Just missed

Jack Youngerman - Black/Red (1962)

Prepping to write out a big rundown of my Bandcamp Friday scoops, thought it best to do a quick 'honourable mentions' that didn't quite make it this time around - I've found it serves as a pretty good reminder come next time plus it's plain fun to talk about those almost records, let's have a look. First is some Machine Girl, with some bootleg mixes of cuts from the Jet Set Radio soundtracks. Between the track titles, the art and the description over on Bandcamp it can come across as a little obnoxious - this is the duo leaning heavy into their 'web-core' aesthetic. My favourite mix of the bunch is the one of Electric Toothbrush, which was already a favourite of mine from the OST anyway, this version given a Juked up makeover. Part of why I think it's the best mix of the bunch is it feels the most seamlessly intertwined, Electric Toothbrush isn't as sample based as the other tracks they chose to rework, iconic though they are.



I've been trying to take deeper dives into my Wishlist, one of the pitfalls of it is I usually end up scooping a release or two from the top so some things inevitably sink to the bottom. Way down there is a bunch of Misstress Barbara stuff, from her poppier album work to the proper full on House stuff. I have been finding some of it a little hit and miss, but there are moments that take me back to the tracks that put her on my radar to begin with. Talk To Me being a primo example, incredibly hypnotic and endlessly catchy, it's exactly the type of track I would come across in the early days of my electronic exploration, tucked away in some bootleg DJ mix without a tracklist. Misstress Barbara has recently overhauled her BC page and is still dropping new releases to boot - with older EPs like this one going for a lowly $2 Canadian, it won't be long before I grab a couple next time I stock up.



And finally, Gimmik. This one stings a little as I've *almost* copped this album about 3 times now, but I always end up putting it down again. Part of the reason it pains me is all I've heard from it has been great, all of Gimmk's work is the kind of IDM that is almost tailor made for me, very much in the same kind of vein as the work he was doing on Toytronic in the early 00's which first put him in my collection. The title track was the one used in the teaser trailer for the album and it is a damn near perfect example of what I just mentioned - I simply adore the sound on show here. That intro is deliciously techy in that slightly off kilter way, but the real star of the show for me is that sweeping melody introduced at around 50 seconds or so, it adds this whole layer of electronic emotion to things that I just cannot get enough of. By the time the big swell at 1:23 came around I was already grinning ear-to-ear. Simply wonderful stuff. If this is your preferred kind of IDM as well I would highly recommend other Gimmik releases, with my personal suggestion being (Back To Basics).



And that'll be all for this super quick tour of what might have been, I'm going to try and find time to do my Bandcamp scoops sometime soon, I figure I might split it out into smaller posts like this in order to make it easier to write (and potentially more focused too, I know there's at least one record I picked up I want to spend a fair bit of time talking about). Until then, I hope you've found something to enjoy here and 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.

Getting 'round to it

Hey again, I'm back again with the first of hopefully a few instalments this week. This one has been baking for a while - I've been making note of specific tracks that I'd like to talk about but don't necessarily fit in with whatever I have writing at that moment. What I do is wait for a fair few of them to pile up and then put them all together in an odds & ends post like this. Despite the method behind the madness, these ones are actually fairly cohesive in terms of sound as you'll see - let's have a look!

Neil Welliver - Night Scene (1982)

Starting with a deep dive into the Warp archives here with a little compilation called The Theory Of Evolution. A little backstory first though: In the early days of working from home I went on a deep dive of interviews and such to have on in the background, one of them I ended up putting on was of Warp co-founder Steve Beckett at the Red Bull Music Academy. It's a very interesting talk in general but there was one bit that caught my ear: Steve's response to any signings that they missed out on. He calls on Mark Pritchard (who is conveniently in the crowd, and also would eventually end up on Warp anyway), saying that his first album as Reload - A Collection Of Short Stories should have been part of the Artificial Intelligence series.

Which is true, the album is very much of the same kind of philosophy behind that series after all - some tracks from it would appear on this compilation a couple of years later. The compilation itself is a bit of a mixed bag in all honesty, but this has gotten long enough already so I'll save it for another post. The real highlight of the bunch is the Chameleon remix of Amazon Amenity, a delicious slice of Drum & Bass in the middle of the tracklist. Not quite the same as the Artificial Intelligence stuff, but not a million miles away in terms of the theory behind it.



