Hangin' On The Telephone (Once More)

NOTE: Hi there! I'm going through the backcatalogue and re-publishing all the posts I can find. I'm re-posting them as new articles too just so there is visible content going up. This post is originally from January 2016.

Enjoy,
-CVF

Turns out waiting for phonecalls: not fun. Especially when the quiet gives your silly brain time to think shitty questions like "Do they have the right number?" So here I am writing a thing to distract me. Is it working? I 'unno but I'm gonna keep typing anyway.

Hiro Yamagata - Rainy Day (1986)

Been listening to a lot of Gorillaz as of late, there were some rumblings of new things to come from Mr. Albarn not too long back which I am very much looking forward to. Until then Plastic Beach and co are more than enough to keep me going. I'll forever love the synthesized sounds on show here, especially on the choruses.



A long long time ago I posted a bootleg recording of a Broadcast Peel Session, and ever since then I've lamented that there was no other Broadcast songs with a similar sound. Well look no further if you were like me, as the main hook of Living Room consists of an arpeggiated almost organ like synth. And of course Trish Keenan is on top form as usual to tie it all together.



And one last revisit to the synthpop side of things. I've been meaning to get some more indie synthy things in the collection (but then again what am I not meant to be adding to it at any point?), and I gotta thank the Simones for reminding me on a semi-regular basis of that. A bit like a musical shopping list.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Chilly Out (2017 Re-Post)

Note from Claude: Hi all! I'm currently laid up with a intense migraine and the weather's shite, but I've managed to glance up at a screen long enough to dig up this post from 2015 which I'm re-posting to fill in for my usual selections on a Sunday. Thanks to technology for allowing me to write this bit using speech to text, enjoy the trip down memory lane and I'll be back next week with the usual.

Oh boy has the cold come home fast. 0 to frosty mornings overnight, which means it's finally time to do my annual tradition of prepping winter playlists. Let's get right on in.

Gustave Caillebotte - View Of Rooftops (Effect Of Snow) (1878/9)

After my recent trip into the world of what electropop I have in my collection thanks to a soundcloud roundup I've been crushing on my long time favourites Broadcast once again. I've written pretty extensively about my love for them, and I won't repeat myself here, instead enjoy the wintery tones of the penultimate track of Haha Sound.



To that end, a long lost relic from 2008/9 popped back up on that search. Honestly surprised it took so long to come back up, I haven't heard anything from Youth Novels for about 3 years despie daily shuffling o fmy entire library. But it came back, and ho boy these feelings and memories hit pretty hard. I'll have to catch up with Ms. Li sometime soon.



Of course Boards Of Canada were on the lineup for a cold playlist, I'm still amazed at some of the tracks they have tucked away on obscure, often unreleased albums. I've covered a few of the tunes from the aptly named Old Tunes tapes a while ago, but as of right now I'm digging Boc Maxima, and reminding myself of why Whitewater is one of my favourite pieces of BoC.





-Claude Van Foxbat

The Submithub Roundup, Vol. 7.5

I've been real busy as of late, so I kinda forgot about the submithub side of things. Which means that the selection box which is normally overflowing isn't. I don't mind though, there's still things to pick from, and it's a nice change of pace to not have the pressure of multiple pages of submissions if only for a while. Now onto the selections, as you all well know by now I normally take the tags with a grain of salt, doubly so when they namedrop artists directly but this one may just make me rethink that policy, the Little Dragon comparison in the tags proving surprisingly apt, definitely hearing Yukimi Nagano's influence here on the vocal side of things.



It's not long before my eyebrow's raised again though, needless to say I don't think the tags fit this one but I digress, as we all know it's difficult to define sounds at the best of time, more so when it's your own. Anyway, onto the song itself, the electro influence is definitely there, but for the most part it feels like a much more intense version of electroclash. I didn't realise how much more until I went looking at my other electroclash stuff for comparison actually. Certainly evokes elements of it throughout, specifically the Punky, vulgar side as made famous by Peaches, just with a more electronic slant. I do feel like there's a lot for 'em to gain by looking at ADULT., Peaches, Mount Sims and the like. As we all know that's one of my weaknesses so enjoy.



