Pit Stop Hero

Mitch Murder is back at it again with another of his 'Fictional Soundtracks'. There's never a long gap between releases from Mitch but it has been a while since he's put one of these out. In an era where N64/PS1 nostalgia is king, especially the Drum & Bass side of things, I find it interesting that Mitch always goes a little more out there with his choices - there's a trio of Wii themed albums, but both this one and the first one I heard focus on the underdog of the console world in Sega - last time the Sega CD, this time the Saturn, rival to the PS1 and N64.

I'm not going to spend too much more time on the tech side of things, but one final thing I will say is it's very on brand for Mitch's work. It's safe to say he's nailed the vibe totally - the opening of the album immediately evoking Daytona USA with a bit crushed vocal sample shouting out the title. Laden with almost gratuitous electric guitar, it certainly feels like it should be blasting out of some really tinny arcade speakers over an attract mode video.

One downside to these 'soundtracks' is that all the tracks are fairly short - that's kind of understandable if you're emulating menu loops I suppose but can make it tricky to post like this. Select Course is one of the ones I knew I was going to put up upon hearing it though, keeping that trademark Mitch Murder sound while channelling that overall theme excellently - I can already see the low poly previews of the tracks spinning in my mind.



Mitch also gets to dip back into the vaporwave side of things a touch as well, again fitting given the style he's emulating here. Head Office has much more in common with the intentionally Vapor-as-hell Salary Man Simulator trilogy - All of which are on Bandcamp as well: One, Two - Corporate Retreat and Three - Remote Business. Coming out sounding like a hybrid of Japanese environmental music and soft jazz hold music, it's a great mid-point lull for the album that up until now had been full on arcade spectacle.



It's not long before we get back to that though, Victory Lap bringing a fittingly triumphant sound, loaded with the same MIDI guitar as the title track. Oddly enough it doesn't sound nearly as bombastically in yer face as the opening title, you can certainly hear the older-school Mitch sound on show here - I'm thinking Hollywood Heights style, which if it wasn't clear enough by now is something he excels at.



If I had one complaint other than the length, it'd be that the tracks feel a little... 80s? Kind of hard to pin down as I never owned a Saturn - but if it's emulating Daytona USA I can kind of understand as the arcade version of that is from the early 90's, perhaps we can head canon that this is a home port of Pit Stop Hero. That complaint goes by the wayside with End Titles which moves things forward in the decades a touch. Coming out a little more like the mellower sides of the Ridge Racer OSTs at the off, and taking things in a more house-y direction by the end. It would have been a perfect capstone IMO, but there's a little 40 second track to come after this one. A fun little release, it's pay what you want over on BC so you can scoop it for free if you'd like - it comes with some neat easter egg images in the .zip file as well!



Mitch has been moving away from Synthwavy kind of stuff recently, I can understand why, as I've mentioned a few times on here it's a genre that is a little oversaturated and can sometimes be a little stale - but I can't help but smile when Mitch drops something new, he's a real master of his craft. Saying that, his non-synthwave excursions have also been pretty special too, I might have to drop one or two of them here sometime soon. But that'll about wrap it up for today, I'll be back soon enough with more but until then, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Warming Up

Rupprecht Geiger - Leuchtrot orange - leuchtrot warm (1965)

Things are warming up after a touch of really cold days - which is fitting given the first track on this list. It's one that I've been sitting on for a while and isn't part of some grander theme though, this is gonna be a return to the good old fashioned roundup of random tracks as in days past.

Starting with some Mitch Murder from one of the Selections series. I say every time Mitch comes up that his work feels very sincere in its love for the genres that so clearly inspired it - Melting Point really captures that retro anime ending theme vibe on its intro (as displayed on the cover art, doubly so going by the original cover art), which is what made it stand out to me on a recent shuffle. From then on, it's a standard Mitch Murder affair. Not to sound too reductive mind you, Mitch is one of my favourite Synthwave artists and is very, very good at what he does.



