WeWantSounds continues to work its way through the early work of the visionary Akiko Yano: »愛がなくちゃね« (»Ai Ga Nakucha Ne,« roughly »I Must Love«) is the fifth Yano reissue on the Parisian label. Released in 1982, it was the singer-musician’s eighth solo LP since her debut just six years earlier. It was recorded at the end of a transitional period towards more electronic sounds: on her first releases, Yano first mixed jazz, pop and traditional Japanese song forms with pop, but then discovered sequencers and synthesizers for herself – which benefited her backing band at the time, which also started a modest career in 1978 under the name Yellow Magic Orchestra . Their member Ryūichi Sakamoto – at that time just married to Yano – was also the producer of »Ai Ga Nakucha Ne,« which next to some other Japanese music celebrities also featured the British band Japan. Their drummer Steve Jansen has been interviewed along Yano for the booklet of this reissue, which is even complemented by an introduction penned by none other than … Mac DeMarco!? There’s quite a lot of very big names connected to this 37-minute pop album that offers just as much, though. Right from the first few seconds, a jazz piano clashes with an electronic beat, until both elements all integrated into a funky rock song – thus preparing the audience for the celebration of joyful anything goes mentality that follows. Electro-pop and jazz, folk and funk, acoustic and electronic sounds, Japanese and English are mixed together and towards the end, even David Sylvian has a short cameo to round things off. It’s all held together by Yano’s vocals though, which stalk the melodies up and down with great discipline in quiet moments and do somersaults during bombastic outburts. There is, in short, a lot happening on this record and in each individual song, but the spotlight always remains on Yano. Rightfully so.
Ai Ga Nakucha Ne
