Forgive me for burying the lede but I have to go back to Yassue. For all of those that thought Yassue’s story ended on A Fine Day…I have to share a wonderful coda to that story. A Cosmic Pandora, if you will. Much like Yumiko Morioka’s MIOS, it was their little-known sophomore album that proved there was more for them to say — in a way that was genuinely unexpected.
Four years after her New Age music debut for J-WAVE, in 1996, Yassue and her brother Masakazu Anai were in need of a change (and in look of a record contract). The shifting sands in contemporary club music clued them that there were other ways to experiment with their “lighter” sound. The rise of ambient techno, deep house, and other forms of “chillout” styles provided some kind of template. So, somewhere in Santa Monica, California, the sibling duo befriended ex-Interior leader Daisuke Hinata and convinced him to join them to produce that different kind of music.
Dubbing themselves “Yasué”, a deliberate shortening of her name to mark that mindset change, together they tried to explore music with more spiritually-touched grooves hinting at African and Middle Eastern influences. And, luckily for them, they didn’t have to look too far for a record label.
It was Daisuke’s success with American global groove group Cagnet that offered him an opportunity to launch his own label he’d dub Global Disc Records under the large BMG label. Likewise, it was Daisuke’s interest in exploring world music (and bringing in such artists to America) that made Yasué a perfect fit to sign to his fledgling label. It may have been a long shot to get American audiences to dig a Japanese group like them but they seemed to have a certain something that warranted a shot.
What’s striking about Yasué’s Cosmic Pandora is just how much of Yassue we actually get to hear. Not just in charge of all the keyboard parts, but also showing off her vocal side, this album really is a showcase of Yassue as a burgeoning pop star. Songs like the opener “Peaceful Village” instantly remind me of the doe-eyed ambient side of Fond/Sound favorite, Dream Dolphin. Other tracks like “El-Dorado” and “Lakshimi” feature wildly inventive arrangements that air on just the right side of downtempo music.
My favorite tracks are those that feature sterling production by Masakazu and Daisuke serving as a vehicle for Yassue to snake her vocals across. How can one forget the pining melismatic vocals of “Suri Ya” finding their niche around whatever dubby techno her bandmates produce?
Roland’s [Digital Native Dance] preset (or at least whatever version Daisuke conjured up on his Korg workstation) gets its proper hat tip in Cosmic Pandora through a breathless, fist-pumping slot within the decidedly dance floor-oriented, “Native Mind”. You may not realize it but all the elements that made A Fine Day so interesting aren’t entirely gone here. Behind all these grooves there’s still a surprising amount of human soul. It’s just a different kind of evolution to match their evolution.
The album ends on that perfect statement, a “Fairy Circle”, a sonic breather that’s more atmosphere than groove. Ambling along, barely playing her leading lines, just when you think it’s a sleeper, Yassue unfurls some of her most pointed lines, little angelic embellishments that go up to somewhere. As for me, I’m just glad they got this creative reach out there on tape (somewhere).