Bandcamp Friday - May

Reporting in with this month's offerings. I thought it was going to be a little thin on the ground as I didn't have much lined up, but I managed to get some done in time. In a surprise twist, it also features a fair amount of new releases too! Let's take a look.

Kicking things off with some DMX Krew - Ed from DMX pretty consistently drops New releases to the point where it can be tricky to keep up. I heard the first track from Return To Jupiter when it was up for pre-orders and I knew then I'd get my hands on it soon enough. This is Ed's second release on Peggy Gou's Gudu Records, the first being the equally nice Don't You Wanna Play? EP. It seems to be that when DMX makes stuff for this label he switches focus to pure instrumental, there's no cheeky playful vocal as seen on some other DMX releases here. The title track is the one that sold me - it very clearly takes heavy inspiration from Underground Resistance, especially the Galaxy 2 Galaxy material. The end result is this fine slice of retro-futuristic techno, bouncy and airy, it's a lot of fun to listen to.



Next up is Yaga, yet another artist that until now I'd only really had bits and pieces from scattered across miscellaneous compilations. My experience up until this point was mainly bits from Rhythm Of Snow - all pretty minimal, at the border of my taste in the genre, anything further is a bit too minimal for me. I don't remember exactly how Faded Photographs came onto my radar, but I do remember being entranced by the one preview track at the time No Matter What.

Now, having spent a fair bit of time with the whole album, I can happily confirm the rest is very much in the same vein. I've seen a lot of discussion from fans of Yagya saying that this vocal-oriented shift he's taken isn't for them, but I quite like it, granted it is my first real experience with it beyond his older works.

It's an album that is pretty antithetical to my listening habits, my usual MO is a set of speakers and my entire collection on shuffle all at once. Faded Photographs by comparison is a much more intimate experience, one that benefits greatly from immersing yourself completely in it. I was a little on the fence about it until I threw on a set of headphones and listened to it front-to-back, it all flows together in a lovely way.

That said, there are still tracks that stand alone, my favourite still being No Matter What, but I'm really liking the whole thing, you can spend a lot of time picking out the delicacies on repeat listens and I just adore the moments of melodic vocal flourishes. It can end up sounding a little same-y in parts, but I'd definitely give it a spin if you're in the mood for some quieter, introspective listening.



Third is a compilation I'd had my eyes on for a while, one I'd assumed wouldn't be available digitally due to the label, Musik Aus Strom, being defunct. Turns out it was revived in 2022 by one of the founders and has almost all its back catalogue available, with more planned to come!

The compilation in question, the punnily titled MAS Confusion is a goldmine of lesser known IDM vendors and if you're a fan of then sound, especially around the early 00's when this compilation released then it is certainly worth checking out. There are some early highlights: the opening track from Metamatics that I've talked about before is beautiful, and Adamn Johnson's tracks are almost perfect encapsulations of what makes the 'IDM' sound. My choice for today though is Xela's Streetlevel, a lovely bit crushed nostalgia trip that also embodies all things IDM. Xela has a pretty extensive list of releases too, if you like this one I highly recommend For Frosty Mornings And Summer Nights for more in the same style (in addition to the rest of this compilation of course!)



Finally, a last minute addition in Sachi Kobayashi. It's been a little while since I picked up any ambient, so I went looking through my past purchases to check up on some artists. I'd only had a couple EPs from Sachi Kobayashi, but I very much liked them all - turns out there'd been plenty of releases between mow and the last time I checked in so I was a little spoilt for choice. I went one up from where I last checked in, Weathervane, a release inspired by the surviving Weathervane after the Notre Dame fire. For me, Kobayashi is at her best on tracks like Symbol, very roomy soundscapes with a hint of melody carrying throughout. A lovely closer to the experience, Weathervane is an ideal jumping in point for Kobayashi's work and it is currently 'name your price' over on Bandcamp, so there is no price barrier to entry if you enjoy it.



And that'll be all for today, so much for 'thin on the ground' after all eh? Part of me is considering doing a full review of the Yagya LP, but I also put most of my thoughts into this post here (hence the length!). At any rate, I hope you've found something to pique your interest here in this slightly eclectic selection. I'll drop by again with more in due time but until then, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Wrapping Up 2022

Left it a little late to do a year's end roundup, but I'm going to return to a tried and tested tradition: the good old fashioned track dump. I never really felt comfortable posting a sea of players with no commentary, so this one is going to be broken up a little with thoughts in-between, so apologies in advance if it gets a little long.

First things first, if you're after a real Nostalgia-fest, BBC Radio 6 has you covered. That right there is a playlist straight out of the 2010s featuring many of the Ed Banger crew and other indie darlings of the time. It's available here for about a month if you're interested, tho with some limitations if you're not in Europe but I can't confirm that

Michel Majerus - Untitled (2000)

Now with that out of the way, let's take a look at what I've got. I've made no secret of my love of Eurobeat over the last few years - the sugared up evolution of Italo Disco colliding with J-Pop. I had a fair few lined up, but on listening to them back I whittled it down to just a couple - it's pretty hard to find legal streams of a lot of them anyway and in hindsight some of them were a little bit OTT. Which is an absolutely stupid thing to say I now realise, as the whole point of Eurobeat IS that it's over the top! Keeping it low key to start with, Switch really highlights those latent disco traces inherent in the genre, which makes it a good dipping in point for the curious.



