Yellow Magic Orchestra

Solid State Survivor ALFA, 1979

You say: “YMO’s most solid album. The seeming contradiction of their deadpan goofiness resolves into a startling aesthetic vision.” @vinylscrobbler, via Twitter

Soundtrack for a future Tokyo. Modern, clean, streamlined, aspirational, optimistic. The group’s second album wasn’t released in the UK until 1982 by which time it had already been strip-mined for influences. Listened to now it sounds more futuristic and inventive than ever, from its reworking of Japanese classical music on Absolute Ego Dance to the proto-Detroit beats of Rydeen, achieved by emulating the sounds of the charging horses in Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. Sakamoto’s Behind The Mask was, of course, later covered by Michael Jackson. Other standouts include mournful Castalia and the Devo-weird cover of The Beatles’ Day Tripper.