A Driving Experience

I wouldn't say I'm a car person, but I probably have more of an interest in them than the average person, it doesn't really come up much on the blog though because on paper there's not much crossover between the two. But the worlds of electronic music and cars collide quite often, just look at the aesthetics of the entire synthwave movement for one, it's full of blocky 80's sports and supercars like the Countach, Testarossa and the DeLorean. It goes beyond that too, there was that period in the early 00's where the World Rally Championship used the Chemical Brothers' Star Guitar as the theme for all their promo and commentary pieces for example. Of course there's also a whole host of Eurobeat out there that is vehicular themed, "Gasoline" being an often used words in the genre and leading to frankly amazing song titles like "Manifold Love". And that's without even mentioning all the Initial D related tracks out there - the continuous mixes of them are full of samples of tire squeals and engine revs.

ジェットブリック - Break Of Dawn on Pixiv

So why do I bring all that up? Well, I guess it's to show that there's not really a definitive genre when it comes to the music of cars, go looking and you can pretty much find any genre set to the theme and it will fit. Which brings me to the subject of this post: Takashi Kokubo. Kokubo is one of the old school ambient / new age composers from Japan, his works range from commercial releases like albums and such, to more eclectic contributions like him composing the alert sound for Japan's mobile earthquake alert system and jingles for all sorts from credit card payment sounds to actual commercials. That kind of thing isn't unheard of, remember that Brian Eno composed the Windows 95 startup sound, but I don't think I've ever seen an artist do so many of them as Kokubo - he has an album called Get At The Wave from 1987 that was made to promote Sanyo Air Conditioners - a really early version of multimedia experiences. It was recently re-issued too! (albeit with a slightly altered tracklist).

Which now brings us to the actual content of today's post, in the early 90's BMW approached Kokubo to make one of these soundtrack experiences for the then-new line of M5s. There's not a lot of info about it on the 'net sadly, I would have loved to hear what the brief was - the one whoever was in charge of getting Eno to do the Windows sound was pretty great, here's Eno's own quote on the matter:

The thing from the agency said, "We want a piece of music that is inspiring, universal, blah-blah, da-da-da, optimistic, futuristic, sentimental, emotional," this whole list of adjectives, and then at the bottom it said "and it must be 3.25 seconds long."

I thought this was so funny and an amazing thought to actually try to make a little piece of music. It's like making a tiny little jewel.

-Brian Eno, from "Q and A With Brian Eno" by Joel Selvin in the San Franscisco Chronicle - June 2 1996

I'd like to imagine there was something similar for Kokubo, most of his ambient work is in the tens of minutes in length, the BMW piece is a bite size 3 minutes by comparison. It's dated in spots now, there are some bassy stabs in the intro that come up every now and then that are supremely early 90's. But that gives way to a pleasant new age tune where the recordings of the engine don't sound amiss at all - but I have always thought that since that Top Gear film about the Aston Martin V12 Vantage set to Brian Eno (Questionable opinions about the 'war on speed' aside). It's an aesthetic I'm surprised I haven't seen more of to be honest, but maybe it's out there and I'm just not seeing it - this record is practically vaporwave already.



Kokubo does a fantastic job of capturing that whole 'experience' that was no doubt outlined in the brief, though perhaps a romanticised one - there is no traffic congestion here, no perpetual road works interrupting the flow - it's just you, the virtual driver, and the car. The gravel sound in the second half denoting arriving 'home' is masterfully done too, if a little spoiled by the incredibly cheesy and presumptive as hell "Hi Daddy!" at the very end, but that's the pitfall of making what is essentially an advertisement for a luxury car brand in the 90's. And you too could have this experience if you buy a 1992 BMW M5! Commercialism aside, it's a lovely little piece - a novelty, maybe but an interesting one nonetheless. Don't discount this and Kokubo's other work just because of that commercial angle, the ambient stuff is very pretty indeed and if you're at all into ambient you will likely find something to enjoy in his vast discography.

