Pit Stop Hero

Mitch Murder is back at it again with another of his 'Fictional Soundtracks'. There's never a long gap between releases from Mitch but it has been a while since he's put one of these out. In an era where N64/PS1 nostalgia is king, especially the Drum & Bass side of things, I find it interesting that Mitch always goes a little more out there with his choices - there's a trio of Wii themed albums, but both this one and the first one I heard focus on the underdog of the console world in Sega - last time the Sega CD, this time the Saturn, rival to the PS1 and N64.

I'm not going to spend too much more time on the tech side of things, but one final thing I will say is it's very on brand for Mitch's work. It's safe to say he's nailed the vibe totally - the opening of the album immediately evoking Daytona USA with a bit crushed vocal sample shouting out the title. Laden with almost gratuitous electric guitar, it certainly feels like it should be blasting out of some really tinny arcade speakers over an attract mode video.

One downside to these 'soundtracks' is that all the tracks are fairly short - that's kind of understandable if you're emulating menu loops I suppose but can make it tricky to post like this. Select Course is one of the ones I knew I was going to put up upon hearing it though, keeping that trademark Mitch Murder sound while channelling that overall theme excellently - I can already see the low poly previews of the tracks spinning in my mind.



Mitch also gets to dip back into the vaporwave side of things a touch as well, again fitting given the style he's emulating here. Head Office has much more in common with the intentionally Vapor-as-hell Salary Man Simulator trilogy - All of which are on Bandcamp as well: One, Two - Corporate Retreat and Three - Remote Business. Coming out sounding like a hybrid of Japanese environmental music and soft jazz hold music, it's a great mid-point lull for the album that up until now had been full on arcade spectacle.



It's not long before we get back to that though, Victory Lap bringing a fittingly triumphant sound, loaded with the same MIDI guitar as the title track. Oddly enough it doesn't sound nearly as bombastically in yer face as the opening title, you can certainly hear the older-school Mitch sound on show here - I'm thinking Hollywood Heights style, which if it wasn't clear enough by now is something he excels at.



If I had one complaint other than the length, it'd be that the tracks feel a little... 80s? Kind of hard to pin down as I never owned a Saturn - but if it's emulating Daytona USA I can kind of understand as the arcade version of that is from the early 90's, perhaps we can head canon that this is a home port of Pit Stop Hero. That complaint goes by the wayside with End Titles which moves things forward in the decades a touch. Coming out a little more like the mellower sides of the Ridge Racer OSTs at the off, and taking things in a more house-y direction by the end. It would have been a perfect capstone IMO, but there's a little 40 second track to come after this one. A fun little release, it's pay what you want over on BC so you can scoop it for free if you'd like - it comes with some neat easter egg images in the .zip file as well!



Mitch has been moving away from Synthwavy kind of stuff recently, I can understand why, as I've mentioned a few times on here it's a genre that is a little oversaturated and can sometimes be a little stale - but I can't help but smile when Mitch drops something new, he's a real master of his craft. Saying that, his non-synthwave excursions have also been pretty special too, I might have to drop one or two of them here sometime soon. But that'll about wrap it up for today, I'll be back soon enough with more but until then, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

The Power Of Memes

A shorter one this time around, a little later than I anticipated because I had a hell of a week last week, but I also made a point to not bring my IRL stuff onto the blog so much this year so I'll put a pin in it there. A real fun one this time for a post theme - I've made multiple comments over the years that it doesn't matter so much *where* you discover some music and in fact sometimes the most random sources can be the greatest treasure trove of that kind of thing. So we come to talking about the internet meme, I have tons of songs in my collection that have been memed or featured in memes over the years, so I thought I'd shine the spotlight on a few.

This is a topic I can see myself revisiting, but today's entry is going to focus on two main examples. Electronic Music and memes go waaaaay back, we're talking back to the YTMND days, from Coburn's We Interrupt This Program soundtracking the NEDM meme, to Max Coveri's Running In The 90's being many a non-Initial D fan's intro to Eurobeat on 'lol internet' to the entire Caramelldansen phenomenon, it's been a phenomenon for a long, long time - and for a lot of folks (like me), it was often the first time hearing these tracks.

So colour me surpised when around 2015 I began to see a massive uptick in memes of a song I already knew - Bag Raiders' Shooting Stars. I'd already become quite familiar with Bag Raiders through all the electro I was consuming around the time it came out, but there were just so many questions about the whole thing. Why that specific track? Why so long after it's initial 08/09 release? That's a whole other discussion that could be a post on its own, though there was a bump in popularity in their native Australia around 2013 or so. To put all that aside, Shooting Stars was already one of my favourites from the album so I was ore than happy to see 'em get more exposure. I can highly recommend the album as a whole if you like what you hear here, the whole thing has this very fun almost pop-like feel to it that really sets it apart from all the other Electro House that was making waves around the time. Think more Chromeo than Justice.

Bag Raiders · Shooting Stars

The other one comes from Vine (cor, remember Vine?) Back in the heydey of syntheave was a clip of a woman and her cat set to HOME's Resonance. I didn't really give it much thought at the time, years later I'd run into some HOME tracks through another source and think that I recognised the style - sure enough with a little reasearch I was proved right. Between that and We're Finally Landing being used as the opening theme for SummoningSalt's deep dives into Speedrunning history, there's a good chance that you may have heard HOME before without realising. Another case of me heartily recommending the album this is from if you like the sound of this one, HOME's brand of synthwave has this lovely lo-fi streak running throughout that gives it a real comfy feeling that makes it stand out in my collection.



