Into the Nineties and beyond

I've mentioned this playlist offhand a couple of times, so I thought I might as well post it! Here's mine and a co-workers collaborative rundown of the world of 90's electronic. We didn't quite get *everything* in there, I get the feeling we missed a couple and some of them just plain aren't on streaming, but I think we did a solid job. At my coworker's request we also kept it fairly trim so there's not 1k+ tracks like on some of my playlists! Remember that Spotify embeds only show the first 100 tracks as well, to see the full thing you'll have to open the playlist in app / on the web.



The rules were simple: any track from 1990 to 1999 was fair game. You might spot a few that technically break that rule, but that's normally because they're from re-issues of the original albums or such, we researched to make sure each track was definitely of the era! The end result is a real love letter to the era, if a little heavy on the UK-centric side (especially if you read the playlist description!). It's all here though: Floorfillers rub shoulders with the Summer Anthems of the Radio, miscellanious remixes that flip pop/rock songs into various genres of the era and more than a few tunes that may make your eyes roll (and not from the pills) - but as we discussed when making this list, part of the fun of a 90's playlist like this is fully embracing the cheese. We don't do that straight away though - these first 12 tracks are choice selections that still sound great today.

If you're of the same age range as me and them, I hope this playlist takes you back a fair bit, and who knows maybe you'll find some new-old gold on the way. And if you're not - put this playlist on and marvel at the electronic music of yore. Either way, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Songs In The Key Of Chroma - Revisited

Back in January of 2018 I was in the mood to do some playlist curation, I was starting to commute longer distances and my usual stratagem of putting everything on shuffle wasn't cutting it; ambient drone loops are not a good companion for rush hour trains. So I made it my mission to create some more themed playlists focusing on moods, but rather than title them something trite like 'Jams' or something, I decided to split them into the colours used for industrial printing (which in hindsight may have been just as trite, especially for that pun in the title!). But still, it's easy for me to pick them out of my list of playlists with their unique names and thumbnails.

Why I'm here though is way back then my mission statement was to grow each of these playlists to 100 tracks and then talk about them again, because that's the most the Spotify embedded players will support. Now they actually did this a while ago, and while some of them sat at 99 for a while they are now all over that 100 mark. Not that it was a be-all end all thing, (I am still going to grow these playlists for certain so feel free to follow!) it was more of a milestone kinda thing. Anyway, let's have a look at the new and expanded playlists I have, starting with the first two colours of CMYK, Cyan and Magenta.

Cyan is a bit of a mixed bag, in here you'll find a slightly downtempo leaning collection sprinkled in amongst little bits of electropop, some ambient selections and other various lush sounds. If any of you longtime readers know what kind of sounds I rant and rave about on the chill side of things, you will find plenty of that here! With the expansions to the playlist it has gained a little bit of ambient in there as well with the new Squarepusher EP and some others. As well as a little bit of J-Pop here and there, thanks to me realising there's actually a ton of it on Spotify if you search in Japanese. There's some non-electronic in there for what it's worth but nothing incredibly out of theme. If you like what you hear remember to get the full playlist you'll have to go to Spotify as the embedded players only support up to 100 tracks!
Think artists like: Röyksopp, Ladytron and Boards Of Canada



Magenta now, which began as a kind of an electro throwback and contemporary bangers playlist, which has now morphed into having a little bit of everything that I get real excited about. Which is why now it's a mish mash of Trance, Eurobeat and Synthwave and even some Metal in the form of the Doom soundtrack. It's probably a little scatterbrained for casual listening but if you're in need of a quick injection of Audio Energy I would definitely recommend you check it out. I am well aware that of all the playlists this one is definitely the most self-indulgent for me and is sickly sweet in parts, so I would absolutely understand if you make your own spin off that skips the Eurobeat cuts! If you like what you hear remember to get the full playlist you'll have to go to Spotify as the embeded players only support up to 100 tracks!
Think artists like: Perturbator, Carpenter Brut, MSTRKRFT and Vitalic



They've changed slightly over the past two years, I'm not trying as hard to limit myself to 2-4 tunes per artist anymore, but still trying to keep things pretty varied. Not sure if I'll be posting the updated other two playlists yet, Yellow and Key, but as of writing they are both over the 100 mark if you would like to check them out. Yellow is home of all things strictly downtempo, with a strong hip hop/trip hop lean to it and some slightly funkier numbers in there for good measure. A warmer feel than Cyan, far from the dancefloor thematics of Magenta. Key is where all the darker parts of my music collection lie, and as such is not as strictly electronic as the other three, and now scrolling over the tracklist I think it may be even more scattered in terms of variety than Magenta, there's a solitary Sinatra tune alongside the expected Burial and Portishead for example.

Regardless, I hope there's somethings in these two (or four, if you click the other links) that you like! In the original spirit of the blog I encourage people to build off these playlists and share them with as many folk as I can, a co-worker of mine practically stole all of Yellow for his own downtempo playlist! As always, stay safe and enjoy the music all.

-Claude Van Foxbat

Da Funk Back To The CyberPunk

The final in the trilogy of cyberpunk posts and by far the broadest in terms of genre. This time it's my all purposes Cyberpunk playlist. Here is home to anything I feel fits that atmosphere which means that unlike the Cyberia Mix, I'm not limited to more dancefloory stuff. That's not to say that there isn't any crossover between the two, (hell just loading it up for this post I spotted a Dopplereffeckt track that I missed that happily sits on both of them), but certainly expect more downbeat, introspective and minimal pieces intertwined throughout.

It's sitting at a cool 300 songs right now, clocking in at just under a whole day's worth of audio accompaniment. I'm pretty happy with how it is, there are a couple choices that I could give or take depending n the day but overall I think I've got a pretty neat overall feel! (even if it does lean a little heavy on the ambient side to begin with, I listen to it on shuffle anyway though). Not to throw shade at people but the variety is part of why I made this playlist to begin with, and more importantly why I kept the amount of Synthwave on it to a minimum, as there seems to have been a massive uptick in 'BEST OF CYBERPUNK SYNTHWAVE' playlists after the announcement of a certain upcoming RPG with the same name. Don't get me wrong, you all know I do like the Synthwave, but I'd like people to be aware that there are other perfect examples of Cyberpunk Music outside of that! Get some industrial techno and old school electro in there, contrast that with some ambient and lush IDM and you're well on your way to having a nice mixture of tunes for that High-Tech Low-Life.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Belated 2019 Spotify Selctions

I've been putting this off for a while, and there's not really a good way to say it. Simply put: I beefed it majorly when it came to the monthly playlists, I chalk it up to having a pretty crazy winter period and some familial turbulence in the past month or so along with other naff life elements. Regardless, I wanted to break away from that and so we won't dwell and will instead talk about the tunes I have lined up again.



Now I think about it, I was a little worried about using potential tracks that I would've included on the podcast but I'm trying not to fret too much this year. And with that in mind I made some lovely downtempo / trip hop (and all the other umbrella terms) selections for you. In stark contrast to me agonising over the stuff to include in last week's podcast I threw this list together shockingly quickly. Not to say it's sloppily done mind, I even had to cut some here and there for flow reasons. There may be some repeats from last year's playlists in here but there's far too many of them to check (and to be fair all of them on here have earned their place.) Let's jump in.

We open with the gorgeously dreamy and subtly bossa nova-y sounds of Delarosa And Asora. I was turned onto this LP fro Miss Kittin's Radio Caroline compilation and this tune has been waiting for its time to shine. It opens my Yellow playlist, firmly planting the whole sound of it from the get go. A word of warning to those who check out the LP proper; it isn't all in this style and is much more IDM in parts, still worth a look if you're into the same stuff as me tho.

The next one comes with a bit of a tale, this is the first submission I've received from Reddit of all places. Not complaining like, I'm just used to tweets and DMs at this point. Saying that, while I don't have my Reddit listed on here but I'm sure you can guess the username. Anyway, I've publicly mentioned several times my love of all things Adult Swim form way back when: their use of Warp's stuff for one, their support of indie musicians second and of course their overall aesthetic third. I've also lamented that for better or worse, the scene that popped up around it with all kindsa folk making fan-made bumps and sometimes questionable beats has been and gone. Well, that's not entirely true, I had also stopped looking because of the sheer volume of them, and as it turns out there are some folk out there keeping that flame lit as evidenced by what landed in my inbox. Voker's Is This Lo-Fi Or Chillhop to be exact, kicking off with a sample of the famously dodgy voice acting from Sonic Adventure which is a bold choice. Perhaps a little on-the-nose with the title and all but I think we're all at least a little guilty of that.

After that it's a tour of all things that scratch my itch in that vein, from the big hitters MF Doom and Nujabes down to the more obscure, like my favourite cut from DJ Mehdi's debut album The Story Of Espion, a beautiful piece that makes me wish he were still around to bless us with more tunes, and oddly enough a track from the Bojack Horseman original soundtrack too. So I hope to be back on track from here on out, I hope that this makes up for me missing January and I'll see you all next month with more!
-CVF

Spotify (And Bonus Soundcloud) Selections December

As I was prepping this December's playlist, I almost fell into the trap I set for myself every year of going down a downtempo rabbit hole. So, this year I decided nah let's swap hemispheres for a change and inject a little bit of warmth into our end of year selections. Starting with a little something I've had sitting in my inbox for a long time now (apologies to the artist!), it unfortunately came to us during the time where I had to take the site down for a little while to sort some stuff out. Regardless it stayed on my radar and I've been trying to find a spot for it and now seems as good a time as any to deploy it and now seems as good a time as any.

Jean Sean is someone we've covered before here a couple times in the past, and the remix fiend didn't disappoint this time. As much as I like to abuse this analogy, this rework took me straight back to the blog house days, more specifically to the like of Crookers (crikey, remember when Fidget House was a thing?) and of course more specifically Major Lazer, who thanks to this remix I found out are still active and making stuff too so I owe Jean Sean thanks for that too. It's not all going to be this bombastically dancehall-esque sound unfortunately, but I think it sets up the anti-downtempo selections I have n mind quite nicely indeed.



Starting off, we're keeping the "They're still around?" theme going, with a two-for-one from Mylo AND Louis La Roche. Mylo was a big deal in the mid 00's, he did a real good house album called Destroy Rock & Roll that had some quality singles on it; Paris Four Hundred, In My Arms and Doctor Pressure and then just kinda dropped off the face of the earth. Only on checking out Spotify was I informed that he'd done another EP this year! and with former 'French Touch' blog house darling Louis La Roche to boot. To be fair to Louis, I don't think he ever went away or stopped making tunes, I just didn't keep up with anything he did post 2010 or so. and it seems that he's left the side-chaining sample laden production of his past behind, at least the blatantly late 90's french house type. There's some samples and the like on here that make me questio nwhether they're chasing the 'tropical house' trend but still, it's nice to hear from 'em.



Naturally, I couldn't just leave it at that, so for the next couple tunes I went back into my memories and dug out some house from days gone by. Starting withprobably my first non-Talking Heads exposure to David Byrne in the gorgeously smooth Lazy from X-Press 2 (that's only a little bit depressing with it's lyrical content). Followed that up with the delightfully funky bonus track Fit Your Heart from Benjamin Diamond. I had to restrain myself from going all out with the funky stuff at this point, so I limited myself to just a couple more in this style. Modjo was a natural choice here, and hipster me wasn't just going to go with the shoo-in of Lady, instead I opted for Music Takes You Back, which I've had several people confuse for Jamiroquai when it's appeared on playlists. The last quarter when it all comes together is where it really shines. What would a dive into funky stuff be without a dash of Chromeo? I thought about putting on a bit from Business Casual here as I recently talked about it on the Podcast, but man Fancy Footwork is just so damn good, here we are 11 years after release, and I'm still madly in love with all the little synth hits and twinkles on the title track.

Ok, so I might've lied about keeping it totally upbeat, but we managed halfway! Besides, it's fast becoming winter at least for those of us in the northern hemisphere. We're keeping things a little bit funky tho, with the original Electric Counterpoint from Steve Reich. I talked about the Royksopp edits of this one that they did as freebies some time ago, and as much as I like them I've grown a real fondness for the original. It's a funny clash of electronic style composition with more traditional instrumentation. I'd hesitate to call it drone but if you swapped out the guitar for some lush synth pads it'd probably fit right in. Speaking of, when I was throwing around ideas in my head for this playlist I was running some errands in the rain when my shuffle decided to serve this one up to me. I do't think any of these playlists has had Tangerine Dream on as of yet, they've enjoyed a recent bump in popularity after working on the OST for Grand Theft Auto V of all things, (I'd love to get my hands on the limited edition CD they made from the OST, songs like Mission Possible are just gorgeous). Some questionable album art choices aside, I firmly believe they're a must have in any electronic fan's lists.

On a similar vein, Vangelis' Blade Runner soundtrack should be familiar to any electronic music fan, if only for Blade Runner Blues alone (though again I am biased because I absolutley could listen to that brassy analogue synth sound all day). Spotify doesn't have the expanded re-release of the Blade Runner OST, and I didn't feel like dropping the 8-minute synth Jam of Blade Runner Blues on you so I went with Wait For Me instead. Though a little more dated in terms of sound than Blues, especially with those MIDI horns, Wait For Me remains an evocative piece and one of my favourites from the OST. Rounding out my suddenly vintage selections is Kraftwerk, of course. They hold a special place in my heart as I've mentioned several times in the past, partly nostalgia and partly my weakness for techy sounds in general. Computer World 2 is a tune I've been meaning to talk about for a while now, I think its by far and away the most obvious tune to point to when it comes to the evolution of electro, and eventually techno. It's almost too easy to draw the line between the Underground Resistance and similar productions myself and Adam have been talking about and Computer Love 2.

And finishing this week, I've included Koshkina from Dispak that I included on last week but one's podcast. I've been doing some menial file management on-and-off all week and the lush sounds of the EP have been making it not as much of a slog as it could have been. Coming hot off the heels of me finding new appreciation for songs like Akira Takemoto's Island In Video Casset as well, it's been an interesting change up of sounds for me. I've just realised that the code to link to their bandcamp was broken in the original post too so I've not only fixed that, but will be including it again here. If you likewhat you hear you can stream it on Spotify (obviously), but if you like what you hear and want to pick it up, head on over to Their Bandcamp, the page has a full description of the process behind th eEP#s recording as well which makes for an interesting read and an insight into the inner workings of the EP. If you enjoyed the sounds of Koshkina I highly recommend the full thing out.

-Claude Van Foxbat

Spotify Monthly Selections November

I tried for this month's selections to return to a form I've used the past when Fall starts to draw in. We kick off with my upbeat side of the playlist, the 4 covers making up the playlist cover all being lovely shades of purples and pinks (fitltingly, some of these tunes are taken from my Magenta playlist). Opening with the very un-MSTRKRFT like remix of Zhu's In The Morning, which also makes an appearance on my fictonal nightclub playlist and it's not hard to see why, from the sound of it alone I can almost see the strobes. We get a little crate diggy with the next one, Felix Da Housecat's (previously exclusive to copy of Mixmag of all things) Son Of Analogue has appeared on Spotify. Despite the date listed on Spotify It's originally from 2011, which is fitting when you dive into the meat of the LP. Felix's post-electroclash slightly funky pop style that formed the backbone of He Was King is in full effect here, featuring the vocal talents of his long-time collaborator Harrison Crump we have I Just Want To Be The One.



We take a turn into more dancefloory stuff with another helping from Laurent Garnier. I haven't been able to get enough of Shapes Under Water, and it's been doing a bang up job of clearing the dustoff my shelves with it's relentless basslines and heavy kicks. Vitalic makes an appearance with one of my favourites from the expanded re-issue of OK Cowboy in You Are My Sun. Again my bias is showing a little bit here because the combination of a fantastic electro melody and vocoder should tip some of you off to why it's one of my faves. The purple covers end with another bit of electroclash from Fischerspooner. #1 isn't as sleazy as I remember, especially compared to other releases in the genre around the time, but it does have its moments. As much as I loathe to call a tune 'sexy' I think it's unavoidable to mention when it comes to Turn On, a fairly sedate tune accompanied with some sultry vocals it definitely fits the bill.

We return briefly to the dancefloor for the anthem to excess in Röyksopp & Robyn's Do It Again. The lyrics totally wouldn't be out of place on an electroclash tune, and Robyn's delivery is on point as usual. Some of the lines might even cut a little too deep for my liking, especially during the breakdown, almost certainly one for the "Why I'm Crying In The Club" playlist. We dive further into that feeling though, with CFCF's remix of HEALTH's Dark Enough making the tune a huge juxtaposition in sound and tone. On the surface it sound like a fairly standard 'indie' electronic remix which is inoffensive enough but the lyrical accompaniment by HEALTH relally pushes it into something else; "Does it make a difference if it's real? As long as I still say I love you". Anyway, be sure to stay tuned for the deliciously 90's house-esque break at 2:55 too!

We round out with Kleerup's bittersweet 3AM, like much of his self titled debut it carries on that Juxtaposition of sound I was talking about just above, though with a more electropop streak to it. I'd recommend it doubly hard if you really liked Röyksopp's Junior, it's got that same vibe to it and even shares a guest vocalist in Lykke Li. The penultimate track is a band I've liked from a distance for some time now, they haven't had much mention just because it was difficult to fit into any playlists, but now's the perfect time to deploy some Trembling Blue Stars. I really enjoy all I've heard from them but it's definitely one to enjoy in small doses because hoo boy do they have A LOT of sad songs. Ironically enough one of my favourites of theirs is No More Sad Songs which almost made the cut.

Playing us out is Clark's The Autumnal Crush from Body Riddle. It finishes the album and does it ever finish it. It's a tour de force of Clark's sound and by far one of the most intense listening experiences I've had. The understated intro ends after 30 seconds or so with a voice saying "And I still miss... you" before giving way to an absolute explosion in sound. And not content with that, Clark notches the intensity up even more after 40 seconds or so, where the drums come in full force. And that's only the start of the ride; the gradual distortion of that main melody over the runtime is something to behold. It's not for everyone, granted, but it's one of the key examples I hold up when people say Electronic music has no emotion, I often describe this one as crushing to listen to and I don't think that description is too far exaggerated.

And that's this month's selections! I Apologise for the slightly inconsistent days they update, I try and keep them all up for around the same amount of time which has meant shifting the dates around a little. Regardless, I hop you enjoy this months admittedly eclectic offerings, and I'll be back next month with more!

-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

Guest Night Tales 2018: The Revival

Cleaning up my HDD this week I found some remnants of art I did for the 'Guest Night Tales' series I did back in 2013. +I still really adore the idea behind it, it's shamelessly ripping off the actual real Late Night Tales compilations but still I like peering into other people's listening, and ultimately their different approaches to the same prompt: "What's your perfect late night playlist?"

So back then I ended up with a bunch of grooveshark playlists that I asked friends to contribute some art and a track-list to. Grooveshark kicked the bucket in 2015 and since then the posts have just consisted of a list of the few songs I could salvage from Grooveshark's recovery option at the time. Until now. I've decided to give them a new lease of life as spotify playlists this time. Now there are some downsides, some tunes straight up aren't on spotify so some of the playlists re missing anything from one or two songs to whole chunks in some cases. Still, it's nice to have them back and functional again.

Starting with my contribution, 2015 me helpfully didn't list the entire playlist when GS died, so I rebuilt most of it and added even more songs to it, it made sense to given the time that's passed anyway. Some alterations were made: I swapped out the Plaid Mix of All Is Full Of Love for the Guy Sigsworth one, and one of the linchpins of the ambient section, The KLF's Madrugada Eterna is missing but overall I'm still happy with how it came out.



I tried to really capture my listening progression over the playlists runtime, starting with a little bit of 80's stuff, slowly changing into the electropop block by way of Chromeo, which gives way to more of a downtempo / electropop combination with The Knife and friends before going full on trip / hip hop with a little help from the likes of Nightmares On Wax and Blockhead before finally beginning to wind down with the more ambient block featuring the likes of Boards Of Canada, culminating in the rhythmic ambience of Charlotte's Mouth and Nightvision.

Nothing too surprising for longtime readers, but stay tuned in the coming weeks as I resurrect the other playlists in the series and add a few more to the stock. It's gonna be a good time. If anyone reading would like to make their own Guest Night Tales list, please feel free to do so! Whether you make it and send me the link or just give me a tracklist to work with I'd love to have it featured here.

-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

Songs In The Key Of Chroma: Part 2 - The Downbeat

Back with part 2 of the CMYK playlists, we're rounding out the inks this time, heading down the list in order as we have been so far gets us to... Yellow. Home of all things downtempo, with a strong hip hop/trip hop lean to it, with some slightly funkier numbers in there for good measure. A warmer feel than Cyan and far from the dancefloor thematics of Magenta, Yellow is your go to winding down playlist (parts of wich may or may not have been adapted from my Morning After playlist). It might take the weather warming a little for these tracks to reach their full potential, but regardless enjoy this dive into my downtempo masterclass. Think artists like: Thievery Corporation, Nightmares On Wax and Bibio



And finally, Key. Not black as you might have expected, though black is covered in the range for Key. I don't quite get it either but I don't make the rules. Key as the shades of the thumbnail might suggest is where all the darker parts of my music collection lie. It's earthy tones and dark greys that I can turn to if I'm having a rough day and ain't feeling the uplifting vibes of Cyan or Magenta. Key is so far the most varied of the playlists, there's some decidedly non-electronic stuff in there, and some tunes I can't put in there due to them not being on spotify (honourable mentions to Suilen's Zakuro which would absolutely be on this list if they had it.) It's currently the shortest list at the time of writing, having trouble finding things to put into it but when I do, I instantly know they belong. Think artists like: Portishead, Depeche Mode, Trentemøller and Massive Attack



I'll continue to try build each playlist up to 100 tracks, in the meantime you can find all the CMYK (plus a few others) playlists over on my spotify. That's the end of the themed playlists, I might repost them when I get to the 100 tune mark for each but it should be back to regularly scheduled programming next week. As always, stay safe and enjoy the music!

-Claude Van Foxbat

Songs In The Key Of Chroma: Part 1 - The Upbeat

I've been back on my playlist creation and curation trip again, I wanted to make something akin to mood playlists but didn't want there to be a million and one of them knowing me. So taking a leaf from my art education I divvied them up into your four printing inks, I'll be posting them all so far and giving a quick breakdown of what's within them today.

Cyan is a bit of a mixed bag, in here you'll find a slightly downtempo leaning collection sprinkled in amongst little bits of electropop, some ambient selections and other various lush sounds. If I had to pigeonhole it I suppose it be in the vein of motivational playlists. Think artists like: Röyksopp, Ladytron and Boards Of Canada



Magenta now, there's not as much here as I would like but I'm still building them up (my end goal is 100 tunes for each ink, so stay tuned for updates). In here you'll find all manner of tunes to cut loose to, a mish-mash of gorgeous tunes of the House, Electro, Synthwave persuasion, plus a few more. Think artists like: Perturbator, Carpenter Brut, Macrosss 82-99 and Vitalic



It's been a fun experience, I'm trying to limit myself to 2-4 tunes per artist so there should be plenty variety in there. I already have the other two playlists, Yellow and Key put together on my spotify if you're interested in a sneaky peaky at the upcoming post. Like I said earlier I'll be trying to build each of these up to the 100 mark,so give em a follow if you're into that. I'll be back next week with the other side of the inks which will be a little bit more laid back than this offering.

-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