Digital Ephemera

Having gone through the archives of this blog, I've been no stranger to dead links, deleted SoundClouds and artists that seem to have just disappeared - that's just the way things go in this age really, some things are lucky to be archived but there's bound to be tons of stuff that's pretty much lost forever. That's why I'm always vocally in support of artists and labels doing their best to make sure their work is as available as it can be. Today we're looking back at Ford & Lopatin (formerly known as Games) and the curious case of their SoundCloud.

I was (and am, I suppose) a big fan of all things that Ford & Lopatin put out, from their spiritual successor to the pioneering vaporwave Eccojams tape with the Heaven Can Wait mixtapes, to the love letter to the 80's that was their album Channel Pressure, there's not a dud release to be had.

They were pretty popular at the time too, the That We Can Play EP made waves at the time, which makes their eventual drop off all the more unusual - they had a mad flurry of releases in 2011 under the new 'Ford & Lopatin' name and then... nothing.

There's something a little sad about seeing the last upload date reading '11 years ago' (but at least they *are* available I suppose). It's a bit like walking through a dead mall - fitting, given the vaporwave underpinnings of the duo. And speaking of 'Vapor', as in something that's announced but is never actually released, their final upload is a tune that I'm pretty sure doesn't appear anywhere else in their discography. Which is a shame because it's a lovely addition - a crash course in Games/Ford & Lopatin's style with some divine sample work.

Ford & Lopatin · GAMES - No Disguise

I thought while I was there I'd talk about some of their other work - MIDI Drift is one of those tracks that comes up once in a blue moon and just blindsides me. The explosion of sound that signals the beginning is just lovely - some synth power chords and that ripped from the 80's bassline set you up for the experience ahead. It may sound a little cliché now, but at the time these two were at the cutting edge of that sound. To quote a release page for the EP: "That We Can Play is a six track EP to soundtrack a midnight ride in the Delorean, stereo aflame, racing down moonlit avenues; all strobing synth-bass jams, gated drum pads and starkissed, monophonic melodies."

Ford & Lopatin · Games - MIDI DRIFT

Playing us out is Strawberry Skies, one of my all time favourites since its release, a standout on the tracklist as it's the only one with vocal accompaniment. Laurel Halo's voice does wonders for the atmosphere here, between the lyrical content and her delivery, she really completes that hazy, dreamy feel - especially on that distant sounding intro, which you could be forgiven for thinking is a sample from a movie. I imagine it also lets the production side flex a little bit more as well, between this and Kavinsky's Nightcall released the same year, I was all ready for a full on retro synthpop revival at the time.

Ford & Lopatin · Games - Strawberry Skies feat. Laurel Halo

It's still a fantastic EP and definitely worth going back to, or checking out in full if it passed you by the first time. The label the early Games releases were on - Hippos In Tanks - is sadly defunct, but their backc atalogue is readily available digitally from what I could tell. I would recommend Bleep personally, but other distributors are available. As much as I'd love to hear a new Ford & Lopatin record, I think the two stopped at the right time, just before the synthwave and general 'chillwave' overexposure explosion. For what it's worth, I love a lot of what Lopatin has been putting out under his main Oneohtrix Point Never alias, and Joel Ford has plenty of synthpop stuff to check out with Young Ejecta. So in a way, the two of them never really left my collection.

And that'll about do it for this post, got a little bit more poetic in parts there, but I have been meaning to stretch my legs into that territory again. Hope you've found something to enjoy here, I'll be back soon enough with more, but until then - as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

What's New?

I was hoping to make the first post of 2022 all new stuff or at least a good 60-40 at least. I don't think I've managed to even hear anything new yet come to think of it, but I also haven't really been trying too hard either as I get back into the swing of working again. With no word on Bandcamp Fridays for 2022 either I am going to have to try a little harder to come up with stuff it seems! So I had an idea instead, what if I went back and talked about the first things I got off Bandcamp instead? And so here we are.

Juan Gris - La Guitare (1913)
Predictably, a lot of my early purchases were indie soundtracks. BC is still a goldmine for that sort of thing, and it's a really great resource to not only support the artists in question but also get high quality versions of the sounds too - sometimes the soundtracks included on the Steam releases are 192 or VBR. Enter Faster Than Light, better known as just FTL. One of those releases from the golden age of indie games; those small ideas that spin out into something relentlessly addictive, with the added bonus of being able to run on your office-quality PC to boot. Part of what makes the FTL experience so iconic is the soundtrack from Ben Prunty - he makes spectacular use of recurring motifs throughout that really enhance the experience. I had to put the OST away for a while after playing the game for so long, but I'd be lying if I said I ever grew to dislike it. Rather than a deep cut I've gone for what I think best summarises this, one of the earliest tracks in the game - the 'Battle' variation of the MilkyWay theme: Gorgeous and suitably spacey. It doesn't quite sound the same without the pew pew of lasers and the occasional chunk of a missile launch though!



My next few trips were similarly influenced, a couple of fan works related to some series I enjoyed. Echochamber's I'm Real, I'm Here has a lot of influence taken from Serial Experiments Lain, a surreal, psychological exploration into the world of the technological circa 1998 - parts of which have only become more apt with time. But I don't mean to put you off, you can very much enjoy this album without knowing a thing about the series - besides the cover art and some samples there's no super deep cuts that you need to be a fan of to recognise. I'm Real, I'm Here is a bit of an odd record - it leaps from genre to genre over the course of it's runtime, it could be thudding minimal-esque house one minute, and then change gears to long vaporwave-y drones the next. Thought I'd split the difference this time around and post Symbols, Figures And Blurred Faces as it effectively merges those two sides of the album; an almost Burial style experience, it's made up of a bunch of short 'sketches' that run between a whole bunch of styles. A great little summary of the album in one track, if you like this then I would strongly recommend checking out the full thing.



Funnily enough actually, my next Bandcamp purchase was in fact the Burial track I had in mind when making that comparison above. After playing the hell out of an MP3 of the B-Side to Truant since my University days I figured I at least owed the man a couple of quid. Rough Sleeper is almost a quarter of an hour tour de force of Burial, it might be my ultimate favourite from his extensive back-catalogue. I struggle to pin down the section I like the most as it changes pretty often, the intro is lovely but I also have a real love for the almost Garage bit that starts around the 4 minute mark (which I will hold my hands up and admit is more than a bit influenced by my love of treated vocals). That section is by far and away the longest, and the way it fades away into that little ambient break around the 9:25 mark is lovely (that section is my current love!) Before rounding off with some proper 2-step around 10:45. It's a lot to take in, but aside from the sudden stop at the end I have no complaints. Not sure I'd recommend it for a new listener to Burial, but if you like the first couple of minutes you would do well to take a look at his whole discography.



And I think that'll do it for today. I hope 2022 has been treating you all well, mine's had a bit of a rocky start, but after the last year or so it's hardly a big deal. Either way, you can count on me to be here with more musical musings on a semi-regular basis - hope you've enjoyed this look back at my digital catalogue and as always - Stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

VaporDays - A Retro inspired mixtape

Lordy help me I am back on my BS. After becoming frustrated at the lack of some of these tunes on the usual streamers I took matters into my own hands (and tweaked some of them a little bit.) I knocked this out in one go this morning so expect it to be a little rough, but that's kinda in the spirit of things isn't it? Anyway, enjoy a rundown of some actually retro and some retro-sounding tracks from my catalogue. It's not 100% electronic granted, but I did some touches to make it a little more like Games' Heaven Can Wait Mixtapes but I'm nowhere near as good at it as Ford & Lopatin, and I didn't want to go full experimental EccoJams with it either.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy some of the selections on offer here, it's not very long in terms of tracklist but it clocks in at roundabout 25 mins thanks to my speed tweaks. It's a nice listen IMO, the first 3 tracks are a delight to listen to and I haven't altered them at all to enhance the vibe any. Tracklist and player follows:

Tracklist:
Konami Kukeiha Club - First Triangle
Joyo Katayanagi - T.N. Software
Software - Island Sunrise
SILK - Sunset In My Heart (@ 90% Speed)
Gunsmith Cats - Shiawase Da Yo (@ 75% Speed)
Isamu Ohira - Be At Home (@ 85% Speed)

Ilictromix: Beauty Product (2020 Post)

NOTE: Hi there! This is an archive/re-post of an old series of Mixes that Adam used to get artists to make for us. This post is originally by Adam and is from January 2015. I am going to try and archive all these posts he did in future. I still have all the MP3s so it's just a case of re-doing the HTML and putting them on Mixcloud!

