30 Years of Acid Mt. Fuji: Celebrating Susumu Yokota’s 303 Masterpiece — and His 1994 Releases as Yin & Yang and Ebi

In 1994, the late Japanese electronic producer Susumu Yokota was just getting started but only a few years away from releasing a string of brilliant, inventive ambient electronic records that ditched the 4:4 stomp for luscious, textured meditative tracks on albums like Sakura, Magic Thread, and Grinning Cat. Then living in Berlin and working with the Sven Vath-connected Frankfurt label Harthouse, in 1993 Yokota had released his first album, called the Tokyo-Frankfurt Connection.

At the time, Berlin was in the midst of a non-stop post-reunification party enabled by newfound freedoms, the bounty of abandoned warehouse spaces — and a love affair with Detroit techno producers Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson. The combustible Berlin energy helped define the sound of electronic dance music for decades to come. You can hear it on Yokota’s acid-drenched 1993 track “Panicwaves” from Yokota’s first project, called the Frankfurt-Tokyo Connection.

The late Yokota, who died in 2015, had an incredibly productive 1994, and little could he have known that, 30 years later, these tracks would serve as early reputation-building seeds that sprouted and blossomed and, like a time-lapse of a tulip, transformed at an incredible rate.

Crucially, Yokota teased that progression on the astounding album Acid Mt. Fuji. Originally issued by Japanese label Sublime on compact disc, in 2018 the Berlin label Midgar commenced a vinyl reissue campaign that included a few colored variants. That reissue remains a landmark, game-changing revelation, one that connects his Love Parade-inspired rave foundations and his inventive explorations of texture, melody, found sound, and ambient washes of sound to come.

To celebrate its 30th anniversary — which is on Saturday (June 29) — Sublime’s parent company Musicmine has just issued a remastered version of Acid Mt. Fuji. We’re taking pre-orders on it in our shop.

Yokota was playing around with a few different monikers in ’94, and each reveals a different aspect of the producer’s growing aesthetic. For the Japanese label Frogman, he issued a mesmerizing EP as Yin & Yang. It’s dense with 303 squiggles and foreshadows his love for vocal samples by employing a choir snippet.

For the German label Space Teddy, Yokota took on the name Ebi to create the truly magnificent, and yet to be reissued, album Zen. Eleven mesmerizing, softer acid tracks, it suggests a way forward for his more contemplative side.

Here’s an excerpt from the notes to the remastered Acid Mt. Fuji vinyl edition.

‘Acid Mt. Fuji’ is an enchanting mix of mystical ambient acid and futurist minimal techno, taking the listeners on a psychedelic pilgrimage, where 303, synths and electronic percussion are scented with reverb, echo and forest recordings. Merging Japanese new age and sparse electronica, the recording is free, organic, and energized – proffering a unique blend of early 90s western styles and the essence of his home country.

Yokota originally planned an ambient record, but ‘Acid Mt. Fuji’ evolved into a concept work featuring the Roland TB-303, which he recorded live at home alongside a sampler, yielding experimental and innovative results.

The long player found its muse in the famed 18th-19th century artist Hokusai’s red rendition of Mt. Fuji, known as ‘Red Fuji’ or ‘Akafuji’. Part of the painter’s renowned ‘Thirty Six Views of Mt. Fuji’ series from the 1830s, ‘Red Fuji’ depicts the iconic sacred mountain aglow in red at dawn, symbolizing spirituality and creativity. With references to Japanese folklore, nature and shrines, tracks like ‘Kinoko’ and ‘Meijijingu’ invite the listener to immerse themselves in the album’s spiritual depths.

Yokota’s own homage-to-Hokusai drawing graces the record’s cover, and was inspired by the concept of wa (harmony) – highlighting his diverse skills not only as a musician, but an artist and designer too.

This remastered vinyl reissue will likely go fast. If you want to pre-order it, you can do so here.