Quicksort

Running through the list to make some selections for the upcoming BC Friday, there are some definite ones on there but as I've mentioned in previous posts a lot of them are things I said I would pick up 'soon' a decade ago. Still there's been some interesting developments along the way, I've picked out some that are of a similar school of sound, even if I don't end up getting them *this* BC Friday. Join me on this particularly IDM-ish instalment of things I'm looking at.

Thought I'd start off with Abfahrt Hinwil, the duo behind the Toytronic label. Toytronic has been a great source of IDM and ambient for me over the years, but to my shame I never actually got around to picking up the main release from the two, the equally difficult to spell Links Berge Rechts Seen. Which is a shame really as it's the album that set me off on that journey all those years ago after like so many other finds in my library it cropped up on Grooveshark of all places - I was supremely into anything IDM I could get my hands on then, and with artwork that is very evocative of Autechre's Amber (as seen above!) and that distinct Designer's Republic-esque hi-tech flair, it ticked all my boxes.

The intro track 'Bumperstufe2' is typically IDM, from its title down to the actual production on show. If you'r familiar with the genre at all you will find it fairly standard (though I admit perhaps it's just the sheer amount of the genre I've heard over the years) That's not a mark against it by any means though - my love of this sound is well documented after all. By the time of the compilation's original release in 2002 the other big name IDM artists were moving on to more intense versions of their sounds, so having this slightly Artificial Intelligence era style sound kicking around is lovely for me - the breakdown at 1:40 is a divine encapsulation of exactly what I mean. Beautiful stuff.



Speaking of moving on to more intense versions of their sounds - Autechre next. I've mentioned many times over the years that they kind of lose me with the direction they take after Tri Repetae, focusing more on the more magled techy sound without the contrasting almost organic melodies of before. It's potentially one of the hottest electronic music takes I have, Chiastic Slide is OK and all, but it doesn't resonate with me like Clipper from Tri Repetae does for example, and I've never really been able to get into anything after that unfortunatley. Not to say I don't admire what Autechre have done as a group though, they've been at it for a good 30 years now, the stuff they were making is crazy complex for the times it was released in a lot of the time, and in recent years have reliably dropped album(s) every year or so which takes some doing.

And that's not to say I don't dip my toe in every now and then: Altibzz, the opening track for Quaristice is lovely and there are a few tracks from after Tri Repetae that I do like a whole lot too. Enter Yeesland, a great demonstrator of that hyper-mechanical direction they started to take around this time. Yeesland still has that melodic streak that keeps me interested and the introduction of that lovely synth pulse around 1:38 gives the track that contrast that I loved so much about earlier Autechre. I'll still keep trying to explore their later work every now and then, but even just exploring the shallows there are plenty of releases to get stuck into. I'm an outlier in that their early sound might still be my favourite though - the recent release of those late 80's / early 90's demo tapes was a real treat for me.



And finally, some straight up techno stuff from Richie Hawtin under the F.U.S.E. alias again. It's nice to see him working under that name again, I had perhaps rather cynically assumed it was just going to be a one off revival for the 25th anniversary of Dimension Intrusion and it's new companion album (though oddly in places this release is credited to both Richie Hawtin and F.U.S.E. so it might be that his Brother has taken up the name? It's just credited to Hawtin on Bandcamp to muddy the waters further.) At any rate, it's quite a bit different from the F.U.S.E. of old, but not a million miles removed - Dimension Intrusion was one of the Warp Artificial Intelligence albums and so had plenty of that brand of ambient-ish techno on show, albeit with a bit of a minimal edge in parts as you'd expect given Hawtin's other work)

But nestled between things like the cascading arpeggios of title track and the delicate ambience of Nitedrive there were tracks that were much heavier beasts. Tracks like Substance Abuse and Train-trac come to mind - these tracks stand out just because they're so different from the main body of the album and perhaps feel a little out of place (and in fact Train-trac was taken off the anniversary re-issue), but the tracks aren't bad - Hawtin is right at home in either mode. Enter Syntax, part one of which is an acid drenched experience that is expertly crafted with peaks and valleys. I have in the past critiqued Hawtin's more minimal work but here I think there is a nice balance, just when I find myself getting tired of a section, in drops something to keep it fresh - and I'm a total sucker for that extended outro where everything slows to a crawl and the arpeggios get stretched out to their base components. Recently I was thinking I might be a bit bored of 303 stuff but this one has certainly made me eat those words a bit.



