Random Handful

Peter Alexander - Contoy (1988) Swinging by with a handful of tunes - wasting no time in getting down with some of the latest from ThorHighHeels, a video producer with a unique aesthetic who also occasionally dabbles in the music world. Their work has that same effervescent, unserious feel that permeates their video content, as seen most prominently on the latest music release Skung with track titles like "FRAME RATE SINGLE DIGETS LETS GOOOOOOOOO". Surprising no one, my favourite from it so far is very much in the vein of Positive Yellow that I have posted before. The kind where Thor taps into that latent mutual love that we share for that very specific PS1 Demo Disc style sound: that weird hybrid every techy genre that was out there at the time - techno, jungle and the like. I do quite like the closing track as well, the aptly named PS3 Beat, a great twist on the masses of tunes out there that sample the PS1 and 2 startup noises.



One of the few times that Bandcamp's 'new from' feature has failed me, I only knew of this one because the artist in question sent out an info email with it on. Sense returns, his work I'm most familiar with is that certain kind of early 00's fragile ambient come IDM style stuff that is very pretty. But those albums I know are either 20 years old, or are coming close to it, so what does Sense sound like now? Well, I can't speak for his main releases, but the title of Grey Sky Dub kinda gives away the game for this latest one. Much more in the style of say, Swayzak in terms of tone and sound as we enter the world of dubby techno, this release is made up of "...a collection of various live jams over the years that we have restored and remastered" and it certainly feels like it. I don't mean that in a negative way, I do have a bit of a fondness for stuff that sounds like an extended jam session. Gathering sounds like you've just dropped into the middle of a set with how it starts, a little minimal for my tastes in all honesty - but I do sometimes like to take a deep dive into this world and that is especially true right now.



Speaking of, I was actually putting some Swayzak back in rotation actually, I haven't mentioned them much just because a lot of their stuff is pretty hard to find legally streaming - though the bandcamp is full of hidden gems and other gubbins too. Their debut is over there which is a great place to start, it does have a slightly different tracklist from the original release but even so it's a great crash course in Swayzak of the era - super long techy house stuff. Snowboarding In Argentina is a hefty chunk to get stuck into, even though its only 7 tracks the shortest of them clocks in at a still fairly hefty 7 mins 30. I've already posted my two all time faves from this album, but in reality the opening trio is a solid introduction to the sound. Burma Heights is probably the least minimal of the three, the massive squealing chords that back up most of it can get a little obnoxious at times but I'm kinda into it at the minute, and I just adore the smooth swimming sounds of the intro that are persistent throughout.



And that'll do it for this slightly eclectic roundup of what I've had on over the past day or so, hope they appeal to you as much as they do me. It's a pretty wild selection, but then again these are wild times. Git a quiet tail end of the week so I may cue up a couple more posts as well, might be time to do the last instalment (for the time being) of the bite-sized bits. Keep an ear out but until then, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

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

Coming Down

Work's slightly more on track but we're not out of the woods yet, been going out of my way to get some downtime in before I get back at it, here's the transition back to more downbeat stuff I employed this weekend.

Michael Alan - Strange And Productive

More old school jungle to start, with a remix of the seemingly timeless Renegade Snares from Omni Trio. The original is more in line with the stuff Omni would go onto make, but this remix kicks it up like Thru The Vibe from the last post.



Moving more into the chill but keeping that hard edge with a bit from a bootleg mashup EP I found a while back. I'm usually skeptical about mash ups, but I gave it a chance seeing as I'm a fan of both Aes and Portishead and I was pleasantly surprised. Its well produced throughout and definitely worth your time.



Sliding on home with the finale from 2009's Two, an instrumental downtempo rearranging of the second track. It's really interesting how just slowing it down a little and stripping some elements away can completely change the vibe of the tune from a dancy electroclash love letter to an introspective post dancefloor lullaby.



- Claude Van Foxbat

Mid Week Panic

Remember my penchant for chiller stuff the past few weeks? s'gone now, got a exhibition to sort with a group by Monday and it's getting tough to say the least. So here's some more less chill stuff for you to get your mitts on.

Francis Bacon - Seated Figure (1961)

Starting with a tune from Omni Trio I've been hanging onto for a while, the sample in it at 1:15 pretty much sums up the theme of this post. It hails from the older era of drum and bass where it was just finding it's way out of the realms of hardcore. Definitely reflected in this track, got a completely different feel than his later piano & breaks combos.



Teenage Bad Girl always had that Oizo-esque roughness to their output and the opener for their second album Backwash is no different, it starts strong and does not let up until the very end. I'd completely forgotten about the 40 odd second wind up to the second half of the track in there, which was for sure a nice surprise after a couple long days.

Citizen Records · Teenage Bad Girl - Fight Night

A late addition to this post and a tune I'd long forgotten about, Erol Alkan's reworking of Daft Punk is different to say the least, but when the pressure was on it fit like a glove. In Erol's own words: "It doesn’t want to be liked, it doesn’t want you to dance to it. It’s called The Brainwasher, and it doesn’t give a shit.”



