New Year's Roundup 2015

Dabs Myla - Moonlight Swim (2013)

Another year gone by of me putting words on your screen with occasional musical accompaniment. It's been a long time. If you're new I hope you stick around, and if you're a seasoned ilictronix veteran here's to another 12 months of tunes for you. As is tradition have a trackdump of stuff I'm feelin' to fuel your NYE and as always: stay safe, enjoy the music and I'll see you on t' other side.

Philestine · DJ SHADOW FT LITTLE DRAGON - SCALE IT BACK (PHILESTINE REMIX)

-Claude Van Foxbat

Post-Holiday Quickie

Afternoon all, hope your respective winter celebrations went down well. Now, I'm sure you've heard people moan and groan that nobody makes Christmas music anymore and so we're leftwith the same dregs we've heard for years and years every winter. Well thanks to my buds over at Galaxy Swim Team I was treated to this on my soundcloud feed, a more modern indie-pop syle take on Paul McCartney's original. Not for everyone sure, but I could defintley see a market for this in future (What I wouldn't give for a sleazy electroclash cover of Wham!'s Last Christmas).



And since I'm here I may as well say I wrote and scheduled another annual New Year's post/track dump, and it'll be a tad earlier this year so keep an eye out for it going up on the 30th! Until then I hope you're all havin' a good time, and I'll be back soon.

-Claude Van Foxbat

12 Days Of Tunes (12)

Eyvind Earle - Winter (1981)

Ignoring some schedule cock-ups thanks to blogger, we made it! And I thought I'd try and end it with something at least Christmas related, even tangentially so. I've used up most of my fodder for this time of year but luckily I feel like I can get away with this one. Yoko Kanno's soundtrack to Ghost In The Shell is chock full of cold electronics and strings as it is, which goes in hand with the setting nice enough, and there's a select few with vocals that really stand out from the rest. Think around Homogenic era Björk, and you're in the right kinda area. Hell, there's even a song on the first OST album which is pretty much a cover of Hyperballad.

Anyway, I'll leave you with this for now, have a nice holiday season! I may be back to do another New Year's post, but I have missed them in the past so no promises. Just in case, I'll see you all in 2016!

12 Days Of Tunes (11)

Pyotr Konchalovsky - The Window Of The Poet (1935)

Thought I was hard pressed to find a OPN song to put here that I hadn't already mentioned before, when looking over past posts I found I haven't put this one in yet. I'm quite surprised in all honesty, it's easily among the more accessible parts of the Rifts compilation, and is taken from that vintage VCR style Sci-Fi movie sound of OPN's career that I adore.

12 Days Of Tunes (10)

Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva - Leningrad Summer Garden In Winter (1929)

Another bit from The Flashbulb's brutally titled Soundtrack To A Vacant Life now. This is one of the more electronic pieces on the album, it's been a long time since I've heard this one because I got sick to death of it after foolishly trying to animate a demo reel to it. I'm not entirely over that yet, but it is still fun to listen to.

12 Days Of Tunes (09)

John French Sloan - Six O'Clock Winter (1912)

Something a little more upbeat this time with Omni Trio. Granted it's not as upbeat as the slightly faster one as featured in the Moving Shadow 01.1 compilation, but the album version's still a good listen. Even Angels Cast Shadows might have really unfitting album art, but the cohesion of all the songs on it makes it a joy to listen to even now, I definitely recommend checking it out.

12 Days Of Tunes (08)

Hiroshige - Shrines In Snowy Mountains

Cutting it a bit fine with the 'no repeat artists' rule again, though I suppose this is *technically* a remix. Mad Professor's Dub treatments of Massive Attacks second album Protection are pretty lovely, very roomy with lots of lush parts scattered throughout. Saying that, here's one of the shorter but still just as sweet ones from the album.

12 Days Of Tunes (07)

M.C. Escher - Snow (1936)

You're just in time for another instalment of downtempo treats. Kinda like an advent calendar, only with moody MP3s instead of chocolate. This time it's Mezzanine once again, the LP's reputation precedes itself and it is one that is well deserved. Anyone looking to dive into the rabbit hole of Trip Hop could do worse than to start here. Don't let the title fool you, it's a lot less menacing than it sounds.

12 Days Of Tunes (06)

Jeremy Mann - Rooftops In The Snow

I tried to not repeat any artists given the small timeframe, but this one suddenly came up on shuffle and I had to include it. From the same school as Sparks a couple days ago, this one served the same role just a few years later. A long time this has been with me, and it continues to come back up whenever I need it. Here's to you Röyksopp boys.

12 Days Of Tunes (05)

Hiro Yamagata - Four Seasons, Winter(1987)

I'm aware I've posted a ton of downbeat/ambient stuff so far, but luckily that is about to change! Once again we're revisiting one of the most unique sounds in the electronic world, with incredibly short lived band Plone. I adore their sound to pieces but there's very little releases to their name. But what little there is to go around never stops being just incredibly fun to listen to.

12 Days Of Tunes (04)

Martin Lewis - Stoops In Snow (1930)

I think Plaid never get as much attention as they deserve. Granted I've said a few times that even for me their stuff tends to be hit and miss, and compared to the other Warp IDM powerhouses there is bound to be some gaps. Double Figure is an album of theirs I can definitely point to as a hit though, I just went through it and was hard pressed to find a track I didn't enjoy. Enjoy this especially wintry feeling downbeat piece from it:

12 Days Of Tunes (03)

David Hockney - Winter Tunnel With Snow (2006)

I'm 73% sure it would be a crime for me to be going on about wintry tunes and not mention Boards Of Canada. Normally my go-to would be Olson from Music Has The Right To Children but honestly at the minute I have been digging their aptly named Old Tunes and other assorted rare cassette tapes of their pre-Twoism output. On more than a few of them you can definitely hear the sound direction they'd become known for, see this one for example:

12 Days Of Tunes (02)

Claude Monet - The Frost (1885)

Oh boy, this one has been my constant winter companion since like 2003-ish? It's a contender for my all time favourite from Melody A.M. and rightfully so. Everything from the sparkly intro to the hazy effect over Anelli Drecker's vocals gives me the warm fuzzies. Chalk some of it up to nostalgia like, but still, do ye sen a favour and give it a listen.

12 Days Of Tunes (01)

Remember how a while back I was posting one song and one piece of art a day? well this is kind of like that, only with 12 entries instead of 101 to keep me clear until Christmas. So let's get right in there.

Gustave Caillebotte - Boulevard Haussmann In The Snow (1881)

Ever since I discovered that Hotline Miami EP tucked away in my steam folder I've been revisiting the electro side of things. It's only fitting mind, seeing as that was part of the reason I started coming here way back when. And if I hadn't been such a teenage electro fiend I wouldn't have inherited ownership of the place, strange how things work out like that isn't it?. Anyway, here's Shinichi Osawa with a piece from The One, I still love the album and I mean to pick up more of his stuff but it tends to get pricey with the imports and whatnot, regardless; enjoy.

Little Blue

Things ain't been a treat as of late, but I suppose thins could always be worse. Anyway here are some songs that I am employing during this blue period. Here goes nuffin.

Miwa Ogasawara - Gang 1 (2014)

Leading off with the final non-remix track from Walking Wounded. Don't think it's as fresh sounding as the other ones I've posted from the LP, but I remain a sucker for their breed of melancholy Drum & Bass, and of course it's one of my few time capsules I like to take part in from time to time.



Another final track, this time from UNKLE's follow up to Psyence Fiction. Never, Never, Land also ends in a suitably downbeat trip hop fashion. Couldn't find a credit for the vocal on this one but methinks it may be Robert Del Naja of Massive Attack again, whoever it is nails the delivery, and the production goes hand in hand with it extremely well.



Working on a psuedo-retro project at the minute, and OPN seems only fitting. He's blowing up in popularity as of late and I still have to get around to checking out his latest, but in the meantime I have a couple dozen cassettes worth of his older works to see me through, here's one of my favourites I first heard on Rifts.



-Claude Van Foxbat

A Different Kind Of Hotline

Looking to make space on my HDD I went looking for fat I could trim. There I discovered I've had a Hotline Miami Remix EP tucked away in my steam folder for months without me realising. Well I gave it a listen last night and thought I'd share some of it with you lot.

It doesn't take long for the signature Hotline Miami aesthetic to make an appearance, it's been a long time since I immersed myself in it's neon-soaked world of ultra-violence and the days where I would subsist on a heavy diet of strictly Electro House are long gone. But I'll be damned if the soundtrack isn't full of tracks like this that make me feel the way I used to back in those blog crawling days.



It's not long before the more surreal side of the Hotline rears itself though, though you probably already guessed from the title. Imagine if Mr. Oizo gave his twisted electro styling to the soundtrack of some 80's slasher flick and you're in the right ballpark in terms of sound. I'm not a fan of the kinda cliche air raid siren sample towards the end but even then it kinda works with the vibe, and the rest of the track doesn't put a foot wrong so I'll let it go.



Rounding it out with the last track (and my favourite of the bunch). It errs more on the side of the conventional 'outrun' sound that was big a while ago, and honestly could almost be a remix of Kavinsky circa Pacific Coast Highway in parts. Wouldn't say it necessarily fits the Hotline Miami theme woven throughout the others, but I can't fault Carpenter Brut's touches here, I must remember to keep tabs on what he's up to these days.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Winter Is Coming

A slight miscalculation on my part means that my tactic of waiting out the soundcloud drought ain't happening. There's been more stuff put up since I posted last, but I only put one tune aside for posting, and I wasn't in the mood to go digital crate digging again. So here we are again with another installment of the classic ilictronix™ shuffle post.

Indie184 - Take Me Away 3)

As some of you may have seen, I'm currently animating some dark 3D shapes that hopefully should react to the audio within the scene, and of course you can't talk abstract black shapes without a mention of FlyLo's Los Angeles period. This tune would actually make a great one to animate to if I hadn't already picked one out. Maybe in future I might do just that.



A lot of the smooth techno sounds of Warp's {Artificial Intelligence} series are also assisting me through my arty endeavours. Autechre themselves may try to distance themselves from this LP but for me it's a lovely slice of the era, and one that still sounds great some 22 years after it's release.



Miss Kittin also makes a reappearance, this time with one of a few tunes from Batbox that are almost spoken word. I've seen a lot of divided opinion on on Batbox, and granted it's not the combination dancefloor and home companion that I Com was, but it's clear that Kittin has fun producing and as a result the tracks themselves are fun to listen to.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Another Day

This was supposed to be another soundcloud dealie, but my feed is being understandably slow as of late what with all the holidays. So instead I guess we'll shuffle again and see what comes of it.