And as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.
-CVF

A Certain Ambiance

This BC Friday was a little different to usual - I had planned to get even more IDM adjacent stuff after my recent trip into the archives of Toytronic, but instead I ended up getting a fair bit of another genre that's very close to my heart: Ambient. I can be a little picky when it comes to Ambient releases, I'm not huge on the drone style outside of some of Oneohtrix Point Never's side projects, but it had been a long time since I got anything pure ambient so I thought I'd see what's out there. And here are the results.

Truth be told only one of the things I'm bringing up today was new to me, the other two are things I long since wish-listed and just felt like it was right to check them out now. Starting with a small EP from Sachi Kobayashi - I don't quite remember how I came into this one, part of me thinks it could have been a 'New Ambient releases' article from BC's front page, but regardless it's been sitting in my wishlist for some time now just waiting for it's chance to shine. Title track Ephemeral Beauty, though perhaps a little cliché on the title front, is a very good embodiment of the kind of ambient I like. It strikes a nice balance between the more drone elements and hints of melody - effortlessly flowing between them. This is something which I think makes it a very good stepping stone into the genre if this post will be your intro to the genre, the relatively short length of roundabout 5 minutes also helps on this front, it can be hard to suggest Ambient sometimes when you have colossal releases like Eno's Thursday Afternoon clocking in at an hour long. Don't get me wrong though - Eno is fantastic at the genre in his own right, with Ambient I: Music For Airports being utterly essential if you are at all into the genre, but having something a little more digestible is nice too.



Moving on to a release I've been eyeing for a long long time: The perfectly titled Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980 - 1990. It's a fantastic little compilation of rarities from that era that either never made it to the west or were never repressed beyond their original runs. I've been spending a fair bit of time with it as of late and I thought I'd mention some of my favourites, there's a few (Abridged) versions of some tracks on this comp, and this is one of them. The original runtime of See The Light is a hefty 24:57 while the version on the comp is a much lighter 7-ish minutes instead. There's a few reasons this was probably done, could be a licensing thing first of all, but also it makes it easier for the actual physical release too, this compilation is already 2CDs and 3LPs as-is so including the full run of some of these tracks would only bump that number higher. There's an argument to be made that Abridging them spoils the intended experience and I can understand that, though I think Light In The Attic have done their utmost to compress it down while keeping it fairly intact. See The Light is (ironically) not as bright sounding as Ephemeral Beauty, it's much much more sedate in comparison the rising tides and lush waves of sound heard there. Evoking parts of Eno's Ambient I as mentioned above, See The Light is more about sustained tones punctuated by warm pads, and it's gorgeous.



And my other favourite from the comp, it's one I've posted before but it bears repeating. To the point where I'm pretty much going to copy/paste what I said last time. The team at Light In The Attic did a fantastic job curating the track list, and the choice of using Still Space from Satoshi Ashikawa as the opening was an almost perfect decision. If there were a sonic phrase to define the album, the opening tones would be it, an ideal distillation of not only the compilation's title - but the overriding atmosphere as well. It's a much more sparse affair than the other two examples I've posted, one that again invites comparisons to Eno's Ambient I, but once again it's a much more digestible piece at just shy of 4 minutes. It is simply wonderful and I cannot think of a better opener to set the tone for this compilation With the possible exception of another of my favourites Hiroshi Yoshimura's Time After Time. If you at all like the sound of this one, I would urge you to check out the compilation in full - especially the physical release which almost doubles the track list of the digital version.



Stepping into something more conventional this time. I will admit the things I've posted so far are very much in the deep end of Ambient - there are plenty of artists out there who make ambient that's not quite as spacey as the one's I've talked about so far. Hirotaka Shirotsubaki is normally one of those, but a few of his pieces are much more in line with something you might hear from artists like Boards Of Canada or Röyksopp. August Rain is one of those, there are a lot of field recordings in Shirotsubaki's work and the introduction of this one is no different - however after about 15 seconds this lonesome guitar chord comes into the mix and will continue to stick around for the remainder of the runtime. Something about the guitar tone reminded me a whole lot of the kind Akira Yamaoka uses on the more indie-sounding bits of the Silent Hill soundtracks, those do get pretty chill at times (and even go full on ambient in parts) but tend to dwell more in the Trip Hop side of things, where August Rain is much more skeletal in structure. In terms of establishing atmosphere it's brilliant, the warmer tones making a much more cozy experience than the cooler vibes of the rest of this post. It's a much different approach, but a welcome one.



