Guest Night Tales Vol. 4 (2018 Version)

Another week and another revival. Long time pal of mine and former partner in film going by his online moniker Thousandcats' selections are equally eclectic as those we've had so far. Though it's missing a fair few tracks than the original Grooveshark one, the structure is very well crafted; with peaks and breaks throughout before taking a left at the last hurdle with the excellent Avril 14th from Aphex Twin's Drukqs and a little bit of the Little River Band. It's again a fantastic way to inject some freshness into your listening library, there's some real class tunes in there by some artists I'd never have come across in my travels, including a then fairly obscure CHVRCHES when he originally put this list together in 2013. Me and Thousandcats might not always see eye to eye when it comes to music, but we've do share some common ground, and that's where the gold is to be found.



Like Jamie's from the week before, it's a short but sweet entry this time, and like last week again I'll try to balance it out with a regular post come midweek, keep an eye out come Tuesday. And as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

Guest Night Tales Vol. 3 (2018 Version)

Jamie's addition to the series gets the 2018 revival treatment this week, kicking off with the sublime opener to Burial's Untrue before going the complete opposite with a contribution from the Jackson Sisters before returning to it's chill slant for the remainder of it's run. It's a short one at only 8 tracks, but the ground covered in them is phenomenal, leading nicely to the explosion in sound that is White Chords for the finale.

Once again an eye opening, genre crossing peep into other people's listening. I'm having a lot of fun revisiting this series, rediscovering some memories tied to tunes that I didn't know I had or had long since forgotten about. Accompanied by some vertical slices of some paintings from Avis himself, Vol. 3 might have been the shortest one of the lot but it had a lot of soul in its carefully selected and structured tracklist.



With the playlist begin so short I am going to do what I said last week and break the once a sunday schedule I got going on to write a little post to go up in a couple of days to make up for it a little, and it's going to be a non-spotify one to make up for the deluge of playlists I've been putting up latley (it's so convenient though!) Anyway, look for that post going up come Tuesday and as always, until then, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-Claude Van Foxbat

Guest Night Tales Vol. 2 (2018 Version)

The revival continues, the week sees the return of the first true proper 'Guest' offering, this one was made by a friend of mine at Uni and it was the first moment I realised this could be a series, and pretty much what I said last week still stands: I was really into seeing other people approach the same prompt, and since I don't get to see that as such these days now that my art college days of briefs & crits are behind me, it's been refreshing to revisit this idea.

Grim's offering is a slightly eclectic mix of Hip Hop, Dubstep and Reggae, and just a smidgen of Demon Days era Gorillaz. It's straying form our Electronic label quite a bit, but that was the reasons why I ran with the idea of the Guest Night Tales in the first place. Unfortunately just like my list there were some casualties in the tracklist but I think the meat of it is there and it works just fine. It's only now looking back I see how many tunes I swiped for my own collection from this list, which is another bonus of looking into other peoples collections I suppose: despite the differences mine and Grim' lists might have we had common ground in terms of the Dubstep and Drum & Bass we liked. It's good to step out of your world for a little while, you might just find some tunes and artists you really dig, after all "You Might Like" and "Users Also Liked" algorithms can only take you so far.



There's still a couple more of the Revivals before we hit new ground, the next couple have pretty slim track-lists due to spotify not having the infinite variety of grooveshark, I'm thinking those weeks I might make a second normal post mid-week to make up for it a little. Regardless, stay tuned for more and as always stay safe and enjoy the music!

-Claude Van Foxbat

Guest Night Tales 2018: The Revival

Cleaning up my HDD this week I found some remnants of art I did for the 'Guest Night Tales' series I did back in 2013. +I still really adore the idea behind it, it's shamelessly ripping off the actual real Late Night Tales compilations but still I like peering into other people's listening, and ultimately their different approaches to the same prompt: "What's your perfect late night playlist?"

So back then I ended up with a bunch of grooveshark playlists that I asked friends to contribute some art and a track-list to. Grooveshark kicked the bucket in 2015 and since then the posts have just consisted of a list of the few songs I could salvage from Grooveshark's recovery option at the time. Until now. I've decided to give them a new lease of life as spotify playlists this time. Now there are some downsides, some tunes straight up aren't on spotify so some of the playlists re missing anything from one or two songs to whole chunks in some cases. Still, it's nice to have them back and functional again.

Starting with my contribution, 2015 me helpfully didn't list the entire playlist when GS died, so I rebuilt most of it and added even more songs to it, it made sense to given the time that's passed anyway. Some alterations were made: I swapped out the Plaid Mix of All Is Full Of Love for the Guy Sigsworth one, and one of the linchpins of the ambient section, The KLF's Madrugada Eterna is missing but overall I'm still happy with how it came out.