Jim Rosenquist - The Kabuki Blushes (1986)

Thought it about time to dig this one out again, I love Rossz Csillag Alatt Született throughout, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that Mr. Funk's breakcore treatment of Billie Holiday's Gloomy Sunday wasn't near the top of the list of favourites. A bit different from the rest of the albums classical angle, but it's a treat to listen to.



Trip Hop has been seeing me through my video experiments as usual, and the more depressive cuts of UNKLE's debut are making an appearance again. Honestly when I get wrapped up in animating or whatever I only really hear the lovely beats + strings combo, which is probably for the best otherwise I might end up being sad.



And to round out the downtempo side of things, a little something from Senior. Dug it out once again as December rolls in, and it remains just as fitting as ever, I would love to see Ryxp try their hand at another ambient style record in the future, here's hoping.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Degrees Of Seperation

A little late on this one but I have better reason than usual! I was graduating so now I have a nice piece of paper and a BA after my name. But that shouldn't effect the regular schedule anymore than it already has.

Jeremy Mann - Portait With Bomber Jacket (2012)

Kicking off with more Deadbeats just because they are back in rotation. The opening track of Lounging sets up the album well, and as as much a I prefer Made In The Shade's sound, I can't fault Funky For You in any way, a fitting introduction to the lazy sample heavy vibes the album.



Moving onto something a little less electronic than usual next. The Grape Diggers are made up of a bunch of folk from my neck of the woods, including David Firth of Salad Fingers and Locust Toybox fame. They've been providing my folky/indie vibes for a while now, and I think now is a good time to bring them up again, and I settled on this one that has a smidgen of electronics in it to do so.



And Playing me out is the lovely upbeat vibes of Rex The Dog. I remember being turned onto his stuff after seeing his self directed and animated video for this track in early '09, I go back and watch it every now and then whenever I need a creative boost, and of course the song being top quality as well is just an added bonus.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Soundcloud Roundup 9

That time of the week again, kicking things off right away with a cover of one of my favourite Modeselektor tracks. It most certainly does it justice, and it's especially nice to hear Modeselektor's unique breed of electronic transfer well into other styles. And I'd be lying if I said I wasn't totally in love with the pitch bends on the intro.



Next is another track I saw thanks to a cheeky reblog and oh my, where do I begin. So many touchstones to reference; shades of UNKLE, Apparat, Trentemøller, a smidgen of Post-Rock and perhaps some fragments of The Knife too, all wrapped up in a killer bassline. I'm loving the builds in intensity thoroughout. Definitely going to keep my eye on these two for future coverage.



And finally yet another piece from Celadon City. He teased not too long ago that he'd got an auto-tune setup working and I've been waiting on the results ever since. The vocals make a nice addition to the usual feel good vibes of CC's output, albeit with a more downbeat lyrical angle. There's still a lot of room to experiment and improve, but I'll always support people tweaking and otherwise fiddling with vocals.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Chilly Out

Oh boy has the cold come home fast. 0 to frosty mornings overnight, which means it's finally time to do my annual tradition of prepping winter playlists. Let's get right on in.

Gustave Caillebotte - View Of Rooftops (Effect Of Snow) (1878/9)

After my recent trip into the world of what electropop I have in my collection thanks to a soundcloud roundup I've been crushing on my long time favourites Broadcast once again. I've written pretty extensively about my love for them, and I won't repeat myself here, instead enjoy the wintery tones of the penultimate track of Haha Sound.



To that end, a long lost relic from 2008/9 popped back up on that search. Honestly surprised it took so long to come back up, I haven't heard anything from Youth Novels for about 3 years despie daily shuffling o fmy entire library. But it came back, and ho boy these feelings and memories hit pretty hard. I'll have to catch up with Ms. Li sometime soon.



Of course Boards Of Canada were on the lineup for a cold playlist, I'm still amazed at some of the tracks they have tucked away on obscure, often unreleased albums. I've covered a few of the tunes from the aptly named Old Tunes tapes a while ago, but as of right now I'm digging Boc Maxima, and reminding myself of why Whitewater is one of my favourite pieces of BoC.





-Claude Van Foxbat

Soundcloud Roundup The Eighth

That time again, and once again Soundcloud wasn't making it easy. Think I made good of it though, first things first with another bit from Oneohtrix Point Never's latest, which in contrast to the last one shows off the infuence of both OPN's previous Eccojams release, particularly on the intro. It goes through just about as many changes as Mutant Standard, and as such probably isn't for everyone. As for me; I'm liking it, but it's not the instant love that R Plus Seven was, I think it may take some time before I form a concrete opinion on it.



I've long since fallen out with the Kavinsky-esque electro sound after it blew up and went by more names than you could count. Though my love may have been re-kindled a little as I was making my way through Abbrev's archives, not sure if it was his intention but I am certainly feeling the non-cliche approach to the sound that's on show here, that actually sounds like it's trying to be electronic music and not emulating the 'outrun' style.



And finally a little something I've put up before but bears repeating. Plaid's remix of All Is Full Of Love is something I dig out every few months and fall in love with again. There's not a bad remix on the single, but Plaid's has always been my favourite next to the original. Björk and Plaid go way back, with guest spots and remixes common between them. Plaid's treatment of the original is very understated, with some sparkling synths providing excellent accompaniment to Björk's vocal.

-Claude Van Foxbat

Midweek Shuffler

I swear the days are creeping up on me as of late. Seems like I'm havin' to crank out posts much faster these days, not that I mind too much though because I think I have the formula down pat. With that in mind let's see where the joys of random algorithms take us today!

Jim Rosenquist - Time Door Time D'or (1989)

As much as I like to sell Everything But The Girl's later output on the Drum & Bass angle, there's other nice electronic bits to be had too. Hot off the heels of the D&B opening track, thesecond dives right in a tthe opposite end of things and gives us some lovely late 90's house to get stuck into. With the combo of downbeat vocals and house it reminds me a bunch of A:xus' stuff, which I also adore.



Speaking of late 90's, Goldie's follow up to the fittingly named Timeless made an appearance too. Saturnz Return is pretty infamous for it's opening track, a 60 minute orchestral come drum & bass combo, whichis very well made for sure but doesn't lend itself well to conventional album listening. The second disc has a bit more of the Timeless style vibe to get stuck into though.



And rounding out our very nostalgic selection is my all time favourite house jam back in 2003. And to be fair I'd be lying if I didn't still love it, Felix's effortless piano and house combo gets me every time, as does the rest of Kittenz & Thee Glitz actually. The ending is a little abrupt, but that's because it merges into the next track, his equaly housey cover of Space's Magic Fly.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Let's Go Swimmin'

Remember how like two posts ago I was saying that I love the vibe that Celadon and the company he keeps put out? Well they musta been listening because his collective project/netlabel Galaxy Swim Team just dropped another compilation dealio that is filling my super cute audio needs for today. It's also accompanied by a lovely message:

This album is dedicated to all of our family and friends who have supported Galaxy Swim Team thus far. We could not be more thrilled to finally be putting out this comp! Galaxy Swim Team at its core, is just a bunch of friends creating together. We all feel extremely lucky that from beginning to end, that's all this project ever was. Friends creating together.

So from the bottom of our hearts,
We hope you enjoy. <3

It doesn't mess around, from the get go you're immersed in that Glass Swords-esque sound that I indulge in every now and then. I will not be short of people to look up for future soundcloud roundups for a while to boot. Check it out, and find more from the Swim Team at Soundcloud, Twitter, Facebook and buy their releases on Bandcamp

-Claude Van Foxbat

Return Of The Shuffle 2

Tried to form another shuffle post and it seems to have worked out alright! looks like thy'll be back on the regularly scheduled programming list in the near future then, and so with that lets get cracking shall we.

Robert Del Naja - Mut And Jef 1 (2008)

Pulled some more flashbulb out of storage again recently, he's always been pretty flexible when it comes to styles, especially on the LP this is from Soundtrack To A Vacant Life. The record swings around through phases of ambient, acoustic and other such experiments, but I'd forgotten just how fun The Flashbulb is when he makes more electronic oriented stuff, from the breakbeats to the fantastic bouncy bass, I adore it all.



Also been making an effort to incorporate Never, Never, Land. A lot of the tracks are a bit more experimental than those on Psyence Fiction, and I do miss DJ Shadows little sample contributions but that doesn't meant there's not good stuff here. Invasion had me incredibly interested from the get go with that strong intro, and then won me over completely when I realised it was Robert Del Naja of Massive Attack (and the above art) fame featuring on the vocals.



And finally a long lost addition to my collection that became buried under the weight of all my other tracks. I owe my hometown hip-hop buddy Nightmares On Wax for showing me The Deadbeats, they don't seem to be too popular but what they do is tick all my instrumental hip hp buttons pretty consistently. This one's taken from the album Made In The Shade, which I highly suggest you check out if you're looking for some ultra smooth sunny vibes.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Soundcloud Roundup VII

It's been a while since I looked over my feed on soundcloud, and thankfully my gamble has paid off and I have lots to digest. I went through and picked out a few things and had to make a belated last minute replacement because the song I wanted to put last is no longer on soundcloud it seems. On we go.



Latest friends of the blog and electropop darlings Maybe The Moon have surprisingly little on soundcloud, so in an effort to not use it all up at once I went with my tried and tested method of going by track names. And it did not let me down. The comparisons I made last time still stand here; this one especially has that Au Revoir Simone vibe to it, and surprisingly enough the lyrics remind me a ton of Broadcast's Lights Out which is far from a bad thing.



They had an effect on my listening too, as I dug out all my electroclash records and got taken back to the early 00's, and thanks to a repost on my feed I got introduced to some new electroclash-esque stuff from Hyperultra! It could almost sit right at home on an International Deejay Gigolo compilation nicely and I am totally in love with the vibe of it. I do have to echo similar comments to those on soundcloud; the vocals do need some work, the recording seems lower quality than the rest of the track. But at the same time the Electroclash kiddie in me is telling them to keep it that way because like Miss Kittin & The Hacker's Frank Sinatra or Peaches' Fuck The Pain Away, low quality recordings are electroclash as fuck.



And fnally the last minute replacement. Not that that means it's any less quality mind. I've seen Olivia's name pop up a few times when looking over Celadon City's feeds but shamefully never checked anything out other than their collab until now. I've said before I love the vibe that Celadon and the company he keeps put out, they're always full of lush sounds and are an absolute joy to listen to. The description on SC also tells me that there's an album in the pipeline, so I will definitely be covering that when the time comes.

-Claude Van Foxbat

Not So Sad

All over my twitter this morning I have seen the good news that someone has finally picked up a piece of Stenchman's new(ish) alias Philestine for release. I've long been an advocate of this new direction he was taking, especially given the dire state of the dubstep scene as of late. I've posted this one before as part of the Vague EP back in August, and it's still just as sweet.



