Ryuichi Sakamoto S/D

yeah I have a huge soft spot for 'forbidden colours', the original versions (vocal & instrumental) bookend the 'mr. lawrence' soundtrack perfectly. I like the later arrangement for piano too.

'sahara blue' is a record by hector zazou w/sakamoto contributing piano and I agree that it should be destroyed.

>>'sahara blue' is a record by hector zazou w/sakamoto contributing piano and I agree that it should be destroyed. <<

I believe that after hearing the finished product, David Sylvian actually attempted it's destruction on some level. He only succeeded in erasing the two tracks that he contributed lead vocals on. The rest presses on in infamy.

thanks for the link.

I found Left Handed Dream in a 99 cent bin at a record store that otherwise is pretty good at curating, couldn't believe it!

I was previously unfamiliar with YMO and Sakamoto's pop stuff (having known only soundtrack/electronic/Fennesz stuff), so you can imagine my surprise at first hearing this fantastically weird pop record. It's awesome!

Search: Tony Takitani OST

"Summer Nerves" is great vocodopop disco w/at least Takahashi on it if not also some Hosono. Not entirely dissimilar in feel from some of Takahashi's similarly awesome "Saravah!"

I just got "Chasm" from emusic and I'm blown away by it, was not expecting such electronica/noise from some of the tracks. It is really varied and very very well done.

'B-2 Unit' is a record that shuts everyone up, always getting rediscovered by people, year after year; it's fucking advanced. Still not much electronic music sounds like this clipped, demented, sharp, alien. A....

'Esperanto' -- every time I see a copy of this out of print record I buy a copy for a friend. Released in 1985, sounds like twenty years from now; early sampling record with largely self-recorded sources. All the sounds are organic or conventionally instrumental in nature, but they're juxtaposed in acoustically impossible ways; everything sounds simultaneously hyper-realistic, plausibly real, yet absolutely artificial, impossible and composed

Anyone else heard these? The descriptions make me want to want to head straight toward ebay.

I listened to Soundbytes tonight...pretty good stuff. The first song sounds great. I want to use it in a film.

So, uh, I found some Japanese music magazines in the trash the other morning, and one of 'em has an interview with Sakamoto & some photos. Anyone who reads Japanese interested?

'Chasm' sounds like he took careful notes on Fennesz' signal path and went out and bought all the same software -- parts are impressively glitched out for extended periods of time and I like a few of the tracks all right

His new ambient album with Christopher Willits 'Ocean Fire' is beautiful.

what about his soundtrack to silk? haven't seen the film, but i think pretty much everything he has done of late has been near flawless. cendre was one of my most listened to albums of last year.

STILL haven't heard a thousand knives though.

Summer Nerves !

Thousand Knives is my fav though

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LI2mHRycJ4&feature=related

I don't have anything bad to say about Ryuichi Sakamoto apart from the fact that his catalogue is so deep that I'm always finding something that I don't already have. If anything is inessential, it's the multiple collections of already released stuff, and perhaps the one that collects the work he did for commercials. But I almost always still enjoy them.

Even though I know they're not necessarily his best, I still have a soft spot for Illustrated Musical Encyclopaedia, Neo Geo and Beauty - the lush pop he was doing back was something that helped to move me away from a diet of strictly commercial music.

Just picked up a newish double CD on Decca called Playing the Piano / Out of Noise...First CD is solo piano reinterpretations of some of his soundtrack and pop work, and it's really hitting the spot. The other one explores where noise and environment intersect, apparently with some of it recorded underwater and on top of glaciers in Greenland...and some of this is supposed to follow along from some of the work he's done with Alva Noto. Haven't listened through much of it yet but I'm hoping it'll also become a favourite like some of the work he's done with Carsten and Fennesz over the last few years.

There's a quote in the liner notes for this one about how typically as people get older their musical tastes tend to get narrower, but that he's finding his getting wider thanks to his exposure to this new generation of musician collaborators and compatriots...I like to think that I'm along for the ride of continual palette expansion too, but I have to admit that he's certainly helping me along in that regard.

i sold him a copy of bonjour tristesse

He's gone way too minimal and glitchy lately. The HASYMO single he was part of a few years is my last favorite thing by him. Those chords!