I've managed to skirt one of the more silly parts of Eurobeat with these two selections, being mostly written by Italians, you do get some... interesting lyrical choices that don't quite make a whole lot of sense. On that note though, Eurobeat does a fairly decent job of maintaining a good ratio of Male to Female vocalists, it'd be very easy for the genre to fall into the latter much like the Vocal side of trance did way back when. That said, there are definitely tracks that evoke that same kind of euphoric vibe - enter So Fragile



Some Tofubeats next, I picked up some of the man's soundtrack work a while back and had been meaning to check out his works ever since. His Bandcamp is weirdly bare with releases there but not for sale (that clearly used to be as well), and releases like this one here that don't appear on Discogs or anywhere else really. Synthesizer is a prime example of why I felt the need to check his work out, a real head bopper of a slow jam, topped with liberal use of Vocoder to make the whole package complete for me.



Going total nostalgia bomb for this next one, it comes back out to play every so often, and rightfully so as it's damn good. Potentially one of the finest remixes ever from the era - Thomas Bangalter (1/2 of Daft Punk for those not in the know) spins out what was a ~1 minute interlude from DJ Mehdi's Lucky Boy into one of - if not the - electro house anthem. It hurts a little knowing that we won't hear any more Mehdi productions, I always liked the man's style and was excited to see where he'd take it, but what better way to celebrate the man than belting this one out.



Let's go a little deeper next with some Soichi Terada. Terada's return under his own name was a release I was extremely looking forward to, I first got turned his way off the heels of the (legitimately fantastic) Ape Escape soundtrack, and was pleased to find even more Drum & Bass on waiting for me. But the man actually got his start making (equally brilliant) House tracks - and that's what Asakusa Light is all about - paraphrasing Terada's own words: he's trying to capture that same feeling from those days. And on tracks like Double Spire, he really does. It helps I'm a real sucker for pitch bends though!



Speaking of capturing the spirit of yore, we have DMX Krew, who has been dwelling in that space for a long long time now. Now with DMX, you often will get some cheeky playful self aware elements in the mix, evoking old school electro of the early breakin'/electropop era, it's a genre than can be quite funny after all so why not embrace it? (see also: Chromeo). Party Life doesn't really do that, at least on the title track. The thing comes out a little more like an electroclash record, lamenting the shallow nature of the said Party Life. But you don't have to delve that deep into the analysis if you don't want, the Dub mix has an excellent groove on it and is as relentlessly catchy as the original.



Couple more to round us out, starting with what is one of the oldest digital files in my collection - Misstress Barbara's Never Could Have Your Heart. A relic of my first serious forays into the world of electronic music circa the early 00's, the first version I had of this was a naff one I pirated at like 96kbps or something like that! But even then, I was totally entranced with it. That melody (which I would later learn is pretty much a cover/sample of Move D's In/Out) is just gorgeous, and the beat work is surprisingly frantic for a House record, with machine gun hi-hats and flurries of handclaps. I reckon it'll be about 20 years I've had it in my collection next year, and I'm still as in love with it as I ever was.



And finally, the one track I post every year without fail, The Knife's New Year's Eve. Taken from the soundtrack to the film Hannah Med H, it's from around the Deep Cuts era so is very much in that extremely electropop style - the one with super sweet synths and the steel pan work as heard on tracks like Pass This On. Does the track have anything to do with NYE? Not really, it plays in a scene in the film that takes place on the night which is the reason for the title. Still, it's become a bit of a tradition, there was many a year where we'd play this while getting ready to head out for the night. And now it's a tradition here too!



And that'll about do it for now, it did end up getting a little long but nothing too ridiculous! That'll be all for this year, but rest assured I'll be back soon enough in '23 with more. Thank you for sticking with us this year, we've had a couple hiccups along the way but I don't know anyone who hasn't. I hope you've found some tracks here to enjoy and will continue to do so in future - and of course, as always: Stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Feelin' Fragile

'Bout that time of year where everything catches up with me and it all just feels a bit 'eh' you know? Not helped by Friday's night out I imagine, but also this year in general. Still, things are winding down so I'm taking the time to sit and write a little bit more than usual. I've been keeping rolling lists of stuff I've been listening to and have plenty to go at, so let's dive right in.

Sam Gilliam - This Time (2008)

To match the title, I've chosen a selection of fitting songs to go at - not all ambient but all very much under that kind of fragile umbrella. Starting with some Arovane. Lilies is an album that I keep thinking I should do a full deep dive on, Arovane pretty much disappeared for about 10 years after it came out which makes for an interesting tale. At any rate, plenty of tracks from this album could have gone here - it's a gorgeously produced album, very accessible and never straying to hard into hardcore IDM territory. Tracks like Passage To Nagoya are what spring to mind for me, especially considering the content of this post, but this time I've gone with the hauntingly beautiful Tokyo Ghost Stories. The sparse piano soon gives way to something that sounds very Trip Hop in its execution, I've been playing this one a lot as of late.



It ain't all doom and gloom though, the intro for DMX Krew's December Darkness sort of fits this bill as well. Tucked away around the midpoint of the unassumingly titled Bass Drop EP, it quickly became one of my all time favourites from DMX's catalogue, and remains so to this day. Once again it's like DMX had my number completely, this kind of luscious deep house vibe is supremely up my alley. I'm a total sucker for the slow introduction of new elements too, just when I think I could be getting a little tired, something new drops into the mix to inject it with a fresh coat of paint. The EP is wholly instrumental (save for some vocal samples on the title track) so there's no tongue in cheek lyrical content like you might expect from DMX if you've heard his other work. That said, this EP is still very much a love letter to his influences, there's a whole heap of electro and acid to get at on here.



