Yolo

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Yolo album cover
Album Information

Total Tracks: 10   Total Length: 51:58

eMusic Review 0

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Amelia Raitt

eMusic Contributor

Amelia Raitt is a former writer for the television program Mr. Belvedere and has been writing about pop music of all colors and stripes for eMusic since 2005. S...more »

04.22.11
Tetsu Inoue, Yolo
Label: DiN / AWAL

The latest effort from Japanese electronic composer Tetso Inoue is made up of mere whiskers of sound. The songs are skeletal and deceptively simple: small pinpricks of electronics twinkle across dark empty space, haunting and serene. Inoue is a master of small gesture; each of the songs on Yolo is made up of just a few elements, but Inoue knows how to place them in a way that makes them sound mighty and imposing. A single band of sound (an orchestra tuning? The slowed-down sound of a busy intersection?) stretches across the center of "Remote", and though it's only a tiny cluster of notes Inoue makes it sound as vast and as bright as the Milky Way. Yolo is gorgeous, stirring music, another fine entry in the catalog of a master.

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Minimalism taken to the nth degree.

etripper

This album surely does emphasize the philosophy of "less is more". To be honest, I've never really listened that much to Inoue, but after listening to "Yolo" I may have to try his other projects as well. His approach here is very similar to Scott Morgan's of Loscil fame. I immediately made a mental connection to the album's: "First Narrows" and "Plume". Yet, Tetsu Inoue uses all-electronic elements versus Loscil's musicians. His effort comes off as an odd, but interesting foray into abstract tonal-signatures. Many of the cuts, would serve well on a compilation with other ambient artists of this ilk: John Foxx, Harold Budd, Robin Guthrie, Dron, and Loscil of course. As noted, you would probably need to be in the right mood, and have ample time to properly appreciate this CD. This is seasoned ambient fare for the advanced listerner, but then again, what do I know? Go ahead, give it a try!

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yolo

jpolewach

tetsu is the man. world receiver, yolo, and inland are all incredible.

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A great discovery

Germanprof

Chalk one up to the daily download - I downloaded Tane as a free track, listened a couple of times, forgot it, then was clearing out and thought I'd give it another listen before deleting it. Half a dozen listens later I was downloading more tracks. This is ambient music that enlivens instead of stupefying the mind, full of delicate surprises. A great listen if you really have the time and mood to be attentive. By the way, the release year is 2005.

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Sublime!

Mescalito

This album really demonstrates his talent once more. It's a minimal, abstract piece of "art" and worth re-listening over and over again! The mood he creates is hard to capture in words... and that certainly is a good thing! Make sure you have a decent pair of headphones to experience the sound and to make out all the small details. I really love this album!

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Amazingly Evocative Minimalism

ToxicThree

I bought this album on CD before realizing it would be posted to eMusic, and I'm actually glad I did it the way I did. Although I've been a fan of his for years this is the first album I've actually bought in that format. Far and away his most complex work yet, it (as Alice in Wonderland said about "Jabberwocky") seems to fill my head with ideas, only I'm not sure exactly what they are... Highly recommended!

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They Say All Music Guide

DiN prides itself on its experimental nature, and so Tetsu Inoue handed the label Yolo, his ninth solo album and his debut for DiN, and his most radical to date. It’s a set awash in subtle nuances and incredibly precise details, a pastiche of sonic fragments that the artist swiftly coalesces into intense aural vistas. It’s also a complex album, with only the faintest wisps of occasional melody for listeners to grab hold of, and no rhythms to really speak of, which make the set challenging for the more mainstream ambient fan. However, there’s certainly an ebb and flow to the set, and a serenity that encourages one to lose oneself in the textures and atmospheres within. But Inoue doesn’t want the listener’s mind to wander away, and thus there are disorientating sounds within as well. “Remote” rumbles with a fuzzy drone, and “Particular Moments” has a deliberate fuzziness as well, as well as fizzing and crackles. “Spirit of Data” is so fuzzy in spots one is tempted to check one’s CD and player for dust, at times the sound even skipped too, like a well-loved vinyl record. Even more experimental is the album opener, “Tane,” created almost exclusively from fragments of sounds and effects that Inoue miraculously pulls together into a coherent piece. Harmonics seem to be the focus of “S Equation,” which reaches a dramatic apotheosis on “Sour Cloud,” while “Super Nature” slithers into foreboding. From myriad small threads, Inoue weaves together an aural tapestry of great beauty, the patterns may be difficult to initially perceive, but his weave is tight, and the feel of the album a web of interconnecting effects, sounds, and moods. – Jo-Ann Greene

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