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On their fourth album BGM (1981), YMO continued where they left off with X∞ Multiplies, by venturing further into synthesizers, drum computers and experimentation with rhythm, sequences and speeds.

This album is more focused on atmosphere and mood, some even say this album is a turning point for YMO and the international Pop music scene. They successfully merged lyrics, sound bites and their signature electrically programmed music on BGM.

"1000 Knives" and "Cue" are the most famous; 'The Hand Clap' on "1000 Knives" is probably one of the most used samples in the '80s, early '90s. – Music On Vinyl

1981 was a groundbreaking year for the music industry. By releasing BGM and Technodelic in one year, YMO made a shift happen in Pop music. YMO introduced a new way of using samples and loops by cutting sound bites into fragments and reprogramming them with newly available computer technology.

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Technodelic is far more experimental than previous albums, and at the same time their 5th album is more minimalistic and full of Funk and Soul. YMO remained remarkably adept at inventing new ways of looking at compositions and creating a whole new music scene at the same time: Dance. – Music On Vinyl

On their 2nd live album, recorded during their 83-84 World Tour and released in 1984, again YMO succeeded in producing a live album with incredible audio quality.

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Vibrant, lively, energetic and infectious as ever, the crowds can't seem to get enough. Listen to this live album and you will want to go back in time to experience the brilliance yourself. – Music On Vinyl

With their first LP in over three years, Californian psych-dub duo Peaking Lights offer an outlet from the mundane with a kaleidoscopic collection of lo-fi, escapist-electronic pop. Over their illustrious twelve-year-plus career, the husband and wife duo of Aaron Coyes and Indra Dunis have set themselves apart with their characteristic dreamy, and melancholic sound that blends together elements of dub, and delicate-but-quirky electronics. E S C A P E, Peaking Light’s sixth album, and first for Dekmantel, finds them at their finest, replete with atmospheric landscapes crafted out of homemade-percussive loops, that sit alongside wondrous electronic pop and krautrock-like hooks, all tied together by Indra Dunis’ composed and hypnotic vocal charm.

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Now based out in Amsterdam, and having firmly established themselves on Dekmantel with their 2018 EP Sea of Sand, Coyes and Dunis’ unique brand of indie-synthwave yet further explores their ongoing delve into transcendental, psychedelic music. With E S C A P E, the production duo illustrate their pragmatic use of instrumentation and dubbing to create more heady and celestial avant-pop. From the very outset on opening track ‘Dharma’, the band’s iconic retro-dub aesthetic kicks in, before being accompanied by a litany of drum machines, sweeping compressed effects, and Dunis’ hypnotic serene vocals. Coyes, somewhat of a connoisseur and collector of varying studio gear adopts his steadfast dynamic approach to production, playing with new mixing techniques, tape loops, compression and effects throughout. It’s this freedom to indulge, and create new instruments, processes and sounds that have made Peaking Lights unique; an ever-present industriousness that characterises E S C A P E, whether it be on the deep textures of ‘Change Always Comes’, to the cathartic 80s pre-rave-wave of ‘The Damned’.

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E S C A P E is a vibrant moment full of multi-spectral melodies crafted in an aesthetic the group have excelled in and made their own; a style exemplified by their breakout 2011 LP 936. And throughout E S C A P E, whether it’s on the esoteric ‘Eyes Alive’ to the mesmerising beach rhythms of ‘Dreams’, Peaking Lights’ rich and reverberated sonic palette shines through. For both dreamers and dancers alike, the latest offering to Peaking Lights’ illustrious catalogue is a true mind-expanding and fantastical listen full of passion and catharsis. – Bandcamp

This fall sees the release of Magic Oneohtrix Point Never, an album that brings together styles and approaches from across his catalogue into a single package. Oddly, for a record that comes so late in an artist’s discography, it’s an excellent place to start for those unfamiliar with his work. It features contributions from the Weeknd, Caroline Polachek, and Arca and it’s oddly accessible, but it maintains Lopatin’s affectionate, inquisitive, and subversive relationship to pop. He’s still out there, and still innovating. – Bandcamp daily

