As a composer, vocalist, songwriter, producer, keyboardist, and electronic music pioneer, Ryuichi Sakamoto has accumulated a substantial list of achievements since emerging as part of the 1970s Japanese scene. A member of the Yellow Magic Orchestra, all of his solo recordings postdate the release of that outfit’s debut except one, which came out in 1978 a month prior to YMO’s eponymous first LP. It delivers an occasionally fascinating look at the artist before his ’80s rise in profile, but Thousand Knives of Ryuichi Sakamoto has never been an easy find in stores; in a sweet turn, Wewantsounds has reissued it on LP and CD, the first time in decades that it’s been available physically outside Japan.
In the promotional text for Becoming Peter Ivers, the RVNG Intl. label’s fresh archival release of demos from the late singer-songwriter, the subject gets quoted: “Demos are often better than records,” with Ivers adding, “More energy, more soul, more guts.” It’s a sentiment in which I am in accord, and I mention it as this idea can easily be adjusted and applied to an artist or band’s debut recording, in part due to a lack of streamlining that can result from the desire to expand upon early success.
Conversely, first albums (or EPs, or 45s even) can sometimes be formative, modest, and even generic affairs that do little or nothing to portend what is on a musician’s discographical horizon. Occasionally, the opportunity to record comes too early, but artists are unlikely to turn down the chance, either because they think the time is ripe, or they realize that the option may not arise again.
Thousand Knives of Ryuichi Sakamoto follows a more productive path, as its motions of creative growth, while surely not eclipsing Sakamoto’s later recordings in worth, are quite pleasurable in how they help inject color into a portrait of the young artist. Additionally, the LP directly connects to Haruomi Hosono’s Paraiso, which was issued in April of ’78.
Paraiso (having been reissued on LP and CD last year by Light in the Attic) is where the members of Yellow Magic Orchestra, namely bassist-vocalist Hosono, keyboardist-vocalist Sakamoto, and drummer-lead vocalist Yukihiro Takahashi, played together for the first time, with the LP credited to Harry Hosono and The Yellow Magic Band. Thusly, it’s the precursor to YMO’s debut, which came out in November of ’78. However, Sakamoto had designs on his own album, which was completed first with the input of Hosono, Takahashi and others.
Some have slighted Thousand Knives (which serves as the record’s abbreviated title) as something of a lesser early chapter in Sakamoto’s career, but I can’t get with that assessment at all. For starters, the title, which references writer Henri Michaux’s description of a mescaline trip, sets in motion the extramusical influences that fully blossom right after the needle drop on side one, as the opening title cut begins with Sakamoto reading “Jingjang Mountain,” by none other than Mao Zedong (you may know him as Chairman Mao).
If this strikes you as potentially a bit dry, Sakamoto’s recitation is filtered through a vocoder, so if triggering thoughts of Revolutionary Communism, the prelude can also inspire ruminations on Giorgio Moroder. That’s neat, but in reality “Thousand Knives” doesn’t really get rolling until Sakamoto sets the poetry aside and establishes an environment that’s both vibrant rhythmically and rich electronically, and notably due to the synth programming of Hideki Matsutake.
To call it proto-synth-pop is not a bit wrong, but as the track continues rolling the guitar soloing of Kazumi Watanabe places matters in a prog-fusion neighborhood, though the synth-pop inclination never really dissipates. However, the following track “Island of Woods,” a smidge longer than “Thousand Knives” at 9:49, does navigate away from pop as it plunges deep into the electronic avant-garde; as the piece unwinds, it exudes much commonality with the sort of computer-based material released in the ’60s and into the ’70s by labels like Elektra Nonesuch, Columbia Masterworks, and Vox Turnabout.
It’s not a mindblower, but if “Island of Woods” avoids diverting too sharply into this avant-garde terrain (it can also be compared to the Exotica-fueled “Femme Fatale” from Paraiso) it still effectively underscores that Sakamoto possessed a much wider set of influences than the title of side two’s opener “Das Neue Japanische Elektronische Volkslied” (a nod to Germany’s electronic-informed scene of the decade, and Kraftwerk in particular) might suggest, at least to those not cognizant of his youthful background.
It’s a nifty selection commencing a musical stretch that’s considerably more representative of Sakamoto’s subsequent pursuits, but hey, don’t let’s jump the gun, as side one ends with the Modern Classical-tinged acoustic piano of “Grasshoppers.” It’s a track with enough synth shading to help the sheer stylistic breath retain a sense of focus.
But overall, side two seems destined to please fans of Sakamoto’s later work the most. Through savvy layering and general brightness of sound, “Das Neue Japanische Elektronische Volkslied” avoids the rinky-dink quality that can afflict early electronic (and especially synth-pop) recordings. Plus, the vocoder comes back, and is appealingly subtle in its return.
The final two cuts, “Plastic Bamboo” and “The End of Asia,” get substantially into the synth-pop swing of things, with both dishing bountiful funky wiggling, though they also possess the sort of pop buoyancy that in too large a dose can begin to wear on the nerves. But on the plus side, these culminating tracks maintain the album’s largely non-vocal approach as they tighten the spotlight onto what lay immediately in store for Sakamoto in Yellow Magic Orchestra.
What Thousand Knives of Ryuichi Sakamoto lacks in masterful moves is significantly made up for by admirable range nicely forecasting the eclecticism of his later solo work. Also, the likability factor has only flourished over time and accentuates the set’s permanence as the extended introduction to a robust musical thinker. It’s newfound global availability on vinyl and compact disc is a sweet circumstance.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
B+