And that'll do us for today. I think part of why I gravitated towards Ambient this time is because some of the week that's just gone has been pretty intense, and as cliché as it sounds, these kind of tunes make for good decompression music. If you're in need of a moment of calm then the selections here are a good start. And Ambient is a really good genre to binge on if it's done well - after all the whole philosophy is pretty much music that sounds just as good if it's being actively listened to or just on in the background. Keep that in mind when sampling this post, and remember that the bandcamp players will go onto the next track of the album automatically if you reach the end of one!

And as always - Stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Aural Fixation

NSFW Warning: Just a heads up, some of the album artwork featured in this post will be Not Safe For Work (NSFW). Might not be too much of an issue with the current situation, but thought I'd best mention anyway. Also future proofs this post too.
Regardless, enjoy!
-CVF

I've been waiting to write about this one for some time now, I mentioned it a couple of times on the podcast way back when, and had planned to do something written around then. Part of the delay has also been the potential NSFW as mentioned at the top of the post but I figured that now is as good a time as any to pull the trigger.

Yes today we're talking another soundtrack, this time for the quite obviously risqué Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt. A coming on 10-year old anime that was born of a simple idea; what if a show in the style of the Powerpuff Girls was just outright filth? And so you have a show about a couple of angels kicked out of heaven who are only interested in sugary sweets and sex.

For a show with such a lowbrow premise it's actually really funny, and if you watch it in English you could pretty much mistake it for an [adult swim] show. Anyway, the show itself hits the same buttons for me as sleazy electroclash does, but I will sing the praises of the soundtrack all day every day to boot, it's incredibly fitting and (if you pardon the 2010's blog vernacular and innuendo) actually banging. Let's dive in.

Kicking off with the track that sparked this idea in my head, PSG wastes no time dropping quality tunes as this one shows up in episode 1. I said this on the podcast too, but part of what I love so much about this OST is that it is absolutely a throwback to that era of electro and 'bloghouse', which was kinda dying out by tail end of the 2000s. And it fits the slightly seedy overtones so well.



It's TeddyLoid that consistently steals the show, this soundtrack was my introduction to his works, and that super loud throwback electro sound is his staple. Corset Theme is a prime example of that, and also showcases something else I've grown to love about TeddyLoid's works; that distortion on the vocals throughout is great, but when it's kicked into high gear on the more shouty parts it's incredible and really gives the production a feeling of power. Also of note, I'm skipping over some of the extra sleazy tracks on the OST with names that wouldn't be out of place on an electroclash release like "Beverly Hills Cock", "Dancefloor Orgy" and "Technodildo"



Moving out of electro and TeddyLoid territory for the time being, I was hoping to drop this one on Adam back when we were podcasting because it would be supremely up his alley with that MIDI Piano stab intro. And that's not the only piece of inspiration this one takes from vintage house, rave and garage; the vocals are a natural one too, hitting that same groove from the get go. But that's not all, I wish you all could have seen my face the first time I hit the bit after the breakdown around 1:43 or so, something about those Robin S style synths in the background really made it hit home in the best way possible.



There is a follow up OST album too, ironically called "The Worst Album". This one features even more genre variety, including some of TeddyLoid and the like's foray's into Dubstep (that do sound a bit dated, but I am still burnt out on that style of Dubstep so take that with a hint of bias). That being said the excellent tunes don't stop, this one was made for a throwaway montage scene and only appears in 1(!) episode. And like Champion, when I hear those 8-bits of the intro crop up in shuffle, I can't help but smile a little and get ready for the lovely wobbly Drum & Bass to come.



The D&B continues into the latter half of the LP, with this fantastic flip of the ending theme Fallen Angel. Continuing the theme of throwbacks, this takes me right back to when I fell into a Liquid Funk obsession back in Univeristy courtesy of Hospital Records. Every now and then they come out with a tune that takes me back, but I've yet to hear one that does it as strongly as this remix. I really can't praise it enough; from creative chops of vocals to being a mostly original composition it's all in all a fantastic remix. I could live in those euphoric breakdowns forever.



