Yellow Magic Orchestra: Neue Tanz (Curated By Towa Tei) Vinyl 2LP

Rather than rolling out an arbitrary ‘best of’ collection (where would you even start?), Japanese reissue specialists Great Tracks summon the mighty Towa Tei (of Deee-Lite!) to put his spin on the Yellow Magic Orchestra discography to celebrate the band's 40th anniversary, compiling lesser known gems as well as a few unanimous favorites from Ryuichi Sakamoto, Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi. Neue Tanz opens with ultra-rare B side “Hirake Kokoro” before moving through a well-balanced cross section of the trio’s illustrious career, collecting tracks from nearly each of their albums. “Firecracker” and “Simoon” come from their not-so-hard-to-find self-titled debut, but there’s a smattering of tracks from the harder to find albums as well, such as “Pure Jam” and “Neue Tanz” from Technodelic, “Cue,” “Camouflage,” and “Ballet” from BGM and “Multiplies” from X∞Multiplies. Tei presses his luck with the inclusion of two tracks from some of the crew’s more notable side projects (Sakamoto’s “Riot In Lagos” from B-2 Unit, Takahashi’s “Glass” from Neuromantic), but they assimilate with the rest of his selections seamlessly. Japanese import pressing so you already know it looks and sounds amazing, but with a price tag to match, so only diehard YMO enthusiasts need apply.

• Japan import double vinyl pressing
• newly remastered by Yoshinori Sunahara
• pressed at Sony Music Japan analogue pressing plant
• obi strip
• printed inner sleeves
• housed in resealable clear plastic sleeve
• music label: Great Tracks 2018

reviewed by sunrise mart 01/2019