How does it feel? (Blue Monday 2023)

It is THE Blue Monday, so I'm going to use that as an excuse to talk about all things Blue Monday. I don't think there's many singular tracks I could make an entire post out of - I know I've done it or similar for Kraftwerk's The Model way back when - but that is a testament to the lasting impact some of these tracks have.

Blue Monday is nothing short of iconic, and not just in the electronic music world either, much like The Model mentioned above, BM is one of the early examples of electronic music breaking through into popular culture. A quick breakdown for those unaware: New Order was formed from the tragic end of Joy Division, and would continue in a similar sort of style until around 1983 where things would take a decidedly electronic turn.

It's from this era that Blue Monday comes about, and it made a massive splash - with the original '83 pressing, the '88 re-release and 1995 version selling a cumulative total of approximately over 10 million. And it's not hard to see why, if there were a recipe for 80's synthpop, this would be it: the opening kickdrum flurry sets the stage, a moment that has become a pop culture icon on its own, and the catchy melancholy is of course another defining feature, and one that comes back into fashion every now and then (see: Electroclash around 2002). It's a bit of a pain to find a legal stream of, so I'm doing my usual routine of the crimped soundcloud player (which to be fair in this instance at least plays one of the most prominent bits of it), and then the whole thing on YT. The video is at least pretty cool for this one rather than just a static thumbnail!

New Order · Blue Monday (2016 Remaster) (2016 Remaster)

And that could have been enough for today on it's own, a celebraation of this sepcific track. But I'm feeling a little inspired so I thought I'd put a couple more examples down just off the top of my head. First things first we have Flunk's cover from their debut album For Sleepyheads Only. Covers can be a divise topic at the best of times, something that is especially true with a track as massive as Blue Monday.

I can certainly see people crying blasphemy at this trip hopped version but it's pretty inoffensive, once it breaks free of the breathy-indie intro around 1:25 it becomes a lot less cliché and sets into a nice groove. Even so, it's very much in that vein of early 00's 'chillout' which has sometimes dated things a little more than usual, I have a well documented love for that style, plus added nostalgia glasses for this one so you'll have to take my opinion with a grain of salt!



It would spawn an accompanying EP of remixes, expanding the genres to include Drum & Bass, Electro, Disco and more. A couple of my favourites ended up on the compilation remix album Treat Me Like You Do, the remix album is pretty unique in that some of the tracks still mix together seamlessly rather than being standalone, so I'm using the EP for this next bit for a cleaner cut. Of them all, the second mix by Jori Hulkkonen might take the cake.

It turns it back around in the direction of the original with some 80's throwback synth to start off with, all coming to a peak with a re-interpretation of that kickdrum kick-off. It'd be easy to turn the whole thing into a retrofit remix and just emulate the original to a T, but after than initial nostalgia burst it does find it's own feet, bursting into a funky house infused number that's more Disco than it is New Wave. An interesting approach to take, but I like the inclusion of the knowing wink to the original before going off in a new direction.



And finally, HEALTH's version made for the Atomic Blonde OST, which I have very mixed feelings about. I've loved the new electronic direction HEALTH took since 2015's Death Magic, and on paper a version of BM with that sound would be very nice indeed, it could put quite an aggressive spin on things. In reality though I was expecting something more in line with the poppier approach they took for their cover of High Pressure Days made for the GTA V OST.

The end result though is a pretty by-the-numbers cover, incorporating all the key identifiers of the original - those kicks, that melody and even the synth choral accompaniment, just filtered through a HEALTH lens. The vocals feel a little flat, which I guess is in line with the original, but I feel like given some of HEALTH's other output it could have been a little more dynamic. There's a great breakdown in the middle section which spices things up a touch and gives it a little more of the edge, but otherwise it's played pretty straight - given that it's only appeared on the OST album that could be at the label's request, but that's conjecture on my part. Not my favourite cover, not my favourite HEALTH track either, but still fine.

HEALTH · Blue Monday

Not to end on such a dour note, but then again I suppose that is on brand for the 'Blue Monday' after all. The concept itself might be total tosh but I'll take any and all opportunities to talk about a bit of New Order and relations. This one was a little off the cuff and I feel like it's gotten a little long, but that's OK as the next post in the pipeline is going to be a fair bit shorter, no ETA on it as of yet but you can probably expect it by the end of the week if all goes well. Until then, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Almost There

Good news is the issues on *this* site are fixed. I think. I'm not sure how things were set up before, couldn't make heads or tails of how it was set up or what went wrong so I've gone with an alternate solution that *should* have the same outcome. I finished fixing it up a couple days ago and you shouldn't have seen any changes, bar from a brief window where I needed to fix the naked redirect, which isn't as fun as the name would imply. But enough about tech, let's talk tunes.

The Understanding has a much more surreal cover than the super clean modernist look of Melody A.M.

Seems that every year around this time I go back to Röyksopp, I'd like to say it's to synchronise with the seasons but really I think it's just I get the itch every few months or so. I have a lot of love for the Röyksopp lads, they are one of the longest serving acts in my collection after I picked up Melody A.M. sometime in the early 00's - as did many people, Melody A.M. is one of those albums that was everywhere at the time, much like Moby's Play a couple years before it, it is one of those albums that even if you think you haven't heard anything from it, you absolutely have. From advertisements to the soundtrack to the setup program for OS X Panther, it popped up everywhere.

While they have never really reached the same levels of mainstream success as that time, their output since has been consistently a highlight for me. The Understanding was the immediate follow up to Melody and a marked a subtle maturation in sound, there's a lot more acoustic elements on this album as the melancholy piano of opening track Triumphant shows off from the jump. It's not long before things take a familiar turn around the 30 second mark. Towards the end things take a bit of a turn towards the cinematic, but that's not entirely unexpected given some of the cuts on Melody A.M. I'll be posting both the Soundcloud and YT embed here just for coverage.

Röyksopp · Triumphant

Beyond just the instrumentals though there is plenty more to get stuck into, there is of course the incredible What Else Is There?. A collaboration between Röyksopp and Karin Dreijer of The Knife, it should come as no surprise to you reading that it is probably my overall favourite from the album. That melancholic streak is much more pronounced here, and backed up by Karin's incredibly powerful vocal makes it an absolute experience. It was off the heels of this and some other The Knife tracks that Karin quickly became one of my favourite vocalists, and seeing them reunite with Röyksopp again on Junior was a real treat. The success of this track no doubt amplified by the equally evocative video, it's a shame that the file hasn't been updated with a more HD version and it is stuck in its crunchy 2008 form, but even so it remains iconic.

Röyksopp · What Else Is There ?

