Unintended Vacation

Hey there, it's been a little longer than usual. I'd sort of expected it to be in all honesty, some of you might know I'm in education and as a result September and on is a bit of a bad time™ Anyway, I have a little moment to catch up now, so let's not waste any time getting stuck in. I'm currently eyeing things to pick up in the next Bandcamp Friday, and while I'm not short of things to get, I haven't had a chance to listen to too much due to the pre-mentioned busy times, but let's see what I have in the pipeline.

Alekos Kontopoulos - Vacation-home (1955)


Still, there's some one-offs I plan to get my hands on - I've been spending a lot of time in the breakcore memes community these days, which is un-ironically a great way to discover new tracks from indie producers. There's a bit of a coherent aesthetic behind a lot of the indie breakcore it seems: lotsa glitch, anime and general internet culture abound. As a person into all of those things it's been kind of nice to get into - enter Deathbrain's Remember Tomorrow, an encapsulation of all the above. I don't think I'd ever describe a breakcore track as 'euphoric' before, but there's not really a better descriptor for this one. Beautiful stuff.



That trend continues with Love In The 70's from Telkin, the cover art being that same kind of mangled that is fairly common in the scene (though notably not on the Deathbrain tune above!). It differs in execution slightly, not quite breakcore in the super hardcore sense - to my ears it takes a little more inspiration from the more melodic bits of Moving Shadow's backcatalogue, certainly sounds more in line with early 00's liquid funk like the early Hospital Records releases. I still need to give the whole album a spin, but if it's all like this I certainly won't be complaining.



It's been a while since I checked in with HEALTH - their latest single carries on that electronic turn they've been on ever since Death Magic. And HATEFUL might be one of their most electronic-oriented works ever - waves of industrial influence leave it coming out more like an EBM tune, or a particularly aggressive electro house track than their noise rock roots. If you're a newcomer to HEALTH this is a good demonstrator, and if you like what you hear I can heartily recommend Death Magic to get more of that fix. Love the vocals as always, and that break in the last quarter come 2:45 or so is perfectly timed to let both you and the track breathe before slamming back down. This one will definitley be in my basket come Friday.



And that'll be all for today, I'd like to try and keep things a little more regular but like I said, it is unfortunately a busy time for me, both in work and generally IRL. I'm going to try my best to not have it become a Hardcore History situation where I only post once every 6 months or something though! I can always drop some quick-fire ones like this in every now and then. Appreciate those of you who are still checking in and sorry for the delay! Until next time, as always - stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Birthdays Bonus

Joe Goode - Birthdays (2008)

First things first - apologies for taking such an extended break. Every Summer I give myself a list of things to sort out and then never end up actually doing it, but this year was different. Nothing exciting unfortunately, jut a lot of tedious file management that I'd been putting off for ages and catching up on some other things. The downside to that being I am now behind in other areas, this blog included - so it goes.

At any rate, I have a fair few things planned for this month to make up for it - starting with the annual tradition that is the anniversary post. By happy synchronicity both me and the site share a birthday, I like to mark the occasion with a slightly longer than usual post with some of my recent favourites, so let's get stuck right in.

Kicking off with Ceephax's Christmas gift to us in Baddow Moods. In the past I've characterised Ceephax's output as a bit tongue-in-cheek, which is true - you only have to look at the videos for his tracks to see he's having a right laugh embracing the cheese. Baddow Moods is pretty far from that, it's a gorgeous experience throughout, delving into more Deep House territory, sometimes even ambient at times but still with the eponymous Acid backing it up. Here's one of my favourites from the LP and the longest of the bunch in Ventlaris - to the surprise of no one reading it's this spacey number with flecks of acid as mentioned above and I could live in it's space forever. I may have to give the whole LP a write up one of these days.



There's going to be a theme for this month where I get to nerd out a little, and you're going to see a little bit of that here. Chikada Wasei, one of the men behind the tracks for the Cyberia scenes in Serial Experiements Lain has been making new additions to the series since 2018, with Layer 4 being the most recent one. Wasei is a talented producer, and importantly very flexible with the productions that make it onto these albums - while there are glimpses of the thudding Techno of the original OST, there's a variety in genres on show on the modern Cyberia-s. Really they deserve their own post (another one I'll have to get around to). For now, here's a choice bit from Layer 4



Case in point when it comes to variety, there's a companion album to Layer 03 titled After Hours which is predictably a lot more laid back than the main entries. A cool concept in general really, as Wasei turned to the community for contributions, the Lain community has a massive amount of fan-made music so it was nice to see it recognised. Not to say Wasei was totally hands off though, he too has a few contributions and collaborations throughout the track list, the introspective Last Present being a highlight.



A little bit of my last Bandcamp Friday pickups next, they were a little piecemeal this time around despite me having an extra month to prepare. Garoad dropped another single recently, they are infrequent but always a highlight (but also he seems to be busy with other soundtrack work so I can hardly complain!). Fight On Beat sees a return to form, if like me you just love the VA-11 HALL-A OST then you'll be right at home here. It wastes no time getting right down to it, opening with the exact sounds that put the VA-11 HALL-A tracks on my radar. Surprisingly not the only Fighting Game themed track I picked up on BC Friday either, but that's a tale for another day.



Some Rei Harakami next, and another from my recent BC Friday. I've been slowly drip feeding myself Harakami's works over the past few years in order to make the most of them - I adore Harakami's sound, so the longer I can hold onto having 'new' works to listen to the better. One of his tracks - Pone - is one of my favourites of all time, so it's only natural that I give a little shout out here too. Unrest is his debut, and as much as I like to say he perfects his formula on later albums, most of it is already here from the get go - that playful electric piano that underpins Harakami's sound is still there, it's just trimmed in Techno on this first LP. To the surprise of no one, the more downtempo bits are my favourites, starting with the short and sweet Wreck, an almost prototype of Pone mentioned above, simply gorgeous.



