What's New?

I was hoping to make the first post of 2022 all new stuff or at least a good 60-40 at least. I don't think I've managed to even hear anything new yet come to think of it, but I also haven't really been trying too hard either as I get back into the swing of working again. With no word on Bandcamp Fridays for 2022 either I am going to have to try a little harder to come up with stuff it seems! So I had an idea instead, what if I went back and talked about the first things I got off Bandcamp instead? And so here we are.

Juan Gris - La Guitare (1913)
Predictably, a lot of my early purchases were indie soundtracks. BC is still a goldmine for that sort of thing, and it's a really great resource to not only support the artists in question but also get high quality versions of the sounds too - sometimes the soundtracks included on the Steam releases are 192 or VBR. Enter Faster Than Light, better known as just FTL. One of those releases from the golden age of indie games; those small ideas that spin out into something relentlessly addictive, with the added bonus of being able to run on your office-quality PC to boot. Part of what makes the FTL experience so iconic is the soundtrack from Ben Prunty - he makes spectacular use of recurring motifs throughout that really enhance the experience. I had to put the OST away for a while after playing the game for so long, but I'd be lying if I said I ever grew to dislike it. Rather than a deep cut I've gone for what I think best summarises this, one of the earliest tracks in the game - the 'Battle' variation of the MilkyWay theme: Gorgeous and suitably spacey. It doesn't quite sound the same without the pew pew of lasers and the occasional chunk of a missile launch though!



My next few trips were similarly influenced, a couple of fan works related to some series I enjoyed. Echochamber's I'm Real, I'm Here has a lot of influence taken from Serial Experiments Lain, a surreal, psychological exploration into the world of the technological circa 1998 - parts of which have only become more apt with time. But I don't mean to put you off, you can very much enjoy this album without knowing a thing about the series - besides the cover art and some samples there's no super deep cuts that you need to be a fan of to recognise. I'm Real, I'm Here is a bit of an odd record - it leaps from genre to genre over the course of it's runtime, it could be thudding minimal-esque house one minute, and then change gears to long vaporwave-y drones the next. Thought I'd split the difference this time around and post Symbols, Figures And Blurred Faces as it effectively merges those two sides of the album; an almost Burial style experience, it's made up of a bunch of short 'sketches' that run between a whole bunch of styles. A great little summary of the album in one track, if you like this then I would strongly recommend checking out the full thing.



Funnily enough actually, my next Bandcamp purchase was in fact the Burial track I had in mind when making that comparison above. After playing the hell out of an MP3 of the B-Side to Truant since my University days I figured I at least owed the man a couple of quid. Rough Sleeper is almost a quarter of an hour tour de force of Burial, it might be my ultimate favourite from his extensive back-catalogue. I struggle to pin down the section I like the most as it changes pretty often, the intro is lovely but I also have a real love for the almost Garage bit that starts around the 4 minute mark (which I will hold my hands up and admit is more than a bit influenced by my love of treated vocals). That section is by far and away the longest, and the way it fades away into that little ambient break around the 9:25 mark is lovely (that section is my current love!) Before rounding off with some proper 2-step around 10:45. It's a lot to take in, but aside from the sudden stop at the end I have no complaints. Not sure I'd recommend it for a new listener to Burial, but if you like the first couple of minutes you would do well to take a look at his whole discography.



And I think that'll do it for today. I hope 2022 has been treating you all well, mine's had a bit of a rocky start, but after the last year or so it's hardly a big deal. Either way, you can count on me to be here with more musical musings on a semi-regular basis - hope you've enjoyed this look back at my digital catalogue and as always - Stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Disconnect

Gérard Fromanger - Tirez-Tirez, Boulevard des Italiens (1971)

Lately I've been taking some time to do more just sitting and listening to my collection. For years it's played as the background to my goings-on but as of recently I couldn't shake the feeling I wasn't giving it the attention it deserved, especially some of the newer things I'd picked up that immediately get lost in the sea of shuffle as there are thousands of tracks. So, as cliche as it sounds, I've been taking a little slice of the day after I get off work to stretch out and just listen for a while with no real distractions. Here are some bits and pieces I've had a good time with as of late.

