Playing Catch Up

I've been falling majorly behind as of late. Nothing major, just the usual tale of life getting in the way meaning I haven't had much time to sit and write something out for a little while. Not to say I'm short of ideas though, I have plenty of stuff in the pipeline and I've been getting new stuff very regularly as per usual, it's just putting pen to paper that's the issue! But with two month of bandamp fridays to catch up on, I've pencilled in some time this week to hopefully get some down. Today's gonna be a litlle short on just as a stopgap, tracks and more after the pic.

I've been trying to put more variety in my mobile selections as of late, I've had pretty much the same rotation for what feels like forever and I felt like it was in need of a shakeup - so I grabbed a bunch of files and threw them all into the mix: a kind of MP3 stew if you will. Enter Sidewalks And Skeletons, an artist that I've not had in my mixes for a long time. I do remember meaning to talk about Forbidden Files way back when but I don't think I ever did. It's a slightly eclectic mix of remixes, some official, some bootlegs - a few of which are totally mangled in that distinct S&S way.

It feels much more like something you'd get from a random Mediafire link or something similar rather than a full Bandcamp release, like Flying Lotus' demo tapes of old, especially with how cryptic some of the titles get. My first pick of the day is a pretty clear cut one, Crystal Castles' Violent Dreams gets the Skeletons treatment. One of the least surprising ones on this list, both CC and S&S have both have a similar aesthetic if the album art didn't tip you off already. This remix takes things in a very electro direction, very bright sounding and almost synthwave-y in parts. It's proven pretty popular, to the point where a quick search will often bring you the remix before the original. If you've never come across any Sidewalks & Skeletons before, this track does a fantastic job of outlining the MO you can expect.



Some of them are a little plain but it's hard to complain too much when the release is pay-what-you-want. The remix of Ic3peak's I'll Be Found gives plenty of room to flex that Witch House sensibility. Truth be told I'm not too familiar with the genre beyond Sidewalk's works so I don't feel like I can comment too heavily on it (and shamefully I haven't really heard too much of the original until right now). Not quite in the same style as the electro-infused Violent Dreams but still sticks quite close to the structure of the original - there's plenty of peaks and valleys throughout, it does feel like it cover a lot of ground in its relatively short runtime, clocking in around half the length of the original.



That's not the only thing I've been spinning from my collection though, there's also three Volumes of EP to get stuck into as well - also pay-what-you-want. It's a bit of a minefield when it comes to the track list as there's a whole heap of Unicode characters and symbols in there to complicate things. I've got a solitary selection from Volume 1 for now - it's perhaps not the best representation of his current work as it's just turned 10 years old as of 2022, but if you've liked what you've heard so far you'll still find a lot to like here.



And that'll be all for today, as I mentioned up top I'm going to try and get some down and scheduled out so the gap *shouldn't* be as long in future, but with the couple of weeks I've had who knows. But enough of IRL stuff, like I also mentioned up top there's tons of stuff to look forward to, I'm going to try and catch up with the Belated Bandcamps ASAP but there's also some other cool stuff in the pipeline too. Until next time, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Nite Time Tunes

                                  The Blood Moon, in it's natural, glorious state.

Hey guys, it's Nite again, after two months of practically disappearing off the face of the Earth! I apologize sincerely for the lack of posting, as College work has been kicking my proverbial ass as of late. To make up for it, I have a bunch of Late Night Time based goodies for you to peruse through whenever you're in need of good electronic music. Shall we begin? Lets!

First off, in celebration of their 20th anniversary since their first Album, Underworld has re-released their LP, Dubnobasswithmyheadman (Yes, you read that correctly) in a remastered format. For those of you who know this group and love them, it's great news! The quality in their remastered tunes are significantly greater than their original 1994 tracks, with amplified sound, bass and other bits in there. To give an idea to what it sounds like,have a listen to one of my personal favorites from them, Surfboy. The freaking atmospheric power in this track is absolutely mind-blowing, to say the least!


Next up on the list is something out from one of my favorite Electronic artists ever, Moby. Now when it comes to Moby, he can be, at times, Hit and Miss (*Cough* Animal Rights *Cough*) But when he hits it, oh boy, he fucking NAILS it, especially with Remixes. Case in point, Moby did a very chill remix of his track, The Last Day, off of his album, Innocents. It's dark, sensual, and overall very enjoyable to listen to. I highly recommend this track to anyone that needs something to zone out to, whilst having a steady beat at the same time.


Next off, is something straight from DJ Koze. Titled Amygdala, this track was put on my Desert Playlist for a reason. It's moody, eerie, yet chilling at the same time. I can't help but be addicted to this tune! (I would seriously check out this album, as the material on there is fantastic!)


The track I have here is an interesting one. You see, I am a fan of Celtic/Tribal Music, and have been since I was a wee lad.  I love it even more when its combined with electronic beats in the background. Combine the two together, and you have Afro Celt Sound System. Fusing West-African and Celtic chants and Music with electronica, This Ethnic fusion group has produced a fair share of tracks that have raised my eyebrows in shock. The track I'm going to share with you is one of those notable tracks. Give it a try. You may find yourself liking the dark, tribal electronic music.


And finally, to conclude the goodies bonanza, here's some Crystal Castles (my favorite track, in fact)!

Au Revoir, Mes Amis!

Nite

Do You Want To Build A Snowman

It's winter for half the world right now. Now for some people that means getting to play in the snow, but for me, it means it's just bloody cold. Bringing all you southern hemisphere dwellers my winter list, packed with crunch and things that are perfect for watching it rain. Not a 'dancing in the rain' kind of playlist, more of an 'oh bugger it's raining' type.

Chewed Corners is another exceptional album from µ-Ziq, and one of my personal favourites. With a new EP Rediffusion set to release in August, I recently started going through all of his recent material; and I'm excited. Of his entire collection, I chose the final track from Chewed Corners, Weakling Paradinas.
With smooth bell types and a thumping kick to start off, the song comes off as a little lost. It quickly finds itself, with quality µ-Ziq pads and a more definitive beat. Gradually adding complexity and layers throughout, Paradinas build the tune into something magical. The baseline comes in soon after a slight lapse, and from there it only gets louder, more complex, and more magical than Houdini. Perfect for sitting and watching the frantic world go past as it simply buckets down.




Reversing now to a really downtempo jam from Nujabes. Even though the lyrics are in Japanese, simply the softness and smoothness is enough to calm all storms.



Back to the basics of staying relaxed, Clams Casino. Again, a good one for slowing everything right down, heating you up with warm silky bass underneath all the icy high end distortion. 



Lastly some Crystal Castles. Another nice one to sit and relax to when it's gently cascading from the skies, little pure souls blessed to end.



Stay frosty,
-Sulphites

Eclecticism #1

I enjoy musical diversity. I feel it broadens my thoughts, and helps with the whole emotion thing. I don't know if it's just me, but sadness and dub step don't mix, neither does feeling energetic and listening to Tycho. So here's a bunch of random tracks, with no matching mood. You'll find a track in here to suit how you're feeling, hopefully.


Positively relaxed? Emancipator is easily one of my favourite artists to listen to when I feel relaxed. This is a little upbeat, kind of makes me turn a good mood into good actions. Particularly nice for cleaning, or dancing, or doing both at the same time. Productive and positive.
The whole jumpy bass vibe really rings through, giving a bouncy/dance feel to the track. The mechanised snaps add a slight krump element, but those melodies soar so smoothly and softly over everything else, resolving all bounce into a flowing bouncing track that's bound to incur some sort of positive movement. It's like someone putting a bouncy ball in a jumping castle. It's bouncy, but it flies through the air with grace and fluidity.



Sadly relaxed, or maybe sleepy and a hint of sad? This is the one for you.
Again, really really quite relaxed. However, fitting into the Hearts A Mess theme, this is a melancholy  mix. The bass hit deeps and not entirely sinus - the first sign that this is not a particularly soothing tune. The pads sweep slowly behind the haunting, and slightly distorted, samples of the original. The hats and other percussions echo this haunting, collecting themselves over time, like scattered thoughts. 




Friday Night? This is a winner for those of who who feel like it's a friday night, and time to go do something not entirely relaxing or sad. Girltalk is an absolutely amazing artist, no doubt. Personally I feel like he put's too much into the beat most of the time. I don't get that feeling in this track. Keeping it to a simple 1234, samples abound. Tempo perfect for exciting times, energy of all the samples, even one from The Prodigy.



Peaceful and happy? Can't go past clams. Beautifully distorted, soothing vocal samples with bass too match. This for me is a life moment type of track. A track that would fit perfectly into a moment of achievement or clarity.



Wall punching amounts of anger/sadness? Let it out man, and let it out to this. I first found Crystal Castles when I was a mere 14 year old watching the first season of Skins. After seeing the episode that contains this song, my brain automatically relates it to sadness and immense anger. Also related to remembering that people are actually there for you.
Sonically, this tune got me away from nu-metal, and started my entire electronic music expansion. The sheer emotion of it. I always imagined electronic music to be 'blip blip blip blop I'm a robot who's cold and has not heart'; but this changed my life in so many ways. I can only hope that affect is paid forward.




I'll leave this up to you guys. I personally listen to this if I'm in a weird mood. It doesn't help at all. The MV for this is equally weird, but somewhat amazing.



-sulphites

Voyages of Bass

I have an interest in Australian history, particularly pre-federation. I was just going through things, when inspiration struck for my next themed post. It came when I was researching the exploration of the coastline, and when I saw this.

So now we get to the good bits, tunes with lovingly crafted bass. If you don't already have them on, now would be a good time to get some good headphones on.

I generally use this as a test track whenever I have access to a sub woofer, just to see what it picks up. The sway between too much synth and too much orchestra really gets me uneasy, but I'm willing to concede all my nit picking just to hear that bass line on a good theater system.




I'm quite certain I've posted this before, but for those who missed it, you have another chance to hear how bass lines should be done. One of my favourite bass lines, and it's such a well produced track too, with clarity in every frequency.



The reason I started listening to electronic music; Crystal Castles. I'm not sure if the bass in this is classified as a kick or not, but it's a good test for any speakers.



