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Susumu Yokota : Love Or Die

Posted over 4 years ago
Susumu Yokota has a new solo album out. I catch my breath as I say that. Love Or Die is to be released in October.Mog love is good but I am torn. I like to post no more than one mp3 per artist per post as a matter of self-restraint, but I am bending that rule increasingly. Here's the skinny.Track 2 of 12, on comment, A Slowly Fainting Memory of Love and Respect, and Hatred, shuts the collective trap about why Susumu Yokota is a DJ god secret of experimental electronica, specifically ambient and house. It reaffirms that he kicks digital ass as hard as ever, what with 30 or so solo and collaborative albums to his name now.Track 4 of 12, on post, A Heart-warming and Beautiful Flower Will Eventually Wither Away and Become Dirt, gives the proverbial finger to those who tag Susumu Yokota as (uhrm) a mere electronic DJ rather than speak of him in terms of the vast universe. Which elucidates on his art (see top of post), mostly published as covers of albums under his record label, skintone.Phooey. It is all Siamese to me.
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Comments (9)

  1. poebegone
    poebegone says As above, this is the track simply entitled, A Slowly Fainting Memory of Love and Respect, and Hatred. The album artwork is another one of his, I think. ~YMjZfNKNbms.mp3~
    Permalink posted 09/07/2007
  2. Cody B
    Cody B says ...Beautiful Flower...is really cool, reminded me of Durruti Column for a minute and then went a little further out. Nice One!
    Permalink posted 09/07/2007
  3. poebegone
    poebegone says ohh The Durutti Column. there's a band i have not listened to forever. (putting some on now, thanks to you!) yes, i can see why they'd come up, especially early Durutti circa early '80s, i would think. eek now i am missing Tony Wilson... ps: welcome back! (:
    Permalink posted 09/07/2007
  4. ciphermedia
    ciphermedia says The Boy And The Tree is the only Susumo Yokota album that I have (and know). Nice to hear some other tracks Poe. Any other particular suggestions for him?
    Permalink posted 09/07/2007
  5. poebegone
    poebegone says oh boy, that's a toughie given how prolific the dude is. by the time i discovered him around '99, he'd had a massive catalogue to catch up on. what i have noticed is he tends to release the most experimental stuff under skintone and the most western-type electronica under other (overseas) labels and collabs. (Symbol and Distant Sounds of Summer, for example, are no doubt techno / ambient / house, and excellent stuff.) so i tend to chase after his skintone work, which so far are: Magic Thread, Image 1983-1998, Sakura, Mix, Grinning Cat, Will, The Boy and the Tree. (not sure of the label of the new one, Love Or Die.) with my limited knowledge, my top three recos are the following: 1- Grinning Cat. it sounds the most Japanese of all, with its windchime and gong things, and perhaps the farthest away from western electronica. very atmospheric, like imbibing spring blossoms, very melodic and just really breathtaking. if Haruki Murakami books had a soundtrack, this would be it (i made that up but wouldn't be surprised if i am not the first to notice.) 2. Magic Thread. it is one of those things that you either get or you don't. i did not know what to do with it when i first listened, but i am so convinced one day something will snap in my head and i will understand why it is the most beautiful work of his. very painfully sparse, oh so quiet, like catching the meaning of minimalist Japanese paintings or calligraphy and the moment you have it you lose it. 3. Sakura. my first real introduction to Yokota, has a special place in my heart. i'd say it is his best sane album. very fluid and flowing, slow deep house. has i think the perfect harmony between his ambient DJ self and classical composer self. from the separate tracks i know, Laputa is very trippy and like fantasy lit; Will is really dancey and upbeat. i do not have Image but want very much to have it because it is supposed to be all acoustic, very personal, and has a lot of organs. and these are just the ones i know, which are maybe 30% of what he's done. (:
    Permalink posted 09/08/2007
  6. ciphermedia
    ciphermedia says Coooool! By your description, it sounds like the skintone stuff is going to be more up my street too. Thanks for the suggestions. Am going to head off to emusic now to chase some of these up.
    Permalink posted 09/08/2007
  7. FluxCapacitor
    FluxCapacitor says Fantastic post, poe! Never heard of Yokata but I love the mp3s you've posted. And, delight of delights, I've followed ciphermedia to emusic and there's large swathes of his back catalogue there. That's my 40 downloads sorted for September! (Quite a cool looking dude, as well.)
    Permalink posted 09/09/2007
  8. HelenMarie
    HelenMarie says "with my limited knowledge" Please don't under estimate yourself! You offered quite a bit of info here. Nice tracks, very into this sound.
    Permalink posted 09/09/2007
  9. poebegone
    poebegone says flux and cipher: emusic is cool, is it not? i hope you like Yokota's stuff. most of it is great, and even if others aren't so great, you gotta love the dude for just going out there with what he's got (and he's got much). sd: eek, false humility check on myself! nah, i just meant, literally, that i have heard some 7 out of 30 albums of his, or less than 25%, and not even in their entirety. :D
    Permalink posted 09/10/2007

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