Next, we revisit The Flashbulb for the first time in ages. I feel like I bring up Flashbulb a lot, but it's normally as a point of comparison with other artists (which to be fair, is very useful due to the sheer variety over the Flashbulb discography) - so its high time I saw to make that right. I've gone with track 2 from Love As A Dark Hallway, which rather interestingly on Bandcamp has different album art for each track which is nice. This one blindsided me about a week or so ago after coming up on shuffle, I live for those moments when a song comes back into your life after a long absence and it's almost as sweet as the first time, such is the case with Pastorial Whiskers. It is lovely - to reverse the record and play comparisons for The Flashbulb, there's streaks of μ-Ziq here, but by far and away the closest comparison I could make is the kind of stuff Squarepusher was making for Hello Everything, there's also plenty of Squarepusher-esque Bass work on this one too if the album art didn't tip you off. Lovely stuff.



And finally, something new. I haven't been up to date on new releases for a long long time now, but thanks to the magic of Bandcamp I have a better handle on it than before! Gimmik has been a bit of a mainstay recently after finding his and other former Toytronic artists on Bandcamp, really it's just nice to see people still making my favourite style of IDM into the modern era. Omicron Acid, as the name might suggest, sounds like a bit of a departure at first listen (and not particularly Acid either). Stick with it though, and around a minute in some lovely spacey touches emerge to counterpoint the punchy kicks. The Acid doesn't really show up until 2:50 but it doesn't disappoint, I'll never complain about a swift delivery of 50ccs of 303, doubly so when it is mixed with the hi-tech lushness that is everything else. It is my favourite of the two versions available, which is curiously listed as 'name your price' on Bandcamp, so you could theoretically get it for free (at least as of the time of writing)



And that'll be all for today, as I mentioned up top I do have a couple of other posts planned for this week - another like this one and hopefully finishing up a quite long one that's been sat on the back-burner for far too long. Based on my thoughts about the Evolution compilation it might be time to revive the Retro Reviews as well. But I stray from the point, not a bad start for this week, I hope you like each of these selections as much as I do and until next time - 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

Situational Report

Stuart Davis - New York Waterfront (1938)

Back with a slightly delayed update on Bandcamp Friday pickings up - but if the trains can get away with it then so can I. Not much different to report really, I did end up with pretty much everything that I posted about on the day but with a couple extras but I thought I'd give a little rundown anyway. Let's get stuck in.

Some more Zamilska this time, I did mention in passing last time that it was part of my listening but didn't end up posting any. My definition form last time rings true - Zamilska is an absolute master of her distinct brand of incredibly atmospheric techno - heavy and claustrophobic, usually makes for an intense listen. I've been absolutley addicted to Back lately, cut from the same sort of cloth as Moderat's first album which I've been revisiting as of late. This is the kind of track that is screaming out to be used as an introduction to to a set or mixtape, the steady build and eventual payoff of that lurking melody in the background is absolutely brilliant. A lumbering beast that takes a while to get going, but once it does, it's a perfect example of Zamilska's output.



Another cut from the MSRG EP I picked up as well, one that I only ended up with on my radar to a label email. I've been devouring a whole load of Electro this year and the Afterwork Programming EP was a fine addition to that roster. Fairly short at only 4 tracks, I knew early on that I was going to pick this one up. Following on from the spacey hi-tech of the opening track Dancing Data (that I have a well documented weakness for) we have Keep On Wshn - by contrast a pretty upbeat piece, certainly the fastest Electro track I've picked up as of late, if not the fastest in my entire collection. Reminding me a little of some of the bits on International Deejay Gigolo Records compilations from back in the day actually now I think about it, it has that same kind of MO to the sound. I do love the frantic nature of it, but I must admit the real moment of love happened at about 1:12 when those lush flourishes begin to appear in the mix, they stick around for the rest of the tune thankfully because I can't get enough of them.



And finally a little bit more from Gimmik to round out. Polar opposite of the previous tunes, this one is a much more standard downtempo IDM style affair, this one actually reminds me quite a lot of The Flashbulb's Soundtrack To A Vacant Life in style, both in use field recordings and just generally. Small echoes of Casino Versus Japan's Go Hawaii too, come to think of it. As mentioned last time, Gimmik's work in that early 00's IDM world really shows here, tracks like this would be right at home being released around that time, the majority of this album is very accessible with no proper beat mangling going on but I think All Around The Lake might be the most accessible of the whole bunch - I have a real fondness for them anyway, doubly so at this time of year where I get a little more downtempo than usual. After giving this one a few spins I actually felt a little inspired and jotted down some potential ideas for another of my annual winter time mixtapes, I haven't actually started it yet but stay tuned for that in the near future!



And that'll be all for this time, I'll have to get my head down and get to work on fleshing out that mixtape, surprisingly busier than I remember this time of year but I guess that's to be expected compared to last year. But anyway, I hope you've enjoyed the selections on show here, even if a couple of them are technically repeats! Until next time, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Last minute checks

Laura Knight - Sundown (1947)

Oh boy it's that time of the month again where Bandcamp Friday has done sneaked up on me again. I've actually been pretty good about it last couple of times so I can't really complain too much - it is my fault this time. With a return to tradition, let's all gather 'round the fireside as I try and find some choice selections from my ever growing wish-list that catch my ear (and hopefully, yours as well).

Kicking off with more from Soichi Terada and his new upcoming LP Asakusa Light. I'd wish-listed it before I even listened to any of it because Terada is among my favourite makers ever since I heard the original Ape Escape OST as a wee one. This album sees him return to House once again rather than the Drum & Bass that introduced me to him - but the man has a long history with the genre and he's damn good at it too. Enter the newest preview track to drop: Double Spire - I was pretty impressed with the last one, Bamboo Fighter and figured I'd take a look at it again, and let me tell you that Terada did not disappoint. Right from the get go, he launches a surgical strike on the deep house loving parts of my brain with a simply gorgeous, luscious pads - and then not content with just that, some swiftly applied pitch bends are there to win me over completely. Garnish with some deliciously retro piano stabs and it only goes from strength to strength. The whole thing isn't out until the 12th of December so I might not pick it up this time around, but if the rest of the LP is of this standard then I may have to do a full-on in-depth dive into it on release. Simply wonderful.



Other than that, I've been keeping up with the trend of the last few months where I've been picking up smatterings of Electro in the old school style. I've mentioned a few of them in passing already, but a new one this time is more from Versalife with the finale of the Night Time Activities series. After loving the first one I listened to the second entry and was kinda lukewarm on it, but there may be time yet for it to grow. Still, didn't want to write off the rest of it without giving it a go, so I put part 3 on just for completions sake - and I'm enjoying it much more than the predecessor, the opening track is right up my alley. Billed on the Bandcamp page as "Dark, sinister and intense!", the first track is anything but: very much of that sleek hi-tech school of sound that you might hear from the one The Other People Place album for example. I think spacing my electro stuff out like this has been a great idea, it can get a bit same-y at times just due to the nature of the genre - but much like my love for that particular brand of early 90's ambient techno stuff, I love to immerse myself in this kind of sound every once in a while.



Other than that, it's been a whirlwind of jumping down my list and sampling bits of it here and there, from the claustraphobic glitch techno of Zamilska to reissues vintage Japanese Ambient records and back again. It's very easy to burn yourself out doing this, I know as I have done it many times over the last year or so and even came close this time.

But to the surprise of no one, I ended up back in IDM territory - I have had a well documented long love affair with the genre (and a hatred of the name). I've added plenty of artists to my wishlist from various early 00's compilations I've gathered over the years and a fair few of them are still active! Martin Haidinger is one of them, with an impressive list of credentials: one half of Abfarht Hinwil and founder of Toytronic Records, the source for a lot of those compilations I mentioned. Back in April he released a new album under the Gimmik alias, Cloudwalker - I posted a track from it back when there was only one available for preview but this was my first time with the whole thing.

I wasn't dissapointed, the track that was up for preview way back when, Carters Final Transmission is very much in my favourite style of IDM - balanced glitchiness with these crisp and flowing synth accompaniment that has an edge of melancholy to it. I've been a little lukewarm on some of Gimmik's past releases but I'm very into this one so far, it sounds very much like the stuff from those early 00's compialtions I was talking about which as I already mentioned isn't a downside to me at all, I will always and forver love this style. Carters Final Transmission might still be my favourite of the bunch, but I've picked out opening track Short Wave Memories to highlight for now as it's probably the most evocative of that old style I mentioned - there's lots of lovely squelchy synths and catchy melodies scattered throughout if you're as big a fan as me. Keep an eye out for more pieces from this one in the near future.



