From Pietro Sent Tue, Feb 29th 2000, 15:34
From Pietro Sent Tue, Feb 29th 2000, 15:34
I think someone (possibly me) brought this release to our attention before. Well here's the press-details from DEI. >SUSUMU YOKOTA >Magic Thread >BAY11CD / BAY11V (limited double LP) >UPC: 1753-32679-2 > >"This is the sort of music you put on while you're doing the washing up >only to find it has taken control of your very soul" Ben Thompson, Mojo, on >'Image 1983-1998' > >Though probably better known for his funked-up techno and house (and jazz, >disco, drum & bass, etc), Susumu Yokota received fulsome praise for the >Image 1983-1998 album released by The Leaf Label in September 1999. March >2000 sees the first release outside Japan of the now ridiculously scarce >Magic Thread album. The album was actually released in Japan before Image, >in a limited edition of just 500 copies on CD - the very first release on >Yokota's own Skintone label. > >Magic Thread has a more electronic feel to it than Image, but is still >possessed of the plaintive melodies and haunting minimalist dynamics that >made Image such an unexpected treat. > >After Ken Ishii, Yokota was the first techno artist to release music in >Europe (1992's Frankfurt-Tokyo Connection on Harthouse). Since then he has >enjoyed a prolific career as both a DJ and recording artist, working under >a host of pseudonyms, including 246, Ringo, Prism and Stevia. With his star >currently very much in the ascendant in his native Japan and continental >Europe, Yokota has begun to make an impression in the UK with his two most >recent albums on Sublime, 1998 and 1999. He has sold in excess of 90,000 >records worldwide. > >Due to popular demand, we are pleased to announce that the release of this >album will be complemented by the belated release of his last Skintone >album, Image 1983-1998, on limited edition 180g vinyl (BAY 9V). > >Yokota's next release on Leaf will be a 4-track EP of deep house remixes >(more in keeping with his more familiar work on Sublime) of tracks taken >from Image, Magic Thread, and the third album in the Skintone series, >Sakura, which will also be released through Leaf later this year. He will >also contribute to the forthcoming Invisible Soundtracks : Macro 3, and is >to release his first ever mix album on Skintone, using only music from The >Leaf Label. We wait with baited breath... > >CD: LP: > >1. A1. Weave >2. A2. Reflux >3. A3. Unravel >4. B1. Circular >5. B2. Spool >6. C1. Potential >7. B3. Fiber >8. C2. Metabolic >9. D1. Stitch >10. D2. Blend >11. D3. Melt > > >Reviews of Image 1983-1998: > >"sexy and funny...Image's micro mood engineering is pure phantasmal pop, a >compelling tour of musical dustworlds. It makes you itch to hear whatever >ivory dice Yokota rolls out next" Ian Penman, The Wire > >"the Japanese dream forger has proved that minimalism in all spheres has a >transfixing meeting point. Captivating" Kevin Martin, Top > >"sublime" The Times > >"evocative and beguiling" Alternative Press > >"spine-tinglingly beautiful moments" Wax > >"wonderfully imaginative" Sleazenation > >"beauty incarnate" 7 > >============================== > > >SUSUMU YOKOTA >Image 1983 - 1998 >BAY9V (limited edition 180g LP vinyl) > >Susumu Yokota has been earning heaps of praise for his super-funky blend of >house, techno, disco, jazz and breaks, with releases on Japan's Sublime >Records, among others. "[He] has more ideas in the space of one album than >most house producers have in their entire careers" said Mixmag of 1999, his >most recent album on Sublime. > >The Leaf Label has licensed Image 1983-1998, a collection of mainly >acoustic and oddly moving instrumental and vocal pieces from Yokota's own >Skintone label, a very personal project, representing a very different side >to his musical persona to the one you may already be aware of. There are >already another two Skintone albums ready to go, both in very different >styles. Yokota is proving increasingly difficult to pin down, which can >only be a good thing as far as we're concerned. > >Already synonymous with dance music in Japan, Yokota first attracted >worldwide attention back in '92 with 'Frankfurt-Tokyo Connection' on >Harthouse. Since then he has enjoyed a prolific career as both a DJ and >recording artist, working under a host of pseudonyms, including 246, Ringo >and Prism (for Sublime and Reel Musiq) and Stevia (for NSCom). He has sold >in excess of 90,000 albums worldwide. > >Yokota will be making DJ appearances in the UK in late October, in whatever >guise he sees fit. Keep your eyes peeled... > >track listing: > >1. Kaiten Mokuba >2. Tayutafu >3. Fukoro No Yume >4. Wani Natte >5. Sakashima >6. Morino Gakudan >7. Nisemono No Uta >8. Daremoshiranai Chiisanakuni >9. Kawano Hotorino Kinoshitade >10. Yumekui Kobito >11. Amai Niyoi >12. Enogu >13. Amanogawa > > >"An astounding record that works it's way in through your lungs as much as >your ears. Instrumentals of the best kind with changing sounds (although >clouded keyboards and strings are primary) and real emotional weight pulled >around by virtue of the noise itself. Choose one for each song: choruses of >robot and human voices, pocket circus music, looped acoustic guitar trills >and samples as if played by real fingers, music boxes, sighs, 70s electric >piano, digital harmonicas. No beats to speak of anywhere, but a pulse flows >through the CD nonetheless -- it's as if ambient music had a focus instead >of being an agent of dilution. Metaphorically, Yokota connects this music >to kona: the Japanese word for powder, or, an assemblage of particles. From >the liner notes: "Accumulate some white kona and blow on them. They will >scatter, can never be replaced exactly in their original form. Like the >vagueness of memories." While Yokota has concurrently made creative acid >house and techno music for the last decade, every so often he obviously >stopped, gathered together those life sounds and experiences that didn't go >into the techno, and made these tracks. This CD is where he inhales, >deeply, reflectively." 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