And finally, I've fallen back in with Everything But The Girl, as I seem to do every winter. Tracey Thorn's delivery is impeccable and twins oh-so-well with the Drum & Bass direction they took toward the tail end of their releases. Walking Wounded is the obvious highlight, and an album I've talked about at length before, it's the album that marked that hard shift into the electronic side of things. Unfortunately it's a little difficult to post legitimately, EBTG are one of those artists where a lot of it is gated off behind Soundcloud premium otherwise I'd probably mention them more - I'm going to make do though. I've gone with Above The Law once again, a previously unreleased demo of what would become Before Today given the shared lyrical content. It's a little more raw feeling than the rest of the album as you might expect from a demo, but it sounds incredible regardless - the production and Tracey's vocal are absolutely perfect together.

Everything But The Girl · Above The Law (Demo)

And that'll be all for now, as I mentioned up top I'm going to try and write a little more in the coming weeks, I have plenty to go at as usual - I still have to do this month's Bandcamp findings after all! I might even try and get something a little more long-form down as well, I'm starting to feel the itch a little again. But I'm going off track once again so I'll wrap up here - as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

(Not) The Final Friday - Part Two

It's been about a month since I did part one of the final Friday, so not only is it high time I actually get around to part two but also between then and now Bandcamp laid out their plans for the continuation of Bandcamp Fridays going forward. In short, it's not every month from now on, which is a fair compromise to make I'd say. With that out of the way, let's take a look at what I had leftover from last time.

Hasui Kawase - Kozu, Osaka (1924)

Let's start with somethin' new, DMX Krew dropped this album the day before if I recall right so I took a look at it. The cover was quite inviting, long time readers will know I love me some electroclash and this cover would have been right at home in that era of sleazy glamour - and I would be very interested in hearing Ed take on some of the themes explored in that sphere. You don't have to wait long for that to be true, opening title track Party Life is very much in that spirit - look no further than the chorus for a summary of the vibe: "This Party Life, it doesn't mean a thing to me - or you". I've mentioned in the past how DMX embraces the cheese of the retro electronic that forms his usual output, but something about Party Life feels very earnest - perhaps I've been too flippant in the past, Ed's vocal really suits this sound.



Turning back the clock for the next one with a bit from Kaito circa 2002. I really gelled with this record, coming hot off the heels of my fall back in with Swayzak I must have been in the mood for a little bit more of that tech house flavour, Special Life more than delivered with it's mixture of Deep / Tech House, with a little sprinkling of Trance on top for extra. Some tracks perhaps a little long in the tooth, but they're usually so catchy that I don't mind - the whole album feels very sleek and polished, a real embodiment of that hi-tech vibe making the rounds in the early 00's. Perfect for soundtracking, if you like the opening track, go ahead and dive right in and you will not be disappointed. Of note as well is the sister album to Special Life - Special Love, which is made up of ambient versions of the tracks from this album - all lovely listens and as the bandcamp page mentions, a great DJ tool.



Keeping things House for the time being, I also scooped the other entry in Macross 82-99's Sailorwave Trilogy. There really isn't a lot to say that I didn't already mention last time - just when I think I'm done with House for a while, a track like Sakura will come on and inevitably get me toe-tapping again. Wearing his heart on his sleeve here, Sakura isn't shy about it's Shibuya-kei and J-Pop influences, but it's not saccharine sweet like that combination might suggest. Tracks like this share a lot with the kind of House we were posting around the 2010s, the whole 'French Touch' revival with artists like Louis La Roche and company so be aware there is a bit of bias on my part when picking them out - I recommend checking out the whole thing for a little more variety, spread across the trilogy there are small moments of ambient, vaporwave and little lo-fi breaks to enjoy!



And finally, something a little more uptempo to round out. I went down a bit of a DnB rabbit hole recently after the last big VGM roundup I did. I went searching for something a little more in the vein of Soichi Terada's work, it's a big world out there and for all the D&B in my collection, it's basically a drop in the ocean. Enter The Self Evident Truth Of An Intuitive Mind, an album I heard nothing but good things about, held up as a classic of the genre but I had never heard of it until not too long ago. This remastered version on bandcamp is extended slightly from the original release and is also a complete steal at a minimum of $1. I've chosen Trapezium as my track of choice, it's a short sharp demo of the breakbeat butchery on display here, with the lovely opening showing off the more melodic side of the album as well. I was originally going to post opening track Circle, but it does take a little while to get going - it's a fantastic album opener don't get me wrong, but I wanted to get straight to the chase as it were. Definitely give it a spin if you're looking for a little more D&B, if you listen to it front to back as intended it all flows together all silky smooth like, which is why this one cuts off so abruptly.



And that'll be all for now, apologies for the delay between parts, as I mentioned before we hit a rough streak at my IRL work and a bunch of posts fell through the cracks, I'm well on my way to being caught up now though. I hope between part one and this post you've found some new tunes for your library, I've certainly enjoyed what turned out to be a revisit to them! I'll be back soon enough with more but until next time, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Bite-sized Bits 23

Robert Cottingham - Don't Walk (1991)
A very quick 'the morning of' post this time - I knew for a while I was going to cover some DMX Krew stuff but I wasn't sure which one to pick and I figured it'd be pretty easy. Famous last words though isn't it? I had a quick run-through of We Are DMX to pick something as I think it's the album I've represented the least - which is pretty surprising because it was my first dive into full length offerings from Ed DMX. There are so many ones I could have picked from the album though - and that's doubly true for the slightly expanded edition that's now on Bandcamp.

I mention it every time DMX comes up but he has a very playful approach to his works - there is a lot of deliberate irony and embracing of the cheesier side of genres that inspire him - breaks, funk and electro. I think of all the albums he has, We Are DMX has the most examples of that: with tracks like Street Boys and Konnichi Wa! back to back and honourable mentions scattered throughout the track list like Twenty Minute Affair and Good Time Girl. The one I've chosen for today is more middle-of-the-road as it turns out, the instrumentation is still decidedly retro but there's no cheeky self-aware lyrics like the ones I just mentioned - in fact the vocals appear only once in the entire thing at 1:20, but they do wonders to compliment that retro feel. Truth be told I think they could have done with a couple more appearances throughout, but the fact it's a one-off makes the payoff that much sweeter.



