Throwback Thursday

Let me take you all back in time, back to when a younger Foxbat was your stereotypical blog surfer with a headful of House. It's not that long ago in the grand scheme of things, but it's all documented on this site for all to see, going back and reading my (incredibly self conscious and very obviously the product of a teenager) writing is always interesting - to see what's changed and what hasn't. I tend to focus on what hasn't when I've previously brought this up - I'm still a fiend for all things IDM for one - but there are also more interesting changes in opinion as well; somewhere on here you can find a solitary post where I moan about not gelling with Portishead - fast forward a decade or so and I adore 'em

So Me - Triple Trouble (Crowd) (2009)

This time though, if the art didn't reveal all already, we're paying another trip to the archives of Ed Banger - a formative label for me as a teen and one of the major reasons I ended up writing here in the first place. I won't dive too deep into that this time though as I already did earlier this year, naturally there is going to be a lot of crossover though! First of all what being what spurred this post on in the first place - my last complaint about a lot of Ed Banger stuff not being on Bandcamp is now null and void, as a little while ago a whole heap of the catalogue appeared on there, including a whole bunch of DJ Mehdi stuff - including that remix of Signatune by Thomas Bangalter.

Instead of retreading ground I thought I'd put another favourite up (that I'd actually forgotten about a bit) - Mehdi put out a compilation of remixes called Red Black & Blue back when, and I think we might have even done some kind of preview/review of it at the time too. A real highlight for me was his reworking of Chromeo's Waiting 4 U, one that I am surprised didn't end up appearing anywhere else other than this comp. Chromeo and Mehdi were an almost perfect match anyway as demonstrated by their collaboration on I Am Somebody and this mix only cements that further. Unlike that though, this mix of Waiting 4 U feels much more raw by comparison, the Bass that slams in after the li'l break at 0:45 sounds super distorted, like its clipping slightly, giving the whole thing this lovely bedroom bootleg feeling.



This whole post, like my last Ed Banger one could be 100% Mehdi in all honesty, but I am going to have a little bit more variety this time around. Just after one final Mehdi offering! B-Side to the Pocket Piano EP, Tunisia Bambaata always felt a little underrated to me in the grand scheme of things, it's very much in that 'Nu French Touch' style that was in vogue at the time after all. Doubly so after myself having explored the world of Future Funk, this would fit right in that scene no trouble, though it's maybe a little slower than my favourites from that genre. Anyway, my real favourite part of Tunisia Bambaata is the 'bonus track' included at the end - after the final fade we get a little 1-minute instrumental interlude that lets Mehdi show off his hip hop leanings. As a teen obsessed with Adult Swim bumps, I was all about little instrumentals like that, but I'd be lying if I didn't still have a lot of love for that style of lo-fi.



SebastiAn's remix compilation is also there, though the track list is a bit of a minefield and a lot of them aren't tagged properly with either the artist or the fact it's a SebastiAn remix. At any rate, at the time there were some real juggernauts of remixing - MSTRKRFT was always a favourite of mine, but SebastiAn got a lot of the limelight thanks to his bold choices in what to remix. Rather than just remixing whatever was new at the time, SebastiAn did a lot of paying tribute to his influences with bootleg mixes of Rage Against The Machine and others - it didn't take long for some of them to go legit however, a trend that continues to this day with Metallica commissioning him and other artists to remix the Black Album. I've chosen his remix of Klaxon's Golden Skans because it is not only one of my favourites ever, but also highlights another thing I loved about this time - there was a great crossover between folks from the Indie scene getting into Electronic music and vice-versa, I made a lot of friends that way!



There is still a distinct lack of Ed Rec. available on their bandcamp however, there are some real gems on there (especially Volume 3, but I am biased!). In light of that though we're going way back in the chronology of Ed Banger for this one here, with a catalogue number of ED010: Mr. Flash's Champions / Disco Dynamite. It's funny going back to these early releases, you can hear the direction that the 'Ed Banger' aesthetic is going to take but it isn't quite fully formed yet, there's a certain charm to it, though it's not quite aged as gracefully as the later entires of the label. Still, those early releases are still important, and an interesting listen if nothing else. Personally, I enjoy a little bit of Disco Dynamite once in a while - there are days where it hits the spot.