Search GEM Collection if you can find it. It's a wonderful collection of synthy odds n' ends from the early to mid 80's that spans a variety of styles - from J Pop to Fairlight + beatbox exercises.

a few years ago

he is very attractive

he might win the women think he's the hottest category, true

http://images.peaceandflood.fr/images/916836RyuichiSakamoto.jpg

I've been listening the fuck out of Esperanto since r1o posted his thread on it the other day. I probably like it even more than 1000 Knives.

To anyone who didn't like Illustrated Musical Encyclopedia - seek out the Japanese version, called Ongaku Zukan; only about half the tracks from the original release wound up on the American version. This one includes "Replica" which is absolutely stunning and one of my favorite pieces of his.

B-2 Unit and Esperanto are indeed great albums, but they took me forever to really get into, especially the latter. Kind of minimal but very cool and revolutionary. Also seek the "Warhead" 12" and the "Forbidden Colours" single with the Bamboo tracks. Otherwise if you're in the market for more cool experimental electronic stuff, you can always check out Hosono's discography.

Search GEM Collection if you can find it. It's a wonderful collection of synthy odds n' ends from the early to mid 80's that spans a variety of styles - from J Pop to Fairlight + beatbox exercises.

― François de Roobabe (Capitaine Jay Vee), Friday, February 5, 2010 5:22 AM (1 year ago)

I can't find this anywhere — halp

also the alternate mix of "Happy End" that's on the Arrangement EP is the shit — should've been on BGM imo

Never heard the Arrangement EP; this is more Left Handed Dream stuff isn't it? Loved that album

Currently have an RS tune stuck in my head, but can't remember what it is!! The only line is "good morning, good evening, where are you?"

half the tracks are versions of LHD songs with added lyrics sung by Robin Scott (the "Pop Musik" guy). I don't really like them, but the second half are tracks that weren't on the album (with the different mix of "Happy End")

"good morning, good evening, where are you?"

this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0ycccAwO7I

There's a nice update of that song on the Playing the Piano album - I'm pretty sure that's one of the tracks he played during his Toronto concert too.

I'll have to check it out then...that's one of his best albums, I always randomly get "Venezia" stuck in my head too

Recently got a few Akiko Yano albums; no thread about her here but so far her early albums (at least) seem to really be a treat...anyone heard of them??

I've heard "Ai Ga Nakucha Ne" (sp) — has all the YMO members contributing music iirc and a duet with David Sylvian. Her voice is nice, has kind of a young Kate Bush timbre

I like Japanese Girl and I have a great more recent album that I have no idea what it's called because it's nearly all in japanese.

Ah, her website is also in English, it's called 'Honto No Kimochi' and it's aces.

The album that is..

I've been listening to a lot of YMO over the last few years but hadn't really heard much of their solo works up until recently. I did own Illustrated Musical Encyclopedia for a while but just couldn't get into it. I gave B-2 Unit a listen and sadly that didn't click either. I did listen to a lot of Yukihiro Takahashi's albums and fell in love with the run he did from 80-83. I think I prefer his work as it's more similar to the more poppy moments of YMO, especially Naughty Boys which is one of my favourite albums of all time. I really loved Immigrants by the Sandii & The Sunsetz and Tutu by Miharu Koshi which were both produced by Haruomi Hosono. I tried one of his albums but it was a bit harder to get into. If anyone has any other suggestions of which albums I should try that would be greatly appreciated.

Have you heard Sadistic Mika Band?

Here's a nice compilation of various piano cameos on his Sound Street show on NHK from 1982-85

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4tS8KJv5Ss

He breaks into the sequencer riff of DAF's El Que for a sec at one point, which is mad.

A lengthy tribute collection came out recently:

https://microambientmusic.bandcamp.com/album/all-micro-ambient-music-5-disc-set

And there's a forthcoming live event that will be streamed as well:

https://microambientmusic.peatix.com/

Details:

AUG 24
In Memoriam Ryuichi Sakamoto Micro Ambient Music 'Improvisation for serenity'
(Thu) 18:00 (8 days) | online | By RITTOR BASE

Event details
In memory of Ryuichi Sakamoto, who passed away in March, a compilation album entitled "Micro Ambient Music" was released on 13 July on bandcamp. Although the reputation of Ryuichi tends to be biased towards his work with YMO and in the field of film music, it is also true that the true value of his ideas and music can be found in his works from the 21st century onwards. This compilation album is a total of 41 musicians from Japan and abroad who were closely associated with Ryuichi in his later years. The sound of the album is a total of 3 hours 56 minutes of music.

The bandcamp distribution is limited to 31 October, but in order to bring the sound to as many listeners as possible, it has been decided that live performances will be held by the Tokyo-based musicians who participated in this work over two days from 24-25 August. Three groups each day, six artists in total, will perform with a theme of 'Improvisation for serenity'. Duos performing in unusual combinations. After the performance, there will be an after-talk by the participating musicians, so don't miss it.

The part of the proceeds will be donated to Trees for Sakamoto.

Participating artists
24 Aug (Thu)
Tetuzi Akiyama Tomoyoshi Date
Ko Ishikawa Chihei Hatakeyama
Sachiko M Kazuya Matsumoto
Otomo Yoshihide (after-talk only)

Friday 25 August
Tomotsugu Nakamura Sawako
Yui Onodera Ken Ikeda
Toshimaru Nakamura Yumiko Tanaka (photo: asanao Matsumoto)　

Takashi Kokubo (ambient sound provided during live transitions on both days)

＜Ryuichi Sakamoto Micro Ambient Music "Improvisation for serenity" in memory of Ryuichi Sakamoto.
Date: 24 (Thu) - 25 (Fri) August 2023, both days open 17:45 start 18:00
Venue: Ochanomizu RITTORE BASE
　Ochanomizu Christian Centre B1, 2-1 Kanda Surugadai, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0062
　Venue map
　(2 min walk from Ochanomizu Station on JR Chuo/Sobu Line, 3 min walk from Ochanomizu Station on Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line, 3 min walk from B1 exit of Shin-Ochanomizu Station on Chiyoda Line)
■Attendance ticket at the venue: General/4,400 yen, Students/3,300 yen (archived viewing of the two days is also available).
Capacity: 30 people on both days. Doors open 15 minutes before the start of the performance and people enter in order of ticket number.
Tickets to watch the archived broadcast: ¥3,300 for adults, ¥2,200 for students (archived viewing of the two days is available).
Archived viewing deadline: 31 August 2023, 23:00.

(Timetable)
Thursday, 24 August
18:00 - 18:35 Tetuzi Akiyama + Tomoyoshi Date
18:45 - 19:20 Ko Ishikawa + Chihei Hatakeyama
19:30 - 20:05 Sachiko M + Kazuya Matsumoto
20:05 - After Talk: Otomo Yoshihide + Date Hakkin "Ryuichi Sakamoto's Music after 2000".
Friday 25 August
18:00 - 18:35 Tomotsugu Nakamura + Sawako
18:45 - 19:20 Yui Onodera + Ken Ikeda
19:30 - 20:05 Yumiko Tanaka + Toshimaru Nakamura
20:05 - After Talk: Yumiko Tanaka + Hiji Hatakeyama + Hakkin Date "On Japanese and Western music, improvisation and notation".

(Quick check confirms the streaming price is about $23 so I'd say that was an excellent deal.)

https://fruitandgroovescollective.com/2023/08/29/ryuichi-sakamotos-final-performances-captured-for-concert-film/

Just saw the Sakamoto Coda doc. Some of it is a sad look at him struggling with throat cancer and just eating and drinking. Some fascinating sections showing him creating music. The doc only briefly nods back to the past so you don’t get to understand how this guy talking about Bach is also a guy who played on a cover of Archie Bell & the Drells and on YMO songs.

Left Handed Dream sort of fulfills my long-time wish for an album that would take the vibe of the more windswept and fabular John Wesley Harding tunes (As I Went Out One Morning, All Along the Watchtower, The Wicked Messenger, etc) and stretch them across a whole LP length.

One of the modi operandi for Left Handed Dream was to keep the lyrics extremely simple, at least as regards the language, if not the import/impact/meaning of the songs. Perhaps because Mr. "Music Plans" Sakamoto himself was not up to the task, he outsourced, and trusted the right people with the job. I love the lyrics to these songs. Here are English renditions of the five in Japanese.

...

Boku no Kakera (Fragments of Me) (words by Shigesato Itoi)

Let's lift them up:
these fragments of me.
Thank you for
these fragments of you.

...

