Ryuichi Sakamoto S/D

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?

Cochin Moon is probably Hosono's best, but I listen to Coincidental Music a lot xp

Kitchen - if you're looking for stuff that sounds like YMO, you're not really going to find it, except for those three Takahashi albums, which definitely sound like a YMO-side project, but in a good way. I'd be curious as to which Hosono album you got; he didn't do any solo stuff inside YMO besides Philharmony, which is a very neat album (though a little sparse) - he's definitely the kind of Eno-like artist who can do many many different styles and not look back. I guess I need to know what kind of stuff you're into before I can really say, but as I mentioned Sakamoto's Left Handed Dream is a tough one to go wrong with..

One thing you can do is to find the YEN record compilations; tons of great artists on those, and the YMO members were involved on nearly every release.

btw Paraiso is my favorite Hosono album - but if you like the non-standard/Monad period, please find the soundtrack he did for Nokto de la Galaskia Fervojo, it's seriously amazing in all the ways Hosono usually is. It's one of the coldest sounding albums I own.

Also, maybe check out Sakamoto's 1000 Knives record.

Love to hear those YEN comps.

listening to Ongaku Zukan on your rec btw, frogbs — thanks! I already loved this album so hearing the Japan-only tracks is like finding a secret level in a video game I've played 100 times

Yeah I had a feeling I would struggle to find stuff that sounded just like YMO. It was an amazing moment when I discovered all the Yukihiro albums, like I'd found another batch of lost YMO classics from that great period. I couldn't believe I'd never heard Drip Dry Eyes before. Tomorrow's Just Another Day is probably my favourite album of that run, the production is insane. They were all pretty easy to get on vinyl too unlike a lot of the albums from this scene.

Philharmony was the Hosono album I tried, it was nice enough but not really something I would listen to a lot. I am quite a big Eno fan but as you can probably guess it's the four vocal based albums from his 70's period that I love him for. If there's anymore of Hosono's albums that are slightly poppier or more song based I would give them a go.

I will give Left Handed Dream a listen, I love that artwork. Are those Yen compilations easy to track down?

Not heard anything by Sadistic Mika Band. I get the impression the stuff they all released in the 70's is quite different. I listened to the first Yukihiro album Savannah and I just didn't like it at all, it was almost easy listening Muzak.

It's kind of funny, Hosono had the same type of 'pop' phase but his was more exotica/tropical stuff. His albums with Happy End are really good. I understand if you didn't like Philharmony but can you at least admit that "Sports Man" and "LDK" are first-rate? ;)

A good reference is this:
http://technopop.info/

BTW I would be all for some kind of Japanese New Wave listening club similar to the Krautrock one. I mean that page above lists hundreds of albums and nearly half of them seem to have some link to YMO

corey - I was pretty surprised as well to find that the U.S. release cuts off half of the tracks, and also to realize that "Field Work" and "Steppin' Into Asia" didn't really fit with it at all. Sadly few outside of Japan seem to know about it. It sucks because "Replica" is my favorite RS track (at least, according to iTunes)

iTunes says my most-played RS track is "Dolphins"

BTW, just discovered that if you have access to the Japanese iTunes store, there are oodles of Playing the Piano Live concerts available from the past three years, including the ones he did on his swing through North America this past year. Just downloaded the Toronto show. They're only 1500 yen too, which makes them cheaper than most of the albums on the Japanese store!

I hate to be negative, but I really dislike the piano versions of his older songs — it makes me think of when someone orchestrates the music from the Final Fantasy games. Chintzy and artificial the originals sounds might be, they're a huge part of why I enjoy this music so much, and piano versions just turn them into elevator music imo.

Can see that, sure, but I actually like 'em a lot myself. Have really been enjoying a lot of other piano-based work like Olafur Arnalds and Max Richter etc, and so sometimes these versions really connect with me in a way that some of the 80s and 90s version don't. For example, the original "Amore" was a sophistopop high-gloss thing, but the piano version is quite moody. Not sure how much of this is just my love for the sound of the piano and how much of it is the rearrangement of the songs, though.