Completing my whirlwind tour of this album we have Dead To The World, the penultimate track. It brings the album to a nice close with its dreamy vibes, it reminds me a little in parts of the more country inspired parts of Brian Eno's Apollo - Atmospheres & Soundtracks, but that could also just be a by-product of the sample from Camel's Who We Are that comes up in the mix. This track also showcases something I've not yet talked about with this LP, I believe this album is the first time that Röyksopp themselves do some of the vocals, with Melody A.M. featuring all guest vocalists. At least, on a released album as the live shows from around the time have them on vocoders if I remember right. They do a fine job, perhaps a bit mumbly and difficult to make out in parts but by no means bad, and they would only improve on later releases.

Röyksopp · Dead to the World

And that'll be all for today, the soundcloud set actually includes the 5 bonus tracks from the limited edition which are all great instrumental additions, but I think they can wait for another time, I've mentioned them in the past on here anyway. I have plenty more to write about so I will be back around soon enough, now a lot of the tech troubleshooting is out of the way it should be a little more consistent as well, but I don't think I've been delaying things too much even with that barrier in place. At any rate I'll catch you all again soon and as always: stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Not Quite

So some things are still broken, but I'm making baby steps every time I sit down and take a look at things, it's fast becoming one of those tech troubleshooting tales where it could be one of a million things at hand - compounded further by the fact I inherited this site and really don't know anything about the inner workings AND having to troubleshoot across multiple sites. Still, I'm trying to keep active despite it all. I think I can do this, I just need a hand is all.

Friedensreich Hundertwasser - The Endless Way to You (1967)

So this one is gonna be extra short as a result, here's a selection of troubleshooting tracks I've had on in the background. They're all of a specific type, each one very fitting for scrolling through bug reports, fixes and everything in-between while neurons fire and my eyes glaze over a bit. Starting with a bit from the massive Touched Two compilation, a fittingly hi-tech almost ambient piece - a perfect accompaniment and another high quality offering from the compilation.



Moving back to more familiar faces next with Boards Of Canada. A piece from The Campfire Headphase that I initially wasn't too hot on but have since come around to in time. To paraphrase myself from ages ago: Slow This Bird Down captures a muggy, close night in audio form. On the whole Headphase is not as sinister as Geogaddi, it's been a long time since I listened to it as I completely burned myself out on all things BoC a little while back, but coming back to both this and Tomorrow's Harvest has been a real delight.



And finally some Washed Out. I have mixed feelings about Within & Without - from the artwork down to the songs themselves, it's Washed Out at his most twee 'indie' chillwave style - drenched in reverb and with distant almost mumbled vocals. And yet I can't find myself disliking it. Yeah, the content is a little dated but I've got a lot of love for the formula - I do prefer the version of this track that appeared on the 2010 edition of the Adult Swim Singles Program, I'm not sure if it's the lower bitrate playing tricks but it sounds a little rawer in execution, giving a nice extra lo-fi feeling to everything. A fun record to dig out once in a while, if a bit formulaic, especially if you've come off the heels of the Life Of Leisure EP



And that'll be all for now, a very much cut down post compared to my previous efforts, but once all this mess is sorted out I promise I'll be back to the regular jaunt! I'll be back around soon enough with more but until then - as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Fixed Up(?)

Back again with another test, just got word back from the powers that be that the site should be indexing again. Or at least, I assume so - they added the missing posts to the page at least but didn't really mention any cause or if I needed to do anything more on my end... So the more I think about it the more unsure I am, but then again I am also a chronic over-thinker. At any rate, I figured I'd do a quick one to test that theory and also just keep me otherwise occupied. Truth be told I haven't really been in the mood to write too much, there's been a lot of bullshit going on my end and it's killed any desire I might have had to really sit and write as before - so this one might be a bit short overall!

Peter Phillips - Select-o-Mat Tempest I (1972)

In keeping with the dour mood here's some more Casiotone For The Painfully Alone. These first two albums are perfect for this actually - I adore each short little vignette, and the distortion on tracks like Bus Song and this one is a joy to listen to, there's a beauty to the rawness that I am very much into at the minute. The first couple albums are a little simple (which I can understand being a bit of a deal breaker for some what with the literal preset Casio sounds and all) but if you appreciate the songwriting like I do, give the later CFTPA albums a listen as they branch out in terms of instrumentation. Owen Ashworth, the man behind the project has since retired the CFTPA name, but is still producing music with the same feel under the moniker Advance Base - definitely worth a look if it appeals to you.



I might as well round up the last bit of the Ian O'Brien EP as I've posted the rest of it. Each track is a highlight in its own regard, but the last one is lovely and a fitting end to the EP, a short and sweet ambient piece that brings everything to a nice close. Not quite as hi-tech sounding as the rest of the EP but a gorgeous warm listen nonetheless. It reminds me a lot of the softer parts of Röyksopp's Sophomore LP The Understanding which I haven't revisited in a long time. Perhaps its time to give that one a re-spin.



It's the time of season where I dig out more downtempo stuff in the same vein as the cosy vibes above. I've gone with a bit of a deep cut this time with some Reporter - an act with an incredibly difficult to search name to begin with, but I've also chosen a release that isn't even on Discogs in Seasonal Rhythms. I knew when I saw the cover it'd be very much up my street, and it wasn't long util I was proved right. It is lovely cosy electronic that leans slightly on the IDM side - think again the more ambient bits of The Flashbulb's discography and you're in the right kind of area. I've been hanging onto this release for exactly that reason, it is the perfect soundtrack to the tail end of the year, highly recommended if you're after some comfy electronic.



And that'll be all for today, hopefully we should be back to regular programming from now on, I do plan to do a bit of tinkering over the weekend which may break things further but with any luck at least some of it will work for the time being. Hopefully after that the only limiting factor will be how busy I am IRL! Until next time, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Bug Testing

Hey all, another quick one to iron out some things (and also because I had some free time) - seems the ol' hype machine didn't archive the last post I did so I'm wanting to see if it was a one off or not, it has happened before but normally when I accidentally publish then un-publish a post which I didn't do last time. But enough of the boring technicals, let's have a look!

Alighiero Boetti - Bugs Bunny (1992)

Let's start with one entry I missed from my Friday scoops, a long lost Mitch Murder track that has resurfaced back on Bandcamp. Originally from 2013 from Mitch Directly and re-released on Mad Decent the year after, it is a proper vintage slice of synthwave, to the point where the Discogs page lists it as Electro/Disco as it was before the genre was really coined. Mitch's early sound here is still very much a love letter to the era, complete with fiery synth noodling solos. Perhaps a tad dated now as he's had 10 years to evolve his sound in the interim, but it's still a lovely listen, pop this one on to inject a bit of sunshine into your day.