And it's tracks like this that remind us all of the importance of including the source with anything you make because remember: your next shitpost could be the first step on someone's musical journey. Joking aside, I do my best to credit tracks wherever possible, and it seems like on the whole people are getting better at it too (and there are song identifying bots to fill in the gaps too). It's incredible the reach that a silly viral vdeo trend can give a track, I'm willing to bet more than a handful of people had Bag Raiders become one of their favourite artists off the heels of the meme - and I'm more than happy to welcome them to the world of electronic music. There's plenty of room in this tent for all of us, and a massive list of genres to peruse and find something that suits you! And of course, until next time - stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Warming Up

Rupprecht Geiger - Leuchtrot orange - leuchtrot warm (1965)

Things are warming up after a touch of really cold days - which is fitting given the first track on this list. It's one that I've been sitting on for a while and isn't part of some grander theme though, this is gonna be a return to the good old fashioned roundup of random tracks as in days past.

Starting with some Mitch Murder from one of the Selections series. I say every time Mitch comes up that his work feels very sincere in its love for the genres that so clearly inspired it - Melting Point really captures that retro anime ending theme vibe on its intro (as displayed on the cover art, doubly so going by the original cover art), which is what made it stand out to me on a recent shuffle. From then on, it's a standard Mitch Murder affair. Not to sound too reductive mind you, Mitch is one of my favourite Synthwave artists and is very, very good at what he does.



Dwelling in similar circles for the time being, a little bit of Macross 82-99. I mentioned Sailorwave III way back in some Bandcamp Friday summary but not so much since, not for a lack of things to talk about though. Macross' anime influence is a little more pronounced if the name didn't give it away already, but as I've said in the past when I've covered the other Sailorwaves, you don't need to be a fan to enjoy what's on offer here - the Sailor Moon trimmings are mainly for show. Macross' style is a blend of lotsa genres, a touch of Vaporwave, a bit of disco and a splash of House to name a few - the highlights from III for me are the slow jams like this one here, they do a fantastic job of demonstrating what Macross is all about.



Rounding out with a couple from ThorHighHeels' Positive Yellow, specifically the slightly expanded DX version that has a couple bonus tracks on it. The whole idea behind Positive Yellow is that it's one big love letter to the world of soundtracks from the fifth generation of video game consoles. Think low-poly 3D models set to techno and Drum & Bass and you're mostly there. THH does a fantastic job of embodying that sound without feeling too cliché IMO, and also shows a fair bit of variety in the genres beyond just endless breakbeat or techno. Case in point here with Final Yellow, very obviously taking some cues from the soundtracks for Silent Hill with it's hazy trip hop-esque execution, it feels like it could be the OST from a survival horror results screen.



And, just because that one is a little short, another little bonus to see us out. This one also feels like a results screen theme, but from something a little more action oriented. I'm actually specifically reminded of the Ape Escape 1 results screen soundtrack, though THH's take is a little bit more rough sounding. This track acually originally appeared on a mini EP called Moom, a soundtrack to one of their YT videos. It's inclusion on this expanded release of Positive Yellow doesn't feel too out of place though, and brings things to a nice close - even if it does betray me saying the album isn't too cliché with that "GAME OVER voice clip sample at the end.



And that'll be all for this time, a little more upbeat that usual this one feels like. I'll be back around soon enough with more, I may take a little break towards the end of December but I will definitely get a couple more things written before year's end. Hope you've enjoyed the selections today, even if they were a little brief in parts! Until next time, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Bug Testing

Hey all, another quick one to iron out some things (and also because I had some free time) - seems the ol' hype machine didn't archive the last post I did so I'm wanting to see if it was a one off or not, it has happened before but normally when I accidentally publish then un-publish a post which I didn't do last time. But enough of the boring technicals, let's have a look!

Alighiero Boetti - Bugs Bunny (1992)

Let's start with one entry I missed from my Friday scoops, a long lost Mitch Murder track that has resurfaced back on Bandcamp. Originally from 2013 from Mitch Directly and re-released on Mad Decent the year after, it is a proper vintage slice of synthwave, to the point where the Discogs page lists it as Electro/Disco as it was before the genre was really coined. Mitch's early sound here is still very much a love letter to the era, complete with fiery synth noodling solos. Perhaps a tad dated now as he's had 10 years to evolve his sound in the interim, but it's still a lovely listen, pop this one on to inject a bit of sunshine into your day.



A game I've slowly been getting worse at is pinning down where the songs playing are currently from - one of the pluses and downsides to shuffling everything is occasionally you get treated to something you'd long forgotten about. Such is the case here with the incredibly hard to google C/C compilation from Ghostlight. After spending some minutes flip flopping between it being some Flying Lotus B-side I couldn't remember or something off one of Nujabes' Hydeout compilations turns out it's one of two tracks I have from Hiroto Kudo, both from the two C/C compilations. I do remember the whole thing having this dreamy ethereal feel - usually staying in a sort of chillwave / downtempo valley with a touch of pop, but Only You is a little heavier than I recalled. Very nice though, one I might have to look into further in future.



It's been a long time since we've heard anything from the Au Revior Simone camp, every so often I'll fall back in with them and ache for more. I absolutely adored Move In Spectrums when it came out, and every so often it'll come out to play and I'll remember why all over again. This time around it's opening track More Than - it's been a while since I really sat and listened to it, the slow build is beautifully done for the album opener, I've been looping the final quarter over and over as of late, the cascade of synths and bombastic drum hits are lovely. It does seem to come to a sudden stop, but if you're listening to it in album format it's not long before you're swept into The Lead Is Galloping



And that'll about do it for now, slightly shorter than I would have liked but I had a small window to write this in (and I interested to see if it's archived as well, so less tracks makes sense). I'll be back soon enough wether it be bugged or not, it's just finding time to do it these days! Until then, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

Down The Road Again

A real retro roundup this time, I was thinking of things I've been listening to recently and wound up landing on another sorta Synthwave selection. I've mentioned in the past how I don't dive into that world much anymore as there was a time when anything vaguely synthwave was a dime a dozen - but after going back to some old Kavinsky records a little while ago, I'd be lying if I said I didn't quite like it a bit. So today I've rounded up some of my other recent favourites both new and old, let's have a look.

Peter Alexander - Ceanothus (2001)

Starting with the new (or new-ish) with a bit of the soundtrack to Road 96, which first came on my radar due to folks talking about the soundtrack. I was sort of surprised to see The Toxic Avenger on there, I hadn't heard that name since the remix heyday of the electro house era. And actually you can hear that influence on Home Call, it shares much more in common with Kavinsky's brand of Electro than it does your average Synthwave, which for me does wonders when it comes to evoking that nostalgia that Road 96 is going for. That intro is divine.



Hitting up Mitch Murder next, I've always described his take on the whole retro electronic sound as very honest, and that's very true for his early releases. The After Hours EP from 2009 was actually Mitch's first, the version on his Bandcamp is quote "slightly remastered" and with redone cover art that is more in line with Mitch's now established look. I've posted bits and pieces from it before but honestly every track on here is very well done - I've gone with Bertone's Theme this time around, a much poppier take on the sound than you might be used to. In keeping with that retro theme, it almost sounds like a DMX Krew track at times with that funky undercurrent. I gotta echo what one of the reviews says on the Bandcamp page, even from this early release you can tell the man has an ear for this kind of thing. And as I say so often on this page, if you like this, you would do well to check out all of MM's output - a lot of his early releases are Pay What You Want so you can scoop them for free if you'd like.



And finally, I can't talk early synthwave without bringing up Perturbator - perhaps one of the biggest names attached to the genre. It's not hard to see why, the covers for these early albums and EPs lean hard into the 80's sleaze and cheese: dripping with images recalling the satanic panic, slasher flicks, sci-fi and sofcore porn. I put the albums back into rotation after a long absence, they're still excellent examples of the genre for sure (my favourite still being The Uncanny Valley) and I've found myself liking the slow jams on them more and more this time around. Last Kiss being one such example, following a very cinematic structure, it takes its time building an atmosphere before lavishly laying on the synths come the 2 minute mark. A complete 180 to the previous track Complete Domination featuring another synthwave heavyweight Carpenter Brut - that one is all about instant intensity whereas Last Kiss is a much more of a mood piece. Maybe it's my soundtrack side taking over, but these bits have been the definite highlights of my revisit.



And that'll be all for today, I hope you've enjoyed this very brief dip into the world of retro electro, there's a whole lot more out there to get stuck into but I think I did a decent job of showing some variety here, especially if you've not encountered any of these artists before. I'll be back soon enough. with more but until next time, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Bits 'n Pieces of the past

As the Final Friday™ approaches, I've been looking over my 'collection' tab on BC - I'm going to try and make this last one quite a big one (and also non-electronic in parts potentially as well) so I thought a 'things I am looking at' post would be either too long or not super relevant. Instead we're taking another dive into the archives for a cross section of songs of yore, let's take a look-see.

Takashi Murakami - Mr. DOB All Stars (Oh My The Mr. DOB) (1998)

Something short to start off with, it's been a hot minute since I talked about ThorHighHeels - I picked up Positive Yellow off the heels of the great soundtrack work they did for Umurangi Generation. Some of the tracks from Positive Yellow actually appear in that OST as is, so I had a feeling of what to expect going in. In short, this whole release is one big love letter to 90's videogame OSTs (which will come as no surprise if you've seen any of Thor's YouTube content) - it'd be very easy to make kind of twee or overly pandering, but I think it does a great job of being 'inspired by' rather than just retreading. I've gone with a super short bonus track of the 'DX' version of it to illustrate - just under a minute long but it will sum up the whole experience in that time, though the 'GAME OVER' sample at the end is a li'l cliché, even if it is the actual end of the album.



Warp coming to bandcamp has been great, they were pioneers of the digital space back in the early days with Bleep so I was surprised that it took them this long, but then again they have enough capital to run their own service well enough anyway. Regardless, another reason I've come to love it is that it makes talking about their releases new and old much easier than using the naff Spotify previews like I was doing before. But enough tech - Welcome To Your Life is a tune I've mentioned a few times over the years, dating back to my first year of University I think. It's one of those that I'll forget about for a while but have a nice moment when it crops back up. And what an entrance it makes - that bass is so thick you can almost feel it in the air. Mount Sims features on the vocal front, his solo records are good listens if you are a fan of Electroclash stuff, Welcome To Your Life shares a little bit of sound DNA now I think about it. His voice works really well on tracks like this, shame we haven't heard anything in a while from his camp.



I feel like I didn't talk about Then Again too much - what was then the latest Mitch Murder LP. I've got a lot of love for Mitch's work, every time I think I'm done with retro-inspired synth stuff he comes along with something to pull me back in. Last time I mentioned this album I think it was focussing on the Vangelis-esque Frost, we're sticking with the slower side of things once again this time with the final track Someplace Else. An almost contender for the mixtape of Cosy Tracks that I made, it's chock full of synth power chords and the like. There are times where I think Mitch gets a little close to your stereotypical archetypal 'synthwave' vibe, and this is one of those times - but even so I can't help but get into the groove of this one. A fantastic album closer as well, very cinematic in its execution.



