A Short post about Shorts

Making my way through a big ol' pile of emails that have accrued over time, whittling through the many Bandcamp ones at the minute - part of the reason they pile up is that I never like to bin a 'new release from x' one without at least checking it out first.

I did a double take when I read the description for this one - a new release from Squarepusher x Adam Buxton? An oddity to be sure. A little context for those unaware, Adam Buxton is a comedian, best known for his array of musical earworms - every so often I catch the infectious Moby Song creeping into my skull. Suffice to say, not the first choice that comes to mind when thinking about a collaboration with Squarepusher (though saying that, the Moby Song does have the amen break in it, so maybe not a million miles removed!)

So what's on the menu when Buxton meets 'Pusher's brand of breaks? Well, we're treated to a mashed rework of My Red Hot Car for starters, which is one of my favourites from SP anyway. Here, it's been reformed into a short form sub 50-second number, in keeping with Adam's 'Jingle' format. Buxton's lyrical accompaniment is typically silly - making the whole thing closer to something 'Pusher's brother would make; some of the Ceephax tracks are definitely a bit of a piss-take. Truth be told it works pretty well, the rework of Red Hot Car is brilliant and Buxton's accompaniment retains that earworm-y nature of his other jingles, it's only been a couple of days and I can already tell that the shoutout of "Middle aged man legs!" is going to join the Moby Song in repeating on me randomly in the years to come.



It's not just an audio shitpost though, the reason behind this collab is laid clear on the tune's bandcamp page: "HotBox in Chelmsford, Essex is a welcoming venue for live entertainments and revelry which stands out a nautical mile. It's an essential lifeline for local culture, but like many smaller venues in the UK saddled with post-lockdown debt, it is finding it more and more difficult to stay in business. So please offer a donation and in return we offer this short piece as a token of appreciation. Let's help HotBox remain the local community's top spot!" It's not embeddable so you'll have to visit the page to get the legit player, but at £0.50, it's well worth adding to your own collection.

I've still got other stuff in the pipeline, it's looking like it might be a series of bandcamp-less players unfortunately, but in one case there might be another stream I can use, we'll see when the time comes. In the meantime, I hope you've liked this short look at Shorts - and until next time, as always, stay safe and enjoy the muisc.

-CVF

Bite-sized Bits 12

Karl Benjamin - Black & Gray Curves with Purple (1960)

I don't think I can overstate how much I appreciate Warp's appearance on Bandcamp. Of course there's a bit of bias there as my love for the label is well documented over the past decade and a bit - but it's made pulling up stuff to talk about that much easier, from the relatively obscure to the slightly overlooked, to things I just plain haven't managed to mention over the years there is plenty of material to talk about.

Enter the Port Rhombus EP - Squarepusher's first release on Warp after a couple of EPs under other aliases and the stellar Feed Me Weird Things on Aphex's Rephlex label - decked out in that trademark Warp Purple and sporting an unassuming cover you could be forgiven for overlooking it. But my oh my, what a debut it was, title track Port Rhombus wastes no time in getting into Squarepusher's unique brand of properly mangled Drum & Bass that he was making at the time. It's contrasted with these lovely delicate syths and some solitary twangs that get plenty of time to shine during a couple of extended breakdowns - I might not be as into the beat butchery as I was back when I was first discovering Warp's back-catalogue, but I must admit I do have a lot of love for this one for that, the backing behind the beats is just lovely.



Perhaps not the best starting point if you're looking to explore Squarepusher's work (I'd recommend Feed Me Weird Things or the Big Loada EP for that - though interestingly the Port Rhombus EP was included as bonus tracks on the USA version of Big Loada) but a quality bit of 'pusher nonetheless. Not to mention an interesting bit of history too, it's odd to imagine a time where Squarepusher wasn't one of Warp's mainstays after all. He's adopted a lot of different genres over the years, but for many this kind of wild D&B will always be that quintessential Squarepusher sound.

The rest of the EP is pretty great as well, though the title track does absolutely steal the show - Problem Child sees a return to Feed Me Weird Things style jazzy breaks ran through a blender with Squarepusher's bass noodling over the top of it, give it a look! And that'll be all for this time, I'll be back tomorrow with another Bite-sized bit - until then, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Plus One More

That time of year again where synchronicity shines through and by happy coincidence both myself and the blog tally getting one more year older on the calendar on the same day. I hope I don't sound especially sentimental when I say that this blog has been a massive part of my life - I think I'm coming up on 10 years of writing this year? It's pretty wild to think about. But that's part of the appeal to me, sure I might wince a bit at my teenage writings - but what I have here is a written log of my electronic music journey, one that's going to continue for many more years to come.

Sir Terry Frost - Umea, Sweden (1979)

We've both come a long way since the days of bloghouse where I got my start. Genres have come and gone in the years since, but I like to think I've been pretty consistent. Though we are going to take a break from my usual format this time and do what I normally do around the blog's birthday (and some seasonal holidays) a good old fashioned track dump like it's 2010. Basically I'm just gonna be throwing down a whole bunch of tracks from across the genre spectrum - some classics that I've had for longer than I've been writing here to new(ish) stuff and everything in-between. Thanks for reading, and here's to many more of these to come.

Kicking off with a bit of synthwave from Carpenter Brut. Brut's stuff has a lot in common with the electro house of old in terms of sound, his brand of synthwave (at least in this Trilogy era) is free of the more super cliché bits that can be pitfalls of the genre - Brut's slasher film aesthetic is a nice change of pace from the usual pink grids, pastel sunsets and cocaine white Countaches that come with the territory. I'm not as into the scene as I was back when this was new circa 2015 so take that comment with a grain of salt and all. The entire Trilogy compilation is a fantastic crash course into the world of Brut, gathering up his first three EPs into one tight package that I would say is near essential if you're at all into the genre.

While I do love his more abrasive work on tracks like Turbo Killer and the first of his I ever heard, the brutal sounding Roller Mobster - I've gone with a different pick this time. Looking For Tracy Tzu has much more of a cinematic feel than those two (not entirely unexpected though, given Brut's obvious horror flick influences), but even so still finely demonstrates Brut's mastery of his own style, one of my favourites and just a fantastic track from a fantastic compilation.



A find from my eary bandcamp days (and one that's been on my wishlist for a shamefully long time as well), when I started to broaden my horizons a little bit in the vast and infinite world of bandcamp. One of many tracks that have made me eat crow and walk back my "minimal isn't really my bag" statement (one that's still kind of true) - Antigone & François X's We Move As One. The title track is a woozy sea of arpeggios, and my choice for this post Journey Home follows that same methodology but with a thudding 4/4 instead of the hazy ambience of the former. A colossal 7 minute number, it's utterly hypnotic in its execution, effortlessly building to peaks and crashing down into valleys - another one of those tracks that again make me fall in love with electronic music all over again with it's atmosphere. A stellar piece that makes me all wistful for the dancefloor.



