Friday 25 January 2013

That We Can Play

Speaking of themes, another one happened to swing by my way today as I was on suffle as usual. It involves the now defunct Daniel Lopatin (AKA Oneohtrix Point Never) and Joel Ford side project Games. It's their foray into more chillwave-y stuff and its actually pretty good. Aside from the bad, bad album art, though after seeing the rest of the 12" sleeve I reckon its intentional.


Anyway, back to themes, kicking it off we have this lovely intro by Esc 不在 an artist I picked up on my vapourwave travels. It makes liberal use of that Windows 95 start-up sound crafted by ambient pioneer Brian Eno (ironically recorded on a mac) that I half remember from my school days in the IT lab. Hearing it remixed like this brought the waves of nostalgia like no other.



Which brought me back to the Games EP, Specifically the remix by Gatekeeper. It had pretty much the same effect thanks to that brilliantly placed PlayStation sample, it actually merges quite well into the song and doesn't feel forced at all. There's also a Boards Of Canada sample lurking in the background on this one, see if you can spot it.




And just for the hell of it, some more slices from the Games EP, including the brilliant original Strawberry Skies that pulls off the feel that Games is all about in spectacular fashion. Like the entire Electroclash scene before, it's got that retro-futuristic feel to it like it wouldn't sound out of place about 30 years ago or in 2010 when it was released. Only complaint is that it feels a bit short, but that is a small price to pay.



This one really brings out the Oneohtrix touch from a gear standpoint, real echoes from some tracks off Rifts here. It also fills in that retro-futuristic niche quite nicely despite being completely instrumental aside from a few cheeky vocal snips in there.



And finally, my favourite. The intro sounds a little bit out of place at first, sounding more than a little like The Prodigy's Everybody In The Place (155 And Rising), but it soon falls into place with some brilliant sampling courtesy of Secret Service's Flash in the Night. Given the Games chopped & screwed treatment it pretty much embodies chillwave's sound, full of half remembered 80's songs.



Black Disc,
- Claude Van Foxbat

2 comments:

Faux Effet said...

The Gatekeeper remix is very nice

siryellowtrip.com said...

Im enjoyning so much this songs, thanks for share, we are electronic musicians from colombia