He's mixing it up in other areas too, his latest offering as Suspicious Stench (a duo with his long-time bud Suspect) is very refreshing to hear, I am absolutely in love with the chill intro track of this EP. That's not to say there's not plenty of harder stuff to get stuck into though, from the get go Head In A Cupboard takes things a bit darker and even flips the tempo up to drum & bass territory around 1:30. The title track also is a highlight, it's the kind of thing I can tell Stench and co just have a good time making, and I have about as good a time listening to.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Return Of The Shuffle

Y'all remember back when, where I'd open my library and post the first 4 or so tracks that came up on shuffle? Well I noticed it has been a while since I did that, and my libary has grown a fair bit since the last one, so I figured now would be a good time to revive it. Here we go.

Loui Jover - Bam Bam

Kicking off we have one of many relics that have survived 4 or so hard drive migrations I think? I don't even own the album, I just borrowed it off a friend not long after it came out and ripped it. I don't think parts of Hold Your Colou have help up all too well, but I still love the odd track. Tarantula is probably the closest the album gets to old school drum & bass, if only thanks to the Afro-Caribbean emcee.



A revisit here to probably one of the rarest tracks I have. Taken from only EP by Walking Endustries with only 500 copies pressed. There's been rumblings of an expanded re-issue happning soon but I haven't seen anything come of it. Which is a shame 'cos from the two tracks I've heard from it, it's bloody fantastic, until then I'll have to make do with the mixed version Miss Kittin included on her compilation Radio Caroline Vol. 1.



Been a while since I touched upon anything Scruff too, this one's a bit of a standout from the rest of Keep It Unreal, there's pretty much no jazzy samples other than the titular vocal. Everything else that makes a Scruff track is here in spades though, and I do really dig it though, I always forget about that squelchy bass that is somehow a little nostalgic, but every time I fall in love all over again.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Bits From OPN's Garden

OPN has another new LP coming out, I actually heard it on the day he put it on SC but it's taken me this long to decide what I want to say about it. It should come as no surprise to you lot that OPN is one of my recent music loves, my penchant for ambient and synth sounds being the main reason. It's been a while since I first heard OPN in 2009 or so, and he's done a lot of evolution since then, and Garden Of Delete seems to be quite a big step in that regard.



I saw people mess with the MIDIs that OPN put out and as far as I knew we were in for another slice of Ambient goodness, but it seems that is not the case. I've been wracking my brain trying to describe this and the only real way I can think of is if imagine that OPN dropped all the 80's stuff that influenced him before and moved onto late 90's techno demos for inspiration instead. I do think the intro overstays its welcome a little, but the break at about 1:53 is just gorgeous, and I can't complain the track doesn't change things up enough after that.

I'm never sure exactly how to react to new OPN, I didn't like Replica as much as the rest of the blogging scene does, but then again I absolutely adored R Plus Seven. I suppose the short of it is do I like it? And the answer is yes, though I do think it may be too experimental for everyday listening and based on the MIDIs the ambient pieces may still be the best for me, but we will have to see on the 13th of November when the album comes out.

-Claude Van Foxbat

Post-Spooky Soundcloud Roundup

And back to our regularly scheduled programming we go. It's only fitting that hot off the heels of me retelling the story of my love for synthpop and electroclash I get this one sent to me. It's always nice to see people who have their visual style locked down for one, and for two they seem to have found the manual on how to tick my electronic boxes. Very interesting to see the similarities to old school synthpop hearing them so close together, as well as the more modern comparisons I could draw to Au Revoir Simone, Ladytron, La Roux, Goldfrapp and the like



Former writer Joe has also made it onto my list once again, his latest Netlabel project just had it's first birthday, and to celebrate he put together a lovely compilation EP that I think sums up the whole sound they're going for pretty well. Unfortunately I'd posted most of the tracks included so instead of posting the full player, have this super cute bite sized sample instead.



My man Celadon remains a powerhouse, how he comes out with so many different tunes in a small time frame to such a high standard eludes me. I was originally going to post more of his more recent ambient efforts but It was a bit of a 180 in sound given the last two, so instead, have this compilation piece that I somehow missed. It's a lot more in common with what I've posted of his before, but this time featuring a lovely chiptune-y style in addition to the usual playful tones.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Back 3: The End (For Now)

and for out final chapter, we visit similar synthy territory once again. It should come as no surprise by now that the 80's were a goldmine for those of us electronically inclined, with things like Vangelis' score for Blade Runner taking center stage. As I finish up this week's selections we take a walk on the more experimental side of things, taking a look at my other genre love, Ambient, The out and out synthetics of Kraftwerk, and a selction from an obscure New Age record.

Syd Mead - L.A Skyline West (1988)

Tangerine Dream were yet another case of me thinking I should definitely start listening to something, but being completely clueless as to where to start. Thankfully I found my way in eventually and I am so happy that I did. Their music is among the few that can take me back to being a bright eyed kid completely in awe at the sounds coming from a cassette. It ticks all my electronic boxes in the most sublime way.



Breaking the rules a little bit here, technically this one is from '79 but it was released as a single and eventually went to #1 in the charts in '82, and that's where I heard it first in that same tape collection. Out of all the song so far I have compared to electroclash, this one is probably the closest, from a lyrical standpoint it could easily have been from Felix Da Housecat's Kittenz & Thee Glitz and was even the base sample for Ladytron's He Took Her To A Movie.



And finally, a little something from a band called Software. I already gave the album the once over here, it's been in my library for some time now. Has my opinion changed on it? A little, some parts of it are pretty generic, (my older post pretty much is the best selections from it) but what 'New Age' music of the era wasn't? Still it's recent influence is apparent with Vaporwave, and Oneohtrix Point Never's label is called Software and I think might even use the same font as the cover.



There is plenty more I wanted to put in these posts, but it turns out I didn't have a lot of the things I wanted to post to hand, or in cases like the Blade Runner soundtrack were actually released later than the 80's. Still I see it as a plus should I come back to this again which is highly likely given the treasures on offer.

-Claude Van Foxbat

Back 2: New Wave

Moving on to other Genres of the era, a little more spread out this time however. The 1980's also saw New Wave burst onto the scene and stick it's synthesized self firmly on the charts, often accompanied by people looking moody at keyboards. You should all know by know that I adore Electroclash in all it's trashy glory, and New Wave contains much of the similar formula so it should come as no surprise I have a soft spot for it too. Let's have a look.

Patrick Nagel - 1310

A lot of this stuff is what kicked off my interest in all things electronic (not the first though, that honour goes to Autobahn). Among the earliest I can cite is The Human League. The eventual influence on Electroclash is most clearly seen here on the lyrics, I could easily see Miss Kittin & The Hacker giving this one a crack at some point. You've probably already heard this one a fair few times, and it's not aged well in parts for sure, but I do remember being mesmerised by the opening bars and the equally weird music video.



On the flipside, I think Blue Monday still holds up today very well. It's more than earned it's place in electronic music history but every time it comes up I am always surprised just how modern it sounds. Every single time I fall in love with it, from the instrumentation down to the stoic, disconnected lyrics. Granted, this isn't the original release from '83 (but it's the one I have to hand) so there are minor differences there, but it's largely the same.



Moving away from New Wave / Synthpop slightly to cover some Italo-Disco. Italo is very much a product of it's era, and there are more than a few tracks that are straight up bad by today's standards, but it's still a very important milestone in electronic music history that has influences to this day. For example, eagle eared listeners may recognise this as the sample on both Washed Out's Feel It All Around and Miss Kittin & The Hacker's The Beach.



There's plenty more I wanted to cover here but I think I've gone on enough here, and I would like to save some ammo for whenever I decide to resurrect this idea once again in future!

-Claude Van Foxbat

Back In Time

Hey y'all, thought now would be a good time to spring an idea we had a long time ago, for the next week or so of posts we'll be taking a trip back to the 1980's and seeing what musical trasures it has to offer. I realise this would have been better to start closer to BTTF day but you should all know by now I am far too organised to do anything like that. So let's take a trip back to when it was Maggie's Britain shall we?

Keith Haring - Pop Shop Quad 1 (1987)

I thought I'd start with some early house. Seems fitting as that was my first real love when I started following electronic music exclusively. The roots for all the stuff you and I adore on are all laid out here starting in 1987 with Derrick May's now legendary Strings Of Life. I gotta tell you it holds up real well though the piano hook may be a little dated to some ears, it kind of borders the line between Techno and House in some spots too. Regardless it remains an incredibly important milestone in House.



Following it up with another all time favourite of mine that's especially relevant today. I'm sure you're all aware that Deep House has been the in thing for a while now and I'm sure like a lot of you its fans really grate on me. The ones I've encountered keep talking like Deep House is this new genre that's only just come around, and that's when I like to spring a little Mr. Fingers on them. Can You Feel It made it's debut in '86 and it remains pretty much my favourite example of the genre to this day.



And finally, I may not be the biggest fan of Acid, but this one more than earns its place. Chances are you've heard this one somewhere before despite the tabloids of the time doing their best to demonise Acid House. It's a far cry from the screeching 303s one might usually associate with Acid, as is to be expected with its age. Now there's nothing wrong with the other tracks on the EP, but something about Voodoo Ray just pushes it above the rest. I suppose it makes sense given that it's the title track and all but still. Take a bite out of this one and treat yourself to some acidic goodness.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Done Goofed 2

I swear it keeps sneaking up on me that I have to post and once again I have nothing prepared. Other than these bits of my favourite late night tales compilations I was revisiting so they will have to do. Saying that I have nothing but high praise for Röyksopp's entry to the series, it's chock full of gorgeous tunes that fit he series' theme as well as tracks you can tell have influenced them a whole bunch in their own production.



Trentemøller's is also pretty good, not every track is a hit for me like on the 'Sopp one, but there are still some solid picks on there, and again some of the influence the songs have had on his own productions is evident throughout. And no matter how I feel about some of the choices, the cover of Blue Hotel included is still solid, and the way it's seamlessly introduced in this minimix is gorgeous.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Always Forever Ambient

It should com as no surprise to any of you reading that I do love me some good Ambient tunes. Now I've been trying to move away from that in recent times just because I think it can get a bit boring, and even the most chilled out bloke in the world has to enjoy some good old fashioned electro house every once in a while. Unfortunately I've been scratching my head for a day or two trying to figure out what to post and I'm back on that ambient train, let's go.



More from Celadon City who is currently out of town, he was nice enough to leave us with a little song before he left though. Again, much much different from his Rustie-esque tunes of before, this one almost seems to take some cues from Apparat and co with that building noise. A treat to listen to, and short enough that it shouldn't be too alienating to everyone but the drone lovers.