Dwelling in similar circles for the time being, a little bit of Macross 82-99. I mentioned Sailorwave III way back in some Bandcamp Friday summary but not so much since, not for a lack of things to talk about though. Macross' anime influence is a little more pronounced if the name didn't give it away already, but as I've said in the past when I've covered the other Sailorwaves, you don't need to be a fan to enjoy what's on offer here - the Sailor Moon trimmings are mainly for show. Macross' style is a blend of lotsa genres, a touch of Vaporwave, a bit of disco and a splash of House to name a few - the highlights from III for me are the slow jams like this one here, they do a fantastic job of demonstrating what Macross is all about.



Rounding out with a couple from ThorHighHeels' Positive Yellow, specifically the slightly expanded DX version that has a couple bonus tracks on it. The whole idea behind Positive Yellow is that it's one big love letter to the world of soundtracks from the fifth generation of video game consoles. Think low-poly 3D models set to techno and Drum & Bass and you're mostly there. THH does a fantastic job of embodying that sound without feeling too cliché IMO, and also shows a fair bit of variety in the genres beyond just endless breakbeat or techno. Case in point here with Final Yellow, very obviously taking some cues from the soundtracks for Silent Hill with it's hazy trip hop-esque execution, it feels like it could be the OST from a survival horror results screen.



And, just because that one is a little short, another little bonus to see us out. This one also feels like a results screen theme, but from something a little more action oriented. I'm actually specifically reminded of the Ape Escape 1 results screen soundtrack, though THH's take is a little bit more rough sounding. This track acually originally appeared on a mini EP called Moom, a soundtrack to one of their YT videos. It's inclusion on this expanded release of Positive Yellow doesn't feel too out of place though, and brings things to a nice close - even if it does betray me saying the album isn't too cliché with that "GAME OVER voice clip sample at the end.



And that'll be all for this time, a little more upbeat that usual this one feels like. I'll be back around soon enough with more, I may take a little break towards the end of December but I will definitely get a couple more things written before year's end. Hope you've enjoyed the selections today, even if they were a little brief in parts! 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.

Down The Road Again

A real retro roundup this time, I was thinking of things I've been listening to recently and wound up landing on another sorta Synthwave selection. I've mentioned in the past how I don't dive into that world much anymore as there was a time when anything vaguely synthwave was a dime a dozen - but after going back to some old Kavinsky records a little while ago, I'd be lying if I said I didn't quite like it a bit. So today I've rounded up some of my other recent favourites both new and old, let's have a look.

Peter Alexander - Ceanothus (2001)

Starting with the new (or new-ish) with a bit of the soundtrack to Road 96, which first came on my radar due to folks talking about the soundtrack. I was sort of surprised to see The Toxic Avenger on there, I hadn't heard that name since the remix heyday of the electro house era. And actually you can hear that influence on Home Call, it shares much more in common with Kavinsky's brand of Electro than it does your average Synthwave, which for me does wonders when it comes to evoking that nostalgia that Road 96 is going for. That intro is divine.



Hitting up Mitch Murder next, I've always described his take on the whole retro electronic sound as very honest, and that's very true for his early releases. The After Hours EP from 2009 was actually Mitch's first, the version on his Bandcamp is quote "slightly remastered" and with redone cover art that is more in line with Mitch's now established look. I've posted bits and pieces from it before but honestly every track on here is very well done - I've gone with Bertone's Theme this time around, a much poppier take on the sound than you might be used to. In keeping with that retro theme, it almost sounds like a DMX Krew track at times with that funky undercurrent. I gotta echo what one of the reviews says on the Bandcamp page, even from this early release you can tell the man has an ear for this kind of thing. And as I say so often on this page, if you like this, you would do well to check out all of MM's output - a lot of his early releases are Pay What You Want so you can scoop them for free if you'd like.



And finally, I can't talk early synthwave without bringing up Perturbator - perhaps one of the biggest names attached to the genre. It's not hard to see why, the covers for these early albums and EPs lean hard into the 80's sleaze and cheese: dripping with images recalling the satanic panic, slasher flicks, sci-fi and sofcore porn. I put the albums back into rotation after a long absence, they're still excellent examples of the genre for sure (my favourite still being The Uncanny Valley) and I've found myself liking the slow jams on them more and more this time around. Last Kiss being one such example, following a very cinematic structure, it takes its time building an atmosphere before lavishly laying on the synths come the 2 minute mark. A complete 180 to the previous track Complete Domination featuring another synthwave heavyweight Carpenter Brut - that one is all about instant intensity whereas Last Kiss is a much more of a mood piece. Maybe it's my soundtrack side taking over, but these bits have been the definite highlights of my revisit.