Saru to Yuki to Gomi no Kodomo (Children of the Monkey, Snow, and Trash) (words by Shigesato Itoi)

The monkey's house is
where the monkey lives.
The monkey's father
and the monkey's mother,
the monkey's children.
"I love you."
The monkey's house is
encircled by the woods.

The snow's house
is where the snow falls.
The snow's father
and the snow's mother,
the snow's children.
"I love you."
The snow's house is
encircled by the sky.

The trash's house
is where the trash lives.
The trash's father
and the trash's mother,
the trash's children.
"I love you."
The trash's house is
encircled by the soil.

Float. Floating.
Tomorrow
floats too.
Tomorrow
is floating.

Green.
Blue.
Blue
is green.
The light is radiant, isn't it?

The flower's house is
where the flower lives.
The flower's father
and the flower's mother,
the flower's children.
"I love you."
The flower's house is
encircled by the sky.

Bloom.
Bloom.
Tomorrow
will bloom too.
Tomorrow
is blooming.

(Repeat first verse)

...

Kachakucha Nee (An Irritating Mess) (words by Akiko Yano, in the Tsugaru dialect spoken where she grew up)

What a mess we're in. What an irritating mess we're in.
Let's bear up under it already.

...

Living in the Dark (words by Tetsuro Kashibuchi, Moonriders' drummer)

(Verse 1)
A dreamstorm crumbling to dust
A sandstorm raging past
(x2)

(Verse 2)
The color of gold calling
Arriving in paradise at last
(x2)

(Chorus 1)
The birds are going too
Flocking together
Ringing
The song of the earth

(Verse 3)
Drawing a circle with the inner eye
Driving away illusions
(x2)

(Chorus 2)
Boundlessly
Far away
Alive for the sake of
Rapture

(Verse 4)
A dreamstorm crumbling to dust

(Chorus 3)
The birds are going too
Flocking together
Ringing
The song of the earth

(Verse 5)
A sandstorm raging past

(Chorus 4)
Boundlessly
Far away
Alive for the sake of
Rapture

(Verse 6)
The color of gold calling

(Chorus 5)
The birds are going too
Flocking together
Ringing
The song of the earth

(Verse 7)
Arriving in paradise at last

(Chorus 6)
Boundlessly
Far away
Alive for the sake of
Rapture

(Verse 8)
Drawing a circle with the inner eye

(Chorus 7)
The birds are going too

...

Venezia (words by Tetsuro Kashibuchi)

The beautiful boy
in a desolate castle,
wearing his armor,
basks in the sun.

Red rose, Venezia!
Country eternal, Venezia!
Castle of sand, Venezia!
Country eternal, Venezia!

In springtime they gambol,
the old noblemen,
out in the moorland parading their horses
and coughing up blood in the thickets of heath.

Red rose, Venezia!
Country eternal, Venezia!
Castle of sand, Venezia!
Country eternal, Venezia!

Akiko Yano otm on that one

Agreed. And she did the words for Tell It to Me too!

But the softly-spoken words to Boku no Kakera, set to that eerie music, hit pretty hard too.

Realized this am that the record he produced and arranged for Virginia Astley, Hope in a Darkened Heart, is really required listening for anyone interested in Ryuichi’s mid-80s classy orchestral Fairlight experimental pop phase, a la Ongaku Zukan and his contemporaneous work w David Sylvian.

It’s a legitimately weird record – with nursery rhyme-melodies sung in Astley’s little girl falsetto over Ryuichi’s booming gated drums, sequenced music boxes and gamelans. The duet with Sylvian himself that leads off the record is a pretty unique entry in his catalogue:

https://open.spotify.com/track/5nwDAFzUqt7hVVsKoWGcJN?si=xX7P9oCVScqGde8qpsO5eg

This was an amazing recommendation. I am not often blown away on first listen. Echoes of early Leonard Cohen (!) and Syd Barrett (!!!). As NTI says, this is absolutely the place to go for those who can't get enough of Forbidden Colours, Bamboo Houses, or Bamboo Music. (And where hence? Are there more Sakamoto-orbit albums/songs that explore these particular woods?)

interesting bit in the recent Mouse on Mars interview:

One of the many distinct ingredients within Idiology is the distortion that drives immediate standouts like the noise-punk single “Actionist Respoke.” Ryuichi Sakamoto’s reps actually reached out to the duo around this time to ask if they could produce a similar beat for the composer. Since it was more of a work-for-hire situation than a proper collaboration, they politely declined and were surprised to hear a similar technique surface on Sakamoto’s next pop record.