Opposite end of the spectrum now, I couldn't do an ambient post without mentioning my man Daniel Lopatin. I've got a place for all his side projects but I'll always love Oneothrix Point Never, between the ovearll retro-ish aesthetic and his gorgeous command over the synths there's nothing for me to not like. A bit on the long side this one for the casual listener mind.



Now would be a good time to mention I've been playing Mass Effect again and as such have a hankering for spacey tunes s of now. Did some digging on µ-Ziq's soundcloud and found this unreleased remix with an interesting tale: "Tom didn't like this one as he thought the second half seemed to make light of the tune which wasn't my intention. But he was right in hindsight, none of these really deserved to come out compared to their amazing originals.". Mike has a point there, the first half is certainly much better than the second. Even so, it's always interesting to see unreleased behind the scenes type things, and this is no exception. -Claude Van Foxbat

HexLove

Remember a few days ago when I mentioned that flylo mix keeping me sweet until the next Rustie release? Well thanks to old friend of the blog Cloudfill and his label I may have even more ammo to see me through. The latest release of theirs is by far and away the most suiting of the 'sugary sweet' label I like to throw around tracks like these. The watercolour-y cover is lovely to see too, among a sea of often all too generic cover designs it certainly stands out.



Be sure to give 'Fill some love, check Hexmania on Soundcloud for more, and if you're feeling the releases on offer you can cruise on over to The Bandcamp and scoop them for a moderate fee of your choosing. -Claude Van Foxbat

Techy Wednesdays

Oops I meant for this to be yet another Techy Tuesday but I done goofed again. Have the belated version of the post anyway featuring a ton of Electroclash because I unironically like the genre. Less getstuck in.

Atelier Olschinsky - Neon Cities (04)

Recently put the creatively titled debut LP #1 back into my rotation. International Deejay Gigolo Records are pretty much a goldmine for the seedy electroclash-y sound, but I always felt like Fischerspooner were the meeting point between the cleaner stuff and the all out lewd, and this track is a solid example of that. There's nothing out n' out filthy about it and I bet it would still be at home on a dancefloor today.



I wish I had come around to Mount Sims sooner. I was aware of the featuring tracks he'd been on but it took me a crazy long time to check out his solo work, and I haven't been able to get my dannies on a physical copy as of yet so this one isn't the best quality. But I'll be damned if it doesn't tickle my electroclash itch like no other, straight from the opening track.



And finally, a half remembered fragment of my youth that I came into again recently. More of the soundtrack from the PS1 Ghost In The Shell game, I remember a demo disk with it on and the intro movie blew my little mind before I knew what Cyberpunk was. Fast forward a decade or so and not only do I have the soundtrack to that video, but the whole game too. And it's chock full of gorgeous mid-90's techno.



-Claude Van Foxbat

It's Massive

I made the mistake of going into this week's soundcloud roundup expecting there to more indie stuff to cover. Turns out I fell down the Massive Attack rabbit hole and here we are. Starting it off right with a semi-rare remix I only barely remembered, Portishead give their once over to Karmacoma. There's nothing too interesting about it until 1 minute in where there's some absolutely gorgeous guitar dropped into the mix. It doesn't show up as much as I'd like but when it does it's fantastic.



And leading right into another tune I forgot about, FlyLo lends his touch to some Massive material, and it comes out sounding like some of his production for Gonjasufi, hell if you didn't know it was Massive Attack it could almost be a cut B-side from Los Angeles with a Horace Andy sample. And it's brilliant throughout.



And finally, producer extraordinaire and grandfather of ambient Brain Eno and his take on Protection. There's not much re-mixing going on here, but in true Eno fashion it almost sounds like a re-arrangement for a film. Certainly a more laid back take on the original, and I'll always adore the storm SFX sprinkled throughout.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Comfort Tunes

Not shaping up to be a brilliant week. But I'm tryin me best to carry on regardless, British Spirit and all that. Anyway it's time for more tunes I put on whenever I get a little bit down like this, surprisingly you don't really want to throw shapes to '92 techno when things are a little blue.

Jeremy Mann - 7th Ave. Night (2012)

And blue things will be; here's a little something I've been holding onto for a while, I first heard of Michael Brook's Cobalt Blue when I was on my ambient streak a few years back. Ultramarine is by far one of my favourites from the LP, it gets a little dark in spots for sure, but I always fall in love with the interspersed guitars throughout when they come up. Not strictly electronic but I highly recommend the album, it's consistently gorgeous throughout.



Another throwback but even further this time. Alpinestars' White Noise is an album I picked up off the heels of Röyksopp's Melody A.M. in the early 00's because I was in love with the new breed of chillout that was hip at the time. The album's aged poorly in parts for sure, but it still has parts that I still like a bunch and take me back to being young & dumb. Take the single Burning Up for one.



Bringing it a bit closer now, a tune I was in love with non-stop for about a year straight back in High School (when the album was new!). Between this and Destroy Everything You Touch you have a portal that takes me back there. A lot of good times associated with this one, it's still got a place in my heart.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Smooth Sundays

Hello all, just dropping by with some more bits from my feed as per us. And once again I'm starting off with Celadon City, but this time it's quite a bit different from his usual sugary sweet summer vibes, much more sedate and pretty much all acoustic. Admittedly it's a few months off from Valentine's Day and I should really save it for then but I can't help myself, I'm a well known sucker for a nice vocoder, and this has it in spades.