"Amore", yep, that's the track, thank you

Found this while perusing the information superhighway.

http://mutant-sounds.blogspot.com/2008/01/vatokyo-mobile-musiclp1982uk.html

been distantly aware of this dude for a really long time and finally picked something up last week and i'm pretty into it! that Left Handed Dream one frogbs mentioned. excellent investment! ($0.49 x 25% employee discount iirc)

Playing the Piano is lovely

Just had a listen to Beauty again; yep, "Amore" is definitely a beautiful tune, but this album is really wonky as a whole - "Rose Music" just irritates me.

If you want to hear the difference between Sakamoto and Hosono, listen to both versions of the Okinawan folk song "Asatoya Yunta" (on the albums Beauty and Paraiso). Sakamoto's is very crisp, precise, and beautiful, while Hosono's is surreal and exotic, to the point where it sounds like the vocals were recorded backwards. I love both versions but Hosono's is really something special.

OoooOOOooooh this has "War Head" on it!! Really wish he wrote more songs like that!!!

yeah — it's like the loopiest songs from Multiplies with awesome synth sounds

http://nonukes2012.jp/en/

That is a lineup worthy of international attention

Also think it's going to be the first time sakamoto and otomo yoshihide have collaborated

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fm20120705a1.html#.T_u_dRB5lP4

I mean, was

And I guess I mean: I'm surprised to have only found out about a kraftwerk / ymo concert the week after it happens

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120717a1.html#.UASBKhB5mSM

ummm, can we please get a DVD of this guys?

I hate to be negative, but I really dislike the piano versions of his older songs — it makes me think of when someone orchestrates the music from the Final Fantasy games. Chintzy and artificial the originals sounds might be, they're a huge part of why I enjoy this music so much, and piano versions just turn them into elevator music imo.

I dunno if you were referring to 1996 but I'm listening to it now and it's absolutely gorgeous. I think the artificiality kind of takes me out of it a bit - not on stuff like Ongaku Zukan or Neo Geo, but maybe on the albums past that. I had no idea "Bibo no Aozora" had such a haunting melody because it's covered up with dusty trip-hop drums and bad vocals.

find if you can /04 and /05, two great sakamoto-covers-himself-mostly-on-piano records

'all star video: ryuichi sakamoto by nam june paik'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59MCqEjRFnI

oh my god

did anyone see this? http://eyelevel.si.edu/2013/04/nam-june-paik-musician-and-media-artist-stephen-vitiello-interviews-composer-ryuichi-sakamoto.html

a few years back I saw a film that I think was soundtracked by Sakamoto, very soft and minimal synth and piano music, with the visuals being mostly black with white rectangles fading in and out based on the piano notes. I think. Ring a bell for anyone?

wings of honneamise OST is really good man. esp "F A D E":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8nunklJx7o

Oof, sad news:

http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2014/07/10/ryuichi-sakamoto-diagnosed-with-throat-cancer/

:-/

oof, how awful. all the best to him :(

Anyone who's a fan, if music that sounds like a combination of Naughty Boys and Ongaku Zukan appeals to you, search out the Works I - CM disc. It's basically a comp of all the commercial music Sakamoto composed between 1982 and 1984, a lot sounding like YMO outtakes, though most are instrumental. Akiko Yano is on a few fits. Nothing too adventurous but it's essentially Sakamoto's own version of Coincidental Music.

CM/TV is also excellent

yeah, those comps are great. "perky jean" is a favorite:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55pAtVe-7VE

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 (!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sCw79Tf29w

I'm not familiar with Sakamoto's prodigious discography past the 80s... Does he have an album of pieces like this?:

Dancing In the Sky

(Not strictly looking for solo piano, it's more the brevity and composition that interest me.)

Ooooh, that's a cool piece. I can't help, I've only made it to the mid-'90s myself (skipping most of the soundtracks, at that) -- I figure there must be treasure beyond Discord but I've not gone digging properly for it yet...

This is very cool...

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