I think that'll do for now, I'm going try and swing by with a couple more before the Final Friday, but I'll try my best to make it a bumper edition when the final roundup does come. In the meantime, I hope you've found something to enjoy here and until next time, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Belated Bandcamps

Running a little behind schedule with this 'un - had a packed weekend for a change and just didn't get around to it is all! I am back with my promised Bandcamp scoops, big haul this time but a lot of it I've already talked about in the run up - Mehdi's MPC 2021 and Soichi Terada's Asakusa Light leading the charge. Still, among them there are a few fine EPs and other miscellany that are worth mentioning, let's have a see.

J. E. H. MacDonald - Lake McArthur, Yoho Park (1924)

First up, one of many EPs that got added to my list when I went on a big electro kick a while back. I try and pick up one every now and then just for variety. No Moon came recommended to me after picking up a Jensen Interceptor tune from the Craigie Knowes label, after hearing the excellently titled Exoplanet Vibe Cult I promptly stuck it on my wishlist (which would then expand several sizes and get a bit lost in the chaos). I'm always on the market for more Spacey stuff, and the title track from Infinite Dreamz instantly came into orbit in that zone as soon as I hit play. Extremely lush to begin with but don't let that fool you - it's not long before it gets counterpointed with some deliciously retro handclaps, and before long you find yourself in the final half or so with some surprisingly heavy kicks for garnish. If your taste is at all similar to mine the whole EP is worth a look, it's only 3 tracks but each one is a solid entry.



Somethin' a little more ambient next, it's been a while since I picked up any, and I had wishlisted some stuff from Hinako Omori a little while back when I was looking up artists from R&S's limited release In Order To Care compilation. Voyage is a lovely synth-drenched ambient EP. Recalling early Betrayed In The Octagon-era Oneohtrix Point Never, only it's not a Juno on show this time. I've got a deep love for ambient music anyway but that goes double for heavily synthesised pieces like Voyage - the synthetic otherworldly feel was what drew me into electronic music in the first place after all. The two tracks are lovely, delicate pieces: Teleport is the shorter of the two by quite a ways, but still uses its length to explore some interesting sounds: some distant vocals twin effortlessly with the synth swoops and other flourishes. Voyage> remains my favourite of them both though, it too has lots of little intricacies that make it perfect for repeat visits - I could live in its sonic ocean forever.



I also picked up HOME's Odyssey, an album you might know of from the track Resonance Meeting at the intersection of Vaporwave, Chillwave and Synthwave, it's a record that carries with it quite the reputation, almost a relic of those albums from the 90's that you've heard without knowing you've heard it, like Moby's Play for example. That's partially why I held off on actually getting it for so long if I'm honest - I took a break from those genres ages ago while the dust settled. It is true that HOME has a formula here that every track can pretty much be broken down into, but I'd be lying if I said the end result wasn't catchy, and for a minimum price of $2 it's a bit of a steal. I've gone with a deeper cut than the usual ones you might hear when the album's discussed, one of the bonus tracks included in this re-release. A previously unreleased demo, you can certainly hear the influence of other synthwave releases here on Soak in particular - it sounds a little like the tunes Jasper Byrne was making for Hotline Miami, albeit with a softer edge.



And finally some Tofubeats. I've had bits and pieces from him from various compilations over the years but never really followed up on them, before ending up on my BC wishlist from one of the many deep dives I did however long ago. TB's Bandcamp is an odd one, it looks like there's a lot there, but you'll find that most of the 'releases' are just placeholders and can't actually be bought - some of them look like they were for sale in the past and now aren't as well, among other mysteries. Still, scattered among them are some that you can still pick up, and for fairly cheap too given the exhange rate for Yen. Touch is one of a few that I found and added to the cart this time around, and one I think shows off TB's production side very well indeed. I've picked out Touch E for just that reason as well, it's an instrumental edit of Touch A that appears both on this EP and on TB's album Lost Decade. Tofubeat's style is an interesting fusion of J-Pop and Hip Hop, one that could be potentially alienating at times - for example on Touch A the beats are paired with this hyper pitched up vocal which I can go wither way with depending on the day. So I've gone ahead and chosen Touch E, which is an instrumental version of A to really give TB's production time to shine - and it really does shine on this one.



And that'll be all for this time, apologies for the slight delay on the roundup, I got a little sidetracked. Through the thick of it now though, so there shouldn't be any hassle in the near future. Hope you've found some things in here to interest you, even if it was a little eclectic! A bit of a return to form actually when you put it that way. The wishlist is always growing so be sure to tune in again next month for another cross section of tunes, until then - as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Same Name Game

Claudio Bravo - Coke Love (1971)

Following through on an idea I had years ago and could have sworn I'd already done a few times - wherin I post duets of tunes that have the same titles. Naturally, the ammo you have for this sort of post only increases with time, and amongst my thousands of tracks there was bound to be some crossover. The real challenge comes from finding ones that are readily available to stream from BC though, I've managed to get all of them on there this time though.

Let's start off with a little bit of a easy one - two Berlins from Moderat and Modeselektor respectively. Of course, Moderat is made up of Modeselektor and Apparat so perhaps cheating a bit, but interesting to see the two different takes from each. We'll start with Moderat's Berlin as it was the first of the two to be released - a surprisingly sedate number from the otherwise minimal and glitchy tones of tracks before and after it. Now of course you all know I am a complete sucker for any and all ambient interludes and this one is no different, it's a gorgeous little breakwater that ushers in the final quarter of the album. Apparat's influence is very clear to hear on this one, especially in the final ten seconds or so, which use almost exactly the same tone of synth as on Over And Over from Apparat's Walls some years prior.