And that'll do it for this time, it's been nice to mix things up a little bit, think it's been a while since I went on an IDM trip like this! Got a bit heavier on the text front this time than I iamagine when I started, but it's been a little while too so I can give myself a bit of leeway I suppose. I'll be back soon enough with more but until then - as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Unheard

My Warp revisit continues - when I was first taking my deep dive into Warp's backcatalogue it was a great time as they were doing a year long celebration thing that meant re-issues of classic albums in double pack format were really easy to come by, in this futursitic if a bit clincal grey packaging. Alongise that were three compilations, much like the Warp10 ones but a bit different in practice.

The three are subtitled (Chosen), (Unheard) and (Recreated) respectively. And the titles pretty much give it all away - (Chosen) is community and Warp selected picks from their archives, (Recreated) is covers of classic Warp tracks by other Warp artists and (Unheard) is previously unreleased stuff. And it's this compilation in particular that I'll be talking about today.

The compilation is real good, but there's no denying that there are some deliberately chosen standout tracks on there. Case in point, it opens with the simply divine Seven Forty Seven from Boards Of Canada. If you've ever gone on a trip into the BoC fandom, you will know that there is a mountain of unreleased material from them - from snippets of tracks played only at live shows to early fragments of demos from cassette tapes and Seven Forty Seven is actually a slightly revised version of a track originally 'called' Audiotrack 6A from the 'Random 35 Tracks' tape.

The original is hauntingly beautiful in it's own right - the tape hiss and other cassette artifacts only playing into that fuzzy nostalgia that BoC do so well, though the beat sounds a little out of place, it very clearly signposts the sound that they were heading towards come their actual releases. And that makes Seven Forty Seven so interesting, it's the BoC boys revisiting a decades old sample and putting together a more refined version of their vision that more easily comes with all that extra experience. The track itself would have fit right in on The Campfire Headphase but it's perhaps even older than that, as snippets of this could be heard on the really old Boardsofcanada.com flash (RIP) website back in the day. Over time the song grows into a cacophony of various sounds, but it manages to not feel overwhelming in doing so. It's not my favourite BoC sound, but it's certainly one of their finest hours and an incredible demonstration of their aesthetic approach.



Autechre next - as I've said before their earlier work circa Incunabula and Amber are my favourites, and this compilation was a treat in that sense. Scratching an itch that wouldn't be hit again until they released the Warp Tapes 89-93 as a freebie a couple of years ago now is Oval Moon. Far removed from their genre bending trips into electronic that they are known for these days, their early pieces are very much befitting of that 'Listening Electronic' idea that Warp was pitching around the early 90's, a sort of ambient techno that's often infused with a high-tech melodic edge.

I have plenty of favourites from that era - from Richie Hawtin's work as F.U.S.E. on Dimension Intrusion to the decidedly Sci-Fi Electro-Soma from B12, to Autechre themselves, but I think if I had to pick one song that defined most of the elements of that style it would be Oval Moon - it's maybe a smidge repetitive to be the perfect example IMO, but that could easily be because this is a previously unreleased track, perhaps even a demo. Despite that I'd still consider it a solid example: all of the sounds are there and the little techy flourishes sprinkled throughout are an absolute delight, really capturing the spirit of that series. If you like this as much as I, absolutely seek out those Warp Tapes 89-93 I mentioned earlier (they were free from Autechre's store way back when but I don't know if that's still the case...) - it's essentially two continuous hours of early Autechre jams like this one.



