WONDER WALTZ
Susumu Yokota has been prodigious in his output. His albums are hard to resist for their prettiness and clever juxtapositions of styles, from dub to electronics to Balinese gamelan. But they always leave you feeling that they are no more than elaborate confections. Wonder Waltz is no exception. It's occasionally arresting and enchanting, but just as often irritating. Yokota declines to venture further down some of the darker paths his music hints at, too often opting for the safety net of a triphop-style backbeat or simply allowing his loops to proceed in a merry-go-round. The least successful aspect of Wonder Waltz is its use of vocalists Caroline Ross, Iva Bittová and Hahimi Karie. Their airy cooings flutter and waft tastefully but ineffectually, high in the mix, voicing adoration for their musical surroundings but adding nothing substantial to them.
That said, there are many lovely moments on Wonder Waltz. "Your Shining Darkness" is a 21st century addition to Eno's Another Green World, the warm gamelan drizzle of "Capital Of Daisy" is very pleasing and "Eternity Is The Beginning Of The End", with its mosaic of alternate rhythms and sequencer chatter, leads a fascinating dance.
David Stubbs
July 2026
As the title suggests, each of the selections on Wonder Waltz is in triple meter, which is fairly unusual for electronica, if nothing necessarily remarkable in itself. (It would be a stretch to call most of them "waltzes," since some are clearly felt in six and others are either extremely loose or convoluted, rhythmically speaking -- the obvious exception being "Merrygoround," a circus-like early Yokota composition that's reprised here from Image: 1983-1998.) But it will have to suffice as a unifying concept, since apart from the presence of (mostly female) vocals on all but a couple of them, it's just about the only thing these 14 tracks have in common. This is almost certainly Yokota's most varied album to date, gesturing at a dozen or more styles (trip-hop, electro, tango, gamelan, Indian classical music, breakbeat IDM, folk, and beyond) while remaining essentially undefined and abstract. In that sense it both reflects and transcends most of what the hyperprolific Japanese producer has accomplished to date, recalling everything from his straight-ahead house and techno material (the three-on-the-floor thud of "Siva Dance") to his majestic ambient work (the voiceless closer "Holy Ground," a minimal meditation on Yokota's beloved bell sounds.) The album understandably fails to cohere as much of a whole, not so much because there are radical shifts in tone as that there's nothing in particular holding things together. Unfortunately, many of the individual pieces -- most of which consist of a few simple elements juxtaposed to create a texture that then remains largely unvaried -- also fall flat on their own terms, coming off as unfinished ideas. Even the unifying elements of triple-meter and centrally situated vocals start to feel like uncomfortable limitations, as the vocals rest uneasily on top of oddly mannered, stilted grooves that don't quite jell into songs, but are too active to work as mood music. There are worthwhile exceptions -- the tender, graceful "My Energy," the Eastern/Eastern-European-tinged "Robed Heart," featuring Moravian violinist Iva Bittová, the almost Mazzy Star-like "Your Shining Darkness" -- but on the whole Wonder Waltz is unable to translate its conceptual premises into satisfying musical results. An intriguing disappointment.
K. Ross Hoffman
Original Review in German:
Der japanische Techno- und Electronica-Produzent Susumu Yokota hat in den letzten zwölf Jahren mehr als zwanzig Alben veröffentlicht, zwei davon Mitte der Neunzigerjahre auf Sven Väths Label Harthouse. „Wonder Waltz“ ist ein sehr schönes, sehr musikalisches Album, das stilistisch kaum greifbar ist und in seiner vielfältigen elektronischen und akustischen Instrumentierung doch sehr einfach und konkret klingt. Yokota entfaltet feinkörnige Strukturen, die sich auf gleicher Augenhöhe zum Hörer befinden. Die Innigkeit und Intimität im Umgang mit der Musik ist die eines Jazz-Musikers. Die Vocals von Caroline Ross, Kahimi Karie und Iva Bittova machen die ganze Bandbreite dessen auf, was mit der menschlichen Stimme möglich ist: Mal singen sie echte Songs, mal sind es gesprochene Worte, manchmal sind die Stimmen so stark editiert und mit Hall versehen, dass sie wie Instrumente, wie Synthesizer wirken. Dann wieder gibt es eine echte Rap-Nummer. Musik von erstaunlicher Tiefe.
English Translation (via Google Translate):
The Japanese techno and electronica producer Susumu Yokota has released more than twenty albums in the last twelve years, two of them in the mid-nineties on Sven Väth's label Harthouse. "Wonder Waltz" is a very beautiful, very musical album, which is stylistically hardly tangible and yet sounds very simple and concrete in its diverse electronic and acoustic instrumentation. Yokota unfolds fine-grained structures that are at the same eye level as the listener. The intimacy and intimacy in dealing with music is that of a jazz musician. The vocals of Caroline Ross, Kahimi Karie and Iva Bittova open up the whole range of what is possible with the human voice: sometimes they sing real songs, sometimes they are spoken words, sometimes the voices are so heavily edited and provided with reverb that they seem like instruments, like synthesizers. Then again there is a real rap number. Music of astonishing depth.
Alexis Waltz
19th June 2006
Yokota is so prolific and his discography so large, it's tempting to reduce a new work to a formula even before hearing it. One expects a Yokota release to draw its eclectic pool of samples from Western classical music, minimalism, gamelan, and other ‘world' musics, and for Yokota to do little to mask the identity of the samples like other producers who transform them or reduce them to miniscule fragments. One also expects ethereal vocals to accompany the songs' tribal rhythms, and ultimately to be impressed by the cleverness of their construction while simultaneously suspicious of how easy it is to produce them. Not surprisingly, Wonder Waltz fits the formula on all counts yet is distinguished by one especially notable development: the inclusion of multiple vocalists, each of whom adds a slightly different character to the project.
The album concept evolved out of Yokota's collaboration with Rothko (Distant Sounds of Summer) and in particular Caroline Ross's singing so it's not surprising that Ross re-appears. Joining her are Iva Bittova (a vocalist from Moravia who often performs with Bang On A Can), Japanese singer Hahimi Karie, and French DJ Alex From Tokyo. Karie's breathy enunciation in “Don't Go To Sleep” almost renders the title abstract, while her lulling whisper appears alongside a tick-tock pulse and chiming melodies in “My Energy.” Bittova's songs are the most eccentric and exotic of the lot. She drapes her scat over techno boogie in “Siva Dance” and wordlessly wails over a galloping beat in “Pegasus 150.” The album's greatest departure arrives in “L'etranger” when Alex From Tokyo speaks French over a dark industrial churn.
The most affecting songs are those featuring Ross. In the opening “1000 Wing Beats per Second,” the combination of chirping flutes and clarinets, a lazy trip-hop beat, and Ross's delicate vocalizing initially feels awkward and seems almost crude—until that is, her voice gently wafts skyward and Yokota's customary skill at weaving disparate elements into coherent wholes asserts itself. Her crystal clear singing elevates “Robed Heart” above the mildly interesting gamelan folk waltz it would otherwise be, and, in the album's most entrancing song, her graceful honey-dewed voice adds glorious shimmer to “Your Shining Darkness.” It's a far from perfect album—sometimes the samples do little more than sit awkwardly side-by-side (e.g., the acidy beats and string playing in “Rainbow Dust”)—but, like any Yokota release, the album has its share of memorable moments, in this case the Ross-Yokota pairings in particular.
September 2006
Latest from this lover of untreated samples draws from several styles without focusing on any one.
Since Susumu Yokota often assembles tracks from untreated samples, his albums can seem like nothing more than a tour through his taste in music. We know he likes tribal percussion, ethereal female voices, lush western classical, and the repetition of the minimalists. The proportions vary from album to album and his large discography has a surprising amount of variety, but at least a few of these favored elements are always present.
Yokota's latest album draws from several styles without focusing on any one. Opener "1000 Wing Beats Per Second", a looped clip of chirpy woodwinds references the obsession with European classical he displayed on last year's Symbol. A woman's voice offers a dreamy incantation, and then a lazy (in every sense) trip-hop beat sets the pace. It's classic Yokota-- all glittery surfaces and sugary frosting and gushy prettiness-- and it develops an odd sense of depth despite its severe lack of complexity. "Capital of Daisy" is in a similar vein, adding some Middle Eastern chants, vocoder bits, and a grinding music box to the mix. The use of voice to suggest songs as opposed to the rhythmic punctuation of Meredith Monk is a new twist, but Wonder Waltz doesn't stay in any one place long. Instead, it follows a lot of blind alleys.
"Pegasus 150" is nothing more than a stiff loop of hand drums and a wailing voice-- third-tier Dead Can Dance for a coffee shop WorldBeat comp, something to be slotted next to the Afro Celt Sound System. "Robed Heart" adds some violin to the same formula and tries for something more lilting, but the melody is MIA and the singer has difficulty staying on key. "L'etranger" seems to have wandered in from a bad new wave album, with a tight synth loop and spoken French run through a delay bringing zero emotional content. And "Rainbow Dust" references the Orb and other classic early 1990s ambient house, but does little to develop its spacey synths.
You get the sense that Yokota works too quickly, cutting and pasting ideas as they come without much thought to how their impact could be maximized. You also get the sense that this is how he prefers to operate, since he's been prolific for the past dozen years and has managed a small handful of sublime records. Wonder Waltz feels mostly like a collection of duff experiments-- fun to explore but with little staying power.
Mark Richardson
27th June 2006