A game I've slowly been getting worse at is pinning down where the songs playing are currently from - one of the pluses and downsides to shuffling everything is occasionally you get treated to something you'd long forgotten about. Such is the case here with the incredibly hard to google C/C compilation from Ghostlight. After spending some minutes flip flopping between it being some Flying Lotus B-side I couldn't remember or something off one of Nujabes' Hydeout compilations turns out it's one of two tracks I have from Hiroto Kudo, both from the two C/C compilations. I do remember the whole thing having this dreamy ethereal feel - usually staying in a sort of chillwave / downtempo valley with a touch of pop, but Only You is a little heavier than I recalled. Very nice though, one I might have to look into further in future.



It's been a long time since we've heard anything from the Au Revior Simone camp, every so often I'll fall back in with them and ache for more. I absolutely adored Move In Spectrums when it came out, and every so often it'll come out to play and I'll remember why all over again. This time around it's opening track More Than - it's been a while since I really sat and listened to it, the slow build is beautifully done for the album opener, I've been looping the final quarter over and over as of late, the cascade of synths and bombastic drum hits are lovely. It does seem to come to a sudden stop, but if you're listening to it in album format it's not long before you're swept into The Lead Is Galloping



And that'll about do it for now, slightly shorter than I would have liked but I had a small window to write this in (and I interested to see if it's archived as well, so less tracks makes sense). I'll be back soon enough wether it be bugged or not, it's just finding time to do it these days! Until then, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

Retro wRitings

Postponing that planned spacey sequel for a bit, as with many things I've just been a touch scattered and working on other things - the best laid plans of mice & men and all that. I figured I at least owed something to tide y'all over in the meantime, and what started as a quick one/two track post became a little longer. So let's dive in shall we?

Frank Stella - Eccentric Polygons - Effingham (1974)

I've almost become a mirror of my younger self lately, dipping back into the world of emulation and nostalgia fuelled by the content creators I've mentioned in previous posts. Helped along as well by the Retro Achievements website I've been playing old favourites, weird imports and things I missed. That comes in handy from time to time though - case in point here as Kohta Takahashi has released an album on Bandcamp that is a look back at the Ridge Racer Type 4 soundtrack through a modern lens. As with Rom Di Prisco's similar look back at their old work there's a definite charm to it, and fans of the original OST will very much find things to love here. It's not a simple re-tread though, as Takahashi notes on the Bandcamp page this is more about capturing the vibe of Type 4: the whole genre gamut is on show here from the expected House to Dubstep and then back again. Surprising no one given my recent posts, my favourite of the bunch is this could-have-been menu theme.



It ain't all low-poly stuff though, I've also been revisiting Midnight Club 3, which dedicates a large chunk of its soundtrack to Electro, Detroit Techno and Drum & Bass (the latter not really surprising as Moving Shadow and Rockstar have been close since GTA2 back in '99, and they appear again in MC3). The Midnight Club series has serious pedigree when it comes to soundtracks: the theme to the first one was classic Techno/House anthem Strings Of Life. The second game dug deep for its intercontinental USA, French and Japanese settings, treating us to an absolutely choice selection of House and Trance - including some of Thomas Bangalter's solo work!

All of that to say I've been flicking back through my archives and checking out more techno and Drum & Bass. These are usually one of albums or EPs that I note down and then get lost with time, but make for a nice surprise when you find them again, like digging out an old jacket and finding some cash in the pockets. Enter The Silicon Dawn from Dan Curtin. I can't remember how I came across this record in the first place but it doesn't take long to see why it was on my list, from the title and cover art alone I could tell it'd be the kind of record for me. Lovely melodic techno with that sci-fi edge, if your taste is at all similar to mine then a dive into Curtin's work will do you no wrong. Once again surprising no one, I've gone for the track that sounds the most like it could be from Warp's {Artificial Intelligence} Series - It Tastes Like. Absolutely gorgeous stuff.



Now onto the second half of that upper paragraph, as we visit the D&B side of things. you'll be surprised some of the things you can find on Bandcamp! It's gotten to the point now where no matter how obscure the thing I'm looking at is, I'll give a cursory search just in case it's found its way there. Inperspective Records is one such example of that, having most of their backcatalogue available on there. I've noted down some bits and pieces from them over the years, and it's always a nice surprise when I look them up to remember why. In keeping with the theme here, Stature feels again very much like a credits or menu theme! Admittedly not quite as Drum & Bass as the other parts of the EP but you can still hear flecks of it now and then. Check out the A-side Windchime for some more intense breakbeat action, contrasted with some smooth hi tech vibes.



And that'll be all for this fairly quick writeup, we wandered around a bit but I think I kept it mostly on topic (though behind the scenes I have since fallen down several more rabbit holes that may or may not result in posts). That sequel post I mentioned last time is still in the pipeline so keep an eye out for that but until then - as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Right on Time Again

Two for two this year, as not only did I finally manage to post June 9th on June 9th, I've got a couple more apt tracks for today. It is the 7th of August, it is Sunday - which means it is the perfect time to post Sunday (The Day Before My Birthday) from Moby's 18. Perhaps not quite as iconic as Play but I do have a fondness for it, albeit with some criticisms here and there. I'd mention them here but I covered it in great detail in the Retro Review post I did for the album. Going to post both the Soundcloud player and the music video because it is one of those paywalled tracks on Soundcloud.

Moby · Sunday (The Day Before My Birthday)

And just to make up for that as well, I'm going to post the other Moby track titled Sunday - this time it's from the Play B-Sides album, which predictably is a collection of the B-Sides from singles from that album, and there are a lot of them. It's a great companion piece, Play has been a bit overplayed over the years which makes the B-Sides album a refreshing listen, it carries the sound of that era without the baggage of overexposure. Sunday is a little more House styled than you might expect given the content of Play, but it's still a gorgeous listen.

Moby · Sunday

And that'll be all for now, I normally put together a big bumper post for mine and the blog's mutual birthday on the 8th but I'm a little busy so it might have to wait until midweek, though I'll see if I can't make a start later today. I'll be back soon enough either way, and until then, as always - stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Backwards Glance

At the risk of making the last trilogy of posts too wistful, this post is also going to centre on the theme of looking back once again. See, I've been going back to front and republishing the very, very old posts that Jordan was making when the blog was launched - as I mentioned before it's a sort of odd experience, the early blogs are very much that and at points it feels like reading back the diary of a teenage me; complete with... questionable choices in wording, but we were dumb teens and have grown since.

But scattered amongst the dated memes and old school slang is, well, music. The kind that I can distinctly remember downloading at the time, be it from here or one of the other myriad of blogs dealing in Electro House, which was the hot topic of the time. This lengthy intro all to set up the theme of this post, I thought I'd share some of the tracks that have been in my collection the longest (or as close as I can get in some cases).