Enjoy,
-CVF

My inbox gets an obscene amount of promos, most are terrible EDM remixes, some are death metal, but once in while I stumble upon something truly remarkable. After hearing the single from Beauty Product and reading their promo I knew that they were on to something unique.

This is how Beauty Product describes the music:

              "Luxury adult contemporary dancefloor heat for rich people who can't be bothered to move very fast. Sometimes too much still isn't enough." 

And the Genre?

"slowhouse, cheesefunk bangers"

The music and art coming from this German project is almost tongue in cheek but catchy enough to keep your attention and wanting more *Think Vaporwave* Its music that drips with style and oozes with total confidence. Its hard to wipe the smile off of my face when I first heard this mix and I know that you all will love it too!



TRACKLIST
Beauty Product - Vulgar Discourse
Space Dimension Controller - BBD Alignment
Kassem Mosse - 578
Juju and Jordash - Schmofield
Beauty Product - We Are The Potraviny
Luke Abbott - Whitebox
Funky Family - Funky Is On (Leo Mas and Fabrice Instrumental Dub)
Lindstrom - Vōs-sākō-rv (Todd Terje Extended Mix)
Joe - Claptrap
Beauty Product - Obscenity With Badminton
Reinhard Voigt - Robson Ponte
Sabla - Spirits (Ital Rework)
Ramadanman - Don't Change For Me
Air Max '97 - Shape Cut
Andy Stott - Up The Box
Beauty Product - Wild Parvenu
Delroy Edwards - Always 
Falty DL - Do Me
Demdike Stare - Eulogy


After hearing a mix like that I had to know more about what exactly is going on with this scene, so I talked with Beauty Product about how this project came to fruition:


So other than the description in your first email how would you describe your style? 

The sound itself is pretty influenced by 80s - early 90s dance music (Italo, boogie, early house) - warm, fuzzy, reverby tracks that can be upbeat party music and kind of sad at the same time. The other influence on the Wild Parvenu track would be AM radio adult-contemporary pop from that same era, which is generally terrible music but also kind of strange and fascinating - stuff along the lines of Captain and Tenille. So from that comes some of the vocals and synth solos as well as the mood - a 1980s over-the-top luxury vibe that's both funky and kind of tacky. A bit like the Scarface soundtrack. All that said, when making music I really love experimenting with new sounds and ideas so the result of that is a pretty wide variety to the overall styles.

So the imprint you are on Strategic Tape Reserve, could you tell me more about it or how many artists are on the roster? 

Yes, Strategic Tape Reserve is a weird, small, very DIY label that sometimes poses as a government organization. It's released music by 2-3 other artist. So far, most of the releases have been more experimental than Wild Parvenu, but coming up is a techno release as well as something which is pretty ambient. And another Beauty Product single before too long.

What was your early production work like and how did you end up with the sound you have now?

My earliest productions were cassette 4-track hiphop instrumentals when I was 15 or so. Very hissy jams. I've been producing dance music in a variety of styles (techno, glitchy electro, etc) for about 6 or 7 years, but the Beauty Product sound is a pretty recent development.I love melodic electronic music, but I don't really care for shiny, highly-produced EDM. So this style lets me make dance tracks with poppy, developing melodies without devolving into epic trance major chords, which is satisfying. I like music that has isn't "perfectly" produced and is kind of rough-around-the-edges (like a lot of early electronic dance music). Studio funk! Also, over the last few years I've been putting together a small analog modular synth and I think the old-school hardware has had an effect on the direction of the music. 

For those who love the Wild Parvenu project what should we listen to next? 

There will be more Beauty Product music released this year!

Are the people in your local scene receptive to what you are doing? 

I've gotten a really good response from people about this cassette. When I play out live sets, I tend to go for more of a up-tempo, techno sound than the more relaxed Wild Parvenu stuff. I'm working on bringing it all together. In Germany people are definitely enthusiastic about electronic music and also open to new sounds. So this is good.

The imagery with your music is so closely tied together, which came first, and what was the inspiration? 

I put together the packaging and I wanted it to have a kind of Don Helney soft-rock on the beach kind of thing. I think the soft-focus and cursive script goes well with the washed out, reverby, but kind of detailed and ornate sound. The cassette is packaged with a motivational poster, which is a bit of a joke, but I think kind of works with the release for some reason.

Find More of Beauty Product or Strategic Tape Reserve


Adam

Heaven Can Wait (2020 Re-visit)

NOTE: Hi there! I'm going through the backcatalogue and re-publishing all the posts I can find. Something a little different this time as the original article was thin on the ground, so I actually wrote up a couple of new paragraphs about the content. Should you want to see the original post You can find it here.

Stay safe and enjoy,
-CVF

I occasionally re-stumble upon the 3 mixtapes that short lived Joel Ford & Daniel Lopatin project Games put out. If you're at all familliar with Joel or Daniel's work you will see some parallels. The way I always like to boil it down is that these mixtapes are a much, much more accessible version of Daniel's founding Vaporwave project Eccojams

The methodology is fairly similar though, chopped and screwed version of retro songs; but whereas Eccojams was more experimental a la John Oswald's Plunderphonics, the Heaven Can Wait series is very listenable indeed, it's amazing how brilliant some of those melodies sound when slowed down (but as long time readers will know, I am a sucker for any kind of vocal distortion to boot). The first instalment is my favourite I think, but there are choice cuts throughout. If you dig volume one most certainly check out the other 2!



-Claude Van Foxbat

Heaven Can (Still) Wait

Been holding off on putting this one up for a long time, but it just can't wait anymore. I've been playing this on the regular on and off for about a year by now, so I think it's earned it. Heaven Can Wait is a 3-part mixtape series by Ford & Lopatin (who went by Games back then), for those familiar with Lopatin's Eccojams, Vol. 1, it's like that but dialed back a bit, there's no 4 minute loops of a tiny fragment of Toto's Africa here, just more Games flavored retro electronics. As the series name suggests, the first part starts with a vapourwave tinted rework of Sandra's Heaven Can Wait. As for part two, well it starts with the same treatment of Angela Bofill's Can't Slow Down



While not having any original Games pieces on any of them, they're still a good listen as well as an interesting insight into their combined inspirations. A lot easier to digest that some of the Eccojams stuff too, so this is a good place to get into that kinda thing!

-Claude Van Foxbat

Cyberpunk Soundtrack Action

I like bars and I like Cyberpunk. So once again I am spoiled by the fact that VA​-​11 HALL​-​A exists. It also helps it has a pretty solid soundtrack to boot. Here's a preview of the kinda stuff on offer; equal parts Sega CD style vapourwave and Hotline Miami style synthwave that is supremely My Aesthetic (tm).



There's also a second volume with 44 tracks for charity that I was going to post too, but I think I'll hang onto that one for a rainy day. Be sure to check out Garoad's Bandcamp if your interest is piqued though!

-Claude Van Foxbat

Back 3: The End (For Now)

and for out final chapter, we visit similar synthy territory once again. It should come as no surprise by now that the 80's were a goldmine for those of us electronically inclined, with things like Vangelis' score for Blade Runner taking center stage. As I finish up this week's selections we take a walk on the more experimental side of things, taking a look at my other genre love, Ambient, The out and out synthetics of Kraftwerk, and a selction from an obscure New Age record.

Syd Mead - L.A Skyline West (1988)

Tangerine Dream were yet another case of me thinking I should definitely start listening to something, but being completely clueless as to where to start. Thankfully I found my way in eventually and I am so happy that I did. Their music is among the few that can take me back to being a bright eyed kid completely in awe at the sounds coming from a cassette. It ticks all my electronic boxes in the most sublime way.



Breaking the rules a little bit here, technically this one is from '79 but it was released as a single and eventually went to #1 in the charts in '82, and that's where I heard it first in that same tape collection. Out of all the song so far I have compared to electroclash, this one is probably the closest, from a lyrical standpoint it could easily have been from Felix Da Housecat's Kittenz & Thee Glitz and was even the base sample for Ladytron's He Took Her To A Movie.



And finally, a little something from a band called Software. I already gave the album the once over here, it's been in my library for some time now. Has my opinion changed on it? A little, some parts of it are pretty generic, (my older post pretty much is the best selections from it) but what 'New Age' music of the era wasn't? Still it's recent influence is apparent with Vaporwave, and Oneohtrix Point Never's label is called Software and I think might even use the same font as the cover.



There is plenty more I wanted to put in these posts, but it turns out I didn't have a lot of the things I wanted to post to hand, or in cases like the Blade Runner soundtrack were actually released later than the 80's. Still I see it as a plus should I come back to this again which is highly likely given the treasures on offer.

-Claude Van Foxbat

Ilictromix: Beauty Product

My inbox gets an obscene amount of promos, most are terrible EDM remixes, some are death metal, but once in while I stumble upon something truly remarkable. After hearing the single from Beauty Product and reading their promo I knew that they were on to something unique.

This is how Beauty Product describes the music:

              "Luxury adult contemporary dancefloor heat for rich people who can't be bothered to move very fast. Sometimes too much still isn't enough." 

And the Genre?

"slowhouse, cheesefunk bangers"

The music and art coming from this German project is almost tongue in cheek but catchy enough to keep your attention and wanting more *Think Vaporwave* Its music that drips with style and oozes with total confidence. Its hard to wipe the smile off of my face when I first heard this mix and I know that you all will love it too!



TRACKLIST
Beauty Product - Vulgar Discourse
Space Dimension Controller - BBD Alignment
Kassem Mosse - 578
Juju and Jordash - Schmofield
Beauty Product - We Are The Potraviny
Luke Abbott - Whitebox
Funky Family - Funky Is On (Leo Mas and Fabrice Instrumental Dub)
Lindstrom - Vōs-sākō-rv (Todd Terje Extended Mix)
Joe - Claptrap
Beauty Product - Obscenity With Badminton
Reinhard Voigt - Robson Ponte
Sabla - Spirits (Ital Rework)
Ramadanman - Don't Change For Me
Air Max '97 - Shape Cut
Andy Stott - Up The Box
Beauty Product - Wild Parvenu
Delroy Edwards - Always 
Falty DL - Do Me
Demdike Stare - Eulogy


After hearing a mix like that I had to know more about what exactly is going on with this scene, so I talked with Beauty Product about how this project came to fruition:


So other than the description in your first email how would you describe your style? 

The sound itself is pretty influenced by 80s - early 90s dance music (Italo, boogie, early house) - warm, fuzzy, reverby tracks that can be upbeat party music and kind of sad at the same time. The other influence on the Wild Parvenu track would be AM radio adult-contemporary pop from that same era, which is generally terrible music but also kind of strange and fascinating - stuff along the lines of Captain and Tenille. So from that comes some of the vocals and synth solos as well as the mood - a 1980s over-the-top luxury vibe that's both funky and kind of tacky. A bit like the Scarface soundtrack. All that said, when making music I really love experimenting with new sounds and ideas so the result of that is a pretty wide variety to the overall styles.

So the imprint you are on Strategic Tape Reserve, could you tell me more about it or how many artists are on the roster? 

Yes, Strategic Tape Reserve is a weird, small, very DIY label that sometimes poses as a government organization. It's released music by 2-3 other artist. So far, most of the releases have been more experimental than Wild Parvenu, but coming up is a techno release as well as something which is pretty ambient. And another Beauty Product single before too long.

What was your early production work like and how did you end up with the sound you have now?

My earliest productions were cassette 4-track hiphop instrumentals when I was 15 or so. Very hissy jams. I've been producing dance music in a variety of styles (techno, glitchy electro, etc) for about 6 or 7 years, but the Beauty Product sound is a pretty recent development.I love melodic electronic music, but I don't really care for shiny, highly-produced EDM. So this style lets me make dance tracks with poppy, developing melodies without devolving into epic trance major chords, which is satisfying. I like music that has isn't "perfectly" produced and is kind of rough-around-the-edges (like a lot of early electronic dance music). Studio funk! Also, over the last few years I've been putting together a small analog modular synth and I think the old-school hardware has had an effect on the direction of the music. 

For those who love the Wild Parvenu project what should we listen to next? 

There will be more Beauty Product music released this year!

Are the people in your local scene receptive to what you are doing? 

I've gotten a really good response from people about this cassette. When I play out live sets, I tend to go for more of a up-tempo, techno sound than the more relaxed Wild Parvenu stuff. I'm working on bringing it all together. In Germany people are definitely enthusiastic about electronic music and also open to new sounds. So this is good.

The imagery with your music is so closely tied together, which came first, and what was the inspiration? 

I put together the packaging and I wanted it to have a kind of Don Helney soft-rock on the beach kind of thing. I think the soft-focus and cursive script goes well with the washed out, reverby, but kind of detailed and ornate sound. The cassette is packaged with a motivational poster, which is a bit of a joke, but I think kind of works with the release for some reason.

Find More of Beauty Product or Strategic Tape Reserve


Adam

Automated

As you may know work is stepping up, that is why I am writing this to you around three days in advance (but don't tell nobody). Here to provide you with some tunes from the past, it's me again.

Dabs Myla - Tokyo Delux

Vaporwave may be long buried but hey I still got love for the vibe. As much as stuff like this gets hated on for being the trendy thing to reblog on tumblr I can't help but dig it just a little bit. Maybe it's because I'm such an Oneohtrix Point Never fanboy.



Speaking of dead genres, have some proper Old School dubstep from Stenchman circa 2010. Nothing to shake your house foundations, but not the same 2-step garage evolution that started it all, probably the best area of Dubsep to be in in all honesty.

Stenchman - Everything [No stream available as of 2020]

Dare I say Acid falls on that list too, but at least it's still being made it's just not blasting out of the Hacienda anymore. Here's a tune from AFX's Analord series, proving that acid doesn't have to be TB-303s screeching their circuits off.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Working On The Weekend

Watch Captain Earth
NEW TRACKS!

Starting us off today is a really smooth remix of the track "Till Sunrise" by Goldroom. Pacifico took the song and turned it into an evening at the beach. Tenouttaten, excellent work




Next up we have another remix, this time by Edmonson for the Seb Wildblood track "Hunney"




I'm a sucker for beautiful voices, and Zella Day definitely has a beautiful voice, check out "Compass"



last but not least, i will share a track from one of my favorite artists right now, Makonnen, dude has been blowing up in Atlanta and recently got a Drake feature on his song "Tuesday" but this is not Tuesday.




Enjoy!

- Earl 

Roots Two

Let me take you back to 1988. Electronic music is evolving and changing with it's newfound popularity. But like all trends they tend to be revisited at some point in the future, last time we covered the influence of Kraftwerk, Space and Giorgio Moroder on electronic music as a whole, this time we're shooting for something a little different. This release here has recently been rediscovered and labelled things like 'proto-vapourwave' and such, and yes I will admit it does have vibes not too dissimilar to vapourwave but it's just par the course for a ambient/new age record of that era, think Jean Michel Jarre's Oxygene 12 years before this LP.

Now I'll admit that some parts of this LP have certainly not aged well and parts do sound incredibly dated. But once again this is an important reference point, as both a record of it's time, and to chart the influence it has on modern music, particularly vapourwave as a whole, hell OPN's label is even called Software.



The titles on this LP are pretty great, they have all that technological longing and mystique that was present on Kraftwerk's Computer Love, combined with this contrasting running theme of the coast. Like Kraftwerk's songs were about being hunched over your computer at night, and then this album sounds like it's made for a moody reflections montage in an artsy film before picking up around 3:40 or so in.

Software isn't some one-off side project either, the German due were at it and making albums until around 2000, with their last release ten years after Digital Dance in 1998. The title track follows the same pattern laid down by the previous one, ambient and hazy until around 2:40 when the drums come cascading in.



Finishing the coastal theme we have the final track that unlike any of the other tunes wastes no time getting the drums involved. There's some lovely sounds sprinkled throughout but they never stick around long, the same could be said of the LP as a whole, it is only about an hour long with 9 tracks. There is more than enough to go around though, the bold opening tune is a hefty 9 minutes 21 seconds long.



I do have a certain fondness for this type of stuff, after all raiding my dads tapes for stuff like this was what set off my interest in electronic music, and I can certainly see how it's effected the scene as a whole for sure. Cliché in parts? for sure but give it a try anyway, there's some neat stuff on there.

Marine Mood,
-Claude Van Foxbat

That We Can Play

Speaking of themes, another one happened to swing by my way today as I was on suffle as usual. It involves the now defunct Daniel Lopatin (AKA Oneohtrix Point Never) and Joel Ford side project Games. It's their foray into more chillwave-y stuff and its actually pretty good. Aside from the bad, bad album art, though after seeing the rest of the 12" sleeve I reckon its intentional.

Anyway, back to themes, kicking it off we have this lovely intro by Esc 不在 an artist I picked up on my vapourwave travels. It makes liberal use of that Windows 95 start-up sound crafted by ambient pioneer Brian Eno (ironically recorded on a mac) that I half remember from my school days in the IT lab. Hearing it remixed like this brought the waves of nostalgia like no other.



Which brought me back to the Games EP, Specifically the remix by Gatekeeper. It had pretty much the same effect thanks to that brilliantly placed PlayStation sample, it actually merges quite well into the song and doesn't feel forced at all. There's also a Boards Of Canada sample lurking in the background on this one, see if you can spot it.

Hippos In Tanks · Strawberry Skies (GATEKEEPER Remix )

And just for the hell of it, some more slices from the Games EP, including the brilliant original Strawberry Skies that pulls off the feel that Games is all about in spectacular fashion. Like the entire Electroclash scene before, it's got that retro-futuristic feel to it like it wouldn't sound out of place about 30 years ago or in 2010 when it was released. Only complaint is that it feels a bit short, but that is a small price to pay.

Hippos In Tanks · Starwberry Skies

This one really brings out the Oneohtrix touch from a gear standpoint, real echoes from some tracks off Rifts here. It also fills in that retro-futuristic niche quite nicely despite being completely instrumental aside from a few cheeky vocal snips in there.

Hippos In Tanks · Midi Drift

And finally, my favourite. The intro sounds a little bit out of place at first, sounding more than a little like The Prodigy's Everybody In The Place (155 And Rising), but it soon falls into place with some brilliant sampling courtesy of Secret Service's Flash in the Night. Given the Games chopped & screwed treatment it pretty much embodies chillwave's sound, full of half remembered 80's songs.

Hippos In Tanks · Shadows In Bloom

Black Disc,
- Claude Van Foxbat

Mellowin' Out

Afternoon all, sorry about leaving you all hanging for so long but to be quite honest the last couple of weeks have been absolutely shite so I haven't been in the mood to post stuff. But I won't bore you with tales of train rides and locked bank cards and jump straight to tunes. Here's some stuff that's been helping me keep it together and also some art by me.

One of my favourite tunes to come out of my recent dive into the world of Vapourwave is this. It's got vibes of that Arcade High LP I posted about a while ago, anyways It came up one time while I was browsing my finished art folder and it just perfectly synced with that piece up there.



Way back when I dropped some Knxwledge on you, and I'm about to do it again. Guy does some sick beats, I wish they were longer like, but that's a minor gripe. I imagine it's the same deal as what I say about BoC; the tracks stay sweet cos they're so short.



And just cos that's only like a minute and a half long, I'll hook you up with another just to cover my bases. Same sorta deal here, a smushed up title, nice beats and some sample dealies dropped throughout. Class.



Laid off posting this in my little shout out to my bud The Deadbeat Demon's beat tape cos I thought I'd get around to putting it up for something else. And here we are, this guy knows how to make pretty much flawless hip hop tracks for my tastes definitely check him out.

Deadbeat Demon - The Dealio Sounds

Of course, it wouldn't be complete without a visit from the old Boards Of Canada would it? But I've posted most of their material already, so I thought I go for something a little bit rarer. This is a tune from their rare as rare can be Old Tunes Vol. 1 Tape, sometimes known as A Few Old Tunes. The BoC boys clearly had a knack for this music thing judging by the tape, and this is by far the best example on it.



Mind you, it is certainly before they nailed down what makes their sound, the stuff here is obviously less refined than their later works but these old tapes do have some gold on them. Take this one for example, it has all the hallmarks of old school Boards with the slight techno edge and all and I'd say is still one of their finest tracks.



Righto, that's my story and accompanying tunes, stuff should pick up in a week or so because it's end of semester at my university and I will be sure to be there to dish out a few tracks in time for the holidays!

A Real Traditionalist,
- Claude Van Foxbat

Eccojams

So I'm apparently late to this whole 'Vaporwave' thing. It's a 'micro-genre' that's already in decline. It's a shame really cos I dig the vibes and visuals for the scene. So I thought I'd share probably my favourite example of it. A little cassette tape called Chuck Person's Eccojams Vol. I. Now, Chuck Person is really just an alias for Daniel Lopatin of Oneohtrix Point Never fame, you may recognise some of the cuts on here from his youtube channel SunsetCorp.

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now unfortunately because it's a half hour mix on both sides A & B, and because I've run out of soundcloud time I'm having to upload it to YouTube of all places. Butbefore that I'll leave you once again with a couple of bits I've posted before from OPN's Memory Vague that just so happen to be on this mix too! Enjoy.





In Red,
- Claude Van Foxbat