Wednesday 27 April 2022

Bits 'n Pieces of the past

As the Final Friday™ approaches, I've been looking over my 'collection' tab on BC - I'm going to try and make this last one quite a big one (and also non-electronic in parts potentially as well) so I thought a 'things I am looking at' post would be either too long or not super relevant. Instead we're taking another dive into the archives for a cross section of songs of yore, let's take a look-see.

Takashi Murakami - Mr. DOB All Stars (Oh My The Mr. DOB) (1998)


Something short to start off with, it's been a hot minute since I talked about ThorHighHeels - I picked up Positive Yellow off the heels of the great soundtrack work they did for Umurangi Generation. Some of the tracks from Positive Yellow actually appear in that OST as is, so I had a feeling of what to expect going in. In short, this whole release is one big love letter to 90's videogame OSTs (which will come as no surprise if you've seen any of Thor's YouTube content) - it'd be very easy to make kind of twee or overly pandering, but I think it does a great job of being 'inspired by' rather than just retreading. I've gone with a super short bonus track of the 'DX' version of it to illustrate - just under a minute long but it will sum up the whole experience in that time, though the 'GAME OVER' sample at the end is a li'l cliché, even if it is the actual end of the album.



Warp coming to bandcamp has been great, they were pioneers of the digital space back in the early days with Bleep so I was surprised that it took them this long, but then again they have enough capital to run their own service well enough anyway. Regardless, another reason I've come to love it is that it makes talking about their releases new and old much easier than using the naff Spotify previews like I was doing before. But enough tech - Welcome To Your Life is a tune I've mentioned a few times over the years, dating back to my first year of University I think. It's one of those that I'll forget about for a while but have a nice moment when it crops back up. And what an entrance it makes - that bass is so thick you can almost feel it in the air. Mount Sims features on the vocal front, his solo records are good listens if you are a fan of Electroclash stuff, Welcome To Your Life shares a little bit of sound DNA now I think about it. His voice works really well on tracks like this, shame we haven't heard anything in a while from his camp.



I feel like I didn't talk about Then Again too much - what was then the latest Mitch Murder LP. I've got a lot of love for Mitch's work, every time I think I'm done with retro-inspired synth stuff he comes along with something to pull me back in. Last time I mentioned this album I think it was focussing on the Vangelis-esque Frost, we're sticking with the slower side of things once again this time with the final track Someplace Else. An almost contender for the mixtape of Cosy Tracks that I made, it's chock full of synth power chords and the like. There are times where I think Mitch gets a little close to your stereotypical archetypal 'synthwave' vibe, and this is one of those times - but even so I can't help but get into the groove of this one. A fantastic album closer as well, very cinematic in its execution.



I think that'll do for now, I'm going try and swing by with a couple more before the Final Friday, but I'll try my best to make it a bumper edition when the final roundup does come. In the meantime, I hope you've found something to enjoy here and until next time, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

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