I'm sure many people will listen to this and remember why they don't like rap. If you're one of those people, just block out the lyrics and enjoy those delicious clammy waves.



Can't really talk about great bass without mentioning Gorillaz. Clear predecessor to their hit Dare, and apparently they liked the bass line so much they used it twice.




-Sulphites

Giving Up on Giving Up

Never give up something crucial to who you are to please other people. You'd think that no one should have to say that, because it should just a given, but perhaps its not. Sacrifice is admirable, but there are some things you just shouldn't sacrifice for anyone, one of those things being your taste in music. When I left the Ilictronix writing staff around two years ago, it was something I didn't really want to do, but I was under a lot of pressure from important people in my life to 'grow up', and one of the things that clearly had to go was my childish love of cheesy, shallow dance music, and wasting so much time on the internet.

Yeah, that was idiotic. It's taken me years to redefine myself as myself after finally throwing off the yoke of controlling, perfectionist peers.

There's be a bit of a paradigm shift within, and I still can't bring myself to appreciate the light-hearted jams I used to be in to. I call this the 'Grumpycat Syndrome', which has made it hard for me to appreciate anything fun and lighthearted, which is pretty much most of my old playlists. It's so bad I can't even listen to Discovery anymore. I mean, wtf, amirite?

The first thing that really brought me back though was one Mr. Sebastian Akchote. There's something about this guy I just can't figure out, but everything he produces speaks to me on a deep emotional level. I guess you really have to be an electrohead for instrumental electro tracks with awkward rhythms and bits and pieces of music dashed to tiny pieces and sprinkled all over it to be 'deep' and 'emotional'. But it is. And to heck with you if you tell me it isn't! Coming on the tail-end of my re-transformation was the new Kavinsky album, which left me with a lot of new house-shakers for rainy house cleaning days.

So that's kinda where I've been for awhile now, and I want to share with you some of the songs I've had on rotation for the last month or two. You've probably heard most of them before, but sometimes a nice walk through the Room of Playlists Past is a little refreshing.

Ed Banger records · Sebastian - Embody Kavinsky Remix

Stay true, everyone.

Fall Preview

Hey there. Autumn is coming thick and fast and today, I've got some remixes I've been liking quite a lot lately.

I must admit I don't know much about Monarchy, only that when mixed with Holy Ghost! and a man named Dixon, it gives out one of the grooviest tracks I've heard in a long while. Makes me wanna pull a John Travolta on "Saturday Night Fever" all over my room.



Again, I don't know much about the artists in this next track, and whilst the intro has a fairly generic and overused sound, it morphs into a nice acoustic guitar and vocals, and it just builds up from there, making a nice club track.

Denzal Park · 2011 - Luminary Ones (Denzal Park Mix) - Rebecca and Fiona {Preview}

Now for something slighlty older, courtesy of Goldfrapp, Metronomy and The Teenagers. It's a pretty simple track, a drum beat, a couple of synths and vocals, but it works brilliantly. By the way, anyone know what are The Teenagers up to nowadays? They seem to have vanished after their album release (much like Heads We Dance).



Going a bit darker now. Crystal Castles' most recent album was damn better than their first one, and one of the standout tracks was "Suffocation". Memory Tapes decided to go back to the mid-80's and give the track a bit of a poppy groove, but maintaining the original's dark essence.



And finally, another oldie. I honestly can't believe how I haven't posted this one yet. It's Russ Chimes at his very best. Lots of synths and lots of power on a track which has a 4-minute buildup to a brilliant synthline that doesn't let anyone down.

ustwomusic · The Outrunners - These Girls Are Dressed To Kill (Russ Chimes Remix)

Enjoy!

Tot de volgende keer,
Alex.

We Are Not In Love

If you even attempt to keep up on the blogging world at all, you've inevitably heard of Crystal Castles. Moreover, you've probably heard their recent collaboration with vocalist Robert Smith. In case you HAVEN'T, here it is.



Now clearly, this is a pretty epic track. It has a great 'I Listen To Obscure Indie Stuff' feel to it, while still maintaining some appeal for the non-indie kids who just like good music.

Now, compare this version to the version Crystal Castles (or rather, Ethan Kath... he did the whole track himself. No Alice.) put on their Crystal Castles (II) album earlier this year.



I honestly think the album should've waited until they had the Robert Smith vocals, but I suppose dividing the hype between multiple releases is better for them.

What a lot of people don't know about Not In Love is that it's a cover of an old 1983 rock track by a group called Platinum Blonde. They were a Canadian band, so understandably, they never made it that big. For some reason, the rest of the world seems to think Canada is a stupid place full of stupid people and stupid music. Now if they're BRITISH, or AUSTRALIAN... OH MY GOD SHUT EVERYTHING DOWN, THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER. Just something I noticed.

Seeing as there aren't many copies of the 1983 original available to the blog-reading community, I thought it might be cool to give you guys a taste of what was being emulated here.



Good old 80's rock. The hair, the sleeveless shirts... truly an era that could stand to return. An era when rock music had some testosterone in it. An era before gurlymen took over popular music (Hey Soul Sister, anyone?). -Boba