And finally, Sixty Forty, Broadcast's cover of Nico. This one's another case like BoC where the (Unheard) tag isn't 100% true - they had performed Sixty Forty a few times, maybe at some live shows but absolutely on one of their many Peel Sessions (I know this because I have a recording of one!). Still, as with the BoC track it's nice to have a studio version at least and not a radio rip of it - though like Seven Forty Seven the lo-fidelity recording suits the skeletal electronics that Broadcast were playing with around the Tender Buttons era (though the Peel Session recording is actually from a few years before). There are other unreleased Broadcast tracks I would have loved to hear proper versions of if they exist - Forget Every Time from another Peel Session being one of them. The surviving Broadcast member James Cargill has put quite a few demos and other Broadcast miscellany on Soundcloud in recent years, so it's a possibility at the very least.

But that's veering off topic - I love Sixty Forty, but it being a cover leads to many, many pretentious arses whinging about it 'ruining' it. It's a different sound for Broadcast, the electronics are very much like what they would go on to use in Tender Buttons, especially on the title track of the same name - but the slow build up of layers and layers of sound on top of that as the song progresses is something new for them, and one that's done really well here. Trish's vocal is great too, (though that is something that also draws out the cover comparisons) perhaps not the best demonstration of her flexibility but very much in line with that stoic delivery that was present in certain tracks of Tender Buttons, a sound that suits that stripped back approach oh so well too. There is a bit of bias there as I have said many times that Trish is one of my favourite vocalists ever, there are definitely other Broadcast tracks where she shines brighter - but I love the bittersweet Sixty Forty all the same.



That'll do it for today, I could go on and on about these compilations but I'll refrain for now. Do check out the others if you're interested - (Chosen) is a solid rundown of the best bits of Warp and (Recreated) has some astounding covers on it to boot - my favourites being the ambient Piano inversion of Aphex Twin's Vordhosbn from Leila and the intense breakcore styled rework of Milanese's So Malleable by Clark. But I'll hold onto those for a rainy day sometime.

And as always - Stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Always Returning

Going to knock something out right quick for old times sake. I've taken a break from the IV of non-stop Hi-NRG and Eurobeat that brings me up to operational speed most days and swapped it from something a little more familiar. My love of techy glitchy things is well known by this point, but it's been a while since I had a whole post dedicated to it - so let's do that.

Grace Cossington Smith - Bed Time (1922)
I've said before one of the things I like about my recent Bandcamp scoops is that I get notified when new things from artists are coming out, gone are the days of me being surprised by a new album because I didn't check an artist's socials. It hasn't stopped to wishlist pile from getting larger and larger but it's something.

Enter Ocoeur, an artist who I found in almost a stereotypical way for me at this point: heard them on Grooveshark when that was still a thing and it just snowballed from there. This was during that time when I was sailing through the Warp Records catalog for anything and everything experimental and was always hungry for more. The downside for that was that I think a lot of the stuff I was listening to got lost in the undertow - like Light As A Feather for example. There's a couple of tracks from it that I've absolutely rinsed but coming back to it now it's almost like a completely new album. A track that has surprisingly not come up much for how often I re-start my shuffle from the top is 1.11 - a great distillation of the album as a whole. A typically lush juxtaposition of skittering beats and smooth synths, backed with the occasional intentional recording artifact. Perhaps a touch generic if you're very familiar with the genre, but I always have a soft spot for tracks like this.



Speaking of that era, one of the artists I also picked up in that time was The Flashbulb. His style is quite a bit different from the stuff you'd normally think of when it comes to the 'IDM' label. There's a lot more acoustic elements, particularly on this album - the beautifully bleak titled Soundtrack To A Vacant Life, though that's maybe not too removed from the genre given the Piano pieces on Aphex Twin's Drukqs. Anyway, the track I've chosen is part of the extended intro alongside the opening track Prelude.

Kirilian Voyager highlights some things I really like about The Flashbulb, I think his use of vocal samples like on the intro of this one is fantastic, it's from the movie 'Waking Life' which is equally fitting - though I can see it coming off as a bit trite nowadays (especially the later track on this album Suspended In A Sunbeam sampling Carl Sagan). The rest of the song is quite different from the Ocoeur one above, sporting an almost post-rock influence to the instrumentation with some little glitchy bits here and there for added flavour. The album as a whole is a really good introduction to The Flashbulb if you're new, though it is a little long at 31 tracks! I'd recommend listening to Warm Hands In Cold Fog and Submerged Renewed for both a more traditional IDM sound and a good cross section of the album too.



To round us out, one of the bigger names. One of my potentially most unpopular opinions when it comes to electronic music is about Autechre: I can't really get into any of their stuff after Tri Repetae. On paper I should at least like the album after that as well as it's really the last one before they went all in on the abstractness but I've yet to have it click (come back to this post in a couple years and see if that's changed!). That's not to say I don't at least admire their later work - they are absolute wizards when it comes to making what has now become their brand of experimental electronic, but it's not for me. In contrast, I think their first album Incunabula is an absolutely divine piece of that early 90's Warp sound, but I'm going to revisit their second album Amber today.

It's been a long time since I talked about Amber since the Warped History posts roundabout 10 years ago now, shy of re-posting one of my favourite ambient pieces from it Nine every so ofter, it's not come up too much. If ever there was a release that deftly avoided the 'difficult second album' trope - Amber may just be it. Released just one year after their debut, it sees the overall sound get much more refined and you can almost hear the signposts being laid of the eventual direction they would take into Tri Repetae and beyond. Despite the short gap between them it sounds quite far removed from the charmingly retro vibe of their debut, and as a whole sounds very, very modern for a release from 1994 - a trend that would continue for Autechre going forward.

Nil is one of my favourites from the album, and probably one of the more accessible Autechre tunes out there - it's much more melodic than their later work for certain, and in hindsight almost tame compared to even the follow up Tri Repetae. It creates a really great atmosphere though, well structured with peaks and valleys throughout - my favourite of which being the ambient break being pierced by those lush keys at around 3:30 or so.



The republishing quest continues - aside from a couple of unrecoverable posts it's been fairly smooth sailing. I'm trying to put up as much of it as I can but there are missing players here and there. Still, some of it has been pleasantly surprising in how easy it was too, and great little slices of history like us hyping up Madeon before he blew up. Good times. Right, that'll do it for this instalment, I might get another small one in before the Valentine's Mixtape hits but if I don't - I'll see you then!

And as always - stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

October Relics

Hi there, as predicted things have been a bit all over the place. I'm going to try and sit down now and prepare some things for the coming week however, starting with yet another round of 'things I found on my drive when cleaning up that I thought were neat'. This time it's another 'Radio Claude' style mixtape - the idea of which I shamelessly stole from Miss Kittin (minus me doing slightly sultry spoken word over the top of parts of the mix). I say it every time one of these comes up but they are an interesting look at my 'listening to' of certain periods. This one's about a year old I think, and clearly I was on a bit of an 'IDM' kick (though when am I *not* on one?), there's a lot of familiars here: Squarepusher, Aphex Twin and other folks from Warp.

Again, the mix isn't perfect, I just put them together in a couple of afternoons. This one in particular I think I salvaged part of from a program crash (which is why the transition into the Global Goon track is a bit... sudden.) But at any rate, the content is good if you can forgive a bit of rough handling of them. Full tracklist after the player:



TRACKLIST:
Aphex Twin - Yellow Calx
Modeselektor - Don't Panic
Autechre - Nine
Plaid - Ralome
Global Goon - Long Whiney
Squarepusher - Goodnight Jade


I'm in the process of writing another post straight after this one that I'll try schedule throgh the week, I have a couple of quiet patches so it should be easy to slot in somewhere if I don't finish it in one go. And finally, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Not Quite Spring Cleaning

I've been doing some drive cleaning as it has been long overdue. And some of the things you find are incredible, it's like doing an archaeological dig on your own memories. Poetic-ism aside, one thing I did find was a half-finished mixtape dealio that I took the liberty of finishing and putting up on mixcloud. An interesting insight into the kind of stuff I was listening to ~6 or so years ago. It takes an ambient turn in the latter half, the more things change the more they stay the same it would seem! Tracklist after the player:



Tracklist:
Aphex Twin - Yellow Calx
Modeselektor - Don't Panic
Autechre - Nine
Plaid - Ralome
Global Goon - Long Whiney
Squarepusher - Goodnight Jade

An Update

Hello. You might have noticed new podcasts have been absent for a few weeks now, and you may be wondering why that is. Truth be told I don't know myself, me and Adam ended our call after the last recording session and I haven't heard anything since. I shot him a message asking if we were swapping over to Wednesdays for the rest of the month but got no reply, and he hasn't updated the google doc we keep for the podcast notes either. That's pretty much it, I know as little as you, while I wouldn't be against continuing the show solo, I think it is much stronger with Adam and myself so I won't be doing that. I don't have access to the mixcloud account either.

