Wrapping Up 2022

Left it a little late to do a year's end roundup, but I'm going to return to a tried and tested tradition: the good old fashioned track dump. I never really felt comfortable posting a sea of players with no commentary, so this one is going to be broken up a little with thoughts in-between, so apologies in advance if it gets a little long.

First things first, if you're after a real Nostalgia-fest, BBC Radio 6 has you covered. That right there is a playlist straight out of the 2010s featuring many of the Ed Banger crew and other indie darlings of the time. It's available here for about a month if you're interested, tho with some limitations if you're not in Europe but I can't confirm that

Michel Majerus - Untitled (2000)

Now with that out of the way, let's take a look at what I've got. I've made no secret of my love of Eurobeat over the last few years - the sugared up evolution of Italo Disco colliding with J-Pop. I had a fair few lined up, but on listening to them back I whittled it down to just a couple - it's pretty hard to find legal streams of a lot of them anyway and in hindsight some of them were a little bit OTT. Which is an absolutely stupid thing to say I now realise, as the whole point of Eurobeat IS that it's over the top! Keeping it low key to start with, Switch really highlights those latent disco traces inherent in the genre, which makes it a good dipping in point for the curious.



I've managed to skirt one of the more silly parts of Eurobeat with these two selections, being mostly written by Italians, you do get some... interesting lyrical choices that don't quite make a whole lot of sense. On that note though, Eurobeat does a fairly decent job of maintaining a good ratio of Male to Female vocalists, it'd be very easy for the genre to fall into the latter much like the Vocal side of trance did way back when. That said, there are definitely tracks that evoke that same kind of euphoric vibe - enter So Fragile



Some Tofubeats next, I picked up some of the man's soundtrack work a while back and had been meaning to check out his works ever since. His Bandcamp is weirdly bare with releases there but not for sale (that clearly used to be as well), and releases like this one here that don't appear on Discogs or anywhere else really. Synthesizer is a prime example of why I felt the need to check his work out, a real head bopper of a slow jam, topped with liberal use of Vocoder to make the whole package complete for me.



Going total nostalgia bomb for this next one, it comes back out to play every so often, and rightfully so as it's damn good. Potentially one of the finest remixes ever from the era - Thomas Bangalter (1/2 of Daft Punk for those not in the know) spins out what was a ~1 minute interlude from DJ Mehdi's Lucky Boy into one of - if not the - electro house anthem. It hurts a little knowing that we won't hear any more Mehdi productions, I always liked the man's style and was excited to see where he'd take it, but what better way to celebrate the man than belting this one out.



Let's go a little deeper next with some Soichi Terada. Terada's return under his own name was a release I was extremely looking forward to, I first got turned his way off the heels of the (legitimately fantastic) Ape Escape soundtrack, and was pleased to find even more Drum & Bass on waiting for me. But the man actually got his start making (equally brilliant) House tracks - and that's what Asakusa Light is all about - paraphrasing Terada's own words: he's trying to capture that same feeling from those days. And on tracks like Double Spire, he really does. It helps I'm a real sucker for pitch bends though!



Speaking of capturing the spirit of yore, we have DMX Krew, who has been dwelling in that space for a long long time now. Now with DMX, you often will get some cheeky playful self aware elements in the mix, evoking old school electro of the early breakin'/electropop era, it's a genre than can be quite funny after all so why not embrace it? (see also: Chromeo). Party Life doesn't really do that, at least on the title track. The thing comes out a little more like an electroclash record, lamenting the shallow nature of the said Party Life. But you don't have to delve that deep into the analysis if you don't want, the Dub mix has an excellent groove on it and is as relentlessly catchy as the original.



Couple more to round us out, starting with what is one of the oldest digital files in my collection - Misstress Barbara's Never Could Have Your Heart. A relic of my first serious forays into the world of electronic music circa the early 00's, the first version I had of this was a naff one I pirated at like 96kbps or something like that! But even then, I was totally entranced with it. That melody (which I would later learn is pretty much a cover/sample of Move D's In/Out) is just gorgeous, and the beat work is surprisingly frantic for a House record, with machine gun hi-hats and flurries of handclaps. I reckon it'll be about 20 years I've had it in my collection next year, and I'm still as in love with it as I ever was.



And finally, the one track I post every year without fail, The Knife's New Year's Eve. Taken from the soundtrack to the film Hannah Med H, it's from around the Deep Cuts era so is very much in that extremely electropop style - the one with super sweet synths and the steel pan work as heard on tracks like Pass This On. Does the track have anything to do with NYE? Not really, it plays in a scene in the film that takes place on the night which is the reason for the title. Still, it's become a bit of a tradition, there was many a year where we'd play this while getting ready to head out for the night. And now it's a tradition here too!



And that'll about do it for now, it did end up getting a little long but nothing too ridiculous! That'll be all for this year, but rest assured I'll be back soon enough in '23 with more. Thank you for sticking with us this year, we've had a couple hiccups along the way but I don't know anyone who hasn't. I hope you've found some tracks here to enjoy and will continue to do so in future - and of course, as always: Stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

It's well 'ot

The cruel irony of working with computers is that they too generate heat - this vintage meme pretty much nails it (just replace the gaming part with 3D and video rendering). It's well documented I don't get on well in the heat anyway, but this post isn't going to be me sitting here and complaining at you (but it was important context for the songs on show!). Let's go ahead and get some suitably sweltering songs on the go.

Charles Sheeler - Golden Gate (1955)

Kicking off with a bit of Ceephax, Sidney's Sizzler always seems to crop up quickly whenever you search for anything related to the man, no doubt helped by the wild homemade video he made for it. This was the first track that came to mind when thinking up tracks for this post, beyond just the obvious name it does sound like Ceephax's equipment is on the border of melting throughout - especially with that stumbling breakdown at 2:10 making it sound as if the whole setup is breaking down. A touch more intense than the other Ceephax tracks I've posted in the past but nothing too wild. I've not had the chance to listen to his entire discography as of yet but in my experience there's a strong melodic element that keeps it from going into full on 303 arpeggio territory.



I've been back on a bit of a Soichi Terada thing ever since my last post, and the man has plenty of works that would fit this theme. I've gone with the timeless classic Sun Showered this time though, it's the instrumental mix of one of his breakout hits: Sunshower with Nami Shimada from 1989. I have nothing against Nami's vocal, both versions of the tune are stellar in their own right - but the instrumental really lets Terada's work shine through. I do think it feels a bit empty without the vocal in parts, but I've also mentioned it a ton of times in the past so I figured the instrumental gives a little bit of variety too. Check out the whole compilation this is from if you like the vibe, Sounds From The Far East is a fantastic 'best of' Terada's House works.



