A Bit Of Summer In Winter

Cold Snap over in jolly ol' England. But thankfully my man Celadon has finally got around to knocking out his latest release, which as the title says should provide me a little bit of audio warmth when I'm waiting for the train in the early morning frost tomorrow. I've probably said enough about Celadon at this point but for those not in the know, tune in for some Plone-esque indie electronic stuff, kinda like some Bibio stuff too come to think of it. It's even on spotify too if you wanna listen on the go



-Claude Van Foxbat

Out Of Beta, Releasing (Not) On Time

Hoo boy this one took longer than it should've. Word to the wise, always have backup plans even for your backup plans: I got an email with this LP a couple of weeks or so ago now, and I thought great now I don't have to worry too much coming up with post material for this one, but between intercontinental family visits and other general life things it managed to fall by the wayside. (Apologies Chris if you're reading this!) But enough about me, let's talk this LP, the cover almost matches our post backgrounds to boot!

This time we're covering a little something from Carbinax, I glanced over the cover art and tracklist and we should be in for a good sciencey time (Hence the post title). The copy given to me didn't have the tracks numbered so inn true scientific fashion I loaded them up and let the shuffle algorithms take over. And it all started with Smart Casual, A very nice way to start if I do say so myself, an easy addition to my 'potential menu music' playlist for sure. I like it a lot, seems like it'd be good material for folks looking into getting into IDM without throwing them in at the deep end with Autechre or Drukqs.






Moving into more house-like territory for the next random pick. I was digging it from the get go just because we're founded on house and all that, but man if I can't see this being part of some cyberpunk club soundtrack. It probably doesn't help I've been playing a lot of Timesplitters lately either and been all about the trance fuelled soundtrack of them. Regardless the intro and outro here are deliciously retro-futuristic.



Keeping the variety up once again, this time with some vocal accompaniment. I didn't find a credit for this track in particular but I'd like to thank them for doing a excellent job, the contrast between the punchy electronics and her voice makes for an interesting listen indeed, I'd be down for more stuff in this vein. The closest touchstone I have is Perturbtor's Sentient, and even then I'm liking this one more.



It's not all gloomy electronics surprisingly, there's a fair bit of piano in there too. And not MIDI 90's rave piano stabs either, more like Lisa Miskovsky's Still Alive if had to make a direct comparison. And speaking of comparisons, once this one gets going I had a flood of them coming to mind, that bouncy bassline bringing together a mix of Au Revior Simone, ADULT. and early to mid 2000's Freezepop specifically. Not a huge fan of the almost minute long fade-out, but saying that it only needs to be maybe 7-9 seconds shorter (which is admittedly nitpick-y).



And finally playing us out, a much more sedate number, as is often the case with IDM artists, this one feels a lot like a Global Goon tune to me. The samples are on point too, and even a more upbeat section coming crashing into the mix around 3:45 before leaving again around the 5 minute mark. It's a unique approach for sure, and caps off the LP's sound quite nicely, think of it like a sandwich with all the LP's ingredients in one neat package.





You can find more Carbinax on:
Twitter
Soundcloud
Facebook
Bandcamp


-Claude Van Foxbat

Aloha Alola

It's only fitting with a new generation of pokemon making the rounds that we go back and cover some more Celadon City. And it just so happens he has another sample of his upcoming release for us to boot. Natural kicks off with some filed recordings and on the whole feels effortlessly smooth like much of CC's wok. Which is kinda funny because he had this to say about it: "Natural had been a tough song to finish for the last year and a half. For weeks I would sit and listen to this one song, and later would find something wrong. Its funny that I labeled the track natural, since I was having such a rough time finishing it. What I can say though it that I learned what it means to be natural and confident in your work. It is what makes this collection of songs even more important to me."