In the meantime though, I'm finally getting around to re-publishing my first proper series I ever did on this blog, the slickly titled A Very Warped History. I've not got them all done yet but it's a start. I'm changing very little about them, there are some dead image links and some typos I'm correcting but they are otherwise as-is, as such please forgive some of my ham-fisted writing, I was around 15 at the time of the first posts and they'll be 10 years old next year!

While I'm fixing those however, I thought I'd at least post something. So have this playlist I cooked up that is a quick rundown of what I think is the quintessential introduction to what Warp does; it features bits and pieces from the entire history of the label including some of my all time favourites and even features some albums I didn't write about for the Very Warped History series. Enjoy.



-Claude Van Foxbat

All Turned Around

Ellsworth Kelly - Cite (1951)

Not really feelin' it as of late, almost missed posting again among other things. So I'm just putting together some tunes that are apt for the time. Starting with Midge Ure's The Man Who Sold The World cover, a recent addition to my rankings but a solid entry nonetheless. Surprisingly modern sounding too considering it's from '82.



Been on a bit of a Blade Runner kick again too, the super expanded edition of the OST is a joy to listen to, with 36 tunes worth of material to get stuck into. This one's from the 'Inspired By' section of the expanded soundtrack, which normally I'd scoff at if it were anyone other than Vangelis himself doing it. A lovely listen too, not too sure that sax holds up as well as the rest of it, but who knows these days with vapourwave being a thing.



On a similar note, the old Artificial Intelligence series from Warp is crying out ot be the soundtrack to something vaguely retro-futuristic. Autechre's entry to the series and their debut LP Incunbula may have fallen out of favour with the band themselves, but I still love that distinctly of the era techno it has going on.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Winter Is Coming

A slight miscalculation on my part means that my tactic of waiting out the soundcloud drought ain't happening. There's been more stuff put up since I posted last, but I only put one tune aside for posting, and I wasn't in the mood to go digital crate digging again. So here we are again with another installment of the classic ilictronix™ shuffle post.

Indie184 - Take Me Away 3)

As some of you may have seen, I'm currently animating some dark 3D shapes that hopefully should react to the audio within the scene, and of course you can't talk abstract black shapes without a mention of FlyLo's Los Angeles period. This tune would actually make a great one to animate to if I hadn't already picked one out. Maybe in future I might do just that.



A lot of the smooth techno sounds of Warp's {Artificial Intelligence} series are also assisting me through my arty endeavours. Autechre themselves may try to distance themselves from this LP but for me it's a lovely slice of the era, and one that still sounds great some 22 years after it's release.



Miss Kittin also makes a reappearance, this time with one of a few tunes from Batbox that are almost spoken word. I've seen a lot of divided opinion on on Batbox, and granted it's not the combination dancefloor and home companion that I Com was, but it's clear that Kittin has fun producing and as a result the tracks themselves are fun to listen to.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Techy

Apologies for the last couple cop out posts, I've been (and still am) hecka busy. But I thought I'd at least try make a proper post for once this week so here we go. Feeding my journey in animating is this lovely bunch of songs right here:

Atelier Olschinsky - A.D. 2099 - 2311 (01)

I've been re-living memories of the late 1990's when I decided to go track down the PS1 Ghost In The Shell game. Tuns out it has a whole album of late 90's techno goodness alongside it stocked with some familiar names. I must admit that before this I wasn't big on Beltram. Of course I knew OF him, but as I can remember I'd heard a few things a long time ago and not dug it, but tastes do change. If I can find some more tunes like this in his catalogue, I can have my techno itch scratched for years to come.



