So, years over soon, and I thought I'd do something a little different. I'm gonna cut down on the words for this one and instead just hand out some ammo to blast on NYE to make sure yours is the best sounding night on the block. Stand by for tons of players coming your way, in fact think it might the most I've ever had in one post.
We got house, we got techno, we got mixtures of genres and all, a lil' bit of evrything. You go on out and have yourselves a good night with this lot and as always stay safe, enjoy the music and have yourselves a very nice New Year from all of us here at ilictronix!
Good News! The Apocalypse has been swiftly averted so we can all carry on existing as usual. Turns out the Mayans were about as good at predicting the end times as they were at predicting the arrival of the Spanish. But it does open up a nice window for me to talk about tunes, see me and a friend got talking about what'd go on our end of the world playlists so I thought I's share with you all my list of finely crafted end world tunes.
Squarepusher to start, with Tundra 4 from the wildcard Venus No. 17 EP having the perfect balance of glitchy breakbeats and foreboding backing like in the original Tundra. It starts fairly placid but just layers on the intensity over and over again through it's 12 minute run time, but this is only the beginning.
Staying in familiar territory, fellow beat melter Venetian Snares brings his contribution to the table. It works mostly in the same ways, with those haunting ethereal strings juxtaposed with the madcap drum programming. It, like most of Rossz Csillag Alatt Született shouldn't work. But it does, and in spectacular form.
I just had to include this live recording of Aphex from 1990, it's got that rawness about it like on Analog Worms Attack that's real nice, and of course the 303 work is also pretty nice. Take note that this is from AFX's acid house days, so don't expect any beat butchery in the vein of the 'Pusher and the Snares above.
Bringing it back to more coherent tunes, an old gem I had buried away in the depths of my Dubstep folder from Press, I got it like forever ago on some kind of compilation EP with a Stenchman tune and a few others, and they all have that Stenchman-esque grimy streak to them. I wasn't expecting it to hold up very well, but it properly nails the sound it's going for, my only complaint is it's a bit long at 7 minutes but I can let that slide.
And finally, my favourite slice from the Planisphere series Justice did for a Dior fashion show. The crunchy guitar solo throughout absolutely makes this from the get go, but the break around 1:10 lets you know that something big is on the way. And it doesn't disappoint, the guitar returns, this time with the trademark Justice touch that pushes it to that next level.
And with that I'm done. Until the next apocalypse at least, rest assured that if and when that time arrives I will have more tracks prepared to make your end of the world the best sounding one this side of Alpha Centauri!
So the last day of post is coming up in the UK in 3 days. Not ideal when you're jonesing for new tunes like me, so I decided to turn to my partner in crime the Internet. I've been digging more of FlyLos stuff recently, picking up where I left off after Los Angeles, and thanks to the wonders of digital distribution I have some tunes to share with you lot today.
The first is from an old pre-1983 demo floating around the tubes of the web, a lot of Flo's crunchy stuff from that era is on here in spades, but the one track that stood out to me the most is a surprisingly downtempo slice fittingly titled Slow It Down. I loves me some smooth instrumentals, and it's not often we get something this slow coming out of camp FlyLo.
I spotted this bootleg on YouTube forever ago, but only just got around to picking it up the Shhh! white label from the lotus has some tasty bits on it, kicking it all off with this twisted rework of Mr. Oizo's Stunt. It's pretty special anyway, but those light n' airy synths around 2:08 just sold me completely, even if they don't hang around long.
Flying Lotus sometimes dips into dub styled territory, see Massage Situation for example, and this track is no different. There's two versions of this on the bootleg, the other is an instrumental, I chose this one because honestly it feels a bit shallow without the sampled vocal track on it from Madvillain's Shadows Of Tomorrow
And finally some officially released joints from the set of EPs released just after Los Angeles. The first (Complexly titled L.A EP 1X3) is made up of what I can only assume are cuts that didn't make the album, which is a real shame because even though it's just shy of two minutes long, Rickshaw is a killer track.
The next track My Chippy sound just like all of FlyLo's styles up until that point mashed together, the crunchy unfinished vibe of 1983 is there, the rumbling bass of the Reset EP is lurking in there and of course the slightly disjointed sounds of Los Angeles top it all off nicely. It's a shame there isn't more variation, the track ends just as it's about to get interesting.
And thems the results of my latest hip hop bender, and what will probably be my last batch of new music for this year unfortunately thanks to the Royal Mail service. Just in case I don't post again before the end of December I'd like to wish you all Happy Holidays from all us here at Ilictronix, and thanks for sticking with us through the tough times!
So the winding down of Uni work I was expecting towards the holiday season isn't happening. Like at all. Which is a shame and all but I'm not here to grumble too much, I'm here for another tunes sesh which I'm hoping to keep fairly regular from now on actually!