And that'll be all for today, I hope you've enjoyed this very brief dip into the world of retro electro, there's a whole lot more out there to get stuck into but I think I did a decent job of showing some variety here, especially if you've not encountered any of these artists before. I'll be back soon enough. with more but until next time, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Bits 'n Pieces of the past

As the Final Friday™ approaches, I've been looking over my 'collection' tab on BC - I'm going to try and make this last one quite a big one (and also non-electronic in parts potentially as well) so I thought a 'things I am looking at' post would be either too long or not super relevant. Instead we're taking another dive into the archives for a cross section of songs of yore, let's take a look-see.

Takashi Murakami - Mr. DOB All Stars (Oh My The Mr. DOB) (1998)

Something short to start off with, it's been a hot minute since I talked about ThorHighHeels - I picked up Positive Yellow off the heels of the great soundtrack work they did for Umurangi Generation. Some of the tracks from Positive Yellow actually appear in that OST as is, so I had a feeling of what to expect going in. In short, this whole release is one big love letter to 90's videogame OSTs (which will come as no surprise if you've seen any of Thor's YouTube content) - it'd be very easy to make kind of twee or overly pandering, but I think it does a great job of being 'inspired by' rather than just retreading. I've gone with a super short bonus track of the 'DX' version of it to illustrate - just under a minute long but it will sum up the whole experience in that time, though the 'GAME OVER' sample at the end is a li'l cliché, even if it is the actual end of the album.



Warp coming to bandcamp has been great, they were pioneers of the digital space back in the early days with Bleep so I was surprised that it took them this long, but then again they have enough capital to run their own service well enough anyway. Regardless, another reason I've come to love it is that it makes talking about their releases new and old much easier than using the naff Spotify previews like I was doing before. But enough tech - Welcome To Your Life is a tune I've mentioned a few times over the years, dating back to my first year of University I think. It's one of those that I'll forget about for a while but have a nice moment when it crops back up. And what an entrance it makes - that bass is so thick you can almost feel it in the air. Mount Sims features on the vocal front, his solo records are good listens if you are a fan of Electroclash stuff, Welcome To Your Life shares a little bit of sound DNA now I think about it. His voice works really well on tracks like this, shame we haven't heard anything in a while from his camp.



I feel like I didn't talk about Then Again too much - what was then the latest Mitch Murder LP. I've got a lot of love for Mitch's work, every time I think I'm done with retro-inspired synth stuff he comes along with something to pull me back in. Last time I mentioned this album I think it was focussing on the Vangelis-esque Frost, we're sticking with the slower side of things once again this time with the final track Someplace Else. An almost contender for the mixtape of Cosy Tracks that I made, it's chock full of synth power chords and the like. There are times where I think Mitch gets a little close to your stereotypical archetypal 'synthwave' vibe, and this is one of those times - but even so I can't help but get into the groove of this one. A fantastic album closer as well, very cinematic in its execution.



I think that'll do for now, I'm going try and swing by with a couple more before the Final Friday, but I'll try my best to make it a bumper edition when the final roundup does come. In the meantime, I hope you've found something to enjoy here and until next time, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Bite-sized Bits 02

Roy Lichtenstein - The Den (1990)

For volume 2 we're revisiting Mitch Murder, one of the few artists I still keep up with in the Synthwave scene, partly due to Bandcmap reminding me whenever he releases something new, which is fairly often actually. If all the artists operting in that sphere, I find Mitch's productions to be more honest than most - there's always going to be some just in it for the look, as is always the case with genres where the visuals are a strong component. It's easy to overdose on the sound as well, but I also think Mitch does a fantastic job of keeping things varied - take 'Frost' - a Vangelis-esque ambient piece from his latest album Then Again for example.