And something a little jazzy to finish off, which combined with Stef Williamson's delivery on the tune leaves me reminded of the guest parts by Sarah Winton on Nightmares On Wax's Carboot Soul. And that gorgeous breakdown in the middle could be straight from one of Mr. Scruff's samples. I'd certainly like to see them tackle something more in that trip-hop vein but what they got going on now is perfectly alright too, and certainly a breath of fresh air amongst other synth-based indie pop stuff.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Submithub Roundup, Vol. 7

Another week another roundup or two, starting this week with a very smooth number from Torin Bell, I haven't had much in the way of this style of thing in my feed which is a bit of a shame, especially because I'm about to embark on another down-tempo adventure. I'd love to see a more IDM approach with this kind of sound from them, I could certainly parts of this merging well with it. As it stands though, it's a lovely self contained experience, which would make sense given its description of "finding peace in a time of turmoil".



More ammo for my electropop drought relief again, this time from a little further east in Moscow. It's their first ever single release to boot, the artwork is solid (but then again I do have a soft spot for glitch) and for a first proper single it's very well done. I do always find covering first releases tricky simply because I don't like to be too critical while they're discovering their sound, but these two seem like they have a good idea where it's heading, so my only very minor complaint is I'd love to hear more of the production side shine through in parts, the tiny break at around 1:50 makes me smile every time.



More sufficiently spooky tunes for all hallows with vverewolf whose name may or may not have made me check my kerning settings. I dig the overall sound and all but I feel like they'd get a lot out of incorporating some more intense sounds into the mix, thinking along the lines of Carpenter Brut, the retro style's already there after all, or maybe something a lil more industrial like Trent Reznor's cover of Immigrant Song, maybe even Massive Attack's Butterfly Caught too. That's not to knock the tune itself though, they certainly have their sound pretty nailed down and it's a solid listen.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Submithub Roundup Vol. 6

Back again with another round, normally I don't pay attention to the artist namedrops in the tags because in my experience they've been way off base. I gave this one a pass for two reasons, first beign the artist namedrop was Little Drgon and I don't think I've seen anyone else do that and second is that they're Swedes, which is home to some of my all time favourites including the aforementioned Little Dragon. The tune itself is a lovely listen, there's some lovely smoothness going on underneath that driving beat, and the transition into the second half from the midway breakdown is fantastic. Looks like I've found the means to fill the Au Revoir Simone shaped hole in my collection.



Some undestated art for the next one, which is quite fitting given the intro. Another smooth addition to this post too, quite catchy when the chorus hits for sure and makes me perhaps a little nostalgic for BBC Radio 1 circa 2009 or so. After listening to the original and this I feel like it'd be nice to give it the All Is Full Of Love treatment Björk did back in '99 and have a bunch of varied takes on the same tune, Tanis' vocal contributions seem like they'd fit that model well.



Speaking of nostalgia, Dr. Snus here is prescribing me another replacement dose for Pretty Lights this time, only this time with more shelf wobbling sine waves in the mix. I have a pretty mixed opinion about the Pretty Lights album this reminds me of, Filling Up The City Skies, they're both going for the same kind of sound, but I think Snus' is more cohesive overall. A few very very minor complaints with it, I feel like the ending fade being a little long for one, and I'd like to hear a little more of the instrumental experimentation going on but like I said very minor. A promising introduction regardless, and another one to follow on my books.



-Claude Van Foxbat

The SubmitHub Roundup, Vol. 3

Back again with a third helping of Submithub pickings, and the indie elctronic itch continues to be scratched (as does the good artwork train too I might add). After the last post I dug out my collection of indie electronic stuff and was lamenting the lack of any new La Roux rumblings, well once again someone must have been listening because this 'un landed on my screen today. Got a few minor quibbles with bits of the production front agree with me but it's very well done for the most part. I'd very much like to see something a little more downtempo from them in future, like the more sedate parts of Röyksopp's Junior



The most exciting part of these submissions is finding something you weren't expecting. Given the last few hip hop tagged submissions, I certainly wasn't expecting the lusciously smooth instrumental on show here, reminds me of many a bleary eyed night watching Adult Swim bumps. The lyrical accompaniment is on point too, the content and delivery go hand in hand with the instrumental, and there's a couple lines that hit a little close to home too, which is something that hasn't happened to me since the days of Aesop Rock's Labor Days and The Streets' Original Pirate Material.



Talking surprises, this one came to me billed as deep house, and the intro and art set me up for a relatively chill experience, imagine my surprise when those bombastic, almost brass like synths dive right in around 40 seconds. It's structured pretty nicely too, there's a nice breakdown and switch up around halfway through, and an extended outro, which is a little unusual but brings things to a closure quite nicely. Part of me wants it to be longer but at the same time I want it to stay the bitesize chunk of feelgood electronic that it is.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Through The Machine

Guess who made a surprise appearance on my radar t'other day. It's been a long time since I've heard any rumblings from Maybe The Moon, last I recall they only had a couple songs on their soundcloud but they were scratching my occasional electropop itch something fierce. And then out of nowhere there's not only a few more tracks but an EP announcement too? They're spoiling me.



I'm trying to ease off the comparisons when it comes to these things, but I'll be damned if the Au Revoir Simone comparison isn't apt as ever from the get go. The opening tune also has me very interested in any pure instrumentals that they could put out. Not to disparage Karmen's vocal contributions mind, but I am very much on the market for some 604-era Ladytron goodness like Mu-Tron.

The EP itself is out right now, you can scoop it from Bandcamp. It's name your price so if needs must you can get it for free, but feel free to throw a couple quid their way if it tickles your fancy. I will most definitely keep my eyes on these two for any further developments, they always seem to come 'round when I'm looking for sonds in that vein.

-Claude Van Foxbat

Catching Up

Trust the day I go out of town to be the day I get some emails that are pretty important and I had planned to write a post too, so the plan for that went out the window. All covered now though so I can tell you the latest news as a backup, after reaching the 4K follower milestone on Soundcloud, our long time good vibes pal Celadon City has a little something to share with us. And it's just as pretty as ever.



Apologies again for the rushed post, but I'll make it up to y'all. You know I'm good for it. Until then ave yourself a lazy afternoon courtesy of the above.

-Claude Van Foxbat

Q & A: Mississippi Jones

In what will hopefully be a continuing series, I talked with another of the more recent blog pals I've made; Mississippi Jones. They caught my eye a while back by both tickling my elctroclash/electropop ears, having a scheduled series of releases throughout the year and just generally being nice folk. I think I've written enough about the duo of J@$ and Mississippi herself over the past year or so, so let's get stuck in.

Claude Van Foxbat: First things first is what we ask everybody who we Q'n A, what have you got in rotation right now?

Mississippi Jones: We're listening to Hannbal Burees apple juice standup. Comedy is always background noise for our project time. Also Amy Winehouse was on earlier cause we are cover her song Addicted for a show we're playing tonight 'The Bong Show'. It's in an art house and centers around weed- a very popular topic here in Seattle. :)

CVF: Do you have any reflections on your process from start to finish?

MJ: It's definitely getting more refined, we are understanding more what kind of a sound we want and how to create that. Our process is to release every 14 weeks with new material and we just wrapped up our final piece last week for this series. With the fourth release, we now have our second full fledged album. It is definitely a process we are going to stick with, getting heard as an indie band means having music out on a regular basis, and interacting in the local scene. It's much easier to do that when you have new content.

CVF: Is there any other media (Movies, Games etc.) which have made an impact on your work?

MJ: Tarantino is one of my favorite directors, he has definitely influenced at least one song "Mr. White". Maybe I'll write a song about feet next. Banksy is also another big influence, one of the songs off the most recent EP is titled after his last big NY art project "Better Out Than In". Street art has always been fascinating for us, we post about it on Instagram daily. The concept that some art could be illegal or less valuable simply because it is outside is very culturally relevant to today. We play in galleries and have a lot of artists friends so visual art and conceptualizing emotions play out in our music as we try to grab emotions and leave them on a track.

CVF: Something else I always like to ask is what was your introduction to electronic music?

M: I grew up going to raves when they were out in the woods and everyone used them to sell and move drugs. It's about the same now lol. The genre has definitely grown in depth, and it is so varied I wonder if wer're headed to a place where it will take over music entirely. The term EDM can cover everything from dubstep to happy hardcore to ambient psytrance. There is really something for everyone and communities around it are still growing.

J: I was introduced to electronic music through Donna Summer "I Feel Love". Which is widely recognized as the first breakout electronic dance music song ever. It was pioneering in the way it adopted that kind of instrumentation and composition. There were politics of disco and the racist, sexist, homophobic nature of that disco movement. When Donna Summer came on the scene it was empowering for women, it opened up for gay people and people of color to be accepted and celebrated and creative. We still see these issues today in a lot of electronic music, both the hetero normative bias, misogyny and general bigotry but also other people trying hard to open it up again for others.

CVF: Slightly related, how did you get involved with your current scene?

MJ: Going out and meeting people, asking around and playing show with other musicians. Getting out of the house and off the internet, and also making connections through social media that have been very beneficial. It's not all or nothing, you can't just play out and you can't just be on the internet. You have to work the gray areas in between to make it happen. The music scene is Seattle is big and everyone is a musician, everyone is creative and it is exciting to be in a city where creativity and art play such a major role in so many lives.

CVF: Do you remember what your first ever produced track was?

M: I wrote a bunch of songs some music for friends and family one year and a friend recorded it for me. I gave it out for xmas, that was a lifetime ago. I've recorded off and on with different groups and solo since then.

J: I've been recording stuff since I was a kid. Using cassette decks back and forth, to analog 8 tracks, to using digital now. I've done a lot of projects. I used to work with rock bands mostly, mostly. A few rappers and instrumentationalists as well. There was a performance art collective and we recorded and toured extensively and even headlined Burning Man back in the day.

CVF: You've got 4 words to sum up your sound, go!

MJ: Electronic heart analog soul.

CVF: What's your equipment setup look like?

MJ: It's a messssssss. The studio desk is a labor of love that gets used often and looks like a snake pit of cables and wires. Instruments are piled around the studio space we use, and get pulled out as we need them for various songs. Live we have a very simple set up intentionally. We can literally play anywhere and sound like a full band which is amazing and unique, and not something that could've happened even 10 years ago. Soft synths and samplers are at the heart of it.

CVF: And finally, what's in store for the future of Mississippi Jones?

MJ: More shows more music, more art more origami. Stay tuned for releases, and follow us on instagram, talk to us on facebook we are very friendly and are always open to connections from around the world or around the corner. I spend a lot of time on twitter too, talking with musicians, writers, and artists and posting collage like pictures of galaxies and street art. If you need any Canadian graffiti, my account is a good place to find it. We can see into the future, but if we told you we would have to kill you. Let's just say it's gonna be real good.

CVF: Alright that about wraps it up, thank you! thanks! It's been real interesting to see all the different replies to the questions, been along time since we've done a duo too so that's been pretty interesting too!

MJ:Thanks as always for your thoughtful discourse on our music. We really appreciate the article and can't wait to read it!

And there we have it, another Q&A successfully in the bag. Now I just need to find some more people to email/tweet these out to, to keep the Q&A ball rolling. Alternativley if you're reading this and would like to answer the Q's anyway, feel free to drop me a line at the usual places!

Find more Mississippi Jones at:
Bandcamp
Soundcloud
Official Site
Facebook
Youtube

- Claude Van Foxbat

Hangin' On The Telephone

Turns out waiting for phonecalls: not fun. Especially when the quiet gives your silly brain time to think shitty questions like "Do they have the right number?" So here I am writing a thing to distract me. Is it working? I 'unno but I'm gonna keep typing anyway.

Hiro Yamagata - Rainy Day (1986)

Been listening to a lot of Gorillaz as of late, there were some rumblings of new things to come from Mr. Albarn not too long back which I am very much looking forward to. Until then Plastic Beach and co are more than enough to keep me going. I'll forever love the synthesized sounds on show here, especially on the choruses.



A long long time ago I posted a bootleg recording of a Broadcast Peel Session, and ever since then I've lamented that there was no other Broadcast songs with a similar sound. Well look no further if you were like me, as the main hook of Living Room consists of an arpeggiated almost organ like synth. And of course Trish Keenan is on top form as usual to tie it all together.



And one last revisit to the synthpop side of things. I've been meaning to get some more indie synthy things in the collection (but then again what am I not meant to be adding to it at any point?), and I gotta thank the Simones for reminding me on a semi-regular basis of that. A bit like a musical shopping list.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Post-Holiday Quickie

Afternoon all, hope your respective winter celebrations went down well. Now, I'm sure you've heard people moan and groan that nobody makes Christmas music anymore and so we're leftwith the same dregs we've heard for years and years every winter. Well thanks to my buds over at Galaxy Swim Team I was treated to this on my soundcloud feed, a more modern indie-pop syle take on Paul McCartney's original. Not for everyone sure, but I could defintley see a market for this in future (What I wouldn't give for a sleazy electroclash cover of Wham!'s Last Christmas).



And since I'm here I may as well say I wrote and scheduled another annual New Year's post/track dump, and it'll be a tad earlier this year so keep an eye out for it going up on the 30th! Until then I hope you're all havin' a good time, and I'll be back soon.

-Claude Van Foxbat

Chilly Out

Oh boy has the cold come home fast. 0 to frosty mornings overnight, which means it's finally time to do my annual tradition of prepping winter playlists. Let's get right on in.

Gustave Caillebotte - View Of Rooftops (Effect Of Snow) (1878/9)

After my recent trip into the world of what electropop I have in my collection thanks to a soundcloud roundup I've been crushing on my long time favourites Broadcast once again. I've written pretty extensively about my love for them, and I won't repeat myself here, instead enjoy the wintery tones of the penultimate track of Haha Sound.



To that end, a long lost relic from 2008/9 popped back up on that search. Honestly surprised it took so long to come back up, I haven't heard anything from Youth Novels for about 3 years despie daily shuffling o fmy entire library. But it came back, and ho boy these feelings and memories hit pretty hard. I'll have to catch up with Ms. Li sometime soon.



Of course Boards Of Canada were on the lineup for a cold playlist, I'm still amazed at some of the tracks they have tucked away on obscure, often unreleased albums. I've covered a few of the tunes from the aptly named Old Tunes tapes a while ago, but as of right now I'm digging Boc Maxima, and reminding myself of why Whitewater is one of my favourite pieces of BoC.





-Claude Van Foxbat

Soundcloud Roundup VII

It's been a while since I looked over my feed on soundcloud, and thankfully my gamble has paid off and I have lots to digest. I went through and picked out a few things and had to make a belated last minute replacement because the song I wanted to put last is no longer on soundcloud it seems. On we go.



Latest friends of the blog and electropop darlings Maybe The Moon have surprisingly little on soundcloud, so in an effort to not use it all up at once I went with my tried and tested method of going by track names. And it did not let me down. The comparisons I made last time still stand here; this one especially has that Au Revoir Simone vibe to it, and surprisingly enough the lyrics remind me a ton of Broadcast's Lights Out which is far from a bad thing.



They had an effect on my listening too, as I dug out all my electroclash records and got taken back to the early 00's, and thanks to a repost on my feed I got introduced to some new electroclash-esque stuff from Hyperultra! It could almost sit right at home on an International Deejay Gigolo compilation nicely and I am totally in love with the vibe of it. I do have to echo similar comments to those on soundcloud; the vocals do need some work, the recording seems lower quality than the rest of the track. But at the same time the Electroclash kiddie in me is telling them to keep it that way because like Miss Kittin & The Hacker's Frank Sinatra or Peaches' Fuck The Pain Away, low quality recordings are electroclash as fuck.



And fnally the last minute replacement. Not that that means it's any less quality mind. I've seen Olivia's name pop up a few times when looking over Celadon City's feeds but shamefully never checked anything out other than their collab until now. I've said before I love the vibe that Celadon and the company he keeps put out, they're always full of lush sounds and are an absolute joy to listen to. The description on SC also tells me that there's an album in the pipeline, so I will definitely be covering that when the time comes.

-Claude Van Foxbat

Post-Spooky Soundcloud Roundup

And back to our regularly scheduled programming we go. It's only fitting that hot off the heels of me retelling the story of my love for synthpop and electroclash I get this one sent to me. It's always nice to see people who have their visual style locked down for one, and for two they seem to have found the manual on how to tick my electronic boxes. Very interesting to see the similarities to old school synthpop hearing them so close together, as well as the more modern comparisons I could draw to Au Revoir Simone, Ladytron, La Roux, Goldfrapp and the like



Former writer Joe has also made it onto my list once again, his latest Netlabel project just had it's first birthday, and to celebrate he put together a lovely compilation EP that I think sums up the whole sound they're going for pretty well. Unfortunately I'd posted most of the tracks included so instead of posting the full player, have this super cute bite sized sample instead.



My man Celadon remains a powerhouse, how he comes out with so many different tunes in a small time frame to such a high standard eludes me. I was originally going to post more of his more recent ambient efforts but It was a bit of a 180 in sound given the last two, so instead, have this compilation piece that I somehow missed. It's a lot more in common with what I've posted of his before, but this time featuring a lovely chiptune-y style in addition to the usual playful tones.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Smooth Sundays

Hello all, just dropping by with some more bits from my feed as per us. And once again I'm starting off with Celadon City, but this time it's quite a bit different from his usual sugary sweet summer vibes, much more sedate and pretty much all acoustic. Admittedly it's a few months off from Valentine's Day and I should really save it for then but I can't help myself, I'm a well known sucker for a nice vocoder, and this has it in spades.



Second comes from someone I was meant to cover this time after seeing a few of his tunes reblogged. I went onto my soundcloud today to find out he'd actually followed me! not bad to say I only put up weird ambient and drone experiments. I've been digging Vigliensoni's output as of late, I was in love wih the sounds regardless, but the vocals are giving me serious Sébastien Tellier vibes, which is something I have been lacking as of late.



And finally, a little something I found just above all that. FlyLo's Puppet Talk was a bit of a wildcard from him being a solo piano piece and all. I was curious as to how a remix of it would work and I got my answer. I know the whole Beats things has had its moment and gone, but I still love a lot of the stuff in that style like FlyLo's own Massage Situation for example. And this has the right combo of compression and super sweet synths to keep me satisfied until the next Rustie release.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Keeping Up With The Jones'

Special shoutout to Missi who reminded me their EP is actually out now. Covered a bunch of songs of this a while back but missed the intro one on purpose for posting now. I haven't much to add to that otherwise, I've been listening to a bunch of Au Revior Simone as of late, and the Seattle duo do just as good a job at scratching that itch as they do.



There's a whole range of comparisons I can draw from the funky opening reminiscent of Martina Topley Bird, to the more garage-come-dubstep stylings of You Don't Know What Love Is there's plenty to sink your teeth into. Should certainly see me through the summer, get stuck in for yourself.

-Claude Van Foxbat

The Best Laid Plans...

Well, this is awkward. I completley forgot I'm away this weekend. I went to check in with Adam to see if he could cook up something for ya but he's off to Pitchfork Fest so I can't rope him into doing a write up. So here I am again posting even more Celadon City, mainly because that's all I've had on but also because he dropped a new collab tune today and it's very sweet indeed:



About as lush as we've come to expect from Celadon for sure, I can't get enough of the vibe. Apologies for the semi-cop out again, BUT I did update the sidebar playlist. A bit late I know but still, check it out. I promise you all a proper art + tracks post by me come Monday. I'll see y'all then ❤.

-Claude Van Foxbat

M-i-s-s-i-s-s-i-p-p-i

It's my pleasure to introduce you all to the world of Mississippi Jones, A duo of J@$ and Mississippi herself. I've known for some time now thanks to me having some back-and-forths with the woman herself on twitter. She seemed nice enough which is always a plus and based on what people were saying about their stuff I was inclined to like it, yesterday she was nice enough to hook me up with some of their latest music. Let's dive in.

Y'all know I'm no stranger to moody stuff, and seeing some comparisons with Portishead I was well prepped to get my sad on. Imagine my surprise when after the intro out of my speakers comes this sound almost like if La Roux did a collab with Amy Winehouse. There's other comparisons I could draw too, some of the more synthy tracks from Little Dragon's self-titled debut and maybe a smidge of Au Revoir Simone but the point is it's very, very well done.



I had barely enough time to recover before I got slammed in the chest by the next track. I haven't been taken unawares by bass like that since James Blake's cover of Limit To Your Love. A little change in direction here, definitely more on the electronic side, certainly some of that dubstep feel present on Blake's work. The production is on point here, well balanced and compliments the vocal talents of Mississippi well throughout, especially on the intro.



Ending with more of a poppy feel again, not that that's a bad thing mind, in fact it's something I've been meaning to pick up more of for a while now. More shoutouts to the production here, with yet another gorgeous intro and killer bassline. Not to discredit Mississippi herself, who is giving me major Martina-Topley Bird vibes here. this one's probably my favourite vocal of the three.



Mississippi Jones will be releasing the second part of their Recourse: Elemental series on July 20th digitally. I'll definitely be keeping tabs on them from now on, the variety on display here is promising and I'd very much love a band to fill the Broadcast shaped hole in my heart since we lost Trish Keenan.

Find Mississippi Jones at:
Bandcamp
Soundcloud
Official Site
Facebook
Youtube

Le Grand Départ

Things are back to normal here at Van Foxbat HQ, the americousins have left and things are slowly returning to normal. Oh and something about some big bike race in my home county. Here's some French artwork in honour of that!

Gerard Fromanger - Violet d'Egypte

I posted this on the blog Facebook yesterday but it bears repeating, I can't get enough of this track from Squarepusher's latest EP. Been listening to it solidly since about September and I'm still picking out new things on every listen. Easily stands shoulder to shoulder with the best of 'Pusher for sure.



Broadcast have returned on me in a big bad way. Well, they never left but I've had a lot more of them recently. One of the most underrated bands ever, even on the home of experimental electronic Warp. It's an absolute shame we were robbed of Trish Keenan so soon, her voice makes the Broadcast sound complete and is one of my all time favourites alongside Karin Dreijer. I urge you to check them out.



I realised I've not posted much Massive Attack since I got into them, but I found it quite hard to fit them in here because as much as I like to stereotype Portishead as the moody ones in trip hop, Massive have their fair share of downbeat stuff that wouldn't gel with the above. So after much ums and ahs, have a surprisingly light bit from the very end of the very dark Mezzanine.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Charming Little Beaches in Charming Little College Towns

So a friend of mine going to one of the state universities about an hour asked if I'd come up and visit on one of my days off. It's a charming little college town with lots of record stores, antique stores and nice places to walk, and my social life sucks so I drove up yesterday. Upon recommendation of multiple other college kids, we went out to this beach. There was no parking, but everyone was parking on the street. I was assured this would be fine. After an hour or so on the beach, I returned to a $150 parking ticket.

One. Hundred. And. Fifty. Dollar. Parking. Fine.

"Park here," they said, "it will be fine," they said.

Well you fooled me once with your pretty eyes but I won't be fooled again.



(I realize this isn't electronic music, but I haven't seen anyone blogging about this song and I've been waiting for an opportunity to post it.)

Well, looks like I've got $150 to raise, so I'm gonna go weed through my record collection and see if there's anything I can part with. Ciao!