And that'll do it for now - I've got some other things lined up to pick up but I'll figure I'll do a follow up post to this one as it might change a bit between now and then. Not sure if Bandcamp Firdays will continue into the new year, the line from BC themselves just said "Will continue for the rest of 2021", it'll be a shame if they stop but I do understand, they are a company after all, waiving your profits once a month probably isn't ideal. Even if they do stop, I'm thankful that I was personally able to support so many artists that I love and make plenty of new discoveries along the way as well - and I hope you have too! On that note, I'll wrap up here - As always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Reminders

No Bandcamp Friday this month, but there is a Juneteenth even in its place. Seems like there isn't one for July either so it's given me a chance to review my wishlist and do a bit of trimming. That's not what this post is about though, here I'm just going to talk about some things I have lined up to get!

Art from Plantasia's liner notes

It's a little bit of a mixed bag this time, with some last minute additions and some that I'm not going to talk about b/c I've already posted about them. To start off we have something that I'd completely forgotten was on Bandcamp at all until recently and something that I have been meaning to scoop up for a while. A little something from early Synth experimenter Mort Garson - for a long time the work of these early synthesiser experimenters has been a little hard to come by, a similar thing happened to Wendy Carlos' output as well.

Though Garson's work enjoyed a little bump in popularity after being used by the McElroys as the intro music to season 1 of The Adventure Zone, not sure how much of a factor that had on these reissues but like I always say: the more eyes on electronic music the better. Plantasia from 1976 is a lovely album, though very of the era in parts - I was going to pick Swingin' Spathiphyllums to post which illustrates this pretty well, but I still love it dearly and completely un-ironically regardless. Instead I went with the opening Plantasia instead as I think it gives a better idea of the album as a whole and really lets Garson flex his composing skills. An intro full of delicate synths soon gives way to some bombastic brassy tones that are evocative as ever. It's a piece very reminiscent of the synthpop / new age stuff from Kraftwerk and Jean Michel Jarre in my Dad's collection that I was fascinated with as a child and pretty much sent me on my electronic music journey.



Moving into more conventional territory now with a surprise drop from The Knife. A simple one track EP that's a studio version of Pass This On as played on the Silent Shout tour in 2006 that like the name suggests was only included on a 7" version of the EP. Like Carpenter Brut's Maniac I'd just assumed that it'd never see a studio version come out, not unless I wanted a vinyl rip from someone on the net who had the EP with it on so this was a nice surprise indeed. I absolutely adore and have played to death the live album that has the actual recording of this on it, so hearing it free of crowd noise and the atmospheric reverb of the venue the recording was done in is pretty trippy but a welcome addition, especially for the low low price of 8 Swedish Krona that they're asking for it - that's 12 cents in USD! It's a a complete flip of the original, swapping the upbeat synthpop for a more menacing pulsating feel that's brings it more in line with the stuff on Silent Shout - though the steel pan from the original is still there!



Similar to Garson, I had a bit of confusion with Gimmik - he's putting stuff out on the label n5MD at the minute and that label has their own bandcamp, typically these are linked back to the artist even acorss multiple labels, that's how I've seen it work on DMX Krew's at least. But it turns out after a couple of months of following I didn't even realise Gimmik has his own BC page with most of his releases on there, though to confuse things further it also includes the new stuff from n5MD too. Regardless, I'm glad to have found it - I fell in love with Gimmik's work off the heels of a couple of compilations I picked up from a now defunct label called Toytronic and I really gravitated towards the style of IDM he was working with there, nice and melodic and not too harsh, the kind of techy groove that's more accessible than your snare rushes.

I can't stop listening to Back To Basics in particular, the title pretty much nails it - this is back to basics IDM. It's not quite as out and out old school as the proper early 90's Warp stuff, but it definitely wears the inspiration from those releases on it's sleeve. I knew from that gorgeous swooping synth of the opening I was going to have a good time here, it's again another one of those tracks that almost feels like it was designed to cater 100% to me. The whole album is similar too, nicely riding that line between the full on IDM world and these lush melodic pieces that have a technological streak to them. It's one that I definitely recommend picking up if you're at all into the genre, and one that's made it's way onto my list of recommends for newcomers to the genre or those looking for something a little more softer in the IDM world.



And that'll do it for this slightly eclectic edition of this month's roundup, I think Plantasia might be one of the oldest tracks I've ever posted here for starters! I hope that you find something here that really appeals to you, honourable mention to the one album that didn't make the list this time: Perturbator's Lustful Sacrements, which sees the Synthwave vet take a more Industrial turn. There's nothing wrong with it, I just haven't spent enough time with it yet - it may make an appearance in the near future yet.

And as always: Stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

New, Old and back again

Ozdemir Atlan - Reality (1974)

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

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



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

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



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

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



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

-CVF