Keeping in a similar sort of vein to play us out, we have techno mogul Ian O'Brien. I initially knew him from a spate of remixes and of course Desert Scores, which opens with the homage to his influence taken from Underground Resistance with Mad Mike Disease. I checked out some of his more recent work a little while ago and The High Frontier EP quickly made it onto the ever-growing wishlist. It's a great little 3-tracker going from Tech, to downtempo almost IDM and full on Ambient across the tracklist. They are all lovely tracks but Harmonix really starts the thing off on a high note - it's a distillation of all my favourite bits of the Detroit sound. I say it every time a track like this comes up but I'm just real glad that tracks like this are still being made, absolutely gorgeous stuff.



And that'll about do it for today, the heat is set to continue for a couple of days so I might be able to fit another one of these in before the week is out - in true fashion for me it'll probably be a return to the more downtempo side of things! Hope you find something to love in these selections as I have, and as always - stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Apes: Escaped (A VGM DJ Set Special)

I've talked before about Ape Escape, and more importantly its composer - Soichi Terada. Likewise, I've also mentioned Dedeco as well - thanks to my recent descent back into the world of the PS1. I don't mean to sound reductive, Terada has a long production history beyond just Ape Escape, with his own label Far East Recordings and plenty of House records under his belt (and his most recent release being this year). But that is how I and many others were first introduced to the man's works. His brand of D&B is lovely, different from what might come to mind when you think of the era's soundtracks but at the same time fitting right in. I seriously recommend the OSTs even if you're not into games at all as they stand alone very well, case in point here when Dedeco opens the mix with a snippet of the opening theme before diving right into Cryptic Relics, one of my all time favourites from the first OST. This mix is incredibly well thought out, Dedeco is obviously very familliar with the content and does a fantastic job of making them flow together - this ain't just some nostalgia bait.



That's not all either, as pointed out in the video before the mix starts, there's a commentary track of an interview with Terada himself (it's not by Dedeco however as he mentions in the YT description, I believe they are quoted from this interview with Nick Dwyer). It's kind of an odd way to present it I thought, but after a couple mins I settled right in, after all you can't have audio playing over audio in this format. If it wasn't obvious already, he really went above and beyond with this mix. I'm glad that Terada is open to talking about stuff like this for what is relatively a small-time act, especially as he mentions in the interview he's trying to take a more relaxed approach these days. Dedeco obviously impressed as well, with Terada tweeting out in both Japanese and English his praise for the mix not long after!

@dedeco_VGMDJ がサルゲッチュのサウンドトラックを使ったDJミックスを披露してくれました。曲同士のキーを意識したミックスが超絶で全体の流れも美しい〜 @dedeco_VGMDJ showed us a DJ mix using only the Ape Escape soundtrack. The mix while being aware of the keys between songs is amazing! https://t.co/To1yFxCIhd

— Soichi Terada / Asakusa Light on 1/7(Fri) (@fareastrecordin) July 6, 2022

If you like what you hear above, the two Ape Escape OSTs that Terada worked on are readily available on streaming (I'll be linking to Spotify here but they are on others) - they are the punnily titled Ape Escape Originape Soundtracks and Ape Escape 3 - Originape Soundtracks. Of course I definitely recommend his solo work from there, a lot of it is not on streaming sites but if you're after more of the Ape Escape feel then seek out Sumo Jungle for more delicious D&B. There is also Terada's Omodaka alias, where he fuses the traditional and the technological in very interesting ways, check that out if you're in the mood for some chiptune Enka!

That'll be all for today, I'll be back soon enough with more but until then, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Soichi Terada - Asakusa Light (Album Overview)

Flipping it 180 from last week's post, here we're talking something that is new! And also something I've not done in a long, long time to boot - an album overview. Much less of a review than my previous ones and more of a sort of first impression kinda deal, even though I've heard a couple bits from it and posted them already. At any rate, let's get stuck right in. Soichi Terada returns under his own name with Asakusa Light - a House record that's a throwback to the man's early works. If you're at all familiar with them then you know what to expect, but if you're not: Expect thudding kicks, deep house basslines and deliciously retro brassy flourishes as heard here on a Terada production from 1989!

Tracks like that weren't my introduction to Terada however, like many others it was his Drum & Bass work for the soundtrack to the original Ape Escape that pointed me in his direction - a gig that he got becuase one of the folks working on it was a big fan of his Sumo Jungle release. A solid release in its own right, and home to some of my favourites from his D&B side. The intro track is a preview of the whole album and if you like what's on show there, seek out the whole thing, you won't be disappointed. The soundtrack for Ape Escape is one of those that is sort of emblematic of the era - the late's 90's where everything was super sleek hi-tech low-poly. I'm more than willing to admit a lot of my love for it is tinted with nostalgia - I will stand by some of the tunes on there being real nice even on their own though. But enough history, let's talk about this latest piece!

Terada certainly hasn't been a stranger - he's consistently been putting out tunes on his own Far East Recording label for many a year by now, both by himself and others. I've been a long time admirer of his work but it can be a little tricky to get hold of from time to time. After a re-issuing of a bunch of vintage tracks on a compilation fittingly called Sounds From The Far East on Rush Hour Music, there's been a renewed buzz about Terada and his House works - which leads us to now, as Asakusa Light is released on the same label.

I was excited to get started as I have loved the two sample tracks out there already, and with 9 more ahead of me there was surely plenty to enjoy. Silent Chord starts things off with a nervous sci-fi style synth - it does take a little while to get going but it all pays off around the 1:33 mark when the proper bassy stabs of old are unleashed. I can see some being frustrated that it doesn't build to a proper House style payoff, but as an introduction to the experience I think it works real well - it sets up the next few at the very least. I've already talked at length recently about how I fell in love with Double Spire from the get go, I just adore the pitch bends on show, and the whole thing is almost designed to have all my favourite Deep House elements in it. Just wonderful.



The same goes for Bamboo Fighter - the first of the two preview tracks. That one plays out more like a piece from his early Far East Recording album with Shinichiro Yokota, but still with feet firmly planted in the world of Deep House. Perhaps leaning a little too hard into that eastern influence for some but I think it's pretty tastefully done, Terada certainly has experience merging the electronic with the traditional sound to a more extreme degree with his Omodaka project after all.

