The Stylus column J-Pop Will Eat Itself is back, now with a new writer, Teresa Nieman. Last month she kicked things off by writing a short history of Yellow Magic Orchestra and providing a list of her top five YMO songs. It's great to see J-pop back in the esteemed pages of Stylus.

The list should probably come with a warning label that YMO doesn't exactly age like fine wine--or, more pointedly, like Kraftwerk. There was a kitsch element to the Japanese synth legends' act from the get go and time has added another patina of retro kitsch on top of that. I don't say this to detract from the talents of Haroumi Hosono (video, featuring several performance clips) or the genius of Ryuichi Sakamoto (video, many more here). It's simply a fact that many first listen to this foundational-group-in-the-history-of-electronic-music-amen and say, "What the hell?"

Teresa Nieman has also written recently on Shiina Ringo, Koda Kumi and Visual Kei stars Glay.