Speedy Replacement Service

Started writing a big in-depth Retro Review post only to find the record in question isn't being re-released for a couple of months yet. Oops. With my plans thoroughly scuppered I decided to throw together a quick one to tide us over - not a dive into my final Bandcamp pickups this time, but more bits and pieces that I sort of skipped over at the time.

Ken Danby - Charter (1978)
A little more Italo to kick off - I've been trying to not overdo it when it comes to the genre, it can be easy to have too much too quick as I found out with its eventual evolution in Eurobeat. But that love is easily transferable between the two - I like to joke that Eurobeat is just Italo but faster but there is a lot of truth to it. But I digress, I think a lot of Italo is just plain fun to listen to, even when (and especially when) it gets a little dated like on this one here. Truth be told I still think Notte Divina that I posted before is the best of the first volume of obscure tracks, but I like this one a whole lot too.



Taking a bit of a turn in genre next, it's been a hot minute since I talked about Gerard Hanson and his work under the E.R.P. moniker - its fast become some of my favourite electronic in my collection. The spacey electro really captures my favourite elements of the stuff Warp was putting out in the early 90's for the Artificial Intelligence series, most specifically the work of B12. It's all lovely stuff, but I never really covered the more electro-leaning parts of the discography. Part one of the Evoked Potentials series is best at demonstrating this, both tracks err more on the electro front than the spacey tech I mentioned above - that feel is still there of course, most prominently on the intro of Sensory Process but this time it's much more the way of say Drexciya, or the one Elektroids album if you want to keep it in the Warp family - with perhaps a touch of Dopplereffekt for that slightly darker edge - all of which share a common link in the form of Gerald Donald!



Returning to commuting after so long and getting an upgrade in storage capacity on my daily driver phone has meant a resurgence in Returning to commuting after so long and getting an upgrade in storage capacity on my daily driver phone has meant a resurgence in all things musical on my side, and that's where Swayzak come in. Snowboarding In Argentina keeps the techy theme going, Bueno has been a recent hit for me, its driving tech house that really helps keep the momentum up when hoofing it around - helped further by the fact that the shortest track on this album is still 7:30. Between this and a recent pickup from the final Bandcamp Friday that I haven't talked about yet, I'm enjoying a bit of a Tech House renaissance so expect more like this to come soon.



And that'll be all for now, not too bad for something I whipped up last minute with no plan I don't think. Shame that the Retro Review has had to go on the back burner but it'll have its time to shine eventually. I'll come back around with more selections soon enough but until then, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Random Handful

Peter Alexander - Contoy (1988) Swinging by with a handful of tunes - wasting no time in getting down with some of the latest from ThorHighHeels, a video producer with a unique aesthetic who also occasionally dabbles in the music world. Their work has that same effervescent, unserious feel that permeates their video content, as seen most prominently on the latest music release Skung with track titles like "FRAME RATE SINGLE DIGETS LETS GOOOOOOOOO". Surprising no one, my favourite from it so far is very much in the vein of Positive Yellow that I have posted before. The kind where Thor taps into that latent mutual love that we share for that very specific PS1 Demo Disc style sound: that weird hybrid every techy genre that was out there at the time - techno, jungle and the like. I do quite like the closing track as well, the aptly named PS3 Beat, a great twist on the masses of tunes out there that sample the PS1 and 2 startup noises.



One of the few times that Bandcamp's 'new from' feature has failed me, I only knew of this one because the artist in question sent out an info email with it on. Sense returns, his work I'm most familiar with is that certain kind of early 00's fragile ambient come IDM style stuff that is very pretty. But those albums I know are either 20 years old, or are coming close to it, so what does Sense sound like now? Well, I can't speak for his main releases, but the title of Grey Sky Dub kinda gives away the game for this latest one. Much more in the style of say, Swayzak in terms of tone and sound as we enter the world of dubby techno, this release is made up of "...a collection of various live jams over the years that we have restored and remastered" and it certainly feels like it. I don't mean that in a negative way, I do have a bit of a fondness for stuff that sounds like an extended jam session. Gathering sounds like you've just dropped into the middle of a set with how it starts, a little minimal for my tastes in all honesty - but I do sometimes like to take a deep dive into this world and that is especially true right now.



Speaking of, I was actually putting some Swayzak back in rotation actually, I haven't mentioned them much just because a lot of their stuff is pretty hard to find legally streaming - though the bandcamp is full of hidden gems and other gubbins too. Their debut is over there which is a great place to start, it does have a slightly different tracklist from the original release but even so it's a great crash course in Swayzak of the era - super long techy house stuff. Snowboarding In Argentina is a hefty chunk to get stuck into, even though its only 7 tracks the shortest of them clocks in at a still fairly hefty 7 mins 30. I've already posted my two all time faves from this album, but in reality the opening trio is a solid introduction to the sound. Burma Heights is probably the least minimal of the three, the massive squealing chords that back up most of it can get a little obnoxious at times but I'm kinda into it at the minute, and I just adore the smooth swimming sounds of the intro that are persistent throughout.



And that'll do it for this slightly eclectic roundup of what I've had on over the past day or so, hope they appeal to you as much as they do me. It's a pretty wild selection, but then again these are wild times. Git a quiet tail end of the week so I may cue up a couple more posts as well, might be time to do the last instalment (for the time being) of the bite-sized bits. Keep an ear out but until then, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF