Art Of Noise

Been workin' away today on various projects, as well as taking in some new stuff from Warp I've picked up, as usual tracks will be down there, afte rthe suitably surreal art courstesy of Clark!

First up is a lovly tune from the new Clark LP Iradelphic. Now as I've said before I usually pick tunes based on their title when sampling, and when Warp put this up on their youtube channel it was my pick. I wasn't dissapointed, this track kicks off with a new style from Clark with some guitar business, but its not long before we hit familiar electronic workery, think The Campfire Headphase meets Body Riddle. I was enjoying it so far, but then he stole the show at around 1:20 in spectacular Clark fashion. I love the noises he makes so much, especially when the distortion is cranked up and it sounds like its about to burst out of your speakers and into the room around halfway through.



I'd skipped Squarepusher's Selection Sixteen for a long while, I can't even explain why I just did, despite even picked up his crazy experimental jazz record Music Is Rotted One Note without a second thought. It's a shame I did because I missed out on this little number right here that is a typically Squarepusher showcase in drum programming and various other bleeps and bobs.



Leila is a recent blip on my radar thanks to her rework of Aphex Twin's Vordhosbn for Warp20. The video for it is a treat with lot of strange polygonal happenings and actual video glitching in spots, which made it very fitting for my work. The tune itself opens with that wave of pure sine wave bass and just does not let up, with occasional breakbeats sliding in and out of the mix it's a real treat. Watch the video for full effect!



In The Time,
-Claude Van Foxbat

Areyoulistening

Sorry to leave you all hanging the last couple of days, I've been busy working on university stuff and the super secret mix (which broke the hour mark today!) that I'm saving for something very special coming soon!

Here's a neat thing I found the other day, it's a site that plays police radio chatter over ambient tunes streamed from soundcloud. I was skeptical at first but you know what? 80% of the time it actually sounds pretty good depending on the soundcloud tune, but that's what the skip button is for! check it out for yourself over at youarelistening.to

We've Got Transients,
-Claude Van Foxbat

Meet Your Creator

You know one of the perks of studying art means that my interest in audio-visual stuff becomes a part of my work and research. And of course electronic music plays a major role in that, here's a couple pieces I've cited in essays and whatnot that influence me and continue to this day.



First is an amazing show from the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors' Showcase 2012. It's by a couple of blokes called Jonathan Santana & Xander Smith, and the concept is pretty neat; A troupe of 16 quadrotors dance to and manipulate sound and light on stage. But the real highlight for me is the brilliantly fitting soundtrack provided by synth head Daniel Lopatin AKA Oneohtrix Point Never. He seems to be dabbling more in installation pieces now which is great cos it appeals to both my major interests and gives me research fodder for any similar projects I'm planning. Grab the audio below and hit up 1:40 for my favourite part.



And of course, how could I forget one of the major crossings over between art and electronic music? This track from Laurie Anderson amazingly made it to number one in the UK singles chart on its release in 1981. Like so many artsy records it is a bit alienating, but I really dig the vibe. I suppose my love of vocoders helps to that end but I digress; this song is an important milestone in the history of electronic music, and provides a nice rebuttal should you get into "electronic music isn't REAL music with meaning" debates in the near future!





is Anyone Home?,
- Claude Van Foxbat

Bibio's British Bonanza

Thought I'd check in with Warp mainstay Bibio again, he's put up some new stuff on his channel, including some teasers for his upcoming LP Silver Wilkinson. That's when I found this mix he'd put together, featuring a lovely collage of music from the isles I call home. With a healthy dollop of Warp on there too, I highly recommend it!



Tracklist:
[Speech] Alan Watts
Chris Clark - Pleen 1930s (Clarence Park, 2001)
Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas (Heaven or Las Vegas, 1990)
Led Zeppelin - No Quarter (The Soundtrack From The Film The Song Remains The Same, 1976)
The Incredible String Band - October Song (The Incredible String Band, 1966)
Squarepusher - Iambic 5 Poetry (Budakhan Mindphone, 1999)
The Incredible String Band - Water Song (The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter, 1968)
Boards of Canada - Orange Romeda (We Are Reasonable People, 1998)
The Incredible String Band - Water Song (continued)
[Speech] Alan Watts
Chris Watson - Male Capercaillie Display/Caledonian Pine Forest (Outside The Circle Of Fire, 1998)
Nick Drake - Horn (Pink Moon, 1972))
Nick Drake - Things Behind The Sun (Pink Moon, 1972))
Bibio - Marram (Hand Cranked, 2006)
[Speech] Alan Watts
Aphex Twin - Green Calx (Selected Ambient Works 85-92, 1992)
Burial - Forgive (Burial, 2006)
[Speech] Aldous Huxley
Plone - On My Bus (For Beginner Piano, 1999)
Boards of Canada - Bocuma (Music Has The Right To Children, 1998)

El Hombre Oro

Goldie has been a massive influence on me in recent times. From his tunes to his art and the philosophy behind it, he's got a little something for every interest of mine. Goldie's been in the music game since 1992, and while his style's changed to fit with the times a bit more, it still has that definite gold tinge to it. Take his new tune from recently released Best Of compilation The Alchemist: The Best of Goldie 1992-2012, it's got more liquid elements to it than say the cuts from Timeless I put up a while back, especially during that intro, and even a Fever Ray-Esque pitch shift duet type thing going on with some of the vocal lines but listen carefully and you may spot some familiar breaks in there.