To make up for that one being a little short, one I've talked about before but is the first that comes to mind when thinking of this album - the lovely, dubby Bioscope. It sounds a little different from the usual E-Piano stuff I mentioned before, but the production sensibilities remain the same and shine through quite nicely. I will say if you've enjoyed either of these two, go right ahead and look up Harakami's discography and you won't be disappointed, as mentioned earlier [Lust] is my favourite of the bunch, but you can drop the needle pretty much anywhere and get some more goodness going on.



And finally, one last selection from one of my recent loves - Yagya's Faded Photographs is a wonderfully sedate experience, one that works best when listened to as one whole thing, though this makes it tricky to pick out individual pieces, especially as so many of the tracks flow together. The one-two punch of No Matter What and Melting In The Morning Sun have been my most repeated of the bunch. Here, the instrumentals almost take a backseat, which makes the vocal flourishes shine that much brighter. The album is quite accessible when compared to the Yagya output that I knew from the early 00's - the super stripped minimal where 6 minutes is the shortest runtime. The vocals are a welcome addition for me, they do wonders for the atmosphere and I think really complete that slight melancholy as shown on the album's cover. I've seen some say they aren't a fan, but also a fair few say the production is very similar to the albums before this (albeit minus the vocals) - if that's the case I'll have to pencil a few of them in to check out come Winter.



And that'll be about all for today, thanks for sticking with us for another year, and as I say every time - here's to many more. Stay tuned for more writings this month, some of it can't be on Bandcamp players so I'll have to try and arrange something else - apologies in advance. Shouldn't be too long mind you, until then - as always - stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Retro Review: Casiotone For The Painfully Alone - Pocket Symphonies For Lonesome Subway Cars

I've been waiting to do this one for a while - I've spent a fair bit of time gathering my thoughts, and now feels like a good time to deploy. Today we're talking Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, a project of Owen Ashworth formed in the mid 90s. For the first few releases under the name, Owen implemented an interesting methodology - those of a similar Film Studies background to myself might be familiar with Lars von Trier's Dogme 95, a manifesto focusing on raw filmmaking by purposefully limiting equipment and techniques. CTFPA's first releases follow their own brand of this doctrine, altered to fit audio. They are as follows: short songs, played in C, on the white notes of Casio keyboards.

The end result is a uniquely intimate experience, one I've found myself coming back to over and over again as of late, as someone who has famously been all about high-tech sounds in the past, it's quite the turn. I've found it quite freeing as a whole, given the dismal state of the tech world these days, each there is comfort in the imperfections embraced on CTFPA's work.

We're focusing on the second album today (and my favourite of the early works) - Pocket Symphonies For Lonesome Subway Cars. The opening track is a fine intro to that methodology mentioned above, fully embracing the pre-sets on the Casio which is a trend that will continue, as will the frank lyrical content. We Have Mice isn't quite as lo-fi as some other offerings from the album, but manages to cram quite a lot into a very short runtime. I end up saying this a lot, but if you vibe with this track, go ahead and dive right into the rest of the album and you will not be disappointed.



It was by track 2 that I knew I would be in love with this album - Tonight Was A Disaster dials the melancholy up to max, an instant juxtaposition to the opening track. There are certain lines that come to mind from this album pretty regularly - "And you'll say that it's no big deal, but it's the shake in your voice gives away how you feel" being one of them. Not sure how I feel about the noodling come the halfway point, my mind changes on it pretty regularly, but I absolutely adore the other Casio sounds on show here.



And that's a theme that will repeat also, while there are certain elements that stay the same - you'll continue to hear that preset drumbeat throughout for one - Owen does a fantastic job of getting a lot of variety out of the limiting factors. Suitcase In Hand shows that off in style, backed with some lovely powerful feeling electronics, especially around the 0:56 mark with a sequence that reminds me of Brian Eno's The Big Ship. Equally cathartic are the lyrics: "I'm at the station, the train is leaving at eight / And nothing's gonna make me stay, hey hey. No room for trouble in this old suitcase". The delivery of the lines is always on point, the lyrics themselves might not be the most complex, but the starkness often makes them all the more resonant.



Caltrain Song is a tender, contemplative number that again shows the relative flexibility of the self-imposed limitations of the Casiotone project at this point. The lyrics continue the melancholy trend, this time focusing on the hurt of words. Dying Batteries, the shortest of the bunch at just shy of a minute long, does the same - with an incredibly stripped back production of jabbed keys really selling that mournful atmosphere. Oh, Contessa! feels more like a drunken meander in both lyrics and production, for better or worse.

Bus Song is the first track that comes to mind when I think of this album. Not as bkeak as some of the other offerings here, instead a little emotional vignette of something as simple as missing a bus. Perhaps a little plain lyrically in comparison to some of the more poetic moments on this album, but still home to some beautiful imagey, I love the description of the sky as Blackening Blue. At any rate, the lyrics aren't the highlight here anyway, I just adore the total explosion in sound around the halfway mark as the melody comes in full force - it's like the Casio is being pushed to the redline and is only barely holding together.

The mages from this era are very lo-fi to boot.

From there we hit a little bit of a downturn, Yr Boyfriend feels almost a little immature in comparison, as the title hints at. Another short one, it definitely feels much more like a one take sketch than the tracks before. Which is odd to say given they're all made with that same methodology, but it sticks out s lot here, especially the way it just ends. Casiotone For The Painfully Alone In A Green Cotton Sweater too is a little immature - my impression from the lyrics is that it feels very teen-y, lamenting a summer fling and "No more rides on the handlebars, no more drive-ins in the backseat of your parent's car". Number Ten might be the most experimental of the bunch, but it creeps up on you - it follows the formula we're all used to at this point, but after the delivery of the final lines "Goodbye, Good Luck, Goodbye" we take a turn into the glitchy part of town for the final quarter. It works, but it doesn't half catch me by surpise every now and then.



Destroy The Evidence leads with a charming peak behind the curtain as we hear the Casio start up, then reset and start over again. It has the distinction of being the longest track on the album at 3 minutes and 42 seconds - it certainly makes use of it, after the last of the surprisingly dark at times lyrics, the final minute and a bit is dedicated to one long Casio noodling session. I can see the plasticy sounds being a turn off to some, granted it's not my favourite from the album but I like it well enough.