And that'll be all for today, I hope you have enjoyed this little time capsule we've had today - as I'm becoming all too aware of it might be the first time hearing tracks like this for some of you depending on your age! Maybe over the summer I'll do another historical dive back into the early days of Dubstep and become some kind of digital archaeologist. Anyway, I'll be back soon with another entry for you all but until then, as always - stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Colors of Love - Another Valentine's Mixtape

After being on the back burner for nearly a year, I present to you another valentine's mixtape. I say a year because immediately after I finished last years I had a handful f leftover tracks that I really wanted to have put in but missed their shot. Guess what this year's mix is made up of? I don't want you to feel like this is 'the leftovers' or anything, each of these tunes stands on their own! Stay tuned for a bit of commentary by me after the player and tracklist!

Tracklist:
Monk - L
Mitsunori Ikeda - Fallen Angel
Phil - Crazy & Ready
Chromeo - Bonafied Lovin'
R·O·N - Adult Bath
Tsutchie - Deeper Than Words
Clammbon By Nujabes - Imaginary Folklore
Röyksopp - In Space


I may have been a bit over-ambitious again this time, it feels to me a bit clunkier in parts than my last attempt at this kind of thing but I guess that's the price I pay for trying to put Eurobeat into Chromeo - the selection is unique at the very least! I tried this time to get a nice even balance of upbeat and downbeat this time - there's four tracks of each so it's balanced in a sense! We open with the beautifully hazy L from Monk. I was first introduced to this one from the soundtrack to OlliOlli2, which is full of other tracks with this style of hazy, compressed indie electronic, I love it but it's easy to have too much of it too. From there it's the one track that really pained me to miss out of last year's tape - Mitsunori Ikeda's Fallen Angel, yet another cut from the Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt soundtrack - which is also full of absolute stonking tunes. Fallen Angel is far too funky to just be an ending theme, and Aimee B just straight up kills it on the vocal front as well.

I spent a fair bit of time deciding what to put next... I knew I wanted some Eurobeat in there (after all a good 80% of Eurobeat lyrics are either about love or are innuendos) but the question was finding one that was mostly accessible. Which is tough when you're as into the genre as I am, it's kind of warped my perception of cheese a bit! But there are plenty of tracks out there that wear the disco influence on their sleeve, and Crazy & Ready is one of them, much closer to the House side of the spectrum of Eurobeat. That's not to say it's not still got that earnest cheese that I love - some of the lyrics are choice and the synth melodies should carry a warning label for how sugary sweet they are!

From there it's the surprising first appearance of Chromeo. And really what is there to say about them? They've been at it for well over a decade at this point and they are still doing what they do exceptionally well. I did almost put a track from their 'Quarantine Casanova' EP here, but I couldn't find one to mix well (and in hindsight it probably would have been in poor taste too). Instead I went for the tried ad tested fallback Bonafied Lovin' from Fancy Footwork. It's the album of theirs I'm most attached to but if you like the sound they have here, you could pretty much pick up their entire discography and not be disappointed. We're around the halfway point now and we begin our slide into downtempo, and what better way to signify that change than with Adult Bath. Perhaps not strictly electronic but I just had to include it for it's sound alone, and as I said just before it nicely sets us up for the more hip-hop final half.

Another track that I missed off of last years, Tsutchie with Deeper Than Words. I found Tsutchie during my dive into the world of Japanese hip hop a little while back and quickly became one of my favourite names in that space. There's no shortage of Tsutchie tunes that could go here - often super slick and smooth, it was no question of whether Tsutchie would make the mix but which one would I choose. Keeping it in that sphere for the time being, a super lush produced track from Nujabes. There are two versions of this one, Folklore and the one that I went with, Imaginary Folklore. It's one of Nujabes' more popular songs and it's not hard ot hear why, it's easily one of the best examples of his distinctly lo-fi production methodology and is just a gorgeous listen.

Finally, we round out with Röyksopp's In Space. I've been revisiting their debut Melody A.M. as of late - it turns 20 years old this year and it does sound very early 00's in it's overall style but it's aged very gracefully. and one that I still very highly recommend if you are at all into Electronic music, doubly if you like downtempo stuff as much as I. My heart told me to pick Sparks yet again as it's one of my favourite songs of all time, but I switched it up and went with a full instrumental piece instead. In Space perhaps shows off that turn of the 2000's sound more than most tracks from the album (a friend lovingly calls Melody A.M. 'Advertising Music - The Album') but it's still a lovely listen and I think closes this little selection out nicely.

