by Kingsley Marshall
The ever-prolific Susumu Yokota followed his acclaimed Grinning Cat full-length of crystalline electronica for Leaf with this, his third outing of straight up-and-down house. This follow-up to the date stamped 1998 and 1999 sees Yokota jetting from his studio in Shibuya, Japan, in order to search out the disco and garage lifeblood which runs through the veins of the warehouse clubs in the U.S. The title track, &Space Zero,& is typical of the album, injecting funk basslines via the guitar skills of Max Brennan as Harrison Crump's vocal dashes away the Chicago rain clouds. A quality cover of Idris Muhammad's '70s classic &Could Heaven Ever Be Like This& steals the show, however, with keyboard brass stabs punctuating Alice's resequenced vocal. The master at work.