Tuesday

Day Off, no more work to do, you know the score. It's time again to share some tunes that have been filling my airwaves today thanks to the miracle of shuffle. Let's get this started.

Omni Trio once again, one of my favourite producers of old school drum and bass. Breaking a trend with his stuff I've posted here though, cos this track doesn't have the trademark piano layered over the skittering breakbeats that OT is so well known for.



I always had kinda a love/hate thing going on with Plaid, fortunately with 2001's Double Figure a majority of the tracks are fine by me. I've not posted any tracks from it AND I missed it out of the Warped series cos I didn't get hold of it in time. To make up for that here's a slower cut from that LP.



Next is a tune that really should have been on the end of Two even though it came out two years before. Not that the reprise was a bad finish, but this tune balances itself really nicely, the usual Hacker techy sounds contrasted with that light choral break just sounds great. Oh, and The video's pretty sweet too so check that out if you get the chance.

And just because I've not put up any good old electro house in a long while, have a MSTRKRFT tune from way back when their second LP Fist Of God dropped. The intro for this one is straight up killer, that hook is very well done.



Hell, while I'm at it with the electro I might as well put this one in here too. It's Flashmob era Vitalic, what more do you want really? Killer intro hook on this one too, it just does not quit. One of the best Electro tunes in recent years for sure.



Right, back to SDP university business then. I'll try and keep it fairly consistent but no guarantees, in the meantime get your mileage out of these tunes and I'll see you in a bit!

Toos Day,
-Claude Van Foxbat

Roots Two

Let me take you back to 1988. Electronic music is evolving and changing with it's newfound popularity. But like all trends they tend to be revisited at some point in the future, last time we covered the influence of Kraftwerk, Space and Giorgio Moroder on electronic music as a whole, this time we're shooting for something a little different. This release here has recently been rediscovered and labelled things like 'proto-vapourwave' and such, and yes I will admit it does have vibes not too dissimilar to vapourwave but it's just par the course for a ambient/new age record of that era, think Jean Michel Jarre's Oxygene 12 years before this LP.

Now I'll admit that some parts of this LP have certainly not aged well and parts do sound incredibly dated. But once again this is an important reference point, as both a record of it's time, and to chart the influence it has on modern music, particularly vapourwave as a whole, hell OPN's label is even called Software.



The titles on this LP are pretty great, they have all that technological longing and mystique that was present on Kraftwerk's Computer Love, combined with this contrasting running theme of the coast. Like Kraftwerk's songs were about being hunched over your computer at night, and then this album sounds like it's made for a moody reflections montage in an artsy film before picking up around 3:40 or so in.

Software isn't some one-off side project either, the German due were at it and making albums until around 2000, with their last release ten years after Digital Dance in 1998. The title track follows the same pattern laid down by the previous one, ambient and hazy until around 2:40 when the drums come cascading in.



Finishing the coastal theme we have the final track that unlike any of the other tunes wastes no time getting the drums involved. There's some lovely sounds sprinkled throughout but they never stick around long, the same could be said of the LP as a whole, it is only about an hour long with 9 tracks. There is more than enough to go around though, the bold opening tune is a hefty 9 minutes 21 seconds long.



I do have a certain fondness for this type of stuff, after all raiding my dads tapes for stuff like this was what set off my interest in electronic music, and I can certainly see how it's effected the scene as a whole for sure. Cliché in parts? for sure but give it a try anyway, there's some neat stuff on there.

Marine Mood,
-Claude Van Foxbat

Glitch With Me

Hey Guys, bit of a deviation from my usual content today, for a project at University I'm running a series of workshops/tutorials on how to make glitch art both in actual classrooms and over my university blog, and I'd like you to contribute to the final outcome, which is a collection of things people have glitched with help from my instructions. Sound good? If you want to get involved please go and read my Glitch Art Tutorial post and follow the instructions there!

And just so I'm not leaving you hanging with no music, here are some of my favourite glitchy tunes to give you a little something to work by if you're making some glitched up goodness!

Electronic Lovin'

Well, it's that fateful day again. Lucky I went out the night before so now I have some video editing and some stuff to write up for Uni then huh? Regardless I'm gonna drop some tunes on you because I like procrastinating more than work!

HudMo lays down another of his annual slow jams mixes just in time for the 14th, not your conventional mix by any stretch of the means, apart from Mohawke dropping in some of his beloved gunshots here and there get ready for quarter of an hour worth of slow jams!



And some mo' selections from my catalogue for you. First is Sebastién Tellier with a bit from his fittingly titled Sexuality that has the honor of being produced by Guy Manuel de Homem-Christo, one half of everyone's favourite french house duo Daft Punk.



I'll throw in my favourite remix too, Kavinsky's touch on the opening track from Sexuality is just brilliant, the intro to it is almost perfect. And fits right in with the rest of the album's sound quite comfortably unlike some of the other remixes, which is something I like a lot.



And finally, a couple of tunes from Canadian funk maestros Chromeo. Fancy Footwork is where they started to nail the sound they were going for, and it reflects in the explosion in popularity around that LP in comparison to their first. Here's an under appreciated gem from Fancy Footwork



And I'll end it with the final tune from that album, and something that wouldn't sound too out of place on HudMo's Slow Jams tape up there, but with a little more of a funk vibe to it. Make sure you stay tuned till the end to hear the bonus reprise of Tenderoni!



Evol,
- Claude Van Foxbat

Old And New

The easy going weeks I've had are coming to an end sadly, and with a big project looming on the horizon things ain't looking too good for the workload. But anyway, chin up because before any of that I'm laying down some more stuff I think you'll dig. As usual tracks after the art, which is by me this time.

