Review: For the first time on vinyl, P-Vine reissue one of the earliest works by Yellow Magic Orchestra founder and later film composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. Before the fame and notoriety, Sakamoto lent a hand to the avant-garde singer Taeko Tomioka, whose 1976 album he produced, both in the box and out. Tomioka only recorded the one album, and later went on to develop a career as a poet, novelist and literary critic. Few self-proclaimed Sakamoto heads know this, which is what makes this P-Vine reissue so special. Were it not for Sakamoto's touch, Tomioka's animalistic performances would likely not have taken on their extensible quality; Sakamoto's virtuosity was more than enough to rigorously challenge Tomioka, producing less of a debutant's declamation than a mixolydian nightwalk, bringing out the potent harmonic range of whatever the musical equivalent of a tightrope walker is.
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