Arovane is one of those. I want to say that this is another one that I had recommended to me a bunch back in the Grooveshark days but I can't say for sure, we have come full circle though in that it does keep recommending it to me on discogs now I'm looking at a bunch of old Toytronic stuff. Tides is a lovely album, one that was distinctly more ambient in my memory than it actually is, it seems. It came into my collection when I was still riding the high of Akira Yamaoka's more trip-hop influenced stuff from the Silent Hill soundtracks, and there's a little bit of that influence here: title track Tides sounding like one of the less menacing examples from the original 4 with that hazy, heavy stumbling beat and distant acoustic backing, the same kind of atmosphere Yamaokoa was playing with comes up even more later on with some delicately placed warm pads. The final falling away of all the elements and fade into the full ambient outro is beautiful too, Tides is an early highlight of the album - but the rest is great too, if you like this one you could scoop the whole thing and enjoy it easily.



Sense came to me in a similar way, one of those artists I noted down in the past that had been recommended to me, but I put off because I assumed they'd be hard to come by like some of the older IDM stuff, but most of Sense's work is up on Bandcamp. This album sat on my Bandcamp wishlist for a while among a couple of other Sense releases - Learning To Be stood out to me from the artwork alone, I find it really striking and really evocative of the albums sound. The opening of ex t nerla carries on that warm and fuzzy trend with more lush pads and an analogue hum, with some little pitch bends and that introduce a slightly off kilter sound that's a signifier of things to come.

Learning To Be is a much more traditional IDM affair than the above, nothing super intense though, more in line with some of the stuff Casino Versus Japan or The Flashbulb have made. It's a solid opener, one that nicely sets up the rest of the album as most of the tracks follow this same kind of formula, but that's not a condemnation as it's one that works really really well. The beats can be a little on the harsh side at times, but I do love the sounds that Sense plays with on this album, and I will almost certainly be posting the gorgeous ambient drone of Human Buffer Zone at some point in the future.





Closing out is B-side to the Truant EP - Burial's Rough Sleeper which I've brought up a few times in the past. It might just eke out the top spot for my favourite thing he's ever done, it's a 13 minute masterclass in his aesthetic - though it remains a near constant beautifully lush for the entire runtime and doesn't quite dip to the tense and menacing vibes of some of his other work. Having said that though the opening sections do have some nice and thick basslines behind them, and there is usually a 2-step beat accompanying most of it, so it's not like a full on ambient piece or anything. It can be a bit daunting with it's length but its not too bad in practice: It is a continuous experience but one that's divided into clear sections, the first half is are absolutely divine and my favourite of the lot, but each one has there place and there's not a bad one among them. None of them overstay their welcome, but take that with a hint of bias as the longest sections are also my favourites of the bunch.

I only have a couple of complaints after all this time, the first one being simply the ending is super abrupt (but that's small potatoes considering the length) but the other one is a little more pressing. Here and there over the runtime, there are some intentional digital glitches put in. They are good for flavour I will admit, but they are a bit too convincing in execution (if you've ever ripped a slightly scuffed CD you'll attest to that too), to the point where I actually had to listen to the official uploads on other services to make sure it wasn't just my copy.



That's all for this time, I have a couple more things lined up for the coming posts but I might also slip another quick one that's just a blurb and some tunes like I did a little while ago (just minus the rant next time!). I found it pretty refreshing to do, and while I love to write posts like this where I get to go a bit in depth, I appreciate it does sometimes get a bit text heavy so I figure I might try it just for variety and that - might let me queue up multiple like I used to a little while ago. But anyway, hope you dig some of these choices and as always: Stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

New, Old and back again

Ozdemir Atlan - Reality (1974)

A quick one for your weekend, a nice little wrap-up of things I done found this week. As you might have guessed from the title today we have a couple of new records and an old one that's a welcome surprise too. Let's kick things off with Gimmik; an interesting artist as they pulled a Baader-Meinhof phenomenon on me, Cloudwalker came up on my 'new from n5MD' notifications and I could have sworn I'd heard the name before.

A brief look later and it turns out I had a couple of tracks from them on some early 00's IDM compilations I'd picked up ages ago, and even more from aliases of theirs called Num Num and Low Profile Society (which coincidentally have recently been compiled and released under the Gimmik moniker as 'Who Is Num Num?' and 'Low Profile Society' respectively). The sound of those early 00's comps is really special, I have a massive bias towards most things under the IDM label (as you all well know) but those compilations really hit the spot. And the demo track from Cloudwalker does exactly the same all these years later - Carters Final Transmission evokes some of my favourite examples of the genre, namely the very early work of Autechre from the Incunabula LP - that kind of forward looking futurist techno streak is a sound I absolutely adore and I couldn't be happier to get more of it in my collection. The whole thing has a slight melancholic edge to it that's really nice and the extended melodic fadeout to ambience is just lovely, really compliments the atmosphere and the title. If the rest of the LP is anything like this, I'll have to grab it this coming Friday for sure.



