Ryuichi Sakamoto

Ryuichi Sakamoto was still in the early days of his career when second solo album, “Thousand Knives Of”, appeared in 1978. It was recorded around the same time as the formation of the band that made him famous, Yellow Magic Orchestra, and contains a similar reliance on cutting-edge electronic instrumentation. Of course, there are still pieces that doff a cap to his classical roots – see the piano-heavy “Grasshoppers” – as well as workouts that join the dots between jazz-funk and German style “kosmiche” (“Das Neue Japanische Elektronische Volkslied”), but for the most part it’s the entirely electronic tracks that hit home hardest. For proof, check the jaunty genius of “Plastic Bamboo”, the prototype YMO electrofunk of “The End Of Asia” and the doom-laden weirdness of “Island Of Woods”.