Felix recently teased at a new album or something along those lines over on facebook, I'll be interested to see what direction he takes this time, cos even tough I really liked He Was King apart from one track, the press didn't care for it too much. Regardless, have the intro track from another fine LP of his, Virgo Blaktro & The Moviedisco



Along the same lines, one of my favourite techno ladies Miss Kittin has a new LP on the way, based on the All You Need EP she dropped a while back it's shaping up to be very sweet indeed, for now have a cut from her debut I Com that has a particularly relevant title this month.

Now you probably already know I'm jonesin' for that new The Knife record like nobody's business, but I've got more than enough material to keep me occupied until it drops later this year. Here's Karin's solo project Fever Ray giving us a stellar cover of Peter Gabriel's Mercy Street,featuring her now trademark pitch shifting voice trickery that I love.

Fever Ray · Mercy Street

Breaking the chain, Röyksopp have been keeping mum over any new material outside of a performance on NRK Lydverket earlier this year, including a very nice cover of Depeche Mode. Their third LP Junior remains one of my favourite albums to this day, here's a tune from it featuring Karin Dreijer of The Knife and Fever Ray.



G͓͙̘̺̫̹͠.̘̟̼/̜̻̻̹͇͢l̜̜̯̱͉̱̩i͏̝͍̭̝͙͔̜t͍͎̰͔͖͇t̶̼̻̜̥̙͓c̷͍͍̳̥̻̟h̖̘͍̦͔é.̣̳d̰̥͖̩̝̰̝́

- Claude Van Foxbat

51 Seconds Or More

An upcoming project at Uni has us creating a public art piece and proposing it to the city council for display. Now my idea revolves around little short video pieces projected up on a screen we have in the Square, I'm taking a lot of inspiration from cult classic [adult swim] bumps for these videos and for this I need some tunes right? I mean that was half the appeal of bumps anyway. So I'm trying to find a nice balance of short tunes to go with it.

Click for huge (1,600px × 1,200px)

First up is more from the Flying Lotus Demos, like Knxwledge, a lot of these demos are real short but just as sweet. At the minute I'm feeling like this charmingly titled number will fit in with some bump-esque stuff quite nicely. Might have to tweak it slightly in Audacity thanks to that abrupt end but that's easy done.



I'm planning a ton of these videos to go up, and hopefully shuffle through them to make for an interesting experience in the vein of Brian Eno's 77 Million Paintings installation. Naturally on my search for short tunes for short videos I came across the original mix of quintessential Mehdi tune Signatune. I'll be sure to make a tribute to the late great Lucky Boy in the videos for sure.



Staying in Ed Banger territory albeit before the label even existed, this 1999 Oizo tune is as brilliant as it is short. That scratching from Feadz (hence the title) is just brilliantly done, and it would work wonders in a bump-style environment.



I've only ever mentioned this tune in passing, but now is it's time to shine. This is by far the Rollers' most popular production thanks to Rockstar using it as the theme to GTA2. This beat just goes down real smooth and is pretty much perfect for bumping aside from that little intro bit.

This little ambient bit from the BoC boys gets used a lot on TV over here as subtle backing music, and while I think it might be too subtle in sound to be part of a public art installation in a crowded city like my own, it's on the list of potential tunes to be used anyways.



This little melodic interlude from Broadcast covers pretty much the same ground as the BoC tune, though it is a little bit stronger with the addition of that simple and catchy beat, much like the rest of the LP it's taken from: Tender Buttons.



Revisting our old pal Oizo again, this time it's for the intro he did for the Ed Rec Vol. 3 compilation, which should make a for a short and tasty loop for sure, if I cut the little shoutouts intro off first.



And after that brief venture into less than two minute tunes, I'm off. Hopefully this should help me remember when it comes to actually making the project, I've had horrible memory with stuff like this in the past. That and I can actually use this post as proof of development at the end of the project!

Bump-worthy,
-Claude Van Foxbat

Know Your Roots

I've known of the early days of electronic music for a long time. As I've said before, my father practically raised me on Kraftwerk cassettes and Jean Michel Jarre vinyl, and something about that old school synthesized sound just excited me. It still does in fact, which is why I'm going to drop a few early electronic classics that are essential listening for me.

Of course, we have to begin with the quintessential Krafwerk, here's a slightly lesser known number from by far their most popular, and my favourite album; The Man Machine. Oddly enough it was released in 1979, but one of their most well known hits The Model only entered the charts in 1982, thanks to being re-released as a double a-side with the next track.



This embodies what I think of when it comes to early Kraftwerk, that simple melody, the embracing of technology, all tied together with that monotone vocal delivery. A lot of the themes and elements that make up this sound are revisited around the early 2000s in Electroclash, which seems like an oxymoron; using higher tech to emulate the early electronic sound, but I do enjoy it, silly genre name and all.



Now, Giorgio Moroder. Producer extraordinaire and classy gentleman in that opening photo up there, makes a lot more upbeat stuff than the 'werk, as is to be expected of the merchant of Disco that is Giorgio Moroder. Ignoring the thinly veiled innuendos of the track titles like I Wanna Rock You on 1979's E=MC² and concentrating on the production, it's very well put together, full of that funky edge that made Moroder so famous in the first place and holds up just as well as Kraftwerk's tunes from the same year.

GiorgioMoroder · Giorgio Moroder - E=MC2 (1979)

And finally another tune courtesy of my dad. French band Space were doing their own thing too, and they gave us this track that I posted Felix Da Housecat's cover way back when. It's the earliest on the list so far, coming from 1977, I can only imagine the sounds combined with the chroma keyed up video must have been mind blowing. And just look at those wood panelled keyboards!



Energy, -Claude Van Foxbat