Unichi Hiratsuka - Cape Kasuga (1930)

Kicking off with Flunk, a relic of a time when I was consuming any and all things I could find labelled 'chillout'. If there was an album that was guaranteed to have my interest it was Flunk's debut: the evocatively titled For Sleepyheads Only, sporting a cover that flawlessly sets the tone. It errs more on the side of trip hop than my other 'chillout' scoops of that era and I think it still holds up really well throughout (though your opinion on the cover of Blue Monday may differ to mine). I've gone with Honey's In Love this time around, lovely downtempo that has echoes of the more conventional parts of the Silent Hill soundtracks (End Of Small Sanctuary specifically, though this album actually came out before it), the instrumentation punctuated by that sparse vocal giving the whole thing a hazy, suitably dreamy feel. Sleepyheads suffers a bit from being one of those albums with a couple of different pressings with different tracklists, it's not too hard to get hold of it legit via Flunk's bandcamp though - they're also still active with an expanded reissue of their second album coming later this year.



Something else that's also come up a lot recently has been my history with the original PlayStation - something I credit with introducing me to more electronic music (though I already had a fascination with it before then, but I've told that tale here before). Clichés aside, the little grey box was chock full of Big Beat, Techno, Trance, Drum & Bass, Breakbeat and just about any other electronic genre that was popular in the 90's. Of course, a lot of that content was licensed, this was around the time budgets were big enough and storage was capable enough to allow that sort of thing - but there were also still original composers for a lot of titles too. Enter Rom Di Prisco, probably one of those most prolific in the field with 20+ years worth of titles under his belt.

My introduction to Rom's work was from the early Need For Speed games, with tracks like Quantum Singularity and Cygnus Rift having me enraptured with the hi-tech atmosphere. I can't post them as the OSTs were only released in the 90's on CD and are probably tied up in some copyright hell vault in EA headquarters. Lucky for me though, Rom would revisit this sound on Spacetime Miscalculation, going so far as to dig out the old hardware to make it on. It's a bit more Trance than the ones I linked above but it still has that heart if the science-y track titles didn't give it away already. I'm a big fan of tracks like Time Dilation, the kind that sound like they could be long lost menu themes.



And finally a bit from Blu Mar Ten's first album. I've talked about it a fair bit in the past, it is another one of those albums I picked up in phase I mentioned where I would get any and everything in the chillout section. It's an odd one, Blu Mar Ten's work before this (and afterwards too!) is definitely more Drum & Bass focused - which would make coming to The Six Million Names Of God a little surprising. A blend of House, Downtempo and pure Ambient in places, it's an album I've had mixed feelings on revisiting, but it's still home to some really nice stuff. The new 're-issue' that BMT put up on Bandcamp has a bonus track and nicer artwork, though I do have a fondness for the new-age styling of the original. The first 10 or so tracks are all great and flow together effortlessly. A very strong first half as well, opening track Home Videos does wonders to set the tone with the simple but effective acoustic loop. My favourites to this day is a toss-up between Drive and I Wake Up. It's been a long time since I posted either, but I'm feeling Drive a little more today, if only because it more perfectly embodies that 00's 'chillout' spirit.



And that'll be all for today, a little longer than I was expecting but its good to stretch the old writing muscles from time to time isn't it? I might disappear back into the archives for a little more republishing as they've not been too difficult as of yet, it's getting to be that time of year where things get a little busy so it may get a little sparse here and there. Still, I'll try and pop by every so often with more tunes - hope you've found something to pique your interest here and of course, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Winter Wishing

Hitting that point of the season where I get pretty sick of it. Me and Summer don't get on, heat makes me super irritable and it's just plain uncomfortable. Figured I also owed you another quick post as I've since realised the Soundcloud players in the last post aren't available worldwide for extra annoyance. So let's take a trip down to the chill side of things, might not be cold in person but at least we can keep it cool on the audio front.

Eyvind Earle - Red Barn and Tree Trunk (1974)

Starting with another entry in the 'let's see what artists I have single tracks of from compilations are up to' - Reporter with a release that's a touch on the obscure side. Reportedly released in 2008 but there's no discogs listing for it, Seasonal Rhythms is perhaps a bit of a digital deep cut, I'm one of only 7 other people who own it. A lovely little EP that hits all of my favourite early 2000s chill notes, from the album art down to the tracks themselves. It didn't take long - from the intro of track 1, the aptly titled Winter Sunlight, I was enamoured. Think of it as a tone setter for this post, its certainly one that I've had kicking around in my head for a little while.



Dipping into ambient territory a little next with another aptly titled release - Whatever The Weather, ambient focused side project of Loraine James. I've not spent a lot of time with this album, I did almost pick it up on my last Bandcamp trip - it's been a while since I got any new ambient stuff and its a genre I have a well documented love for. It takes a brief excursion into Drum & Bass territory on 17°C, but otherwise the whole thing is very lush. I've gone with opening track 25°C, again a perfect mood setter and again an apt title. Fittingly a little bit warmer feeling than the usual ambient that I post, I recommend the full thing if you're looking for more lushness like this.



Something I've been sat on for a little while now, the upcoming Gimmik LP. Since I started following there's been no shortage of new releases coming out of the Gimmik camp - Sonic Poetry being the latest coming later next month. The title track is the only one up for preview at the moment, and it kicks off in suitably IDM fashion, no surprises there if you're at all familiar with his output over the years. Gimmik has always done a great job of hitting the exact balance between the melodic and the glitchy elements that I like when it comes to IDM style works and Sonic Poetry certainly doesn't disappoint on that front.

The waves of melody introduced around the 50 second mark are just lovely, but when they get layered up around 1:20 or so they become divine. Things get a little acidic in the latter half too to keep things fresh, couple that with an extended ambient outro and before long that 6 minute runtime has just melted away. Mark me down as quite excited for the full thing.





Swinging back around to another aptly titled example, a little more from Alucidnation. It's been a long time since I picked up Get Lost and if I'm completely honest I'm not sure why I haven't picked up more in the meantime, it's always been a good time whenever I've returned to it. My usual go-to from the track list is The Message, a firm holder of its place on my 'Coffee Shop Electronic' playlist, but really you can drop the metaphorical needle anywhere on it and have a good time it's a great downtempo record. Enter 15 Below, of the same school as the Whatever The Weather track up top, a cosy number to wrap yourself in for when the cold comes. It does cut off slightly abruptly as it mixes into the next track, but that's all the more reason to check out the whole thing if you like what you hear!



And that'll be all for this time, went a little longer than usual in order to make up for the player issues for those of you not in Europe on the last post. Just proof-reading over a preview now and I really like how all the album art for this one looks, very in keeping with the theme, I'd like to say it was intentional but I also can't complain! Hope you enjoy some of these tunes as much as I do but until next time, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

Summer Somethin'

Finally time to get around to putting this up now that things are warming up for those in the Northern Hemisphere. Some cuts that didn't make it onto the Cosy Collection of last time, spun off into their own thing. A little more eclectic in terms of selection, there were plenty that didn't make it in that I will hang onto for next time - I hope you enjoy the selection. As usual, tracklist in plain text and a full rundown of the selections below: (Both players above are the same, but the picture one doesn't show the tracklist like the compact player so I included both!)