I tried to really capture my listening progression over the playlists runtime, starting with a little bit of 80's stuff, slowly changing into the electropop block by way of Chromeo, which gives way to more of a downtempo / electropop combination with The Knife and friends before going full on trip / hip hop with a little help from the likes of Nightmares On Wax and Blockhead before finally beginning to wind down with the more ambient block featuring the likes of Boards Of Canada, culminating in the rhythmic ambience of Charlotte's Mouth and Nightvision.

Nothing too surprising for longtime readers, but stay tuned in the coming weeks as I resurrect the other playlists in the series and add a few more to the stock. It's gonna be a good time. If anyone reading would like to make their own Guest Night Tales list, please feel free to do so! Whether you make it and send me the link or just give me a tracklist to work with I'd love to have it featured here.

-Claude Van Foxbat

Guest Night Tales Vol. 4

Long time pal of mine and former partner in film going by his online moniker Thousandcats offered up his contribution tome a few days ago, there's some real class tunes in there by some artists I'd never have come across in my travels, we might not always see eye to eye when it comes to music, but we've been finding some common ground lately. His selections, like all of them so far proves to be a mixed bag but is very much aware of it when it comes to pacing, carefully crafted with peaks and breaks throughout before taking a left at the last hurdle with the excellent Avril 14th from Drukqs and a little bit of the Little River Band. MAY 2015 UPDAE: Grooveshark no longer exists, find the salvaged tracklist and Spotify version below:

"Reconsider (Jamie XX remix)" - "The xx"
"Dusk to Dawn" - "Emancipator",
"The Mother We Share " - "CHVRCHES",
"Cry Wolf" - "Mt. Wolf",
"Dat Jazz" - "Nicholas Cheung",
"River (Ft. Shura)" - "Hiatus",
"Nagasaki" - "Daniel Ryan",
"Midnight Sun" - "Seismix & Cahb",
"By Your Side " - "Zeds Dead",
"Stay Forever" - "Catching Flies",
"Tongue (feat. Holly Walker)" - "Maribou State"

Guest Night Tales Vol. 3

These seem to get more eclectic as we go on, Jamie's addition to the series kicks off with the sublime opener to Burial's Untrue before going the complete opposite with a contribution from the Jackson Sisters before returning to it's chill slant. It's a short one at only 8 tracks, but the ground covered in them is phenomenal, leading nicely to the explosion in sound that is White Chords. Do him a favour and check out his Artist Page too while you're at it. MAY 2015 UPDATE: Grooveshark no longer exists, find the salvaged tracklist and Spotify version below



"Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime" - "The Field"
"I Believe in Miracles" - "Jackson Sisters"
"Empire" - "Housse de Racket"
"And It Rained All Night" - "Thom Yorke"
"Love on a Real Train" - "Tangerine Dream"
"Silver Cruiser" - "Röyksopp"
"White Chords" - "These New Puritans"
"Archangel" - "Burial"

Guest Night Tales Vol. 2

My first true Guest offering is an eclectic mix of Hip Hop, Dubstep and Reggae. I love seeing different people's approaches to the same theme and this certainly delivers in comparison to my compilation for sure. Might not be everyone's cup of tea sure, but this format just lets you skip through to the next one if you so feel like it, but do check it out, there are some quality tunes here. June 2020 EDIT: Grooveshark now no longer exists, scroll down to find the salvaged tracklist & Spotify version for this compilation

"Retaliation" - "Jedi Mind Tricks"
"Easy Jam" - "Kevin MacLeod"
"Animal Planet" - "GZA/Genius / The Genius"
"Like Today" - "Atmosphere"
"Wrong Side of da Tracks" - "Artifacts"
"Lie Detector Test" - "Sage Francis"
"Coastin'" - "Zion I"
"Curly Locks" - "Junior Byles"
"Brown Paper Bag" - "Roni Size"
"All Alone" - "Gorillaz"
"Spliff Dub" - "Zomby"
"Two Track Dub" - "Mikey Dread"
"Worst Comes To Worst" - "Dialated Peoples"
"Shaolin" - "Bar 9"
"White Light" - "Gorillaz"

Guest Night Tales Vol. 1

I was planning it to be longer, but it was getting quite lengthy so I might have cut it a little short. Regardless, I wanted to capture the progression I usually have when late night listening, and I think I mapped it out quite well, though I would have liked to put a couple more songs in there. Check out the stream and tracklist below and stay tuned for more to come! June 2020 EDIT: Grooveshark is dead, enjoy a resrrected version on spotify:



Tracklist:
The Knife - This Is Now (Hannah Med H Soundtrack, 2003)
Röyksopp - Boys (The Understanding, 2005)
Björk - All Is Full Of Love (Plaid Mix) (All Is Full Of Love EP, 1999)
Massive Attack Vs. Mad Professor - Radiation Ruling The Nation (No Protection, 1995)
The KLF - Madrugada Eterna (Chill Out, 1990)
Plaid - Ralome (Rest Proof Clockwork, 1999)
Seefeel - Charlotte's Mouth (Avant Garde Mix) (Quique Redux Edition, 2007)