Onto one of the older ones here, Misstress Barbara's Never Could Have Your Heart. This one came into my life when I was beginning to branch back out into the world of electronic music, back then I was only really listening to stuff that I'd picked up from when more electronic stuff would bleed onto the radio - your Daft Punk and friends kinda deal. I don't know the exact year I found this one but it can't be later than the early 00's, it was one of those magical moments where it solidified why I liked electronic music - I instantly could tell that I loved this sound and wanted more of it. I dig it out from time to time, and the love I have for it is still strong - that melody is so, so good and it was so much heavier than the more disco-influenced house I was familiar with at the time. And it all came full circle eventually, as I learned that the melody that I liked so much from this one is actually sampled or otherwise taken from Move's D's In/Out (Initial Mix) (around 2:20 if you want to skip straight to it) which is also another great record.



What is there to say about Nightmares on Wax that I haven't already said over the years? A hometown hero of mine, generally nice bloke and provider of solid downtempo stuff for well over 20 years at this point. I've picked one from Smokers Delight again, one of the trio of albums that I have signed by the man himself and a quite easy and comfortable entry on my 10 top 10s list. An early highlight, Pipes Honour remains one of my first go-to tracks from the album, from the get go it establishes itself as one of the heralds of what the albums all about - if the title of it and the artwork didn't give enough indication already. Together they make for one damn near essential piece of downtempo history, whether you partake of the titular smoking or not - if you are at all into anything downtempo I can highly recommend both this and the follow up album Carboot Soul for your collection. Another one with a deceptively thick bassline, run this one through your sub for a quick and easy way to dust your shelves!



Closing out this section with another easy entry on my 10 10s list, The Knife's Silent Shout. Another exercise in aesthetic perfection, the complete polar opposite of the bubblegum electropop of Deep Cuts, Silent Shout is a much moodier affair - loaded with cool electronics and a melancholy tinge to the lyrics and delivery. Silent Shout draws from a much wider sound pool than Deep Cuts, there are fragments of all kinds of genres on here from Trance to Ambient - but as seen through the lens of The Knife.

Silent Shout also sees Karin & Olof refine their work on the vocal front, on the previous two albums there were a few tracks that played around with Karin's voice, pitch shifting it around in order to play different roles - it's a technique that worked really well (and would continue to do so on Karin's solo project Fever Ray) but here it's refined even more, and the duo lock in to a sound that not only compliments the sound and atmosphere of the album, but lends weight to the lyrical content and themes as well. There is no better demo of what I've just mentioned than the title track itself: they synths are just fantastic, and the sound of Karin dueting with her simultaneously pitched-down and pitched-up selves is a strong contender for my favourite vocal treatment of all time. It's transitioned into track 2 of the album as I type this and I cannot overstate how much I love this album, the opening combo of the first four tracks is just flawless and an incredible experience. The Knife came to me at a weird time in my life but I'm ever so glas to have found them.



Rounding out with two more entires to bring things full circle. Warp has been a major staple of my listening history over the years and as a result a big part of my history with the blog as well - I spent an entire year writing album reviews of classic Warp albums not long after I first started after all. I've not been the best at keeping up with what's new from them as I used to just because I'm a heck of a lot busier these days than when I was a teen, but I've made the effort to rectify that recently and I have not been disappointed.

Squarepusher's latest EP Lamental was an early hightlight of me getting back on the Warp train, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect going in though, as anyone with a passing knowledge of Squarepusher's work can tell you he can swing wildly in sound from one release to the next. Still, I had heard Midi Sans Frontieres a while back when he was giving out the stems for it, so I checked it out based on the strength of that. It's a very solid EP and serves as a whirlwind tour of Squarepusher's many sounds over the years - opening with The Paris Track, evocative of his older Drum & Bass style works a la A Journey To Reedham from the Big Loada EP but twinned with those new squelchy synths he's so fond of. A downright beautiful ambient piece in Detroit People Mover, which I appreciate a whole lot as the rare times he does take on the genre it is always beautiful - see Tommib for proof of that. A solo guitar piece rounds out the retrospective tour, Les Mains Dansent could easily have been one of the handful of classical guitar bits featured on Ultravisitor, it's most similar to the closing track Every Day I Love in my opinion.

I'm not going to lie, the sort of look back over his discography has tinted my opinion of this EP quite a bit as it made me all nostalgic for those days when I was exploring all that Warp had to offer (and loving it!). I've chosen Midi Sans Frontieres (Avec Batterie) this time, it and it's ambient-style cousin (just called Midi Sans Frontieres) close out the tracklist and I adore them both. This version with the beat recalls bits of Ultravisitor again, the jazzy nature reminding me of Iambic 9 Poetry. It's far from his 'Drill & Bass' of old, but I really like the sound of this EP and am interested to hear where Squarepusher goes next.



I did the same with another of my Warp favourites - Daniel Lopatin's long time ambient / avant garde project Oneohtrix Point Never. I first found OPN via the Rifts compilation released in 2009, a gathering of his first few albums into one huge set. I actually bought my copy through Bleep, Warp's official distributor that used to deal only in digital music but merged with the physical store Warpmart a while ago now. I distinctly remember thinking at the time that OPN would make a great addition to Warp's roster, a feeling that only got stronger as I dove into his previous works and the Rifts comp started making waves. It wasn't long before that actually happened, and since then Lopatin has gone from strength to strength - even branching out into film soundtracks in recent years. OPN's work can be experimental to a fault at times, though I think both the Rifts compilation and R Plus Seven are fairly accessible if you want to get into his overall sound (and personally I think R Plus Seven is some of his finest work).

But we're getting away from the point, I haven't really checking in to a full release from Lopatin since around the release of R Plus Seven which is coming up on nearly 10 years old at this point. I think I did check out his two follow up albums in passing when they came out but like so many other records I intend to look into ended up on the back burner - so this time I did the same strategy as I did with Squarepusher and dove right into the latest EP of his, Nothing's Special. It's not a long one at just two tracks, one of which is just the album version of the track so I thought it'd be an easy entry.

It is just fantastic. I was rapt from the opening alone but that only continued as the track went on, I'm totally in love with it. e OPN has played with vocals previously in the past - normally heavily distorted as on the original version of Returnal or the cut up samples of the Replica album - though his work for the Good Time soundtrack featured an almost spoken work collaboration with Iggy Pop in The Pure And The Damned that sort of leads directly into this one. Damned is fantastic in its own right, the small bits of that iconic Juno sound from OPN's early work never fails to make me smile.

