Ilictronix Podcast: Digital Crate Diggin'

Claude and Adam play and discuss their favourite songs of the week. Claude tells the story of one of his rarest tracks. Adam learns about Freestyle and UK Hard House.

Tracklist and notes follow as per usual.

Tracklist:
Intro:
Rhingo - Without Your Love (Dub)

Claude’s picks:
Blu Mar Ten - I Wake Up
Röyksopp - Sparks (Live)
Repeat - Studio 6.1.22
Alpinestars - Brotherhood
Golden Boy With Miss Kittin - Rippin Kittin (Alexander Polzin Mix)


Adam’s Picks
Jitterbug - Dream Memory
Sidney Charles - House Lesson
Ossie - We Mad
Shinichiro Yokota - Do It Again
Brame And Klansee - They’ll Be

Outro:
Projections - Escaping Sao Paulo


Show Notes:
Miss Kittin's archive of the Alexander Polzin mix is here, I'd reccomend her playlist section to all artists as a 'how-to' when it comes to archiving your work!

The remix of Shinichiro Yokota's Do It Again that Adam mentions is the Fabio Monsei Remix, which you can listen to here, it appears on this EP called The Far East Transcripts by Soichi Terada and Shinichiro Yokota

ANd once again for this week, the list that Adam linked me to a big list of tunes this guy on discogs hates, including a huge teardown of Stardust (and various other cult and other big electronic tunes) you can find here. It's the complete opposite of how I try approach criticism but if you need your daily dose of vitriol it's an interesting read, if some iffy reasoning for some of the entries.

And with that, we are done for another week of Podcasting! Me and Adam will be back with more same time same channel next week. As always, stay safe and enjoy the music. We'll leave the light on for ya.

-Claude Van Foxbat

Post-Erity

Joaquín Sorolla - Girl With Flowers

Starting this week's selections off with an archival success story. You may remember a loooong time ago I mentioned a fairly obscure remix of on of my favourite tunes ever, Rippin Kittin by Alexander Polzin.At the time I praised Miss Kittin for having it available to stream along with most of her discography (and even tunes she only did vocals for). The link to buy the Golden Boy stuff was long since dead, but having it on soundcloud was better than nothing, especially considering I couldn't find this remix to buy anywhere, or even on YouTube or the like. I still grabbed a copy of it anyway, call it paranoia I've seen stuff disappear from soundcloud before and it's a real shame. Well it seems that my paranoia's paid off once again, I swung by Kittin's soundcloud only to find that the entire Golden Boy playlists she had had been wiped clean, along with a few others. Logic would say that they're in some kind of copyright hell, or best case about to be re-pressed and re-released. It's still a downer though but thankfully in the meantime I've got the version I swiped to keep me company, it's a fantastically sedate version of Rippin Kittin, turning it from an electroclash anthem to something a little more reflective.



Keeping it on the downtempo side of things for now, with yet another entry from one of my favourite soundtrack crafters Yoko Kanno. A far cry from the electronic infused, Björk inspired tracks she made for the Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex soundtracks, the tunes that appear on the Zankyou no Terror Original Soundtrack keep it fairly acoustic, though there's connections to Iceland in both the show and soundtrack (the lyrics to Von being in Icelandic, Director Shinichirō Watanabe actually citing Sigur Rós as an inspiration and the soundtrack was even recorded there). ís is probably the most famous piece form the soundtrack, it's used within the show to breathtaking effect and I knew I had to have it in my collection. It scratches an itch the same way that Washed Out's Life Of Leisure EP did when I first listened to that, and one that I didn't even know I still had.



The new post schedule means that I missed quite the anniversary around 2 weeks or so ago now: Boards Of Canada's Music Has The Right To Children turned 20, having been released late April 1998. I don't have to to explain to those of you that have been with us a long time how important both this album and Boards Of Canada's work as a whole is to me, I wrote a multiple year long exploration of Warp's releases after all. To the rest of you who might not be as familiar, Music Has The Right To Children is an excellent dropping in point to the world of BoC, it's an essential addition to anyone's collection with a taste for downtempo and ambient. The gelling together of gorgeous retro synth work with slightly off kilter and surreal samples, all backed by almost trip-hop style beats is the synonymous Boards Of Canada sound, and they're on top form throughout Music Has.... Here's my favourite ambien interlude off the album, the short but sweet Olson, which a friend of mine described as "The musical version of a warm hug".



-Claude Van Foxbat

It Must Be Tuesday

Slightly off kilter schedule has been corrected, just one day out of the usual sched now! But as I said last time I found some time to dedicate to a full post, so here we go. Words and tunes as usual in a sec.

Peter Blake - Tuesday (1961)

As you've probably come to expect by now, a lot of chill things going on this time. Fell back in with Golden Boy's one and only debut LP again, an in between all the pop meets electroclash and house stuff on there is this. Even though I can't jive with minimal a good 80% of the time, I'll be damned if this track isn't absolutely gorgeous once in a while.



I'm massively behind on all things Tellier too which is an absolute shame because I love most of the man's backcatalogue. Here's a surpisingly loungy number from Politics, a far cry from the sexy time electronics of Sexuality that came after.



Anneli Drecker has also been standing in as my muse for the past couple days. Ever since hearing her on Röyksopp's Sparks all those years ago I've been a fan, this week her live version of Sparks and this from Junior have been doing it for me. Not to discount the 'sopp boys' production either, which is also top notch here.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Diggin Kittin

One thing I love about Miss Kittin other than her productions is how she's been real good about archiving pretty much every track she's produced, been featured on or otherwise. I've stopped going through it as much because I always fall in love with some obscure vinyl track from 2000 which is impossible to get a hold of but I couldn't help myself this time. Alexander Polzin gives the already pretty downtempo Rippin Kittin some minimal ambient tratment, and I adore it.