Second comes from someone I was meant to cover this time after seeing a few of his tunes reblogged. I went onto my soundcloud today to find out he'd actually followed me! not bad to say I only put up weird ambient and drone experiments. I've been digging Vigliensoni's output as of late, I was in love wih the sounds regardless, but the vocals are giving me serious Sébastien Tellier vibes, which is something I have been lacking as of late.



And finally, a little something I found just above all that. FlyLo's Puppet Talk was a bit of a wildcard from him being a solo piano piece and all. I was curious as to how a remix of it would work and I got my answer. I know the whole Beats things has had its moment and gone, but I still love a lot of the stuff in that style like FlyLo's own Massage Situation for example. And this has the right combo of compression and super sweet synths to keep me satisfied until the next Rustie release.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Mike Sheridan

Hello again - Jakob here!

Today I want to tell you a little bit about a young and very talented individual by the name of Mike Sheridan. I was actually going to write about something else(you will get that later), but I recently had the opportunity to go to a workshop that he was hosting. Mike Sheridan is what you most likely would call a "electronic musician/composer". And yet, he is so much more than that. As a sort of introduction to the workshop, he told the small gathering that he doesn't understand alot of music theory. He even called himself dumb at one point. What's interesting, though, is that he sees this "dumbness" as a good thing - something that can work to his advantage when creating.

Stylewise his music is somewhere in between ambient and experimental techno. I've picked out 2 tracks from his debut album - "I Syv Sind". Translated to english it would mean something along the lines of "In Two Minds" only that "syv" doesn't mean two, it means seven.

Both of tracks really encapsulates the ambient techno side of his sound. All the while still having a soundtrackish quality to it. The title track "I Syv Sind" is a perfect example of that.



The second track, Stilhed (Silence) I chose because of the vocal. I mean, after all, this is a focus on Danish(!) music, so of course there had to be some of that delish danish language in here somewhere.



-Jakob

(Sound)Cloud 9

Time for the daily change up I do, unfortunately my feed hasn't been so kind this time so I had to do some digging. Regardless, here we go: I'm always down for some more experimental electronic stuff and I've been meaning to check out The Flashbulb for some time now, last I heard he was on hard times cos somebody stole some gear from him. Turns out he has a new LP and it is chock full of lush sounds and the like that made me like the man in the first place. I might have to jump on this one very soon:



On a similar line a tune from Funkstörung's new LP was meant to be here. Alas, Monkeytown only has like 40 second previews up. So instead have one of my favourites from them from an older LP, their upload is pretty neat because it's the full album intercut with little bits of interviews about it. Not sure it'd be good for regular listening, but a nice touch here.



And finally it's no secret I adore vocoders but at current they are back in a big bad way. This post is also a reminder that I need to get my arse in gear and get the album this is from. Röyksopp's goodbye to the traditional album format is beautifully bittersweet, especially when they've been in my listening queue since like 2002. If anything I should be thanking them.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Synthesized Soul

As often as I repeat it, I've always had a certain affinity for electronic music since I was little, I remember being amazed at the sounds, so unlike anything conventional instruments could produce. More than likely you've seen the same argument played out countless times: Electronic music doesn't have 'feeling' which is something I've always rejected, maybe it's my sci-fi side talking but when you break it down isn't a Piano just a machine? (Obviously not in the same way as a Modular Synth, but still). But enough philosophy for now, here's some songs that have been tickling my brain bits recently.

Vladimir Bonačić - PLN 5 (1969)

Ladytron's debut output was littered with references to old tech, be it the Speak & Spell featured in the Playgirl video or hell even the track simply called Commodore Rock. It's most prominent on the few instrumental tracks on their debut, as the opening tones of this one sound vaguely 8-bit.



Keeping it in electroclash-y territory with some Fischerspooner. I've been meaning to do an in-depth overview of this LP like I did with Felix and other albums of the time but it hasn't happened yet. Around the midpoint of the LP we're treated to this lovely interlude, I've always loved the post-dancefloor introspection present on Electrclash LPs and this one may be my favourite example of them.



Coming back to a frequent one of mine, OPN's closer to R Plus 7 is still as gorgeous as when I first heard it. I can see how some could be a little alienated with the direction OPN takes it towards then end but I adore it throughout. Especially that lush introduction.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Friends In Beats 2: Speedy Edition (Links broken as of 2020)

I gave long time friend of the blog and music pal of mine Evan a well deserved shoutout not too long ago, and one of the things I mentioned is that he normally has excellent genre flexibility. Well he musta read it and wanted to show it off a little, so he hooked me up with some 'sclusives of the Drum & Bass variety. But before we get into those, here's another new slice of delicious chilled instrumental from him:



Now that that's out of the way we can get to the meat of the Drum & Bass. I love sharing examples of the genre with him from the early days of '92 to the more jazzy feel the E-Z Rollers were putting out around 2000, and the influence shows on tracks like these, it'd be easy for him to adapt his house formula into the mix and make some modern style Liquid Drum & Bass but instead it's a nice spectrum across the entire history, al wrapped up nicely but that bassline.

EVK - 615 [click to download] |HTML5|


That's not to say he doesn't bring his other work in at all, despite the radical difference in BPMs, some of the samples seen in his Hip-Hop stuff come into play quite often, and the end result often comes out sounding more than a little Omni Trio-esque. For that I can't complain, Omni Trio is responsible for some of my favourite Drum & Bass songs ever ad I'd love to see Ev tackle something that sounds like Even Angels Cast Shadows. Here's hoping!

EVK - Take U There [click to download] |HTML5|

-Claude Van Foxbat