"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.
