Showing posts with label site. Show all posts
Showing posts with label site. Show all posts

Saturday, 21 March 2020

Uncertain Times

Hi again. I'd apologise once more for the extreme delay on any post but I'm sure you're all aware we have bigger issues on our collective plates at the moment. With that in mind I am going to try update here now and then to just give y'all something to read that isn't doomy. Starting with a reminder that my Ambient releases are available over on Bandcamp, for free if you would like. They have always been Pay What You Want and will continue to be so. I know personally how much music can mean, and I am a firm believer in accessibility to music (especially if you don't have the means to pay for it), so don't feel like you have to give me anything for them at all, and I hope you enjoy. (if you don't want to use bandcamp, there are direct links to my releases at the bottom of this post!)









Don't want to use Bandcamp or would prefer a direct download? no worries, I have you covered. Here are links to get the above releases from our own hosting as .zips!:

Compiled
Near Future Blues EP
Dive EP

Stay safe out there folks,
-Claude Van Foxbat

Sunday, 22 September 2019

Trails (And Tribulations)

Hello. It is me again. Thought I'd swing by with yet another update on what exactly is happening. The site is still live (barely), I haven't been updating as much as I should have for a variety of reasons, IRL reasons like being promoted at work (good!), taking a trip to Portugal (good!) and having to deal with house moving headaches (not so good!) but regardless I'm trying to make more time for y'all once more. And with that in mind let's dive into what I have today.



Hot off the heels of a live radio event and Aphex Twin's latest live set on September 14th, warp comes through once again with the announcement of the "WXAXRXP Sessions" just in time for the 30th anniversary. This will be a huge box set of a bunch of sessions both new and old from the backcatalogue, most interestingly being the above. For the first proper time you can have the Complete Boards Of Canada Peel Session from 1998, featuring the until now bootleg only "XYZ". Which is a good thing because it's one of their finest tracks, though I will admit it is a little strange listening to it without the radio hiss and John Peel's dulcet tones introducing it as I'm used to from the bootleg.

It's not just Boards on the roster however, the other offerings from the "WXAXRXP Sessions" feature a who's who of the label past and present; Aphex Twin, Bibio, Oneohtrix Point Never, Flying Lotus, Plaid and LFO being the highlights for me. The WXAXRXP Sessions are available come November (15th I want to say?), as a 10x12" vinyl boxset or digital, tracklists and details over at Warp's official retailer Bleep

Thursday, 8 August 2019

Plus One

It's been a little while since I wrote a proper post, but I thought I should this time. It's that time of year where both me and the blog tick over one more year. It's not philosophical or anything, me and the blog just happen to share the same birthday.

2018-19 has been a fuckin' hell of a year for me and the site. It's resulted in a drastic overhaul of every post ever made (which is why so many are missing, I'm working on it) and to be frank I'm amazed we made it this far in the previous state. Still, we made it to the big 10 year mark before everything caught fire so I can be content with that.

Though we are still dealing with some bullshit too, like a nonsensical DMCA for the St. Patrick's day episode of the podcast which shouldn't even apply as it's hosted on mixcloud and we don't even offer downloads of the episodes but sticking my neck out is what got me in this situation in the first place, and given the stories you hear about a certain video hosting site being especially incompetent at dealing with them I'm not going to bother. the show along with all the other episodes we've done is still up on mixcloud or what it's worth Silver linings though, the first ever proper on-depth series I did here; A Very Warped History is now once again complete with all broken images (that 17 year old me thought was a good idea to hotlink) and the next/previous links fixed too so you can navigate the whole series from that first post there. Pleas excuse some of my teenage attempts at writing, but overall I'm still very proud of it.



In the meantime, I thought I'd throw up some birthday selections for the first time in forever. Starting with a bit of euroebeat I was saving for the podcast one day. I think I did mention on a previous show that I don't use the term 'guilty pleasure' anymore re: music. You shouldn't be ashamed of what you like, but that doesn't mean you can't view it objectively. Which is what my collection of late 90's Trance and Eurobeat are to me. Both of them hit the same buttons for me, sometimes it's nice to cut loose to some frankly unashamedly obnoxious synths and downright cheesy vocals and the occasional euphoric break. Eurobeat is also interesting if you approach it from a electronic music history angle, the genre is very heavily Italian producer biased and you can certainly hear the Disco, Italo and Hi-NRG influence on some tracks, especially with them MIDI piano hits. Enter Burning Up For You, which I think covers all the bases I mentioned above.



Another tune I mentioned and played on the podcast if finally on Spotify. Essentially what I said on the show is my usual spiel about not shaming folk for how they discover music they like, especially when it comes to soundtracks: I personally have seen Peace & Tranquility introduce multiple people to House, even if it as as inconsequential as a comment asking "what genres is this?", and I am always happy to see more people come into the broad and exciting world of electronic music. Even if the song does get memed to death in the process, which is a bit of a shame because it's one of my most favourite recent house tunes.



Speaking of euphoria, I've been revisiting HEALTH's Death Magic recently and it's still a solid listen. Don't be put off by the dark artwork and ALL THE CAPS, some of these tracks are surprisingly light, certainly not like Carpenter Brut and other Synthwave that I put it next to in the podcast episode. Dark Enough being my most recent looper, I love what they do with the electronics and how the twin with the vocals to make this dreamy feel despite the heavy kicks.



And after overlooking him last time I covered hip-hop stuff in the podcast, here's a little bit from Nujabes. I still think it's a shame that his works overshadow the other contributors to the OST for Samurai Champloo, because eoff of the mare very much quality but I cannot deny that Nujabes was good at what he did. I speak a lot about tunes that from the get-go just grab me and I think that he and the rest of the OST cew have the highest rate of that in my collection, all of these instrumentals are a treat for the ears, as are the brief excursions into more R&B territory. Even if you have no interest in the series, stream the rest of this album and seek out the other OSTs, they are incredible hip-hop albums on their own.



I think that's enough variety, reminds me of the old end of year roundups I used to do. I don't know how active I'll be with *new* posts, but I will keep re-publishing old posts as and when I can, some of the older ones are an absolute mess to detangle but I'll get it done. Until next time, enjoy.

-Claude Van Foxbat

Saturday, 29 June 2019

An Update

Hello. You might have noticed new podcasts have been absent for a few weeks now, and you may be wondering why that is. Truth be told I don't know myself, me and Adam ended our call after the last recording session and I haven't heard anything since. I shot him a message asking if we were swapping over to Wednesdays for the rest of the month but got no reply, and he hasn't updated the google doc we keep for the podcast notes either. That's pretty much it, I know as little as you, while I wouldn't be against continuing the show solo, I think it is much stronger with Adam and myself so I won't be doing that. I don't have access to the mixcloud account either.

In the meantime though, I'm finally getting around to re-publishing my first proper series I ever did on this blog, the slickly titled A Very Warped History. I've not got them all done yet but it's a start. I'm changing very little about them, there are some dead image links and some typos I'm correcting but they are otherwise as-is, as such please forgive some of my ham-fisted writing, I was around 15 at the time of the first posts and they'll be 10 years old next year!

While I'm fixing those however, I thought I'd at least post something. So have this playlist I cooked up that is a quick rundown of what I think is the quintessential introduction to what Warp does; it features bits and pieces from the entire history of the label including some of my all time favourites and even features some albums I didn't write about for the Very Warped History series. Enjoy.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Sunday, 12 August 2018

10 Years Of 'Tronix

The new schedule means I've missed the exact date slightly but 2018 is the year that ilictronix has been surfing the digital waves for a decade and if you're into synchronicity, me and the blog actually share the same birthday!. A lot's changed in that time: trends have come and gone, my list of things to add to my collection has grown ever bigger, as has the collection itself. I'm not sure if I ever expected to reach this milestone, I can count few websites that I've frequented for 10 years or more so it's pretty mind-blowing to have my own site hit that.

A special shout out to all the staff we've had over the years, without them ilitronix wouldn't have grown like it did, and I always enjoyed a peek into other people's music collections and to hear their opinions on various releases. An extra special thanks goes out to Jordan too; original site owner for both his continued behind-the-scenes support after I took over, and of course for taking me on as a writer all those years ago, if it weren't for him I'd not be typing this right now.

What's in store for the future of ilictronix? Well I think I've had a nice groove the past few years so more of the same, with some occasional experimentation with formats and the like as you've come to expect. There have been hard times and I may not always have been the most consistent at posting for a while but I'll always keep coming back to have a natter about my latest additions or old favourites. I'd like to thank all who've read over the years, I'll keep writing and I hope you'll keep visiting. Here's to another 10!

I leave you now with a cross-section track dump of my past favourites from last 10 years of ilictronix. This is actually the severely cut down version too, otherwise I could be here all day. Regardless, It's been far too long since I've done one of these!

We've come a long way, baby
















































































Sunday, 3 December 2017

A Belated Pod (Or Two)

Apologies in advance for this one, I completely forgot to post the last couple podcasts myself and Adam did. To be fair it was 3 months ago and I was busy in the throes of my new job (and dealing with a broken hand + elbow on opposite arms). We haven't recorded since but we're both fairly busy with life things atm, still I should reach out to him and hopefully we can get another one out before the end of the year (I probably shouldn't have said it won't be so long before the next one in hindsight...).

in the meantime though, here are our two solo episodes we recorded due to schedule issues. First up, Me! Again, apologies for the slightly naff audio quality from me, I'm recording these on my G430s, which might be good for counter strike but not so much Podcast recording. I might sound a little worse than Adam's setup but the tunes will shine through methinks. Tracklist after the embed:

Tracklist:
Intro:
Siriusmo - Nights Off
HEALTH - Stonefist
Leila - Welcome To Your Life
Maya Jane Coles - Over
Funkstörung - Disconnected
Adam's Outro:
Octo Octa - New Paths

And also Adam's. I gave it a listen while I was transcribing the track-list. Adam's tunes are a lot longer than mine but that's not a complaint whatsoever, I enjoy what he brings to the table too, sometimes I feel like you can get stuck in a rut of 'recommended artists' from Spotify and the like, so having Adam come in with cuts like these is refreshing to say the least. My choice pick would be the Addvibe tune, definitely stick around for that.


Tracklist:
Intro:
Phuture - Your Only Friend
Decoy - Imp Overlord Dub
Addvibe - Sada (N'Dinga Gaba Diplomacy Soul remix)
Johnick - C'mon Give It Up
Pablo Valentino - One (Detroit Swindle Perspective)
Outro:
DJ Red Alert & Mike Slammer - In Effect

-Claude Van Foxbat

Monday, 24 April 2017

Me, The Site And You.

Hello all. You know I don't often like to get real with you all but unfortunately now calls for some real talk. Those of you who've been with us for a while will notice that the site's been pretty much a skeleton crew of me, with Sulphites or occasionally Adam popping in. The long & short of it is that I'm starting to have trouble managing all the workings of running a music blog solo, and after a few calls for writers over the years have turned up empty I think it's time for a change in how we operate.

Chicote CFC - Polysemy (2017)

What I found out in the last post is that my old system of having the promos email forward to all the writers isn't ideal, I'd forgotten to clear it out in a few months so it plain stopped emailing us new stuff. So from no on if you're wanting to send something to me, you can do so via: My Twitter, my personal Gmail if you already have it (if not you can find it on the site, I try not to post it in case of spam crawlers).

I repeat, from this day forward the promos@ilictronix.com email will no longer be in use. see above for alternative modes of contact.

Right, now that unfortunate business is out of the way, let me get back to the tunes. Another lesson learned for me, I put off picking up the Old Future Fox Gang album when it was free, now it's disappeared off the face of the internet. Thankfully we have fan soundclouds to fill in the gap. I wasn't the hugest fan of the tunes that they had featured in Hotline Miami 2, but Don't Cry For Me really scratches my instrumental itch.



About a month ago the Ed Banger soundcloud started upping a bunch of older tunes for the upcoming 100 compilation. And among them was Sktesteak from Mr. Oizo's soundrack to his own film, I like to dig it out every once in a while because it never fails to transport me back to being a 16 year old Ed Banger fanboy. Other than than, it's Oizo doing what he does best circa 2007, which was a fantastic year for electro all 'round. That slowed down ending section is bloody fantastic every time.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Friday, 1 July 2016

Good Things Incoming (Soundcloud player broken as of 2020)

I just got the word from Adam that our not so secret project is pretty much ready to go, so look forward to hearing from us (literally) more often in future! In the meantime Iforgot to get somethign prepared so I'm going to leave y'all for the weekend with some delicious instrumental goodness. Stay tuned for updates in the coming weeks!



-Claude Van Foxbat

Tuesday, 23 June 2015

Complications...

We've been hit with a wave of DCMA's recently, most notably on some of the Warped History posts focusing on Aphex Twin. I was actually considering making them stream-only a while back because I'm proud of 'em and want em to be read forever, and now I will!. As of right now, I have put the entire Warped History series in stasis. But once I edit all the posts to be stream only they'll come back, it's just gonna take some mind numbing HTML edits to do so. But for now, here is a jumbo sized selection from Warp themselves, because I still love 'em to bits.



Saturday, 21 September 2013

Please Stand By

Tough times ahead friends, site founder and ilictronix veteran Prez Jordan wants to transfer ownership of the site. If all goes well, I'll be taking over the site and hosting, and as such it may be a long time before I can post anything more. Luckily I was prepared and have this hour and a quarter long mix celebrating the ups, downs, and inbetweens of everything I love electronic. I'd like to thank everyone in the community for an amazing time over the years and their continued support, and Prez himself for picking a 15 year old me to write for ilictronix. Stay tuned for updates when they happen but until then, as always stay safe and enjoy the music.





Tracklist:
The Knife - The Bridge (Hannah Med H Soundtrack, 2003)
Rex The Dog - Frequency (The Rex The Dog Show, 2008)
Surkin - White Knight Two (Next Of Kin EP, 2008)
Miss Kittin & The Hacker - Electronic City (Two, 2009)
Boys Noize - Frau (PUZIQUE Remix) (Oi Oi Oi Remixed, 2008)
Boys Noize - Shine Shine (Apparat Remix) (Oi Oi Oi Remixed, 2008)
The Prodigy - Omen (Reprise) (Invaders Must Die, 2010)
Teenage Bad Girl - Vacuum (Cocotte, 2007)
Danger - 13H12
F.U.S.E - Nitedrive (Dimension Intrusion, 1993)
Blade Runner - Tears In Rain (Vocal Sample)
Orbital - Halcyon + On + On (Orbital 2 (Brown Album), 1993)
Goldie - Timeless (Inner City Life) (Timeless, 1995)
Omni Trio - Sanctuary (Skeleton Keys, 1997)
Commix - Fallen (Fallen (Single), 2013)
Current Value - Into The Light (Into The Light / Deep Digger, 2005)
Venetian Snares - Szamár Madár (Rossz Csillag Alatt Született, 2005)
Sigur Rós - Takk... (Takk..., 2005)


Hang On,
-Claude Van Foxbat

Wednesday, 4 August 2010

Status update!

Hi there,

I'm here with some news about the site... The non-blind amongst the readers have probably noticed by now, but some visual changes have taken place. We are currently reworking the site to provide for a more organised, more appealing and extended reading pleasure.

As the buttons on the top of the page suggest: These changes will include adding several new pages to the blog.
  • The Chat
Our chat has been updated already to fit with our new visual style and we hope to see you all pop by once in a while to have a conversation about whatever that's slightly interesting.
  • The Gallery
This page will probably be a showcase for reader submitted pictures and stuff like that. We are also pleased to announce we found a fan of the site that wants to work together with us to kick off the grand opening of this new page (His name's Bob, you'll hear from him again in the near future :p)
  • Feature
In here the artist of the month will get a permanent spot to reside. We might also add festival reviews to this section...
  • The Team
We are currently working on this page that will feature a short biography of all our staff members and the obligatory contact info.
  • Advertise
The chance to advertise with ilictronix has been reopened as well, we'll announce our wallet friendly offers once all the neccesary modifications to the site have been completed.

Phew, so that's what we're working on right now along with some other neat features, that might not see the light of day.

If any readers are interested in helping out with this time consuming process, you can always contact prez or me and we'll see if there's anything you can do for the site (basic web building/designing experience required however).

Now onto my post...

I've recently discovered this site that's definitely worth checking out. http://oneframeoffame.com Activate your webcams and start posing... Or are you creative enough to get into the ranks of featured contributors like me?

Check out my 2 last submissions :p





And because no post is complete without some mp3... Here's a nice DnB remix of Barbara Streisand by Duck Sauce

Duck Sauce - Barbra Stresisand (Love Thy Brother Remix VS Bassnectar)

Excuse me now as I get back to work, so I don't get scolded by our Prez for slacking.

One more thing, I need some feedback on how the new design is doing, so voice your opinions, Like the changes? Hate em? Got any suggestions? Let your voices be heard in the comments!

Enjoy, Mr. Brown