But as I mentioned, Nothing Special feels like a refinement of that. The original has more in common with Returnal as mentioned above, albeit not as distorted - this time the vocals getting a melodic auto-tune-esque treatment and some great subtle and not-so-subtle glitch artifacts that sound amazing too. For me though, the real highlight is the new version for this EP, a collaboration with Rosalía taking over the vocals. Of the two, I think this one is easily my favourite (Shocking, I know given my bias towards treated vocals), there's nothing wrong with the original but Rosalía makes the whole thing feel so much more passionate. OPN's subtle and delicate treatment of her voice is nothing short of brilliant as well, rather than swimming in autotune as the original was, here it's more selectively applied along with the subtle glitch artifacts as well, the whole thing comes across like a merging of humanity with technology which I just love, I've been unable to stop coming back to this one over the past week or so.



Perhaps not a track dump in the traditional sense, but more than I normally put up and of a much wider variety as well. Plus, I let myself write more than usual this time too, so apologies for the big gap between the last post and this one. As I close out this post I just want to drop a quick thank you to all that read - whether you're fairly new or a long time veteran, your interest is greatly appreciated! I love being able to write out my thoughts like this on all kinds of electronic music, the blog has been a major rock for me over the years and now more than ever have I needed it, and my music collection as a whole. Likewise, I hope that it's provided some consistency and levity in your own lives as well. Not to get too overbearingly sentimental or really parasocial on you or nothing though!

Once again, here's to many more years of these to come. I'll be back around soon enough as usual with more tales and tunes but until then - as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Feed Me Weird Things at 25

Been waiting for this one to drop so I could do a quick rundown. Squarepusher's debut Feed Me Weird Things from 1996 has been given a shiny new re-release for 2021. Like a couple of the DMX Krew albums I've talked about in the past, Feed Me... was previously a Rephlex exclusive which meant it was a little rarer than usual as until now it had never been repressed either. I picked up a second hand copy years ago now, it's interesting to see it come back, I was under the impression that Squarepusher might have felt the same way about it that Autechre do about their early stuff - not really bothered with it as they feel like it doesn't reflect their current sound or style.

Though that's never really been a thing with Squarepusher, who often has wild variation in genres from album to album. Having said that, Feed Me is an interesting curio nonetheless, and an early example of Squarepusher's founding style - one that would go on to inform his more popular works heading into the 00's.

This isn't going to be a super in depth dive (or at least, I'm not planning for it to be one as I type this!), but I thought I'd just mention some of the standout tracks on here. While there are some tracks I could take or leave, it's also home to some of the 'Pusher's finest work, Warp and Squarepusher announced this reissue with one of the strongest ones in Theme From Ernest Borgnine - one of the more conventional Drum & Bass pieces from the album.

But let's talk about the opening of the album for now. The simply titled opening Squarepusher Theme is chock full of bombastic bassy twangs, and the Bass accompaniment is something that would continue throughout Squarepusher's discography to this day. I can't for the life of me remember where I saw/read/heard this so take it with a grain of salt - but I do remember an interview with Squarepusher where he mentioned his early experiments with electronic music were him sitting in front of a computer and playing his bass alongside it. And it's that methodology you can clearly hear on this track: the funky licks and skittering breaks are an obvious sign of the direction he would take on subsequent albums. There's a certain charm to this track that's very refreshing, compared to some IDM out there that is deeply technical and sometimes very dark sounding, Squarepusher Theme sounds like an absolutely blast, and I'm sure it was as fun to make too. It's still a fantastic listen all these years later.



As is so often the case when I write things like that though, it is going to immediately bite back at me in the next paragraph. By comparison Tundra is one of those dark sounding technical tracks I just mentioned, albeit not quite as hard on the tech front - like Theme From Ernest Borgnine this one too errs more on the conventional Drum & Bass side of things. Perhaps not quite as catchy as the boogie of Squarepusher Theme but I still have a lot of love for it, this kind of menacing vibe is one that would get refined on later releases - most obviously with the release of a sequel Tundra 4 many years later. My personal favourite of the tracks that came from this same vibe is I Wish You Could Talk. The melodic breaks here really stand out to me, there's a certain sound to them that comes up again and again on this album and it's gorgeous, there's one specific track I'm going to talk about next that will show this off in a very beautiful fashion.



I say this every time I have an opportunity to bring this track up, but it bears repeating. There are precious few full on ambient pieces in Squarepusher's discography compared to other folks in the IDM sphere, but those few are all spectacular. Goodnight Jade is the one for this album, and it's just excellent. A stark contrast to the frantic technological jitters of North Circular that comes before it on the tracklist - Goodnight Jade shares a lot of DNA with the later ambient track, namely Tommib, they both share this distant hazy quality, which is even more pronounced on Goodnight. 'Pusher's ear for melodies stands out again here, but unlike on Tundra it gets plenty of time to shine here. Just wonderful.



One thing I will say about this album is that it's super varied - that's again something that's carried on through Squarepusher's career. U.F.O.'s Over Leytonstone treats us to yet another darker sounding tune but this time with a 180 in tempo. It perhaps meanders a bit but I still like the sound a whole lot, though I did pick up this album when I was heavy into Trip Hop so that might have coloured my opinion somewhat. I do to this day love the little bit of a cheeky 303 at about 3:30 - and it pains me that it doesn't come in at 3:03 instead. I feel like it could have been sprinkled throughout a bit more actually, considering my praises of the melodic side of this album this track doesn't really have much on that front.



And finally, I thought I'd talk about something from this album that I haven't mentioned before with the two formerly Japan exclusive bonus tracks for the album, but they were released on a vinyl-only EP as well around the time called Squarepusher Plays... as well. I remember not being too hot on them way back when, but they are each fine additions to the album, especially if you're looking for more stuff like Squarepusher Theme. Theme from Goodbye Renaldo starts that way, with some very obvious funk influence that makes it sound like the soundtrack to a 70's car chase - but it ends up gives you the best of both worlds, as by the 2:30 mark those now hallmark keys come into the mix, and by the 3 minute mark the breakbeats have all completely fallen away leaving just those solitary notes. The beats do slide back into the mix in due time, but that extended downtempo break is just right for me - it even comes back towards the end to boot.



Deep Fried Pizza however, is out and out that Drum & Literal Bass that defines this early era of Squarepusher. I can see why this one wasn' included on the album, while it shares that same methodology the acutal sound is quite a bit different from the main body of Feed Me. The Jazz influence that underpins a lot of Squarepusher's work is firmly on display here, and that might be a little much if you've just come for the Drum & Bass style which I can totally understand, there are times where I'm not feeling tunes like this and skip over them. Still, this is a welcome addition regardless - not only becuase it lets you look over and see the progression of ideas over the man's discography, but also becuase now there's a more readily accessible and complete version of the album out there to potentially influence a whole new host of folks.



I've skipped over a fair bit of the album because otherwise this post would get even longer than it already is, it's a great little piece of it's time though that is definitely worth checking out - if you're looking for more in this kind of style I can also recommend Luke Vibert's Drum 'n' Bass For Papa under the Plug alias from around the same time, it too takes that Jazzy D&B style and really runs with it, though Vibert's work on there tends to lean more towards the actual Drum & Bass side of things as you might have guessed from the length of that one I linked. I'm pretty sure it was reissued a while ago so is easier to find, Vibert also resurrected the alias about 9 years ago for another album in the same style that's pretty great too, Feeling So Special was my favourite from that.

And with that, I think that wraps us up for now. A little longer than I would have liked with that unplanned last paragraph and all but that's how it goes these days isn't it? I'll be back soon with more but until then: As always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

New, Old and back again

Ozdemir Atlan - Reality (1974)

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

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



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

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



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

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



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

-CVF

What's in my (digital) bag

First Bandcamp Friday of the year yesterday, and I had plenty of stuff to go at thanks to the extra month of prep time and Warp Records making most of their catalogue available there too. I got some usual suspects this time - things I've mentioned in previous posts (partly as a reminder to myself!) and things I'd been generally eyeing. Some non-electronic stuff in there too but I won't be talking about those too much. So - What's in the bag?

Sam Francis - From Tokyo #3 (1970)

Despite the art chosen for this post, there's no Yokota or Rei Harakami this time - instead we have Squarepusher. I talked a bit about the Lamental EP when it was near release and a couple of times since, and those posts focused on two tracks in particular - MIDI Sans Frontieres and Detroit People Mover. The reason I kept talking about these tracks is that they are absolutely divine pieces of Ambient, and I've been saying for years that every time Squarepusher turns his hand to that kind of sound it's always brilliant and leaves me wanting more. That's not to say that the EP is full on Ambient though - the (Avec Batterie) version of MIDI Sans... gives it a beat reminiscent of tracks like Iambic 9 Poetry from Ultravisitor, or the Jazzier parts of Just A Souvenir. Between the two I can't say which I like more, they compliment each other really well - though I will concede that Avec is certainly the more Squarepusher sounding of the two.

There's another great ambient guitar piece on the EP too - once again evoking Every Day I Love and Tommib Help Buss from Ultravisitor. 'Les Mains Dansent' is a short little interlude almost in the middle of the track list, it's short but really lends this very heartfelt atmosphere to the EP. Not that I haven't been a fan of Squarepusher's more recent work, though I admit I haven't really listened in a lot of depth, but it's an absolute delight to hear his return to this kind of sound.

Anyway, the track in question I'm going to actually post today is the opener - The Paris Track. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect going in (when do you ever with a Squarepusher release though?), his more recent work has run the gamut from dark electro to acoustic (or at least, played on instruments) versions of his old material with Shobaleader One. Paris Track seems to bridge that gap for me, the opening is very much in the style of the rest of this EP - smooth but haunting synths guiding us in. However once the meat of the track hits around 50 seconds in the whole thing becomes undeniably Squarepusher with an injection of slightly acidic synth accompaniment, I know a lot of fans have been disappointed with some of the changes in sound on newer releases, and to me I feel like this almost bridges the gap between the two. This track could have almost been a B-Side from Hello Everything, the structure itself is very much old-school 'Pusher - not quite as intense 'Drill & Bass' of Come On My Selector perhaps, but definitely more familiar. I'm very happy with this EP, if the album accompanying it, Be Up A Hello is at all similar I may have to add that soon too



Another scoop this week was more from E.R.P. - better known as Convextion. I've been slowly drop-feeding myself all things E.R.P. because so far every single release I've heard is like a direct line to that part of me that loves that early 90's ambient techno that Warp was pioneering and the Pith EP has been no different - it too is full of those spacey vibes that I love oh so much. Having said that, the main body of this EP is much more on the pure Electro side of things than the usual brand of stuff I post when talking about this specific genre, the opening track Luctu wouldn't have sounded out of place on the Elektroids LP on Warp (the Elektroids themselves being the legendary Gerald Donald and James Stinson). It hits a great balance of E.R.P.'s lush, sometimes melancholic synths with these newfound electro stabs, this is new and differnet territory for my listening of E.R.P., but I am very much into it!

Tuga is the prime example of this - I immediately slammed it into my playlist of futuristic electro. It's as if you took all my favourite Doppelerffekt tracks and combined them here, albeit perhaps not quite as dark. not to repeat myself but tracks like this really appeal to me, this is the kind of stuff I was fascinated by when I was younger and as I say every time, to me this is still the sound of the future. Title track Pith also epitomises this for me, perhaps even stronger. By far and away the track that's most Ambient Techno on the EP, it embodies that ideal I mentioned in the first half of that forward looking kind of techno from the 90's. It is definitely tied for my favourite on the EP, and it only just missed being posted literally as I type this. I do love it, but at times that beat can get a little repetitive for my liking, not all the time but still. With that in mind, I'm going to have to go back one step to the bouncy Tuga.



Cheating a bit for the final one. One thing I did do this time was finally get around to replacing the vintage Sébastien Tellier remixes I had from way back in the blog days with proper decent quality ones. But those have already been posted to death and just a touch more than a decade ago(!) too. So instead I thought I'd shine a light on another Warp release I think is worth your time now that it's more easily accessible, I picked up a physical copy a long time ago so it's not technically 'in my bag' as it were!

Plone are a fairly obscure entry in the world of Warp Records, I originally became aware of them as they were supporting acts for some Broadcast gigs back when (so you'll find them recommended if you ever get really into Broadcast) - and Mike Bainbridge of Plone also played Keyboards for their live shows in the Haha Sound era. They are more electronic than Broadcast for certain but they are most definitely sonic cousins at the very least - much like Boards Of Canada, Plone's sound originally is all tinged with nostalgia, full of vintage keyboards but with a distinctly more pop style overall - much like the Polyphonic Size track I talked about a while back now I think about it. It's been a long time since I talked about them but that's pretty much how I sum them up: theirs is a very unique and playful style of electronic that I didn't really see replicated until the 2010's.

The oddest part of the Plone story however is how it just suddenly stops. They looked as if they were set to become yet another staple act on Warp, their sound was a nice compliment to the lineup they were building, and Plone would release successful singles, an album and even contributed to the 10th anniversary Warp10 and We Are Reasonable People (WAP100) compilations. But after that, they pretty much just disappeared, their time on Warp only being around 2 years total. There is an unreleased second album floating around the internet, there's no solid proof it's legitimate (but if it's a fake, the sound is imitated almost perfectly) but things went quiet after that. They did however return out of nowhere in 2019 and announce that they would be releasing a new album Puzzlewood on Ghost Box in 2020. A surprising return to be sure, but a happy one. Though true to myself I have yet to check out the new album yet!

Their debut, For Beginner Piano is an ideal (and until recently, the only) place to hear this playful sound in action. Tracks like Plock just radiate that vintage, slightly weird electronic pop vibe that you might have heard courtesy of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. I've picked Marbles to post - it's as good a demonstration as any track from the album. I especially love this one because I have a bootleg recording of it from a Peel Session that they did, and hearing a track like this on a slightly tinny and radio compressed recording only enhances that atmosphere. Plone is a little ray of sunshine in musical form, and if the weather where you are is anything like how it is today for me, I think we could all do with some right about now.



Righto, so it goes for another Bandcamp Friday. In hindsight I should maybe actually post these on the day but hopefully if you dig them, you can wishlist them for the next Friday at the very least. Apologies for the slightly bigger gap this week, I was hanging on for this and also hashing out ideas for another mixtape so it shouldn't be as long next time.

And as always - Stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

The Pang of Nostalgia

Paul Guiragossian - Dans la Nuit or Nostalgie (1986)

I've been working on re-publishing all the old entries of the blog which is why this post is a little later than normal - it's something I've been putting off recently, it's not difficult or anything, just a bit tedious (and marred by technical glitches such as Soundcloud changing how their embeds work meaning old player from like 2014 no longer work but I won't bore you with the full tech details). All that to say that looking over past posts, I can't help but appreciate how much I've changed (and likewise, how much has stayed the same) - there are posts from the early 10's where I put only one sentence before a track! Contrast to now where I think if anything I'm too wordy at times.

And that got me all nostalgic for the types of posts I used to do where I just threw down some tunes without any sort of connecting thread - just a 'what I've got on' kind of vibe. Granted, now I think about it the last few posts I've done could be categorised as that but let's do it anyway! First we have something that just barely missed being on the algorithms post (and the Spacey one too!) - it was recommended to go in one of the many playlists I have and while it sort of fit the overall vibe of the playlist it wasn't 100% right for it. Still I couldn't help but be entranced by it, takes a little while to get going but once it does it's a gorgeous piece of lumbering dark electro. I sheepishly admit that this is the first I'd heard of Andrea Parker so I looked her up out of curiosity, and while she hasn't put anything out in quite a while there is plenty to get stuck into in her discography. Another one for me to put on the ever expanding list.



I've been listening to a fair bit of Client recently too - I was originally planning to make a Retro Review of this or another of their albums but that fell a little by the wayside. Similar to Andrea they haven't released anything for a while but their work is harder to come by - being on of the few acts I was surprised to find aren't on Bandcamp. About the band themselves - I just adore Client's overall aesthetic - I've mentioned before I am an absolute sucker for that early 00's retro electronic revival so there is some bias there. But it's not just the sound that I love about Client, it's the escalation of the visual side of things too. Bands of this era may have done visual shout-outs to Kraftwerk by dressing in uniform and looking vaguely disinterested, but Client take it further by fully embracing the often-hinted at fetish side of things (in case the album art didn't make that obvious already). My bias is showing again perhaps, but the combination of the business-wear come uniform styles, garnished with leather and latex absolutely go hand-in-hand with this breed of electronic for me. It's most definitely in the same vein as Nicola Kuperus of ADULT.'s work for their album covers - she too has a slightly fetishistic and surreal presentation to her photography that is beautifully twinned with their more punky electronic.

Back to the tune itself though, I remember City being a fairly bleak album in terms of content which in hindsight was probably just the single Radio sticking out in my mind. I put the album back in rotation not too long ago and was presently surprised by One Day At A Time coming up on shuffle a couple of days ago. I'd hesitate to call it a positive vibe but it's certainly more upbeat than other parts of the album and definitely doesn't telegraph that Fetish angle I talked about above. I love the vocal delivery on here, parts of City have that stoic style that was in at the time again harkening back to Kraftwerk, but then more melodic tracks like One Day At A Time shine brighter for it.



And finally, I've been revisiting Squarepusher's latest EP again since it's release. Not to sound like a broken .mp3 but once again I cannot stress enough how much I love his ambient work, there's precious little of it, but every single one is just brilliant. The Lamental EP is by far the biggest selection we've had of it from Squarepusher for a long while, with MIDI Sans Frontières leading the charge in glorious form. I had the chance to see this video for Detroit People Mover premiere way back in April when I first posted about it, and it remains as powerful if not more so these months later. The EP title rings true, the whole thing feels like mourning - I don't know what video they had planned originally, but this backup one they put together as the lockdown hit is beautifully poignant. The combination of vintage photos and lush synths seems more like something from Boards Of Canada than Squarepusher of all Warp acts, but I would love to hear more of this more delicate sound from Squarepusher in future. Then again, he has never been one to stick to a sound for too long though.





And that'll about do it for this one. I'm slowly working through the archives as before (only 1300-ish posts left to go!) so the next one may be a re-post of a really old one. Apologies in advance, both for the re-run and any horrific writing contained therein from a teenage me, I'll try my best to not go full George Lucas and editorialise them to hell and back!

But as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

October Relics

Hi there, as predicted things have been a bit all over the place. I'm going to try and sit down now and prepare some things for the coming week however, starting with yet another round of 'things I found on my drive when cleaning up that I thought were neat'. This time it's another 'Radio Claude' style mixtape - the idea of which I shamelessly stole from Miss Kittin (minus me doing slightly sultry spoken word over the top of parts of the mix). I say it every time one of these comes up but they are an interesting look at my 'listening to' of certain periods. This one's about a year old I think, and clearly I was on a bit of an 'IDM' kick (though when am I *not* on one?), there's a lot of familiars here: Squarepusher, Aphex Twin and other folks from Warp.

Again, the mix isn't perfect, I just put them together in a couple of afternoons. This one in particular I think I salvaged part of from a program crash (which is why the transition into the Global Goon track is a bit... sudden.) But at any rate, the content is good if you can forgive a bit of rough handling of them. Full tracklist after the player:



TRACKLIST:
Aphex Twin - Yellow Calx
Modeselektor - Don't Panic
Autechre - Nine
Plaid - Ralome
Global Goon - Long Whiney
Squarepusher - Goodnight Jade


I'm in the process of writing another post straight after this one that I'll try schedule throgh the week, I have a couple of quiet patches so it should be easy to slot in somewhere if I don't finish it in one go. And finally, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Above and Before

It's been a long time since I've put one of these together, here's a cross section of things I've been listening to recently loosely tied together sound wise, a sort of sequel to the old Shuffle posts I used to make. Some are new, some are old but either way I hope you find something to pique your interest. Let's go.