A stark contrast to Modeselektor's Berlin - a bombastic slice of electro house from that era that wastes no time in getting going. The album it's from, Monkeytown, is probably my favourite of the bunch that the 'Selektor boys have put out - but I'm more than willing to admit that a big part of that is a sort of nostalgia for the time when it came out, it was an incredible year for this brand of high energy releases: Teenage Bad Girl's Backwash, Rustie's Glass Swords among others leading the charge. Looking over the track list now, I'm hard pressed to pick out any weak points, the whole album is pretty tightly produced - don't be dissuaded by the amount of 'Featuring' credits on it, each one is finely selected and runs the full gamut from Thom Yorke to Busdriver. Perhaps a little short at 11 tracks but that's nothing when they're all so good. Berlin is one of the high points though for all the reasons I mentioned above, I just love the sound that Modeselektor had around this time, and this one (and really the whole album) are absolutely coated in it.



The theme of contrasts continues with the next two - partially inspired by my last post where I revisited Graeme Norgate's OST work. We'll flip the format this time and hit up the uptempo one first with the opening track from Perturbator's The Uncanny Valley. Perturbator's brand of synthwave is one of my favourites, I was aware of them in passing but like so many others out there I only really took a closer look after the Hotline Miami soundtrack introduced me in full, and what a perfect fit Peturbator's sound is, perfectly at home in the slightly psychedelic ultra-violent world of Hotline Miami. The Uncanny Valley continues that trend, much more cinematic feeling than previous releases, but that's to be expected if you read into the background lore of the album: all about a technological cult in the year 2112. With Neo Tokyo as the opening track it'd be easy to assume this is all full power synthwave for the full runtime but there are some real nice downtempo bits nestled in there too - my favourite of which being Femme Fatale. Tune in and log on, get a load of this.



And finally, another bit from Norgate. His NeoTokyo is a very different beast to Perturbator's and takes more than a few cues from Blade Runner (which to be fair, the level itself did as well if the '2019' date on it didn't make it clear enough). The past few times I've talked up Norgate's work it's been upbeat ones but the man certainly knows how to set an atmosphere - tracks like this and the Siberia theme do a fantastic job of setting the tone for the levels in question. Again quite cinematic actually, not bad for the soundtrack to what is on paper an arcade FPS. Having said that it does suffer a little from being a mite cliché at times with the stock samples used to create that kind of generic 'eastern' feel, but in my case the nostalgia overpowers that. Still, even so I think it has a charm to it, the non-sample contributions are as good as ever, though for the complete effect you'll need to play some ambient rain sounds in the background to match how it is in the game!



And that will be all for this time around, I have another couple lined up but they probably won't use the Bandcamp players so I've put them to one side for a potential sequel along with any others that I might come across in the meantime. This one took a little longer than I expected but that's purely down to me meandering a bit, I wanted to finish it up last night but it was one of those Murphy's Law kind of nights you know? Anyway, you don't come to the blog to hear me vent so I'll call it here. Hope all of you folks in the USA have a good Thanksgiving weekend and as always - stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Bite-sized Bits 07

Bernd Luz - Dakar 86 (2015)

Proper flashback for this entry. I still have a lot of love for that golden eras of Electro House of the late 2000s, one that is definitely tinged by nostalgia - after all, that's the time I started seriously writing on here. But for all the love I have for it, there are for sure a couple of tracks I used to be mad about that have lost a bit of their lustre over the years since.

I mention all that to lead into this, I had a Kavinsky tune come on the other day and man, is it as good as ever. OutRun might have been a mixed bag of an album, but I can't argue that the singles from it were all proper belters. It's odd that he just dropped off the map afterwards and hasn't really done anything since, especially considering the massive explosion in Synthwave stuff around that time, Kavinsky was a real trailblazer in that area after all. For my money though, the earlier Kavinsky EPs are still fantastic to this day - at the risk of sounding like a teenager again the SebastiAn remix of Testarossa Autodrive is a straight banger (as is the original, which would even go on to make an appearance on OutRun as well).

Kavinsky's first EP from 2006 Teddy Boy is home to both of them, along with some other oddities like an Arpanet remix of Nightdrive and a chopped up Mr. Oizo remix of Autodrive, but then again this was just before the massive electro house explosion of '07 so a little weirdness is to be expected. I've gone with the original Nightdrive this time - partly because I love an underdog and feel like it gets overlooked but also because it's a damn fine demonstration of how locked in to his style he was from the get-go. Coming back to it, its still a great debut and worth checking out - especially if this is your first hearing of Kavinsky due to his release drought.



-CVF

Bite-sized Bits 02

Roy Lichtenstein - The Den (1990)

For volume 2 we're revisiting Mitch Murder, one of the few artists I still keep up with in the Synthwave scene, partly due to Bandcmap reminding me whenever he releases something new, which is fairly often actually. If all the artists operting in that sphere, I find Mitch's productions to be more honest than most - there's always going to be some just in it for the look, as is always the case with genres where the visuals are a strong component. It's easy to overdose on the sound as well, but I also think Mitch does a fantastic job of keeping things varied - take 'Frost' - a Vangelis-esque ambient piece from his latest album Then Again for example.

Today we're going back to his first ever EP, After Hours, or rather, the updated version of it. While I'm usually not a big fan of rereleasing albums with 'new' artwork or other changes that run the risk of George Lucas-ing the whole affair, I must admit it was probably the right choice here. Compared to the original art from 2009, the re-release of After Hours is not only more aesthetically cohesive (if a little cliché), but having the tracks avaialable in lossless or high quality MP3 is a bonus too, as the original release was only 192.

Sporting a funkier feel reminiscent of some DMX Krew cuts and some kickin' rad 808, one of the tracks I always come back to from this EP is Coup De Théâtre, one that has aged quite gracefully all things considered - though perhaps that is because it's from before 'Synthwave' as a whole got established, so it neatly skirts all those potential pitfalls that could make it stale: Discogs lists it as a combo of Synth-pop, Electro and Disco. There are a couple tracks that are in hindsight a little generic such as Square City but overall it's a pretty stellar debut and something I'd recommned even if Synthwave isn't your bag, it's more of a general love letter to retro electronic as a whole.



