RYUICHI SAKAMOTO'S B2 UNITS - "NHK LIVE 1982" CS

Between producing records for his friends, writing soundtracks for and starring in films, making solo music, presenting a radio show, and touring the world in Japan's biggest band, Ryuichi Sakamoto somehow found time in 1982 to form another band with a few long time collaborators.

B2 Units (named after Sakamoto's second solo record, released a couple of years prior), were a short lived outfit that matched Sakamoto alongside similarly-minded pop provocateurs Hajime Tachibana (once guitarist of The Plastics, at this time peddling bizarre new wave solo sax skronk), Suzuki Saeko (free jazz drummer turned pop idol), Jun Nagata, Mitsuru Sawamura (of YEN Records ambient project Interior), and multi instrumentalist Robin Thompson. As far as remaining documentation would suggest, B2 Units only ever played a few shows. Luckily enough, one of those shows was broadcast live on Sakamoto's aforementioned NHK radio program "Sound Street", where it was taped by nerds like you and I, and thus survives to this day.

The hour long performance goes all over the place, and every presence on the stage (or, as the case my be, in the booth) is felt explicitly at one point or another. Shimmering ambience, new jazz freakouts, fragile piano melodies and synth pop sing-alongs. More so than any group Sakamoto has been a part of, B2 Units genuinely feels like a group of friends hanging out and playing as much for each other as an audience. A unique document; intimate and beautiful.