Ryuichi Sakamotos landmark debut album, recorded in 1977-78 shortly after co-founding with and . Thousand Knives was recorded in the weird hours of the night, as was preoccupied with his work as an in-demand session musician during the day, and you can hear that weirdness, that relentless search for new sonic worlds straight away. To truly appreciate the brilliance of this record, you gotta understand how old it is - Saturday Night Fever had only come out one year prior, and was still one year away OLD, man! For a Japanese man to think he couldpop in America in 1978 with a vocoder-fiedexoticaromp like this, he may as well have just put on an Armani suit and climbed into the bath with an electric lamp. After a chilling recital of a poem (written by Chairman Mao) through a vocoder, Ryuichi switches on the full power grid for , breaking completely unchartered but deliriously funky new ground. The bubblebath syndrums, brooding synth swells, prodiguous guitar solos and burpy reggae bassline all glue together like a robot band thats been playing together for 1000 years - you are nowlistening to *das neue Japanische elektronische ish*. I could go on and on about the title track, but each of the albums six tunes are a revelation, from textural sound design flex Island Of Woods to -acknowledgement Japanische elektronische Volkslied and vivid synth funk earworm . The ultra jazzy Grasshoppers intertwines a soulful piano performance with bluesy synth bass and a light sprinkling of arp licks, gently foreshadowing hisobsession withthe piano a little later in his career. Although weve been blessed with stacks of reissues from Yellow Magic Orchestra and as well as , not to mention from Sakamoto-san alone, Thousand Knives is STILL our most wanted record in the YMO canon. Remastered from the original master tapes by renowned producer Seigen Ono, this 2019 reissuemarks the first time the album has been available on vinyl outside of Japan in almost 40 years. Full color repro jacket with obi strip and 4 page insert, highly recommended.
- black vinyl pressing
- includes custom obi strip foldout insert
- first vinyl reissue outside of Japanin over 30 years
- music label: Wewantsounds 2019