Tracklist:
Maria Yamamoto - Venus to Chiisana Kamisama (Instrumental)
Lina Ohta - Puzzle-Riddle
Boom Bip - Last Walk Around Mirror Lake (Boards Of Canada Remix)
Kensuke Ushio - Flare
Kensuke Ushio - Speed Of Youth
Ghostlight - Fantasy Complex
Susumu Yokota - Nothing Time
Sugar Plant - Simple Dub


Pretty happy with how this one turned out for the most part, some of my intended selections didn't make the cut (Röyksopp and Air to name a few) which was disappointing, but I think I've been guilty in the past of forcing tunes in, so I tried to be a little more loose this time. Kicking off with a semi-obscure but of J-Pop from Maria Yamamoto - this is exactly the type of song I had in mind making this mix and I chose the instrumental to highlight that, Maria's vocal is fine but I just had to let that fantastic instrumentation by Tsuneo Imahori shine, it's just gorgeous. From there we keep things in a similar vein, with Lina Ohta's very brief and only foray into music - it's a similar story here as with the last one - produced by Haruomi Hosono of Yellow Magic Orchestra fame, he has an incredible talent and an incredibly vast discography, his pop productions like this one are always a treat.

Moving more into traditional territory next with the sublime Last Walk Around Mirror Lake Remix from Boards Of Canada. Very much in the Campfire Headphase style, that whole album could easily have made up the entire tracklist here. It was a different spin on the typical nostalgic BoC sound, trading analog weirdness for more acoustic elements (though still very firmly retro in style), but that makes a perfect match for Boom Bip around this time. Wonderful stuff, and one of the best tracks in the BoC archives.

A double feature from Kensuke Ushio next - he's made plenty of appearances in my recent mixy posts, both under his real name and the Agraph alias. I fell in love hard with his stuff a few years ago now, his brand of IDM on the Agraph albums is a lovely balance between the glitchy and melodic that I instantly clicked with - more recently he's been doing a bunch of soundtrack work, and with it exploring whole other genres. From full on synthwave for Devilman Crybaby to his more usual Ambient / IDM for Boogiepop wa Warawanai, I have loved it all. His work for A Silent Voice is no exception, it's a beautiful movie with an equally beautiful OST. I couldn't pick just one so I went with the sparkling duo of Flare and Speed Of Youth - the former showing off the ambient side while the latter gets just a touch of that IDM influence on it. Fantastic works.

Rounding out we have Fantasy Complex from Ghostlight, a tune I was randomly recommended one day, and it wouldn't stop recommeding me it. So I stubbornly gave in one day and gave it a spin. It's very nice, all of Ghostlight's work has this real nice lo-fi feel to it that I don't have a ton of in my library, though I wish I knew what was the content that made the algorithm decide to send them my way. From there we have a little more Susumu Yokota, this time from the Sound Of Sky album that I opened one of my winter mixes with. I've yet to hear the man's full discography - there is a lot of stuff to get through and that's before you look at his many aliases - but even so, Sky is up there as one of my favourite offerings from the man. Chill lounge house tracks like this are the order of the day, so Nothing Time was right at home here.

And finally, Sugar Plant. Another recent love of mine that has been sadly relegated to thse mixes due to them noth being readily avalable on streaming that isn't Spotify. They're sort of difficult to pin down, on paper they are an indie / alternative rock band, but that label feels like sort of a disservice - their works feel quite electronic, sort of like Seefeel in that respect - creating these lovely loops with actual instruments - though Sugar Plant is much more downtempo that Seefeel's droney shoegaze. Highly recommended for fans of the Trip Hop stuff I've posted in the past, they feel very much like Morcheeba to me. I've chosen the Dub version of Simple to play out, it's not massively changed from the orignal, just with lots of lovely dub delay and other elements added for good measure, a fitting finale I thought.

And that'll do for today, pretty fast turnaround on this one, thanks mainly to me having a draft tracklist to hand for a few months now! I'm going to drop by with more Final Bandcamp Friday stuff throgh the week hopefully, but I hope until then you can find plenty in this selection to tide you over - and of course, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Electronic Immersion

I'm batting around ideas for a new mixtape type deal, I settled on a theme pretty early on but it's gotten a little broader with time. Like most of my mixtape experiments it's mainly going to be tracks that I can't find legit streams for, but there are plenty of others that are in the running that might make it, but they also might not. This post is half to help me make my mind up and half to put the tracks out there anyway on the off chance they don't make it. Let's go.

Janet Fish - Five Tall Glasses, Afternoon (1975)
Some Dopplereffekt to start with, fine purveyors of hi-tech electronics for many a year now. The cover for Cellular Automata will likely look a little odd on your screen - the close knit lines of the cover will make Moiré patterns (though on preview it looks like the tiny version of the cover on the Bandcamp embed has lost the effect, head to the main Bandcamp page to see the effect!). As for the record itself, it's more Dopplereffekt - I don't mean that to sound flippant or anything, they've totally honed their sound by this point: cold and clinical electro. To the surprise of no one, the more ambient cuts are my favourites - technological feasts like Ulams Spiral and Exponential Decay. Isotropy probably tops the list though, I knew from the lush sweeping intro that it was going to be - gorgeous stuff.



Bit of a left turn with my next choice, it is one that definitely isn't going to make the cut because I've already used it twice (I think) so far on other tapes. It does inform a lot of the choices I'm making with the sound direction of the upcoming one - I have a deep love for this very specific kind of early 00's electronic, that sort of downtempo style that I used to label 'Coffee Shop Electronic'. The Tusen Takk Rework of Drop is a surprisingly electronic turn from the usually Indie Kings Of Convenience, but then again this is just before Erlend Øye released his first solo effort which was one big collaboration with various electronic musicians so there is probably some cross contamination there. Very much in that Röyksopp vein (again, no surprise there given Øye's collaboration with them on their first album Melody A.M.), Øye's vocal really suits this kind of vibe and I wish he'd explored that electronic sound of his debut album a little bit more.



In keeping with the theme once again, a little bit of short and sweet from Gimmik. One of my more recent finds thanks to a couple of old experimental compilations, Gimmik's stuff is often very lovely - I've picked up a few album's worth but not actually mentioned too much of it. (Back To Basics) was my first proper full length listen and is a greta jumping in point. If, like me, you also enjoy the Aphex Twin sound circa Richard D. James album then this album will very much appeal to you. Really, the whole album is a sort of amalgamation of all things IDM, there are shades of AFX in there, a touch of Flashbub perhaps, and on tunes like L'Appel Des Cors and my choice for today it's much closer to the work μ-Ziq was putting out in the late 90's. I could live in this little microcosm of sound forever, it's very beautiful but fleeting.