And that'll be all for today, this week is pretty hectic so I will try and keep to the schedule, but anything could happen in the meantime! Until next time, as always - stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

It Hot

John Miller - Lelant Beach, New Moon
Shorter one this time, just because I've been busy and the passage of time kinda snuck up on me - looking to get this one finished before the heat of the day becomes a bit much again to boot. Kicking off with perhaps the poppiest tune from HEALTH's DEATH MAGIC in LA LOOKS, part of me wants to say it stands out from the rest of the album as a result but in hindsight it fits right in with the rest of the electro-infused stuff they were experimenting with around this time - but at the same time I can see why it ended up in some indie pop playlists around the time with that chorus. Certainly much easier to digest than some of their earlier work, which while I do like, I must admit I'm a big fan of the direction they took with this album.



Another cut from the Tangent 2002: Disco Nouveau compilation again this time. There's a ton of good stuff here that could almost make a post or two of it's own - like the name suggests, the comp features a bunch of big names from around the time offering their takes on the disco style revival of the era. I went in expecting tons of electroclash (and to be fair between the ADULT. track and a couple others I wasn't disappointed) but there's a lot of variety on here - enter DMX Krew's contribution. If you've been around and heard the past couple DMX Krew tracks I've posted you know what to expect: full on tongue in cheek embracing of pretty much every retro electronic stereotype you can think of. Make Me comes from the same area as You Can't Hide Your Love (which if you hadn't guessed from the cover art is very self-aware), and you'll find more of the same formula here - I can understand it being too corny for some folks but I find it quite charming. And there's certainly no argument that it is an ideal fit for a compilation of modern disco-inspired tracks.



Revisiting the Sounds From The Far East compilation once again, featuring a choice selection of tracks from the Far East Recording boys Soichi Terada and Shinichiro Yokota. Yokota's contributions to the Far East Recording compilations don't get as much attention as Terada's (or worse, incorrectly credited to Terada), but they too are solid bits of early 90's Deep House - Do It Again is the biggest example of this as a bunch of places have the credit wrong, but I can kind of understand that as this one does sound an awful lot like the kind of stuff Terada made on those releases. Tunes like this just feel great, every time I think I've gotten a little stale on House as a whole, a track like this will come along and remind me why I love it so. Also, this is a reminder to me to check out his newer stuff, both he and Terada are still releasing things fairly regularly!



Speaking of things I think I've outgrown - a little bit of Future Funk to finish off. It's a genre that suffered from a massive explosion of content, and like so many other genres that happens to that lead to an absolute boatload of releases that I couldn't keep up with. I've dipped back in every so often to just check in on the scene, but nothing's ever grabbed me the way Macross 82-99's early stuff did. I'm more than willing to admit that a massive part of that is the vague 'French Touch' sound tracks like this one have going for them which makes me all nostalgic for my early blogging days. A contender for one of the best opening tracks of all time, Now And Forever makes for a perfect introduction as it dances its way through J-Pop influences and even gets full on vaporwave in parts - I highly recommend checking it out, especially seeing as you can scoop the full thing for one dollar.



And that'll do for this time. Not quite as short as I had in mind because I ended up putting an extra track in, but even then its still curtailed given how long some recent ones ended up! With that in mind I'll wrap it up here, be back soon with more but until then - as always: Stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Retro Active

I have climbed out of the ambient / field recording hole for the time being - I could write about some of it in future but it's one of those things that it's a bit tricky to get streams of legit (especially for Wendy Carlos' work for some reason.) But we're back in electronic territory for the time being. And in another return to form I've picked out some tunes that were served up back to back courtesy of the chaos theory of the shuffle algorithm that are nicely sonically linked.

Jeffery Smart - Study for Bondi Penthouse (2002)

The order of the day is a slight retro vibe, some stronger than others. Another cut from DMX Krew's Nu Romantix leads this time - those who've seen me post about DMX before might have an idea of what to expect going in: deliberately emulating the aesthetics of the 80s for better or worse. This usually manifests in some dangerously cheesy lyrics and some delicious synth backing with a bit of vintage breakin' influence (especially on his early work), Nu Romantix has it's fair share of that too, but there's more variety on there than just that generalisation. Take the final track, a remix of I'm All Alone by Cylob, label mate on Rephlex at the time - you'd maybe expect it to be a little more IDM in style given Cylob's other works but here it's kept in line with the overall feel of the rest of the album. It wastes no time on things like intros and gets straight down to business, there's some absolutely gorgeous melodic synth work on show throughout, culminating in an incredible duet in the latter half.



Returning to the VA-11 HALL-A soundtrack once again now, most times I talk about the OST albums for it I mainly focus on the more atmospheric tracks. There's no shortage of them across the two main OST albums and I do love them a whole lot: I say it every time it comes up but they are pretty much aesthetic perfection when it comes to twinning with the art direction of VA-11 HALL-A, they're not quite full on synthwave but certainly carry that sensibility with them.

This time we're not talking about the chill vibes to make cocktails to that have made up the previous posts, tucked away on the Second Round album among other little nuggets of gold like the fictional OS startup sounds is All Systems, Go!. Much like Simon Viklund's Hot Pursuit from a little while ago, it's a little slice of high energy retro goodness - sounding like it was ripped straight out of a promo video for a then top of the line personal computer, especially with that MIDI as hell brass at the beginning. It's not all novelty though, see it through to about 50 seconds in and after a mighty flourish it gets a little more fleshed out, full of lovely touches like those slow arpeggios that really come into their own on headphones.