Spotify is sadly missing the 'third' OST album, which contains full versions of some tracks with the voice actors over them on the above two albums, but frankly I'm just happy to have these two back so I can share them in all their smutty glory. I was intending to put a couple more tunes too but I think this is long enough as is. I urge you to check out the albums if you at all like what you've heard, and if you end up watching the show too all the better! As always folks, stay safe out there and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Go (Euro)Beat Crazy

It's high time I make good on a promise I made on the podcasts all that time ago. It's not been intentionally delayed or anything, but now feels like the right time to do it, so join me as we take a trip into the world of Eurobeat. Okay, so part of the delay was me waiting for a decent amount to become available to stream legally, a weird thing about Eurobeat is that the copyright folk are VERY active and regularly take down videos and the like. With that out of the way, a little background:

The logo of one of the big players in the Eurobeat world, Super Eurobeat. Should give you an idea of what you're in for!

For those of you not aware, Eurobeat is the final evolution of some very specific genres. As I mentioned on the podcast, it's actually really interesting to hear the roots of the original genres in Eurobeat. It starts as many good electronic genres do in Disco, which split off into many different directions including House, Synthpop and most crucial to our tale today; Italo Disco.

Italo Disco, as the name implies is Disco, but with an Italian twist. Now truth be told I don't have much Italo in my collection (that's a rabbit hole to go down another day), but the ones I do know off the top of my head are pretty solid; tunes like Gary Low's I Want You for example. There's definitely an element of cliché to the proceedings, but ironically that cliché vibe is what helped it spawn one of my other favourite genres in Electroclash. But I digress, Italo Disco started to wane in popularity by the early 90's: enter its successor, the titular Eurobeat.

Taking it's cues from the above, mixed with a little Hi-NRG and so mixed in for good measure (and some questionable graphic design, see below). I'm going to quote a line from Ishkur's original Guide To Electronic Music here which echoes my opinions on Eurobeat pretty nicely: "Unlike other genres, Eurobeat knows what its limitations are. It's not trying to save the world or convert anyone over to its (...) sped-up cheese". Which when I read made a bunch of things suddenly click, especially when twinned with my new outlook of there being no guilty pleasures, you like what you like. (Saying that, once again I am adding to the list of genres/songs I like that have been memed to death!)

An example of a typical Super Eurobeat compilation cover, they all follow a similar format!.

But that is pretty much how I feel about Eurobeat. Is it cheesy at times? yeah totally, but it does what it means to do and does it well. I can enjoy it and still have the occasional chuckle at the lyrics and the absolute audaciousness of some of those synths from time to time (bonus points if you play a bit of Eurobeat Bingo too!) With that, here is a cross section of some of my favourite Eurobeat (that I can find on spotify).

I distinctly remember listening to this one for the first time, mainly because it took my interest in the genre from a passing thing I might right about to something that I could really see myself enjoying. Looking back at it analytically now, it hits the same buttons for me as late 90's trance euphoria does, no doubt helped by that pop structure to the songs themselves. Funnily enough it sounds very much more 90's than I remember back then but if you remember Myself and Adam's musings on the subject, that's not a bad thing at all!



Further to that, Burning Up For You hits all those same notes in fantastic fashion (also for some reason all the titles on Spotify are in all caps). It's energy is also part of the reason that my commuting music has consisted a potentially unhealthy dose of Eurobeat, it most definitely wakes you up and it's pretty hard to be too mad at delays or what have you with this in your ears.



We're going forward chronologically here, so while the sounds are getting less dated (to an extent) the formula remains the same. Note that this one has the subtitle (Eurobeat Version), as I discovered on Spotify there is also a 'Eurock' version. Which I thought was neat, I always like to see ways styles of music can cross over, and Eurobeat does love it's unnecessary guitar solos so it only makes sense. But upon listening it's nowhere near as good as the Eurobeat one. Maybe it's that sped-up cheese sensibility that I quoted Ishkur on above, maybe I'm just a sucker for synth power notes.