Right, the commentary was a little longer than I expected but that'll about do it for us. I hope you like some of my selections here, and I'll be back soon enough with more. And as always: Stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Songs Of The Times (Chromeo - Quarantine Casanova)

I was looking through bandcamp yesterday to scoop some releases and support their latest charity donation incentive for Juneteenth, and when I was browsing I found out that Chromeo had made a mew mini-EP during lockdown, so I thought I'd give it a look. It has the suitably Chomeo-style title of Quarantine Casanova.

Let's go over to Dave of Chromeo with a quote from the bandcamp page describing the process:

“Honestly, it started as a joke,” says Chromeo frontman Dave 1. “At the beginning of quarantine, we hunkered down in our studio, freestyled a song called ‘Clorox Wipe’ and posted it online to cheer people up. The response was overwhelming. So we wrote another one, and another one. Fans kept asking if we were going to release them for real, so after a couple of weeks, we obliged.” “As usual, it’s a high brow-low brow thing with us,” adds synth master P-Thugg. “These are obviously the funniest tracks we’ve ever written, but they connected in such a visceral way. We figured if we were to put them out, there would have to be a charity and an awareness component.”

Chromeo have always had a bit of self awareness in their style, often embracing the cheesier side of funk in a charming way. Quarantine Casanova is no different at least from a lyrical standpoint, the tongue is FIRMLY in cheek here. That's something that might be a turn off for some, I admit I was torn between eye-rolls and smirks at some of the rhymes, but it's brought in some needed levity to recent happenings.

Clorox Wipe is the first order of the day and is definitely a solid way to start the EP. I have been very much out of touch with what Chromeo have been doing since Business Casual 10(!) years ago now, from what I recall they were fleshing out their sound and I wasn't a super fan of it at the time, it's since grown on me but the point stands. Probably due to lockdown, the EP has an overall more basic feel, evoking for me the breakout days of Fancy Footwork (Even down to the tiny bonus tracks at the end of the songs!) which is refreshing to hear. I still have a major soft spot for that sound even all these years later.



I promised myself that I wouldn't harp too much on the humorous side of the album, but there is something inherently funny about a funky slow jam about respecting social distancing rules. It's worth noting that despite the jokey nature of the content and lyrics, neither of the Chromeo boys have taken it as an excuse to cut corners, the EP is solid throughout, I adore the glittery 80's intro on this one, and as you all well know I could listen to vocoders all day every day so there is more than enough for me to get my teeth stuck into here.



I really appreciate this one, the lyrics so far have been relatable at a base level but this one hits on another level, a combination take-down of influencers and the like, as well as a reassuring anthem if you're finding it hard in the current climate. Choice lines such as "Everybody's always bragging about all their activities / But there's really nothing wrong with zero productivity" are (to use an already overused internet phrase) really wholesome. Not to say that the humour is lost though, there are also lines like "You ain't gotta look fly when you're underneath the covers / You got WiFi, then you're covered" which never fails to make me grin a little, partly because of that absolutely dubious rhyme!



Skipping over one track for one final slow jam, that also takes the wholesomeness to another level; what starts as Dave lamenting all the Quarantine problems you've come to expect at this point but takes a lovely turn toward the end with this stanza:

So if you're seriously depressed
Suffering from all the loneliness
Close your eyes and this is what you do
You can picture us

Stuck in a room with you

Which is a lovely thought, and a nice twist that makes it not yet another track just about quarantine. The instrumentals also get a chance to shine not long after hat, not that I hate Dave's vocals or anything but up until now I don't think the instrumentation has had a chance to take center stage. (Not that it matters as the rest of the tracks on the EP are instrumentals of the above!)



The price is fairly reasonable I thought (but I am in GBP after all), but I appreciate not all of you will have the freedom of expendable income right now. If you do, consider picking this one up, it's a quality slice of Chromeo funk and all proceeds from the sales are being donated to Know Your Rights Camp's COVID-19 Relief Fund.For convenience, here is a link to the Bandcamp page! If this is your introduction to Chromeo, definitely check out the rest of their work, as mentioned before I feel like this release is most similar to Fancy Footwork (But I also haven't listened to their last two albums either so take that with a grain of salt), but if you like this odds are you'll find their whole discography appealing!

