AT / AA 82

Gary Andrew Clarke - Triple Dip Recession

International DeeJay never disappoints with their releases it seems, the fine purveyors of techno pretty much have a monopoly on my favourite sounds and artists. I happened to revisit one of their compilations the other day and found this lovely bit from David Caretta that was my soundtrack circa 2003 when I nabbed a 92kbps copy from Limewire. Have a much higher quality version that I replaced it with when I stopped being a massive pirate.

AT / AA 81

Akse P19 - Sumo (2013)

Stenchman put out another batch of unreleased oldies this year, which has bought him back into my playlists for a bit. This tune isn't from the latest batch, but another from last year that I briefly mentioned called The Dodgy Samples. They kinda feel half finished (this track is mastered really loud for example) but there was a lot of potential in it, speaking of, I hope he puts out more stuff from his Philestine alias soon.

AT / AA 80

Loretta Lux - Siegfried (2010)

Calvin Harris' first two albums seeping onto the radio was like when I was growing up in the 90's and there was as much house and garage on the radio as pop. Sadly it wasn't to be and now Harris makes generic electronic for the masses, even though there were bits like that on his first two albums so I can't say I'm that surprised. Still, it's nice to put on the closing track to Ready For The Weekend and think of what could have been.

AT / AA 79

El Lissitsky - Proun 19D (1922)

Man, Simian Mobile Disco's Attack Decay Sustain Release i a real feel good album. No doubt being released at the height of summer way back in 2007 helped it a bunch, it certainly got it's fair share of play from me that year for sure. It's short at 10 tracks and just over a half hour long, but it goes a long way. Here's a late gem Wooden

AT / AA 78

Alexander Vesnin - Abstract Composition (1915)

Not a lot of noise coming from the Rex The Dog camp. Understandable seeing as he's got all them BREED events on his plate. Good news is he's taking a break to head back to the studio after the next one, so fingers crossed he drops a lovely near flawless LP on us like his debut, the brilliantly titled The Rex The Dog Show.

AT / AA 77

Patrick Nagel - 1338

For a couple years now I have been looking for a record or artist with a similar sound to the instrumentals from Golden Boy's only album. The closest I've come is some of the stuff on International Deejay Gigolo records, but even then I come back to the Golden Boy LP and I'm in love again. If anyone knows any records similar to or in this style please, please get in touch and let me know!

AT / AA 76

Tony Oursler - Eyes (1996)

Little Dragon's debut is a mixed bag of atmospheres, sounds and moods. The opening indie piano ballad Twice is immediately followed by the poppy upbeat Turn Left before slipping nicely into the loungy vibes of No Love. Wink towards the end of the album only adds to that, opening with some cut up snippets of Yukimi's distinctive voice before cutting to the chase with some particularly heavy beats given the rest of the tracks on the LP.

AT / AA 75

Miwa Ogasawara - Unpeopled (2012)

As much as I love squarepusher's amen breaking goodness, the man has a serious knack for beautiful ambient pieces. Both of the Tommib tracks from Go Plastic and Ultravisitor respectively were well used by Sofia Coppola in a few of her films, but the square man's ambient interludes tend to be quite short. This one's a bit of an exception to that and is one of my favourites from his debut Feed Me Weird Things.

AT / AA 74

Ellsworth Kelly - Colours For A Large Wall (1951)

Ladytron's first album is often lumped in with the whole electroclash movement of the era, and it's easy to see why, there's the monotone culture critiique that's a staple of the genre thanks to Miss Kittin alongside clearly retro inspired sounds. And as much as I feel like 604 isn't an electroclash record though, it does have a lot of similarites, like Felix covering Space's Magic Fly on Kittenz & Thee Glitz, Ladytron are true to their roots with a love letter to Kraftwerk in this re-tooling of The Model.

AT / AA 73

Roger Dean - Floating Islands

Looking back through my old art inspirations folder, looking at some more pieces by my favourite graphic design studio The Designers Republic. From there I got more into the art of Wipeout and their original developer Psygnosis (Now the defunct Sony Liverpool). Anyways way back in the days of the Amiga, Psygnosis had their logo designed by Roger Dean, who's famous for doing album covers for loads of Prog Rock LPs back when. Here's a piece of his work with some lovely early 90's Autechre that I think fits it quite well (and also had a cover designed by The Designers Republic!).

AT / AA 72

Leonard Koscianksi - Suburban Life (2012)

I still remember when I first stated looking at Massive Attack, and the title track from their sophomore LP Protection did the trick. I was hooked instantly from the haunting intro all the way to the carefully placed 303 towards the end. I had heard The Mad Professor's dub remix first and had no idea it had a full vocal track from Everything But The Girl's Tracey Thorn which was a nice treat.

AT / AA 71

Michael Alan - Fasion

A bit from the black sheep of Oizo's work; Moustache (Half A Scissor). Compared to Analog Worms Attack and Lambs Anger, I can see why it gets a lot of flack, hell the record is in part responsible for Oizo jumping ship to Ed Banger after his then label F-Communications described it as un-listenable. But it does have it's pluses, the Autechre lads have said it's one of their favourite albums and there are some real good tracks in here. This is one of them featuring some lovely cut up style samples scattered throughout, in a recent AMA over on Reddit Oizo said he just recorded himself dropping the needle on a ton of different vinyls to get the sounds giving it that lovely rough edges feel that is almost his trademark.

AT / AA 70

Atelier Olschinsky - Structures II 01

Moderat isn't the only collaboration Apparat has a hand in, back in 2006 he teamed up with head of BPitch Control Ellen Allien for an album, sadly with no name pun like Moderat. The album is quite unlike either of the two's usual output but you can certainly hear their individual touches shine through in parts. Here's the first tune I heard from it, Jet.

AT / AA 69

Ed Ruscha - Standard Station

A Common complaint I hear with Felix's newer stuff is that it doesn't capture the magic of his older work in the Kittenz & Thee Glitz era. I can see what they're getting at but that doesn't mean there isn't some good in the more modern stuff. Take Radio for example, releasing it as a single was a brilliant move; it's light, short and sweet and has a couple of brilliant remixes from the likes of Shinichi Osawa to boot. While it's far from the likes of Silver Screen Shower Scene, it's still not a bad track.

AT / AA 68

Jesse Reno - Many Breaks In The Horizon

Plaid back again with another highlight for me. I've said a few times how plaid are pretty hit/miss with me but this tune just gets it right, the way the haunting intro gives way to the main body of the track before melding with it and becoming a recurring motif is pretty great, and there's enough stuff going on to keep it fresh throughout at the same time. Look into it if you're looking for some playful experimental vibes.

AT / AA 67

Edward Hopper - Night Shadows

The finisher to 100th Window is much like the rest of the LP: cold & moody. The tracks also takes some cues from Butterfly Caught when it comes to those lush stings lurking in the back, my only complaints is that it is a lite long, but even then sometimes that eight minutes just files away, especially come the post rock-esque peak in sound around 7 minutes or so in.

AT / AA 66

Jeremy Mann - New York Night In Blue

Ambient dealer Oneohtrix Point Never recently worked with Sofia Coppola on the soundtrack for her latest flick The Bling Ring. Now Sofia has a penchant for almost perfect music choices and this time is no different. Most of the soundtrack might me mainstream rap & hip hop and the juxtaposition of Oneohtrix's synth fueled ambient track Ouroborus on the soundtrack inbetween Azealia Banks and 2Chainz is amazing. Also tucked away on the OST is the collaboration between OPN and Brian Reitzell (whose work on Coppola's previous was fantastic) The Bling Ring Suite is a brilliant piece that swings from ambient to 80's style synth pop, to OPN's famous Juno-60 drones and back again.

Moderat - II (Album Review)

Ah, Moderat. I really wanted to love their self titled debut but some parts of it just left me sour. This time the Modeselektor lads and Sascha Ring better know as Apparat have come together to make another LP which has much less of a minimal edge this time around, but still has that great artwork and illustration by Pfadfinderei collective. Join me as I work through a select few tracks from the LP after the main art.

Click for huge (2000x2000 px)

A droney intro punctuated by warbles and rolling sine waves of bass flows perfectly into the second track which was teased a few months ago, Bad Kingdom; Modeselektor's influence is obvious from the get go, much moreso than on their debut I find. Apparat's vocal contributions go down a treat too, at first I thought this would be a re-tread of Rusty Nails and the rest of the album would be minimal meets IDM a la the debut, but the sound has evolved much in that four year gap and I am pleased to say that is not the case.



I also thought Modeselektor's Monkeytown vibes might be too prominent after Bad Kingdom, but the game is changed pretty frequently with each track. Let In The Light starts with the scratchy dirty sounds that Apparat is so fond of before bringing in a vaporwave-esque slowed vocal, then backed by some hazy garage lines before finally letting the lumbering drums loose on us. The whole thing comes out like a half remembered dubstep tune on a comedown. And I absolutely love it.



Not to say they've entirely abandoned their roots though, Milk clocks in at a hefty ten minutes and is by far and away the longest track here. Their evolution has been kind to them though, Milk layers on the variety much more frequently than the last record including a tactical break around 4 minutes in. They've taken a leaf out of Clark's book as well as around the 7 minute mark the distortion starts to get cranked up ending in a beautiful climax around 8:40 and an almost ravey fade to finish.

The fist listen of this was a bit confusing, it felt a little like Apparat's vocals had been ripped from a separate track and hastily put on this one and I wasn't feeling the noise fest around 1:20 which was a shame and kind of spoiled it for me. I came back to it a few days later which had the benefit of giving me almost a fresh listen; the intro is golden and everything past that little hiccup at 1:20 is too, and something about Apparat's vocals clicked and now I wouldn't have them any other way.



The second of the two interludes next, the opposite of Milk at just a little over 1:30. It features some really lush synths throughout, reminding me a little of the Modeselktor/Siriusmo collab Green Light Go, and Modeselektor's own I Love You. There's probably some really nice visuals to go with this one too, I can't wait to see what Pfadfinderei do with this one.



Ilona sees the return of those lovely slowed down vocal lines, this time with some more pitch shiftery going on making it sound like a busted turntable or something from Fever Ray or Oneohtrix Point Never's Returnal. The garage/dubstep styling is still strong in this one, the little break before the beats come cascading back into the mix around 1:30 definitely has a burial vibe to it. Another one for the favourites pile.

There's a select few tracks that are getting a lot of press from the LP, I initially wasn't going to cover them but this one stood out. It has much more of a conventional edge to it than the last few tracks we've been through; think Bad Kingdom, Rusty Nails etc. It's the most downbeat tune so far and wouldn't sound too out of place on Apparat's Walls.



The finale does not disappoint either, dripping with influences from both sides it's pretty much a perfect example of what makes Moderat: Chock full of lovely sounds and carefully crafted peaks and breaks it summaries and closes the album brilliantly. It was the track that caught my attention in the promos (again due in part to the visual contributions of Pfadfinderei). It almost makes me sad as the last fade out comes and goes, it may be another four years before we hear any more of Sascha, Szary and Gernot combined.



And that brings us to the end. I definitely feel like this is a better album than the self titled debut, it feels much more concise and focused in it's sound, while having enough variety to stay interesting. I imagine the overall melancholy vibe to the album might turn a few people off like with Gorillaz's Plastic Beach but Moderat do it so well I can hardly complain. Moderat's II adds another notch to the troves of quality albums released this year and is out now worldwide on Monkeytown Records.

A Moderat Amount,
-Claude Van Foxbat

AT / AA 65

Francis Bacon - Study For A Portrait (1991)

When I picked up the re-issued Clarence Park from Clark I listed to it to death for nigh on two weeks and promptly put a good half of it away because of how often I'd heard it. I came across this one again today, I'd not listened to it for a long long time because of that intro, something about it just grates my ears and I can't stand it. But I was feeling lenient today, so I let it play and about a minute in it changed. And it got good, like really good. Another one for me to file under 'wait for it...' and another reason for me to kick myself for skipping over half remembered tracks.

AT / AA 64

Indie184 - So Alive (2013)

I've not long been into hip hop, but what I do know is that there are a few names you hear a lot, and not without reason. Take MF Doom for example, guy has some fantastic tracks out there for sure, even more now I stumbled across this series of instrumentals he did called Special Herbs. Like the Scruff the samples are just downright perfect in every way, shame about that abrupt end though. Check this one for a mellow vibe.

AT / AA 63

Uman - Oizo

More from the scruffy man's understated debut. It's a little more bare bones than his later work but it still has that unique jazzy edge to it, as is expected of Mr. Scruff the sample selection is excellent.

AT / AA 62

Compleks - Ballet Wedding

Speaking of interludes, there's more than a few in Caspa's catalog, and he's real good at it too. His main stuff might be too brostep for a lot of people but he has a penchant for these really smooth speedier semi-garage inspired pieces, here's one of my favourites.

N-N-N-Nineteen

Claude Van Foxbat - Light At The End Of The Ginnel (2012)

It's that time of year again where mine and the blog's birthday are coincidentally on the same date. It's been a long three years ilictronix but it was pretty much all good times. I thought I'd kick things off with a bit more art from me before I break into the traditional track dump. Oh, an the namesake of this post of course.



Ok, ok, just one more tune before the track dump, Moderat dropped their follow up to their self titled debut on the 2nd. I wanted to love the first album, but in the end a lot of the tracks suffered from being to long and not having enough going on in them, and having Rusty Nails (by far the best track) be number 2 on the album didn't help either. Good news is no such problems here, the tunes are all pretty lush and are a real treat.



And now, without further words to get in the way, after missing last year I proudly present my second birthday track dump!

Daniel Haaksman - Kid Conga [click to download] |HTML5|

AT / AA 61

The Desiigner's Republic - Work Buy Consume Die

Man, Felix's debut has some really good tunes on it. His style's changed a lot since those days in 1995 this one's a bit of a far cry from the catchy culture critique of Kittenz & Thee Glitz for sure. Continuing the marine theme, have the extended cut of Submarine that closes the LP, it's very lush in places.

AT / AA 60

Andreas Nilsson - Den Svenska Brev Bararen

Another case of me forgoing a track because I thought it had been covered enough already. Surprisingly enough the 8 minute instrumental epic roundabout half way through their second effort The Understanding is one of their finest works. While decidedly un-Röyksopp in parts, it never gets dull and changes itself up more than enough times to stay fresh the final 2 minutes or so are downright brilliant acting as the calm after the storm of the main track.

AT / AA 59

Davd Firth - Still From Clothbirds

Chris Clark's early work on Warp seems to go unnoticed often, likely a casualty of him having to change his artist name to just Clark after some legal bother. His debut has recently been reissued with some bonus tracks and the Throttle Clarence EP included, which was only available with pre-orders of Body Riddle before. It's a steal for the price of a normal album, and I suggest you check out the man's earlier tunes too.

AT / AA 58

Robert Del Naja - Peace At Last

Speaking of free releases, Stenchman's been consistently putting out free albums, EPs and compilations of B-sides for a coupe years now. Here's a chill number from his 2010 Christmas album that's chock full of shelf wobbling goodness.

AT / AA 57

Neville Brody - Poster for Lies

Drum & bass duo (now turned to techno) Commix's debut is a stonking good release. I file it under D&B despite it having several house-y interludes on there and a little techno remix by Underground Resistance. Not to devalue them though, the house-y parts are also very very good indeed rather than being some b-side filler thrown on the LP to pad it out.

AT / AA 56

David Hockney - Portrait Of An Artist (Pool With Two Figures), 1972

I missed posting this one around the time it came out because I thought all the other blogs in the world would be all over it, turns out there's only been one (glitchy) posting of by far my favourite track from Oizo's newest (and free!) EP, Amicalement. And I though what better accompaniment for Mr. Oizo than the original painting that So-Me reworked for his album Stade 2?

AT / AA 55

Jim Rosenquist - The Specific Target (1996)

I said that the Chem Bros had a way with outros when it came to ending Push The Button. But what I forgot to mention is that their debut has an equally electrifying opening, Leave Home could have come anywhere on the album and been a good tune, but putting it as number one was a brilliant move. Have a gander for yourself!