Today we're going back to his first ever EP, After Hours, or rather, the updated version of it. While I'm usually not a big fan of rereleasing albums with 'new' artwork or other changes that run the risk of George Lucas-ing the whole affair, I must admit it was probably the right choice here. Compared to the original art from 2009, the re-release of After Hours is not only more aesthetically cohesive (if a little cliché), but having the tracks avaialable in lossless or high quality MP3 is a bonus too, as the original release was only 192.

Sporting a funkier feel reminiscent of some DMX Krew cuts and some kickin' rad 808, one of the tracks I always come back to from this EP is Coup De Théâtre, one that has aged quite gracefully all things considered - though perhaps that is because it's from before 'Synthwave' as a whole got established, so it neatly skirts all those potential pitfalls that could make it stale: Discogs lists it as a combo of Synth-pop, Electro and Disco. There are a couple tracks that are in hindsight a little generic such as Square City but overall it's a pretty stellar debut and something I'd recommned even if Synthwave isn't your bag, it's more of a general love letter to retro electronic as a whole.



Unril tomorrow, as always - stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Red Skies

Abbott Handerson Thayer - The Sky Simulated by Red Flamingoes (1909)

Back again with what I hope will be another one of those shorter posts I talked about last time. Kicking off with my latest escapist experience, Umurangi Generation, and its decidedly on-point soundtrack. The setting is a slightly cyberpunk New Zealand, and you're there to take pictures and have a chill time mainly. The soundtrack is on paper at odds with the chill aesthetic, it runs the full gamut from near dubstep and future bass to more conventional House and a whole heap of UK Garage influence too, but it works ever so well in practice. Speaking of variety, it helps that the OST is massive, the DLC soundtrack that this is from is 51 tracks, and the main game has an extra 81 on top of that - granted a lot of them are super short but still. I've yet to hear a dud from ThorHighHeels, and even if I did there's so much to get at on this album that I don't think it'd be a big deal even if.



Speaking of aesthetics, we're revisiting Mitch Murder again now. Out of all the 'Retrowave' (and it's million other umbrella terms) artists, Mitch's works always felt the most... honest, for lack of a better term. Mitch's work certainly takes a whole heap of inspiration from actual 80's music, but unlike some other artists of the synthwave persuasion, I think a lot of his work is more of a love letter to the style of old rather than just aping the overall sound and vibe. Take Frost from his latest release Then Again - it has massive echoes of Vangelis' score for Blade Runner, which I know is an incredibly cliché comparison to make but those brassy synths are almost absolutely intended to be taken that way. It's been a while since I heard Mitch tackle something so downbeat as this and I'm really digging it, it's at the top of my list to check out and scoop up come next BC Friday.



Another one from my list to round out - L'usine (or just Lusine as they go by now). I very briefly dipped my toe into their work when I was on my ambient streak a little while ago, but as is so often the case I ended up finding out they have a ton of releases under their belt, the early stuff falling under the IDM label to boot. I did a little bit of exploring, and is so often the case with me I checked a couple out based on the cover art alone, which is how I found The Waiting Room. Made the mistake of reading the reviews on discogs but they weren't useful, just full of folks lamenting that it was a house record and not like their older works, I was undeterred though and thought I should at least sample the first track.

I haven't really had time to sit down with the album properly yet, but Panoramic is nice enough, a real driving song that worked real well during my WFH periods - it actually reminds me a lot of Röyksopp in a way, I think it has some of the same structure that was on The Understanding's bonus tracks that are like the refined results of a bunch of jam sessions. It's on the ever-growing list either way, so you may be hearing more of this in the future, if not this album then certainly L'usine's other works.



Right, I think that went pretty well. A *little* bit shorter than usual but not by much I will admit. Still, my thoughts remain the same, I plan to do more of these quick-fire posts in the coming future, too many times recently I've ended up writing across multiple days which I think sometimes makes my writing a bit scatterbrained (more so than usual at least!), not to mention the extra time taken too. Anyway, that's neither here nor there, hope you enjoy these selections - I'll be back as usual with more soon enough.

And as always - Stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Return To Form

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

Fernand Leger - Forms In Space (1950)

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



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



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