Diving Into Minds continues the trend, grabbing me from the offset with its swirling intro. I've seen a lot of people say that this album feels quite videogame-y in parts, it's a comparison I'd been trying to avoid just because I didn't want folk to come in expecting either the chiptune of Terada's Omodaka project or the out and out D&B of Ape Escape. But as the album goes on it gets increasingly difficult to ignore that connection and, thinking back on it now, it would be foolish to suggest that wasn't at least a partial influence on the process for Terada. The textures and composition on show here most certainly feel like they would be right at home in that early 3D era, none more so than the brief incursion of some old skool piano stabs at 2:36 that feel like they belong on a 'Results' screen.



It's a theme that continues, with Marimbau feeling like a menu theme for one of those slightly weird psychedelic puzzle games of the era. With the stripped back approach and liberal use of of-the-era drum machines, it certainly imitates the technical limitations of early CD audio to boot. This one in particular reminds me a little of the throwback influence artists like ThorHighHeels display, in that it's a very earnest display of love for the aesthetic - though THH's is more firmly rooted in the videogame world, Terada's work here is more of a love letter to house with some of that flavour as an addition.

I don't meant to give the impression that it's formulaic mind you, going by Terada's own quotes from the Bandcamp page it's been quite the experience getting back into the groove of making again: "I didn’t even know what I thought about myself five years ago, and the mental metabolic cycle seems to be faster than I thought. I tried different methods, including digging up my old MIDI data and composing by remembering old experiences." - a quote that I totally empathise with. Takusambient is the most obvious of the tracks that show that influence, the 8-bit lead synth should clue you in on that from the get go. I gave the album a quick run through on mobile a little while back, but I ended up stopping around here because I figured I'd give it a run with better output - and I was right, tracks like this reveal a lot more depth now I'm sampling it on a decent set of headphones.



Next up we have a real highlight - a sort of cover of a tune called Soaking Wet circa 1995 - can't say I've heard of it before (shoutout to that one Discogs reviewer that clued me in on that!) but one that certainly makes sense given Terada's wheelhouse. That goes double for the remix of it from the same LP, which feels very much like Terada's own productions, albeit a little more bouncy I feel. I do like it when artists do that, gives yo u a real insight into their influences and points you in the direction of stuff you might not have heard before (See Felix Da Housecat's version of Space's Magic Fly for one good example). Soaking Dry is, like the source material it's referencing, a much more upbeat beast than the previous examples. It nicely bridges the gap between the Deep House we've heard so far and this new direction: Terada's style is very clearly on show here with lush background instrumentation and choice flourishes throughout - as the intro gives way to the 4/4 about the 15 second mark you can't help but start toe tappin' along with it.



One final highlight for the road and the sole collaboration piece for the LP - Runners. In hindsight I was maybe expecting a couple more collaborations to appear on here as there have been many a notable one between Terada, such fellow Far East Recording label-mate Shinichiro Yokota. Still, from the credits alone this one was looking promising as it features Manabu Nagayama, who twinned with Terada on Low Tension in 1991, one of the tracks that made the cut on Rush Hour's reissue compilation Sounds From The Far East. The two are clearly having a lot of fun here, after a slightly sleepy intro it's not long before we're back in the House yet again. The real highlight here is the super old school MIDI as hell pan flute melody, I couldn't help but crack a smile the first time it came in, it's just such a perfect encapsulation of the album's MO and most importantly - as fun to listen to as they probably had making it.



Here's hoping this means more from the man in the future, (though like I mentioned back at the top he's never really stopped either!) I've loved hearing him return to this sound. It's a great little album, one that runs the risk of getting a bit stale due to the simplicity of it, but that could also be a factor of me giving it a pretty intense listen over the past few days as I write this - still, I've been enjoying my time with it, it's had me groovin' around the House (no pun intended!). I like to think of it as the musical equivalent of a garnish, chuck these in your playlists to get a little bit of variety in there - the preview tracks are probably still my favourites, but there is a lot to love here.

I did catch myself thinking at points that Terada might throw in a vocal at some point to complete that Sunshower connection - and part of me still thinks some of these tracks would benefit from that, but at the same time I admire the man for just going back to basics and making a pure House record. If he decides to do the same for his D&B work somewhere down the line I will be all over that - perhaps a reissue of Sumo Jungle, or the slightly more obscure Acid Face? The latter of which I highly recommend if your favourite is his Ape Escape OST work, the two are very similar!

And that'll be all for this time, it's been a while since I've done a big post like this! It's been fun but took a little longer than I expected, I have something else potentially lined up for later this week so I should be back before long. Until then, 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

Bite-sized Bits 10

Katsushika Hokusai - Nihonbashi Bridge in Edo
Something new for a change. I was pleasantly surprised by an announcement email in my inbox that Soichi Terada had a new album coming out. Well, not too surprised really, he's been consistently releasing things for ages now, most recently another instalment called Dodarebachi from his Omodaka project that merges house, electronics, chiptunes and traditional Japanese Enka. Instead the surprise this time comes from the release not being on his own Far East Recording label, but rather on Rush Hour Music, who put together that compilation a few years back of Terada's House works called Sounds From The Far East.

This new release is billed as a throwback to that very same house work as well, to steal a quote from the Bandcamp page from Terada himself: "a new album that sounds like a reissue". And based on the preview track Bamboo Fighter, he's not wrong - that bouncy bassline is immediately evocative of Sunshower, one of his early hits with Nami Shimada - with other nods to his Deep House works with some gorgeous synth sweeps as well. A real treat if you're like me and have a real love for this kind of sound, as much as I'd love to hear more Drum & Bass from Terada, I'll happily check out more of anything from him.



The full thing isn't out while November 12 - I might be still pretty busy by then so perhaps don't expect a full review, but you can certainly count on a couple of tracks from this popping up here once it's released. As always: stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Cherry Blossom Tunes

After the last post I managed to grab some new stuff from my 'recommended's that would make a decent follow up, but I've put those plans to one side for a minute as in the process I found something new as well. Soichi Terada's Omodaka alais that I thought was retired is still very much active - and in its current incarnation is doing some very interesting things when it comes to electronic music.

First and foremost Omodaka is now a full on performance experience - with Terada donning a blank white mask and a shrine maiden's outfit, surrounded by wires, tweaking the electronics as screens play out a combination of motion graphics and slightly surreal video edits. This past meets present aesthetic extends to the songs as well, the main methodology of the Omodaka project has been about fusing traditional Japanese folk music with modern electronics. Well, modern-ish, because as you'll soon hear a lot of the backing for these tracks is full on chiptune. Take a look at the 2-minute trailer for the most recent Omodaka album 'Gujoh Bushi' and have a listen for yourself:



It's an odd combo for sure, one that I'm not quite sure always works but there are definitely moments on this LP that have me falling head over heels. I've never really been much into chiptune as a whole, I have a couple of tracks here, and even then usually from soundtracks. I do have quite a strong nostalgia for them having said that though, one that comes from a lot of long haul flights with Pokémon generations 1 & 2 when I was little. The intro to Kariboshi Kiriuta hits that note something fierce, and when the worlds collide with that bassline at around 6 seconds in - this album immediately shot up my list of things to get a hold of. The Enka-esque vocals I can see putting some folk off, and in this early honeymoon phase of the album for me sometimes I feel that. Though for me I think it's a case of the instrumentals being gorgeous and I just want to spend a little bit more time with them.



The album does have a fair bit of variety in it though even when sticking to those same key elements. Hyamikao is fast on it's way to becoming my favourite so far, here Terada slips back into his old House grooves, with a thumping kick and bassy stabs taking over the expected chiptune intro - as it develops the chiptune elements almost take a backseat and it becomes more like a traditional Terada house tune. I also love the almost text-to-speech style cut-up treatment the vocals get here (again, my bias showing as I love anything to do with altered vocals!), I think it injects a nice bit of variety to the LP - the jumpy cuts making some nice unexpected melodies. and makes them feel a little more fitting than the above track for example. That and if we're getting philosophical, it's truly then a merger of the new and the old.



Speaking of returning, on Tosa Miren Terada brings out his Drum & Bass skills again, those of you familiar with his work on Ape Escape will find a fair bit of similarity here in the more melodic parts - especially when the little bits of chiptune flash through in the most playful way. This one and Hyamikao are currently locked in a fight for my no. 1 favourite from this LP. I think this is one of the more accessible tracks here to boot, the traditional vocals really work in its favour. But that's something I'd expect that as Terada has experimented with mixing them and Drum & Bass going back to 1996 - it's nowhere near as prominent as on this album, but there are hints of chants and such on Sumo Jungle, the album that got the attention of Sony and led to his work on Ape Escape. It's used throughout, but my favourite use of it is on Sukiyaki Dohyo Chanko. But enough of that, enjoy the tune!



I'm really excited to see Terada still active, his output rarely disappoints and having done a bit of research for writing this he seems like he has a lot of fun making stuff. Doubly so when he's performing as Omodaka, from the videos I've seen he'll just occasionally wander out into the crowd and give whoever's in the front row control of bits and pieces of equipment, making the whole thing more of an experience than just a concert. It seems as if he was gearing up to do more regular performances as well which is a shame - here's hoping he can get back to them when things are a little more safe. But in the meantime I am more than happy to jam out to this album, and I hope you are too!

And as always - stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

How Deep is your House?

Following on from the Bandcamp scoops, I've dug into my archives to find what little bits and pieces of Deep House I have in there. See, it's a genre I'd say I love the sound of, but I don't seem to have much of it. A lot of that was me just riding the high of Mr. Fingers' Amnesia, home of Can You Feel It? among others. And if I had to point to a track that was probably my favourite example of it, Feel It would probably win out. But I've already talked about it a bunch in the past, and it is also (rightfully so) one of the more popular bits of retro electronic out there. So instead let's see if I can't round up some similar sounding stuff.

Sam Francis - Her Blue Deeps (1972)
Laurent Garnier to start out - one of those names again that always came up in the circles I frequent but I never really investigated in much detail. Still, even then he's managed to have several tracks come on my radar, and one that instantly came to mind when I was thinking about this post was Last Tribute From The 20th Century - suitably, the closer from 2000's Unreasonable Behaviour. As the name would suggest, much like Daft Punk's Teachers, this is a love letter to Garnier's influences - as the track itself says: "New York, Detroit and Chicago".

It's one of those tracks that gripped me from the get-go, as you all know by now, I'm a sucker for that kinda sweeping smooth sound. The whole thing has a tinge of melancholy to it, but that's easy to overlook when you slip into the groove of that bassline - I appreciate the little flourishes here and there that are evocative of Frankie Knuckles and company too. Last Tribute is definitely one of the highlights from the album and has more than earned its place here.



Admittedly this one is more straight up Detroit Techno than Deep House, but I think it still fits the bill. Burujha is a lovely and melodic cut - nice and bouncy but carrying that slight melancholy mentioned before. This is actually the track that made me sit up and pay attention to Octave One after hearing it on the Games' eclectic 'Spend The Night With' mixtape (where it's actually incorrectly listed as the title track from the 'Art And Soul' EP that it's from) - that mixtape really runs the spectrum of genres, from full on Detroit techno like this to Eccojams-esque disco cuts - Lopatin & Ford even give Enya the vaporwave treatment on it at one point! It sounds absolutely gorgeous on there - it plays back a little slower which really makes it sound more techno, and as a bonus the cassette tape gives it a great lo-fi edge, even distorting some of the synths.

But I think my heart has to belong to the real deal release one, the whole album it's from The Living Key (To Images From Above) is great but Burujha remains my absolute favourite, and like Last Tribute above makes for a fantastically fitting album closer. Burujha also catches me off guard on the regular, as there's 30 seconds of silence at the end before a little untitled hidden track starts.



And lastly, Soichi Terada. One of the ones I had in mind when I started writing and annoyingly one of the only ones readily available for streaming not from YT. You (and I) are probably more familiar with Terada's Drum & Bass work - I've talked about it a fair few times in the past here, his work on the Ape Escape 1 & 3 soundtracks is incredible - really playful, often lush and surprisingly heavy for what it's soundtracking! Terada actually got his start making House music in the late 80's and early 90's, producing tracks like Sunshower in '89 that could have easily gone here.

The track I've picked out though is a slightly reworked version of Purple Haze - one of Terada's early solo productions. The original is a little rough 'round the edges, charmingly so with those MIDI Piano stabs leading us in. I'm a little on the fence about the Hendrix sample however, while I do like it I have to say I much prefer the (Edit) that doesn't have it - that said, I'm also sure a big reason for this edit was to avoid having the rights holders coming knocking. The edit is overall much cleaner sounding too as a result of that and some little production tweaks here and there, which I think suits it better in the end - I absolutely adore those lush backing synths that seem to have been designed to directly target the part of me that loves that sound. Only complaints I have is that I would maybe like some build up to the main body of the track as you might expect from a Deep House cut, but I can't deny that I love that this one is all action as soon as you hit play.





And that'll about do it for this time, a shame I couldn't find more actual music streams but at least they're all from official sources. Speaking of, I can't do a deep house post without a least giving honourable mention to Marshall Jefferson's Mushrooms - specifically the Salt City Orchestra Remix, a frequent appearance on my more hi-tech sounding playlists, Mushrooms also has the unique twist of the spoken word storytelling guiding you through the experience. That'll do it for this one, I'll stop myself there because I could go on and on! And of course: As always - Stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Throwback... Wednesday?

Trying to keep up with posting but motivation has been fluctuating, between the new and crap blogger 'redesign' that google is pushing, and the public transport system of my country as reliable as ever (I type, dripping with sarcasm). Anyway, point is that I *was* going to start this yesterday which would have made for a nice alliterative title but it wasn't to be.

Eyvind Earle - The Wave (1990)

So without anymore preamble let's talk about the tunes in question. First is short lived turn of the millennium music 'unit' as they were described SiLC. They dabbled with a wide variety of sounds during their brief run, and all of them very much of the era, running the gamut from moody trip hop to amen break fuelled Drum & Bass to just good old fashioned house. Their penultimate EP, Himegoto has a premium cut of this house sound in the simply titled Vibe, it's a gorgeous little encapsulation of the late 90's house that bled onto the radio. The real highlight however comes after the full force return from the extended breakdown at 3:20, Miki's delivery is just so full of passion it's almost infectious. Something about this one just hit extra special yesterday, which is why I'm talking about it here!



Throwing back further for the next one, long before Soichi Terada would treat us all to his slick brand of Drum & Bass, he produced a track called Sun Shower for Nami Shimada. I've posted it before (with some slightly incorrect information I think), Originally released in 1989, it's had a few represses since then and is surprisingly easy to get hold of thanks to Crème Organization's repress and digital versions. Listen through the slightly dramatic 10 seconds of the intro and what you get is a fantastically retro piece of Deep House, Terada is always good when he's working in that genre and this is no different. Sweeping synths and that driving bassline are surprisingly fresh all things considered. If you'd prefer a pure instrumental to get an unfiltered listen of that goodness there is one included on this EP!



And finally, returning to DMX Krew. I've long loved Ed from DMX's analogue synth noodling, and I dig the whole aesthetic he's going for with it too, think Chromeo but a good ~10 years before them and influenced by retro Electro instead of Funk and you're pretty much there if the cover didn't already tip you off. And to perfectly summarise this even more we have Place Called Love from '98's Nu Romantix. 15 seconds in and you're already greeted by the gorgeous melodic lead that's going to carry through the song, it's one of my all time favourites of Ed's, surprisingly powerful. For the first time in a while we actually have a demo of the one thing I bring up every time I mention DMX Krew and that is the lyrical content. It's not as intentionally ironic here and the vocoder certainly helps with that, the lyrics themselves are a little corny in their content but fitting given the genres it's a love letter to. It's a short album at only 9 tracks (and one of them is a remix of a track not on the album so more like 8), but if it's a crash course 101 into DMX Krew you're looking for - this is a very good jumping in point.



Keeping things consistent for now, but as mentioned before there's a lot of things on the plate at the minute. Going to be mainly midweek and weekend posts from now on I think. But I digress, as always: Stay safe and enjoy the music!

-CVF

Digital Digging

I've been looking through my Bandcamp collection and Wishlist in prep of the upcoming Friday, where they're continuing the tradition they've had recently of waiving their cut of the sales for that day. I've been taking advantage of this because it feels nice to do, and also it turns out having a set date to get music on actually makes me actually decide on things instead of throwing them in the pile of "to get to". Anyway, here are the results of that perusal.

Yiannis Tsaroychis - Cafe "Neon" At Night (1965)
I don't even have that much in my Bandcamp collection but already its easy for things to get a little lost, take The Flashbulb's Love As A Dark Hallway, I picked it up some time ago but then never really mentioned it here. I think the main reason for that is that it was an album I'd loved from afar for a couple of years by the time I got it, so while it was new it wasn't 'new' y'know? To cut a ramble short definitely check out The Flashbulb, Benn Jordan is a fantastic musician and his work under The Flashbulb moniker is often a lovely mix of ambient sensibilities and fairly accessible IDM. I'd almost argue it's easier to introduce folk to the genre with Flashbulb (although now I'm writing this, that's not counting the more melodic Aphex Twin pieces!), all the key elements are there just not as face melty as some others. Pastorial Whiskers almost sounds like it could be something from Squarepusher funnily enough, especially the Hello Everything era with those swooping synths and jazzy bass guitar work. One last side note I do like how Benn included different album art for each individual track for this album, it's a nice touch, a shame most music players don't support it fully though.



It's a similar tale with this next album actually, maybe even a longer one than the above. I first fell in with this one back on Grooveshark of all places, back when it would have been a new release in 2013. For all it's flaws I did really like its recommended system, it was better at showing you new stuff than Spotify at any rate which at least for me gets stuck in a loop of the same few albums and tracks, but I'm digressing again. It's been a while since I listened to it properly, the one album is very much lost in my usual MO of shuffling everything I own. Which is a shame because its a very slickly done slice of Ambient and IDM and is totally in line with that techy sounding vibe I've been after lately. There's definitely more than a bit of Burial influence on here and it sounds a lot like there's a touch of Moderat as well, especially the II album, they were only released a few months apart actually! It can get a little long in the tooth for me on some days, but as you might expect with my recent techy kick I'm very much into it today.



Third verse same as the first! I was a long time admirer of Soichi Terada's work on various soundtracks but his solo work was at that point either only on vinyl, out of print or just tricky to get hold of. Thankfully that's changed in recent times and a compilation of his various solo pieces is now easily grab-able on BC, Sounds From The Far East is essentially a 'best of' of Terada's House works, as much as I love his Drum & Bass from Ape Escape he has a real knack for the slower tempos too. Part of the reason I love Terada's work so much is that it sounds like he has so much fun when making them, something you can hear in the production and is reflected in the album art for this comp too. It's an unfortunate casualty of the digital version having a different tracklist curse, but it's not too hard to find the missing / replaced tracks out there if you're so inclined like I was. There are a ton of tracks I could pick but I went with one of my favourite deep house bits in Purple Haze which wastes no time getting into the swing of things, and is full of the hallmarks of Terada's sound of this era: sweeping synths, big kicks and bouncy basslines.



