''Thousand Knives'' (also known as ''Thousand Knives of Ryuichi Sakamoto'') is the debut solo album by Japanese musician

Ryuichi Sakamoto was a Music of Japan, Japanese musician, composer, keyboardist, record producer, singer and actor. He pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the Synthesizer, synth-based band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his ...

. Released in 1978, it is a mostly

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

album, foreshadowing his work with

Yellow Magic Orchestra Yellow Magic Orchestra (abbreviated to YMO) was a Japanese electronic music band formed in Tokyo in 1978 by Haruomi Hosono (bass, keyboards, vocals), Yukihiro Takahashi (drums, lead vocals, occasional keyboards) and Ryuichi Sakamoto (keyboards, ...

later that year.

Overview

The album is named after Henri Michaux's description of the feeling of using

mescaline Mescaline, also known as mescalin or mezcalin, and in chemical terms 3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethylamine, is a natural product, naturally occurring psychedelic drug, psychedelic alkaloid, protoalkaloid of the substituted phenethylamine class, found ...

in ''Miserable Miracle''. The title track begins with a vocoded Sakamoto reading " Jinggang Mountain", a poem written by

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...

during his visit to a well in the Jinggang Mountains in 1965. The song proper is performed in a reggae hymn style, inspired by

Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer. He started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. Hancock soon joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he helped to redefine the role of ...

's '' Speak Like a Child'' album. The piece segues into "Island of Woods", a ten-minute analog synthesizer composition designed to sound like the natural sounds of an island. The modern classical piano piece "Grasshoppers" follows. On original copies of the album, the entire first side was indexed as one 24:40 long track. The second side of the album contains varied electronic music pieces. "The End of Asia" uses the same melody as Haruomi Hosono's "Worry Beads" from '' Paraiso'' (though Sakamoto has claimed that the use was entirely coincidental) and the coda uses the melody of " The East Is Red", the

national anthem A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and European ...

of the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

during the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

. Thus, the album as a whole summarizes Sakamoto's then-interest in Chinese history.

Legacy

"Thousand Knives" is a staple of Sakamoto's repertoire, being rearranged for his synth-pop band

in 1980 for their '' BGM'' album; as a classical trio for ''8/21/1996''; and for a piano duet on ''/05''. Numerous other arrangements have been performed live over the years, both by YMO and by Sakamoto himself; these performances contain one of the earliest uses of the

Roland TR-808 The Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer, commonly known as the 808, is a drum machine manufactured by Roland Corporation between 1980 and 1983. It was one of the first drum machines to allow users to program rhythms instead of using preset patterns. ...

drum machine A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument that creates percussion sounds, drum beats, and patterns. Drum machines may imitate drum kits or other percussion instruments, or produce unique sounds, such as synthesized electronic tones. A d ...

. "Plastic Bamboo" was also a staple of early YMO shows, though the only recording appears on their live album ''Live at Kinokuniya Hall 1978'' released in 1994, sixteen years after being recorded. "The End of Asia" would also regularly appear during YMO shows, with a drastically different studio version included on their ''

X∞Multiplies is a mini-album and the third studio album by Yellow Magic Orchestra released in 1980. It contains a mixture of songs and instrumentals by YMO (including a humorous reworking of Archie Bell & the Drells' "Tighten Up"), interspersed with comedy ske ...

'' album. The melodic lines in "Grasshoppers" and "The End of Asia" have been noted for their similarities to modern

grime music Grime is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) that emerged in London in the early 2000s. It developed out of the earlier UK dance style UK garage, and draws influences from jungle, dancehall, and hip hop. The style is typified by rapid, sy ...

. According to Logan Takahashi writing for ''

Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, Habit (psychology), habit or item generally considered morally wrong in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character trait, a defect, an infirmity, or a bad or unhe ...

'', the "bounciness and cartoonish sound quality" of the lead melodic line in "Grasshoppers" has a "strong grime feel" and he considers the melodic line a minute into "The End of Asia" as "the bedrock for sino-grime." This was a precursor to Sakamoto's 1982 song " Bamboo Houses" (with

David Sylvian David Sylvian (born David Alan Batt; 23 February 1958) is an English musician, singer and songwriter who came to prominence in the late 1970s as frontman and principal songwriter of the band Japan (band), Japan. During his time in Japan, Sylvia ...

), which has been described as the "earliest example of proto-grime" by ''

Fact A fact is a truth, true data, datum about one or more aspects of a circumstance. Standard reference works are often used to Fact-checking, check facts. Science, Scientific facts are verified by repeatable careful observation or measurement by ...

