Shintaro Sakamoto – Extremely Bad Man
You should have seen how far I flipped out when I found out that Shintaro Sakamoto had a new record in 2014. Just a couple years removed from his amazing debut solo release In A Phantom Mood, Sakamoto has returned with a just as satisfying sophomore release, Let’s Dance Raw. To his pitch perfect melding of 1980/90s rare groove and 1970s glam rock, Sakamoto added a super twangy, almost Hawaiian guitar that gives most of the songs, even the ones that seem to have a heavier lyrical content, such as “Extremely Bad Man,” a breezy nature. By far the most interesting song, and one that stylistically sounds very different than the other tracks on the album, is “You Can Be A Robot, Too.” For a 7″ release, Sakamoto re-recorded the song with vocals from the Kamome Children’s Choir. Having the kids sing Sakamoto’s cautionary and satirical lyrics, “Let’s be new robots, it will free you from anxiety and nihilism,” in a joyous fashion seems to soften the fact that something just seems wrong about people wanting to become robots, especially as a larger and larger percentage of the population hops on board. As with some of his prior songs, Sakamoto animated the music video for “You Can Be A Robot, Too” and it’s a marvel to behold, just like the song and everything else the man touches.