Something new (to me) to wrap up, once again making me further amend my "I don't like minimal" sign to say "I don't like a lot of minimal" (although this is technically tech house but the point stands if you give it a listen!) I checked out Swayzak based off the electro-poppy State Of Grace and I Dance Alone, and was greeted with this and similar tracks instead. I was surprised for sure, but then again this isn't the first time I've seen an artist make a dramatic 180 in sound. I've yet to take a proper dive in but I have found more than a few tracks to catch my ear that are once again scratching that techy itch I have. Low-Rez Skyline is fairly sedate which makes for really good at-the-computer music, there's a lot of little flourishes and switch ups throughout that keep things fresh and interesting for me. It echoes of one of my other favourite Tech/Deep House pieces: Marshall Jefferson's Mushrooms remixed by Salt City Orchestra, albeit minus the absolutely stellar spoken word element. If you asked me originally I'd say that Skyline could benefit from that type of treatment too, but now I'm not so sure. It's a little lengthy at almost 10 minutes, but that makes it one of the shorter tracks from this album, I could see that being a deal breaker for some and on paper I would include myself in that, but I'm only now beginning to feel it growing stale after my fourth or so listen in a row when prepping this post.



And that'll do us for today. Stay tuned this week as both mine and coincidentally the blog's birthday come up on Saturday, I don't know what if anything I'm gonna do yet but I hope to come up with something. There'll be certainly no party this year that's for sure. And on that note, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Cross Section

Apologies for the slight delays recently, I've been on a bit of a roll with restoring a bunch of blog posts (over 600 republished as of writing!) but unfortunately we're hitting the era where a lot of the posts either have broken soundcloud links b/c they've been taken down (Which I am still republishing, just with a note that they're broke) or even worse have no formatting which makes it an absolute headache to fix the links. Here's a screenshot so that all of you can share my pain as well:

Yeah. So I thought I'd return to form with this original post as I just talk about the kinda stuff I'm listening to as of late. Let's get right in, my techno itch came up something fierce a little while ago as you might have notice from the High Tech Dreams mixtape I did a little while ago, I used that as a springboard to dive further into the work of Mijk Van Dijk. Van Dijk's stuff has been hit and miss with me in the past but the hits have been incredible hits. I chose the album 'Teamwork' as I hadn't yet heard anything from it, as the name suggests it's an album of collaborations, each track is Mijk with another producer. I picked the opening track with Humate (who I'm slightly familiar with from Love Stimulation) so it was looking to be a good time. I love that intro something fierce; partially the gorgeous synth accompaniment that is very Van Dijk, partially the nostalgic if a little cliché Tomb Raider samples that make up the backbone of the track.



Not to play out the High Tech Dreams post again, but I recently replayed Ape Escape 3 for a slice of nostalgia and the soundtrack still holds up incredibly well. It marks the return of Soichi Terada after being absent from the sequel, I always want to describe his soundtracks as suprising given the subject material. They're cutesy games form Japan about catching monkeys, I certainly wouldn't expect it to be home to some absolutely gorgeous Drum & Bass and House, but I suppose that's what you get when you bring an electronic musician in as a composer (And I am not complaining at all!). Gorgeous skittering beats, lush synth pads and a surprisingly thick bassline are the order of the day here, with the fittingly titled Eversummer Island. It cuts off abruptly as do most of these OSTs, mostly because I think they're designed to loop back into themselves.



A recent addition to my listening repertoire, Swayzak were supposed to appear in some form in that High Tech Dreams mixtape mentioned above, but were cut last minute. Currently making me eat my words a little as so many other bands have with my "I don't really like minimal" stance. They also cross over into the world of electroclash a bit in the early 00's which as you all may know is essentially scoring a critical hit on me (Doubly so when one of their works is a collab with Nicola Kuperus of ADULT.). A little lost on where to begin I jumped in on 2000's Himawari which is a suitably high tech treat. I chose State Of Grace to best represent this, I can see how people would lump this in with electroclash, there is a kind of Fischerspooner-esque style to the proceedings, and even some German thrown in there toward the end to suggest that Euro vibe of labels like International Deejay Gigolos. It sounds surprisingly modern for 20 years old now, though Kirsty Hawkshaw Of Opus III fame on the vocals is a bit of a throwback for sure. At least in that department I will say it's a least a little early-mid 00's, regardless it's an all around solid production.



-CVF

High Tech Dreams

It's been a while since I made one of these, I've been putting it off a bit as I refine the tracklist but I think it's looking pretty solid. The overarching theme is once again techy sounding stuff, but unlike in the past where I've focused on actual techno I thought I'd mix it up a little bit this time. Initially inspired by the lush and fragile works of Rei Harakami and Susumu Yokota, their influence is hopefully reflected in my choices of tracks (Definitely considering the amount of soundtrack pieces in there!).

We start off with a bit of Drum & Bass but it's not long before we take a turn into more ambient territory courtesy of Kensuke Ushio, I bring the tempo back up a bit with the gorgeously retro Out Of Phase from Yoko Shimomura before bringing things back down again with some Rei Harakami and others. It was an interesting one to put together, I had a vague idea of the tracks I was going to pick, but there were some final stage switch-arounds and additions. Also trying a different player that should display the track titles as it plays!



Again I will admit I am not the best mixer in the world. I do like some of the transitions and things I have going on here but that's the bias talking! It'll be a while before I get the itch to make another one of these anyway, I've been busy republishing the old archives of the blog so I thought I owed you all something a bit more substantial. Regardless I hope you enjoy the content at least, and maybe find a few new tracks to pique your interest. Full tracklist below:

Tracklist:
Soichi Terada - Mount Amazing 2
E-Z Rollers - Retro
JMJ & Flytronix - In Too Deep
Kensuke Ushio - Fire Witch I
Yoko Shimomura - Out Of Phase
ConcernedApe - Starwatcher (Maru's Theme)
Rei Harakami - Pone
Mitsuto Suzuki - Clear
Susumu Yokota - Tobiume


-CVF

Wrapped With Warmness

It's been a long time since I've done one of these, I've had my head in a tech troubleshooting hole for the better part of a week now. So I thought why not knock out one of those mixtape things I used to make? So over the course of an afternoon I put this together. I'll say what I say in the Mixcloud description: As always I'm no master DJ but I'm pretty happy with the flow of this one! Themed around tunes to keep you toasty as the winter months close in (at least for those of us in the northern hemisphere), it's almost an extension of my 'cosy electronic' stuff I was posting a while back (with Sparks being one of my staples for that) but with some extra upbeat stuff put in. I hope you enjoy, tracklist follows the player!