And alsomy main man and long time blog pal Evan hit 1 million plays on his soundcloud, so I'm giving him a shoutout too. Not asked him about what the description of this one means, but I'd get it in your ears quick cos it sounds like it may not be up forever. That and I'm a sucker for a bit of bebop too.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Pod3

A special longer edition of the podcast this time, partly to make up for how long it's been between them and partly because we have a lot of tunes to discuss this time around. Why has it taken us so long? Well I suppose you'll have to listen to find out, join us for that and to hear us reminisce about the glory days of dubstep and electro circa 2007.



Opening:
Nicholas Jaar – No

Adam’s picks:
Blac Youngsta x Quavo – Come Thru
Anthony Naples - Moscato
Rimbudian - Let Me Beat U
Ackroyd - Bend Sinister
Alex Burkat – Pay the Rent

Claude’s Selections
Röyksopp – Never Ever
Felix Da Housecat – We
D1 – I’m Loving
Crookers - Boxer
DJ Mehdi – Anything Is Possible

Outro:
Uncle Sam - Round The World Girls (Tes La Rok Remix)
Conquest - Forever

An ADULT. Retrospective, Vol. 1

Another day, another series that was delayed through no fault of my own. Anyway, me and a friend did have this on vinyl but I don't know where my rip of it has gone so this not so great quality version I found will have to do for now. But that's kinda fitting cos electroclash always had that rough quality to it. More info after the art.

Yes we're talking about ADULT. today, a little underrated in the world of electroclash imo, but I did their punky take on it. Starting this post of with one of their earlier releases and the one I first heard, the New-Phonies EP. Starting with Hand To Phone, I first heard this in some bootleg in the early 2000's and it's been on my mind ever since, between this and Kittenz & Thee Glitz my love affair with electroclash was sealed and to this day I still adore Miss Kittin and Nicola Kuperus' monotone delivery. This isn't my favourite version of Hand To Phone, (that'll come up in future) bu even so it's still fantastic.



If I had it my way I'd post the whole thing because it's only 4 tracks and each is a fantastic crash course in electroclash, but I'll show some restraint. Moving back up the tracklist to the opening track and my opening lines about ADULT. being a bit more punk sounding than other electroclash acts becomes a little clearer. The quintessential introduction to ADULT.'s overall sound too, frantic lectronics backed with Nicola's rhythmic delivery.



The only track we're missing out here Don't Talk sees the introduction of another electroclash cornerstone as it's about phone sex. Granted it's not as explicitly obscene as Peaches or some Mount Sims but it's there. Anyway onto the last track Your Lies. Just in case they hadn't done enough to secure my heart, they went ahead and thew in some very subtle vocoder on the last track (or at least it's subtle on this release). Not sure it's the perfect track to close with but it certainly makes an impression.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Days Of Thunder

Thought I'd fallen behind again but pleased to see that I haven't yet! Going to cover some more obscure OPN side projects this time, I try to keep the ambient to a minimum cos I know it's not everyone's bag but this one in particular has been striking a cord with me at the mo. (2020 edit: apologies for the YT players, this is a pretty obscure release that's nowhere else)

There's only 4 tracks to the Days Of Thunder EP, a collaboration between Daniel Lopatin of Oneohtrix Point Never and Mark McGuire, formerly of Emeralds (though they were still together when this was released). So all in all as you would expect from those names, a pretty solid combination, it wastes no time getting down to early OPN Juno-60 goodness. I adore the bassy backing synths coming in around a minute in, I'm a sucker for the Juno stuff anyway but that is something else.



Mark McGuire's contributions are a little more pronounced on track 2, which is more of a meandering ambient piece in comparison to the synth jam vibes of Flight Simulator, it's a nice contrast to have some acoustic accompaniment to the usual synthetics of OPN's work. It does go off on a Clark-esque distortion kick around halfway through though, and as much as I like that I would love to hear another track in a similar style, the collaboration a little more obvious.