Unril tomorrow, as always - stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

One o' them days

Remember back in May where I did a real super short post as a change of pace? I thought it might be a more common feature than it actually turned out to be - it was this one right here, the one with the bit of a soapboxy rant that in hindsight was a bit out of leftfield and potentially ill-advised? Yeah, that one! Well, today I'm feeling that kind of vibe again, though a lot less wordy this time. In summary: people are shit.

Dora Maar - Double Portrait (1930)

I actually put togetehr this tracklist before getting the link to the old one, only to find I'd picked stuff from pretty much the same albums as last time for you fans of serendipty out there. They're a bit more consistnet this time, there's no left turn into techno town at the very end, though we do get a bit IDM with a touch of melodic grit from Clark's Totem's Flare instead. It would have been last in the list but I moved the Perturator album down one as it has the uncensored cover on the Bandcamp page and I thought I'd give you a heads up before you scrolled into it (though I guess it might already be on your screen depending on how big it is) - might be alright becuase it's thumbnail sized but you may want to save this one for when you're on a network that's not monitored by your school/employer or whatever!









And finally as always - stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Plus One More

That time of year again where synchronicity shines through and by happy coincidence both myself and the blog tally getting one more year older on the calendar on the same day. I hope I don't sound especially sentimental when I say that this blog has been a massive part of my life - I think I'm coming up on 10 years of writing this year? It's pretty wild to think about. But that's part of the appeal to me, sure I might wince a bit at my teenage writings - but what I have here is a written log of my electronic music journey, one that's going to continue for many more years to come.

Sir Terry Frost - Umea, Sweden (1979)

We've both come a long way since the days of bloghouse where I got my start. Genres have come and gone in the years since, but I like to think I've been pretty consistent. Though we are going to take a break from my usual format this time and do what I normally do around the blog's birthday (and some seasonal holidays) a good old fashioned track dump like it's 2010. Basically I'm just gonna be throwing down a whole bunch of tracks from across the genre spectrum - some classics that I've had for longer than I've been writing here to new(ish) stuff and everything in-between. Thanks for reading, and here's to many more of these to come.

Kicking off with a bit of synthwave from Carpenter Brut. Brut's stuff has a lot in common with the electro house of old in terms of sound, his brand of synthwave (at least in this Trilogy era) is free of the more super cliché bits that can be pitfalls of the genre - Brut's slasher film aesthetic is a nice change of pace from the usual pink grids, pastel sunsets and cocaine white Countaches that come with the territory. I'm not as into the scene as I was back when this was new circa 2015 so take that comment with a grain of salt and all. The entire Trilogy compilation is a fantastic crash course into the world of Brut, gathering up his first three EPs into one tight package that I would say is near essential if you're at all into the genre.

While I do love his more abrasive work on tracks like Turbo Killer and the first of his I ever heard, the brutal sounding Roller Mobster - I've gone with a different pick this time. Looking For Tracy Tzu has much more of a cinematic feel than those two (not entirely unexpected though, given Brut's obvious horror flick influences), but even so still finely demonstrates Brut's mastery of his own style, one of my favourites and just a fantastic track from a fantastic compilation.



A find from my eary bandcamp days (and one that's been on my wishlist for a shamefully long time as well), when I started to broaden my horizons a little bit in the vast and infinite world of bandcamp. One of many tracks that have made me eat crow and walk back my "minimal isn't really my bag" statement (one that's still kind of true) - Antigone & François X's We Move As One. The title track is a woozy sea of arpeggios, and my choice for this post Journey Home follows that same methodology but with a thudding 4/4 instead of the hazy ambience of the former. A colossal 7 minute number, it's utterly hypnotic in its execution, effortlessly building to peaks and crashing down into valleys - another one of those tracks that again make me fall in love with electronic music all over again with it's atmosphere. A stellar piece that makes me all wistful for the dancefloor.



Onto one of the older ones here, Misstress Barbara's Never Could Have Your Heart. This one came into my life when I was beginning to branch back out into the world of electronic music, back then I was only really listening to stuff that I'd picked up from when more electronic stuff would bleed onto the radio - your Daft Punk and friends kinda deal. I don't know the exact year I found this one but it can't be later than the early 00's, it was one of those magical moments where it solidified why I liked electronic music - I instantly could tell that I loved this sound and wanted more of it. I dig it out from time to time, and the love I have for it is still strong - that melody is so, so good and it was so much heavier than the more disco-influenced house I was familiar with at the time. And it all came full circle eventually, as I learned that the melody that I liked so much from this one is actually sampled or otherwise taken from Move's D's In/Out (Initial Mix) (around 2:20 if you want to skip straight to it) which is also another great record.



What is there to say about Nightmares on Wax that I haven't already said over the years? A hometown hero of mine, generally nice bloke and provider of solid downtempo stuff for well over 20 years at this point. I've picked one from Smokers Delight again, one of the trio of albums that I have signed by the man himself and a quite easy and comfortable entry on my 10 top 10s list. An early highlight, Pipes Honour remains one of my first go-to tracks from the album, from the get go it establishes itself as one of the heralds of what the albums all about - if the title of it and the artwork didn't give enough indication already. Together they make for one damn near essential piece of downtempo history, whether you partake of the titular smoking or not - if you are at all into anything downtempo I can highly recommend both this and the follow up album Carboot Soul for your collection. Another one with a deceptively thick bassline, run this one through your sub for a quick and easy way to dust your shelves!



