Revisiting

Marjorie Strider - Rosemarie's Bag (1973)

Keeping it on a tight sched here for now, here's a couple tunes to keep you goin. Revisiting my new favourite Swede since The Knife split, Simon Viklund. If you've kept up with his stuff I've posted you have an idea of the electro styled stuff he normally puts out. But way back I mentioned I'd love to see 'im tackle hip hop or trip hop again since he last did in like '09 or so, well my wish was granted a little while back and it's nothing short of fantastic, Make sure to stay tuned after the fake-out outro at about a minute in cos it gets even better from there.



Speaking of revisiting, I've been giving Squarepusher's jazz record Music Is Rotted One Note another go. It does have some real experimental stuff on there that isn't everyone's bag (mine included) but also these damn fine displays of his musical flexibility too. And My Sound is by farad away the best example on there.



And one final revisit to complete the trilogy. Massive Attack are incoming with a new LP it seems, there's a couple of tracks out from it right now but I haven't got around to listening to them yet. The original run was limited to apple things which is pretty silly if U2 has taught us anything. Regardless, Massive have been going since '88 and show no signs of stopping soon which is lovely news. Here's one of my all time faves from their sophomore LP Protection.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Through The Machine

Guess who made a surprise appearance on my radar t'other day. It's been a long time since I've heard any rumblings from Maybe The Moon, last I recall they only had a couple songs on their soundcloud but they were scratching my occasional electropop itch something fierce. And then out of nowhere there's not only a few more tracks but an EP announcement too? They're spoiling me.



I'm trying to ease off the comparisons when it comes to these things, but I'll be damned if the Au Revoir Simone comparison isn't apt as ever from the get go. The opening tune also has me very interested in any pure instrumentals that they could put out. Not to disparage Karmen's vocal contributions mind, but I am very much on the market for some 604-era Ladytron goodness like Mu-Tron.

The EP itself is out right now, you can scoop it from Bandcamp. It's name your price so if needs must you can get it for free, but feel free to throw a couple quid their way if it tickles your fancy. I will most definitely keep my eyes on these two for any further developments, they always seem to come 'round when I'm looking for sonds in that vein.

-Claude Van Foxbat

Dear John

I've had a passing interest in James for a while now, (you probably know 'em from the cult classic Laid) like other britpop style groups of the time I thought they'd called it a long time ago. Now imagine my surprise when I got to look up Laid to show to a friend, they actually dropped a new LP in March. While not strictly electronic 100%, this one is giving me a little of the feeling I get around Röyksopp's Junior & Senior. There's an arty video to boot. It's been stuck in my head all day and with any luck now you have it too.



I tried to find a alt streamer too, but it's not even up on their official soundcloud and Spotify embeds don't work too well anymore so this'll have to do for now. I'll be back in due course with more sounds for you.

-Claude Van Foxbat

Strange Days

Luc Tuymans - Solitude (1990)

At the time I'm writing this I'm not sure how I feel, and odds are it'll be the same when it's published too. No surprises there you say, but that'll be the end of it as I dive right into the tunes. Ms. Topley-Bird has been a muse as of late, her solo career every bit as good as everything she did with Tricky & co. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for some lovely trip hop vibe with a soulful streak.



Looking through my library and there's a few songs that come close to encapsulating this feeling, first of being Aesop's Forest Crunk (Which I suppose is technically a Blockhead instrumental but still). It's a solid tune all in all, why it didn't make an appearance on any of Aes' or even Blockhead's LP's is anyone's guess.



I do really wish I had more stuff in the vein of what Lykke Li did with Röyksopp on Junior, even when it was new something about Lykke's delivery made it have a tint of nostalgia to the proceedings. Of course now it has extra layers of that thanks to time passed, and the few tunes that Li guested on are still as solid as ever.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Enter The Vault

Dunno what I'd do without Celadon City to brighten up my soundcloud feed. After the last few times have come up peanuts he's really spoiling me as of late. This time we have another compilation dealie that he appears on, and it's a treat for the ears as usual. It's nice to see him constantly experimenting with sounds (though I am still waiting for the vocoders to make a reappearance), and they always sound pretty polished too given how fat they come around. Check out the comp and CC's tune below!







-Claude Van Foxbat

Reunions

Meeting an old friend tomorrow who's seen me through some tough times in the past. It's been a while because well we both have lives now and all that (see also: me and keeping up with posts), things are a little tough right now too so I'm gonna get a lil sappy with some nostalgic tunes from my library..