Tracklist:
Mitsuto Suzuki - Clear
Cornelius - Drop (The Tusen Takk Rework by Kings Of Convenience)
Hajime Hyakkoku - Winter Night In A Warm Room
Röyksopp - Sparks
DMX Krew - December Darkness
Nami Shimada & Soichi Terada - Sunshower
Mondo Grosso - Labyrinth (Album Mix)
The Flashbulb - Let Me Walk You To Your Honda
Yoko Kanno - Strangers
Pascal Michael Stiefel - Fast Food


-Claude Van Foxbat

ilictronix Podcast: Upbeat & 'Ardcore

"Claude brings some smooth deep flavors that pleasantly bring in the new season. Adam tips his fedora for a "EUPHORIC POWER HOUR (I'm so sorry)" and brings some hi-nrg tracks.

Going up a day late because Adam uploaded slightly later than usual (also I fell asleep oops). Regardless we are back for this week! The description he wrote above really does it justice. I continue on my quest to break the mold of what I feel like is stuff I usually pick, mixing it up with a purely upbeat selection for this week, starting with the buttery smooth Mount Amazing 2 from Soichi Terada, and I try my best to keep the vibe of that track alive throughout, keeping things eastern with the first (of what will be many!) appearances of TeddyLoid, taking us on a surprisingly blog-house nostalgia train before checking in with what Shinichi Osawa's up to as of late too. A visit from Philestine too, featuring that deliciously nostalgic 'Show Me Love'-esque organ synth that coloured so many moments of my youth. We round things out in very very smooth fashion too, with back to back tracks from ZHU and Hudson Mohawke. I haven't been able to stop looping the ZHU track for roundabout 2 weeks now, me and Adam also go down memory lane again over the fact its a MSTRKRFT remix, there was a time when they were coming out every week! And we close things out with the out 'n out vibes of HudMo's Scud Books, I mention this in the episode but this is one of those tunes that found me at the perfect time and it will always transport me back to that place. It helps you can get down to it too.

Adam sheds all pretences this week and treats us to an all you can eat buffet of Hardcore & Hi-NRG. Once again I'm emboldened for when I eventually do do that Eurobeat episode I keep talking about (it'll be soon™ I promise). We joke around the topic and all but I'm going to echo what I've said in past episodes about stuff like this; there is no such thing as 'Guilty Pleasure', you like what you like! And don't let anyone make you feel bad for doing so. Here at ilictronix (as you will have heard if you've listened to a couple of these episodes) like a whole ton of the spectrum when it comes to electronic music, and it really shows with how passionate Adam can get when describing some of these. Tracklist as usual below:

Tracklist:
Intro: Soichi Terada - Mount Amazing 2


Claude’s picks:
TeddyLoid - White Out
Mondo Grosso - Labyrinth (Album Mix)
Philestine - Skippy The Bush Kangamoo
ZHU - In The Morning (MSTRKRFT Remix)
Hudson Mohawke - Scud Books


Adam’s Picks
Vibes & Wishdokta - Givin It All I Got
Lone - Melted
Force Mass Motion - The Pressor
Edit V - Burning Love
Jimmy J & Cru-l-t - Take Me Away

Outro:
Kaotic Chemistry - The Come Down




-Claude Van Foxbat

Ilictronix Podcast: The Drum & Bass Showcase

Drum & Bass special! Claude and Adam share some of their favorite Drum and Bass tracks and talk about Flying Lotus and Brainfeeder. Adam digs out some Paradise Garage tracks. Claude goes through his personal history with the Drum & Bass genre.

The ilictronix podcast for this week is a whole mish-mash of all sorts. Completely coincidentally, me and Adam both turn on the spotlight to a bit of a contentious genre within the electronic umbrella: Drum & Bass. I talk about my past and present listenings in the world of D&B, giving a chronological rundown and background for each of my picks, Adam tries to merge the aesthetically opposite genres of Paradise Garage and Drum & Bass bypicking one of each back to back. Along the way we talk Daft Punk's Filmography, the latest info from Flying Lotus about an upcoming album (and break off into a tangent about FlyLo as a whole, particularly his sound evolution and what's what with Brainfeeder), as well as asking what exactly makes 'Liquid' Drum & Bass?

Tracklist:
Intro:
Dom & Roland - Aliens

Claude’s picks:
Soichi Terada - Time Station
E-Z Rollers - Movin' On
Omni Trio - First Contact
Chase & Status - Take Me Away
Netsky - Let's Leave Tomorrow


Adam’s Picks
Beard In Dust & Arsenaii - Hey Hey
Lemon D - This Is LA
Caroll Williams - Have You For My Love
Tango - Understanding
MCB - Time Is Right

Outro:
Everything But The Girl - Blame (Fabio Remix)


Show Notes:
The Moving Shadow mix I was talking about, 01.1, is up on youtube in full, the use of First Contact as the intro hypes me up till this day. And the adaption with a slightly different tracklist and the Afro-Carribean MC that I mentioned being featured in GTA III as MSX FM can be found there too, despite being set in the USA, it does a fantastic job of capturing the feel of a psuedo-pirate radio station, down to the slightly naff audio quality on the MC's mic.

If anyone's really interested in hearing the (admittedly subtle) differences between the release version of Time Station and the in-game one, here's two videos for each version: The released "Originape Soundtracks" version and the in-game one (I could only find this half hour loop unfortunatley). The difference is more pronounced on other tracks from the game, for example the main synth on Crabby Beach is almost completely different. Whether that's a compression to fit on the game disc issue or Terada just re-recorded it I don't know, but interesting nonetheless. I'd love to hear the technical details about the limitations of PS1 audio if I ever get the chance.

The documentary Adam talked about, Jungle Fever, is available online here via Dazed themselves. it features Fabio who remixed the Everything But The Girl track used for the outro, and Grooverider who almost made the cut with my selections, and also has my second favourite mix of the outro track you can find here (though the nly ones I could find are a little different than on the EP: Everything But The Girl - Blame (Grooverider Jeep Mix)

Adam's Twitter bot he mentioned is @garageclassics on twitter, give 'em a follow if you liked what you heard this episode and want your daily dose of more. Twitter is also telling me that Busy P of Ed Banger Records fame follows said bot which makes sense but is still pretty interesting!
And that *should* be that for this week. As I've learned doing these, there may be one or two things I've missed or otherwise forgotten to put in the show notes. If so just stay tuned, I give the episodes a quick run through after the posts go up, and I'll edit this post with updates should I have missed any! That's it until next week, join us once again where Me and Adam will be back with more hot takes and even hotter selections. As always, stay safe and enjoy the music. We'll leave the light on for ya.

