Ryuichi Sakamoto - Beauty

sakamoto at his peak

It is hard to define what kind of musician Ryuichi Sakamoto really is; his musical style has changed so much throughout his long career which started in 70s. Outside Japan, his native country, Sakamoto probably is best (yet barely) known for his much acclaimed film scores (e.g., The Last Emperor), but to me his most interesting work came during the late 80s and early 90s, when he began collaborating with authentic ethnic musicians from Okinawa, India, and so on.

This kind of music never gets played in radio, and I think it really is a shame. Those who really wish to expand their musical taste bud should actually start exploring stuff like this that never gets played even in college radio stations. Beauty offers music that is earthly yet sophisticated enough that any music lover with a taste for appreciating different kinds of "beauties" can find interesting --- it is no way "experimental" music that is often just another word for boring music. If anything, Beauty should have been the springboard for Sakamoto's career outside his native country --- too bad it did not work out that way. Yet, Sakamoto, to me, is one of the most creative musicians that came out during the unforgettable 80s. Beauty is the distillation of his creativity in his most prolific era, I think.

Another cool album, if you like this one, is Neo Geo --- where Sakamoto's ethnic fusion all started, I guess. While I personally think Neo Geo lacks the kind of sophistication that you can hear throughout in Beauty, it instead has that appeal of cutting-edge electronic music which came out in 80s. March 7, 2004

Super-hybrid music in our global-polyglot age

The spirit of this album is closest, among his large body of works, to that of 'Neo Geo' and 'Heartbeat', in which Ryuichi tried to deconstruct the barriers among various types of music, such as pop, classical, world (ethnic), etc. 'Neo Geo' was an intelligent avant-gardist album which still sounds fresh like its two immediate predecessors `Esperanto' and `A Futurist Guy' as well as YMO's `Technodelic'. But `Beauty' on the face of it sounds more like mainstream pop (maybe obligingly for his contract with Virgin!) still with his characteristic style of a residual avant-gardist flavour mixed with ethnic music. Surprisingly as it was at the time of its release, most pieces turned out to be vocal music, and he started singing himself often quite unlike him until that point in his career.

He once categorically refused to admit, perhaps light-heartedly in an interview ('skmt', a book published in Japan) conducted in Japanese, that the album was then fashionable (e.g. through Peter Gabriel's works) so-called world music. But it is perhaps safe to say that one of the greatest sources of inspiration for the album was that genre, when you find Youssou N'Dour ('Diabaram') and several little-known local Japanese singers (Y. Ganeko, M. Koja, and K. Tamaki who all sang in 'Neo Geo') all singing in non-English, and arguably Arto Lindsay ('Futique' and reading in non-English in `Rose'). What you'd particularly notice is his effort to exploit ethnic resources which are more accessible to the Japanese ('Asadoya Yunta', 'Romance', and 'Chinsagu no hana', the last one of which has been recycled memorably in his opera 'Life' as 'Evolution of Life'), just as B. Bartok did, as a Hungarian composer, in Eastern Europe. I don't think what he did in this album comes naturally from any Japanese artist, but only with very conscious highly artistic intention beyond the national norm. January 21, 2002

the immaculate bleeding

I'm a music lover , of all sorts of music , and this is one of the best albums i've ever heard. I bought when I was in high-school at a swiss boarding house , and soon ALL of my roomates bought themselves a copy...why : cuase "all colors" bleed into one on this album , it has everything ! July 21, 2001

Flavorful and Eclectic Japanese Pop...

The opening track You Do Me is faintly reminiscent of a Prince pop-dance number both in title and sound due to large part that lead vocals are supplied by Jill Jones (once a part of the Paisley One's list of protogees).Other tracks are quite simply eclectic and highly likeable or contagious. At times you're not sure if he's going for the whole nine yards of r&b/ hip-hop/club or is going to pull something grandiose in the tradition of a movie soundtrack or new age;He does them all effortlessly. There's even a hidden bonus track or shorter version of You Do Me at the end of the disc. The song Calling From Tokyo was actually featured on the soundtrack of Black Rain (Michael Douglas/Andy Garcia cop thriller which takes place in Japan).The only change was that it was titled Laser Man and was an instrumental with background singing only.For eclectic music collectors this is one of Sakamoto's more main stream projects that contains such diverse yet popular stylings or material. February 13, 2001

Beauty redefined.

A recent Benetton ad shows individuals of mixed racial origin and is captioned "why should any group hold the copyright to beauty?" This is the essence of Sakamoto's work.

Drawing from Okinawan influences a la Champloose Kina, Youssor N'Dour from Senegal, fretless bassist Pino Palladino (then with a portfolio of work ranging from Tears for Fears to Paul Young), Sly Dunbar and Arto Lindsay, Sakamoto eclectic blend of world music is a surprisingly cohesive whole.

From the brooding "Rose" and "Diabaram", to a remake of "We Love you" and the odd Okinawan folk song (Asadoya Yunta), this collection will pretty much attempt anything. This is much in contrast to the minimalist "1996" album (which might have resulted as a response to the excesses of this album). It is as though Sakamoto attempts to showcase his eclecticism.

The first two tracks ("Tokyo Calling" and "You Do Me"), are reminiscent of his earlier album, "Neo Geo". The background cast of Okinawan singers (now with the group Nenes), and the seemingly random bluesy vocal inflections from N'Dour is classic Sakamoto in composition: musical pop art. The atmospheric "Rose" is perhaps the best track on the album with Palladino's legato fretless lines holding the piece together, despite Sakamoto's average vocal attempts. "Diabaram" is N'Dour at his emotionally charged best.

My only gripe... there is something to be said of someone who titles his album "Beauty" and has an arty picture of himself on the front cover. October 5, 2000

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