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