Solid State Survivor - Overview

Overview

Solid State Survivor contains some of Yellow Magic Orchestra's best-known songs, including "Rydeen", which combines Eastern and Western musical styles, in addition to drawing from animal sounds, particularly the rhythms of a running horse. "Rydeen" was often sampled or covered in early chiptune and video game music, including Sega's Super Locomotive (1982), Rabbit Software's Trooper Truck (1983), and the Martin Galway soundtracks for Ocean Software's Daley Thompson's Decathlon (1984) and Superior Software's Stryker's Run (1986).

The album is also known for "Behind the Mask", which YMO had first produced in 1978 for a Seiko quartz wristwatch commercial. The song has had numerous cover versions produced by other artists, most notably Michael Jackson. Alongside Quincy Jones, 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, 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, Eric Clapton (with Phillinganes as part of his backing band), Orbital, and The Human League, among others, before Jackson's cover version eventually appeared on his posthumous Michael album in 2010. Brian Eno also produced a remix of YMO's original version in 1992.

"Technopolis" is considered an "interesting contribution" to the development of techno, specifically Detroit techno, as it used the term "techno" in its title, was a tribute to Tokyo as an electronic mecca, and foreshadowed concepts that Juan Atkins and Rick Davis would later have with Cybotron. "Technopolis" was later sampled in Robert Hood's "Rhythm" from his debut minimal techno album Minimal Nation (1994), and in Electric Youth's "Replay" (2008). Techno-pop artist Aira Mitsuki pays homage to this track with her single Sayonara Technopolis, and her music video for "GALAXY BOY" is heavily inspired by that of Technopolis.

The album's title song "Solid State Survivor" is a New Wave synth rock song. The popular anime 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 film Dragon Ball Z: Bardock – The Father of Goku.

This was YMO's most successful album in Japan. It was the best selling album in the Oricon LP Chart for 1980, beating Chiharu Matsuyama's Kishōtenketsu (起承転結?) - Godiego's Magic Monkey (西遊記, Saiyūki?) was best seller for 1979. In 1980 the album won a Best Album Award (ベスト・アルバム賞, Besuto Arubamu Shō?) in the 22nd Japan Record Awards. The album went on to sell two million records worldwide.