Ellen Allien now, I wasn't too hot on the minimal parts of Dust, but I do adore track 4 Sun The Rain. Maybe it's my weakness for processed vocals speaking, or even my recent love of more downtempo songs but I cannot stop looping this while I work, it helps the tedium of keyframing go by that much quicker.



Revisited Autechre's Anti EP too, and while Flutter is by far and away the standout track, both in terms of sound and the whole concept behind it as a protest song, the other two songs on the EP have their own merits. This one for example sounds like it could easily be a prototype for Amber (which came out that same year, and is the Autechre boys' most prolific album.) Especially on the outro, which caps the song off nicely.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Updater

Seems weird for me to have to only go in one day a week but have more work to do but hey ho, thats how things is. I'll still drop by now and then to give out tunes. Like right now for example!

Takashi Murakami - Jellyfish Eyes

Not been too long since I posted this one but it's been repeating on me hard. I've told the tale of Autechre's protest EP before, both in a post and a full 3 page essay I did like 2 years ago. Long story short, in the early 90s the UK government tries to ban outdoor raves with 'repetitive beats', Autechre respond by writing a tune in which no two bars have the same beats. Classic, and the tune's not too bad neither.



On a vocoder kick again as usual and one of my favourtie underrated bits from Monkeytown is helping me scratch that itch. Deliciously smooth, 'Selektor have a penchant for the chiller side of things, here's hopign for more with this vibe on the follow up!



Also decided to go all out and put all the Analords on my phone for commute listenin'. AFX remains a wizard with analogue gear, even when it isn't in the extreme style of say Drukqus or any of the later Aphex Twin LPs. This one will always be a favourite.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Crumbs

I dun goofed in that last post so Hype only archived the first tune. And I really like watching the little numbers go up so I am here to post again in the hopes of giving me something to do in my downtime.

James Doolin - City Of Glass (1990)

Thought I make it up in style with a tune I've been holding onto for a long time. From one of my most favourite titled albums ever; Chicago, Detroit, Redruth comes this one. It doesn't matter how bad the day's been yo ucan't help but smile from the first few seconds. Them beats ain't too bad neither.



Coming full circle now, here's a tune I deconstructed for my first year essay. Coming off the heels of my dissertation it looks basic now, but Autechre's protest EP still has it's moments. Here's by far the best track Flutter which is programmed so that no bar of beats is the same which is pretty interesting to listen to. Heads up it sounds even better if you slow it down like 10-20%, try it!



And finally Ex-Games turned Ford & Lopatin with their breed of 80's infused chillwave goodness. Bearly missed a spot on my cyberpunk playlist from the artwork alone. Dug out the LP again ad it is still very nice, really wish they'd come out with some more stuff in the near future.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Day 3: Still Alive

Hello again! I know it's been quiet on my front but that's because I've been doing normal 20 year old things like filing taxes and whatnot. Nah, just joshin ya, I've been living it up a little but now is time for music. Tacks after more art.

Atelier Olschinsky - Ghost Cities Remix (02)

Sitting at the tippy top of my music player every time I start it is this little number here. I've heard the first ten seconds like 1000 times before I set the shuffle off, but for once in a very long time I sat through it, and it's still as good as ever. The whole albums is chock full of that lovely clash between the lush synths and the broken beats.



And in a prime example of shuffle being absolutely aced we segue nicely into some Locust Toybox. Noon is by far and away my favourite album of his and shows off a good deal of his musical influences. This one here's a lot like The Flashbulb meets some chiptunes and most of Warp Record's output. By the way you can still get 99% of Locust Toybox's discography for free (and legally) over HERE.



Speaking of warp, I'll leave y'all now with probably my favourite example of the early-mid 90's bleepy ambient techno they were putting out under the {Artificial Intelligence} series. Autechre's entry is a far cry from their later work for sure, and while they might not care for it too much themselves these days, it's still top notch techno that's remarkably futuristic considering it's so old it can legally drink in the USA. I highly recommend you check it out.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Back On Time

Hey y'all, sorry for the slow weekend, took some time off and went around. Anyway, I'm back now with a selection of audio goodies to treat you all with, hang tight for the tuns after the pic.