Another soundtrack name to round out, this time on a solo record though. You might have seen me bring up Jasper Byrne a few times in the past, his appearances on the Hotline Miami soundtracks are what pointed me in his direction. Those soundtracks have a reputation for being equal parts face melting electronic and hazy psychedelic, Byrne's work leans more toward the latter than the former, but still has that neon soaked feel that bridges the gap between the two - a more sedate style compare the squealing synth chords of some other synthwave acts.

I first heard Night on the Adult Swim synthwave-style compilation called Fever Dreams and had assumed that like a few of the tracks on there that it was an exclusive. A trip to discogs though soon pointed me towards his solo work and the album of the same name. If you're at all a fan of the kind of stuff he made for the Hotline Miami games you will find a lot to like here, Night isn't my top favourite of this album (that would be Bliss that I've posted before), but it's a great intro to the album and the overall aesthetic Jasper plays with on it: It follows the same formula of the more downtempo electronic pieces he makes but with the addition of these hazy chillwave style vocals. From what I remember I don't think they suited all the tracks but they fit really nicely on Night and Bliss.



And that'll do it for this time. Things have been much quieter so I should be able to keep to schedule a little better. I have fallen behind on the republishing front though so it may be time for an old post to make an appearance again but I'll try and balance it with something new, or add to it like I did with that OPN post from December. Either way, stay tuned for more and as always: stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Throwback... Wednesday?

Trying to keep up with posting but motivation has been fluctuating, between the new and crap blogger 'redesign' that google is pushing, and the public transport system of my country as reliable as ever (I type, dripping with sarcasm). Anyway, point is that I *was* going to start this yesterday which would have made for a nice alliterative title but it wasn't to be.

Eyvind Earle - The Wave (1990)

So without anymore preamble let's talk about the tunes in question. First is short lived turn of the millennium music 'unit' as they were described SiLC. They dabbled with a wide variety of sounds during their brief run, and all of them very much of the era, running the gamut from moody trip hop to amen break fuelled Drum & Bass to just good old fashioned house. Their penultimate EP, Himegoto has a premium cut of this house sound in the simply titled Vibe, it's a gorgeous little encapsulation of the late 90's house that bled onto the radio. The real highlight however comes after the full force return from the extended breakdown at 3:20, Miki's delivery is just so full of passion it's almost infectious. Something about this one just hit extra special yesterday, which is why I'm talking about it here!



Throwing back further for the next one, long before Soichi Terada would treat us all to his slick brand of Drum & Bass, he produced a track called Sun Shower for Nami Shimada. I've posted it before (with some slightly incorrect information I think), Originally released in 1989, it's had a few represses since then and is surprisingly easy to get hold of thanks to Crème Organization's repress and digital versions. Listen through the slightly dramatic 10 seconds of the intro and what you get is a fantastically retro piece of Deep House, Terada is always good when he's working in that genre and this is no different. Sweeping synths and that driving bassline are surprisingly fresh all things considered. If you'd prefer a pure instrumental to get an unfiltered listen of that goodness there is one included on this EP!



And finally, returning to DMX Krew. I've long loved Ed from DMX's analogue synth noodling, and I dig the whole aesthetic he's going for with it too, think Chromeo but a good ~10 years before them and influenced by retro Electro instead of Funk and you're pretty much there if the cover didn't already tip you off. And to perfectly summarise this even more we have Place Called Love from '98's Nu Romantix. 15 seconds in and you're already greeted by the gorgeous melodic lead that's going to carry through the song, it's one of my all time favourites of Ed's, surprisingly powerful. For the first time in a while we actually have a demo of the one thing I bring up every time I mention DMX Krew and that is the lyrical content. It's not as intentionally ironic here and the vocoder certainly helps with that, the lyrics themselves are a little corny in their content but fitting given the genres it's a love letter to. It's a short album at only 9 tracks (and one of them is a remix of a track not on the album so more like 8), but if it's a crash course 101 into DMX Krew you're looking for - this is a very good jumping in point.



Keeping things consistent for now, but as mentioned before there's a lot of things on the plate at the minute. Going to be mainly midweek and weekend posts from now on I think. But I digress, as always: Stay safe and enjoy the music!

-CVF

What I've Misplaced (But Never Lost)

A couple of mis-clicks on my Spotify sent me on an unscheduled trip down memory lane, specifically a roundup of my most listened to of 2017. And really, not a lot has changed. There's a big smattering of pop punk in there as I was deep in making my "Non-Electronic Nostalgia" playlist but otherwise it's still identifiably Van Foxbat™. Still, there's some stuff that I picked up around the time and has been buried that these kind of playlists do a really good job of digging up, so I thought I'd rundown some of them today.

Roy Lichtenstein - Interior with Waterlilies (1991)

First on the bill is DMX Krew, I found this one completely by accident, it's an oft-overlooked b-side that wasn't available on early digital versions if I recall correctly. It's at odds with all the other DMX Krew productions I've posted so far too, there's no Funk or ironic retro electronic sensibilities to grin at here, instead December Darkness is out and out no-nonsense Deep House and I absolutely adore it. I remembered doing so and wondered if I would still like it as much, I was on a bit of a deep house kick at the time and was kind of obsessed with some Juno-60 demos by some blokes on youtube that sounded a bit like this but with more pitch bends. I am happy to report that is the case, the intro alone had me falling all over again, and the layering of different elements throughout is just fantastic.



