Music / ×∞Multiplies

"Ready to be killed by the thrill."

"Oh! The hottest band in the world!"
"Yellow! Magic! Orchestraaaaaaaa!"
"YMO, ready to lay on you! Nice Age..."

— Opening lyrics to the album

×∞Multiplies, released in 1980 through Alfa Records in Japan and A&M Records internationally, is the third studio album by Japanese Synth-Pop supergroup Yellow Magic Orchestra. A sharp deviation from the material both before and after it, the album was produced as a collaboration between the band and comedy troupe Snakeman Show, centering around a mix of New Wave Music, Funk, Ska, and the band's usual mix of eastern Asian music and Synth-Pop. Interspersed between these tracks are comedy skits by Snakeman Show (some of which feature the members of Yellow Magic Orchestra), performed in Japanese and English. For this reason, the album was branded in Japan as the musical equivalent of an omake, featuring the tag "Yellow Magic Special" on the front cover to distinguish it as a one-off bonus project. A commercial success, topping the Oricon LP Chart and reaching No. 3 on the Oricon CT Chart, it and Solid State Survivor held the top two spots on the former for seven consecutive weeks, making YMO the only band to achieve such a feat.

As the band's US label, A&M Records, had skipped over Solid State Survivor when it first released, the American release of ×∞Multiplies featured a substantially different tracklist that combined songs from the two records, dropping the comedy skits as a result. While this version charted considerably lower in America than the band's debut (only reaching No. 177 on the Billboard 200), it saw enough attention to see release in Japan, where it hit No. 7 on the Oricon LP Chart; both variations would remain in circulation there throughout the '80s. The album's tracklist would be further altered for the European release, including additional tracks from the band's first two records. The international tracklist of ×∞Multiplies would be mostly depreciated in reissues around the world following the band's first remastering campaign in 1992, which mostly followed the band's Japanese catalog (with the sole exception of their debut album, which stuck with the US mix outside of Japan); the US version would only rarely see reissues in Japan and Australia.

The US version's promotion would feature the band performing on Soul Train, making them the only Asian act to appear on the show, performing both a Cover Version of "Tighten Up" by Archie Bell & the Drells (which was on the Japanese release, but relegated to non-album single status Stateside) and "Firecracker" off of their debut album. The Solid State Survivor track "Behind the Mask" would also catch the attention of R&B musician Quincy Jones, who had recently begun collaborating with Jackson Five frontman Michael Jackson. Jones decided to have Jackson cover the song on his upcoming album Thriller, a move that both the two of them and YMO were enthusiastic about. However, a communication error with Jackson's label, Epic Records (who would later gain the international rights to the YMO catalog in the 2000s), resulted in the song being cut; it would eventually surface in a remixed form on Jackson's 2010 posthumous album Michael before the original demo was included on the 40th anniversary edition of Thriller. In the meantime, Jackson's arrangement would see further covers by Jackson's keyboardist Greg Phillinganes, Eric Clapton, The Human League, and even YMO member Ryuichi Sakamoto.

×∞Multiplies was supported by varying singles depending on the country. In Japan, the album was supported by "Nice Age" and "Tighten Up"; in the US, the album was supported by "Behind the Mask"; in Europe, the album was supported by "Behind the Mask" and "Nice Age".

Tracklists

Japanese version:

Side One

1. "Jingle 'Y.M.O.'" (0:21)
2. "Nice Age" (3:46)
3. "Snakeman Show: KDD" (1:56)
4. "Tighten Up (Japanese Gentlemen Stand Up Please!)"^note originally by Archie Bell & the Drells (3:41)
5. "Snakeman Show: Mister Ōhira" (2:05)
6. "Here We Go Again ~ Tighten Up" (1:07)

Side Two

1. "Snakeman Show: Koko wa Keisatsu Janai yo" (1:26)
2. "Citizens of Science" (2:08)
3. "Snakeman Show: Manpei Hayashiya (2:58)
4. "Multiplies" (3:44)
5. "Snakeman Show: Wakai Yamabiko" (1:32)
6. "The End of Asia"^note originally by Ryuichi Sakamoto (1:32)

US version:

Side One

1. "Nice Age" (3:55)
2. "Behind the Mask" (3:36)
3. "Rydeen" (4:26)
4. "Day Tripper"^note originally by The Beatles (2:40)

Side Two

1. "Technopolis" (4:14)
2. "Multiplies" (2:58)
3. "Citizens of Science" (4:29)
4. "Solid State Survivor" (3:58)

European version:

Side One

1. "Technopolis" (4:14)
2. "Absolute Ego Dance" (3:38)
3. "Behind the Mask" (3:35)
4. "Computer Game (Theme from the Circus)" (1:45)
5. "Firecracker" (4:52)
6. "Computer Game (Theme from the Invader)" (1:00)

Side Two

1. "Snakeman Show" (0:20)
2. "Nice Age" (3:46)
3. "Multiplies" (2:57)
4. "Snakeman Show" (2:05)
5. "Citizens of Science" (4:30)
6. "Tighten Up (Japanese Gentlemen Stand Up Please!)"^note originally by Archie Bell & the Drells (2:52)

Trope it to me, Sakamoto:

• Album Intro Track: "Jingle "Y.M.O."" announces Yellow Magic Orchestra as "the hottest band in the world" and mentions the follow-up track "Nice Age".
• Alternate Album Cover:
  • The US release removes the red border around the cover image, while the European release simply redoes the border's text, repositioning the band name and album title while removing the kanji and "Yellow Magic Special" tag.
  • For CD releases, both the Japanese and US versions use the borderless version of the album cover, making it difficult to tell them apart without looking at the tracklist on the back. The 1999 remaster would eventually restore the original cover art, border and all, for the Japanese version.
• Affectionate Nickname: Haruomi Hosono is referred to as "Papa-san" on "Tighten Up".
• Bilingual Backfire: Inverted on the skit "Mister Ohira", Where an English-speaker keeps mocking Japanese people in front of Mister Ohira, who doesn't know enough English to understand anything he's saying; Ohira simply laughs along.
• Black Humor: Snakeman Show's style of humor is reminiscent of that, particularly the skit "Mister Ohira", which features anti-Japanese slurs said to a Japanese person who doesn't understand any of it.
• Book Ends: The opening skit features a radio DJ announcing YMO as "the hottest band in the world;" the last skit features a bunch of radio DJs arguing about current-day music, with one constantly interjecting to mention his love of YMO.
• Cover Version: As it is mentioned on the intro of "Tighten Up (Japanese Gentlemen Stand Up Please!)", it is originally a song by Archie Bell & The Drells which was "very popular in Houston, Texas."
• Face on the Cover: A collage of the band members (or more accurately wax replicas of them) copied and pasted across a baseball field.
• Fake Radio Show Album: ×∞Multiplies is depicted as a radio broadcast by Snakeman Show, with the comedy troupe providing a DJ-style intro and various radio skits interspersed between YMO's songs. The last of these skits outright takes the form of a group of DJs arguing about the state of modern music at the time of the album's 1980 release.
• Frankenslation:
  • The US and European releases radically alter the album's tracklist, cobbling together songs from the Japanese release with Solid State Survivor cuts (with the European version also including songs from the band's first album).
  • The 1992 international CD release of the album is mostly based on the Japanese version, but throws in the non-album single "Kageki na Shukujo" and the Naughty Boys Instrumental versions of "Chaos Panic", "Lotus Love", and "Kai-Koh" as bonus tracks, as while the latter album was included in the Japanese version of the reissue campaign, both it and "Kageki na Shukujo" weren't included in international releases.
• Genre Roulette: While "Nice Age" and "Citizens of Science" can be linked by the New Wave Music genre, "Tighten Up" is more Funk-oriented, while the title track is Ska. "The End Of Asia" is rooted in Chinese folk music, and if we count the Snakeman Show skits, there is some orchestral library music on "Snakeman Show: Wakai Yamabiko".
• Gratuitous English: The "It's coming up like a flower" lyric from "Nice Age".
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The Japanese version uses a front shot of the band collage on side one and a rear shot on side two.
• Instrumentals: The title track.
• In the Style of: "Nice Age" is done in the style of David Bowie's 1977 album "Heroes".
• Japanese Tourist: The spoken-word intro to "Tighten Up" pokes fun at this trope:

We are YMO
From Tokyo, Japan
We don't sight see, we dance!