“They basically reconstructed the beat from ‘Actionist Respoke’,” explains St. Werner. “It made me laugh because it was so cleanly distorted. I thought, ‘Oh God, they put [the song] through some distortion device and obviously used pedals or plugins.’”

anyone know what track St. Werner is referring to here? the Actionist Respoke single came out in early 2001...Sakamoto was pretty much done making pop by that point, so I am guessing this is Chasm, which I suppose is as much as "pop record" as you'll get out of him in the 21st Century. so then the track must be "Coro"?

Nice to see an upgraded version of this, wonder if he was a fan of Cabaret Voltaire

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Quev-hsqR9w

I know he was a fan of Throbbing Gristle.

This is quite quite lovely

https://x.com/istevejansen/status/1759165971690815719?s=46&t=byMYjCp2JCdH5mkSaZqRBQ

The other day I decided to figure out where exactly Hosono's guest appearance on the Thousand Knives version of Thousand Knives happens -- he's credited with finger cymbals. Knowing Hosono's sense of humor I figured he'd show up for one clink and then back right out, but no, he's actually quite prominent from about 7:30 through the end!

Seeing Opus tomorrow. Anyone see it yet? Good NY Times review:

The twin themes of “Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus” are art and mortality, and they’re twisted so tightly together that they become inextricable. Shot in black and white to match the keys of the piano, the film entirely consists of the influential Japanese musician’s final concert. One might say it was a performance for nobody — Sakamoto filmed alone in a studio, with only the crew there as audience. But it’s more correct to say it’s for us, a gift from a master.

NHK have a documentary coming out next week called 'Last Days' that looks interesting.

https://www.barks.jp/news/?id=1000245935

I did go to see Opus. I am putting my thoughts behind a spoiler.

I was enthusiastic, going in, hoping that the performance would reflect RS's more recent albums, prepared piano and/or collaboration. This was not to be the case. The first half of the concert film finds RS playing pieces of solo piano music that I didn't recognise, very slow, very banal. The pieces were not complex in any regard, and felt to me as if they could be improvised-- not just by RS, but really, by any pianist. Only the sheet music in front of him indicated that he was playing composed music. I found this part of the film frustrating. This frustration was compounded by a sense of guilt that I did not appreciate the epigrammatic quality of the performance. I sat and wished I hadn't come.

In the middle of the film, he plays a brutally slow chorale for prepared piano-- it is gorgeous. He followed it with some kind of extrapolation on themes from "Merry Christmas, Mr. Laurence", which was also transcendent. The pieces were getting more interesting. I noticed other people in the theatre were snoring, more than one, probably two or three. I started to feel, myself, very sleepy. I didn't want to fall asleep in the theatre, so I told the friend I was with that I would go to concessions, buy some popcorn, and listen to the music from the lobby. I did so, and listened to the last six-or-so pieces with popcorn. One of the last pieces was a very-beautiful rendition of "Forbidden Colours".

My friend and I agreed that the film felt like it would work better if presented as accompaniment to other activities. That we'd both enjoy having the film on at home as we cooked dinner or cleaned house or whatever. We were walking to the subway. I was talking about how much I admired RS as a film composer. A woman walking near us interrupted our conversation to jump in. She had attended the same screening, by herself. We chatted with her all the way to the subway and rode the subway with her, in conversation.

She was a Sakamoto superfan. She'd travelled from the West Coast to Toronto just to attend this screening. She referenced every song that RS had played, she clearly knew everything about it. She told me that Opus was the full version of a previous concert film, that a six-song cut of the film had made the rounds already. She seemed very enthusiastic about the film, and I didn't want to express my comparative lack-of-enthusiasm to her to colour her experience, so I kept my feelings to myself. I feel inclined to keep my feelings to myself, now, even, which is why I put the spoiler tag on these paragraphs.

I did tell her that I did want to see a Sakamoto documentary. One that covered YMO and so on. She recommended Coda, which I've added to my watch list.

tl;dr, I wouldn't recommend seeing this film in cinema to anybody who finds Sakamoto's music to, at times, be wallpaper-y. You may find yourself bored, as I was. I would recommend this film to anybody who desires to watch it at home, where it can serve as accompaniment.

