A Mixed Bag

I had a real clear outline for this post and was ready to sit down and get into it, only to find that the thing's I'd picked weren't as easy to find as I'd thought. The best laid plans of mice and men as the sayings go. I've not had too much bad luck on that front truth be told, apart from a few artists who've just disappeared from the net and taken their works with them, I can normally find a decent source to embed. Not so much this time, though I will admit I am being a bit dramatic, there's only one song today that isn't conventionally available but that's because it's not officially out yet. I'm just a bit bitter because I hate to do posts that are just back to back YT embeds, doubly so when they're not legit channels but sometimes that's what has to happen. Let's go.

Ken Danby - Delicious (1971)


First is yet another tale of 'Artist I was vaguely aware of but never checked out because have you seen the size of my list of things to check out?'. I get the feeling this one popped up in my YT recommends from my recent string of trace listening but also the few tracks I have with Kirsty Hawkshaw on them (Shoutouts to Swayzak's State Of Grace). Today's entry is Stealth by Way Out West - a track which discogs describes as Trance, which is accurate but you'll find it a fair bit different from the usual hands-in-the-air euphoria that I put up. No, Stealth is (rather suitably given the title) of that specific type of Trance that was kicking around in the early 00's that was part downtempo, part breakbeat and part lounge - and surprisingly radio friendly for the most part. The popularity of Moby around that time no doubt contributing to the 'chillout' side of things and the overall feel of this one reminds me of the stuff Hybrid was putting out around the same time too - like Finished Symphony. Now it's well known that I am a sucker for all things downtempo, but I've never really given this specific style much thought until now - I do like the smooth and slick high-tech styling of it, though it does sounds a little dated now. Hawkshaw has yet to disappoint whenever she features and this track is no different, really completing that turn of the millennium atmosphere. It's oddly not got an official upload, soundcloud or otherwise, so I hope this one stays for the time being.



The trend of me discovering tunes from old compilations continues - this time with Télépopmusik's Breathe, which I found on a curious little compilation called Collectors Series Pt. 1 - Popular Songs which tells you all you need to know. I scooped it up because it had some artists and songs on there I already liked, so I figured it'd be worth a look (and to see how they mixed together so I could take notes for future mixtapes!). Breathe comes in strong with that kind of heady hazy vibe that I had a bit of a penchant for some years back, doing a bit of digging and it seems the release this is from Genetic World is a bit divisive because of the inclusion of this more Trip-Hop infused sound and that the singles (of which Breathe is one) are the only really good bits. Now I haven't listened to the rest of the album yet so I can't really comment too much on it but I keep catching myself coming back to this one - it makes good backing for menial tasks and I mean that in the most sincere way possible. Angela McCluskey's vocal twins exceptionally with the steady 4/4 and contributes excellently to that overall haziness I mentioned at the top. Echoes of Röyksopp's Sparks here, albeit in more of a House-styled vein.



And finally - I dip my toes back into the world of J-Pop once again. There's plenty of electronic influence on J-Pop, the few bits and pieces I have in my library run the full spectrum of genres, from Eurobeat and Dubstep to IDM and Drum & Bass. The end result is usually pretty interesting as producers play around with the space and genres - enter Hikaru Utada's upcoming single for the new Evangelion movie, One Last Kiss. I couldn't find any info on the producer and probably won't be able to until it officially comes out, but that intro is pretty incredible and I could do with more of it. Granted it's only a 1:30 cut of the tune for a trailer but it sounds great, really reminds me of the stuff Shinichi Osawa was making for Nandodemo Atarashiku Umareru (Reborn Again and Always Starting New) under the Mondo Grosso alias. Its laid-back feel is at odds with the utter insanity that is Evangelion as a whole, but I'll definitely be keeping an ear out for this one when it comes out fully later this year.



Update: it's out! Here's the proper full vid from the official channel:



Apologies again for the back-to-back embeds of YT but like I said, sometimes that's just the way it goes - doubly when talking about things yet to come out. Still, it's been a while since it's happened recently, there are plenty of pages in the archive that look like this though. And at least these ones won't be busted when a piece of tech gets phased out in 10 years (Now watch me go and jinx that, come check on this post in 2031 and see). But we're getting off topic so I'll stop myself here.