David Firth - Firey Pete

Normally not a massive fan of summer, that's changed recently because that's when we finish for the year here at university. So I spent my Saturday night with a cold brew and this to have one big chill to. It wasn't even planned thanks to my reliance on shuffle but I gotta thank the random maths for making a near perfect decision to put The Flashbulb's stellar acoustic meets IDM sound on then.



Not staying downbeat for long though, couple of bits from Clark's Clarence Park grabbed me; Lord Of The Dance and this one, and since I already wrote a fair bit about how much I love Lord, let's get stuck in here. Fairly short this one, but that just keeps it sweet. Whenever it comes up I fall in love with that melodic streak all over again, a perfect clash of lush and abrasive noises.



With just time left for a last minute request I only saw a few minutes ago (shoutout to the commenter on my big AE/AFX post). Around Chiastic Slide is where me and Autechre start to part ways as the more melodic elements start to take a backseat. Still got time for some of it though, this track is pretty sweet for one but I can't help feel like it's missing something compared to their previous output. If it had those little smooth bits of sound breaking through at the end scattered throughout I think I'd like it more, regardless, enjoy.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Technolg (ae)

I got around to sorting out June's monthly playlist yesterday and I think it's gonna be pretty neat. Anyways, while perusing for tunes to fill it with I got a real hankering for techy stuff and returned to some old favorites I have kicking around.

Auteche first with their unique brand of Industrial meets IDM that sounds more like a machine made it than a couple of blokes from Manchester. The Anvil Vapre EP is a good jumping in point if you're new to them, it blends the melodic and experimental sides of their sound quite well, and still sounds pretty fresh nearly 20 years later.



I wish they'd stuck to this model for a while longer, I mean their style consistently changed for each of their first three albums but after that it begins to move away from the melodic. Which is a shame because I always loved that about Autechre, it was machine music with a touch of soul. Anyway have another track from the EP which harks a little bit back to the roots of Amber and Incunabula.



On the opposite end we have AFX with the Analord series. Richard's triumphant return to the world of analogue is full of highlights but playing these two back to back has made me realise that unlike Autechre's very deliberate and sterile sound, all the Analords sound much more warm and human, with a bit of a DIY edge to them. Especially on this one as the title probably clued you in on.



The same applies here, even the name itself sounds like it was something that AFX whacked together in about an hour or so, which given Rich's methodology on the Richard D James Album woudln't be too surprising. Still the track is pretty gorgeous, a real testament to the man and his skills with the gear for sure. Check the Analord series out for more acid tinged meddling, Rephlex put out an expanded digital release of the entire series a while back with some bonus goodies.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Ambient

Tom Philips - Consider Our Haven: Supplement III (1968)

I got a real love for ambient music, problem is it's just not real popular so I kept it low key for the most part. But I'm gonna break that embargo today and share some of my favourites from the genre starting off with my most posted of the lot, Oneohtrix Point Never. He's really blown up in popularity in recent years which is quite surprising all things considered, there's a lot of quality stuff he's put out if you don't mind looking for cassettes.



As I said last time I put this up, Autechre have gained a rep for their unique brand of twisted melodic machine noises, but they have a real penchant for the ambient too. This one's fast replacing Nine as my number one favourite of theirs.



And of course, I couldn't go without mentioning a milestone release in the genre, Aphex's Selected Ambient Works Vol. II is pretty much responsible for kicking off my love of the genre, but I already waxed poetic about that a long time ago in the Wapred series. Instead of that, have the very first song on the LP which grabs me every single time; Cliffs.



And I can't write an ambient-centric post without giving credit to the grandfather of it all. Eno's Ambient I: Music For Airports from 1978 is an interesting album for sure, even from the title alone. The 17 minute opener simply titled 1/1 is a perfect summary of the album in both concept and sound.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Hey, Essay

That time of year again, when it comes to essay writing I get real specific when it comes to selecting tunes, most of the time anything with lyrics unless I've heard it a ton just distracts me. And cliche though it may be I usually resort to my usual warp-centric experimental electronic.