And finally Sky Ramping, given the title you think it'd be a perfect summation of the EP but I don't think so. It's still nice like, the whole structure has a lot in common with another OPN tune called Nest 5900, and McGuire's influence is again not as clear. Still it's nice to hear, the EP as a whole is very nice with nary a weak point on it, it's just a shame that Flight Simulator steals the show so early.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Röyskopp's Track Of The Month Archive: Part 3

Moving into the final part now, which gets off to a rocky start with Malangen Fra Bruhodet. Ain't nothing wrong with it, it's perfectly serviceable on its own and all but it does feel a little half baked in the grand scheme of the free tunes so far. There's nothing here to really grab you, just some easy going easy listening, wouldn't be bad as a website loop like what Boards Of Canada used to do tho.

Röyksopp · RYXP - Malangen Fra Bruhodet

All doubts take a backseat immediately though, and we're treated to something that in it' own rights could have been a B-Side to Junior. The vocal contribution is a tad bit different from Junior but the spirit is there, I can see why it was nixed tho, it's certainly more electro influenced than the rest of the LP. It's crying out to be on an EP, I certainly would have liked to hear MSTRKRFT or the like give their hand to those already punchy kickdrums. Actually come to think of it Felix Da Housecat would be a fitting candidate for it too, the 'Sopp lads themselves remixed What Does It Feel Like? for him back when and it'd be nice to reincorporate some of Kittin's vocals here.

Röyksopp · I Wanna Know

Shoulda held off on this one for another month or whatever, but here we go. It is what it says on the tin, Röyksopp did an electronic cover of Le Cantique de Noel. It's nice to have some more electronic Christmas music rather than just making a winter playlist. This is where I think parts of Senior start to shine through, the overall structure is very reminiscent of the album but not quite as ambient, but saying that the intro is a real soothing listen.

Röyksopp · Le Cantique de Noël

And finally, ironically enough the tune that was the hardest to get hold of, Stronghold. It really harks back to their Melody A.M. days stylistically, very understated with smooth sounds and hint of vinyl crackle. Small flourishes throughout keep it an interesting listen; true ambient in that it works both as background accompaniment or active listening. I would have liked to see them go out on a more upbeat tone but then again this is a little more in line with Senior which would have been fresh in mind then.

Röyksopp · RYXP - Stronghold

And that about wraps it up, there is however one more bonus tune they gave out, I don't recall whether it was for another late Track Of The Month or what, but the good news is I not only already had a copy, but it was very very easy to find (and the one I found was even better quality than the one I had). It's called Shores Of Easy if you'd like to hear it for yourselves, I'm keeping it under my hat for another day, it's a 14 minute Röyksopp jam session and it is lovely.

-Claude Van Foxbat

Tough Times

Slight hiccup in scheduling as is the ilictronix way, but spent the last few days working and then having to try find an emergency plumber (that later turned out to be an emergency electrician that we needed). So in short all my scheduled things are outta whack and I'm not exactly in the mood to sit and write a lengthy post, so I went back and dug out some of my favourite more obscure tunes from The Knife. Stay tuned and we will resume normal schedule shortly.







-Claude Van Foxbat

Back With Celadon

Our long time pal Celadon is back with more feelgood vibes to brighten up your midweek. Taken from upcoming EP Summeryoung I held off putting this one up in the hopes he'd drop a couple more but alas nothing yet. Here's what the man himself has to say about it:

"This EP was formed from the recent unstable moments of my life. I always found time to sit down after long days at school and write skeletons of songs. It wasn't until the summer that everything connected for me and I found the right moods for the EP. Emotion is always a central part in my songwriting, and so constantly I am trying harder and harder to deal with those moments and hopefully molding it into music that I can learn and grow from."



I can kinda relate as a fellow arty folk, I've still got a million and one side projects on the go like always, but there's not nearly as much pressure to deliver now I've graduated. Which is actually quite nice, I like to bounce between things so I don't get burned out, now with the added bonus of being able to take my time with them. Regardless, enjoy the tune and I will be back with the final Röyksopp part shortly!

-Claude Van Foxbat