Bit of a switch up in tempo this time as we go back to Squarepusher's debut - Feed Me Weird Things, it's getting a re-issue on Warp in June, so it might just become the first New/Retro Review when it comes out! It's nice to see so many records that were previously Rephlex exclusive break out, we've seen the likes of DMX Krew do similar recently - Not that I have anything against Rephlex mind you, it was juts unfortunate it was a fairly small scale imprint all things considered, so a lot of albums like this became rarer with time. I already picked up a second hand copy of this LP years ago, but it's nice to have it more readily available regardless, it even comes with the Japanese bonus tracks included too which is a nice touch.

Weird Things is a bit of an odd album, there are tracks on there that rank up there with some of the best work the 'pusher has ever produced, but there are a lot of little tangents and experiments in there too that perhaps aren't quite as memorable. Saying that, there's some absolute quality here too - the lush ambient of Goodnight Jade, the dark and menacing almost Trip Hop U.F.O.'s Over Leytonstone to the bombastic bassy twangs of the opening Squarepusher Theme to name just a few. Wisely, Warp have chosen of of the tracks that despite its age comes very close to being the distilled essence of Squarepusher to promote the album - the charmingly titled Theme From Ernest Borgnine. The whole thing is a fantastic experience, the opening synths are fantastically done, and the way those breakbeats blindside into the foray around the 1:10 mark is a masterstroke. If you're at all a fan of the more Drum & Bass side of Squarepusher, you will find a lot to like here, though it's not as abrasive as some of the later 'Drill & Bass' stuff he was making like Come On My Selector. It's perhaps one of the most accessible because of that, I wouldn't necessarily recommend the album as a starting point if you're looking to get into Squarepusher as a whole, but if you're new and you like what you hear here, I'd check out the Big Loada EP and for more.



And finally Burial. I very infequently check up on the Hyperdub bandcamp page just to see what he's up to but it's been a long time since I sat down and gave any of it a listen. I did this time though with the split EP Shock Power Of Love, partly because it's a split EP with a couple of other artists and I wanted to hear what they brought to the table. The Burial tracks are of course the main draw, and they're both pretty solid. Dark Gethsemane really goes all in with that 'hazy half-remembered rave' sound that Burial does from time to time, takes a little while to get going, but when those distant ravy stabs come in it's all gravy. It all goes a bit pear shaped in the second half though, what starts as a gorgeous dive into ambient is spoiled by the needless repetition of an incredibly trite vocal sample stating "We must shock this nation with the power of love", with the repetition completely beating the meaning out of it.

Still, not to be too negative - let's talk about the other Burial tune here Space Cadet, its much lighter and airy compared to the previous track and much of Burial's discography if you're familiar. Despite that there are still plenty of Burial hallmarks, the little pops and crackles as heard on previous releases, and the slightly auto-tuned vocal samples that I am a total sucker for too. Overall though it's a much different feel than you'd expect, I can understand people's complaints with Dark Gethsemane (and as you've seen, I have had some of the same ones), but I don't quite get the negative reception for Space Cadet... It's perhaps not an instant classic for me like Rough Sleeper was, but I'm not having a bad time with it at all. As mentioned before though, your mileage may vary as I'm admittedly more of a casual Burial fan and aren't super familiar with his whole discography.



That'll do it for today - it's a pretty interesting time for releases, seems like things are picking up again. I might have do do a couple of deep dives on those two Gimmik compilations I mentioned before, some of the Num Num tracks are quality and I'm pretty sure there's some I haven't heard on that compilation too. Likewise I'll have to set a reminder for myself to cover the 'Pusher reissue when it comes out too. Hope you dig some of this time's selections as much as I do - And as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Trip Report

Back for what has now become the weekly post. Following on from last post I have this time a selection of things I done picked up on bandcamp recently. And to the surprise of no-one, none of them are ones that I had posted about last time. Let's have a look.