And just because I'm really feeling the early 2000's nostalgia I get from the song itself, here's the original in all it's existential electroclash glory. It actually sounds a little different from my copy but knowing Kittin it could be a vinyl rip, and it's from the original pressing with the cherries on the cover art. (2020 edit, not on Kittin's soundcloud anymore, swapping to Bandcamp)



Recently she teased a upcoming release of some previously unheard Kittin + Hacker tunes. They're only short previews but I am hype for the actual release, interesting to see how both Kittin and Hacker have evolved over time in both production and delivery areas. That and I'm a sucker for more techno-style early electroclash, and I'm totally in love with that chorus tease at the end.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Morning After

Went out again didn't I, and had some time to reflect back on things on my stroll through town. Have a mixed bag of some post-night out musical accompaniment courtesy of me.

Edward Hopper - Summer Interior

More Sneaker Pimps remixes, and another example of a mix I like more than the original from Becoming X. Fold injects Roll On with a much more sinister trip hop vibe than the original, no doubt helped by Kelli Dayton being on point as usual.



Golden Boy's only full length is still pretty special, the collab between him and Kittin is a bit of a rarity, but is a mainstay in my library because I never tire of it. Here's a real sedate minimal-y number from near the end of the LP, it's grown on me with time for sure.



And finally Skream with a standout piece of dubstep from the early days of the scene. His debut album; Skream! is chock full of classics, but as the sun started to catch up with me there was only one song that fit. Still one of the finest instrumentals out there, got an awesome vibe that is almost unmatched.



-Claude Van Foxbat

The Kittin Connection

Unichi Hiratsuka - Girl (1930)

Looking over my previous posts I realised I'd neglected one of my favourite tracks of all time! The Salt City Orchestra remix of Marshall Jefferson's Mushrooms is brilliant start to end and is arguably better than the original. Turns out I only posted the cut down version from Miss Kittin's Radio Caroline compilation. Well in that case here's the full length for you to enjoy!



And while I was there I realised I haven't dished up much of Kittin's solo work. She's only got three albums to her name but they're all consistently quality; like she said herself on the CD of her debut "I was sick of there being more 'Featuring Miss Kittin' records than Miss Kittin records".



That's not to discount her efforts with The Hacker mind, their first album remains a cult classic, featuring electroclash anthem Frank Sinatra. While the follow up Two might not have had the same impact or the rough feel of the first, it's still got killer examples of what happens when Kittin and Hacker collide. Look 'em up sometime.



And finally, the track that put Kittin on my radar in the first place when it hit the UK Dance charts sometime in 2002. After all these years I still love it, her lyrical delivery and the instrumentation just merge in the most perfect way. If you can track it down, the Or album is a real gem of the era.



-Claude Van Foxbat

AT / AA 77

Patrick Nagel - 1338

For a couple years now I have been looking for a record or artist with a similar sound to the instrumentals from Golden Boy's only album. The closest I've come is some of the stuff on International Deejay Gigolo records, but even then I come back to the Golden Boy LP and I'm in love again. If anyone knows any records similar to or in this style please, please get in touch and let me know!

From The Vault

I got some pretty rare stuff in my collection, Nothing super amazing, just some records that people forgot. Here's one of my favourites, Golden Boy's debut (and only) album featuring Miss Kittin: Or. You might remember it for the single "Rippin Kittin" which was quite popular. I was turned onto this release from Felix Da Housecat's Kittenz & Thee Glitz, another electroclash album featuring Miss Kittin. I had a torrented copy of Or for a long while (imports are expensive) but sure enough one day, I found it for sale in jolly old England and promptly snapped it up. No other record sounds quite like it, not even it's close cousin by Felix, it's like French House smashed into some Neo-Bubblegum Pop and picked up some Kraftwerk on the way. That was an awful analogy, it's very hard to describe but trust me it's hella catchy; Let's start suitably with the first proper track and road trip anthem, Autopilot.



Catchy right? Despite erring on the side of bad eurodance a bit, Golden Boy pulls it off in style, with Kittin's vocals and the poppy sounds almost working too well together. As seen in this next track, where she talks about.... well, everything really.



It's not all quasi-pop though, there are some great instrumental House-y tracks on here too, the first of which being Nix: A track which sounds surprisingly electro like in parts. It's pretty good, but it becomes so much better own after the little breakdown at 1:45.



The second, with a name that is impossible to pronounce, is less dancefloor based and instead sounds like the soundtrack to some neon lit cityscape in the not too distant future (or maybe Freemont Street in Las Vegas). Also get a load of the amazingly smooth synths during the breakdown at 3:12 :).



And what better way to finish up than with the song that started it all, the only single from this release, Rippin Kittin. A slow paced, fairly chilled number with some odd lyrics to say the least. A completely different vibe to the rest of the album.



...Glove's radio edit of it however injects it with that much poppier atmosphere of the rest of the album, adds a chorus and makes Kittin's vocals much louder than the original mix. Out of the two, it's my favourite, if only for the newly added chorus and the slightly re-arranged composition.



So there you have it: Or. I might get around to detailing some of my other rare gems later, including an album of Reggae remixes from the first Gorillaz album :D.

J'aime Conduire La Nuit,
-Claude Van Foxbat