JAPAN IMPORT

• LIMITED DOUBLE VINYL LP
• GATEFOLD COVER WITH OBI STRIP

You had us at Sakamoto. Or rather you had us at "excerpts from Ryuichi Sakamoto's time working under Nippon Colombia's label, Better Days. First released in 1992, this 12-track compilation runs from tracks that appeared on the Japanese synth legend's debut album, Thousand Knives, first released in 1978, through to songs written with the iconic session group KYLYN, featuring celebrated guitar great Kazumi Watanabe.

Ever the auteur, even if you didn't know this was Sakamoto in proper landmark mode, there's no chance the sounds here could really be confused for anyone or anything else. It's mature and intelligent, yet strangely - and typically - fun, childlike and a little cartoonish, sharing as much in common with experimental electronica that was emerging during the 1970s and 1980s as video game scores from the 1990s.

LP ONE:
01. Das Neue Japanische Elektronische Volkslied
02. Plastic Bamboo

B1. Thousand Knives
B2. Tokyo Joe
B3. E-day Project
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LP TWO:
C1. Kylyn
C2. Zai Guang Dong Shoo Nian
C3. I'll Be There

D1. Bokunokakera
D2. Grasshoppers
D3. Mother Terra
D4. The End Of Asia