Utakata No Hibi as a double 12″ set. The long sought after final record on the legendary Better Days label, Utakata No Hibi is the culmination of composer and bandleader Yasuaki Shimizu’s early-80s work, often compared to his contemporaries Ryuichi Sakamoto and Haruomi Hosono, as well as experimental new wavers Flying Lizards/David Cunningham, all of whom Shimizu has worked with. Recognized in Japan for the hit, “Shinzo No Tobira,” the entire record is a masterful studio production of Japanese folk and pop idioms filtered through a chamber disco, new wave, synth production, sounding more relevant today than upon its release over 30 years ago. Utakata No Hibi is fully licensed by Nippon Columbia and the Artist, and remastered by Dubplates and Mastering in Berlin. The packaging features additional artwork from Yla Okudaira, who created the original stunning jacket drawings. It also includes a full English translation of the Japanese and Armenian lyrics on the printed inner sleeves – Palto Flats

Language, the full-length debut from Starchild & The New Romantic, is the sound of Bryndon Cook occupying his space with unapologetic eloquence, envisioning a world where the crimson qualities of sensitivity and softness aren’t shamed, they are celebrated as magic.

“Black boys have a whole world of complexity that society makes us stomp out of ourselves.” Language communicates Cook’s refusal to do so. Describing himself early-on as a “young romantic boy from Maryland,” he’s long been a dreamer, a student of black music’s rich lineage and its intersection with pop. Cook is drawn to landmark moments where artists have found truth in darkness; the diverse language of music living in their core. These records in which phrases and motifs are deployed to document worth and define perspective, identity, calls to action. The pop album as artistic statement, as thesis. This record is his; lifting off from the monochrome world of Crucial, his 2016 EP on Ghostly International, up towards a dazzling blood-rush of sky-high defiance and autonomy. On Language, Cook refines his phonics for funk, electro, and R&B, and arrives at a revelation, best summarized by a single motto: “my sensitivity is my strength.” - Bandcamp

A seamless mix of the organic and inorganic, the recent past and distant future, and the possible and impossible, Japanese multi-media artist Masumi Hara’s sophomore album arrived like a fish on the moon in 1984. An album filled with contradiction and purpose, 4 X A Dream is both balearic acid folk and damaged steel drum dub, hi-tech new wave balladry and ambient synth pop. Classical and neoimpressionist vibes haunt and entrance. Quite possibly the most unique LP you’ll ever add to your collection. – Numero Group

Roughly translating to "dinner is ready," the double-LP was recorded with Yellow Magic Orchestra and originally coproduced with Ryuichi Sakamoto across Tokyo and Los Angeles. The 14-track album showcases Yano's move away from her pop and jazz funk origins towards a synth pop sound. Akiko Yano is a Japanese pop and jazz musician and a longtime YMO affiliate. This reissue follows two Yano albums rereleased on Wewantsounds this year, Japanese Girl and Iroha Ni Kompeito. – Resident Advisor

Mount Kimbie present an exclusive live session recorded for WXAXRXP, featuring some of their best loved tracks and a guest appearance from Mica Levi. 

"Signifie" is Taeko Ohnuki's（大貫妙子） 7th solo album released in October 1983. Like her preceding albums with Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）, the previous one being 1982's "Cliche", this album has its combination of quirky pop tunes partnered with epic and lavish productions.

Yellow Magic Orchestra's 40th anniversary compilation selected by Tei Towa, focusing on experimental/ minimal tracks re-imagined as “YMO resounds for today”. Tracks were picked not only from YMO’s discography but also from the members solo albums during the Alfa years. Many of the original albums are still out of print (Takahashi’s “Neuromantic”, Sakamoto’s “B2-Unit”).

Tracklisting:
A1 HIRAKE KOKORO - JISEIKI
A2 BALLET
A3 RIOT IN LAGOS / RYUICHI SAKAMOTO

B1 THE MADMEN
B2 GLASS / YUKIHIRO TAKAHASHI
B3 NEUE TANZ

C1 CAMOUFLAGE
C2 PURE JAM
C3 SIMOON (1978)

D1 CUE
D2 FIRECRACKER (1978)
D3 MULTIPLIES

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“Challenge Me Foolish is the third compendium of "lost" µ-Ziq material to surface on Planet Mu in the last three years—the fourth if we're including Expert Knob Twiddlers, the reissue of Paradinas' collaborative album with Aphex Twin. It compiles music written between 1998 and '99, and serves as a retrospective primer for the orchestral pop leanings of Royal Astronomy, Paradinas' fifth µ-Ziq album.