Ivan Aivazovsky - Clouds above a sea calm (1899)

Starting with something new; finally got around to picking up the expanded edition of Everything But The Girl's Walking Wounded, which comes with a whole host of demos, remixes and live recordings. As 'deluxe editions' go it's a solid package, the album alone is great never mind with all the extras.

Of that second disc there are some real highlights, the live recordings are lush for starters but what we're here to talk about today is this demo that I've been unable to get out of my head. Presumably a demo version of what would become opening track 'Before Today' based on the lyrical content, it's practically a completely different song minus the shared lyrics. Tracey Thron's vocals are incredible as always but something I've really come to like on recent listens is the slightly lo-fi edge to this one: Walking Wounded as an album is crisp, clean and high tech, so hearing these rough around the edges breaks here makes for a very different listening experience and compliments Thorn's vocal delivery incredibly well. It maintains that melancholy feel that makes up parts of the album with an added layer of intensity.



Something about this one just hits me in the gut with a massive nostalgia wave. Which is odd because I didn't pick this one up with most of the stuff that hits me with that same wave (Though they are similarly related, bands like Röyksopp for example). Anyway, to actually introduce the track; it's not my favourite piece from Erlend Øye's debut, and depending on the day I can feel like it's really long in the tooth at 7 minutes, but recently it's been a mainstay. Øye's vocals remain his strong suit, and he gives the slightly nonsensical lyrics a real palpable feeling, and it's a shame they disappear for the latter half of the song. The sound of the album is fairly simple but works oh so well, I could sit and listen to that stripped, lo-fi DIY electronic in combination with Øye's voice all day.

The reason for that DIY sound is explained by the process behind the album which is a neat story too. its just Øye travelling around Europe and collaborating with various producers along the way. The end result is a lovely listen and still sounds surprisingly contemporary for something released in 2003. I'd love for another album in this vein, or with this type of sound.



Swinging to Röyksopp after that brief mention above, an older tune of theirs that is more readily available thanks to their 'Lost Tapes' series, a bunch of rarities and B-sides occasionally dropped onto Spotify. I've got a lot of them already from my collecting days, but it's nice to have them in an accessible location finally, as you all know I'm a bit mad when it comes to archiving stuff. Anyway, here's their cover of Depeche Mode's Ice Machine featuring Susanne Sundfør. It was originally made for their entry into the 'Late Night Tales series of compilations, tradition is every artist who does one includes a cover on it. It's pre-The Inevitable End, but there is definitely more than a few signposts of the direction they'd be taking on that album here, even down to Sundfør's guest appearance.



Rounding things off with something old, I mentioned a few posts ago that I remember writing the review for Shobaleader One: d'Demonstrator when it came out. That's coming up on 10 years ago now and to this day I adore the opening track Plug Me In, it i style distilled essence of the sound Squarepusher was going for on this album; a sort of electro meets spacey jazz. I personally still like the album, even if it is a little short. I can see it disappointing some folk expecting more Drill & Bass, but that's part of the reason Squarpusher made this album with the idea of Shobaleader One being a separate band, shame that wouldn't become clear until they made the follow up in 2017.



And that wraps us up for another post, next one will be an old re-post but I hope to maintain a one-old-one-new pattern going forward. I appreciate your readership during this time and I hope my music musings have given you something to pass the time with, as always stay safe and enjoy the music.

-Claude Van Foxbat

Sounds Without Borders

Hi all, just dropping by with some new writings. I've been all nostalgic digging back into the history of posts as I put things back to some kind of working order (up to 300 posts now!). Weird how time passes you by, I saw the review I did of the Squarepusher album Shobaleader One: D'demonstrator. Pretty sure I've said this on the podcast before but in my mind I still remember that review, and it seems fairly recent. Well it's clocking in at 10 years old this year! And as always the more things change, the more they stay the same. Squarepusher is still around and is actually just off the heels of a new album + EP. Here's one that he mentioned a long time ago but is just seeing a proper release now, it's gorgeously melancholy which is something that I have been wanting from Squarepusher for a long time now.



SO that tune's been rattling around in my head for a few weeks now; and just yesterday he put out the delightfully eerie video for Detroit People Mover, I actually got to see it 'premiere' too. Remember all those years ago when I lamented Squarepusher not doing more ambient because I loved it (not that I don't love his usual output, but you all should know by now I'm an ambient fiend). Well he must have heard my call, and so I've been looping these two back to back for a couple of days now. Supremely lush, must remember to scoop the EP with these on sharpish. Enjoy!

Diggin' Results [2020 Repost]

NOTE: Hi there! I'm going through the backcatalogue and re-publishing all the posts I can find. I'm re-posting them as new articles too just so there is visible content going up. This post is originally from April 2015.

Enjoy,
-CVF

Got an interview with University on Tuesday, feeling good about it but of course that's always the case with me until I have to actually go in there. Anyway here's the results of my weekend's listenings.


Found the above on Reddit of all places, my music discovery there has been pretty limited until now, turns out there's some good stuff in them threads. Intro on this one's very lush indeed. Check this guy out, he more than deserves yer support!

I've been on the hunt for more classical meets experimental electronic since I got my mitts on Rossz Csillag Alatt Született, and where should I find my fix but from the most credited composer in my library Yoko Kanno. That breakdown in the middle is straight up amazing to boot.



And as always my most recent favourite jam from Squarepusher. It's got to have been well over a year since I first heard this one on that promo video and it's still just as sweet. The fact it's played by actual, literal robots only makes it even better. Welcome to the future, where robot bands play jazz.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Not Quite Spring Cleaning

I've been doing some drive cleaning as it has been long overdue. And some of the things you find are incredible, it's like doing an archaeological dig on your own memories. Poetic-ism aside, one thing I did find was a half-finished mixtape dealio that I took the liberty of finishing and putting up on mixcloud. An interesting insight into the kind of stuff I was listening to ~6 or so years ago. It takes an ambient turn in the latter half, the more things change the more they stay the same it would seem! Tracklist after the player:



Tracklist:
Aphex Twin - Yellow Calx
Modeselektor - Don't Panic
Autechre - Nine
Plaid - Ralome
Global Goon - Long Whiney
Squarepusher - Goodnight Jade

Da Funk Back To The CyberPunk

The final in the trilogy of cyberpunk posts and by far the broadest in terms of genre. This time it's my all purposes Cyberpunk playlist. Here is home to anything I feel fits that atmosphere which means that unlike the Cyberia Mix, I'm not limited to more dancefloory stuff. That's not to say that there isn't any crossover between the two, (hell just loading it up for this post I spotted a Dopplereffeckt track that I missed that happily sits on both of them), but certainly expect more downbeat, introspective and minimal pieces intertwined throughout.

