I've been going back to Susumu Yokota recently - Yokota's career was unfortunatley cut short, but you can't say he didn't make the most of the years he was active, Discogs lists 29 albums between 1999 and 2019, and that's not even counting the other releases under his many aliases. It can be a bit of a minefield with Yokota in the best way, over his career he's dabbled in Techno, Ambient, House, Breaks and more over his many releases. You'll find yourself surprised with some of them though - Love Or Die is listed on Discogs as 'Ambient', and while it does dip into that from time to time, there's so much beat action going on here I'd struggle to call it that. But that's getting away from the point - from my quick run through it's a great little slice of downtempo.
Two standouts for you: The Scream Of A Sage Who Lost Freedom And Love Taken For Granted Before is the most uptempo of the bunch, a frantic cut of Drum & Bass amidst the calm of the rest of the tracklist. But the moment I fell in love is track three - The Loneliness Of Anarchic Beauty Achieved By My Ego which for me is the perfect bridge between the more ambient parts of Sakura and his more beat oriented work. Give the whole album a listen if your taste aligns with mine, I'm really enjoying my time with it.
Keeping in similar theme, Rei Harakami, who has a similar tale to tell, albeit with less releases than Yokota. But even so, I'm a very well publicised fan of Harakami's work, I simply adore the delicate sound he nigh perfected by the time [Lust] released. Relatively simple all things considered, that trademark Harakami sound is a Roland SC-88 Pro using the basic Electric Piano sound with a touch of delay, but even so Harakami weaves wonders with it. I've deliberately left a couple of albums of his on the wishlist for a while as a result, it's the kind of music I treat myself to once in a while to both avoid overplaying it all but also to make it all the more sweeter. It doesn't take long for Wasuremono to follow suit, you could drop the needle pretty much anywhere on this record and be immediately immersed in it - Itoguchi showing it off in full force. I will also freely admit that a large reason this one is here is that I love me some pitch bends.
Following the Drum & Bass streak I've mentioned above, I've also been trying to broaden my horizons a bit. I noted down the 'Out Patents' series from Hospital Records well over a decade back at this point, back when I was really into the brand of Liquid Funk stuff they were putting out, but like so many of my noted down 'to check out' things it sort of fell by the wayside. Thanks to their Bandcamp having a fairly exhaustive backcatalogue it's back on the menu, we're taking a trip back 22 years ago to the very first Out Patients compilation - a far cry from the melodic Liquid Funk that you might know them for these days, this compilation is billed as having both 'Jazz Breaks, Future Soul' in addition to the expected Drum & Bass.
The one I"ve chosen from it certainly fits more into that Jazzy Breaks mold, more in line with something like the Moving Shadow Strom From The East compilations I've been revisiting recently. A little 'of the era' in its execution perhaps, but it's a style that I have a fondness for - the kind of tune that would fit right in on a playlist we refer to at work as Coffee Shop Electronic.
And that'll be all for now, I do have some others lined up, but as I've learned from previous months doing this kind of post - it pays to store some cards for later. That and I like how these play out back to back, feels fairly cohesive. Feels fairly long too, but my perception of that is kind of skewed these days now I've gotten into the habit of typing posts on multiple devices, so apologes in advance for any stange formatting choices! But I digress as usual. I'll be back with more of my Bandcamp scoops sometime next week but until then, as always - stay safe and enjoy the music.
-CVF
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