Both Royal Astronomy and Challenge Me Foolish feature tracks with the Japanese vocalist Kazumi. "Goodbye, Goodbye" was the former album's sentimental closer, while the twee pop of "The Fear" gave Royal Astronomy its gooey centre. On Challenge Me Foolish we are, perhaps, treated to the ones that didn't make the cut. The tracks range from the saccharine drum & bass of "Sad Inlay" to the naff kookiness of "Durian," neither of which have aged particularly well. The album's breezy title track is the best of these, though it would've been even better without the carnivalesque melody lines in the second half. Without these whimsical flourishes, though, it wouldn't be µ-Ziq. Unlike his more somber IDM peers, Paradinas was never afraid to sound cheerful.” - Resident Advisor

“After smooth, swaying synths of "Inclement" get things rolling for Foolish, groundwork is prepared for decidedly less laid-back material on "Undone", a track that doesn't quite live up to its sad and chaotic title. The title track is the first of five to feature Japanese vocalist Kazumi. "Challenge Me Foolish" could be Moby in stealth, but tracks like "Durian" and "Lexicon" throw shadings of psychedelia and jungle into the mix respectively. "Bassbins" stalks you from behind, eager to agitate. Hit the skip button, and the mood shifts to old-school computer game music with "Robin Hood Gate", completely free of percussion. Selections like "Perhaps" and "Perframe" also enjoy the pulse-free environment, though it would be a stretch to label them as ambient.

Challenge Me Foolish ends with a stunner, though not before the listener is teased with the (nearly) relentlessly playful "Peek Freans", a sunny slice of major-key dopiness that could be disguised as a synthesizer demo. Kazumi's vocals are then heavily sampled for the lyrically nonsensical yet heavily compelling "DoDaDu". It's somehow both slightly goofy and very lovely.” - Pop Matters

"The world of rare Japanese Funk & Soul is a vast and expensive one to visit. The kind of realm that can be dangerous for your record budget once you start falling deep into. But there is something absolutely irresistible about the pop music that was coming out of Japan in the late 70’s and early 80’s...

...Filed under “Experimental Synth-Pop” is probably where you’d find this gem by Hiroshi Sato sorted at your local record store. Except you won’t. It’s one of those rare treasures that won’t appear magically in a dollar bin near you. You’ll have to pay a couple hundred dollars for an original of this one but thankfully it has been reissued a few years ago and will probably come around again. Back to the record in question: “Orient” (released in 1979) was Sato’s third album in a very productive period that saw him release 8 albums in 12 years (from ’76 to ’88)." - Music Is My Sanctuary 

"If you like synth-pop, you’ll love this obscure, cult-ish, previously hard to find and expensive treat. Actually, it’s synth-pop meets jazz-funk with more than a touch of exotica and Oriental proto-electronica...

...Originally released in 1979 (on Kitty Records in Japan only), it was a distant Japanese relation of M, Flying Lizards, Buggles, Gary Numan, The Human League et al. And it is now being made widely available (digitally remastered from the original tapes), six years after the death of its creator, Hiroshi Sato, a keyboardist, composer, arranger, producer, sound engineer and – some say – near-member of Yellow Magic Orchestra (apparently he turned down the offer to join the collective and they drafted in Ryuichi Sakamoto instead)." - Classic Pop Mag

"Sato, was a member of Happy End and had things turned out slightly different, he could have been a part of Yellow Magic Orchestra. The position was offered to him by Haruomi Hosono but was later taken by the great Ryuichi Sakamoto. Needless to say, it is a testament to Sato’s musical chops, all of which are on full show on Orient. With Haruomi Hosono featuring on bass, Sato took on vocals, keyboards and synthesizer, kalimba, drums, writing and production duties for the album." - Electronicbeats

"Digitally remastered from the original tapes, Orient features the cream of Japanese musicians including Shigeru Suzuki on guitar, Haruomi Hosono on bass, Pecker on Percussion and Sato himself on keyboards and synthesizers. This highly sought-after album on the Balearic scene is a superb breezy mix of Japanese synth-pop and exotica with subtle touches of mid 70s Herbie Hancock-style funk and AOR." - Bandcamp | Wewantsounds

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