Visiting old flames of mine Kittin & Hacker next, after a long quiet they came out with two EPs in 2015 fittingly called Lost Tracks, salvaged demos and half finished songs from the First Album era is my understanding. If you're a fan of the stripped electronics on parts of that album you will find a lot to love here, my favourite being track 1, Leather Forever. Hacker's production is on point here, not too minimal and complimenting Kittin's vocals incredibly well, the synth surges on the choruses might be some of my favourite things he's ever done. Likewise Kittin is on it as usual, she's very firmly in the electroclash style on this one: Stoic, almost disinterested delivery. Slightly melodic while still bordering on monotone, and of course hints of her French accent now and then. While it is very much a cliché of the genre by now, Kittin does it brilliantly (and not for a lack of singing talent, as we've seen on her other works).

Another thing I really like about this track in particular is the inclusion of Fetish and Kink, I'm honestly surprised that given the standard Electroclash output it's not more prominent, doubly so given that Kittin used to do live shows of this era in Nurse outfits (as seen on the cover of First Album) and leather dresses. It's an aesthetic that suits the music very well, and while there are a few other acts that have dabbled in that imagery I'd still say it's slightly rare which is unfortunate.



Finally, a very early relic of the 'tunes you pick up on a compilation and never hear of again' category, more on that in a minute. Tangent 2002: Disco Nouveau is a solid (if slightly dated) compilation centered around the idea of a bunch of artists of the time taking on that Disco sound in their own way, and there are some big names on there: Susumu Yokota, ADULT. and even DMX Krew as mentioned above. Some of it is very of-the-era, but as you all might know that early 00's techy new wave revival is very much my scene. I've talked about a couple of tracks from this comp before (the ADULT. track in particular is especially strong), but there are more than a few I've forgotten about.

Enter Memory Boy, an alias of John Selway, only ever used for a small handful of remixes and for this track (There Is No) Electricity, which is tucked away at the very end of this compilation. I'd never heard of it outside of this compilation, though Discogs tells me it appeared on a bunch of other compilations including a Dr. Lektroluv one that I'd also forgotten about. This strikes me as odd because in all my electroclash excursions I can't believe I'd never encountered it, it ticks all my boxes for that new-wave revival sound I was talking about a minute ago and is absolutely at home on a compilation based on (then) modern takes on Disco. I'm not a fan of the fade-out to a field recording of a city but otherwise I have no complaints: slightly treated vocals and slick retro electro sounds should have told you that already!



I hope you enjoyed this return to our usual MO of output, it was a lot of fun opening the box of old and having plenty of "Oh man, I remember this!" moments. I might have to 'accidentally' take a few other trips into older playlists and see if there's anything else I've forgotten, missed or otherwise not picked up over the years, I'll be sure to share the results of my digital archaeology here!

As always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Shopping List (...?)

As mentioned in previous posts, I'm currently sizing up my ever growing wishlist to see what will make the cut come this Friday, and truth be told I've been slacking a bit, and there have also been new additions in the last few mins before I started writing this post to complicate things further. Even then this post is still going to contain one thing I already own (two things if you count the B12 track that I already have from another album) but I'm getting sidetracked. Today's order is lovely bleepy early to mid 90's techno, the kind that Warp was putting out around that time as part of their {Artificial Intelligence} series (of which two of these choices are from!) Let's go.

Jeffrey Smart - The Four Closed Shops (1982)

I might as well get into the Warp stuff first off, starting with my favourite underrated entry in the series of LPs: Richie Hawtin's Dimension Intrusion. I could never get into Hawtin's output as Plastikman but I absolutely adore this album, its a shame none of the tracks appeared on either of the Artifical Intelligence compilations because for me they are up there with the big names in terms of demonstrating what that series was all about. That's not to say that you can't hear the direction that Hawtin would take, one of the tracks on Dimension Intrusion is a 13 minute slow arpeggio only punctuated by bass pads and occasional samples from THX 1138. I've chosen the title track this time around, it's one of the more upbeat bits of the album actually which gets super ambient in places but it also shows off both the differences and similarities with Hawtin's later more minimal work. It was never re-issued internationally after it's 1993 pressing, but it's now real easy to get your hands on now as Hawtin himself published a 25th anniversary edition to his Bandcamp, albeit with a slightly different tracklist to the original release.



Next up is a bit of a strange one. I can't remember how exactly this one came to my attention, I do have some vague memories of a discogs reccomend but even then I don't really remember the page, likewise I don't remember what made me even find it on bandcamp either. I think I may have heard it in a live set maybe? I definitely do remember hearing it somewhere with the incorrect title and having to listen to the whole thing to find that initial track that caught my interest. Anyway, that's irrelevant, as it hits the same buttons for me as the Warp brand of electronic at the time, in fact coming out around 1994 after the Warp crew and others had taken techno from the dancefloor to the home stereo. It's not quite as cool and hi-tech as the Warp stuff to my ears, but it also wouldn't sound very out of place on one of the compilations either. I have to agree with the Resident Advisor review that says the whole album has a much more warm feel than it's contemporaries I listed, it's techno that feels very tactile and for want of a better term (also borrowed from the RA article), Cosy. Very much embodying that 'home listening' concept that the original Artificial Intelligence compilation was based on.



Taking a bit of a turn around with B12, another of my favourite examples of this kind of sound. B12 are pretty much the opposite of what I mentioned above; in contrast their brand of listening electronic is that cool, hi-tech sound that drew me to this kind of stuff in the first place. With album titles like Time Tourist, its cover art featuring retro-futuristic covers of a Neo-London is certainly in line with that "Future Music" aesthetic, which as you all probably know is supremely up my street. Telefone 529 originally appeared on Electro-Soma in 1993, as well as on the first Artificial Intelligence compilation under their 'Musicology' alias. As noted on the cover of that compilation, Kraftwerk among others were the inspiration for this new wave of electronic, and that influence is plain to see here from the track being focused on technology (though this time ironically Phones and not Computers as in Kraftwerk's case) to the repeating samples of automated phone operators.