Alice Baber - Noble Numbers (1965)

In stark contrast to my usual MO, I've been very into picking up EPs lately. Partly a practical decision as it's easier to listen to an EP given how busy things have been as of late but also because the number of them in my wishlist had been growing and I thought it'd be high time to look at 'em anyway. Starting with Burial. I've been pretty quiet about Burial in recet years, but that's because I occasionally dip my toe into his works rather than take a full dive. A real nasty habit of mine in the past is essetially overloading too much too quick on an artist so I'm tryign to not do that here. Rodent is one that slipped me by, a gorgeously hazy rumbling house number with a B-side footwork remix from Kode9. The A-side is the real attraction here; as someone who only occasionally dabbles in Burial it's a refreshing change as well. If I had a complaint it'd be I'd like the body of the track to have more time to breathe seperate from that vocal sample - which I can see turning some people off with the repwtition. It does get a chance to shine through every now and then like around 1:30, but I'd love to be even more fully immersed in those sections.



A complete 180 in sound now, as I visit yet another artist that I've only a passing relationship with; Dopplereffekt, specifically an alias of theirs Der Zyklus. In concept I should adore their works - hi-tech sci-fi infused techno/electro is supremley up my alley - but the truth is I've often found it a little hard to get into some of them. I do have a few bits and pieces here and there though, and this is one EP that I'd actually already heard plenty of as both the A-Side and B-Side were featred in a ton of compilations around their original release on another EP in the early 00's. And both tracks are absolutley great, I think they hit a nice balance of the hi-tech vibe while keeping things more melodic than the Dopplereffekt work which is something that often turns me off, Elektronisches Zeitechno is a perfect example of the kind of electro I love for example. However today I'm going to talk about the B-side, the equally lengthy titled Mathematische Modelle. As one might expect from the title, there is more than a smidgen of Kraftwerk influence here and I am very much here for it. As I say all too often when a track like this comes up, I will always adore tracks like this - as a bright eyed young'un I was often fascinated by the sounds on old Kraftwerk records - they were so different and interesting sounding than anything else I couldn't help it. And as you may know to this day I still have a real love for it! Much like Warp's Artifical Intelligence compilations, to me, this is still the sound of the future.



And finally, slightly cheating as I picked this one up ages ago (and have also probably posted it before), Golden Boy & Miss Kittin's Rippin Kittin. Sadly, the version Kittin has archived on her bandcamp is missing my all time favourite mix by Alexander Polzin (that you can no longer actually buy anywhere digitally) it is still a solid version of the EP. Rippin Kittin was a bit of a hit in it's day, no doubt helped out by the brilliant Radio Mix by Glove. Truth be told it's not really that different from the album version - slightly restructured yes but mostly the same, although as I point out every time I talk about the alternate mixes, a lot of the remixes and this Radio Mix feature a chorus that is puzzlingly not at all present on the album version or the 'Original' mix. While an odd choice, it does make the Radio Mix a lot less bleak sounding than the original mix. Aside from that - I still love the slick production of it and the accompanying album Or, and it goes without saying at this point that I almost universially love Kittin's vocal contributions. She's very much in that early 00's stoic electroclash mode here which I appreciate might not be for everyone, but I have loved this tune for nigh on 2 decades now and that is highly likely to continue.



And so ends our brief dive into my bandcamp happenings - the rolling Bandcamp Fridays have been a real treat for me, letting me constantly dip into that wishlist and keep it slightly trimmed rather than having it grow uncontrollably like some of my other wishlists. Of course to not be selfish for a moment it's a real bonus for the artists as well, I'm very happy to see a lot more stuff on digital distribution these days - as much as I love collecting physically sometimes its more practical to grab a digital copy from the artists themselves. Though it's worth pointing out that you can buy physical things from bandcamp, I just haven't done so yet. Perhaps for the next trip report I will do so!

As always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Da Funk Back To The CyberPunk

The final in the trilogy of cyberpunk posts and by far the broadest in terms of genre. This time it's my all purposes Cyberpunk playlist. Here is home to anything I feel fits that atmosphere which means that unlike the Cyberia Mix, I'm not limited to more dancefloory stuff. That's not to say that there isn't any crossover between the two, (hell just loading it up for this post I spotted a Dopplereffeckt track that I missed that happily sits on both of them), but certainly expect more downbeat, introspective and minimal pieces intertwined throughout.

