- Martyn Pepperell writes about the ornate and beautifully arranged techno of this new reissue from the late Japanese maestro.
- In the mid-2000s, the late trailblazing Japanese composer, producer, DJ and visual artist Susumu Yokota began to draw a curtain between himself and the world around him. This may have been due to the health issues that plagued the final decade of his life before his death in 2015. However, if you ask those who were close to Yokota, something else was going on as well. As his longtime friend Alex From Tokyo explained in an audio documentary piece I created with Ken Hidaka for the Los Angeles-based online radio station Dublab in March 2022, "It felt like something changed for him musically. He was definitely on his own planet in his dreams, digging deeper within himself, trying to embrace all the beautiful emotions and things he was feeling."
Born in Toyama, Japan, in 1960, Yokota's late teens and early 20s were soundtracked by the arrival of post-punk, particularly English and Welsh groups like The Durutti Column and Young Marble Giants. Enthralled by the rise of acid house, techno, deep house, drum & bass and breakbeat in the '90s, Yokota produced a dizzying array of singles, EPs and albums. Released under his name and at least 11 other aliases, every record helped him craft a cult reputation in Japan and across Europe.
In 1999, as the 20th century drew to a close, Yokota released one of his masterworks, Sakura. Deeply introspective and moving, Sakura saw Yokota fold his love of textural guitars, pulsing machine beats and nostalgic melodies into a dreamy wonderland of escapism and reflection. By looking inwards, he unearthed a sensibility that found favour in hearts across the globe.
Over the next few years, Yokota continued to cultivate this sensibility, arriving somewhere between genres, always looking forward while continuing to harken back to his personal musical history. Baroque, originally released on CD in 2004 through Frogman Records sub-label United Sounds Of Blue, is one of the strongest windows into the depths he was plunging in the mid-'00s, now released on vinyl for the first time by the Spanish record label Modern Obscure Music.
As a statement of intent, the title Baroque creates expectations of musical complexity, ornamentation and drama, all of which Yokota delivers across the album's ten-track run. When you consider song titles like "Keel" and "Spinner," though—plus foghorn sounds, bird call samples and filtered breakbeats that sound like they're submerged in water—there's an oceanic theme at work here, with turbulence and calm living hand in hand. It's a fitting metaphor for the range of emotions Yokota drew from across the albums he recorded in the 2000s.
As he told Bim Ricketson in an interview for the Australian experimental music website Cyclic Defrost in 2002, "I'm trying to achieve that beautiful thing. There is always fear, rage, and ugliness existing behind beauty. I have been trying to express ki-do-ai-raku (the four emotions: joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness) through music. I would like to express even one's hidden emotion with reality. It's my eternal goal."
From the beginning of the album opener, "Deformed Pearl," a shuffling house groove skips over sun-glittered waters. At the same time, pitch-manipulated melodies, distorted snares and nature samples reshape a simple groove into something more cinematic. These impulses continue across "Deep Sea Diva" and "Gem Stones," with deep, dubby basslines, washy ambient textures and reggae funk organ notes adding character along the way.
Halfway through the record, Yokota briefly detours into his past post-punk and ambient guitar explorations before switching back into Baroque's earlier mood with "Boreas," named after the Greek god of the north wind. Across the rest of the album, there's always a matching quiet spot for every big wave. "Extension" finds intimacy in joyful harp flourishes. "Royal Flush" sounds like the memories of hearing an '80s funk covers band play at a casino blending into the organic dance records Yokota and his DJ friends played at the Lust nightclub in Tokyo's Ebisu district in the final years of the 20th century. Baroque's penultimate track, "Spinner," evokes mournful shades of mid-'90s atmospheric jungle before the album concludes with traditional Japanese percussion set against a pounding house beat on "Nacre."
When Baroque was released in 2004, it was received by a cult audience Yokota had cultivated around the world. In the 18 years since, his early-'00s albums have become some of the most celebrated electronic music records to emerge from Japan during that period. It might not be the first album that comes to mind when you think of Susumu Yokota, but for the skill with which he combines ki-do-ai-raku (the four emotions) into a beauty that moves bodies and hearts, Baroque is richly deserving of its moment in the sun on calm, crystal-clear waters.
Tracklist01. Deformed Pearl
02. Deep Sea Diva
03. Gem Stones
04. Keel
05. Re
06. Boreas
07. Extension
08. Royal Flush
09. Spinner
10. Nacre