In college I idolized Ryuchi Sakamoto and Thomas Dolby. When Sakamoto’s collaboration with Dolby came out, my best friend Mike LeFebre and I listened to the first play of the single on the radio in his room in the cavernous Ark Co-Op in Austin.

Sakamoto had several bouts of cancer before succumbing to this latest one a few days ago. I knew it was going to happen, but still. It hurts. A lot.

I’m going to recommend one album of his to you, beyond his work with Yellow Magic Orchestra: Neo Geo.

Neo Geo came out in 1987. I bought the CD, along with Sly and Robbie’s Rhythm Killers the first week I was in Madison for graduate school. They remain among my favorites. And they have personnel in common: Bill Laswell, Bootsy Collins, and Sly Dunbar.

Here’s a live version of the title track.

If anything happens to Haruomi Hosono this year, I’m going to fight God.