ilictronix Podcast: Upbeat & 'Ardcore

"Claude brings some smooth deep flavors that pleasantly bring in the new season. Adam tips his fedora for a "EUPHORIC POWER HOUR (I'm so sorry)" and brings some hi-nrg tracks.

Going up a day late because Adam uploaded slightly later than usual (also I fell asleep oops). Regardless we are back for this week! The description he wrote above really does it justice. I continue on my quest to break the mold of what I feel like is stuff I usually pick, mixing it up with a purely upbeat selection for this week, starting with the buttery smooth Mount Amazing 2 from Soichi Terada, and I try my best to keep the vibe of that track alive throughout, keeping things eastern with the first (of what will be many!) appearances of TeddyLoid, taking us on a surprisingly blog-house nostalgia train before checking in with what Shinichi Osawa's up to as of late too. A visit from Philestine too, featuring that deliciously nostalgic 'Show Me Love'-esque organ synth that coloured so many moments of my youth. We round things out in very very smooth fashion too, with back to back tracks from ZHU and Hudson Mohawke. I haven't been able to stop looping the ZHU track for roundabout 2 weeks now, me and Adam also go down memory lane again over the fact its a MSTRKRFT remix, there was a time when they were coming out every week! And we close things out with the out 'n out vibes of HudMo's Scud Books, I mention this in the episode but this is one of those tunes that found me at the perfect time and it will always transport me back to that place. It helps you can get down to it too.

Adam sheds all pretences this week and treats us to an all you can eat buffet of Hardcore & Hi-NRG. Once again I'm emboldened for when I eventually do do that Eurobeat episode I keep talking about (it'll be soon™ I promise). We joke around the topic and all but I'm going to echo what I've said in past episodes about stuff like this; there is no such thing as 'Guilty Pleasure', you like what you like! And don't let anyone make you feel bad for doing so. Here at ilictronix (as you will have heard if you've listened to a couple of these episodes) like a whole ton of the spectrum when it comes to electronic music, and it really shows with how passionate Adam can get when describing some of these. Tracklist as usual below:

Tracklist:
Intro: Soichi Terada - Mount Amazing 2


Claude’s picks:
TeddyLoid - White Out
Mondo Grosso - Labyrinth (Album Mix)
Philestine - Skippy The Bush Kangamoo
ZHU - In The Morning (MSTRKRFT Remix)
Hudson Mohawke - Scud Books


Adam’s Picks
Vibes & Wishdokta - Givin It All I Got
Lone - Melted
Force Mass Motion - The Pressor
Edit V - Burning Love
Jimmy J & Cru-l-t - Take Me Away

Outro:
Kaotic Chemistry - The Come Down




-Claude Van Foxbat

Ilictronix Podcast: The Van Foxbat Chronicles - The Videogame

"In this episode: It's a Claude-centric week! Claude shares some some electro pop tracks. Adam shares his favourite cuts from video games.

We are a go for this week! and this episode makes me wish that me and Adam collaborated on our choices. As you should all know by now I am no stranger to including soundtrack stuff in my selections, hell just last week we had a remix from a Serial Experiments Lain as the intro. Long story short I end up talking pretty passionately about not only videogames as a whole, but their role in shaping my music taste as a wee Foxbat, being one of the few sources I had for *new* electronic stuff.

Anyway, I return to the days of ilictronix gone by, putting together a playlist out of whatever came up on shuffle. Aside from dropping a few unsuitable additions that have come into my library since, it even turned out like my old school shuffle posts to boot, we have some deja vu inducing tunes that come close to previous weeks'; with Shinichi's cover of Star Guitar leading the nostalgic electro charge, as well as yet another version of Rippin Kittin that actually features the title in the lyrics in this mix! Rounding out with a little from my longtime favourite animator come musician David Firth under his Locust Toybox alias and rather fittingly, another bit from The Chemical Brothers' Push The Button.

The second half of this episode me and Adam drop all pretences of dive right into our shared history of finding (and loving) tracks from videogames. It's not uncharted (ha) territory for me, but I was very excited to hear Adam tackle it and he did not disappoint. We share a lot of these choices in common, particularity towards the end. We have some good discussion in there too and like I said I wish that we could have collaborated fully on this list, I could talk for days about Rez for example, and I wish I recalled more of the info for this episode. Regardless, enjoy our choices for this week, and look forward to an ultra-long episode in future focused on soundtracks. As per usual, full tracklist and notes below: Tracklist:
Intro:
Jesper Kyd - Vegas

Claude’s picks:
Mitch Murder - Runners
Shinichi Osawa - Star Guitar
Golden Boy With Miss Kittin - Rippin Kittin (Glove Radio Edit)
Locust Toybox - Arisa
The Chemical Brothers - The Boxer


Adam’s Picks
Michiel van den Bos - Foregone Destruction
Amon Tobin - Ruthless

Claude's Special Replacement Selection:
Keiichi Sugiyama - Buggie Running Beeps 01

Photek - The Third Sequence
Omni Trio - First Contact

Outro:
FILTER FISH - Selected ID


Show Notes:
The Mitch Murder EP I talk about Mech Hunter OST is available from on his Bandcamp, it's name-your-price so you can pick it up as a freebie if you want, I personally threw a couple of quid his way because he has mos def earned it. Check out his other stuff while you're there if you wanna hear some of that "YuppieWave".

Mentioned in passing, but the Original upload of the music video for Shinichi's Star Guitar that takes more than a hint of inspiration from The Chem Bros' one. It's amazing how far streaming video's come on in 10 years, the compression's unfortunately reduced this one to a muddy mess.

I can't mention Rez without including a video of it in motion, I'm not exaggerating when I say it's a completely different experience in that context, and not only because the mix is slightly different on the in-game one. One of these days I'll dedicate a full episode to talking about it.

Probably missing one or two as per usual, but I will update as and when!

-Claude Van Foxbat

Inde-pod-ance

You might've noticed I'd gone quiet again as of late, with reason this time though, as behind the scenes me and Adam have been refining the Podcast recording process. So to give it a test run, we recorded a very special independence day episode; with Adam managing to get it edited and put up on our mixcloud the same day(!). It's going up a day late here because I was out of town last night but that's no reason you can't enjoy our selections still. Tracklist after the player:



Opening:
When Johnny Comes Marching Home (Matzzz Remix)

Claude’s Selections
The Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar
Shinichi Osawa - Maximum Joy
DJ Mehdi - Tunisia Bambaataa

Adam’s picks:
Frankie Knuckles & Jamie Principle - Your Love
Adonis - No Way Back
Maurice - Get Into The Dance

Outro:
This random remix of Yankee Doodle Dandy we found

12 Days Of Tunes (01)

Remember how a while back I was posting one song and one piece of art a day? well this is kind of like that, only with 12 entries instead of 101 to keep me clear until Christmas. So let's get right in there.

Gustave Caillebotte - Boulevard Haussmann In The Snow (1881)

Ever since I discovered that Hotline Miami EP tucked away in my steam folder I've been revisiting the electro side of things. It's only fitting mind, seeing as that was part of the reason I started coming here way back when. And if I hadn't been such a teenage electro fiend I wouldn't have inherited ownership of the place, strange how things work out like that isn't it?. Anyway, here's Shinichi Osawa with a piece from The One, I still love the album and I mean to pick up more of his stuff but it tends to get pricey with the imports and whatnot, regardless; enjoy.

With A Bang 3: Revelations

That time again, where CVF lays down some ammo for your prospective new year's get togethers or whatever you lot are planning. The one time of year (one day late this time) where I ration the words for this one and instead just hand out some ammo to blast on NYE to make sure yours is the best sounding night on the block. So without further ado here we go!

Takashi Murakami - Tan Tan Bo (2001)

You go on out and have yourselves a awesome night with this lot and as always stay safe, enjoy the music and have yourselves a very nice New Year from all of us here at ilictronix! We'll see you on the other side in 2015!

Philestine · GENIUS IN A BOTTLE

A Lil' Lighter

Robert Del Naja - Protection 1 (2013)

Sorry about my last couple posts being all moody like, hopefully gonna rectify that with this one! Before that, one last bittersweet offering from Massive Attack's Sophomore LP Protection. Check out the alternate art from band member Robert Del Naja AKA 3D above.



Somethin' I've been holding onto for a long time is these acoustic covers of Aphex Twin by Andrew Flanders, the end results are a lot like the Leila cover of Vordhosbn from Warp20. Guy has a YouTube Channel full of 'em, he's not put any up since though which is a shame, check it out for a unique spin of the already unique AFX vibe.



And lastly, something from Shinichi Osawa's The One, tucked away on the largely electro LP are a few more chilled selections like this here one. Somethin' a little more feelgood for ya while I head into deadline territory, I'll try catch you all again soon though!



-Claude Van Foxbat

AT / AA 9

Chiho Aoshima - A Contented Skull (2003)

Shinichi Osawa's The One is a bit of a wildcard when it comes to pressings, there's a bunch of different ones out there as I found when I picked up the expanded version with a ton of remixes on it. There's some strange changes on there too, like swapping out The Golden for a longer, alternate mix just called The Golden 2. The story's the same with Our Song, but in addition to the altered mix, the Japanese vocals of the original (A Lonely Girl Version) are swapped out with some different english ones along with a different subtitle (We Are All Innocent). There's both pretty stellar tracks, but the original is the one I fell in love with and am sharing with you lot today!

48 Hours Of Electrics

I spent the last couple of days with a friend, and we spent a lot of that time waxing nostalgic about when we were beginning to explore Electro. We were lucky that it was around 2006-7, which is pretty much the time when every track out there was golden and new stuff was out every week or so. And after spinning them both on vinyl and from files I was feeling pretty inspired, so now I'm putting together another list of my Electro favourites, both old and new. An Electrospective if you will (sorry.)

Click for big (1273px × 1120px)

Vitalic's OK Cowboy is a stonking release, especially when you find out that three of the album's biggest tracks (Poney Part 1 & 2,La Rock 01) were originally recorded/released in 2001. They held up well enough not only to still be fresh when included on OK Cowboy in 2005, but like the whole album, is still bloody good even now.



I had a pretty terrible vinyl rip of Kavinsky's Teddy Boy EP for a long long time, it wasn't until I previewed it on JunoDownload that I realised what I'd been missing. I thought the rip I had sounded pretty good, so I was blown away by the DL, by far the highlights are the two Testarossa tracks. I love 'em both, but Nightdrive gets nowhere near as much press as Autodrive so that's my pick for this one.



I got turned on to Shinchi Osawa from his brilliant remix of Felix Da Housecat's Radio and never looked back. Pretty much all of The One is quality,and when I finally picked up the re-issue with a boatload of remixes on it, I was surprised to find this extended mix of The Golden on the tracklist. I was kinda disappointed at first 'cos I liked the original, but then I hit play.




I'd heard of Siriusmo through remixes and that, but never paid much attention to his EPs and such. Then when Mosaik dropped I decided to check him out. I've commented on his unique brand of electro and posted a couple of my favourite cuts from it before, so I'm just gonna cut to the chase and leave you with another nice bit from Mosaik



Likewise, I knew of Modeselektor for a while, but outside of a couple tracks here and there I could never get into their releases too much. I gave them another go around when Monkeytown was coming out and I was sold. The intro track left such a good impression I could have gone out and bought it then and been happy, the progression throughout is solid and the album as a whole is top notch, definitely one to check out if you missed it the first time around.



And that'll be all for today, hope you enjoyed my less eclectic mix of tracks this time, I can't promise it'll stay that way for much longer though!

The World Over,
-Claude Van Foxbat