Closing out this section with another easy entry on my 10 10s list, The Knife's Silent Shout. Another exercise in aesthetic perfection, the complete polar opposite of the bubblegum electropop of Deep Cuts, Silent Shout is a much moodier affair - loaded with cool electronics and a melancholy tinge to the lyrics and delivery. Silent Shout draws from a much wider sound pool than Deep Cuts, there are fragments of all kinds of genres on here from Trance to Ambient - but as seen through the lens of The Knife.

Silent Shout also sees Karin & Olof refine their work on the vocal front, on the previous two albums there were a few tracks that played around with Karin's voice, pitch shifting it around in order to play different roles - it's a technique that worked really well (and would continue to do so on Karin's solo project Fever Ray) but here it's refined even more, and the duo lock in to a sound that not only compliments the sound and atmosphere of the album, but lends weight to the lyrical content and themes as well. There is no better demo of what I've just mentioned than the title track itself: they synths are just fantastic, and the sound of Karin dueting with her simultaneously pitched-down and pitched-up selves is a strong contender for my favourite vocal treatment of all time. It's transitioned into track 2 of the album as I type this and I cannot overstate how much I love this album, the opening combo of the first four tracks is just flawless and an incredible experience. The Knife came to me at a weird time in my life but I'm ever so glas to have found them.



Rounding out with two more entires to bring things full circle. Warp has been a major staple of my listening history over the years and as a result a big part of my history with the blog as well - I spent an entire year writing album reviews of classic Warp albums not long after I first started after all. I've not been the best at keeping up with what's new from them as I used to just because I'm a heck of a lot busier these days than when I was a teen, but I've made the effort to rectify that recently and I have not been disappointed.

Squarepusher's latest EP Lamental was an early hightlight of me getting back on the Warp train, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect going in though, as anyone with a passing knowledge of Squarepusher's work can tell you he can swing wildly in sound from one release to the next. Still, I had heard Midi Sans Frontieres a while back when he was giving out the stems for it, so I checked it out based on the strength of that. It's a very solid EP and serves as a whirlwind tour of Squarepusher's many sounds over the years - opening with The Paris Track, evocative of his older Drum & Bass style works a la A Journey To Reedham from the Big Loada EP but twinned with those new squelchy synths he's so fond of. A downright beautiful ambient piece in Detroit People Mover, which I appreciate a whole lot as the rare times he does take on the genre it is always beautiful - see Tommib for proof of that. A solo guitar piece rounds out the retrospective tour, Les Mains Dansent could easily have been one of the handful of classical guitar bits featured on Ultravisitor, it's most similar to the closing track Every Day I Love in my opinion.

I'm not going to lie, the sort of look back over his discography has tinted my opinion of this EP quite a bit as it made me all nostalgic for those days when I was exploring all that Warp had to offer (and loving it!). I've chosen Midi Sans Frontieres (Avec Batterie) this time, it and it's ambient-style cousin (just called Midi Sans Frontieres) close out the tracklist and I adore them both. This version with the beat recalls bits of Ultravisitor again, the jazzy nature reminding me of Iambic 9 Poetry. It's far from his 'Drill & Bass' of old, but I really like the sound of this EP and am interested to hear where Squarepusher goes next.



I did the same with another of my Warp favourites - Daniel Lopatin's long time ambient / avant garde project Oneohtrix Point Never. I first found OPN via the Rifts compilation released in 2009, a gathering of his first few albums into one huge set. I actually bought my copy through Bleep, Warp's official distributor that used to deal only in digital music but merged with the physical store Warpmart a while ago now. I distinctly remember thinking at the time that OPN would make a great addition to Warp's roster, a feeling that only got stronger as I dove into his previous works and the Rifts comp started making waves. It wasn't long before that actually happened, and since then Lopatin has gone from strength to strength - even branching out into film soundtracks in recent years. OPN's work can be experimental to a fault at times, though I think both the Rifts compilation and R Plus Seven are fairly accessible if you want to get into his overall sound (and personally I think R Plus Seven is some of his finest work).

But we're getting away from the point, I haven't really checking in to a full release from Lopatin since around the release of R Plus Seven which is coming up on nearly 10 years old at this point. I think I did check out his two follow up albums in passing when they came out but like so many other records I intend to look into ended up on the back burner - so this time I did the same strategy as I did with Squarepusher and dove right into the latest EP of his, Nothing's Special. It's not a long one at just two tracks, one of which is just the album version of the track so I thought it'd be an easy entry.

It is just fantastic. I was rapt from the opening alone but that only continued as the track went on, I'm totally in love with it. e OPN has played with vocals previously in the past - normally heavily distorted as on the original version of Returnal or the cut up samples of the Replica album - though his work for the Good Time soundtrack featured an almost spoken work collaboration with Iggy Pop in The Pure And The Damned that sort of leads directly into this one. Damned is fantastic in its own right, the small bits of that iconic Juno sound from OPN's early work never fails to make me smile.

But as I mentioned, Nothing Special feels like a refinement of that. The original has more in common with Returnal as mentioned above, albeit not as distorted - this time the vocals getting a melodic auto-tune-esque treatment and some great subtle and not-so-subtle glitch artifacts that sound amazing too. For me though, the real highlight is the new version for this EP, a collaboration with Rosalía taking over the vocals. Of the two, I think this one is easily my favourite (Shocking, I know given my bias towards treated vocals), there's nothing wrong with the original but Rosalía makes the whole thing feel so much more passionate. OPN's subtle and delicate treatment of her voice is nothing short of brilliant as well, rather than swimming in autotune as the original was, here it's more selectively applied along with the subtle glitch artifacts as well, the whole thing comes across like a merging of humanity with technology which I just love, I've been unable to stop coming back to this one over the past week or so.



