Technodon

Infobox Album | Name = Technodon
Type = album
Artist = YMO


Released = 1993
Recorded =
Genre = Electropop
Length = 63:24
Label = Toshiba EMI
Producer = YMO
Reviews =
Last album = "After Service"
(1984)
This album = "Technodon"
(1993)
Next album = "Technodon Live"
(1993)

"Technodon" is the seventh and final studio album to date by Yellow Magic Orchestra and released in 1993, a decade after the band's original breakup. Because the name Yellow Magic Orchestra was owned by former record label Alfa Records, the band were forced to release the album under the name YMO. For the tour that followed, they were billed as Not YMO. Future releases by the band would be made under the names Human Audio Sponge and HASYMO.

The album's title has several interpretations: "don" can be read as "飩" and would therefore mean "Bowl of Techno", or as the onomatopoeia "ドン”, making the title "Explosion of Techno"; "don" could also be read as the Italian honorific term, rendering the title as "Lord(s) of Techno".

At the time of recording, Haruomi Hosono and Ryuichi Sakamoto were incorporating a lot of world music elements into their sound, which is still evident on "Technodon"; however, the sound is pared down, revealing simple technopop arrangements. Yukihiro Takahashi mainly used drum machines for the record as opposed to a drum kit. Like many artists at the time, YMO faced many potential legal troubles due to copyrights associated with sampled sounds from other artist's work. In this enviroment, using samples on the album was out of the question; a matter that Sakamoto was quite angry about. The new sound confounded older fans of the band while drawing in new listeners. Sakamoto's response to criticism was "This is YMO."

The album artwork featured diffraction grating on the CD jewelcase, allowing hidden messages to be read through the lens. The cover's text read "Slipping into madness is good for the sake of comparison."

Track listing

tracklist
writing_credits = no
title1 = Be a Superman
length1 = 5:21
writer1 = Yellow Magic Orchestra

title2 = NANGA DEF?
length2 = 5:10
writer2 = Yellow Magic Orchestra

title3 = Floating Away
length3 = 6:46
writer3 = Yellow Magic Orchestra

title4 = Dolphinicity
length4 = 5:12
writer4 = Yellow Magic Orchestra

title5 = Hi-Tech Hippies
length5 = 4:24
writer5 = Yellow Magic Orchestra

title6 = I TRE MERLI
length6 = 6:05
writer6 = Yellow Magic Orchestra

title7 = Nostalgia
length7 = 4:48
writer7 = Yellow Magic Orchestra

title8 = Silence of Time
length8 = 5:41
writer8 = Yellow Magic Orchestra

title9 = Waterford
length9 = 5:38
writer9 = Yellow Magic Orchestra

title10 = O.K.
length10 = 4:29
writer10 = Yellow Magic Orchestra

title11 = Chance
length11 = 4:57
writer11 = Yellow Magic Orchestra

title12 = Pocketful of Rainbows
length12 = 5:00
writer12 = Yellow Magic Orchestra

Personnel

*Ryuichi Sakamoto: keyboards, vocals
*Yukihiro Takahashi: drums, vocals
*Haruomi Hosono: Bass, keyboards, vocals