And that'll do it for this slightly eclectic selection for today, of the three I'd say that the Gimmik tune is the most likely to appear in this eventual mix if I get around to making it - I have some free time coming up so time will tell. At any rate, I hope you've enjoyed these selections, I'll be back soon enough with more, Bandcamp Friday is looming as well so look forward to that! Until then, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

The Results Are In

It's that time again - here's my BC Friday roundup for March. A slightly weird one this time (but they all are to an extent), no massive diversions like the past though. Slightly disheartened by the announcement they did re: the merger with Epic Games because I think they are a bit of a shitty corporation first and foremost, but also because I worry about corporate intrusion into what was one of the best independent music platforms out there, historically things have a nasty habit of turning sour when acquisition happens. But I'm not going to let that overshadow the post too much, I thought it deserved a mention though. Let's take a look inside my digital bag then shall we?

Hasui Kawase - Tsuchizaki, Akita (1928)

I actually remembered to check my email the day of the Friday this time around, though there weren't as many new release notifications as there have been in previous months, it still highlighted some interesting stuff. Enter LNS - I picked up her entire discography a couple months back and I've been keeping an eye out ever since for more. She dropped a solitary single in Misiats, the title track from the EP of the same name that should be coming out later this year on Counter 99 - though according to LNS herself it was recorded a couple of years ago. If you caught any LNS on my previous posts you sort of know what to expect going into this one, a culmination of her influences - the bandcamp page is tagged with Techno, IDM, Electro and Ambient, each of which you can hear show it's influence throughout parts of this single. It's based around a Ukrainian folk song "Oy, ty misyatsyu / Ой, ти місяцю", I recommend checking out the Bandcamp page as LNS goes into more detail and shares more of her personal experience. All proceeds for this release go to the World Central Kitchen charity.



Other than that, I picked up a ton of Italo Disco records, I've been following the Goody Music bandcamp for a while now - it's a publishing label that's doing great work in not only re-releasing a ton of vintage Italo records but also remastering them too. My favourites have been the ones under the Mr. Disc sublabel - home to stone cold classics such as Charlie's Spacer Woman. It's a real treasure trove of grooves, if you're looking to begin exploring the world yourself, Mr. Disc have helpfully put togetehr a couple of compilations of Obscure Tracks to help you along. They're a great starting point in all honesty, it took me a long time to really branch out into Italo just becuase there is so much of it (and some of it is of questionable quality to boot). Look no further than track 1 of this compilation to set you on the path, a slightly later addition than any previous Italo I've covered, Notte Divina was originally released in 1990, but it's still full of my favourite elements of Italo. Catchy melodies and Piano stabs aplenty in this one, this is an instrumental version of the track which really brings all of that to the forefront too.



I mentioned they do a lot of re-issuing and remastering as well, a lot of times on re-releases they'll also include some more modern mixes in addition to the originals. These mixes are usually pretty good in their own right, they don't re-tool the formula of the original too much or needlessly try to shoehorn it into another genre. A lot of the time it's pretty much the original track with a fresh coat of paint and some subtle switch ups to keep the variety going. Such is the case on the Heritage mix of Dharma's Plastic Doll - given a slightly more House-y feel and extended out a minute longer than the original. It's a nice take on it, I feel like it'd be very easy to go too 'Nu-disco' with these mixes, but each one I've heard so far has been fairly faithful. It's a great thing they're doing with the labels to make these old records more readily available again, the market for some of them on vinyl has been ridiculously inflated so it's nice to be able to get hold of them legitimately in some form, even if it is only digital.



And finally, as promised on my last post - I did in fact get some Rei Harakami and Susumu Yokota. For Harakami I actually went backwards from the one I posted - I've had a partial copy of Opa*q for years that I can't even remember how I picked up but suffice to say it wasn't the best quality, so I figured it was high time to put that right. While my favourite is still [Lust], Opa*q is still a great place to start when it comes to Harakami's work - it's his second album so the sounds are already beginning to get more refined and you can in fact hear bits of what would become his later works on here too. There's plenty of good tracks to choose from, but to perfectly summarise his style, you can do no better than 300ml (Milk).

Dig out your headphones for the intro, it kicks off with a left-right pan of what would become that trademark electronic piano sound - and from there it only goes from strength to strength. A quality piece of that late 90's - early 00's 'downtempo' kind of sound, though a little bit more techy sounding than most examples I've posted of that in the past. Harakami's work is also a little bit more... quirky than that too, these tracks are full of fun, almost circuit bent melodies. If you're like me and really dig the style of tracks like this, and the more downtempo Poof, the immediately set sail for his later works, as that would become the staple of his works.



For Yokota's entry, I decided to go with one of the more Harakami-esque bits from Love Or Die - A Song Produced While Floating Alone On Christmas Day is of that similar school, with a very IDM style melodic streak to it. The intro is absolutely lovely, but in true Yokota fashion, it's not long before some surprisingly heavy kicks come into the mix, evoking his House & Techno roots. Don't let that dissuade you though, when the main melody comes back into the mix around the minute mark it fast made it's way onto my favourites list. A very cozy addition to the slightly eclectic tracklist.

As I mentioned before the Discogs page for this one is very misleading, Yokota explores a ton of genres across the runtime of Love Or Die, from the House of the track in question, to Trip Hop on the final track The Destiny For The Little Bird Trapped Inside A Small Cage For Life, to a whole Drum & Bass styled piece in The Scream Of A Sage Who Lost Freedom And Love Taken For Granted Before. And yet the whole thing still feels very cohesive, on paper it might sound a bit all over the place but in practice that's not the case. Another interesting addition to the man's very expansive release catalogue, one that you'll no doubt hear more about as I continue to work my way through it.



And that'll be all for today, a slightly extended one this time, but it's been a while since I wrote so it was nice to get all stretched out again. I even managed to line up a couple more for next month's Friday as well, with it being a longer month as well it shouldn't be as much of a scramble this time. I've got my eye on a couple of other things that I might cover in the meantime as well so I should be back before long - hope you've found some things to pique your interest here today and as always - stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Picking & Choosing

It's getting to that time of the month where I have to start making some choices for Bandcamp Friday, with Feburary being shorter and all I run the risk of being a bit short. I have some stuff still to check out but I took a flick through my archives to see if there's anything that jumps out - which of course is always a good excuse to share them with you all as well.

George Luks - Hannaford's Cove (1922)

I've been going back to Susumu Yokota recently - Yokota's career was unfortunatley cut short, but you can't say he didn't make the most of the years he was active, Discogs lists 29 albums between 1999 and 2019, and that's not even counting the other releases under his many aliases. It can be a bit of a minefield with Yokota in the best way, over his career he's dabbled in Techno, Ambient, House, Breaks and more over his many releases. You'll find yourself surprised with some of them though - Love Or Die is listed on Discogs as 'Ambient', and while it does dip into that from time to time, there's so much beat action going on here I'd struggle to call it that. But that's getting away from the point - from my quick run through it's a great little slice of downtempo.

Two standouts for you: The Scream Of A Sage Who Lost Freedom And Love Taken For Granted Before is the most uptempo of the bunch, a frantic cut of Drum & Bass amidst the calm of the rest of the tracklist. But the moment I fell in love is track three - The Loneliness Of Anarchic Beauty Achieved By My Ego which for me is the perfect bridge between the more ambient parts of Sakura and his more beat oriented work. Give the whole album a listen if your taste aligns with mine, I'm really enjoying my time with it.



Keeping in similar theme, Rei Harakami, who has a similar tale to tell, albeit with less releases than Yokota. But even so, I'm a very well publicised fan of Harakami's work, I simply adore the delicate sound he nigh perfected by the time [Lust] released. Relatively simple all things considered, that trademark Harakami sound is a Roland SC-88 Pro using the basic Electric Piano sound with a touch of delay, but even so Harakami weaves wonders with it. I've deliberately left a couple of albums of his on the wishlist for a while as a result, it's the kind of music I treat myself to once in a while to both avoid overplaying it all but also to make it all the more sweeter. It doesn't take long for Wasuremono to follow suit, you could drop the needle pretty much anywhere on this record and be immediately immersed in it - Itoguchi showing it off in full force. I will also freely admit that a large reason this one is here is that I love me some pitch bends.



Following the Drum & Bass streak I've mentioned above, I've also been trying to broaden my horizons a bit. I noted down the 'Out Patents' series from Hospital Records well over a decade back at this point, back when I was really into the brand of Liquid Funk stuff they were putting out, but like so many of my noted down 'to check out' things it sort of fell by the wayside. Thanks to their Bandcamp having a fairly exhaustive backcatalogue it's back on the menu, we're taking a trip back 22 years ago to the very first Out Patients compilation - a far cry from the melodic Liquid Funk that you might know them for these days, this compilation is billed as having both 'Jazz Breaks, Future Soul' in addition to the expected Drum & Bass.

The one I"ve chosen from it certainly fits more into that Jazzy Breaks mold, more in line with something like the Moving Shadow Strom From The East compilations I've been revisiting recently. A little 'of the era' in its execution perhaps, but it's a style that I have a fondness for - the kind of tune that would fit right in on a playlist we refer to at work as Coffee Shop Electronic.



And that'll be all for now, I do have some others lined up, but as I've learned from previous months doing this kind of post - it pays to store some cards for later. That and I like how these play out back to back, feels fairly cohesive. Feels fairly long too, but my perception of that is kind of skewed these days now I've gotten into the habit of typing posts on multiple devices, so apologes in advance for any stange formatting choices! But I digress as usual. I'll be back with more of my Bandcamp scoops sometime next week but until then, as always - stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Re-Broadcast

Returning to an old flame of mine with this one - we're talking about one of my all time favourites and one of the more lesser known Warp acts, Broadcast. A unique sound amidst the other Warp clientele, Broadcast's works were a refreshing change of pace for a teenage me, who until then had been strictly listening to only electronic music. Not that I didn't have any non-electronic music, but the things I was finding were so much more interesting, you know? I'd still say it's a good 80-20 split to this day, but Broadcast were one of the acts that started that shift.

It's been a long time since then, and to this day returning to Broadcast is a very cosy experience - I have loved and will continue to love these records, but it has been a while since I've been back to them. I've spent a good part of this week doing one giant revisit, as Warp announced some new Broadcast stuff: some reissues of previously tour-exclusive works and a proper official release of some sessions they did for the BBC. It's the latter that has me the most excited, after the Peel Session they did wasn't included when Warp reissued the other ones from the label recently I thought hope was gone. Naturally, I've had bootleg recordings of the sessions for years already, but I am very interested in hearing proper professional versions of them.

Of note is the track Forget Every Time, never released on any albums or EPs, but it is one of my favourites the group ever did. A perfect demonstration of their sound circa the mid-late 90's, full of swirling synths and underpinned with that distinctive 60's throwback psychedelia that would define their first few albums. Coming back to them now, I've fallen in love with Trish Keenan's lyricism all over again - from the playful wordplay and abstraction of Tender Buttons to the more traditional songwriting of their early work, Keenan has penned some lines that sometimes appear from the ether in my head. So I thought I'd share some of them here today.

Going quite early to begin with - Lights Out from the compilation Work And Non Work, a summary of their first few EPs. This compilation was a companion for me during a pretty strange time in my life, and to be honest could make up the whole post with the lines I could quote from it. Lights Out is a slice of melancholy compared to the rest of the tracklist, one that brings the whole compilation tracks to a suitably mellow end. Trish's lyrics on it are also suitably listless as well, full of intensely relatable lines to late teen like I was at the time. Most obvious of them is the curtain call of the chorus: "I want to watch the car park empty / It's easy when they're strangers to say goodbye", but my favourite one is in the very first stanza: "My room's too small for parties / Too spacious when you're lonely"



It's not all gloomy tough, we're jumping forward to their proper debut on Warp Records from 2000, The Noise Made By People. A strong contender for one of my favourite album covers as well - designed by Julian House who does a fantastic job of capturing the audio experience of Broadcast in visual form. On revisit The Noise Made By People is quite a bit more somber than I remember, but Look Outside sure isn't. The whole album is a very good jumping in point for Broadcast (for this era at least), I'm scrolling through the tracklist now and each one is an integral part of the experience. There is of course some admitted bias on my part there, but if you like the sound of the above and this one, you too will fall in love with this record. My favourite moment from this one remains Trish's delivery of the line "You colour in the everyday, wherever I go"



Let's touch on their later work now with Tender Buttons, named for the Gertrude Stein collection of poems and employing a simialr abstract approach to the lyricism. I think that approach works better when set to music as it lets the abstraction play with the rhythms, which Keenan does to great effect throughout, best seen on the title track Tender Buttons. The album itself marks an interesting development in the Broadcast sound beyond the lyrics though, reduced at this point to a skeleton crew of just James Cargill and Trish Keenan, the album is a much more DIY sounding affair - the electronics taking a much more pronounced role than on previous releases. It can be a bit divisive among the fans but I really like it, the feeback-y bits of tracks like Black Cat and this one here are nice (if a little confusing if your phone is nearby!). There are plenty of lyrical highlights scattered throughout the tracklist, but I want to highlight this line from Corporeal because it has a really nice rhythm to it: "Under the white chalk / Drawn on the blackboard / Under the X-Ray / I'm just a vertabrae".