Lesley Gore On The T.A.M.I. Show offers a very slight change-up in sound, employing some almost string-like sounds while maintaining that artifical nature inherent to the Casio. Oh, Illinois! is the most upbeat track we've heard (or at least since Yr Boyfriend) - fittingly the lyrics read like a letter and have an interesting flow to them, slowing over time, culminating in the final pause on "And I don't... want to start... missing you again". Having an upbeat song with juxtaposed lyrics is a bit of a cliché, but I think this one skirts around that a little - it's an odd mix of ups and downs as our narrator flips between the negative and positive almost every other verse.



The Subway Home might immediately make me recant that though. In terms of lyrics its the most cliché of the bunch here, you can tell when the opening line is "It gets worse before it gets better". Filled with the usual content you'd expect - being broke, having unhealthy sleeping patterns and working crap retail jobs. I don't mean to be too negative mind you, we're in the tail stretch of the album by now for one, and secondly I imagine that the content wasn't *quite* as trite when it originally released in 2001. The endng synth jam on Subway Home is very nice too, big warbling keys that are almost warm to the touch.



Airport Samba brings things back around to the bittersweet - another short window into a moment, this time seeing somone off at the airport. It's concise, by now the formula is distilled, and this track achieves everything it sets out to in that short ~1 minute window. Not bad at all for what is in essence the final track - the final offering is a reprise of We Have Mice but even more lo-fi, extra tinny and with an alternate, almost mumbled vocal it makes the original feel like a fully mastered studio mix by comparison. A nice bonus and not a bad end to the album, but the original is still my favourite.



And that about wraps it up, been a long time since I've done one of these and I kind of dragged my feet a little by my own admission, but it's been fun to revisit. I did find it a little tricky to talk about this album in spots - the stripped down instrumentals make it a little difficult to pick out new elements the furhter in we got for one, and the length was a pretty big factor too as the whole thing clocks in at 34 minutes which is incredibly short for an album. Personally I fel in love with it hard, and I think to an extent that length works in its favor - if you're not a fan of the current track, just wait a minute and a new one will come along. It's readily available from CTFPA's bandcamp, bundled with his first album which also comes with some bonus tracks, if you've liked what you've heard here I'd definitely recommend the package. That about does it for today, I'll be back soon enough with more but until then, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Bandcamp Friday - May

Reporting in with this month's offerings. I thought it was going to be a little thin on the ground as I didn't have much lined up, but I managed to get some done in time. In a surprise twist, it also features a fair amount of new releases too! Let's take a look.

Kicking things off with some DMX Krew - Ed from DMX pretty consistently drops New releases to the point where it can be tricky to keep up. I heard the first track from Return To Jupiter when it was up for pre-orders and I knew then I'd get my hands on it soon enough. This is Ed's second release on Peggy Gou's Gudu Records, the first being the equally nice Don't You Wanna Play? EP. It seems to be that when DMX makes stuff for this label he switches focus to pure instrumental, there's no cheeky playful vocal as seen on some other DMX releases here. The title track is the one that sold me - it very clearly takes heavy inspiration from Underground Resistance, especially the Galaxy 2 Galaxy material. The end result is this fine slice of retro-futuristic techno, bouncy and airy, it's a lot of fun to listen to.



Next up is Yaga, yet another artist that until now I'd only really had bits and pieces from scattered across miscellaneous compilations. My experience up until this point was mainly bits from Rhythm Of Snow - all pretty minimal, at the border of my taste in the genre, anything further is a bit too minimal for me. I don't remember exactly how Faded Photographs came onto my radar, but I do remember being entranced by the one preview track at the time No Matter What.

Now, having spent a fair bit of time with the whole album, I can happily confirm the rest is very much in the same vein. I've seen a lot of discussion from fans of Yagya saying that this vocal-oriented shift he's taken isn't for them, but I quite like it, granted it is my first real experience with it beyond his older works.

It's an album that is pretty antithetical to my listening habits, my usual MO is a set of speakers and my entire collection on shuffle all at once. Faded Photographs by comparison is a much more intimate experience, one that benefits greatly from immersing yourself completely in it. I was a little on the fence about it until I threw on a set of headphones and listened to it front-to-back, it all flows together in a lovely way.

That said, there are still tracks that stand alone, my favourite still being No Matter What, but I'm really liking the whole thing, you can spend a lot of time picking out the delicacies on repeat listens and I just adore the moments of melodic vocal flourishes. It can end up sounding a little same-y in parts, but I'd definitely give it a spin if you're in the mood for some quieter, introspective listening.



Third is a compilation I'd had my eyes on for a while, one I'd assumed wouldn't be available digitally due to the label, Musik Aus Strom, being defunct. Turns out it was revived in 2022 by one of the founders and has almost all its back catalogue available, with more planned to come!

The compilation in question, the punnily titled MAS Confusion is a goldmine of lesser known IDM vendors and if you're a fan of then sound, especially around the early 00's when this compilation released then it is certainly worth checking out. There are some early highlights: the opening track from Metamatics that I've talked about before is beautiful, and Adamn Johnson's tracks are almost perfect encapsulations of what makes the 'IDM' sound. My choice for today though is Xela's Streetlevel, a lovely bit crushed nostalgia trip that also embodies all things IDM. Xela has a pretty extensive list of releases too, if you like this one I highly recommend For Frosty Mornings And Summer Nights for more in the same style (in addition to the rest of this compilation of course!)



Finally, a last minute addition in Sachi Kobayashi. It's been a little while since I picked up any ambient, so I went looking through my past purchases to check up on some artists. I'd only had a couple EPs from Sachi Kobayashi, but I very much liked them all - turns out there'd been plenty of releases between mow and the last time I checked in so I was a little spoilt for choice. I went one up from where I last checked in, Weathervane, a release inspired by the surviving Weathervane after the Notre Dame fire. For me, Kobayashi is at her best on tracks like Symbol, very roomy soundscapes with a hint of melody carrying throughout. A lovely closer to the experience, Weathervane is an ideal jumping in point for Kobayashi's work and it is currently 'name your price' over on Bandcamp, so there is no price barrier to entry if you enjoy it.



And that'll be all for today, so much for 'thin on the ground' after all eh? Part of me is considering doing a full review of the Yagya LP, but I also put most of my thoughts into this post here (hence the length!). At any rate, I hope you've found something to pique your interest here in this slightly eclectic selection. I'll drop by again with more in due time but until then, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

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

The Power Of Memes

A shorter one this time around, a little later than I anticipated because I had a hell of a week last week, but I also made a point to not bring my IRL stuff onto the blog so much this year so I'll put a pin in it there. A real fun one this time for a post theme - I've made multiple comments over the years that it doesn't matter so much *where* you discover some music and in fact sometimes the most random sources can be the greatest treasure trove of that kind of thing. So we come to talking about the internet meme, I have tons of songs in my collection that have been memed or featured in memes over the years, so I thought I'd shine the spotlight on a few.

This is a topic I can see myself revisiting, but today's entry is going to focus on two main examples. Electronic Music and memes go waaaaay back, we're talking back to the YTMND days, from Coburn's We Interrupt This Program soundtracking the NEDM meme, to Max Coveri's Running In The 90's being many a non-Initial D fan's intro to Eurobeat on 'lol internet' to the entire Caramelldansen phenomenon, it's been a phenomenon for a long, long time - and for a lot of folks (like me), it was often the first time hearing these tracks.

So colour me surpised when around 2015 I began to see a massive uptick in memes of a song I already knew - Bag Raiders' Shooting Stars. I'd already become quite familiar with Bag Raiders through all the electro I was consuming around the time it came out, but there were just so many questions about the whole thing. Why that specific track? Why so long after it's initial 08/09 release? That's a whole other discussion that could be a post on its own, though there was a bump in popularity in their native Australia around 2013 or so. To put all that aside, Shooting Stars was already one of my favourites from the album so I was ore than happy to see 'em get more exposure. I can highly recommend the album as a whole if you like what you hear here, the whole thing has this very fun almost pop-like feel to it that really sets it apart from all the other Electro House that was making waves around the time. Think more Chromeo than Justice.

Bag Raiders · Shooting Stars

The other one comes from Vine (cor, remember Vine?) Back in the heydey of syntheave was a clip of a woman and her cat set to HOME's Resonance. I didn't really give it much thought at the time, years later I'd run into some HOME tracks through another source and think that I recognised the style - sure enough with a little reasearch I was proved right. Between that and We're Finally Landing being used as the opening theme for SummoningSalt's deep dives into Speedrunning history, there's a good chance that you may have heard HOME before without realising. Another case of me heartily recommending the album this is from if you like the sound of this one, HOME's brand of synthwave has this lovely lo-fi streak running throughout that gives it a real comfy feeling that makes it stand out in my collection.



And it's tracks like this that remind us all of the importance of including the source with anything you make because remember: your next shitpost could be the first step on someone's musical journey. Joking aside, I do my best to credit tracks wherever possible, and it seems like on the whole people are getting better at it too (and there are song identifying bots to fill in the gaps too). It's incredible the reach that a silly viral vdeo trend can give a track, I'm willing to bet more than a handful of people had Bag Raiders become one of their favourite artists off the heels of the meme - and I'm more than happy to welcome them to the world of electronic music. There's plenty of room in this tent for all of us, and a massive list of genres to peruse and find something that suits you! And of course, until next time - stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Peaks & Valleys

Rochelle Blumenfeld - Desert Canyon (2015)

What a week of ups and downs it has been, seems like there's always something waiting just around the corner, for better or worse. Still, given me a chance to catch up on some writing, which I am sorely behind on. the list of post ideas keeps on growing, but I'm going to try and schedule them out over this weekend - bit of a change from my off-the-cuff mode of operating I'd been using for a while! But let's pin that for now and talk tunes. Going a little thematic with this one for the selections, let's go.

Kicking off with some of Ben Prunty's solo work. I just missed a January sale on his Bandcamp page unfortunately, but they're on my radar now at least. Fans of Prunty's suitably spacey OST for FTL will find themselves in similar company here - Dusty Road opening with those lone, almost chiptune stabs. It soon evolves though, and by the 1 minute mark is quite similar to some of the Battle themes from FTL, building to an almost post-rock style crescendo come the 2 minute mark. I'm doing the track a bit of disservice by giving it the bullet point treatment, give it a spin to get the full effect.



Taking a trip back to 2007 next - it's been a little while since I did some nostalgia-posting about the days of electro house but here we are again! Very occasionally a track will come back up out of the blue and just blindside me, I was listening to Ed Banger's Ménage-À-Trois mix CD from Mixmag earlier this week, which pretty much did that on every single track. The real highlight was a little something from PUZIQUe, a short-lived duo of Boys Noize and D.I.M. They had a few killer remixes out around that time but I had pretty much forgotten about 'em in all honesty, until Don't Go Reminded me. A real tune, a shining example of the sound a li'l teenage me would go mad for, much like Surkin's White Knight Two later in this same compilation. Annoyingly a but tricky to get a legit stream of, so I'm splitting the difference once again - one legit, one knock-off soundcloud upload.

Mr. Jonas · PUZIQUe - Don't Go (Original Mix)

And finally, a little something that I picked up a while ago but just plain didn't mention. Not for any particular reason, I like to hold onto things every now and then for occasions like this. Astral Engineering is an alias of Simon Rees that's one of those delightfully obscure tales of electronic music - self-releasing 2 albums in 1993, then disappearing for nearly 20 years before coming back with new material in the 2010s. Music For Insomniacs gathers some of the 90's material that was never before released. It's a nice experience in all, reminds me a bit of Alter Ego's debut from 1994 in terms of it being one big continuous techy ambient jam. Drifting sets up that vibe nicely in all it's spacey, dubby glory. The end's a little abrupt as it's supposed to mix into the next track, I highly recommend the whole thing if you need a little bit of a midweek float. You can get the album for free if you'd like to boot.



And that'll about wrap it up for today as I said I have a few more ideas in the pipeline that I'm going to try and get out soon enough, but for now I hope you've enjoyed this slightly eclectic selection. I'll be back soon enough with more but until next time, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

How does it feel? (Blue Monday 2023)

It is THE Blue Monday, so I'm going to use that as an excuse to talk about all things Blue Monday. I don't think there's many singular tracks I could make an entire post out of - I know I've done it or similar for Kraftwerk's The Model way back when - but that is a testament to the lasting impact some of these tracks have.

Blue Monday is nothing short of iconic, and not just in the electronic music world either, much like The Model mentioned above, BM is one of the early examples of electronic music breaking through into popular culture. A quick breakdown for those unaware: New Order was formed from the tragic end of Joy Division, and would continue in a similar sort of style until around 1983 where things would take a decidedly electronic turn.

It's from this era that Blue Monday comes about, and it made a massive splash - with the original '83 pressing, the '88 re-release and 1995 version selling a cumulative total of approximately over 10 million. And it's not hard to see why, if there were a recipe for 80's synthpop, this would be it: the opening kickdrum flurry sets the stage, a moment that has become a pop culture icon on its own, and the catchy melancholy is of course another defining feature, and one that comes back into fashion every now and then (see: Electroclash around 2002). It's a bit of a pain to find a legal stream of, so I'm doing my usual routine of the crimped soundcloud player (which to be fair in this instance at least plays one of the most prominent bits of it), and then the whole thing on YT. The video is at least pretty cool for this one rather than just a static thumbnail!

New Order · Blue Monday (2016 Remaster) (2016 Remaster)

And that could have been enough for today on it's own, a celebraation of this sepcific track. But I'm feeling a little inspired so I thought I'd put a couple more examples down just off the top of my head. First things first we have Flunk's cover from their debut album For Sleepyheads Only. Covers can be a divise topic at the best of times, something that is especially true with a track as massive as Blue Monday.

I can certainly see people crying blasphemy at this trip hopped version but it's pretty inoffensive, once it breaks free of the breathy-indie intro around 1:25 it becomes a lot less cliché and sets into a nice groove. Even so, it's very much in that vein of early 00's 'chillout' which has sometimes dated things a little more than usual, I have a well documented love for that style, plus added nostalgia glasses for this one so you'll have to take my opinion with a grain of salt!



It would spawn an accompanying EP of remixes, expanding the genres to include Drum & Bass, Electro, Disco and more. A couple of my favourites ended up on the compilation remix album Treat Me Like You Do, the remix album is pretty unique in that some of the tracks still mix together seamlessly rather than being standalone, so I'm using the EP for this next bit for a cleaner cut. Of them all, the second mix by Jori Hulkkonen might take the cake.

It turns it back around in the direction of the original with some 80's throwback synth to start off with, all coming to a peak with a re-interpretation of that kickdrum kick-off. It'd be easy to turn the whole thing into a retrofit remix and just emulate the original to a T, but after than initial nostalgia burst it does find it's own feet, bursting into a funky house infused number that's more Disco than it is New Wave. An interesting approach to take, but I like the inclusion of the knowing wink to the original before going off in a new direction.



And finally, HEALTH's version made for the Atomic Blonde OST, which I have very mixed feelings about. I've loved the new electronic direction HEALTH took since 2015's Death Magic, and on paper a version of BM with that sound would be very nice indeed, it could put quite an aggressive spin on things. In reality though I was expecting something more in line with the poppier approach they took for their cover of High Pressure Days made for the GTA V OST.

The end result though is a pretty by-the-numbers cover, incorporating all the key identifiers of the original - those kicks, that melody and even the synth choral accompaniment, just filtered through a HEALTH lens. The vocals feel a little flat, which I guess is in line with the original, but I feel like given some of HEALTH's other output it could have been a little more dynamic. There's a great breakdown in the middle section which spices things up a touch and gives it a little more of the edge, but otherwise it's played pretty straight - given that it's only appeared on the OST album that could be at the label's request, but that's conjecture on my part. Not my favourite cover, not my favourite HEALTH track either, but still fine.

HEALTH · Blue Monday

Not to end on such a dour note, but then again I suppose that is on brand for the 'Blue Monday' after all. The concept itself might be total tosh but I'll take any and all opportunities to talk about a bit of New Order and relations. This one was a little off the cuff and I feel like it's gotten a little long, but that's OK as the next post in the pipeline is going to be a fair bit shorter, no ETA on it as of yet but you can probably expect it by the end of the week if all goes well. Until then, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Down the rabbit hole

Interesting tale this time around, got talking with a coworker about the repress of the original Artificial Intelligence compilation Warp put out late last year, and in the process of seeing of bleep had any more left in stock, I accidentally stumbled across Doris Norton. Now here's some album art to grab your attention.

It's a reissue of a 1985 release, but the Bleep page lists the reissue date, so you could be forgiven for thinking it was a modern one emulating the style much like Ford & Lopatin's Channel Pressure. Curiousity took hold and off a reading I went. And what a tale it is, with Doris being actually sponsored by Apple - a fact that is shown prominently on the album cover for Personal Computer, embalzoned with the Apple logo, not to mention the Apple II featuring front and center on Artificial Intelligence, both albums I'll be posting from today.

Between it and the mouthful Nortoncomputerforpeace, and the previous album Personal Computer you have a blitz of 1980's electro. It's all good stuff, helped by the relatively bite size portions of the albums - each clocking in at around a half hour apiece. I've been trying to explore more vintage electronic as of late, so this has been a fun, if unexpected, journey. Here are some of my selections:

Doris Norton · Advanced Micro Music

On paper it's sort of by-the-numbers electro, but for it's time it will have been pretty novel. It's a little like going back and watching an old horror flick, it's full of clichés going back to it - but the only reason they're clichés are because they originated from that film! The other highlight has been Personal Computer. Frustratingly the repressing label only has this 20min preview of the full thing rather than individual tracks, but it's certainly worth a spin - the whole album is only about 33mins after all so it's actually a pretty big 'preview'! Check out title track Personal Computer for some surprisingly grungy hi-tech electronic goodness, or head over to my personal favourite A.D.A. Converter for some wild synth and atmospheric noodling.

Mannequin Records · MNQ 120 Doris Norton - Personal Computer LP

And that'll be all for today's electro excursion, hope you've found it as interesting as I have. Just goes to show you what can come of a botched search! Not sure how long it would have been until me and Doris crossed paths otherwise, but it seems like we were destined to at some point. A string of represses means her work is more readily available than if it were stuck in the 80s, but sadly there's no digital version of them to accompany. Still, happy to have found it either way. Until next time, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music

-CVF

Wrapping Up 2022

Left it a little late to do a year's end roundup, but I'm going to return to a tried and tested tradition: the good old fashioned track dump. I never really felt comfortable posting a sea of players with no commentary, so this one is going to be broken up a little with thoughts in-between, so apologies in advance if it gets a little long.

First things first, if you're after a real Nostalgia-fest, BBC Radio 6 has you covered. That right there is a playlist straight out of the 2010s featuring many of the Ed Banger crew and other indie darlings of the time. It's available here for about a month if you're interested, tho with some limitations if you're not in Europe but I can't confirm that

Michel Majerus - Untitled (2000)

Now with that out of the way, let's take a look at what I've got. I've made no secret of my love of Eurobeat over the last few years - the sugared up evolution of Italo Disco colliding with J-Pop. I had a fair few lined up, but on listening to them back I whittled it down to just a couple - it's pretty hard to find legal streams of a lot of them anyway and in hindsight some of them were a little bit OTT. Which is an absolutely stupid thing to say I now realise, as the whole point of Eurobeat IS that it's over the top! Keeping it low key to start with, Switch really highlights those latent disco traces inherent in the genre, which makes it a good dipping in point for the curious.



I've managed to skirt one of the more silly parts of Eurobeat with these two selections, being mostly written by Italians, you do get some... interesting lyrical choices that don't quite make a whole lot of sense. On that note though, Eurobeat does a fairly decent job of maintaining a good ratio of Male to Female vocalists, it'd be very easy for the genre to fall into the latter much like the Vocal side of trance did way back when. That said, there are definitely tracks that evoke that same kind of euphoric vibe - enter So Fragile



Some Tofubeats next, I picked up some of the man's soundtrack work a while back and had been meaning to check out his works ever since. His Bandcamp is weirdly bare with releases there but not for sale (that clearly used to be as well), and releases like this one here that don't appear on Discogs or anywhere else really. Synthesizer is a prime example of why I felt the need to check his work out, a real head bopper of a slow jam, topped with liberal use of Vocoder to make the whole package complete for me.



Going total nostalgia bomb for this next one, it comes back out to play every so often, and rightfully so as it's damn good. Potentially one of the finest remixes ever from the era - Thomas Bangalter (1/2 of Daft Punk for those not in the know) spins out what was a ~1 minute interlude from DJ Mehdi's Lucky Boy into one of - if not the - electro house anthem. It hurts a little knowing that we won't hear any more Mehdi productions, I always liked the man's style and was excited to see where he'd take it, but what better way to celebrate the man than belting this one out.



Let's go a little deeper next with some Soichi Terada. Terada's return under his own name was a release I was extremely looking forward to, I first got turned his way off the heels of the (legitimately fantastic) Ape Escape soundtrack, and was pleased to find even more Drum & Bass on waiting for me. But the man actually got his start making (equally brilliant) House tracks - and that's what Asakusa Light is all about - paraphrasing Terada's own words: he's trying to capture that same feeling from those days. And on tracks like Double Spire, he really does. It helps I'm a real sucker for pitch bends though!



Speaking of capturing the spirit of yore, we have DMX Krew, who has been dwelling in that space for a long long time now. Now with DMX, you often will get some cheeky playful self aware elements in the mix, evoking old school electro of the early breakin'/electropop era, it's a genre than can be quite funny after all so why not embrace it? (see also: Chromeo). Party Life doesn't really do that, at least on the title track. The thing comes out a little more like an electroclash record, lamenting the shallow nature of the said Party Life. But you don't have to delve that deep into the analysis if you don't want, the Dub mix has an excellent groove on it and is as relentlessly catchy as the original.



Couple more to round us out, starting with what is one of the oldest digital files in my collection - Misstress Barbara's Never Could Have Your Heart. A relic of my first serious forays into the world of electronic music circa the early 00's, the first version I had of this was a naff one I pirated at like 96kbps or something like that! But even then, I was totally entranced with it. That melody (which I would later learn is pretty much a cover/sample of Move D's In/Out) is just gorgeous, and the beat work is surprisingly frantic for a House record, with machine gun hi-hats and flurries of handclaps. I reckon it'll be about 20 years I've had it in my collection next year, and I'm still as in love with it as I ever was.



And finally, the one track I post every year without fail, The Knife's New Year's Eve. Taken from the soundtrack to the film Hannah Med H, it's from around the Deep Cuts era so is very much in that extremely electropop style - the one with super sweet synths and the steel pan work as heard on tracks like Pass This On. Does the track have anything to do with NYE? Not really, it plays in a scene in the film that takes place on the night which is the reason for the title. Still, it's become a bit of a tradition, there was many a year where we'd play this while getting ready to head out for the night. And now it's a tradition here too!



And that'll about do it for now, it did end up getting a little long but nothing too ridiculous! That'll be all for this year, but rest assured I'll be back soon enough in '23 with more. Thank you for sticking with us this year, we've had a couple hiccups along the way but I don't know anyone who hasn't. I hope you've found some tracks here to enjoy and will continue to do so in future - and of course, as always: Stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Last Minute Additions

Took some time to catch up on the old release radar, I normally miss a thing or two here and there, but there has been a real bevy of releases as of late. Naturally, in true CVF fashion, not all of these are going to be brand new but hopefully they are still at least new to you as they are me! Let's go.

Jacek Yerka - There is peace in the Block (1994)

The biggest one that caught my eye was an anniversary re-issue of Justice's debut with some bonus tracks - it activated that part of my brain that still loves all things electro house and I dove right in. The album itself is killer as ever, and the bonus tracks are a nice treat if a bit underwhelming - I wasn't expecting to have my socks blown off or anything, but even so, some of these bonuses are just 'OK'. Still, it's always interesting to hear demo versions of the tracks - some of them are wildly different. Out of all of them though, Donna is the one that took my heart. It instantly transported me back to the heyday of this sound, back when I was an absolute Ed Banger fiend. I'd be lying if I said I didn't still have a lot of love for this sound, part of me always thought that was tinged by nostalgia but after hearing this 'new' piece for the first time I'm starting to think that's not so true. Hop in this little time capsule with me!



Keeping in reissue town with a whole heap of remasters from Makoto. Makoto's been on my radar for a long time thanks to LTJ Bukem, I have a long and well-documented love of that era of D&B after all. But it's something I don't go looking for often, plus I do like to support the artists as and when I can, and a lot of Makoto's earlier work isn't readily available digitally. Enter the Yearbook Vol. 4 compilation to see to both of those - a whole heap of remastered versions and a previously unreleased track? Yes please. And you don't have to get far into the tracklist to see the appeal for me - Joy starts off a little heavy, but that sample is just so.. well... joyful you can't help but grin, and it doesn't let up for the full 7 minute runtime. Lovely stuff.



Something else to round out the selections, Ghostly were ever so kind as to email me a 20% off code for things on their bandcamp, so I thought I'd get around to picking up Ghostly Swim 3, the previous 2 I have already from when they were freebies. I do like picking up compilations like this, it's a great way to quickly get a lot of variety and potential new artists to follow in one swoop. I've not gone far in the tracklist for my choice today, but there's plenty of goodness on offer here, from the sinister seven minutes of Redux (GAD Mix) with it's Carpenter-esque stabs to onesix-four sounds like an offshoot of Aphex Twin's Analord series in all it's squelchy glory.

Bogdan Raczynski leads the compilation - another artist who was a mainstay of Aphex Twin's Rephlex records and, like DMX Krew, is now starting to make those Rephlex releases available on bandcamp. Ggowwksstane shares a lot of that AFX mentality actually if the purposefully mangled title wasn't a clue enough. There's a lot of playfulness here without going too hard into proper full on the breakcore side of IDM. Imagine an alternate universe Richard D. James Album and you're in the right ballpark.



And that'll about do it for today, I'm going to maybe put together a little something for NYE which I've missed in previous years, but failing that I'll try and get another regular post out before years end. At any rate, hope you've found something to pique your interest here and until next time, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Playing catch up (November's Friday Results, continued)

Yes, I am well aware it's December, but between tech issues™, life™ and being a li'l sick for the first time in a long while over the weekend I am way behind schedule. An entire month later, here I am finishing up the November's Bandcamp Friday scoops. To be fair, it was always going to be two parts because November was a particularly big entry but I never expected it to be delayed this much. But at any rate, let's get stuck in.

Maynard Dixon - November in Nevada (1935)

Keeping in theme with heavily delayed, here's an artist I've been meaning to post here for months - Sound Synthesis. Long enough that I don't quite remember how they came up in my recommendations, but I knew from the get go I was going to enjoy pretty much everything I'd hear from them. Much like E.R.P., it's that very specific kind of spacey electro that really really appeals to me. There are releases where the two are quite close in terms of sound, on Orbital Frequencies though, Sound Synthesis does a fantastic job of carving their own image. I was torn between choosing Thinking Of You or this track - this one keeps that hi-tech vibe but feels a lot brighter than the other electro I've posted in this vein in the past. Lovely stuff.



I got around to picking up some more from Sense too, another artist on the more obscure side of the IDM world. I've gone back to A View From a Vulnerable Place this time, his debut - coming to us from Neo Ouija circa 2001 originally, I knew what I was getting into from those facts alone. It's a label with a short, sometimes sparse release history but equally is home to some real quality among those few. Coming back to this LP, it's perhaps a little generic in parts, but it is the better part of 20 years old by now and as you all know by now I have a lot of love for the genre either way.

There's still plenty to get at here though, the main barrier to entry is going to be the length of a lot of these tracks which average around the 6 minute mark. The track I've chosen, View From Another Place, is no exception to this rule, clocking in at a hefty 12 minutes. It is by far and away one of the standouts though, despite me saying it suffers from being generically IDM, this one in particular sounds quite a bit different from the rest of the LP. Among the classic juxtaposition of broken beats and airy synths are lots of lovely delicate touches and flourishes that make it a joy to listen to.



Swinging from hi tech to something comparatively lo-fi - Komëit have been on my radar for a while, hot off the heels of my lo-fi dive into the world of Casiotone For The Painfully Alone I was ready for more. Komëit's work is a lot less raw than CFTPA's, but still carries that unmistakable bedroom production. Following a tried and tested formula of simple, sampled guitar backed with these tinny drums that lovingly contrast with the acoustic elements. Top with some distant, incredibly softly spoken vocals and I don't think you could come up with a finer recipe for a indie electronic pop record from 2000.

It can be a fairly intimate experience, sometimes cinematic in parts, I've very much enjoyed my time with it. As if to illustrate how thorough the formula is, I wrote the above with the intention of posting Thanks + No, but changed my mind just now to Don't Call and I haven't had to alter a single word. Don't Call is the track I first heard from the duo actually, and I think is a fantastic intro to the album as there's a lot going on beyond my basic description above. The rest of the album comes highly recommended if you like this one naturally, you'll find yourself in familiar sonic spaces throughout!



And that'll be all for this quick roundup of last month's scoops, I still feel like I need to take a deeper dive into the other releases I mentioned in the prelude post, but in the interest of catching up I think we can swing back around to them some other day. It's been pretty enjoyable to write this up after my little break, doubly so as I didn't really get to immerse myself in these records too much before wading into the sea of tech issues - it's been a bit like putting on an old jacket and finding a bit of cash in the pocket! I'll be back soon enough with more but until next time, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Flying Visit

Domenico Gnoli - Unbottoned Button (1969)

Apologies for the big gaps once again, I've been busy and not really felt like writing too much. I've been keeping notes on tracks I do want to talk about though, so let's get stuck in. I've been revisiting HEALTH's Death Magic once again, it's a record I love a whole lot. There are a couple of tracks on it that break with how I remember the full thing though - when I think HEALTH, I picture their noise-infused sound with lyrics streaked with nihilism. LIFE however, feels much more lighter in execution.

The noise element is still there with that deliciously distorted opening hook, but the delivery and lyrical content here feels much more... indie, for want of a better term, The kind of track that would break onto the radio every now and then - the chorus of "I don't know what I want, but I know that I don't know what I want" being that kind of clever rhythmical wordplay that is catchy as all get out. It's a feel it shares with LA LOOKS, a track that actually did appear on some indie compilations of the time.



Next is a track I've talked at length about in the past, the closing track for The Chemical Brothers' Push The Button: Surface To Air. Coming back to this album has been a bit of a mixed bag, I loved it way back when a friend loaned the CD to me way back when but some of the tracks have fallen prey to overplaying. Tracks like The Big Jump and Galvanize for example. Now that isn't a knock on the album, hell, it's not even the Chem. Bros' fault - those tracks have just been licensed and soundtracked a million times since release.

But that's maybe why I've fallen in with tracks like Surface To Air. It's a masterclass in the way the Bros build up tracks - perfectly placed as the final track of the album, it really feels like a complete journey over the 7 minute runtime. It takes a little while to get going, but I can't help falling in love all over again come around the 1 minute mark. It doesn't leave you hanging for the entire runtime, it only takes until roundabout the halfway mark for the full effect to come into play. signposted with a lovely almost post-rock-esque crescendo. And even then it's not done, adding a lovely bass line not long after and continuing to evolve over the rest of the runtime! It's a fantastic piece, frustratingly only available on the premium Soundcloud legitimately so I'm including a YT player as well for the full thing.

The Chemical Brothers · Surface To Air

And that'll be all for today, I am going to try and be a little more active soon as things are winding down, I have plenty to write about but it is finding time that is the issue! I may change tack and do some more of these smaller posts in future to mitigate that a bit, but it shouldn't be long before I can return to my usual ones. At any rate - as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Charting the Stars

Getting around to writing this, I was waiting until all my tech woes were sorted out. A little bit of a retrospective this time, after seeing that Justice's Planisphere is now available as a separate release, I thought it'd be good to take a closer look at it once more. It's an interesting curio of the duo's discography - originally a promo CD for a Dior show back in '08, it'd see another release on the digital version of Audio, Video, Disco in its entire long form version (that replaced other bonus track Presence from the other versions) as well. And here we are again with another standalone release, coinciding with Ed Banger's new Bandcamp push, complete with updated artwork to boot. Let's take a look.

And speaking of that artwork, it should tip you off to the kind of experience you're in store for here. On the four parts of Planisphere, the Justice boys wear their hearts on their sleeves - a 17 minute epic that encapsulates all their influences. Personally I think the whole saga works better in parts than as one continuous stream, but I suppose the full length version is more in line with the very clear prog rock influence on display, see the extended jams of say, Tangerine Dream for reference.

Part I sets the stage - channeling the cinematic opening of Genesis with some dramatic piano stabs... for about 45 seconds or so before we land both feet firmly in that Cross-era sound. If you rinsed that record as much as I did back then you'll immediately hear the similarities. Personally I find Part I to be a bit plodding in terms of pacing for the first half but then again it is supposed to be the soundtrack to a fashion show so we are missing an integral part of the experience. That all changes in the second half though, where things take a very Valentine turn around the 3 minute mark - and it is brilliant.



Part 2 leans heavily on the duo's penchant for slightly spooky soundtracks (as they did previously with the Goblin sample for Phantom) at the very beginning, before settling back into that Valentine-esque groove. At the 50 second mark we start to take off and we launch back into something that shares more in common with the heavier sides of their debut LP, very Waters Of Nazareth in execution. The shortest of the Tetralogy, it does feel very much like a bridge between the two parts, especially given the sudden change at the very end that ushers in part III.



III continues that trend, leading with that grinding, almost engine revving sound that underpinned the Justice sound of the time. I think it might be my least favourite of the bunch, but not for any particular reason - looking over my 'played' stats for them all it is the lowest of the four but that's not a great metric to measure that by as Part IV is heavily skewing those numbers, but we'll get to that in due time. Because in reality, as good as the rest of the parts are, IV really, really steals the show.



And it wastes no time making that clear from the get-go. Opening with a frankly decadent display of guitar shredding. It is between this and SebastiAn's bootleg of Killing In The Name Of I was able to get a few metal-heads into electronic back in my high school days. The crescendo of this extended jam is up there as one of the finest tracks the duo have ever made, an exclamation mark at the end of an already killer tracklist. All these years later, the build up and break at 1:10 still makes me a little excited, catapulting me back to my days of chasing the next electro banger of the week. I've said in the past I'm not the biggest fan of guitar noodling, especially in electronic music - but I'll be damned if it doesn't work wonders here. For the final 3 quarters it is a non-stop barrage of furious fretwork, an absolute tour de force.



I might not have kept up as much with Justice or the rest of the Ed Banger crew, but coming back to tracks like this never fail to bring me right back to that heyday. Planisphere has aged a little more gracefully than some other examples of the era, partly because it's not out there to be this week's hot thing for the dance floor, but even so I'm sure that it'd still get the floor filled as it is. While not as pervasive as their debut album Cross, Planisphere is widely held up as one of Justice's finest hours, and hopefully as you've heard, rightfully so. Predictably the Vinyl version sold out pretty rapidly, folks on Discogs have been begging for it for literal years if you go back and look. It might have been in stock if I'd have posted this when I originally intended to, but between tech issues and Life™ it's been delayed slightly.

Even so, I hope you've enjoyed this little look back, whether you're a Ed Banger Veteran or this is your first time. I still have to write that full breakdown of last month's bandcamp Friday, and if I don't hurry up I'll end up having to do two back to back! I'm gonna try write a couple quicker ones in the meantime too but until then, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF