Give Me Liberty

Trying to be a little more active on Spotify these days, I know it's a bit of a pisser that you can't listen to stuff if you don't have an accountand all but it's the best we've got since Grooveshark died off. Anyway, I took a spin down memory lane when I went poking around, as Rockstar conveniently have playlists for pretty every much radio station ever featured in GTA from III upwards. Naturally I have to give props to Electro Choc, which as you might've guessed from the name, was supremely my jam circa 2008. Just the preview window here has some prime electronic goodness of the era.



There's some stuff missing, and little niggling things like the mix of BTTTTRY not being the right one (and also a sub 1 minute version from some compilation too), but it's still a good dollop of both the original station from François K, and the extra tunes courtesy of Crookers from The Ballad Of Gay Tony. Takes me back to many a bleary eyed 6th form night, and I still know most of these by heart nigh on a decade later. Jumping back to the first point, before I go I'm trying out doing more Spotify curation in the near future, feel free to come check my playlists out, and get a load of my ever growing infinite "To Pickup" backlog.

-Claude Van Foxbat

Checkin' In With Bothan

I always like to see where artists take their directions after being out of the loop with them for a while. Enter our most recent example, Bothan, formerly Dr. Snus. The most recent of his I was sent really threw me off at first, that slightly off kilter intro made me think I was going to get some kinda Plug style stuff, albeit at a slower tempo. Imagine my surprise when instead I get a dark shelf wobbler that wouldn't be out of place in Stenchman's arsenal. I only wish some of that intro bled into the rest of the tune and not just the bridge, though that does happen on it's own towards the end anyway.



I was happy to see the Plug style vibes were not a one-off too, and it's like my mind was read as I was writing the above, with Mr. Bothan pretty much resolving all my (admittedly small) gripes in one fell swoop. the whole formula of small self-contained instrumentals and (what I presume) movie samples is a tried and true one for sure, as shown by Flying Lotus way back in 2006. Funny how I mentioned not too long ago I haven't felt the need to go looking for instrumentals in a while and then all of a sudden a bunch fall in my lap. That isn't me complaining mind.



-Claude Van Foxbat

For The Shorties

Erik Sigerud - Dividers Collide (2008)

A rare (these days) shuffle serving today, all we're coveing is exceptionally short tunes, in fact the total runtime of today's post comes in just over 6 minutes. Granted some of it is almost cheating by using bits from OSTs but the point stands. Starting off with one of my favourite Swedes Simon Viklund, the B-Sides is chock full of these little one off tunes he's made for trailers and websites over the years so is perfect for this theme. Collide is a nice change up from the man's usual electro come EDM fueled output, I'd love for him to tackle some sci-fi stuff with more of this techy sound.



Speaking of Techy, let's pay another visit to Cornelius' OST for Ghost In The Shell: Arise. Opinions on the actual series aside, I really dig the vibe of the soundtrack, as I said a couple times before and on the podcast it's got a real upbeat more contemporary 'future' style to things, and tunes like this could easily be extended out into full on dance tunes and you wouldn't think twice about it being a soundtrack. That's both a plus and a minus I think, I do always like a soundtrack that's listenable on it's own accord though. Still, Cornelius did a bang up job, especially when you have to contend with previous soundtracks by the likes of Yoko Kanno and Kenji Kawai.



Felix Da Housecat's Kittenz & Thee Glitz is one of my themed albums, and actually crosses the soundtrack line backwards compared to the above. That always sounds kinda weird every time I say it so I'll do my best to elaborate; if there were to be a movie made of Kittenz & Thee GLitz, Analog City would play over a moody nighttime scene at the end of act 2 which would then lead seamlessly into Pray For A Star.



And finally some Knxwledge for y'all. I picked up Old Klouds during one of my adult swim bump binges where I get a real hankering for all things instrumental hip hop. And let me tell you, I haven't had one since because every single tune on there is as they say bump-worthy. Each one is a gorgeous little self contained piece of instrumental joy, get a load of the wonky goodness of Preservatives and I'll see you soon.



-Claude Van Foxbat

B-Z

The Designer's Republic - miTDR™ Versus Benelux

Hello all, it's been a while since I put anything up because things at work are pretty rammed at the mo. There should be an extreme drop off come July though so I'll try make up for it then. In the meantime tho, here's a random assortment of feelgood tunes to keep y'all going. I found some good sources on scans of Designer's Republic stuff too, so expect more of the above to come very soon too. Keep on, and I'll see y'all on t'other side.