Part state-of-the-nation opus, part eye-opening trawl through the unexplored depths of Badu’s brain. 92 Erykah Badu New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) (2008) 93 Low Things We Lost in the Fire (2001)įilled with crushing, funereal dirges and a song about wanting to encase a newborn baby in metal to prevent its growth, the Duluth group’s fifth album was nonetheless inexplicably beautiful. Merrill Nisker grafted sweaty, human filth on to the clean machine shock of electroclash on her hilarious, titillating debut as Peaches. Photograph: Murdo Macleod/The Guardian 94 Peaches The Teaches of Peaches (2000) XCX stopped waiting around for mainstream acceptance and showed the normies what they were missing with this bracingly eclectic, guest-laden mixtape. 96 Missy Elliott Miss E … So Addictive (2001)ĭrawing from house, psychedelia and even Bollywood soundtracks, Missy’s third – the one responsible for Get Ur Freak On – forced pop to catch up with her yet again. Trip-hop duo Moloko was dead, and Murphy teamed up with Matthew Herbert for this eclectic, saucy – and still underrated – pop record that anticipated the arrival of Lady Gaga by three years. The Malian guitarist set a new career benchmark with this intimate set, adding classical western harp and African ngoni to her subtle, bluesy electric guitar. ![]() The first album album from an artist whose records had previously propped up killer singles with passable fillers turned her disaffection and disappointment into generational anthems. With over a hundred solo and band albums to chose from, Sakamoto, Hosono and Takahashi have a formidable back catalogue to chose from but here are MOJO’s pick of the ten best to start you off.Seven years after her previous album, Apple’s return sidelined her orchestral trademarks for an austere, homespun sound that exposed her insular lyrics even more starkly. The three members worked as producers, collaborators and effectively helped forge the cultural identity of ’80s Japan, before splitting off into three wildly different directions, with Sakamoto becoming one of the most sought-after soundtrack composers on the planet alongside carving out a solo career every bit as groundbreaking and influential as his old band. More importantly, it allowed Japanese musicians to develop their own modern ‘city pop’ sound. YMO’s clean, crisp “techno pop” sound – simultaneously futuristic and retro, Western and Eastern, influenced US hip-hop, Detroit techno, UK synth-pop and, arguably, Kraftwerk themselves (hello, Techno Pop). ![]() Together, the trio attempted what Sakamoto called a “Bento box” fusion of all these influences and ideologies, combined with a sense of humour that bordered on self-parody, and knowledge of Onmyõdõ (the ‘yellow magic’ of the band’s name). Takahashi, former drummer with UK-based Japanese art-proggers Sadistic Mika Band, had toured with Roxy Music and been friends with Malcolm McLaren, and was deep-schooled in art rock and pop disruption. Sakamoto, a former student of electronic music composition at the Tokyo National University of Fine Art, brought with him a deep love of German groups such as Kraftwerk and Neu!, bands who’d responded to the post-war Americanisation of their own culture by creating a new sound disconnected from that past. Recruited to help were classically trained session keyboardist Ryuichi Sakamoto and drummer Yukihiro Takahashi. His next idea was for “an international disco band” – a Japanese product that could be successfully exported overseas. His first option was to reappropriate the fake Asian exotica of Martin Denny, and make it sound authentically ‘Japanese’. The group split and Hosono realised a new sound was required. The sessions were fractious, complete with a drunken argument about Pearl Harbour, and the resultant album was steeped in a languorous melancholy reflecting Hosono’s disenchantment with both the Western perception of Japan and his own vision of America. Parks, then working on his baroque calypso travelogue Discover America, refused to help until he saw the group’s suitcase full of money. The group, Beach Boys obsessives thanks to the West Coast tastes of founder member Haruomi Hosono, had come seeking “that California Sound”. In 1973, Japanese folk rock group Happy End arrived at Los Angeles’ Sunset Sound Studios asking to meet Van Dyke Parks.
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