As always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Ilictronix Podcast: The Cold Snap

"In this episode: Claude gives us his comfy and cozy playlist. Adam picks his tracks to keep him busy during the arctic blast in Chicago.

Apologies for the slight delay on this one, I personally have had a hell of a week for a variety of reasons but that pales in comparison to what Adam has had 'round his neck of the woods. As I'm sure you're all aware there's been a hell of a weather thing going on in that part of the USA. This post ideally should have gone up sooner too but the timezones meant it went up at 2AM my time so again apologies.

Anyway, with the weather in mind, I break tradition from my usual cold playlist choices again and dive into things a little bit more sweet; kickning off with the deliciously smooth ComfyCozy from Luke Vibert before taking a trip to the (fairly limited) J-Pop portion of my collection. We continue the trend with an injection of cute courtesy of the A Hat In Time soundtrack (which as I mention in the episode was one of the choices I cut from last week's videogame-centric choices) before rounding things up with the usual suspects of Röyksopp for that early 00's downtempo goodness, Squarpusher for some light jazz (and not some Drill 'N Bass like you'd expect) and finally going full jazz by way of Mr. Scruff. As mentioned at the top of the ep, I hope that these selections have warmed you in these trying times, or at least provided you some new listenings.

Adam reworked his tracklist last minute and I don't hold it against him. Those of you that were around for our 'Gloomy Sunday' posts way back when will know that when me and Adam explore the more depressing side of our collections we can go in HARD, and given Adam's current predicament it would make sense but hot damn if his swapped out ones don't work just as well for the opposite reasons. It's as you might have come to expect from him a lovely cross section of what makes him tick: a wide selection of Garage and fantastically smooth house both new and old. I think it almost qualifies as another digital crate digging installment (only with mostly real vinyls this time) and really what better way to pass the time on a wintery day than go browsing through your records eh? As per usual, full tracklist and notes below:

Tracklist:
Intro:
Luke Vibert - ComfyCozy

Claude’s picks:
Aimer - Cold Sun (Ryo Nagano Remix)
Pascal Michael Stiefel - Scootin’ Through Clocktowers Beneath The Sea
Röyksopp - Boys
Squarepusher - Iambic 9 Poetry
Mr. Scruff - Night Time


Adam’s Picks
DJ Rou- Dante Says Truth
Scott Garcia - A London Thing

Dem 2 - Destiny

Ian Pooley - Relations
Toolate Groove - Track M

Outro:
Lone - Blue Moon Tree


See y'all next week, where we'll be bringing you more selections and we'll hopefully be on time to boot!

-Claude Van Foxbat

Like This

Francisc Şirato - The Way Home (1930)

A mixed bag of tunes on offer this week, I don't often like to do repeats so close to each other but we have another tune from Aimer to start off this week. I actually hadn't had this one come up at all in the few months its been in my collection thanks to my penchant for shuffling all, and it picked a hell of a time to come up too; a surprisingly sunny bank holiday weekend. It does take a little while to get gong, but when things come to a head around a minute in I got instantly transported back many summers ago. It gives me the same vibes that I got from Calvin Harris' output circa 2009, super weird to think that'll be a full decade ago pretty soon.



Speaking of songs that take a while to get going, I picked up Lorne Balfe's soundtrack to the 2017 Ghost In The Shell reboot yesterday too. From the sounds of things the soundtrack was supposed to get an official release but has been canned, so Balfe has a link to his work for it (as fully uncompressed .wavs no less) on his twitter for free. My opinions on the film aside, that's a super nice move from the guy, I must say that the soundtrack is very nice if a little clichéd 'cinematic score' sounding in parts. There's a lot of sedate ambient on there, the whole things sees fairly quiet actually, but there's a whole lot of beautiful electronic arpeggios and stabs a la Daft Punk's Tron: Legacy OST and wouldn't sound too out of place on a synthwave record. Here's Reborn which is a crash course in the overall sound.

update: seems like this isn't available anytwhere to stream other than Balfe's own site. So you'll have to follow this link to hear it

