Like the deserts miss the rain - the return of Everything But The Girl

Colour me surprised to find a new upload on the official Everything But The Girl channel last week. First things first I didn’t even know they had a channel and second I haven’t even browsed that much EBTG content there so who knows how the algorithm decided to suggest it my way. This post was supposed to go up last week but I postponed it a little while I ironed out those previously mentioned tech issues, it was the right move to make in hindsight as I’ve had a little more time to spend with it and think on what I was going to say. So let’s get into it.

First, some backstory (albeit an extremely condensed one). EBTG started out as a folky kinda pop band duo back in the 80’s. Around 1995, hot off the heels of the now legendary Todd Terry mix of Missing they would take a more electronic approach - it’s here that most of the stuff I’ve posted of them comes from: 1996’s Walking Wounded and ’99’s Temperamental leaning heavily on the side of Drum & Bass.

And that’s about where the story ends, outside of some album reissues with old demos included and some solo albums from both Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt, there hasn’t been any *new* EBTG material since 1999. Until now, that is. They have a new album penciled in for April 2023, having been recorded in 2021 (which despite what you might think, isn’t a product of lockdowns so say the band). First single is the first track off the album Nothing Left To Lose, a fittingly melancholy title given the content of previous EBTG albums. More thoughts after the video itself.



It sounds cliché to say, but really it is like they never left, from the jump we’re back in 2-step garage town and there’s some proper shelf rattling bass backing it up as well, sort of retro but with a distinctly modern feel. The 24 year gap has done nothing to dull the duo’s production chops. EBTG’s work, especially Temperamental had a real focus on city spaces which I think the sound reflects very well.

And of course, it wouldn’t be a return to EBTG without Tracey Thorn’s vocals. Her delivery on some of the previous records is among my favourites, and her lyricism is usually full of colourful wordplay hiding the bleakness in the content. On first listen, I wasn’t sure it was her on the vocals, but after a few more listens it became more and more clear that it is. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about phrasing this part, her voice has changed quite a bit since the Temperamental days (but again, it has been *24* years, so that’s to be expected), feeling a lot more mature than the fragility of, say, her guest vocal on Massive Attack’s Protection. To be perfectly clear I don’t mean that to be negative at all - her vocals are still incredibly effective and evocative, and twins excellently with the sounds on display here. I find myself replaying the explosion in sound at 2:54, backed by Thorn’s plea to “Kiss me while the world decays” over and over again.

I’m interested to see where the rest of the album goes, previous ones weren’t always strictly Drum & Bass so this change in sound isn’t too unexpected, I would love to see an update to the ‘classic’ sound in future singles but I also wouldn’t complain if it were all in this vein. I’ll certainly be keeping tabs on it going forward, and if I’m feeling up for it might actually do a review when the time comes.

I’ve got this far and not even mentioned the video at all! It’s a fairly simple setup all things considered, but the camerawork and choreography is pretty great. Feels like a bit of a callback to the days where music videos were more common on TV than they are now - where artists like Aphex Twin and such would make wild videos to get the people talking. Slightly unrelated but my favourite of their previous ones is the video for Five Fathoms, which is just a bunch of guerrilla footage of a town center’s denizens on some night out in 1999, with a pretty heavy focus on a DDR machine for extra nostalgia!

But that’ll about do it for today, hope you dig the tune as much as I do, I’ll be back around soon enough with more but until then, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Back To The Punk

Going to get wistful for a bit here if you'll indulge me. It's been about a year since Daft Punk announced their split, and I figured they'd just slip back into the background as they always did anyway, and they sort of have - but recently their YT channel has been updating pretty regularly with some interesting stuff, more on that in a minute.

So what have we missed in the last year or so? Well, The Daft Club, the fan-site that I used to be on as a tween shut down upon the news. Sort of sad really as it could have still carried on I feel, they sure as hell managed fine without any news at all between the release of Random Access Memories and the split - but then again I was really only ever lurker anyway. The real reason it hurts a bit is that TDC was actually how I found this site, with a promo post by former owner Jordan - and if I hadn't then you probably wouldn't have been reading this right now.

A 25th anniversary edition of Homework was released which features a ton of remixes including previously super rare mixes of Around The World, though disappointingly the Armand Van Helden rework of Da Funk isn't included - but that was the B-side to the Musique EP I suppose so not part of Homework technically. Nice to see, but if you've been a longtime fan you either have or have heard all those mixes already.

Anyway, the focus of today is going to be the recent influx of 'from the archives' footage and content that's making an appearance. The archivist in me loves seeing stuff like this, it's a great resource and seeing it like this, freed from the old probably VHS/DVD sources of yore is fantastic. It's all to do with Around The World today, and we kick off with the video itself with audio commentary by director Michel Gondry. The late 90's to early 00's were a wild time with superstar directors putting out weird and wonderful music videos of all kinds - Spike Jonze, Chris Cunningham and of course Gondry himself being but a few. Around The World is one of those iconic videos - the kind that gives everyone an 'oooooooh' moment when you realise that each group of dancers represents an element of the song (A concept which Gondry would re-use for the Chemical Brothers' Star Guitar), super interesting to hear this commentary.



Expanding on that even further we have a ton of behind the scenes footage from the set as well - which really highlights some of the things Gondry mentions in the commentary such as the computer setup for the lighting. As someone who works in a similar sphere, its humbling and a bit quaint to see the monstrosity of a setup needed to do something like triggering lights. The editing feels a little fast, sometimes too fast IMO - no idea if that was how it was originally or it's been re-edited for the 2020 world of social media. Either way, a very interesting look into the process, one that the archivist in me again really appreciates.

One last one to complete the archive, a very animated Gondry discussing the video and process. Another interesting slice from the archives, albeit one that kind of covers the same ground as the initial commentary. Not too sure about the weird filter on it but that is apparently how it is on the DVD anyway. Here's hoping that the rest of D.A.F.T is next, the videos for Revolution 909, Da Funk and Fresh are all equally iconic in their own right (and also boast Spike Jonze among others on the directing front) and I'd love to see the BTS footage and content for them again. That goes double for Interstella 5555, the duo's collaboration with Leiji Matsumoto that is essentially one giant music video for the whole of Discovery!



Having a flip through and reading the descriptions I actually think these were all just DVD extras from D.A.F.T but I don't mind too much because in the grand scheme of Daft Punk stuff I feel like it's a little unknown. And besides, as I've said many times in this post: the more sources there are for these things there are, the better. The Daft Punk superfan version of myself circa 2007/8 would have loved all of this content being so easily accessible and would have no doubt made an appearance and influence on my brief dip into the world of Filmmaking.

I realise now that there hasn't really been any 'music' in this post as of yet, so I leave you all with one final mix - the 'official video' for the KenLou (Kenny Gonzalez & Louie Vega of Masters At Work fame) mix. It's made up of clips from the above so there's not a lot of new content - likewise for the mix, the two take a fairly hands off approach, injecting Around The World with a little bit of funk but keeping most of the main body. I do wonder if they'll do similar for other mixes and behind the scenes footage, it'll be interesting to see which mixes get picked for the official treatment - Around The World has tons of mixes by itself after all. Well that'll about do it for this time around, I'll be back soon with more but until next time - as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.



-CVF

Smokers Delight @ 25

You know, I haven't mentioned that one of my all time favourite albums - Nightmares On Wax's Smokers Delight was turning 25 this year. It's a bit of a sore spot actually, I was supposed to go see the album played front to back in my and NOW's mutual hometown, complete with a full orchestra. Naturally, like so many other things this year that didn't happen, but NOW has always been pretty active, and in lieu of that has released both a companion film to the album and an EP of the bonus tracks included on the 25th anniversary edition of Smokers Delight.

The film itself is an interesting watch, according to the press release I have it's inspired by one of George Evelyn’s (the NOW man himself) dreams. The summary is included in there too: the film follows Tiger, a friendly neighbourhood stoner happily stuck in a comfortable wake-and-bake routine. After he discovers that he may have unknowingly stepped through the doors of perception, he is forced to detective his way back to reality.

It's a fun little companion piece, pretty surreal but with plenty of humorous moments sprinkled throughout - the stoned conversations and philosophical ponderings 100% on point. If I had any complaints it's that I would have liked a track-by-track covering of the full album like Daft Punk's Interstella 5555 or Goldie's Sine Tempus but that's me just being an idealist, the songs that are used are put to great effect, even the random interlude from the album 'Time (To Listen)', fittingly with ticking clock. It was a nice injection of happiness in an otherwise tumultuous week, I couldn't help but grin when one of my favourites 'Pipes Honour kicked in, followed by some of the more comedic exchanges of dialogue. If you find 12 mins, give it a watch.





And just so I'm not leaving you with just that, I'm going to talk about my favourite and first of the bonus tracks from the companion EP and 25th anniversary edition. Aquaself is a gorgeous little slice of Smokers-esque sound. I have no idea if it's a forgotten B-Side or other scrapped demo, while it definitely has that Smokers Delight vibe, there's an overarching funkier feel that wouldn't be too out of place on NOW's later albums. The track itself is gorgeously clean, there's not a foot put wrong which makes the 6 minute runtime feel like half that. NOW's sample selections (assuming they are samples!) are as choice as ever, and the essence of this track is almost a distillation of the sound I love. if you've never heard NOW before and you like the track below, you're in for a real treat; all the albums from Smokers Delight forward are all in this vein, and at the very least in my opinion - Smokers Delight and the album following it, Carboot Soul are a must have for any downtempo fan.



-CVF

Dear John

I've had a passing interest in James for a while now, (you probably know 'em from the cult classic Laid) like other britpop style groups of the time I thought they'd called it a long time ago. Now imagine my surprise when I got to look up Laid to show to a friend, they actually dropped a new LP in March. While not strictly electronic 100%, this one is giving me a little of the feeling I get around Röyksopp's Junior & Senior. There's an arty video to boot. It's been stuck in my head all day and with any luck now you have it too.



I tried to find a alt streamer too, but it's not even up on their official soundcloud and Spotify embeds don't work too well anymore so this'll have to do for now. I'll be back in due course with more sounds for you.

-Claude Van Foxbat

EVERYONE, STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING.

It's been too long since I've been that excited about an artist releasing something...


Danger released his EP July 2013, alongside a music video for 1:30.

I'm not going to talk about the full EP here because I'm waiting for my vinyl and don't want to spoil myself the experience, but here is the 1:30 music video.



I've got no words, just pure joy...

Be back in a few days to review the full EP.

Enjoy!
-LRNT

All Is Full Of Love

I'm feeling particularly arty tonight, so I slapped on my records as usual and got to work. But then while browsing my folders of inspiration for material, I found my Chris Cunningham files again. The man is responsible for some of my favourite music videos of all time, and looking over his concept sketches for this video I just had to watch it again. I've already covered the three big videos he's directed - Aphex Twin's Come To Daddy and Windowlicker as well as Squarepusher's Come On My Selector. And I thought it was high time I covered his other famous piece; Björk's All Is Full Of Love

It's a stunning display, especially considering it's from '99, the CGI is brilliantly well done and still holds up fairly well to modern standards, I expected nothing less from Cunningham after his work with AFX and Squarepusher. It helps that the accompanying song is fantastic too, it's a different mix to the one included on her album Homogenic and dare I say it a better one too. Enjoy.



The first remix on offer is from a bloke called Guy Sigsworth. It takes a more subdued route to the sounds while retaining a similar structure. I actually didn't realise how muted this mix is compared to the original until I played them one after another, but the chorus and ending sections feature a beautiful explosion of electronics onto the scene, reminding me just a little of Clark's The Autumnal Crush. I don't have a problem with that - a thing I really enjoy when making art is watching different peoples approaches to the same thing; an object, feeling etc. so these remixes go down a treat.



Björk's interest in the world of experimental electronic becomes more pronounced towards the end, starting with this mix from a duo called Funkstörung. It's fairly by the numbers for experimental stuff, to me it resembles Tri Repeatae era Autechre, especially when the melodic streak running throughout gets it's own break around 3:13 or so. I wasn't too fond of this one to begin with, but like so many other tracks before it, upon revisiting it I found something within it that I loved, in this case that break I just mentioned. It's fleeting, but after the break is gone the track stays special, everything after it and through to the end is just golden.

And finally, Plaid. After guesting on their LP Not For Threes, Plaid and Björk have had a pretty tight relationship. I've said before that Plaid are very hit and miss for me, but there's no sign of misses here. After giving the basic melody their unique sound treatment for that intro, you're thrust into a sparse soundscape with only a rolling beat and Björk's vocal stylings for company. And aside from some sparkling synth lines dotted throughout and some squelchy pads added during the chorus about halfway in it stays largely the same. I get the feeling this mix is meant to be more about her vocals anyway, they are slightly higher in the mix than anything else, and no other mix has had the same approach. Saying that, I love their interpretation of it, and I think it's a fitting end to the EP.

Björk · björk : all is full of love (plaid mix) - 1999

And of course, I can't just write all that and leave all of you to go find the video yourselves could I? Well here it is, it really is a phenomenal video and is definitely worth your time.



Artificial,
-Claude Van Foxbat

Foreign Language video

Brand new video from Flight Facilities' track : Foreign Language.

And a bonus, The Bloody Beetroots - Church Of Noise reworked by Sir Bob Cornelius Rifo and Thomas Roussel from SomethingALaMode.

The Bloody Beetroots · The Bloody Beetroots - Church of Noise ( B-SIDE )

-Here

Original Don

Oh, nothing special here, just another regular Major Lazer music video... nothing weird at all.



-Here

Bangers by the BBs

Kind of totally forgot about these guys since their whole screamo weird thing...

Came across this video today, and the song was actually way better than I expected it to be.



Actual song :

The Bloody Beetroots · The Bloody Beetroots - Church of Noise (feat. Dennis Lxyzén)

And their brand new remix of Congorok - Ivory. Magnificient, I missed their old vibes so much, glad to see they're going back to it.

The Bloody Beetroots · CONGOROCK "Ivory" The Bloody Beetroots Remix

-Here

Things I forgot to post

Here are some of the things I forgot to post because I did not really have time... time to catch up !

Let's start with Yuksek's latest music video



Two very good tracks by Xinobi including a collaboration with Moullinex

XINOBI · Moullinex & Xinobi - X Marks The Spot (Original Version)

XINOBI · Quakers & Mormons - New York Town (Xinobi Remix)

And this amazing remix of How Deep Is Your Love by NTEIBINT

NTEIBINT · The Rapture - How Deep Is Your Love (NTEIBINT Remix)

-Here

Kraddy and a bonus

Hi there, it's been a while...

I recently received news about Kraddy, hope you guys remember him.

He released his debut album, you can catch it for free on his official website.

But that's not all !

Two contests are coming, a T -shirt design contest is already open, but in a about a week a remix contest for Black Box will start, so you know what to do !

Also, the music video for his main title is now out too.



And what about that bonus ?

Magic Tape Seventeen by TheMagician

Tracklist in the comment section, when available.

-Here

Embody video

Hey everyone SebastiAn is back with an awesome track and a pretty nice video directed by So-Me.
SebastiAn - Embody par edbangerrecords Let's hope his album will be as good as this song, after so many years working on it, it would be nice not to have 3 good tracks and 8 shitty Enio style songs. Enjoy -Here

New MSTRKRFT video

MSTRKRFT have revealed the music video for the next single from the "Fist Of God" album. Featuring John Legend on vox, "Heartbreaker" is a bit of a sound experiment for MSTRKRFT, with a one finger piano riff and Justice-y bass. The video appears to show a young hooligan fall in love with a 99 cent store clerk while his friends run amok in the store. I don't really get it, but it's brilliantly driected, and a fuckload better than the "Bounce" video that's for sure.





Break beats not hearts,
Joe