And finally a little bit more from DMX Krew. Purely instrumental this time which means yet again no self-aware retro lyricism, but as the title would suggest the track itself is very funky indeed. I was hooked even before the first of many wobbly bass warbles came through, but even then, every layer of the composition of Wave Funk is incredibly well done. As Ed messes with the filters toward the end making the main hook go from bouncy to squelchy, to nervous and back again I can't help but grin. It's only short especially considering its the title track and all but I honestly can't complain, nothing else on the EP has anywhere near this level of funk so it just makes the whole thing even sweeter. If you're in the mood for some analogue jams and have completely rinsed the Analords over the last decade like I have, this EP and it's sequels are definitely ones to look out for.



-CVF

Hip Hoppin' Be Boppin'

Great news over the weekend for music accessibility. After what feels like forever (and some drip feeding at the start of quarantine), the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack has finally appeared on streaming platforms everywhere. I was hopeful after Yoko Kanno's Ghost In The Shell stuff appeared not too long ago considering she worked on both but I wasn't expecting it to be so soon.

While not wholly electronic it's a damn fine soundtrack to a damn fine series, it stands well enough on its own that you don't need to know anything about the series to dive right in, and while not all of it is available to stream there's still plenty to get your teeth stuck into. If you're looking for some Jazzy vibes for your Monday morning this is supremely what you're looking for. I'll be covering a couple pieces that I dig and also once again sharing some of the Remix album that has some very interesting artist choices on it. Really, I'm just super stoked that people can access the OSTs more easily, makes discovery (and you know, actually talking about them in post format) much easier indeed.

Starting with a bit from OST 2, playfully subtitled No Disc (though it was also on Vitaminless which has been on Spotify for longer!). If you're at all familiar with Drum & Bass (especially around the late 90's / early 00's when Bebop was around) you'll know that the combination of Jazz and Drum & Bass isn't an incredibly farfetched one; the E-Z Rollers and Flytronix were both doing similar around the same time. The Bebop OST flirts with this combination a bit here and there and even goes full Jungle for a minute on OST 3. Fantaisie Sign takes a more Lounge slash R&B style to the proceedings but the Jazz influence is still very much there, I've loved this track for a long time, but those background pads are really doing it for me today. Slightly unrelated, the combination of driving brass and sultry French vocals reminds me in a roundabout way of Thievery Corporation's Saudade, though that LP took a lot more inspiration from Bossa Nova.



Moving swiftly away to something more fitting for the electronic side of things. There's also an entire remix album called Music For Freelance that I've written about extensively before but I will take any excuse to bring it up again. It's a veritable who's who of the electronic music world of the late 90's, starting with a mix of the opening theme Tank! by none other than Luke Vibert. Vibert's mix doesn't actually do much to the main body of the song (which is more of a testament to the strength of the original opening tune itself rather than a critique of Vibert's mix). It's not the most altered version here, but Vibert's additions are still pretty evident, I love the little breakdown he added around the midpoint too.



I was originally planning to cover every remix on here but in hindsight I think that'll be a little too long. Skipping over Fila Brazillia's remix this time and diving into DMX Krew's mix of Cats On Mars. I wonder if the artists got to choose which track they remixed, because the slightly goofy sounding original Cats On Mars seems like it would be right up Ed from DMX's alley, given his penchant for cheesy electro and all. The end result is stripped of pretty much every element of the original save for Yoko Kanno's nonsense vocal, the rest replaced with cool twinkling synths and an expectedly DMX fat electro bassline. An odd choice but a very fine remix, Ed's personality shines through and it brings some nice variety to the roster of remixers.



Taking things downtempo with Mr. Scruff for the next mix. Once again another choice that would make sense if the artists got to pick which track they wanted to mix, the original Cat Blues sounds like it would be an absolute goldmine for Scruff's style of sampling. And that is definitely true for the mix itself, Scruff takes all the bits and pieces and makes a lovely hip hop style tune out of it. Totally transformed from the original, it doesn't even re-use the melody, a remix in the truest sense of the word. I do think it suffers a little bit from long plateaus of sound like there should be a vocal or something but that's the extent of my complaints (Well, that and the fadeout at the end seems a little sudden). By the time it starts to grate those bombastic opening samples slide back into the mix once again and I can't stay still.



Next is an interesting one from DJ Vadim. Firstly because the track being remixed, Fe, wasn't actually available on any of the OST releases around the time of this remix album, only appearing on the Cowboy Bebop CD Box in 2002. And compared to the original, Vadim's mix is quite different indeed. We're no stranger to the mixes not resembling the originals by this point but Fe is on another level; going from a Spy-suite style piece to a full on lumbering trip-hop number that has more than a smidge of Portishead influence. I love the slightly spooky turntablist style it brings, it again feels like it should have a vocal or something, but that could just be a casualty of me looping it 3-4 times before writing.



Finally, playing us out is a Remix of Fantaisie Sign by none other than Ian Pooley. It's at this point I realised there's a conspicuous lack of full on house on this remix LP, I could very well see the original getting a Stardust or Modjo style makeover given the style of the time. What we get instead is ironically more in line with the Thievery Corporation Bossa Nova I mentioned in the initial paragraph, not like that's a bad thing but as I mentioned above, the whole album seems to have this downtempo streak and it would have been nice to have one or two dancefloor friendly pieces here. Still, not complaining. Get a load of the bassline on this one.