Finishing up with the latest one I have on repeat with Rain; I live for those power synths and chrouses. Funnily enough I feel like the guitar-y solos aren't as out of place here as on other Eurobeat tracks but it's also not as obnoxious as other examples either. Bear in mind that this is just a cross section of what I could find on Spotify, and even more specifically tunes that fill that same niche for me as Trance and the like. I joke about a lot of Eurobeat sounding the same but if you feel like exploring further be aware there is a slight more variety than what I'm presenting here.



If you're interested in more, I'd recommend the official Initial D compilations, which ramps up the cheese with engine revs and tire squeals but makes it even more hype in the process. They usually clock in about a minute or so per track too, so if you're looking for a quick injection of eurobeat variety, check them out! Well this post went on longer than I expected, I'll see you all back here soon, as always: Stay safe, and enjoy the music.

-Claude Van Foxbat

Filed Away

Fell down the file organisation rabbit hole again, and I found that Röyksopp's The Inevitable End was yet another piece in my collection left slightly incomplete due to the fabled words "Japanese Bonus Track" so I set about fixing that. And as is tradition I archive them here to make it easier on folk who may end up in that boat in future (and also should I need it backed up elsewhere). Much like the (non-Japanese exclusive) bonus tracks from The Understanding it's a fairly standard Röyksopp tune, though there's more than a little of Junior's sound bleeding through at points, and the ever present melancholic streak that runs through all of The Inevitable End. The real highlight here is that gorgeous noodly synth that comes in about 2:45 or so, bringing with it the vocals not long after too. Feel like it's a better album closer than Something In My Heart to boot.



I also found this one buried at the bottom of my soundtracks folder, it's been forever since I heard it but I'll always remember what it's from, even though there's no obvious clues with the album title or the like. Much like the bits and pieces of the Jormungand OST I've put up, tracks like these always stand out a little more to me with their incorporation of electronic elements. Zakuro might go a little bit symphonic later on but I fall for those glitchy intro sounds every time.



And another archiver to round things out. I spent a silly amount of time digital crate digging as it were to find this one from Apparat's Shapemodes EP. And even then it's not a proper 320 but hey ho, beggars/choosers and all that. So once again to save everyone else (and future me) some hassle here is Solaris, one of 6 tunes currently scratching my IDM itch at the mo, you know the score for me: spacey melodics and glitchy undertones. I sometimes wish Apparat would revisit this kinda style, it'd be interesting to see what he brought to the table with the extra years of experience under his belt.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Far East Jungle

That's right, I'm back with some more Soichi Terada. It irked me last time I couldn't find any of his DnB stuff to stream so I am back with a more conventional ilictronix post, for the first time in I don't know how long. Track and deets after the art.

Sumo Jungle is a gorgeous LP. After the crash course the preview intro gives you, the first proper track wastes no time laying down those mid-late 90's goodtime vibes. It's a bit of a contrast to say Goldie's work round the same time, there's strings and breaks sure, but while tunes like This Is A Bad are born of Goldie wrestling with the rougher parts of the inner city at the time, Terada is all about (as the title suggest) just kicking back and enjoying things.



Don't think I mentioned it before, but these may sound a little familiar to you even if you don't know much about or even who Terada is. And the reason for that is he did the soundtrack for the original Ape Escape back on the PS1. That wouldn't be for a few years after the release of Sumo Jungle, but you can definitely see peeks of what would come through the breaks. Get a load of them 90's piano stabs too.



Coming into one of my favourites of the whole LP here, it's gorgeously smooth DnB a la Omni Trio. The thing I find most interesting about the whole LP is something I discussed with Adam in our last recording session, is just how global Drum & Bass was at the time, you've got the obvious UK folk making it but then you can fly all the way to Japan and find stuff that (minus some small stylistic differences) is in the same vein. Admittedly it doesn't sound so amazing put like that, but in a time before the mass inter-connectivity we have today I find it fascinating.



The closing track sees the Ape Escape foreshadowing come out to play again, and it might actually be my favourite of the lot. It's not hard to see why he was picked up for it, maybe it is just my nostalgia connection to it speaking, but the kind of Drum & Bass on offer here is a perfect time capsule of the day, it's a god close to the album for sure, it's just a shame it kind of eds instead of with somekinda lovely fadeout with those smooth synths we've heard previously.



-Claude Van Foxbat