Stenchman's been off my radar for a wile now aside from the odd update he throws up over Facebook way, but this remix has been popping up a lot recently and I gotta admit it's pretty well done, there ain't much variation in it but the Stench works with it and makes something sweet.
Re-visiting the noise fest that is Oizo's Moustache (Half A Scissor) I found some quality on it, especially in the bonus track which is basically a bootleg remix of some long defunct Russian rap group Echo Depth Finders, hence the title. It has a pretty sick beat and the remix is pretty top notch too.
My go-to slice of feel good from Simian Mobile Disco's stellar debut Attack Decay Sustain Release next, even if it is technically more of a summery song. that opening is just sweet every time, and the return of Simon Lord on vocals from their former band Simian is just a great touch.
Moby next, dropping a rare slice of techno stuff on by far his most famous and cult chillout staple Play which I actually remember coming out. It's a massive wildcard in comparison to the rest of the album but is still quality throughout, sure it sounds a little dated but it was from 1999 after all, that's 13 (soon to be 14) years ago.
Rounding it off with another fairly chill number from fairly unknown bloke Sebastian Svahn, a lot of this tunes popularity comes from it being use in David Firth's delightfully twisted animation Video Dating Tape. I've had it lying around for a long while, that reversed piano n' synth combo in the intro is just class.
and that about wraps us up once again, I'll be seeing you later gang. Hopefully not too much later, 'tis the season after all.
So I checked my Inbox I don't check too much, and alongside the usual array of Chinese Spam and emails addressed to a guy called Blaine (which isn't my name) was this. I usually skip most promos because I used to get TONS of them and it wasn't worth sifting through them all to find some gold. But this guy had the right idea, it had the personal touch that is lacking from most of the promos I get, even going so far as to link me to pictures and MP3s to use in the post itself! Lights DC is an Irish producer who started off doing remixes but earlier this year stepped out in the the great wide world of production, stay tuned after the jump and give him a listen, cos he really deserves it.
It helped that the tunes were pretty swell too, once again givin' me Arcade High vibes. The opening tune. Calypso had me from the very moment I pressed play, as my sub became awash with 80s bass goodness, to quote the man himself " is a resigned and melancholic piece of 80's inspired synthpop, which was influenced by one of my favourite tracks ever - Alan Braxe & Fred Falke's "Rubicon".
The second, Halcyon Days is more of the same, and what initially set me off on the Arcade High comparison, the break about halfway through is synthesized brilliance. To quote the man once again; "Halcyon Days has a similar vibe, with a more Yellow Magic Orchestra/Sega Genesis games feel oddly enough, but there you go!", though I'm afraid the Genesis was a little bit before my time so I can't comment on that! Check it out just after the single cover below and don't forget to check out His SoundCloud for yourself for more sounds to dig.
Afternoon all, sorry about leaving you all hanging for so long but to be quite honest the last couple of weeks have been absolutely shite so I haven't been in the mood to post stuff. But I won't bore you with tales of train rides and locked bank cards and jump straight to tunes. Here's some stuff that's been helping me keep it together and also some art by me.
One of my favourite tunes to come out of my recent dive into the world of Vapourwave is this. It's got vibes of that Arcade High LP I posted about a while ago, anyways It came up one time while I was browsing my finished art folder and it just perfectly synced with that piece up there.
Way back when I dropped some Knxwledge on you, and I'm about to do it again. Guy does some sick beats, I wish they were longer like, but that's a minor gripe. I imagine it's the same deal as what I say about BoC; the tracks stay sweet cos they're so short.
And just cos that's only like a minute and a half long, I'll hook you up with another just to cover my bases. Same sorta deal here, a smushed up title, nice beats and some sample dealies dropped throughout. Class.
Laid off posting this in my little shout out to my bud The Deadbeat Demon's beat tape cos I thought I'd get around to putting it up for something else. And here we are, this guy knows how to make pretty much flawless hip hop tracks for my tastes definitely check him out.
Deadbeat Demon - The Dealio Sounds
Of course, it wouldn't be complete without a visit from the old Boards Of Canada would it? But I've posted most of their material already, so I thought I go for something a little bit rarer. This is a tune from their rare as rare can be Old Tunes Vol. 1 Tape, sometimes known as A Few Old Tunes. The BoC boys clearly had a knack for this music thing judging by the tape, and this is by far the best example on it.
Mind you, it is certainly before they nailed down what makes their sound, the stuff here is obviously less refined than their later works but these old tapes do have some gold on them. Take this one for example, it has all the hallmarks of old school Boards with the slight techno edge and all and I'd say is still one of their finest tracks.
Righto, that's my story and accompanying tunes, stuff should pick up in a week or so because it's end of semester at my university and I will be sure to be there to dish out a few tracks in time for the holidays!