As always, stay safe and enjoy the music

-CVF

Ilictronix Podcast: Sample Stories & Adam's Mini Mix

Claude and Adam talk about their favorite tracks of the week. Claude takes listeners on a story of sampling and shares how different tracks can use a sample. Adam shares a mini mix.

We return! This time we both tactically deploy little somethin' somethin's we've been holding in the wings. I lead the episode by using The Nightmares On Wax track to set up my three-in-a-row set of songs revolving around one sample (and the original too), with some more funky stuff courtesy of Chromeo and Thundercat rounding out my choices for this week. Adam treats us to something he's mentioned a few times in the past, in lieu of our usual tnes 'n talk combo, Adam instead gives us a mix he did the night we recorded! It's an idea I've mulled in my mind when there's been a few scheduling conflicts that might have made me unable to appear, so I'm more than happy to see it work out so well. Also I apologise in advance for the slightly rambling tangent I go on towards the end of the sample stories section, I make some good points and all but we were having connectivity issues, in the interest of keeping our audio synced I went a little off the cuff! Of course, the full tracklist and show notes follow as always:

Tracklist:
Intro:
Nightmares On Wax - You Wish

Claude’s picks:
Chromeo - Don't Turn The Lights On
Gary Low - I Want You
Miss Kittin & The Hacker - The Beach
Washed Out - Feel It All Around
Thundercat - Heartbreaks + Setbacks


Adam’s Mix
Geography Of Heaven - Pinky Promise
R.M - Chikyu-u 002
Cosmjn - Sunset Soul
Viceversa - Flat Earth
Rimbaudian - Let Me Beat U
Rythm Plate - String Thing
Lousie Chen - Reach (Raw Mix)

Outro:
Ian Pooley - Feel It



Show Notes:
Oh boy here we go. Starting off with the sample I mentioned at the beginning, You Wish HEAVILY takes elements from Judy Clay & William Bell's Private Number, like from the word go. Which is funny 'cos I was holding onto this to make another instalment of sample stories, because it's also heavily sampled in Pretty Light's Finally Moving too in pretty much the same fashion.



A little light on the show notes this week, and I can **guarantee** that I will have forgotten a couple, it's late here in the UK so I'll have a proper listen over the next couple days and fill in any I find. To repeat what I said at the end of my section of this episode, I ask you all to be safe out there and of course to enjoy the music naturally. See you all next week for more from Myself and Adam, we'll leave the light on for ya.

-Claude Van Foxbat

Mum's The Word

Spur of the moment post, but yesterday it was Mother's Day here in the UK, so don't get all worried that you haven't got her a gift or anything if you're in the US or elsewhere! I have a bunch of relevant tunes, but here's three that really shine.

Ivan Shishkin - Rain In An Oak Forest (1891)

Funkateers Chromeo were pretty much a given on this list. This tune was long a favourite from Fancy Footwork and I used to use it to intro people to Chromeo cos I think it shows off what they do really well in a pretty short timeframe.



I remember the Bloody Beetroots from back in my bloghopping days when I was listening to more electro than was probably healthy. Whoda thought that their first album would actually have some pretty sweet non-dancefloor stuff on it, including this one that's got more than a tint of Justice's Valentine to it...



And finally, tune I've held off posting for a while cos it's actually massive. Like Timeless, Goldie's sophomore LP Saturnz Return is opened with Mother, an hour long epic that goes from classical to drum & bass and back again. It takes up almost all the first CD of the album and my 320 rip is a whopping 138 MB, To save on bandwidth have this resampled to 192kbps version.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Stuff We Missed

Trust that when we're busy getting the site stable and a new crew in that funkateers Chromeo drop info on a new album and a couple single dealies. Last thing I'd seen of them before this was their collabs with Daryl Hall of Hall & Oates fame. Not really feeling the cover art for this one personally, but whatever let's check it out!

So how does the new stuff sound? quite nice actually, starting with their latest addition Sexy Socialite; a little departure from their usual repertoire, and is probably the fastest track I've ever heard from them. Loving the breakdowns on this one.