-Claude Van Foxbat

AT / AA 23

Goldie - The New Master

Another short lived project, I wrote about the awesome b-side Rhythm a while back. The A-side, while not as good IMO, crops up a lot when you go lookin' for the engineers and seems to be the most popular of the two sides. Despite being produced by DJ Rap, nothing more ever came out of Engineers Without Fears, which is a shame cos their sound was pretty sweet indeed.

Up & Output

You know that new soundsystem I mentioned last time? well over the past few days I gave it the first few runs. Obviously I couldn't pick just anything to play, oh no. This had to be special, to inaugurate it into the collection I made a few selections The first of which being Bangalter's timeless rework of DJ Mehdi's Signatune (which I'm not going to post), and the rest? well let's just see about them.



Well of course a bass test was in order. So I chose the kind of track that sounds completely different through say, laptop speakers than it does a sub. The first ten seconds of this are just plain inaudible through my phone, but it's a different beast altogether on my new setup. No doubt thanks to those rolling sine waves bliss running alongside.



So I'm feeling some more hip hop stylings, and I turn to good old FLyLo for my fix. This tune has always been a favourite, though it's more like two tracks actually 'cause at about 1:30 the breakdown gives way to some whole new sounds and beats that (dare I say it) sound just a little bit dubstep.



Something a bit faster now, as we move closer to Drum & Bass territory with Skream's love letter to the Jungle scene. It reminds me a lot of Omni Trio's Feel (Feel Good) I posted a little while ago thanks to that well executed vocal sample. There's not much different here actually, there's liberal usage of amen break throughout, and it's a little slow for a proper full on 'ardcore Jungle inspired beat.





It wasn't long before I planted myself back in familiar experimental and electro territory though, kicking things off was a track from Clark's debut Clarence Park for way back in 2001. The LP is home to a track that has one of my favourite sounds ever on it. That main melody sounds amazing anyway, and when it starts to get cut up and spliced it really is something else.



And bringing it all to a close is a track from way back when that I had long forgotten about. MSTRKRFT's The Looks got plenty of play from me then, and coming back to it everything is still just as sweet. I remember my first listen of this one, it was good and all but it needed that extra something to bump it up to proper quality status. And that was answered with the key change at 3:10, which I could tell was leading to something big. and then 3:40 rolls along and we get some tasty guitar licks to go with our electro. And the end result is a pretty sweet deal.



And that pretty well documents the first 48 hours of my new speaker setup, I only hope they last as long if not longer than my old ones. Take this selection for yourself and give your soundystem a treat!

The Green Wire,
-Claude Van Foxbat

Drums And Bass IV: Back To The Future (Part 1)

I recently came into a fair amount of real old school drum & bass. like even older than the stuff I've put up before, we're talkin 1993 up in here. Now, opinions are usually divided about what's better, the old school or the newer 'liquid funk' style. Me, I like 'em both, and I'm gonna whip up a nice mixture of the two, starting with the old.

I can never escape Omni Trio, his production is always solid throughout his catalogue. My first introduction to his brand of drum & bass was the album Even Angels Cast Shadows, and because of that I was skeptical of how this was going to sound, being nearly 20 years old, how much had his style changed? A fair bit it turns out, Feel having some sick rave-styled machine gun stabs from the first break - compared to the lush, almost loungy piano keys and breakbeats that I know Omni Trio for. This one still has that well produced feel of those tracks though; it might not be as slick and modern sounding as OT's later work - but everything from the samples to the breaks has a lot of love behind it.



And of course, I have to include the classic that is Renegade Snares. It's just one of those tracks that is quality through and through. Also it's kinda like a bit of foreshadowing, that piano hook that kicks off the tracks and swings back in every now and then is now what I'd consider Omni Trio's trademark, and he does it really, really well.



I seem to have a thing for liking overlooked B-sides, the A-side to this EP Spiritual Aura is already another of those classics within the scene. But for me the highlight is the introduction to Rhythm. It's up there in my list of all time best intros ever, that effect is unlike anything I've ever heard before (it's apparently a unstretched pitch shifted drum loop) or since. The track as a whole is tidy but that little bit just steals the show, especially when it gets cut up and thrown in the mix throughout.







Of course now we end up in the transitional period, the sound's changed alright, but it ain't quite the liquid funk of today. Leading the pack once again here is Goldie with a slice from the amazing Timeless. It's pretty good at demonstrating the evolution, the drum programming's got a little bit more complex but stuff like the samples and rumbling basslines are still there alright. Speaking of drums, get a load of that 808 about a minute in.



One thing I didn't tell you about Weekend World the first time around is that there's plenty of conventional drum & bass strewn among the jazzy stuff I focused on last time. They're complete opposites in terms of sound to both the jazzy tracks from the album itself and the direction Goldie was taking things in, subscribing more to the old school style. But that's what you get from Moving Shadow, after all they did bring us the OT tracks from earlier.



As we head into the 2000s, things go quiet for a while. That is until Pudendum come along and bring D&B back to the mainstream. To their credit Hold Your Colour was a petty nice album but that's something for the next part to cover. Join me next time as we travel through the millennium to explore the depths of contemporary D&B.

Amen Brother,
-Claude Van Foxbat