Ryuichi Sakamoto - B-2 Unit / hybrid SACD

Sakamoto recorded his second solo LP, B-2 Unit, in 1980, establishing a pattern of collaboration with musicians outside the home islands by recruiting XTC’s Andy Partridge and dub producer Dennis Bovell. Over 40 years later, B-2 Unit still sounds futuristic, like a synthetic jungle skittering with odd-angled beats and rubbery sound-slithers. Tracks like “Participation Mystique” suggest a religious ceremony on an alien planet—structured and elegant, but unreadable.

“Thatness and Thereness” is a kind of phenomenological ballad, while the lattice of chimes on “E-3A” looks ahead to Mouse on Mars’ idyllic ’90s electronica. As opaque as its cryptic title, B-2 Unit bypassed most listeners at the time. The exception was the single “Riot in Lagos,” a cult hit in the more daring clubs. Loosely inspired by Nigerian rhythm god Fela Kuti and drawing on Bovell’s spatial sorcery, the track propels Afrobeat’s syncopations far into a posthuman tomorrow.

https://pitchfork.com/features/afterword/ryuichi-sakamotos-borderless-brilliance/