''S-F-X'' (stylized with

interpunct An interpunct , also known as an interpoint, middle dot, middot, centered dot or centred dot, is a punctuation mark consisting of a vertically centered dot used for interword separation in Classical Latin. ( Word-separating spaces did not appe ...

s as ''S·F·X'') is a 1984

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

album by Japanese musician

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 ...

. The album is his first solo album after

Yellow Magic Orchestra Yellow Magic Orchestra (abbreviated to YMO) was a Japanese electronic music band formed in Tokyo in 1978 by Haruomi Hosono (bass, keyboards, vocals), Yukihiro Takahashi (drums, lead vocals, occasional keyboards) and Ryuichi Sakamoto (keyboards, ...

(YMO) disbanded. Credited also is "Friends of Earth", as Hosono would later form a band with this name. The album is the first album released by label Non Standard, a record label created between Hosono and Teichiku Records to release the technopop/hip-hop styled material he worked on. The 1988, 1993 and 2001 reissues of ''S-F-X'' contain tracks from ''Non-Standard Mixture'', an EP created by Hosono the same year as the album.

Production

Hosono produced the album with the help of engineer Yasuhiko Terada. The album utilized several new

electronic musical instruments An electronic musical instrument or electrophone is a musical instrument that produces sound using electronics, electronic circuitry. Such an instrument sounds by outputting an electrical, electronic or digital audio signal that ultimately is ...

shortly after they released, including the

Roland TR-909 The Roland TR-909 Rhythm Composer, commonly known as the 909, is a drum machine introduced by Roland Corporation in 1983, succeeding the TR-808. It was the first Roland drum machine to use samples for some sounds, and the first with MIDI funct ...

drum machine A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument that creates percussion sounds, drum beats, and patterns. Drum machines may imitate drum kits or other percussion instruments, or produce unique sounds, such as synthesized electronic tones. A d ...

, the

Yamaha DX7 The Yamaha DX7 is a synthesizer manufactured by Yamaha Corporation from 1983 to 1989. It was the first successful digital synthesizer and is one of the best-selling synthesizers in history, selling more than 200,000 units. In the early 1980s, th ...

digital synthesizer A digital synthesizer is a synthesizer that uses digital signal processing (DSP) techniques to make musical sounds, in contrast to older analog synthesizers, which produce music using analog electronics, and samplers, which play back digital rec ...

, the

Korg , founded as Keio Electronic Laboratories, is a Japanese multinational corporation that manufactures electronic musical instrument An electronic musical instrument or electrophone is a musical instrument that produces sound using electr ...

SDD1000

digital delay A digital delay line (or simply delay line, also called delay filter) is a discrete element in a digital filter, which allows a signal to be delayed by a number of samples. Delay lines are commonly used to delay audio signals feeding loudspeakers ...

unit (which he used as a sampler), and the

Kurzweil K250 The Kurzweil K250, manufactured by Kurzweil Music Systems, was an early electronic musical instrument which produced sound from sampled sounds compressed in ROM, faster than common mass storage such as a disk drive. Acoustic sounds from brass, ...

sampler. Like his earlier album ''Philharmony'' (1982), Hosono also utilized his earlier

Roland MC-4 Microcomposer The Roland MC-4 MicroComposer was an early microprocessor-based music sequencer released by Roland Corporation. It could be programmed using the ten key numeric keyboard or a synthesizer keyboard using the keyboard's control voltage and gate outp ...

music sequencer A music sequencer (or audio sequencer or simply sequencer) is a device or application software that can record, edit, or play back music, by handling Musical note, note and performance information in several forms, typically CV/Gate, MIDI, or Open ...

and

LinnDrum The LinnDrum, often erroneously referred to as the LM-2, is a drum machine manufactured by Linn Electronics between 1982 and 1985. About 5,000 units were sold. Development The LinnDrum was designed by the American engineer Roger Linn. It was ...

and

Roland TR-808 The Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer, commonly known as the 808, is a drum machine manufactured by Roland Corporation between 1980 and 1983. It was one of the first drum machines to allow users to program rhythms instead of using preset patterns. ...

drum machines. He also made use of

MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface (; MIDI) is an American-Japanese technical standard that describes a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, ...

, soon after the technology was introduced. For the album, Hosono experimented with various new concepts and techniques. For example, he experimented with 22-beat rhythms, which went beyond the standard 8beat rhythms of

rock music Rock is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdo ...

and even the complex rhythms of

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

disco Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as jazz rock, jazz-rock fusion, or simply fusion) is a popular music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric gui ...

and

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

at the time. Hosono also made heavy use of sampling and loops, building on his earlier pioneering work with YMO's '' Technodelic'' (1981) and his solo album ''Philharmony'', which went on to revolutionize music production. He produced several tracks such as "Alternative 3" using

improvisation Improvisation, often shortened to improv, is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. The origin of the word itself is in the Latin "improvisus", which literally means un-foreseen. Improvis ...

, stating he "played the

turntable A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration waveforms are recorded as corresponding phys ...

and randomly sampled it" with the SDD-1000 and then "made loops of the sounds" he "accidentally recorded, and layered the sounds while listening" to them. The album incorporates hip hop elements, which was influenced by Hosono meeting American hip hop pioneer

Afrika Bambaataa Lance Taylor (born April 17, 1957), also known as Afrika Bambaataa (), is a retired American DJ, rapper, and record producer. He is notable for releasing a series of genre-defining electro tracks in the 1980s that influenced the development of ...

, who was himself a fan influenced by Hosono's earlier pioneering work with YMO. They both demonstrated their work and shared some ideas. Hosono had thought the Roland TR-808, which he had been using since its release in 1980, was already used to its fullest by YMO, before he saw Bambaataa using the TR-808 in a fresh way along with the Korg SDD-1000 delay unit. Meanwhile, Hosono demonstrated his new experimental 22-beat rhythms, which impressed Bambaataa. Up until then, YMO had made heavy use of numerous electronic instruments, but after Hosono saw Bambaataa produce similar results with fewer, cheaper instruments, Hosono adopted a similar approach.

Reception

Shy Clara Thompson of ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

'' gave the album's 2021 re-release a positive review. She called it a "wildly creative" album, praising its innovation and eclecticism, particularly the song "Strange Love" which she called "a triumphant pop opus that feels like the logical step forward from YMO" with its "funky melody and Hosnono’s smooth baritone underpin alien-sounding synth" likely influenced by his earlier work on the album ''Video Game Music'' (1984).

Track listing

Vinyl/Cassette Version

CD Version

Personnel

*Haruomi Hosono – vocals, lyrics, synthesizer, engineer *Miharu Koshi – vocals *Curtis Knapp – vocals *Makoto Kubota – vocals *Sandii – vocals *Yasuhiko Terada – engineer *Takashi Itoh – engineer *Matsutoshi Nishimura – bass

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sfx 1984 albums Haruomi Hosono albums 1984 in Japanese music