Yellow Magic Orchestra

Yellow Magic Orchestra ALFA, 1978

You say: “I listened to mainly German synthesizer music, then a friend pointed me to the Japanese ‘Kraftwerk’…” Suppersreadygenesis, via Instagram

Following Sakamoto and Takahashi’s collaboration with Hosono on 1978’s playfully bizarre Paraiso, the group joined up with computer programmer Hideki Matsutake to create this genre-breaker. Defined by their cover of Martin Denny’s Firecracker, which reworks Western concepts of ‘Asian’ music with Takahashi’s hard R&B drumkick and the beep and bloop of Japanese arcade games, this was exportable modern city exotica. Hip-hop crews dug the sound, while others referenced the sleeve’s electronics inventory. Seek out the “heavier” US mix on A&M from 1979.