Midas Touch,
- Claude Van Foxbat

New Knife

The curse of tech strikes again, this time its my power supply on my main PC, which means it doesn't like to come on all the time, so for the past few days I've been sat with it cracked open on my bedroom floor messing with wires and that. Good news is that it seems to be working for now, it came on fine yesterday! Anyways, here I am at uni preparing for a hand in this afternoon and I have a fair bit of time to kill. And since I'm on a mac at uni I can't really post much.

So instead have the new single from my favourite Swedish sibling duo The Knife from their upcoming LP Shaking The Habitual. Lucky for me they're expanding on the ground set by 2006's Silent Shout, with little hints of Karin's Fever Ray Project coming through every now and then. I've heard some peeps complain that its not like Deep Cuts on their FB page, but none of their albums until this point have sounded alike, and with Silent Shout being one of their more internationally popular ones and winning a boatload of awards it was bound to take that direction. Enjoy the single anyway, the album is out 8th of April internationally and the 9th in the states.

Radio Caroline

My interest in mixes has recently been re-kindled by this semi-obscure number from Miss Kittin. Radio Caroline the first and only volume is a different experience to any of the mixes I have in my collection not just because it's not a live recording. This compilation features Miss Kittin chiming in about various things between tracks, it works really well and offers a look into Kittin as a person (hence the title) as well as her music collection.

In true Kittin style there are some real obscure gems on this comp. Starting off with the very first track after the intro which is a techy sounding bit from Prefuse 73 under his Delarosa And Asora pseudonym, which led me to an album that I will most likely be picking up soon.



Speaking of techy, this next track caught my ear short as it may be. There seems to have been a trend both in my back catalogue and on this comp of early 2000s artists using their own (slightly boring) names. Saying that Jake Fairley is far from the most boring name in my list, that honour goes to the very eloquent 'DJ Robert'.



Saying that, they're not all boring names. Check out this stonker. Featuring some nice chilled out beats and what not alongside a man talking about his experience on the 'shrooms, oddly enough. It's the second longest track on the comp, but it definitely doesn't feel that way, plus it leads nicely into probably my favourite track from the comp.



This LP keeps on surprising me, for example take this little perplexingly titled track from the hard to google group Repeat. Turns out that Repeat are actually Plaid and some other blokes, I didn't even know they had side projects like that. There's not a version of it on the web that isn't from this comp, not even on a dedicated Plaid Rarities youtube channel which is dissapointing 'cos I'd like to hear it on its own without the sampled vocal snippets about pills from the next track. It doesn't sound much like the rest of Repeat's techno styled output but its still sounds great, it's nice and atmospheric throughout.



This was quite easy to track down actually, hell I even remember seeing it in my local HMV, and the whole HMV chain is terrible at stocking decent electronic stuff, they had it online until recently too. I'd still call it a bit of a rarity 'cause of the tracks on it, if you're liking it so far, have a stream of it and see if you can't find it too!

Longwave,
-Claude Van Foxbat

Marching On Together

Made the classic mistake on friday of forgetting my headphones. That train ride feels so much longer without them it wasn't even funny, just before the weekend to boot! To make up for it I've been giving the old speakers a working with a variety of tunes from my library why not? Let's have a gander.

I stumbled across Skream's Freeizm series that night. Much like the free EP type deals that producers have put out as of late There's some gold on the three volumes of the series, some not so great ones too but you can hardly complain when you're getting them for free right? Here's the lovely intro from Vol. 1.



Here's a chiller remix from Vol. 3 that has a tribal streak in it (hence the title), Skream's always had a nice balance between the newer styled stuff and the old school dubs in his release patterns, I don't know how true that is nowadays for him but still. The scene could use a few more tracks like this.

Pulled out Wisp's AFX reworks again, like Lichen I posted before, this tune isn't a lazy reworking at all and could easily stand on it's own terms. Wisp not only makes the genre hop successfully, but once again without distorting the image of the original track.



Also this week I had to convince a close pal of mine not to sell off his Roulé vinyl collection, among others. This is the tune I sent him in response. Roulé's back catalogue may only be small, but it's pretty much all top quality house; as demoed here by one half of everybody's favourite robot duo Thomas Bangalter and his long time pal DJ Falcon.



Lousy Smarch Weather,
-Claude Van Foxbat