El Lissitsky - Proun 1C (1919)

Leading the charge is another piece from μ-Ziq I usually skip cos it's always at the top of my alphabetical list. Lunatic Harness may not get as much press as tunes from AFX and the like but its's just as sweet. The album might peter out towards the end but it has killer tunes like this to back it up.



If you've not checked out Wisp's reworkings of Aphex Twin's legedary Selected Ambient Works Vol. II I highly recommend it, he takes the original vibe and completely reworks it into something a little more like AFX's usual output. Here's a two in one reworking of Z Twig and Blue Calx.



And finally bringing it all back down, a lush ambient piece from Autechre. I'm missing out on some lovely ambient pieces just 'cos I don't really like the direction they took post Tri Repetae, but what I do have of their ambient work is nothing short of sublime.



-Claude Van Foxbat

AT / AA 84

Andreas Nilsson - Sametinget

Remember before when I said I don't listen to any Autechre past Amber, then I went against my word and got into Tri Repeate? Guess what I did again, I went and picked up the Anvil Vapre EP and I'm loving it. To be fair it is a lot like Tri Repeatae, to the point where in the US the album came bundled with it and the Garbage EP too. Fun Fact: The Anvil Vapre EP was released only 2 months after Windows 95, think about that.

AT / AA 73

Roger Dean - Floating Islands

Looking back through my old art inspirations folder, looking at some more pieces by my favourite graphic design studio The Designers Republic. From there I got more into the art of Wipeout and their original developer Psygnosis (Now the defunct Sony Liverpool). Anyways way back in the days of the Amiga, Psygnosis had their logo designed by Roger Dean, who's famous for doing album covers for loads of Prog Rock LPs back when. Here's a piece of his work with some lovely early 90's Autechre that I think fits it quite well (and also had a cover designed by The Designers Republic!).

Glitch With Me

Hey Guys, bit of a deviation from my usual content today, for a project at University I'm running a series of workshops/tutorials on how to make glitch art both in actual classrooms and over my university blog, and I'd like you to contribute to the final outcome, which is a collection of things people have glitched with help from my instructions. Sound good? If you want to get involved please go and read my Glitch Art Tutorial post and follow the instructions there!

And just so I'm not leaving you hanging with no music, here are some of my favourite glitchy tunes to give you a little something to work by if you're making some glitched up goodness!

Another Late Night

Actually having a schedule again has mad a big difference for me. No more am I going to bed at 3AM, and I kinda miss the late night aesthetics. But that doesn't mean I can't hit you up with some of my favourite accompaniment for the wee hours!


A bit of a wildcard this one, BoC don't often do remixes but when they do it's the same standard of quality you'll find on their LPs. Boom Bip is given the whole Campfire Headphase treatment on this one, unfortunately as good as it is, and given the sheer popularity of BoC, it is actually quite hard to come by in any quality above 192kbps so apologies in advance.



Apparat's Walls lends itself well to late night endeavours, this track in particular was especially memorable as even though I could barely hear it with the volume turned low, most of it was still perfectly listenable, especially after that cacophony of sound is released around 2 minutes in.




I've long since fallen out of the dubstep scene, but I still love the older styled stuff, especially when it comes to remixes. Like Skream's brilliant rework of La Roux's In For The Kill, this one is one of my favourite dub remixes. I haven't heard of Various before, probably because they have a really vague name, but this remix is class; chilled out vibes with smatterings of vocals from the original dropped throughout, works even better on a low volume.



Autechre made a surprise return to my collection when I checked out the Warp20 (Unheard) Compilation. I thought their techno experiments ended not long after Incunabula, but apparently not according to this unreleased gem. It shares a lot of melodic and structural qualities with Incunabula, and that album is one of my favourite examples of ambient techno so this new addition goes down a treat.



That'll be all for now, I'll be dropping more quick selections when I can, I'm trying to spice things up in terms of variety so stay tuned. Until then just have a gander at these fine music pieces.

New York, Lower East Side,
- Claude Van Foxbat