Seeing it on a second date, so if the theater isn't full, that could work out right. Thanks for all the info! And definitely curious about Coda as well.

And not to digress, but seeing a screening of The Raid later today, so this could be an all-time contrasting double feature.

Sorry my formatting was bogus, was hoping to hide all that info. I actually think it might make for an excellent make-out-in-the-theatre soundtrack, may things work out in your and your date's favour!

It's showing at the film fest here, I didn't try to make my partner go for fear it would be boring, especially without any context.

Also missing the Ennio Morricone and Richard Davis docs. :(

Funny this thread resurfaces alongside the PiL Album thread, I had no idea RS played on that

It worked just right having fgti's first paragraph osbscured by spoiler alert but reading the rest before going, and then going back to that first graf.

I was amazed by how it was shot, with no shot seemingly repeated twice. Totally get what fgti wrote about the music itself (great to hear it from your perspective). Would love to see this format with other solo pianists.

And it was a great date movie as far as being able to pay attention to it moment by moment without fully concentrating on it (as I would with any plot-driven movie).

When I'm listening to Summer Nerves and think that Ryuichi Sakamoto studied composition at university... I realize that here is someone who truly used his powers for good.

_Opus_ premieres in the US on the Criterion Channel in an hour from now.

Really powerful experience seeing this on the big screen at the London Film Festival. My mate couldn't make it, so I gave a ticket back and it went to a middle aged Japanese lady - like to imagine she danced to YMO in her youth.

My thoughts on Opus

This is awesome. I love when Ryuichi sings:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEbSNjY8d-M

Side B of Neo Geo is nigh-on perfect.

Wait, ANDY PARTRIDGE is on B-2 Unit?!??

Made it through a full listen of Sweet Revenge this morning. It has little of what I love about Sakamoto['s 1980s work, which is all I can speak to for now] and yet -- say what you will about the anodyne sophistipop, the man knows how to sustain a mood. And it's "wow, this is awful" moments are awful in a way I have no reference points for, so it's a WEIRD kind of awful, which isn't that awful... and then it ends with this beautiful thing, a Taeko Ohnuki/Sakamoto co-write:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B1SHrZy9R8

I don't exactly want to put myself through the ordeal again soon, when I could be playing Summer Nerves or Ongaku Zukan instead. But I *respect* its bizarre artistic choices and may need to return to it down the line.

I like Smoochy but I'm hoping Discord makes an eternal break with the "international world music superstar" chapter of his career. Futurista is wonderful, and Neo Geo is great, and half of Beauty is great, and Heartbeat has its moments, and Sweet Revenge is uh ... so there's a depressing sense of diminishing returns, up until Smoochy which feels like a "here's what I've learned this decade" culmination, and doesn't suck at all.

I made myself an edit of the Handmaid's Tale soundtrack (1991) that excises the traditional hymns, and have played that several times over the last few days -- it's good! Dense and dark and heavy on the synth atmospherics.

Feels like, in the '90s, he stayed truer to himself (or to be fair... to the version of himself that I fell in love with) on the soundtracks than on the solo albums.

That said, I listened to the last four tracks on Heartbeat today and realized I really like all four. My Sakamoto dive is an exploration in progress, and it's encouraging that my thoughts change nonstop.

One thing that hasn't changed over the past half year: Wings of Honneamise is my favorite Sakamoto release of all.

How beautiful is Esperanto?!!!

Oh the joy of connections... Shigesato Itoi, who wrote most of the lyrics for Left Handed Dream and often wrote for / co-wrote with Akiko Yano too, went on to work with Miyazaki on the Japanese taglines of the Ghibli films, and even voiced the dad in Totoro.

That specific connection really blew my mind when working through the solo albums of each YMO member!

Shigesato Itoi also created the Mother/Earthbound series of video games, and that game's composer was in a band called The Beatniks with YMO drummer Yukihiro Takahashi. Lots of YMO-like music in those games.

and that game's composer was in a band called The Beatniks with YMO drummer Yukihiro Takahashi. Lots of YMO-like music in those games.

Keiichi Suzuki, yes! -- who is all over Morio Agata's vast catalogue too, including some of its most beautiful corners. As it happens, I'm finishing up my nteenth replay of Seiken Densetsu 3 and was wondering what to play next. I never got around to Mother as a kid. I think it's time.

