Hidari Ude No Yume

While most famous around the world as a member of the groundbreaking group Yellow Magic Orchestra, Ryuichi Sakamoto has been equally famous in his home country of Japan for his solo albums. The 1981 release Hidari Ude No Yume (Left-Handed Dream) had a confusing and limited international release at the time, with an English title and differing running order and song selection. Now reissued in its original Japan-release format, with a two-CD special edition or LP version including an all instrumental version, Sakamoto’s electronic-pop vision comes across beautifully

Working with his YMO bandmates as well as British producer Rick Scott, Sakamoto explores the sound of early Roxy Music and Berlin-era David Bowie with a more 1980s synth-pop tint. Rhythms are elastic, waves of synth enter and exit with such ‘world music’ touches as marimba and traditional Japanese flutes dropping in. Tracks such as ‘The Garden of Poppies’, which features what sounds like a sample of Pink Floyd ‘Echoes’, do not sound dated at all, unlike much of that decade’s ‘experiments.’ And ‘Relâché’ can still get people moving on a Tokyo dance floor. This is a very welcome reissue of an album that definitively explains why modern producers and DJs around the world revere Ryuichi Sakamoto.