It's sitting at a cool 300 songs right now, clocking in at just under a whole day's worth of audio accompaniment. I'm pretty happy with how it is, there are a couple choices that I could give or take depending n the day but overall I think I've got a pretty neat overall feel! (even if it does lean a little heavy on the ambient side to begin with, I listen to it on shuffle anyway though). Not to throw shade at people but the variety is part of why I made this playlist to begin with, and more importantly why I kept the amount of Synthwave on it to a minimum, as there seems to have been a massive uptick in 'BEST OF CYBERPUNK SYNTHWAVE' playlists after the announcement of a certain upcoming RPG with the same name. Don't get me wrong, you all know I do like the Synthwave, but I'd like people to be aware that there are other perfect examples of Cyberpunk Music outside of that! Get some industrial techno and old school electro in there, contrast that with some ambient and lush IDM and you're well on your way to having a nice mixture of tunes for that High-Tech Low-Life.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Ilictronix Podcast: Lost In Electrons

"Claude and Adam share and discuss their favorite tracks of the week, in this episode: Claude shares electrons from F.U.S.E. Moderat, Simian Mobile Disco and more, Adam is back on his usual kick of house and piano stabs."

We are back again for this week! I've been feeling a little scatterbrained at the minute, same as last week to an extent actually due to IRL things. I tried to not let it effect the show too much but it definitely did or this episode, due in part to me taking a deep dive into learning software again too. So as I (admittedly rather poorly) tried to explain at the top of the episode, my choices this week are all tunes I've found myself lost in. There is an overarching theme of spacey sounding synths too that was a semi-conscious choice when I was formulating this list. On the way we make some diversion on the subjects ofCopyright in the modern era, naming your albums, Deluxe Editions once again and all the usual points you've come to expect by now. We have some good talk in this episode, helped along in part by Adam's lovely rebound choices, a far cry from the deliberatle dreary atmosphere of last week, Adam is once again as the man himself put it, Back On His Bullshit™. It's delightful to have him once again hitting us with our weekly dose of piano stabs, it's certainly been a comfort to me in these uncertain times. Anyway, enough waxing poetic, tracklist as usual below!

Tracklist:
Intro: Flo Milli - Beef FloMix


Claude’s picks:
Moderat - Let In The Light
Yoko Shimomura - Out Of Phase
Simian Mobile Disco - Do Not Exceed Stated Dose
F.U.S.E - UVA
Ulrich Schnauss - Nothing Happens In June


Adam’s Picks
Head High - Hardcore
Cody Currie - Asteroid Belt
Martyn - Elden St.
Chaos in the CBD - Green Dove
The Pharmacist - Vision

Outro:
Burial - Rough Sleeper


SHOW NOTES:
The BBC Radio 6 show I talked about where they interview Yoko Shimomura and other composers of the video-game circle is available here, but only for 5 more days as of writing. It's an interesting listen, and definitely check out the other episodes in the series too!

-Claude Van Foxbat

Guest Night Tales Vol. 3 (2018 Version)

Jamie's addition to the series gets the 2018 revival treatment this week, kicking off with the sublime opener to Burial's Untrue before going the complete opposite with a contribution from the Jackson Sisters before returning to it's chill slant for the remainder of it's run. It's a short one at only 8 tracks, but the ground covered in them is phenomenal, leading nicely to the explosion in sound that is White Chords for the finale.

Once again an eye opening, genre crossing peep into other people's listening. I'm having a lot of fun revisiting this series, rediscovering some memories tied to tunes that I didn't know I had or had long since forgotten about. Accompanied by some vertical slices of some paintings from Avis himself, Vol. 3 might have been the shortest one of the lot but it had a lot of soul in its carefully selected and structured tracklist.



With the playlist begin so short I am going to do what I said last week and break the once a sunday schedule I got going on to write a little post to go up in a couple of days to make up for it a little, and it's going to be a non-spotify one to make up for the deluge of playlists I've been putting up latley (it's so convenient though!) Anyway, look for that post going up come Tuesday and as always, until then, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-Claude Van Foxbat

Ilictronix Radio 2(EVK Radio 3)

Konnichiwa Reader senpai

This is EVK RADIO 3

A bit more heavy hitting than the last go round, after all the whole world loves some 808s.

Shouts to Claude for the art!

Be Easy,

Earl