroit techno." He has been a member of The Be ...

and

Rick Davis Richard Dean Davis (born November 24, 1958) is an American former soccer midfielder, and former captain of the U.S. National Team for much of the 1980s. He is considered by fans the best U.S.-born player of the North American Soccer League er ...

would later have with Cybotron. The album's title song "Solid State Survivor" is a new wave synth rock song. The popular

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

series '' Dragon Ball Z'' later paid homage to the song and the album with the song "Solid State Scouter" as the theme song of the 1990 television special '' Dragon Ball Z: Bardock – The Father of Goku''. This was YMO's most successful album in Japan. It was the best selling album on the

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in ...

LP chart for 1980, beating

Chiharu Matsuyama Chiharu Matsuyama (松山千春, born December 16, 1955) is a Japanese folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** ...

's ' – Godiego's was the best seller in 1979. In 1980 the album won a in the 22nd

s. The album went on to sell two million records worldwide.

Track listing

Personnel

*Yellow Magic Orchestra – arrangements,

electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

, remix, cover conception *

Haruomi Hosono , sometimes credited as Harry Hosono, is a Japanese musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is considered to be one of the most influential musicians in Japanese pop music history, credited with shaping the sound of Japanese pop f ...

– bass guitar, synth bass, keyboards,

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder was ...

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

Ryuichi Sakamoto is a Japanese composer, pianist, singer, record producer and actor who has pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his bandmates Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, Sakamoto i ...

– keyboards, vocoder *

Yukihiro Takahashi Yukihiro Takahashi (高橋幸宏 ''Takahashi Yukihiro'', born June 6, 1952) is a Japanese musician, singer, record producer and actor, who is best known internationally as the drummer and lead vocalist of the Yellow Magic Orchestra, and as the fo ...

– vocals, drums, electronic drums, costume design Guest musicians *

Hideki Matsutake Hideki Matsutake (born August 12, 1951 in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese composer, arranger, and computer programmer. He is known for his pioneering work in electronic music and particularly music programming, as the assis ...

– Microcomposer programming *

– lyrics *

Sandii Sandii & the Sunsetz were a Japanese synthpop band that collaborated from 1979 until the #1990s. The Sunsetz, led by Makoto Kubota, and Sandii started as separate artists, and each have a separate discography. However, their collaboration provi ...

– vocals on "Absolute Ego Dance" * Makoto Ayukawa – electric guitar on "Day Tripper" and "Solid State Survivor" Staff * Kunihiko Murai and Shōrō Kawazoe – executive producers *Norio Yoshizawa – recording engineer, remixing *Mitsuo Koike – recording engineer *Masako Hikasa and Akira Ikuta – recording coordinators *Lou Beach – logo type * Masayoshi Sukita – photography * Heikichi Harata – art director *Bricks – costumes *Takehime, Fumiko Iura and Mayo Tsutsumi – stylists *Mikio Honda (Clip) – hair

Chart history

References

{{Authority control Yellow Magic Orchestra albums 1979 albums Alfa Records albums