And that wraps us up for today, again while not strictly electronic definitely check out some The Seatbelts' stuff because it's a great listen and fantastically produced throughout, hopping through multiple genres across the 4 or so OST album for the series. Speaking of, I highly recommend Cowboy Bebop as a series as well, it's a fantastic production and very, very accessible if you've never seen or are generally not a fan of anime; there's no lore or anything you need to know before going in either. I'll stop myself there because that could be a whole other article in and of itself. As always, stay safe and enjoy the music!

-CVF

Return To Form

Having looked over the last few pages of draft posts. I don't think they'll be anymore generic republished ones. I will make an exception for mixtapes and the like but otherwise it will be all Original Content™ from here on out. Partly because I feel the quality of my old writing doesn't reflect who I am now and also because I feel like it's been a bit of a cop out. So if you're OK with maybe waiting slightly longer for posts but having them all be new then good news! I'm also trying to swap over to Bandcamp players where possible if you've noticed, it's actually been fairly painless and means I can write posts not at my desktop too. Nothin' too special this time, just some new and old tunes I've been listening to, just like old times (but new!)

Fernand Leger - Forms In Space (1950)

Fell back into VA​-​11 HALL​-​A something fierce. Everything about it is supremely my aesthetic and it has a sublime OST to boot, how can you not love something that has the official website URL of 'waifubartending.com' ? The great irony of me falling in love with a game about Bartending while I WAS a bartender isn't lost on me, those were... interesting times to be me. The OST remains as solid as ever, I've posted a couple of the big hits from it in the past so instead here's a lesser known one. It still does a fantastic job of setting the mood, all the gorgeous elements that make the soundtrack are there, down to the melodic leitmotif that appears on multiple tracks trhroughout.



It's been a while since I mentioned Mitch Murder, responsible for a large portion of the retro electronic sound in my library (And showing me that the pedantic sub genres of electronic music know no bounds by having some of his releases labelled with 'Yuppiewave'). We're going back in his catalogue here to Selection One, a compilation series (of 5 currently!) of free songs he'd put out over the last year or two. One is from 2012 and is an excellent jumping in point if you're new to the scene; a quick rundown of his productions with some remixes on the end to boot. Mitch's work always hits differently with me, compared to say the Slasher themed high tempo Electro from Carpenter Brut, Mitch shifts around genres and moods regularly: sometimes bordering on full on Vaporwave, sometimes lush but surprisingly powerful slow jams like this:



And finally, an EP from DMX Krew that I narrowly avoided scooping in my last bandcamp haul. In addition to some of the old Rephlex material making it's way to digital platforms, Ed From DMX is also still fairly active and drops new releases on there too. Rest assured it's near the top of the list for picking up next time though, I've been listening to the opening track from Don't You Wanna Play? for a few weeks now but I have to ration it, because it's one of those tracks that I immediately start vising with from the intro alone. Of note, there's no tongue-in-cheek lyrics or self aware irony to the sounds on this one like there has been on other DMX releases I've talked about; it's just super sweet somewhat deep House through and through.

Remembering To Remember

Current events have given me a mass of time to catch up on that ever-growing list of things to pickup that I maintain. And on top of that I've managed to find a couple things that I had resigned myself to never finding. While this is a positive however, it too has fallen victim to the wishlist problem. Much like my Steam account, I am incredibly guilty of wish-listing EVERYTHING that I might even have a passing interest in (or worse still, just that I think the album art looks cool). Which brings me to the purpose of today's post; a rundown of things I've wishlisted that I must get around to picking up soon.

Paul Klee - Remembrance of a Garden (1914)



Occasionally I'll check out what Spotify recommends I add to some of my playlists, more often than not they're misses or just more tracks from albums aledy in them, but sometimes you get some goodies in there. Take this one for example; I haven't heard anything from Kölsch before, and even though I may have stubled across it via checking out Tiga's releases I'm sure happy that I cam across it. My taste has changed a bunch since teenage me was trawling the net for his next electro house fix but there are times when that part of me reawakens for a little bit, and this tune does exactly that to me, something about this sound evokes those same feelings as when I first tuned into Electro-Choc, (although it's tech house now and not straight electro). Regardless, I am in love with everything about this one.



It's worth keeping tabs on Bandcamp too, since last year some of the more obscure or hard to come by releases of old have come back there which is a delight to see. Case in point with DMX Krew, albums previously only available physically on Aphex Twin's Rephlex label and never re-pressed are now making their way to the digital frontier. I'd already picked up We Are DMX second hand before it came to bandcamp, but now it and the album before it (Nu Romantix) are now readily available. And they are the two I would recommend as a great starting point if you're looking to explore the sound of the Krew, the sound is of the same Chromeo school of old school but self aware which often reflects in Ed from DMX's choice of lyrics. Here's one of my favourites from We Are DMX, it's not as full of self-aware irony as other tracks on there but other than that it's a solid intro to DMX Krew. I could live in the sounds of that short intro bar forever.



Finally, another album I'd been waiting on to make it's digital debut. Seems like it did a long time ago but I could never find it in my searches. That's one of the downfalls of bandcamp when you end up with stores run by labels and artists' there is a version of this LP available from one of the Funkstörung folk, but it's the edition with interviews and commentary spliced into the tracks which, while neat, isn't what I'm looking for. Anyway, Disconnected is a lovely slice of mid 2000's downtempo; electronic meets acoustic with just a smidgen of IDM influence. I was going to go with the title track of the LP, but changed my mind last minute. Not to sound like a broken record but I love this one so so much, I forget about it every now and then but some spark will ignite in my head and I seek it out. Mainly the music video was a massive inspiration to me when I was making live visuals for Artists and DJs, which I think might make me a twinge nostalgic.



As always, stay safe and enjoy the music all!

-CVF