Yumi Yato
Makin’ It
Eat You Up
Follow Me
Cupid Girl
Cupid Girl (Rollercoaster Version)

Yumi Yato is one of those artists that I stumble upon, get really into, and then hit a brick wall when it comes to finding out damn near anything about them. I feel that it’s safe to assume that she wasn’t all that popular, but developed a cult following years later. I parsed this out by seeing that she has an extensive Japanese wikipedia page, and many audio rips on YouTube, but no normal person in Japan that I’ve talked to has any idea who the hell she is, and original copies of her sole album and few singles go for a fortune on Discogs.

That, and my boyfriend has never heard of her, and he knows his 80 idols.

I assume her albums go for a bit online because nothing of hers was in-print or available on CD until last year, when a 2CD set comprised of her album and all her single tracks was released here in Japan. That’s how I found her, picking up the CD on the strong recommendation of the guy at Mecano, the synthpop music store in Nakano Broadway.

He knew I loved synth and sampler-heavy 80s pop and figured I would dig this. He figured right. Because while her album is good, not great, but very good 80s Japanese pop music, the bonus single tracks are fucking fire. They have all the synths. Give me all the synths. I need more synths. It’s the only way I can feel anything anymore.

The album proper came out first, the bonus tracks are from singles that came out later. They have an energy and an inventiveness that the album itself lacks. And the songs are just better. They’re catchier with better hooks and stronger melodies. “Makin’ It” is a killer track. It sounds like a theme song to a lost 80s sitcom about “makin’ it” in the big city. Or maybe it could have been used as a track to a raunchy teen sex comedy about “makin’ it” in a much more carnal fashion. “Follow Me” follows (hah) in the footsteps of “Makin’ It,” and is just as frantic and frenetic as that tune. The tempo never stops and it never gives you a chance to rest. It’s hard to listen to either track while sitting down. I’m tapping my feet so hard that my downstairs neighbors are liable to kill me. Or maybe I’m just drunk and have too much energy from being pent up in the house all day/week/month/year WHO KNOWS?!?!

“Eat Me Up” is a bit slower, but also a bit more emotional and powerful. Of the tracks I’m sharing tonight, Yano’s vocals are the strongest here. If this isn’t a touch song it’s definitely a “I need that ass” song. Good synth/sequencer/samplers here. Sounds like Erasure.

It’s actually hard to compare these tracks to Western pop music of the era. These singles all came out in 1985 or 1986. I’ve recently been writing a lot about music from that same time. Very little of it sounds like this. In mid-80s America, we were down with Dire Straits, Duran Duran and Mr. Mister. The biggest synthpop song of the year was “Take On Me,” and let’s be real that was because of the video. We just weren’t the audience for stuff like this. We were still giving hit records to John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band. We couldn’t take “Follow Me” and its layers upon layers upon layers of every computer, keyboard, and drum pad imaginable. England was giving The Art Of Noise hits in the 80s, maybe they would’ve been receptive to this stuff more.

Of these tracks, the only one that sounds like it could’ve been in a hit in America to me is “Cupid Girl.” It’s a little slower and a little more restrained. The synth keyboards are scaled back just a touch and it’s mostly just percussion and bass, a bit like a slower Madonna tune. And the melody has a melancholy feel that gives the song a slightly somber feel that’s definitely lacking on the other, hyper-energetic tracks. Of course, I have no idea how well if fared in Japan. Maybe it was her biggest hit! It’s a solid tune, but I prefer the “Rollercoaster Version” it takes the song and beats the fucking shit out of it. Sampled elements are chopped up and repeated, breakdowns are extended, some fucking record scratches thrown in for no damn reason. It’s crazy. It makes no sense. I love it.

Strangely enough, Yoshihiro Kunimoto, who brought us the game music remixes of my last post, worked on all of these tracks as well. I did not plan that. I swear. Cosmic synthpop powers are at work to make this coincidence happen. It makes sense though, his synth work on those tracks was top-notch, he would’ve had to have been an in-demand session guy at the time.

Also, he’s not the only game music connection on these tracks! All of Yumi’s songs were produced by Kyoji Kato, who went onto produce a lot of Yuzo Koshiro’s work, including the Streets Of Rage soundtracks!

Small world.

Or, more accurately, Japan is a small country with a small music industry.

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