Solid State Survivor

Solid State Survivor is Tokyo's answer to Kraftwerk, funnier and faster, with 'Rydeen' and 'Technopolis' still carrying real pop energy. Yellow Magic Orchestra make that immediacy inseparable from the technology around it, slipping programmed details into songs that feel years ahead of their moment. On a rave list it is ancestry, and the reach was global. The future arrives disguised as something you can hum.

Tokyo's answer to Kraftwerk, and just as consequential. Sakamoto, Hosono and Takahashi wired videogame melody into pop years early, and hip-hop and electro took as much from these records as synth-pop did.