I've neglected to mention the album between these ones - Haha Sound but rest assured I could easily pop it on here among plenty of other examples as well, honourable mentions to Inside the mask, another disguise / I fall to sleep before closing my eyes" from Valerie. But I'm going to put a pin in it for now as I've gone a little long - and I will probably be revisiting this theme once again once the aforementioned 'new' Broadcast stuff comes out. I adore Broadcast, and the passage of time has done little to dull that shine. Very happy to see new material officially coming out as well, James Cargill has mentioned in the past that there is a fair amount of unreleased work they have, and he semi-frequently posts bits and pieces to the web as well.

We'll take this trip again closer to the release of those goodies in a month or so, but until then - as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Staying Frosty - Another Winter Mixtape

Miwa Ogasawara - Kosmos (2010)

Another year, another time where I put together a little something to sort of cap things off. I do normally end up doing another post or two after but I always like to make one of these both as a creative exercise and just out of tradition at this point. This year's winter roundup is a selection of tunes I've loved, discovered or re-discovered over the last year or so - while not as traditionally 'wintery' as the last couple have been, I think it still has a little of that spirit running through it. Part of the reason I started doing these little tapes was to actually get around to putting up songs I love that might not be readily available on your conventional streaming platforms and while there are more that a few of them this year, I've managed to squeeze a little more readily available ones in there too! I was also pleasantly surprised to see Blu Mar Ten digitally re-issue the album that I Wake Up is from - The Six Million Names Of God - an interesting curio of early 2000's 'chillout' records that I think I may have covered on here before, it has some really nice tunes on it.

But we're getting a little off topic there - as is always the case with these little mixtape dealies, I did have a plan for what tracks I was going to use - but that quickly went out the window when I started laying things down. I still managed to get a few choice cuts in there regardless, but there are plenty of choices made on-the-fly too! Overall, I'm pretty happy with it, I will be the first to admit I ain't the best mixer in the world, doubly so when jumping between genres so frequently like I have here. Having said that I don't think it's too bad, and with the sheer variety I have on show it was never gonna be perfect so... Full tracklist and my usual track-by-track breakdown below!



Tracklist:
Yoko Kanno - Hanna
Röyksopp - You Don't Have A Clue
Kensuke Ushio - Trace Of Twilight
Peak Divide - Homework Salad By Night
Masafumi Takada - So That The Forms Of Heavenly Maidens Linger Before Me Yet More
Sugar Plant - Simple
Blu Mar Ten - I Wake Up
Moby - Whispering Wind
Akira Yamaoka - Witchcraft
Boards Of Canada - Turquoise Hexagon Sun
Hiroshi Yoshimura - View From My Window
Moderat - This Time

Fully embracing my soundtrack side to start off with, Yoko Kanno's Iceland-influenced soundtrack to Terror In Resonance leading things. Perhaps not strictly 'electronic' to begin with, but I absolutely adore the little glitchy parts in the mid section, and making good on that Icelandic influence, the whole thing builds to a brilliant post-rock style crescendo. Röyksopp follow - another one of my all time favourites. I did almost use Sparks again as it is for me the nigh perfect summary of the style I'm going for with these tapes - but instead I went with a bit from Junior. Featuring the same vocalist from Sparks, Anelli Drecker, it felt like the next best thing. While an intentionally much poppier record than their previous, fans of their style of downtempo will still find a lot to love on Junior, case in point with You Don't Have A Clue.

Back in soundtrack territory for a double feature - first with a gorgeous almost ambient piece from the 2019 Boogiepop wa Warawanai. It was pretty tricky to not go full ambient with the whole thing in all honesty, especially with Kensuke Ushio's OST work all carrying this same super smooth sound. Between this and his solo work under the Agraph alias, he has fast become one of my favourites of recent times - as evidenced by his inclusion on my last couple of mixtape-likessss. It's not around for long before we take a slow dive into lo-fi town - I've been playing a lot of Unbeatable as of late, a game with a totally enthralling visual style that is utterly drenched in nostalgia, and the soundtrack does a downright perfect job of complimenting that aesthetic, aping bands like The Pillows to great effect. Not totally electronic, but it does stray into that side from time to time, be it the Avalanches style sampling of Proper Rhythm and the mandatory lo-fi hip hop joint I chose in Homework Salad By Night.

From there it's a case of digital crate digging. How do you follow up a lo-fi tune without getting stuck in a rut? Why, a bit from the soundtrack to the videogame tie-in for Samurai Champloo of course - with a slight techy feel, it opened up a lot of choices for the next entry. I ended up going with Sugar Plant, a band that is sort of shoegaze, but in a downtempo kind of way. I fell in love with them hard over the summer, their repeating grooves are really easy to slip into and a joy to listen to, and make the time just melt away - I used the full 6 minutes of the tune for just that reason. Simple actually reminds me a fair bit of some tuff from Morcheeba, look them up if you dig Sugar Plant.

I already talked about Blu Mar Ten in the opening paragraph so let's skip over to the next entry from Moby. I went for a deeper cut this time on purpose, initially planning on it being the 'Slow Synth' version of We Are All Made Of Stars but ended up going with Whispering Wind - originally a B-Side for the Natural Blues single. A hefty dose of my bias for treated vocals is part of that decision or sure, but the whole B-Side album is a nice complimentary piece to Play, partly because the tracks on there haven't been played to death like the main album.

From there we round out with a bit more Silent Hill stuff from Akira Yamaoka. I knew I was going to use something from them but hadn't quite narrowed it down, I wasn't expecting to end up going with one of the later ones from Homecoming in all honesty, but I knew it was perfect when it came on. Yamaoka's ambient and trip hop stuff is gorgeous, and Witchcraft, while a little softer than some of his other works just hit perfectly at that time. From there we get some Boards Of Canada, can you believe I've never used them in one of these tapes before? I would normally have gone for an ambient piece but what better compliment to Yamaoka's work than the more beat heavy bits of Music Has The Right To Children? (Though Turquoise Hexagon Sun actually originally appeared on the Hi Scores EP!)

Rounding out the selections we have a real odd couple - first we dive headlong into ambient with a bit from Hiroshi Yoshimura's iconic Music For Nine Post Cards, beautifully delicate, View From My Window was one of the tracks I knew I was going to use from the start, I was just waiting for the right moment. To be completely honest I was ready to call it there, it's a great send off piece. But I was inspired by the 'moods' that Spotify had applied to me in their year end wrap up: Wistful and Euphoric, so to fit that brief I put Moderat's This Time on the end. It's been a long time since I really listened to Moderat's second album and I had forgotten how powerful this one was. Wonderful stuff and a apt capstone to this whirlwind tour of the last year or so. Covered a lot of ground and yet there were so many that didn't quite make it in, but then there's always next year I suppose!

I hope the tail end of the year is treating you all well, I know that writing here has been a little slice of consistency in a world gone mental - and hopefully reading has for you too. Tune in to this one for just under an hour of calm - and as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF