Spotify Monthly Selections September

A synthwav-y themed selection to start this month's playlist off with. As much as I like the genre every now and then, I do loathe how formulaic the track titles for anything with that sort of sound have become, the spotify recommended additions served up cliché after cliché. Things quickly take a turn into more electropoppy territory though, first teasing it with a little bit from Kleerup's debut album before sliding full on into the gorgeous synth noodling of Games' (now known as Ford & Lopatin) Midi Drift. My favourite track from La Roux's sophomore album after that, hard to believe it's been four years since it came out. A different Au Reviour Simone tune this time too, taking a break from Somebody Who, my usual go-to electropop example of theirs, instead opting for the much more uptempo sounds of Crazy from the same album (Move In Spectrums).

A slightly indie-tinged remix of HEALTH, definitely a far cry from the all out-abrasiveness of the album the original comes from, DEATH MAGIC, I assure you its sound earned it the place in the playlist. Get a load of that deliciously retro house breakdown around 3 mins in. My long-time favourite tune from Ladytron's 604 after that; the backbone of my "their debut album is electroclash and I don't care what the band says" argument, Playgirl certainly fits the bill with its moody monotone delivery and simple electronics. To be fair that's true for a lot of the album, but Playgirl is definitely Exhibit A in that regard.



The new Gorillaz single next as their barrage of new singles from The Now Now continues. I'm not sure what Damon's planning to do here with so many singles, Plastic Beach was full of good tunes and didn't get this much treatment. Though I suppose a lot has changed in regards to music streaming and the like since 2010 and all. One of the instrumentals from Ford & Lopatin's Channel Pressure to round out the retro aesthetic running throughout the playlist and a bit of an abrupt turn into ambient territory to play us out just because that's what I was feeling at the time. A delicate piece from Tim Hecker's An Imaginary Country brings us to a rather sleepy end to this month's playlist.

Me and Adam should be back this Wednesday with another installment of the Podcast, I hope that my month's listening rundown tides you over until then. I know I'm a day late on this instalment of the monthly playlist but they're all archived over on the left side so you can relive each month's going back to the first (or second?) from November last year! As always stay safe and enjoy the music all.

-Claude Van Foxbat

Spotify Monthly Selections August

Got my nostalgia cap on for this month's choices. After being asked to put on "like, some electro" for a friend's party playlist I decided to dive my old stomping grounds of electro house and see what was on offer. And once again I'm pleasantly surprised by the selection they have. So I started it with a tune I'd lusted after for ages until it finally got a proper release, Boxer is a masterclass in bombastic electro, I can't get enough of that brassy sound that it has going on. Similarly, before they became purveyors of a song often abused song for memes, Bag Raiders were legit (I say that like they still aren't), this remix was a highlight of my early electro explorations. It takes a little while to get going, but when it does, it does. Tune into 1:46 for the drop.



The rest of the list is a bit of a who's-who of Ed Banger; starting with the criminally underrated soundtrack to Steak from Mr. Oizo, the GOAT Thomas Bangalter edit of Signtune, and of course the absolute grind of SebastiAn's remix of The Kills. No real downtempo turn this time, though things do calm down not long after the Ed Banger block with the sliding scale slowdown of Apparat's mix of Shine Shine bringing this month's flashback fuelled selections nice and softly to their close.

-Claude Van Foxbat

Spotify Monthly Selections July

It's incredibly hot here in the UK ATM. So I thought I'd challenge the climate and throw together a only slightly cliché summertime playlist. Kicking off with the sublime and funky intro from Feadz's debut LP, Welcome To Paris, we settle into a downtempo groove that takes an indie turn with Hogh Pressure Dave, a suprisingly sedate offering from noise-rockers HEALTH. Track 3 is one of the new Gorillaz singles, I've been listening to it on and off already and I'm already clicking with it, which is a welcome turn of events after my middling opinion of Humanz. Damon's vocals shine as always, here's hoping the keep this slighty synthy sound a la Plastic Beach and The Fall going!





What would a summer playlist be without a customary tip of the hat to one of my all time fave 10/10 albums Discovery?, Voyager takes us on a more downtempo journey, leading into absolute dubstep classic Summer Dreams from Skream, followed by some supreme lushness in The Infinite Variety from Alucidnation (with an album cover I absolutely love by the way, I miss me some orange street lights). Things take a dowtempo turn towards the end naturally: with a little bit of Pretty Light's sample-laden debut album Taking Up Your Precious Time, my favourite piece from Air's soundtrack for The Virgin Suicides with The Word Hurricane, the explosion of sound towards the end contrasted by the ever beautiful ambient piece that is Tommib from Squarepusher.

-Claude Van Foxbat

Spotify Monthly Selections June

June's playlist might be the most mixed bag of the lot so far. There's a theme still, albeit a loose one. I got a little bored with my electropop playlists, so I went looking for tunes in my library that could slot into that category to inject a little more variety in there. Some of them like Miss Kittin were obvious choices, whereas a first glance additions like Squarepusher and ADULT. might seem a little out of place. Surprisingly though, Tonight, We Fall is probably one of the most electopop style tunes that the duo have, definitely much more approachable than the anxious, nihilistic and often experimental electroclash that I mainly associate them with. Nicola Kuperus' delivery on the track is fairly nice as well, breaking out of the expected monotone delivery that is so prevalent in electroclash.

Things do go a little bit sideways towards the end though, I wanted to include Moby's Blue Paper because I've been listening to it fairy regulalry for the past month or so, but I couldn't find the perfecttune to follow it sound wise without it bing jarring. So I went completely in the other direction and made the last portion of the playlist all ambient, I do think that Tim Hecker's Borderlands was the correct choice to follow Moby, it's probably the mot alike in terms of sound (only without the beats). Months from Oneohtrix Point never plays us out, originally from Russian Mind, I was first exposed to it through the compilation of his early work called Rifts, which is a gorgeous dive into analogue soundscapes. The whole analogue gear angle might be slightly overplayed and a bit fetishised, but Daniel Lopatin is an absolute wizard when it comes to all things Juno.





-Claude Van Foxbat

Spotify Monthly Selections May

I'm feeling a little more uptempo this time. In the spirit of last month's selections I decided to stretch my house legs once again and put together this little concoction for you. I didn't want to re-tread the filter/french territory as much this time, and once again I was surprised at the depth of selections on offer through spotify. Seems they've massively expanded their catalogue since I last used them in my early Uni days.

I was running a little short on selections so there is some more electro-house styled stuff in the middle from MSTRKRFT and Siriusmo, but the real meat of this month is the final 5 anyway. I've always liked deep house, but I made the mistake of trying to seriously expand into the genre when it became the hip new thing and the waters got very muddied. I wouldn't mind but the stuff that gets billed as deep house these days is sofar from what I'm familliar with I'd hsitate to call it the same genre. So I compiled a few of my favourites new and old, I could listen to Soichi Terada's Purple Haze all day, and Laurent Garnier's Last Tribute From The 20th Century somehow slipped past me all these years, which is a massive shame because I am madly in love with that bassline on it.

Also featured is Octave One's Burujha, a tune I was introduced to via Ford & Lopatin's (FKA Games) mixtape called Spend The Night With. It's a real mixed bag of genres what with a couple of Enya tunes on there, but nestled i nthe mix is this lovely slice of Detroit goodness that I've not been able to get out of my head since. What's a deep house selection without the one and only Mr. Fingers? hailing form the 80's, Can You Feel It? is top tier deep house to this very day. For the final tune I wanted A:Xus' Callin' You (Baghdad Cafe) but unfortunatley it's not available on spotify in full. So instead I went with a more recent release of his, the ever-so-slightly melancholy Suite Disappointment, which features the same Vocal House style that I wanted Callin' You for, so it all worked out in the end!





-Claude Van Foxbat

Spotify Monthly Selections April

I was tasked by a friend to recommend some house-y tunes for his holiday playlist, so naturally I jumped at the chance. I was actually fairly surprised at the selection of the classic French House I fell in love with that was available on spotify, kicking off with the oft-overlooked classic album Midnight Funk from Demon, segueing into some more funky stuff from Benjamin Diamond immediately afterwards, and keeping it that way with Modjo. I took a bit of a more modern turn with the next few which was a little risky but thankfully they went down a treat. More future funk styled stuff form Macross 82-99, showing off a little more of that eastern infulence speciffically, followed by a surprisingly non-experimental piece from The Flashbulb. Let Me Walk You To Your Honda has little in common with Benn Jordan's other productions, there might be a little IDM style lurking under those warbles but as far as I can tell this is the only House tune he's really made. Which is a shame because he's really good at it.





More classic selections rounding it out, you know I had to include the legendary Lazy from X-Press 2, which was a younger me's first proper introduction to David Byrne beyond my dad's record collection. All culminating in the gorgeously smooth Dusk You & Me from Groove Armarda. Sounds perhaps a little dated but man do I ever have the biggest soft spot for this style of Café del Mar morning after downtempo vibe.

-Claude Van Foxbat

Spotify Monthly Selections March

I've been on much more of a downtempo kick as Spring takes its time to set in. This month's playlist starts with a piece Massive Attack made for a soundtrack that I'd somehow never heard of until now, it gets a bit cliché cinematic soundtrack in spots for my taste but I'm very much into Polaroid Girl. Followed by another trip hop act I recently started seeking out; Fila Brazillia, who despite the exotic name and lush sounds actually come from Hull of all places.

Some electropop sprinkled in too courtesy of another two recent additions to my listening roster; Cornelius and Erlend Øye. Both of them scratching my itch for what a friend of mine lovingly calls "Napoleon Dynamite Electronica", they're fairly simple and full of DIY-esque sounds that I am currently loving.

Getting a little nostalgic too, with a bunch of Housey tunes from one-album-wonder Mylo, Rex The Dog and of course, Daft Punk. Taking yet another turn into the downtempo towards the end, I'm trying to structure the playlists to have nice peaks and valleys see, The Knife's Vegetarian Restaurant is also from a film soundtrack oddly enough, and it is probably one of my all time favourites from the Swedish sibling duo, a far cry from the dark and cold electronics of Silent Shout for sure. I'll see you all next month with the next installment!



-Claude Van Foxbat

Spotify Monthly Selections February

Back once again with another Monthly Selection! It's officially a series! February's listenings are all suitably loved-up; cribbing a few choice cuts from my personal Valentine's playlist we open with the eternally classic Your Love from Frankie Knuckles, before taking things in a more uptempo funky direction with the duet of Chase & Status and Chromeo. Followed by a nod to my roots with the bombastically filtered house of Macross 82-99 and some classic pre-wubfest Dubstep from D1.

Taking a turn into slow jams towards the end, The Knife's fantastic live version of Heartbeats caps off the playlist. Taking maybe just a smidgen of inspiration from José Gonzalez's cover of their song, The Knife take the upbeat electropop of the studio version and turn it on it's head, it's devastatingly beautiful. I can't overstate how much I adore Karin Dreijer's vocals, she is and remians one of my top 10 voices in music.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Spotify Monthly Selections January

The start of what I hope will be a regulrarly updating rotation of monthly selections now I've found a suitable streaming replacment in Spotify. January's choices are suitably cold, though it does kick off with a bit of warmth courtesy of the electropop stylings of Röyksopp, keeping it Nordic for a while with Kleerup and Anelli Drecker before moving into more indie pop territory with the likes of Little Dragon. ALl tied together with a suitably ambient ending seciton, featuring recent addition to my listening roster Ocouer. I'm hoping to keep this on a regular schedule from now, so expect a new playlist of what I'm digging aroundabouts the 15th of every month (with some slight tweaks for those weird shorted month like Feburary). See you all next 15th for more!



-Claude Van Foxbat