-Claude Van Foxbat

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

Soundtrack Sundays (Sorta)

William Scott - Five Pears (1976)

As has been the running theme for a while now, this week's selections are all based around soundtracks. That's not 100% true though, as this first tune doesn't actually appear on a soundtrack, but rather comes from the grammatical mess of an album called Ghost In The Shell Tribute Category: Techno Style. And that title isn't exactly accurate either, there's a whole host of genres on the two compilations released, with one song in particular bordering on being Gabba of all things. But anyway, we're talking about the second tune that System 7 and techno heavyweight Derrick May have on this compilation. I don't think I mentioned this last time but the sound on show in the two tracks they have here reminds me of why as a li'l Foxbat I became enamoured with techno and general electronic music in the first place, it all sounded so futuristic to my young ears. The compilation's from 2004 but I think it carries that 90's future tech sound and sensibility with it, it'd only be right considering the source material for the tribute after all.



Moving onto something I recently dug out of my back-catalogue, The soundtrack for Metal Gear Solid 2 of all things. Truth be told it's actually really interesting to listen to on it's own, it's an odd sounding (on paper) mix of early 2000s cinematic score and electronic elements, due in part to the involvement of Harry Gregson-Williams. Not to discount the other contributions to the soundtrack though, Norihiko Hibino especially has plenty of tracks across the series that can fall under that category. Take Twilight Sniping for example, I can't say I ever gave it my full attention because the part of the game it plays in is pretty tense (and it only appears that once) but now hearing it separate from it's context it's surprisingly laid back, taking a form more akin to a slower Omni Trio track or the like. There's times where the reincorporation of the orchestral elements sounds a little off but overall I think it works out, that bassline is lovely for one.



And finally, yet another example from Soichi Terada. I think this'll be the third time or so I've told the tale of how he was one of if not the first examples of Drum & Bass I heard thanks to Ape Escape. And like Twilight Sniping above, it takes on a whole new life when separated from the context of the visuals. Coral Cave is a frantic tour de force of Terada's style; I'm fairly certain that it's got the fastest beat of all the Ape Escape OST, but carefully balanced with these aquatic themed synths firing off in the background. It's a short one at two minutes dead, but if you hit repeat on your music player it's clearly designed to loop fairly seamlessly as you might expect from a PS1 game. It's definitely one of the highlights of the OST, the whole thing is worth your time but check this one out for certain.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Monkeying Around

Keeping with the soundtrack theme this time, after being informed by former site owner Jordan on twitter that the Ape Escape OST was on spotify I dug it out. The punnily titled Originape Soundtracks came out much much later than the game itself but with good reason, the versions of the tunes on it are slightly jazzed up and re-arranged versions as they're free of the restrictions of having to fit onto a PS1. Now I believe I've mentioned the last few times that Soichi Terada has come up that he's the man responsible for my early exposure to Drum & Bass, and this soundtrack is entirely the reason why, it's not hard to connect the dots between my love of slightly chill spacey sounds and songs like Time Station.



There's plenty more musical archaeology (no pun intended) for the foundations of my musical taste here, I'm certain that Cryptic Relics is at least partially responsible for my love of pitch bends for one. It's also a fantastic demonstration of why Terada's music was a perfect choice for the game, at the risk of repeating myself from last time, he makes it seem incredibly effortless and the end result is once again as at home as a soundtrack as it is on it own. It does however also fall prey to the same issue that affects the entire release, it's a whopping 43 tracks long but to fit all them in they're all incredibly short. I thought that being freed from the limitations of the Playstation would call for extensions but that isn't the case unfortunately, get your fingers ready to repeat.



The other thing I adore about the OST is it's a lovely little time warp to it's own era. Songs like Peak Point Matrix just ooze this pre-millennium atmosphere, the smooth intro sounds like it could be part of a demo disc's opening attract movie. I know I always revisit points like that and it makes me sound like a colossal nostalgia nerd but like I said before, when I was a wee one, demo discs and the like were where I found the little bits and pieces of electronic music that would set me on this path to begin with so it only follows that I have a major soft spot for it. Plus I feel like I owe Mr. Terada some thanks too.



And playing us out, possibly the most Ape Escape encapsulating song of the bunch, Crabby Beach. It actually opens the album which is a masterful move because that little melody that plays is one of the first that jump into my mind when I think of the series (although truth be told I do slightly prefer the sounds of the actual game's version over this one). Like all tunes on here it's a little on the short side, but there's a heck of a lot going on in that 1:42 of runtime.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Go East

Aki Kuroda - CONTI/NUIT/É IV (1979)

Shout out to my shuffle today for serving up an impromptu theme. All today's selections hail from Japan, starting off with a bit from Soichi Terada's fittingly titled retrospective Sounds From The Far East. I always get indecisive about whether to say Terada's tunes are inspired by video games or the reverse, a lot of his stuff has an 'arcadey' feel for want of a better term and he is responsible for the Ape Escape soundtrack on PS1 so I feel it it could go either way. Anyway, a rare non-Drum & Bass offering from him this time, a relatively slow house type number that shows off a little of what I mentioned above.



Second, another part from Cornelius' soundtracks from Ghost In The Shell: Arise. There's some gorgeously smooth pieces sprinkled throughout, (the intro to this one is absolutely fantastic for one) and a whole lot more with vocal accompaniment to boot. Appearing on Heart Grenade is Sean Lennon of all folks, wouldn't say he'd be my first choice, then again I haven't heard any of his stuff prior to this. Despite my initial concern he actually compliments the track fairly well in all honesty, wonder if he'll show up in any more electronic things in future.



And finally something a little more cliché, I've posted this one before and I am still unashamedly in love with it. The introduction is pure distilled late 90's trance, which granted I do have a nostalgic soft spot for, but if it's not your bag it only shows up at the intro and outro. The rest of the 9:10 run-time is a crash course in the techno sound of the era courtesy of Mijk Van Dijk, both longer and smoother sound wise than it's For Boys counterpart on the same EP, out of the two this one is still my favourite.



-Claude Van Foxbat