Yosuke Yamashita, Bill Laswell, Ryuichi Sakamoto - Asian Games (1993)

The usually technophobic Yamashita teams up with tech-heads Bill Laswell and Ryuichi Sakamoto and comes up with an oddly bland record. The setup sounds awkward: Yamashita didn't really trust working "with machines," but Sakamoto designed a studio system of synthesizers and samplers to put the more analog jazzman at ease. Recorded in 1988, a few of the tracks bear strong similarities to Sakamoto's Neo Geo of that same year, particularly "Melting Pot" and "Ninja Drive." The former includes samples of the same Lebanese singer — Dunya Yusin — and song used on Brian Eno and David Byrne's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts and New Order's "Angel Dust." It's a good track, with Laswell's bass keeping things simultaneously funky and intellectual. But many of these pieces here sound like a piano improviser lost in the middle of a sampledelic soundscape, with neither musician connecting (the question to ask is whether these tracks would not work without the piano — the answer unfortunately says much about the album)


Released: 1993
Genre: Electronic
Style: Electro, Future Jazz
Notes: Recorded in 1988 at Tokyo and NYC.
Yosuke Yamashita : piano & keyboards.
Bill Laswell : bass & sounds.
Nicky Skopelitis : Fairlight & sounds.
Aiyb Dieng : percussions.
Ryuichi Sakamoto : keyboards.