I recommend starting with Mother 2/Earthbound.

Took this as a sign to finally start a playthrough of Seiken Densetsu 3 (and check out some Morio Agatha records).

I started a file in Earthbound a few days back. So far so awesome. The dialogue!! The battles!

Enjoy, Travis. SD3 is pretty immediate, Agata maybe less so, but bear with him and at some point you're sure to find he's blown your head right off, the sneaky fucker.

The Neo Geo discussion on the Ongaku Zukan poll thread made me think about why an artist as accomplished as Sakamoto would want to work with a producer like Laswell, whose “car crash” cross cultural experiments were very hit and miss compared to Ryuichi. And I have to think at least part of the answer was Laswell’s Rolodex.

Neo Geo may be kind of a more downtown spin on Ongaku Zukan but it def. paved the way for his All Star collabs with Robbie Robertson, Robert Wyatt, Brian Wilson, Youssou N’Dour, Sly and Robbie, etc. Which weren’t necessarily successful but def. sort of enhanced his reputation and industry power in a way I suspect Andy Partridge, Robin Scott and Adrian Belew couldn’t really.

Over the years, I've noticed the Anglo fan contingent keeps having problems with Beauty, Heartbeat &tc. Where's the problem exactly? It's like there's a snub of implied bad faith in these formal and language experiments he was doing - how so? Why would "Neo Geo" as a concept to these albums be a failure? Conversely to British fans, Gen-X Italian ones near-unanimously regard Beauty as his acme among Sakamoto's pop albums. Where's the rocki$t main$tream $hark-jump there? Because I don't hear it. I hear a rightfully ambitious music that is more communicative/engaging than before, because it's based on novel socio-global ideas and not just artfully/tidily formal or stylistic ones like the works up to '87. The collision between Foster/dub/Okinawa in "Romance", to name but one out of several possible examples on Beauty, is much more than just a cool or artful concoction - the enthusiasm in that heady mix is palpable, and contagious. The stretch from Beauty to Chasm has no business being scoffed at.

I love Beauty and Heartbeat. I think the former makes slightly more sense in its original Japanese tracklist vs the UK one which adds the (awesome, but out-of-place) You Do Me single. I think Heartbeat is more slept on than anything else - it's not on the streamers. Maybe people bump on the 90s synth presets, but these things are cyclical and those sounds are v in-vogue right now.

Cloud #9 is one of my favourite Sylvian/Sakamoto joints.

I don't mind that he expanded his circle of collaborators -- Futurista has a whole bunch of western guests and that's still top-shelf Ryuichi for me. I don't deny that he kept his searcher's heart alive and well. There's a great anecdote about how each time he would deliver these late '80s and early '90s records to his label, he would proudly announce them as his latest pop album. Then the label head would listen, and call Ryuichi back in, and tell him, "In what fucking world is this pop music?!?! What pop music are you even listening to!!"

But personally I find it hard to connect with the rhythmic and sonic ideas he was pursuing. There's more gloss, less forest. frogbs's example of comparing the Asatoya Yunta on Beauty and Hosono's on Paraiso may be instructive. Sakamoto's sounds lovely and full, but its sonic world doesn't have much to do with the likes of Futurista anymore, even less so War Head or something.

So I respect that strecth more than I enjoy it. Surely there is no album on earth that sounds like much Sweet Revenge...? It may not be the kind of crazy that I fall for, but it's still crazy alright.

Oh yeah, a friend did play me four tracks from Chasm the other day and they were all 100% awesome. I really like Smoochy too.

"undercooled" is one of the coolest tracks he ever did. the fact that it uses the skipping CD noise!! brilliant

Undercooled was the awesomest of the four. My friend (a Chinese uni student who's gone travelling to Japan) introduced it as guided by a pan-Asian peace sentiment: Japanese composer, Korean rapper, traditional Chinese instruments. You live in East Asia long enough, that kind of message has impact.

Max's argument is compelling though. Gonna listen to Beauty again with an ear for that enthusiasm.

Ah yeah, Romance *is* wonderful. Romance followed by Chinsagu no Hana has been my favorite thing about Beauty.

Chasm is an incredible record. I also love this version of Undercooled that came out a few years later:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQNTcoayZ3E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou7szZ1Y2B4

trailer for new doc Ryuichi Sakamoto: Diaries, narration by Min Tanaka (!)