ryuichi sakamoto - asadoya yunta

no particular reason for posting this track, other than it's been playing in my mind for the past week after reading a post about ryuichi sakamoto on another blog.

long, longtime favorite song by this artist. i have no idea what the lyrics mean--it's a traditional folk song from okinawa--but the arrangement and vocals of the record really, really appeal.


ryuichi sakamoto - asadoya yunta

fwiw, i first became aware of sakamoto while living in japan, during a time when he was involved with the technopop group, yellow magic orchestra (YMO).

(and for those who think that i think blondie can do no wrong, they did a pretty blah cover of this song. i actually can't even play it.)

kimi

dear project leader:

this alien spent several hours one recent evening trying to purchase today's adorable track, "kimi ni munekyun", by yellow magic orchestra. other than suspicious on foreign mp3 sites, this track was not available for purchase...careless record companies.

anyway, this alien first heard YMO as a young human performing slave labor in the harsh climates / fabulous municipalities of japan. he was instantly entranced, and followed the band for their last couple of albums; then latched onto one member's solo projects, ryuichi sakamoto.

mr sakamoto didn't continue in the same direction as YMO; rather he did a lot of movie scores (merry christmas, mr lawrence), and ultimately settled on jazz and piano solo stuff.

still very interesting, but not YMO. and that's okay. it's worth mentioning, sakamoto did appear in madonna's "rain" video. random.

kimi ni munekyun, yellow magic orchestra