'' magazine.

Track listing

Personnel

–

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

( Moog III-C with Roland MC-8 Microcomposer,

Polymoog The Polymoog is a hybrid polyphonic analog synthesizer that was manufactured by Moog Music from 1975 to 1980. The Polymoog was based on divide-down oscillator technology similar to electronic organs and string synthesizers of the time. Histor ...

Minimoog The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popul ...

Micromoog The Moog model 2090 Micromoog is a monophonic analog synthesizer produced by Moog Music from 1975 to 1979. Background Designed as a scaled-down, lower-priced alternative ($650–$800 market price) to the Minimoog, the Micromoog was designed to ...

, Oberheim Eight Voice Polyphonic with Digital Programmer,

ARP Odyssey The ARP Odyssey is an analog circuit, analog synthesizer introduced by ARP Instruments in 1972. History ARP developed the Odyssey as a direct competitor to the Minimoog, Moog Minimoog and an answer to the demand for more affordable, portable, a ...

, KORG PS-3100 Polyphonic),

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''vo''ice and en''coder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder wa ...

( Korg VC-10),

analog sequencer An analog sequencer is a music sequencer constructed from analog electronics, invented in the first half of the 20th century. Raymond Scott designed and constructed some of the first electro-mechanical music sequencers in the 1940s. The first ...

(KORG SQ-10), Syn-Drums,

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

(on "Grasshoppers"),

marimba The marimba ( ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the mari ...

orchestration Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble, such as a concert band) or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", orch ...

, production,

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or cassette j-cards. Origin Liner notes are descended from the prog ...

* Hideki Matsutake – computer operation, synthesizer programming assistance * Harry Hosono –

zill Zills, zils, or sagat, also known as finger cymbals, are small metallic cymbals used in belly dance, belly dancing and similar performances. They are similar to Tibetan tingsha bells. In Western music, several pairs can be set in a frame to make ...

on "Thousand Knives", liner notes *Motoya Hamaguchi – Syn-Drum solo on "Thousand Knives", Brazilian bird whistles on "Island of Woods" *

Kazumi Watanabe is a Japanese guitarist. Other guitarists such as Luke Takamura and Sugizo have cited him as an influence. Career Watanabe learned guitar at the age of 12 from Sadanori Nakamure at the Yamaha Music School in Tokyo. He released his first album ...

–

Alembic An alembic (from , originating from , 'cup, beaker') is an alchemical still consisting of two vessels connected by a tube, used for distillation of liquids. Description The complete distilling apparatus consists of three parts: * the "" ...

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

solo on "Thousand Knives" and "The End of Asia",

rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular r ...

on "The End of Asia" * Yūji Takahashi – piano on "Grasshoppers" *

Tatsuro Yamashita , occasionally referred to as Tatsu Yamashita or Tats Yamashita, is a Japanese singer-songwriter and record producer, who is known for pioneering the city pop style of music. His most well-known song is "Christmas Eve", a best-selling song rel ...

– castanets on "Das Neue Japanische Elektronische Volkslied" *Pecker – Syn-Drum solo on "Plastic Bamboo" *Akira Ikuta – management *Hikaru Hayashi – liner notes * Yukihiro Takahashi – fashion coordination (jacket by

Giorgio Armani Giorgio Armani (; born 11 July 1934) is an Italian fashion designer and a billionaire. He first gained renown working for Cerruti 1881. He formed his company, Armani, in 1975, which eventually expanded into music, sport, and luxury hotels. By 200 ...

; shirt, tie and belt by Bricks; Levi's 501 Jeans; shoes – "Zapata" by

Manolo Blahnik Manuel "Manolo" Blahnik Rodríguez (; born 27 November 1942) is a Spanish fashion designer and founder of the eponymous high-end shoe brand. Biography Blahnik was born in Santa Cruz de la Palma, in the Canary Islands (Spain), to a Czech father ...

) *Makoto Iida – cover photo *Satoshi "Sign" Saitoh – cover design *Mr. Kawaguchi, Mr. Ueno & the staff of "

KORG , founded as Keio Electronic Laboratories, is a Japanese multinational corporation that manufactures electronic musical instrument An electronic musical instrument or electrophone is a musical instrument that produces sound using electr ...

" – special thanks (for their great cooperation)

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1978 albums Ryuichi Sakamoto albums Nippon Columbia albums