Max Ernst - A Friends' Reunion (1922)

Starting with something from many late nights and early mornings cutting videos for uni. We're in that boat once again but I have Omni Trio's signature piano keys to keep me company, with Tracey Thorn doing her thing too. Much more sedate than the original for sure, those added basslines that are distinctly Omni Trio are a delight to listen to.



Kittin's been one of my favourite voices in music since I picked up Kittenz & Thee Glitz sometime in the early 00's. Got a special place for a lot of stuff she's been involved with, Hometown especially so. Out of nowhere Miss Kittin & The Hacker drop an EP after a few years of quiet, and it's a much more of a love letter to their new wave roots than the deliberate explicitness of their electroclash stuff. Kittin really shows of her talent for more downtempo stuff here, which is why I dig this and Rippin Kittin so much.



The Knife are also an incredibly important band to me, but I've already said enough about that in previous posts. I picked up their entire backcatalogue a long time ago and put it all in rotation. I don't think there's a single track on any of them that I don't associate with something or someone. And here's a primo example of that.



Apologies if this was a little self indulgent and that, I know it's pretty shit to read about blogger's memories when you have no connection to them but I just needed to drop something. We'll be back to regular stuff next time.

-Claude Van Foxbat

Catching Up

Trust the day I go out of town to be the day I get some emails that are pretty important and I had planned to write a post too, so the plan for that went out the window. All covered now though so I can tell you the latest news as a backup, after reaching the 4K follower milestone on Soundcloud, our long time good vibes pal Celadon City has a little something to share with us. And it's just as pretty as ever.



Apologies again for the rushed post, but I'll make it up to y'all. You know I'm good for it. Until then ave yourself a lazy afternoon courtesy of the above.

-Claude Van Foxbat

Still Incoming (Soundcloud player Broken as of 2020)

More chats with Adam RE: our lil' project. Got some neat ideas going and it's shaping up to be pretty nice, I wish we could show something off for what we have so far but we're still workin' on it and I wish we were able to get it out to you a little faster and all but you know how life is. Instead have some more delicious instrumental hip hop to start off your week and I'll update you as and when with any new info!



-Claude Van Foxbat

Echo's Answer

Was listening back to mine and Adam's project and there's a bit in it where I talk about Broadcast a little. I've tried to keep it to a minimum in the actual posts because I bet I could go on for days about how much I love 'em but I thought I'd finally break and have a little cross section of some favourites. Starting off with the first of theirs I heard beyond America's Boy.



A lot of my picks have a bit of a melancholy streak to them, it's something that's always appeared on their releases even going back to their fist, not to say that they don't have more upbeat (albeit often abstract) songs mind. Much like Beth Gibbons of Portishead, I absolutely adore Keenan's delivery and there are plenty of times where I've been in her shoes with what she describes.



Rounding out with the penultimate track from Tender Buttons, it ushers in the end of the album nicely, it's the bittersweet goodbye before moment of reflection offered by the purely ambient final track. I'd always hoped for more to come, but those tapes mentioned by the band's survivor James Cargill don't seem to be surfacing, or were perhaps already used in the Berberian Sound Studio soundtrack. I am more than content with what we have however, they'll always be a highlight of Warp's roster for me.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Long Weekend End

Patrick Caulfield - Weekend Cabin (1967)

Hope y'all over in t' states had a god time with your long weekend. And I hope you don't mind I took an extra day off from posting too even tho I'm in entirely the wrong country. Regardless I've been up my usual chill tree so let's get stuck into what I have on offer. Currently in love all over again with this reverb soaked beauty, and it only gets better as it goes on. A tad on the short side but that just keeps it sweet.



Keeping things on the short front with Short Change fittingly, clocking in at 1:41 it's even shorter than Around. This one's also a contender for longest tune in my collection, I musta picked it up at some point in the early 00's, but back then it was a shitty 96kbps version because I didn't know any better, It's since been replaced with a decent quality version between then and now however.



And some Pretty Lights for the first time in what feels like forever. Still more of a fan of the hip op sample fuelled stuff from the first half of Filling Up The City Skies than the direction it takes later on. And this one should be a perfect example of why it's real smooth to listen to and is just well put together overall. A real dream for you out there into sample spotting too.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Good Things Incoming (Soundcloud player broken as of 2020)

I just got the word from Adam that our not so secret project is pretty much ready to go, so look forward to hearing from us (literally) more often in future! In the meantime Iforgot to get somethign prepared so I'm going to leave y'all for the weekend with some delicious instrumental goodness. Stay tuned for updates in the coming weeks!



-Claude Van Foxbat