And finally another soundtrack piece that just happened to come on as I was typing. Funnily enough this song from El Huervo samples Akira Yamaoka's "Tears Of..." that I talked about back in March. I always find it interesting to see musicians take cues from each other in this way, it's a nice way of paying homage to your influences and hopefully introducing them to more people to them to boot. I do wonder what the process of clearing a sample like that (if any) is, Konami isn't exactly known for their generosity, especially these days. But I digress; El Huervo takes the initial guitar of Tears Of... and gives it it an even spookier, slightly menacing feel, turning it into a lo-fi hip hop thing that's in keeping with the darker tone of the soundtrack for Hotline Miami 2.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Reunions 2

A busy end to the week means I'm glad I shifted the post schedules to Sundays. After a slightly messy Friday of setting up exhibitions, meeting coworkers and friends, making a couple of new ones on the way and then grossly underestimating how quickly I could hoof it to the train station and exactly how long I'd been out, Saturday was a complete write off. Still, I had the foresight to prepare some stuff earlier in the week so here I am with the usual selections.

Billy Childish - Reunion Owl (2011)

I got real into the Adult Swim singles project, slightly disappointing that the past few years haven't had a download of all the tunes, so I took the opportunity to revisit the previous years. 2014's starts off incredibly strong, with a 7 minute disco infused offering from Giorgio Moroder himself, the opening synths immediately recalling The Chase, one of if not his mot famous tune. There's some gorgeous twinkling arpeggios laid on later that have more than a passing resemblance to Daft Punk's Tron: Legacy OST, though it's probably more the other way around given how long he's been in the game. It's interesting to hear Giorgio play with his disco roots with an updated sound, I remember thinking when I heard he'd be producing again that he'd take a Chromeo style slant to it. It's certainly not a bad thing, f anything it's refreshing to hear, and I'm just happy that one of electronic music's allstars is still around.



Track 2 from 2014 next, at the time I was vaguely familiar with Machinedrum's work from soundtracks and the like, It's unfortunately yet another thing that's been tossed on my 'to pickup' pile that grows more than it shrinks. But I can talk about the tune itself! It lets you know from the get go with those delightfully retro piano stabs that this is quite heavily garage influenced (that's UK Garage as in house, not USA Garage as in rock). As a mid 90's baby who grew up in the north of England I have a real soft spot for the sound, it carries with it echoes of summers past, and hell a garage/house style tune is partially responsible for getting me this writing gig in the first place way back when. I do think that the repetitive samples are played up a little too much here, much more recently I think Luke Vibert did a better job on Luke Vibert Presents UK Garave Vol.1, but I'll happily take them both.



My brief dip into the world of J Pop has brought me to Aimer. The EP this is from doesn't have the original version for the song for me to compare to, but I can tell you that this remix is super pretty indeed. In fact I think it comes out not feeling cold at all despite it's title, I do think it's a little let down in terms of structure but then again it is in essence a pop record so that's perhaps to be expected, and that only really sets in one you've looped it 3 or so times like I have when writing this post. Still, more than happy to have extra ammo for playlists when (and if) summer ever starts to roll around. Note the spotify player may not work in your country, if so see this link.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Lost & Found

You ever find some tunes you like, but they seem to have disappeared of the face of the net, legal or otherwise? I have a few of those strings to my bow, be it Alexander Polzin's remix of Rippin Kittin, to my most recent foray into techno with Mijk Van Dijk's 'Magic Marble Box Vol. 2: Tokyo Trax EP. It seems as the years go on I'm finding exceptions to the rule of 'if it exists, it's on the internet' which is a bit of a shame. Still, it's been a productive few days for me picking up some tunes, some rare and some not so (and some not suitable for the blog). Let's get stuck in.

Friedensreich Hundertwasser - Island Of Lost Desire (1977)



Starting with another rare J Pop addition to my collection. I did have a few already (and let's be real, it was only a matter of time after being bitten by the Macross 82-99 bug). I think it has a lot to share with other easy-going, cosy electronic I've mentioned in the past like Plone, though without that slightly lo-fi edge that Plone had throughout their stuff. Longtime readers of the blog might hear a little in common with Celadon City too, in fact I tweeted this at him a couple days ago for that very reason.



Keeping things in Japan for the time being, tracked down the name of another one of the surprisingly electronic pieces on the Jormungand OST. Sandwiched between proper orchestral soundtracks and some more acoustic moodsetters is this lovely little bit of IDM flavoured goodness. A little more ordered than your standard glitchy IDM fare, but man do I love those sounds, only complaint is that I do wish it panned out a little more, but it is meant to be a soundtrack piece after all.



And happy accident to finish us out, these two flow together pretty well (albeit unintentionally thanks to the shuffle) and fits one last Japan mention in there to boot; a revisit from the last podcast with Casino Versus Japan's Local Forecast. In hindsight this album, Go Hawaii, could also fit into my newly coined cosy electronic category, tunes like this Metrobolt and Warm Windows all have that lovely slightly lo-fi edge to them that I think qualifies. Definitely check out those if you're looking for more in this vein.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Desert Tracks: Earl

Sup everybody, Earl here after days of complicated decision making with a(by no means definitive) list of tracks that i would take with me should i find myself stranded in a desert with a CD player. And since my collection of music is quite vast, much like my fellow writers, picking out just 70 minutes proved to be a task, but without further ado, i present to you "Earl Greys 15 Essential Tracks To Listen To Should You Ever Be Stuck In A Desert For A While" (With Blurbs!)




M- Flo ft. Monday Michiru - A.D.D.P. - The first time i heard this song was long ago when i was only a reader on this blog, but it introduced me to a side of Japanese music  that i wasnt even aware of, its been a couple years now and i still listen to A.D.D.P. religiously

Raw Man - Beautiful - One of the most accurate titles of all time, Raw man has been a huge inspiration on me musically and is definitely my favorite solo act to come out of the late 90s/early 2000s french house movement

Theophilus London ft Dev Hynes and Solange - Flying Overseas - I bought this track on amazon a couple years ago before a trip to Jamaica, it always brings back great memories, not to mention Solange Knowles amazing vocals.

Pharrell ft. Jay-Z - Frontin - Modern classic, Frontin is one of those songs that never gets old for me because Pharrell is a genius.

We In Music - Grandlife - Earlier i mentioned Raw Man was my favorite french house artist and this is a large part of the reason why. Grandlife is my favorite house track of ALL TIME (insert kanye here) and Raw Man, along with Play Paul  created this masterpiece of a tune, i own this on vinyl, it sounds great.

Nujabes - Imaginary Folkore - I was introduced to the music of Nujabes through the series Samurai Champloo back when it debuted on Adult Swim in 2005 and from the moment i heard "battlecry" my life changed, Nujabes is a large part of the reason i got into producing hip hop music and the way he flips a sample is legendary. This particular song is my favorite from him for reasons i cant explain, its more of a feeling. RIP

Bonobo - Kiara - One of the best songs from one of the best albums i have ever heard, to get the full experience you have to listen to the intro before it however.

High Contrast - Kiss Kiss Bang Bang -  Originally i was going to use "made it last night" but it was too long(thatswhatshesaid) The music of High Contrast started my love affair with drum and bass music and the intro to this song is one of the best.

Erykah Badu - Didnt Cha Know - According to my mother, i came out the womb with an appreciaton for the music of Erykah Badu, and while i do love all of her material, this is my favorite from her by far for one reason. J Dilla killed this beat, its basically a two for one

The Smashing Pumpkins - Rocket - I Love this band. I Love this album. I love this song. Enough said.

Megadeth - Tornado of Souls - Dave Mustaine inspired me to pick up a guitar when i first heard this band years ago. He Shreds. SHREDS.

Daft Punk - Voyager - My musical idols and my favorite song off of Discovery.

Azari and III - Into the Night - this song encapsulates a lot of the things i enjoy about house music, a groovy beat, great vocals, and the words "gotta get up" in repetition. whats not to love?

Flying Lotus - Tea Leaf Dancers - Like the Nujabes example above, i was introduced to Flylo by Adult Swim because "Massage Situation" was a song used in the earlier bumps, this song, off the same EP(Reset) has become a favorite of mine because its vibe is unmatched

Toro Y Moi - Minors - It was hard to pick which toro song i was going to use for this, in the end i chose minors because it was short. Yup. thats what im ending with.



- Earl