Behind The Mask [5:31] Risky [6:24] Field Work [5:07] Steppin' Into Asia [3:40] Field Work (Edit) [2:33] Ryonganbisho [3:57]

product info

Produced and arranged by Ryuichi Sakamoto Lynn Mabry - Backing Vocals on track 1 & 3 Barry Johnson - Bass David Palmer - Drums Eddie Martinez, Haruo Kubota - Guitar Jeff Bova, Ryuichi Sakamoto - Keyboards Bernard Fowler - Lead Vocals

review

This short album for the Japanese market (or 12-inch in ancient LP-terminology) features new versions of a few miscellaneous pop-tracks from earlier years which hadn't been available on regular Japan album releases. I suspect this is because the original artists collaborating with Sakamoto couldn't be released in Japan, so in comes vocalist Bernard Fowler. 'Field Work' did appear on the world-wide release of the 1984 album 'Illustrated Musical Encyclopaedia' featuring Thomas Dolby on vocals but is here replaced by Fowler. The same applies to 'Risky' which was originally sung by Iggy Pop on the 1987 album 'Neo Geo'. Fowler also sings a rock-guitar version of 'Behind The Mask' which is very different from the original 1979 YMO electronic track. 'Steppin' Into Asia', sung/spoken by Sakamoto's wife Akiko Yano, again also appeared on 'Illustrated Musical Encyclopaedia' but the version here is a shorter remix. The final instrumental track is released here for the first time and, although quite good, a bit out of place in amongst the heavy-duty pop-tracks. 1999. Ivar de Vries