And the other half, something a little more conventional from the duo as you can probably tell from that opening bassline. Unfortunately it seems they're catching the wave of uninspired "sounds like Daft Punk" comments that comes with doing anything remotely funk these days. Regardless these two are definitely worth your time, as well as their last three albums if you've missed them!



And of course, Miss Kittin's new album is fantastic. She's totally embraced the vibe changes that she usually has on her albums and made a massive double album, one side dancefloor, the other side more ambient. I was gonna embed a couple from her soundcloud, but they're disabled! Instead enjoy the video for one of the singles, Bassline.



-Claude Van Foxbat

This would've been cool some days ago

Hi there,

Long time no see right, so how are the kids going? Good you say, nice to hear... Oh, you wanted to listen to some more music. Well pardon me for trying to be friendly here. Let's get right to it then.

Original artwork by Mr. Brown...

This first and probably only remix from Duck Sauce would've been cool and hip if I posted about it some days ago when it came out, too bad I'm always running late and it's probably on every single blog by now... But I can't let Ilictronix limp behind, now can I?



Not much to say about this remix, it's a nice fluent track that keeps the vibe from the original but just gives it that little extra. I don't really have much time to actually talk about the tracks as you might have noticed :D



Oh and I finally bought the Jamiroquai singles album (wanted to buy the new one, but you know them silly record stores and their stock problems). So here's one of my favourites from the album (because of Napoleon dynamite I must add). Yet even without the sweet dance routine it stays funky as hell!

Enjoy this short installment of rather nice tracks,
Mr. Brown

ps: Happy son's day, Boba's father!

Just dropping by...

Hi there, Just a quick post because things were going a little slow... So here are two amazing tracks to keep you dancing: I know this one is old, but I really like Tiga and I really like Chromeo.



This remix is beyond amazing. I was expecting it to be a slightly altered version of the original, but Chromeo truly shaped the song towards their own style. The added vocals, guitar solo and synths just give this song so much more depth.

And here's the new Jamiroquai track.



It's Jamiroquai, it's funky and it makes me happy. So that's why I posted it.

Enjoy, Mr. Brown

Sexy Dancing

Hi there, I just sawthe new video of Chromeo's single Night By Night.



It is sooooooooo sexy, David Macklovitch (the brother of A-trak) makes me question my sexuality! Damn he can dance...

Here's the song and and a brilliant remix by Smalltown DJ's. The percussions in the remix really make it a gem!





Short post out, enjoy!
Mr. Brown

Summer's Pick 'N Mix

had to crank this one out before summer ends :P Enjoy this pick 'n mix post, where I hope to have something to tickle every one's fancy (and also may or may not be a regular feature) so, let's start with the Summer themed tracks:

Something new: Malfunction, reminds me of the old house we used to get in the 90's over in jolly old England, and Mr. La Roche should know, being English and all. Perfect summer tune. 'Nuff said



Something Old: same as above, reminds me of simpler times when all I cared about were crisps (that's chips for you in the states) and lemonade before life kicked in. well, that and you cant have summer without some quality house.



I love this next track to bits, (you've probably heard of BoC if you follow Deadmau5's twitter or FB) I play the album it's from every summer and it never gets old. whack this one on when the sun starts to go down, or up, and you'll see BoC really are something else.





and this is where the summer theme stops, and it becomes "Tracks I think you'll like" first up is some vocoded bliss by Chromeo, given a nice dollop of dub by Skream. Don't worry, it's chilled. No filthy wobbles in this post! 

Chromeo · Night By Night (Skream Remix)

Another oldie that I found on my iPod, the legend Laidback Luke gets remixed by the Dadas, need I say more?

LaidbackLuke · Break Down The House (Dadalife Remix)

Remember the remix competition Röyksopp held for tricky tricky a while back? I found my stash of them tucked away on my HD. somehow I'd forgotten about this absolute gem. A huge 8 minute progressive house number, adds an extra layer of epic over the already amazing vocals. You'll never want this track to stop, I know I don't.

BeyondDeep(R.I.P.) · Röyksopp - Tricky Tricky (Beyond Deep Remix)

and that's my summer summed up (bloody hell there's alot of Alliteration in this post :P) wherever you are, enjoy what's left of it, stay safe, enjoy the music.

Enjoying Sunny England,
-Claude Van Foxbat