We Are Not In Love

If you even attempt to keep up on the blogging world at all, you've inevitably heard of Crystal Castles. Moreover, you've probably heard their recent collaboration with vocalist Robert Smith. In case you HAVEN'T, here it is.



Now clearly, this is a pretty epic track. It has a great 'I Listen To Obscure Indie Stuff' feel to it, while still maintaining some appeal for the non-indie kids who just like good music.

Now, compare this version to the version Crystal Castles (or rather, Ethan Kath... he did the whole track himself. No Alice.) put on their Crystal Castles (II) album earlier this year.



I honestly think the album should've waited until they had the Robert Smith vocals, but I suppose dividing the hype between multiple releases is better for them.

What a lot of people don't know about Not In Love is that it's a cover of an old 1983 rock track by a group called Platinum Blonde. They were a Canadian band, so understandably, they never made it that big. For some reason, the rest of the world seems to think Canada is a stupid place full of stupid people and stupid music. Now if they're BRITISH, or AUSTRALIAN... OH MY GOD SHUT EVERYTHING DOWN, THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER. Just something I noticed.

Seeing as there aren't many copies of the 1983 original available to the blog-reading community, I thought it might be cool to give you guys a taste of what was being emulated here.



Good old 80's rock. The hair, the sleeveless shirts... truly an era that could stand to return. An era when rock music had some testosterone in it. An era before gurlymen took over popular music (Hey Soul Sister, anyone?). -Boba

Let's Get Loungy

I've had a ton of work to do this week, which meant a lot of time in my room. And so, once again through the magic of shuffle, I will spill some lovely tracks for all y'all out there. To make up for my abscence, ofc :).

Despite the title, I wouldn't really call some of these Lounge tracks. More 'Bedroom Tracks' really. Regardless, here's the first track: Honeydew from the Tea loving Mr. Scruff. The intro on this one is just brilliant, and it only gets better from there.



A recent addition to my collection, Massive Attack's Protection could fill every slot on this post with it's chill downtempo vibes. But it came down to this song or Better Things. I think it better suits the atmosphere of these fall months, and it's a cracking song to boot.



I was originally going to save this one for about december time, but I felt it fit much better among these tracks than the ones I had planned. featuring heavy beats and haunting vocals it all flows very smoothly. this'll be sure to keep you warm on these cold nights.

Squarepusher's always had a soft side, often doing chilled tracks on his albums. This is probably my favourite chilled number by him, taking influence from Jazz instead of Jungle and Breakbeat, it creates a great atmosphere and is perfect as something to listen to while you study. Or while you do nothing at all for that matter.



Topping things off today is the master of chill himself, N.O.W. The introduction to In A Space Outta Sound is a slow jorney filled with samples, vinyl crackles and analouge hisses. It's everything you want from N.O.W and more, staying consistently fresh for the entire 7 minutes.



Once again, sorry for the lack of content by me recently. I seem to have a few weeks of nothing and then I get tons of work dumped on me. Anyone out there in a simillar situation, I hope these tunes help you like they did me. As always, stay safe and enjoy.

All Work & No Play,
-Claude Van Foxbat

Talk Robot To Me

I've said before a few times that I have a weakness for vocoders and effects like them, and I always have, I don't know why but something about that sound just makes everything AWESOME. (well, except speedbass maybe) and today, I'm going to dig through my collection to find my favourite examples of various vocal effects in use from the the early stuff to fairly recent tunes.

We've come a long way, baby

Up first is MSTRKRFT, who used it a whole bunch on their first album, The Looks. it was tough to decide on which track to pick, but I think I made the best choice in the end, it's just so infectiously smooth!



Teenage Bad Girl are another electro act who used vocoders alot on their album, there are many tracks I could've picked but many only feature vocals for s minute or two, or even unvocoded ones, I think I got the right balance with this one.



And yes, even more from Squarepusher! Even before D'demonstrator he dabbled in vocoding and this track is the perfect example of it, Jazzy riffs mixed with fast amen break-esque beats, I can't get enough of it.



Royksopp don't use it at all in their studio work but their live shows are a different thing entirely. This is taken from a concert they did in full kraftwerk gear, (ie: red shirts, black ties etc.) it's probably my favourite version of Remind Me out there taking the best remix and adding that extra live atmosphere to it.

What's a vocoder post without one of the grandmasters of electronic music, Giorgio Moroder? He probably used a Korg like that to record this number which is one of my guilty pleasures, stay tuned for the awesome breakdown around 3:20.



and of course, everyone's favourite that needs no introduction...



NOT auto-tuned, -Claude Van Foxbat