It’d be an overstatement to say the spirit of Ryuichi Sakamoto has followed me around on this trip – I’ve actually had very little opportunity to listen to music – but it is noteworthy that I saw the seeing sound, hearing time installation featuring his work at Hong Kong’s M+ gallery, and then when record shopping in Osaka I found an original Japanese pressing of his groundbreaking synth-pop outfit Yellow Magic Orchestra’s Solid State Survivor – a record that has danced on and off of my shopping list over the last couple years – at an HMV of all places.

Does YMO fit in the remit of this site? Well, Kraftwerk live here, and their influence on electronic music is similar in scope, if in a different direction, and goodness knows they’re huge figureheads in J-Pop, and honestly I’m already overthinking it. I dig YMO, they’re not way out there, and so here they are.

“Rydeen” was the second single from the album – love the single cover art! – and came with a laser-blasting video that was revolutionary at the time and is still pretty charming 45 years later.