While the global pandemic may have put a damper on our adventures in clubbing, music still has the power to transport us to places unknown. For now, the greatest club on earth may exist in our imagination – Discoteca Imaginaria. Each episode takes listeners to the scenes, clubs, regions and technology that have shaped our sonic history.

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Haruomi Hosono, Yukihiro Takahashi and Ryuichi Sakamoto originally formed Yellow Magic Orchestra in 1978 as a one-off experiment. Each member already has a flourishing solo career to tend to. Thankfully, the collaboration proved too ingenious for just one release. Yellow Magic Orchestra were not just pioneers of electronic, house, ambient and pop music through their embrace of then emerging technologies. Their global success proved that Japanese music could be embraced by the western world without cultural compromise. As Yukihiro Takahashi, who sadly passed away in January of 2023, put it: “I don’t think it matters if you’re black, white or yellow – how your music sounds is a question of education and social background, not racial differences. It’s got nothing to do with left and right sides of the brain either – it’s to do with environment.”