• Limited Lyrics Song: Barring the spoken word emceeing, "Tighten Up (Japanese Gentlemen Stand Up Please!)" has most of its lyrics in the title. Outside of the lead singer shouting "Japanese Gentlemen Stand Up Please!", a vocoded backing vocalist says "Do the Tighten Up!".
• Longest Song Goes First: An "intro + longest track" variant. The original Japanese release opens with the 21-second "Jingle 'Y.M.O.'" before launching into the 3:46 "Nice Age", which just barely beats out the Title Track by two seconds for the position of the album's longest song.
• Looped Lyrics: Most of the lyrics to the band's version of "Tighten Up" consist of "Japanese gentlemen, stand up please!" interspersed with a vocoded voice singing "tighten up, do the tighten up!", both repeated ad infinitum.
• Lucky Charms Title: A multiplication symbol and an infinity symbol are official parts of the album's title.
• Mirthless Laughter: On any occasion where Mister Ohira is asked about something, he laughs it out before coming up with a response.
• New Sound Album: While synths still take center stage, the album dives into a number of other genres, such as the guitar-heavy ska sound on the title track or the electro-funk rendition of "Tighten Up".
• No Ending: The Japanese version of "Nice Age" ends abruptly after the chorus is repeated ad nauseam; the US and European releases add a proper fade-out effect.
• Rearrange the Song: "The End of Asia" was originally recorded for Ryuichi Sakamoto's album Thousand Knives back in 1978, and was a staple of YMO's live shows. The band perform a new, heavily shortened version of the song here.
• Scatting: Ska/Punk-related ad-libs can be heard on the title track.
• Ska: The genre of the title track.
• Shout-Out:
  • The collage of band members on the album cover nods to the terra cotta army in the tomb of Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang Di, fitting with member Ryuichi Sakamoto's longtime fascination with Chinese culture.
  • "Nice Age" references the song "Coming Up" from Paul McCartney's second self-titled album. Rumors claim that YMO intended to collaborate with McCartney, only for the idea to be scrapped after McCartney got arrested in Japan for marijuana possession (nevertheless, the sound of McCartney II partially features YMO-style Synth-Pop).
  • The A&M mix of "Tighten Up (Japanese Gentlemen Stand Up Please!)" namedrops David Bowie, Elton John, Mick Jagger, and Elvis Presley as various examples of artists who "do the Tighten Up." Note that none of the artists mentioned actually covered "Tighten Up".
  • "Multiplies" prominently interpolates the theme song to The Magnificent Seven; composer Elmer Bernstein gets a writing credit on reissues as a result.
• Speech Impediment: Mister Ohira stutters saying the name of his company (as well as his own name) on the skit "KDD".
• Spoken Word in Music: Besides the Snakeman Show skits, "Nice Age", "Tighten Up", "Citizens of Science" and "The End of Asia" contain spoken-word lyrics.
• Take That!: The "Mister Ohira" skit lightheartedly pokes fun at Masayoshi Ohira, the prime minister of Japan at the time.
• Title Track: "Multiples", sorta; it omits the multiplication and infinity symbol at the start.
• Visual Pun: The album cover infinitely multiples the band members across a baseball field.
• You No Take Candle: Featured on the "Mister Ohira" skit, where the eponymous character's grasp of English is very limited.

Interviewer: Do you understand, Mister Ohira ?
Mister Ohira: Uh, no no no... (laughter) Yeah, uh... I cannot speak English little little!

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