Magic Thread (Skintone Edition)

Yokota's Skintone imprint allows the popular Japanese producer of funk-fortified dance music to indulge an intriguingly split personality. An artier, more introspective Yokota first came to light on the wistful IMAGE 1983-1998 once the record was granted wider release by London's fine Leaf label. MAGIC THREAD, a prequel to that well-received effort, finds the artist again unraveling the weave of the metaphysical timeline that led him to techno music. MAGIC THREAD tracks such as "Reflux," "Blend," "Potential," and "Metabolic" take a more emphatically beat-centric approach to the self-evaluation evidenced on IMAGE. Yokota reconciles his rhythmic and melodic gifts, bracing delicate, occasionally evanescent instrumentation with durably minimalist drum programming. But the most arresting results are achieved when Yokota allows his music to blossom in the open space between form and fancy. Unrestricted by dancefloor constraints and exquisite in their ectoplasmic detail, such tracks as "Weave," "Unravel," the ionically charged "Stitch," "Spool," and especially "Fiber" capture the unadulterated essence of Yokota's boundless musical imagination.