It's sitting at a cool 300 songs right now, clocking in at just under a whole day's worth of audio accompaniment. I'm pretty happy with how it is, there are a couple choices that I could give or take depending n the day but overall I think I've got a pretty neat overall feel! (even if it does lean a little heavy on the ambient side to begin with, I listen to it on shuffle anyway though). Not to throw shade at people but the variety is part of why I made this playlist to begin with, and more importantly why I kept the amount of Synthwave on it to a minimum, as there seems to have been a massive uptick in 'BEST OF CYBERPUNK SYNTHWAVE' playlists after the announcement of a certain upcoming RPG with the same name. Don't get me wrong, you all know I do like the Synthwave, but I'd like people to be aware that there are other perfect examples of Cyberpunk Music outside of that! Get some industrial techno and old school electro in there, contrast that with some ambient and lush IDM and you're well on your way to having a nice mixture of tunes for that High-Tech Low-Life.



-Claude Van Foxbat

An Update

Hello. You might have noticed new podcasts have been absent for a few weeks now, and you may be wondering why that is. Truth be told I don't know myself, me and Adam ended our call after the last recording session and I haven't heard anything since. I shot him a message asking if we were swapping over to Wednesdays for the rest of the month but got no reply, and he hasn't updated the google doc we keep for the podcast notes either. That's pretty much it, I know as little as you, while I wouldn't be against continuing the show solo, I think it is much stronger with Adam and myself so I won't be doing that. I don't have access to the mixcloud account either.

In the meantime though, I'm finally getting around to re-publishing my first proper series I ever did on this blog, the slickly titled A Very Warped History. I've not got them all done yet but it's a start. I'm changing very little about them, there are some dead image links and some typos I'm correcting but they are otherwise as-is, as such please forgive some of my ham-fisted writing, I was around 15 at the time of the first posts and they'll be 10 years old next year!

While I'm fixing those however, I thought I'd at least post something. So have this playlist I cooked up that is a quick rundown of what I think is the quintessential introduction to what Warp does; it features bits and pieces from the entire history of the label including some of my all time favourites and even features some albums I didn't write about for the Very Warped History series. Enjoy.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Ilictronix Podcast: The Unintended Videodrome + Adam's Best Of Brainfeeder

"Claude and Adam talk about their favorite tracks of the week. This episode Claude shares his favorite songs that he can never skip. Adam lays out the best Brainfeeder tracks of all time."

We are live for this week! What started as a selection of tracks I can't skip whenever they come up, it fast turned into a cross section of music videos as I was writing the show notes as I ended up including a video for each tune other than the Felix track from the intro. That tune I picked for the opening as well is one of the few where I'd describe the bassline as fat, which we talk about a little in the opening preamble. I touch a little on my thoughts on the album it's from (Kittenz & Thee Glitz) which I also wrote down way back when, I'm saving that in-depth discussion for another day though. Other than that, it's a fairly usual selection form me, frequent readers of the blog in the past will see some very familiar names as we take a trip down trip-hop lane courtesy of Massive Attack and Björk, a touch of The Knife and The Chemical Brothers followed by Squarepusher's second appearance in as many weeks.

Adam also takes us on a whirlwind tour of Brainfeeder once more, something that I certainly appreciated as I am incredibly unfamiliar with any output of the label other than Thundercat and the like. I was aware of the breadth of sound that the label had to its name, but having a curated list makes it that much easier to digest (this is something we also touch on in the episode, actually). It makes what would be a deep dive a much more targeted process, any artists you like the sound of from Adam's picks you can use almost like a springboard to others that take your fancy. Full tracklist follows as per usual.

Tracklist:
Intro:
Felix Da Housecat - Sequel 2 Sub

Claude’s picks:
Massive Attack - Protection
Björk - All Is Full Of Love (Radio Mix)
The Knife - Heartbeats (Live)
The Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar
Squarepusher X Z-Machines - Sad Robot Goes Funny


Adam’s Picks
Martyn - Masks
Teebs - Arthur's Birds
Jeremiah Jae - Guns Go Off
Tokimonsta - Bright Shadows
DJ Paypal - Slim Trak

Outro:
Mono/Poly - Ra Rise


Show Notes:
A whole heap of music videos this week! Going in order of my picks, we kick off with Massive Attack’s Protection, which has a lovely evocative video that’s filmed in a really unique top-down perspective that can be a little confusing at first (it makes sense after watching it for a bit, trust me).

The first video I actually mention; Bjork’s All Is Full Of Love. By far and away the least disturbing of Chris Cunningham's directorial works, I highly recommend checking this one out, if only to see how amazingly well the practical FX + minimal CG combo has held up.

The live version of Heartbeats is a treat for the eyes and ears, Andreas Nilsson’s visual direction is on point, and the sibling duo are delightfully weird as always. Theatrics aside, the live version is beautifully evocative. Karin Dreijer was one of my favourite vocalists ever anyway, but performances like this seal the deal for me. For anyone interested, the Full concert film is also on YT here as well

The cult classic Chemical Brothers video next too.. I gave the gimmick away in the actual podcast, but it’s still a solid watch, if a little bit pandering to the 3AM stoner TV demographic. Some of the CG is a little janky in parts but it’s still an absolutely iconic piece of electronic music media, both it’s visuals and audio.

The promo video for Squarpusher’s Z-Machines collaboration finally, seems like this is the only video of the song on YT as well oddly enough. I still love it all these years later, even if those constant cuts in the video edit get on my nerves more than a tick. I’d love for the entire vid to be made up of those lingering close up shots as seen in the intro, but alas.

Spotify Monthly Selections October

Slight noise issues prevented us from recording a *full* episode of the podcast today, so we're going to pick it up again tomorrow. But that actually gave me a chance to looky at the post list and notice I hadn't posted this months spotify playlist and a rundown of my choices. So let's put it on and have us a little dance shall we?

Well, I say that like the selections don't have something in common with my podcast selections for this week. That is they lean on the downtempo side of things. It's also a bit of a nostalgia dive into what I was listening to (and what was new) when I was at university. A lot of these tracks were excellent backing for my AfterEffects animations, starting with the fantastically detuned and distorted sound of Clark's Tooth Moves. We keep it Warp for the meantime with one of my favourites from Cosmogramma after me and Adam gave our mixed opinions on the album I thought I'd at least talk a little bit possibly about it.



A tune I made the mistake of animating a show-reel to, I can now just again appreciate SBTRKT's Never Never however many years after I've graduated, I'd completely forgotten about that incredibly deep bassline for one. Sampha's vocals in combo with the production make for a deliciously smooth package that I've fallen for once again. I remember writing a review of Moderat's II when it was released, and I distinctly remember immediately being head over heels for Let In The Light. Admittedly you all know I have a massive weakness for distorted vocals of any kind, but lately I've been all about those thunderous drums.

Similarly another album I reviewed at the time, Squarepusher's Shobaleader One d'Demonstrator (which actually got a follow up not too long ago finally). It received mixed opinions at the time but man I will always adore that intro track. Once again, full disclosure I love me some vocoder/talkbox goodness but hot damn talk about establishing an aesthetic effectively. I've seen a lot of comments comparing the album to Daft Punk oddly, I can see similarities to bits of Discovery sure but even then that's a stretch, I much prefer the descriptor I've used since a few weeks after the review: Space Jazz.

Which somehow made me think of Ladytron's Destroy Everything You Touch, one of the standouts from Witching Hour, with Marnie's vocals on point as usual. Another dive into my University listenings with the beautifully laboured strings and beats combo of Apparat's You Don't Know Me, and the surprisingly downtempo Green Light Go from Modeselektor. Rounded out with a random pick of a Tokimonsta tune I like (reminder to me to actually pick up some of her stuff finally). Rounded out with the absolutley crushing Amarillo from the Gorillaz's slightly underrated album The Fall, a fantastic sound if the "mostly composed on an iPad" tale is to be believed.

-Claude Van Foxabt

Here In My Car

Roy Lichtenstein - In The Car (1963)

In a remarkable case of serendipity, my shuffle on the way to work served up not one, not two but three vehicular themed tunes in a row. So I thought I'd make a post outta it. First up is fairly recent addition to my library, the first half of the 2004 adaption of Appleseed is chock full of electronic goodness. Some of it's leaning super heavy on the experimental side, but some of it's more conventional which makes for a weird mix. Here's one from a bloke that gives Aphex Twin a run for his money when it comes to aliases, Atom™. It caught my ear from the get go, laying down those bleepy Jimmy Edgar-esque sounds, which only continued when the vocals kicked in. Those of you who've been with us for a while will those distortion effects really press my buttons and the dramatic pitch shift at 1:15 is an incredibly well done and is an absolute treat to listen to on headphones.



Oddly enough the tune that came up next has a fair bit in common with Atom, both in terms of sounds and the vocal distortions as it turns out, though this one is a bit more raunchy with what's going on in the lyrics. My Red Hot Car was one of my first loves from Squarepusher, and truth be told I actually slightly prefer this version from the single than from Go Plastic which is a little bit glitch-ier in it's execution. It's fairly accessible as far as Squarepusher's catalogue goes, those no dramatic turns into IDM territory here, just a lot of Amen Breaks and some lovely electronics. A distinct lack of Bass guitar on here however.



And finally a bit of a left turn (pun intended) into Hip-Hop territory. ANother piece from the relativley obscure and forever impossible to google LA Times compilation FlyLo did for the publication of the same name. The whole thing is a treasure trove of unreleased, unheard and alternate versions of FlyLo's stuff. And this one is an example of that, from the sound of it it's probably from the early days when he was all about making [adult swim] bump-worthy tunes. It wouldn't sound too out of place on the other beat tapes he's had leak out from around the same era like July Heat. It's a bit short and doesn't really evolve over it's runtime but it's still welcome addition to my collection of instrumental hip-hop.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Out Of Sorts

Jean Fautrier - Large Tragic Head (1942)

Been feeling strange all this weekend, like indescribably so. So I did what I always do in these cases and put on my special playlist for just such an occasion. It's had a few new additions since last time, first and foremost being parts of Yoko Kanno's excellent soundtrack for Terror In Resonance. On Hanna, the Icelandic touchstones I mentioned last time I talked about this soundtrack are much more prominent here, first and foremost from the get-go being the vocals naturally, but I feel like the structure has a lot in common with the standard Sigur Rós formula too. This is far from a negative mind you, especially in the hands of a composer like Kanno, the ethereal and slightly glitchy break at around 1:46 is divine.



I've been avoiding posting songs that are in the monthly selections over on the right, but I figure I can break that rule every once in a while. Borderlands has been ringing in my ears since Friday night and seems to be fast setting its sights on being my favourite piece from Hecker. As is so often the case with me I'm now regretting not taking the deep dive into his catalogue that I usually do with artists I'm interested in. It's been awhile since I've expanded the ambient side of my collection, and listening to An Imaginary Country might just give me case to do just that.



Finally another more ambient piece I've been revisiting recently. I've said before many times that the few and far between ambient pieces that Tom Jenkinson of Squareusher fame has under his belt are all stellar and it's a shame there isn't more of it (though that may change soon as he's soundtracking a children's series for the BBC called Daydreams). I wanted to add this specific tune to my (K)ey playlist on spotify but unfortunately his debut LP Feed Me Weird Things isn't on spotify. Goodnight Jade is definitely of that Warp school of electronic music: sandwiched between two uptempo Drum & Bass tunes on the tracklist, Goodnight Jade is a moment of reflection that's perhaps slightly out of place if you listen to the album in order, but it's an absolutely beautiful piece regardless.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Out Of Phase

Elmer Bischoff - Figure In Landscape (1957)



Haven't been feeling myself as of late, going to keep the text to a minimum and share some tunes of a more ambient persuasion. Starting with a rare beatless contribution from Flying Lotus, takn from the Ideas + Drafts + Loops compilation he put out some years ago now.



Geogaddi has finally returned to my rotation. In between sinister slices of slightly occult undertones there are some of my favourite lush Boards Of Canada offerings. Over The Horizon Radar will forever be among them.



Squarepusher has few ambient pieces to his name, but those few are all very solid additions. Tommib being one of them, chcok full of gorgeous distrotion and all the things that scratch my itches, but most of all I love the way it subtly fades up to prominence and then just as soon its gone again.



-Claude Van Foxbat

The Live One

Apologies for the large gap, as is par the course for moi, had some plans that didn't work out. Decided to fall back on the fairly large backlog of Warp stuff that's gathered in the time being. Most notably the return of Shobaleader One, seven years after Squarepusher promised us there'd be more from his then newly formed 'band' as it were. It's not new material (which isn't to knock it, just laying cards on the table), but rather a compilation of Squarepusher tunes played live and in the Shobaleader style which in itself is quite interesting, the first Squarepusher live offerings since Disc 2 of Do You Know Squarepusher? if I recall right. Slightly annoyed that this wasn't up on any steaming services but then again it ain't out yet. I'll have to check back in 9 days when Elektrac is released proper and give it the once over.



I've heard Journey To Reedham a million times, but it's still just as nice in it's Shoabaleader rendition. I do think I prefer the synths of the original to the bendy guitar here but to be honest I hadn't given it that much thought until now, mainly because I was distracted to how one-to-one with the original the drums are, I'd be convinced they were a backing track if it wasn't for the slightly ska sound they have to them. Whoever it is doing the drumming for Shobaleader One, I've got mad respect for them to keep up with 90's era Squarepusher beats.

-Claude Van Foxbat