If you like Sylvian when he was in Japan - particularly Gentlemen Take Polaroids/Tin Drum, Technodelic is probably the one. The territory Sakamoto and Sylvian would explore on Bamboo Houses b/w Bamboo Music seems to start here and the vocals are quite DS. There's also a hint of the soundtrack work on Prologue/Epilogue that Sakamoto would do after - Catherine Wheel, The Sheltering Sky, Merry Xmas Mr Lawrence, Silk etc (...speaking of which, have you heard Sakamoto's version of the Seven Samurai theme on Chasm? Heard it on a show where Jonathan Ross was interviewing Patti Smith and she was blown away/very eloquent on its greatness?)
The eponymous debut is great and very Kraftwerk-influenced, I think I have the two-disc version - several of the reissues came that way. Solid State Survivor sees YMO begin to develop their own ID and has Behind the Mask on, as well as their splendid version of Day Tripper - up there with Silicon Teens' You Really Got Me...
Multiplies....& BGM were more playful/experimental - and the two-disc Naughty Boys is probably one of the finest/most influential pop albums. If you don't like pop though, it might not do it for you...so I'd say Technodelic or the later reformed work/work under a different name (...do you think Sakamoto et al didn't use their original band-name for the same reasons' Sylvian didn't use his?).
|
