坂本龍一* – B-2 Unit

I have no idea what an OG version sounds like, but this version is crisp and detailed. Great soundstaging and depth. Very clean too. Recommended (unless you want to pay a small fortune to try an original version).

Interestingly, and unusually (virtually all hybrid SACDs use the same mastering for all layers) the DR numbers and track times differ slightly between the CD and SACD layers for this release.

Grabbed with when I was in Osaka. The owner Norio at Rare Groove records was incredibly patient with me. Put on about 20 records before we found something I was looking for.

Anyone listened to this yet? Better to go for this or the original?

Over a decade before the Warp Records 'Artificial Intelligence' series, this album is not only an obvious influence for those electronic experimentations of the early 90's, but it greatly exceeds their ambition. A wild and wonderful listen!

Cut by good ol Bernie, get this if you are a fan.

I once owned a copy of this version. It suffered from some form of disc rot. A huge hole appeared in the silver coating and rendered one track unplayable. I don't know if others in this pressing suffered the same fate. It seems unrelated to the PDO disc rot problem.

Rigid dub album by Sakamoto
The reason for making this work began with having talked with Co-producer of B-2 Unit Yoshitaka Goto about Take Away made by XTC's Andy Partridge
(This dialogue is on the Japanese version Take Away LP liner notes)
That's why Andy participates, but since he did not have time he gave Sakamoto a tape that he played
Of course, not only that but Sakamoto's influence such as Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, Kraftwerk, etc, which had been overwhelmingly there
In Sakamoto's hope was recorded in London for a dub mix of Dennis Bovell

Fantastic record. Makes most of the early-mid 90's IDM coming out of Europe seem like amateur hour in comparison. I would place this record up there with the best of Kraftwerk and Can. A forgotten gem for sure!

Masterpiece, indeed! B-2 Unit has a knack for being both experimental AND concise. Pop in structure but dissonant in execution, it sounds like where Kraftwerk left off for more efficient territory -- somewhere between Radioactivity and Trans-Europe Express. It's got this organic atmosphere that you don't hear in a lot of other 80s synthslop. Images of raw metals, industrial textiles, and engineered forms play against the sunny and decadent atmosphere of standard synthpop. In a lot of ways B-2 Unit has the dynamics that made The Pop Group or Public Image Ltd. so unique: dubby, caustic, rhythmic sound worlds. Sakamoto has fused Japanese minimalism with krautrock, dub and found sound to create infectious sound sculptures. Definitely worth hunting down!