It's well 'ot

The cruel irony of working with computers is that they too generate heat - this vintage meme pretty much nails it (just replace the gaming part with 3D and video rendering). It's well documented I don't get on well in the heat anyway, but this post isn't going to be me sitting here and complaining at you (but it was important context for the songs on show!). Let's go ahead and get some suitably sweltering songs on the go.

Charles Sheeler - Golden Gate (1955)

Kicking off with a bit of Ceephax, Sidney's Sizzler always seems to crop up quickly whenever you search for anything related to the man, no doubt helped by the wild homemade video he made for it. This was the first track that came to mind when thinking up tracks for this post, beyond just the obvious name it does sound like Ceephax's equipment is on the border of melting throughout - especially with that stumbling breakdown at 2:10 making it sound as if the whole setup is breaking down. A touch more intense than the other Ceephax tracks I've posted in the past but nothing too wild. I've not had the chance to listen to his entire discography as of yet but in my experience there's a strong melodic element that keeps it from going into full on 303 arpeggio territory.



I've been back on a bit of a Soichi Terada thing ever since my last post, and the man has plenty of works that would fit this theme. I've gone with the timeless classic Sun Showered this time though, it's the instrumental mix of one of his breakout hits: Sunshower with Nami Shimada from 1989. I have nothing against Nami's vocal, both versions of the tune are stellar in their own right - but the instrumental really lets Terada's work shine through. I do think it feels a bit empty without the vocal in parts, but I've also mentioned it a ton of times in the past so I figured the instrumental gives a little bit of variety too. Check out the whole compilation this is from if you like the vibe, Sounds From The Far East is a fantastic 'best of' Terada's House works.



Keeping in a similar sort of vein to play us out, we have techno mogul Ian O'Brien. I initially knew him from a spate of remixes and of course Desert Scores, which opens with the homage to his influence taken from Underground Resistance with Mad Mike Disease. I checked out some of his more recent work a little while ago and The High Frontier EP quickly made it onto the ever-growing wishlist. It's a great little 3-tracker going from Tech, to downtempo almost IDM and full on Ambient across the tracklist. They are all lovely tracks but Harmonix really starts the thing off on a high note - it's a distillation of all my favourite bits of the Detroit sound. I say it every time a track like this comes up but I'm just real glad that tracks like this are still being made, absolutely gorgeous stuff.



And that'll about do it for today, the heat is set to continue for a couple of days so I might be able to fit another one of these in before the week is out - in true fashion for me it'll probably be a return to the more downtempo side of things! Hope you find something to love in these selections as I have, and as always - stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF