Welcome To 2017

Hello! It's been a little while I know, I took some time off around the holidays as usual but some life things came up like always. In fact they did again just last night but I thought I'd at least drop by with a little something. You may notice we've had a slight redesign, it's not the massive overhaul that I wanted but it does look a little nicer. Anyway, let's revisit some tunes for the new(ish) year.

M.C. Escher - Merry Christmas & Happy New Year (1961)

Used to be that I'd post a NYE track dump every late December. Missed the mark a little bit but I did have one planned (that I've since forgotten). Normally I kinda cop out and open it with The Knife's New Year's Eve because why not. Well I'm not going to do that now so instead have another of my all time favourites from the same album, get stuck into the acoustic goodness on offer.



I've been binging on ADULT. too, it's reviving the early 2000's Foxbat in me. This slightly reworked version of Skinlike has seen me home a few times so far this year, the high energy electro hiding Nicola Kuperus's moody monotone melancholy will probably be a mainstay of things around here for a few weeks to come.



On the opposite end of the spectrum, I've been looking over Royksopp's whole discogs since the last podcast. Junior remains a highlight, and an easy avenue for both newcomers and those who aren't too into electronic. It's been a while since Junior came out, but the production and Anneli Drecker's accompaniment remain as sweet as ever.



-Claude Van Foxbat

The Fall

Hooray for Autumn, bringing with it lower ambient temps meaning I can do more rendering without turning my room into a greenhouse. But also a time for me to swap out playlists and get in that cooler mood again, here's some choice picks from my sorting:

Ed Ruscha - Fall All Leaves All Fall (2009)

It should be no surprise that I adore Boards Of Canada (although I still need to fix the enitre Warped series and get them back on the site). Here's a bonus track from The Campfire Headphase, I appreciate a lot of the Warp crew and musicians in general including bonus tracks for Japan to make up for the CD tax or whatever the exact reason was but I do wish we had easier access to them too. Not as show stopping as From One Source All Things Depend on Geogaddi, but a worthy addition to the LP nonetheless.



Keeping it in Warp territory I got around to the mixed bag that is Ultravisitor again. It's not my favourite Squarepusher offering, but I will forever love how the album ends. After a rollercoaster ride of experimental Drum & Bass with the occasional Jazzy interlude thrown in, Squarepusher closes the LP with an absolutely gorgeous combo of tracks; The first an extension of Tommib from Go Plastic which was already a favourite of mine, but the final track is simply some solo guitar work from 'Pusher. A fitting end for ride.



And seeing as I'm staying in familiar territory I may as well give a send up to my former favourite Swedes The Knife. Here again with my semi-annual coverage of one of their tracks from the soundtrack to the film Hannah Med H or A Different Way as it was titled in English. If you've gone and looked it up, it doesn't look like The Knife's icy electronics would gel with the film, but there's plenty of flexibility displayed on the soundtrack. So I leave you with their lush acoustic contribution to the film, Enjoy:

Thursday Themes

Been sorting a multitude of things attempting to seem professional. But the time's come to take a step back and zone out with some fine digital audio. So let's not waste any time

Tony Oursler - Cherry Nokia (2008)

Some Plone was just what I needed, their playful breed electronic is always a pleasure to listen to, it's a shame the project was so short lived, I could see stuff like this going down well these days. Here's yet another bit from their unreleased second album that I'm loving right about now.



On that same track, props to Snap Ant for making the surprisingly depressing Playgirl from Ladytron into something that wouldn't sound amiss coming out of a bar's speakers somewhere in Spain. Here it is:



And last but not least, a lil' bit of reggaefied Gorillaz courtesy of Spacemonkeyz. Put the LP back in my rotation again, and it's always a welcome addition when it's time comes around. Ideally should have posted this one 3 days ago but what are ya gonna do?



-Claude Van Foxbat

A Lil' Lighter

Robert Del Naja - Protection 1 (2013)

Sorry about my last couple posts being all moody like, hopefully gonna rectify that with this one! Before that, one last bittersweet offering from Massive Attack's Sophomore LP Protection. Check out the alternate art from band member Robert Del Naja AKA 3D above.



Somethin' I've been holding onto for a long time is these acoustic covers of Aphex Twin by Andrew Flanders, the end results are a lot like the Leila cover of Vordhosbn from Warp20. Guy has a YouTube Channel full of 'em, he's not put any up since though which is a shame, check it out for a unique spin of the already unique AFX vibe.



And lastly, something from Shinichi Osawa's The One, tucked away on the largely electro LP are a few more chilled selections like this here one. Somethin' a little more feelgood for ya while I head into deadline territory, I'll try catch you all again soon though!



-Claude Van Foxbat