Perhaps not a track dump in the traditional sense, but more than I normally put up and of a much wider variety as well. Plus, I let myself write more than usual this time too, so apologies for the big gap between the last post and this one. As I close out this post I just want to drop a quick thank you to all that read - whether you're fairly new or a long time veteran, your interest is greatly appreciated! I love being able to write out my thoughts like this on all kinds of electronic music, the blog has been a major rock for me over the years and now more than ever have I needed it, and my music collection as a whole. Likewise, I hope that it's provided some consistency and levity in your own lives as well. Not to get too overbearingly sentimental or really parasocial on you or nothing though!

Once again, here's to many more years of these to come. I'll be back around soon enough as usual with more tales and tunes but until then - as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

The Summer of Soundtracks

It's no secret especially recently that I have a boatload of soundtracks in my collection. There was a time when I was a little shy about it, you know the memes out there about people who only listen to soundtracks and all that, but a while ago I decided to embrace it and just enjoy what I enjoy (see also: my unabashed love for Trance and Eurobeat). But even besides that, I feel like there is a ton of value to be had in them, I've discovered tons of artists from OSTs that I otherwise wouldn't have - and much like how I feel about compilations they're a great way to inject a load of variety into your listening real quickly.

Jimmy Ernst - Night Subway (1948)
So that's the crux of today's post really, just a bunch of cuts from soundtracks for things I'm into recently. We start with Heaven Will Be Mine, a VN that grabbed my attention with it's blurb on the store: 'HEAVEN WILL BE MINE is a visual novel about making terrible life decisions in the midst of a hot-blooded battle between giant robots. Select one of three terribly behaved girls to fight and/or make out with each other in their struggle for the fate of space.' Which certainly makes an impression if nothing else. I've posted my favourite from the OST before here (Terrafomer), but there's plenty of other tracks that stand out here - lots of claustrophobic beats and menacing basslines that will rattle your teeth, to lift a quote from the bandcamp page 'Like being vaporized in a solid beam of light. Like weeping out a blastwave.'.

It's a far cry from the synthwave noodling I had in mind when looking over the art design for both the VN and the OST cover (though there is one that comes close to your more conventional synthwave tune in the final track Joyride), effortlessly flitting between aggression and contemplative ambient with lots of little touches along the way that make it not an all-out aural assault - the way the pounding beat of Electrotoxin (No Mercy) relents, then stutters and stumbles in the breakdown at around 2:10 before slipping back into the groove for one. I've chosen Oxygen Ocean this time as I feel like it strikes a nice balance between the two, not too intense but still carrying that darker sound that defines the rest of the OST - and reminds me a whole bunch of the delicate techy minimal that Monolake employed on Cinemascope.



Going a bit 180 next with a bit from 2064: Read Only Memories. The OST isn't quite what you'd expect from the little plot brief given about it: 'A cyberpunk thriller that explores the social challenges of tomorrow through classic adventure gaming. A journalist-turned-detective teams up with Turing, the world’s first sapient machine, to unmask a conspiracy that will shake the foundations of Neo-San Francisco'. On paper I would maybe expect something like the OST for Snatcher, which as some folks have pointed out in recent years is pretty close to Synthwave in part - no doubt helped by the MSX sound chip. And while the OST for 2064 does take a fair bit of inspiration from soundtracks like that, it's a whole lot lighter than you'd maybe expect, think the more laid back tracks of Mitch Murder and you're most of the way there. It's a little at odds with the actual content of the game at times as it gets pretty serious, but I can't deny that it works brilliantly with the visuals. 2Mello is a real flexible composer and you can very easily enjoy tracks like this completely separate from the content, which is something I always really enjoy in the soundtrack world.



Rounding things out with something even more mellow: else Heart.Break(), with it's beautifully succinct summary: 'A game about friendship, love and technology in a place where bits have replaced atoms.'. It's a pretty techy piece actually, what that description doesn't tell you is that it's a programming puzzle game which makes it extra unique too. It has an incredible look courtesy of art by Niklas Åkerblad, who also does plenty o the soundtrack under his El Huervo alias as well. A frantic mix of Chiptune, downtempo and general chill vibes, if you liked the few El Huervo tracks on the Hotline Miami OSTs you're in for a real treat here - some of them even show up on this OST too, either as-is or alternate mixes.

Not a lot of these tunes are made for the soundtrack (The one I've chosen for example is from the album World's End which came out around the time of the Game) but I don't think that's too much of a negative, if anything it really lends itself to the game's overall feel and makes the whole thing sound more like a mixtape a friend made for you rather than a traditional 'soundtrack'. That's an idea I'm really into and have even experimented with a little in running some tabletop stuff and some pie in the sky ideas I had/have about a Visual Novel of my own. No pun intended, this one was a real breath of fresh air, as much as I love El Huervo's signature lo-fi hip hop twinned with chiptuney synths (a style that gets more than it's fair share of the spotlight on this OST), Air is a beautiful contrast. The lo-fi is still there, but the build up with that sparse piano is lovely, before building to an almost vaprowave style drop at around 1:50 or so but it doesn't stay around for long before the tempo is brought down again.



And that'll be all this time. I could do a whole bunch of these if only more OSTs I really like were on Bandcamp, but I'm happy with these selections today, and I hope that you are too! I'll be back soon enough with another selection of something but in the meantime: as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Red Skies

Abbott Handerson Thayer - The Sky Simulated by Red Flamingoes (1909)

Back again with what I hope will be another one of those shorter posts I talked about last time. Kicking off with my latest escapist experience, Umurangi Generation, and its decidedly on-point soundtrack. The setting is a slightly cyberpunk New Zealand, and you're there to take pictures and have a chill time mainly. The soundtrack is on paper at odds with the chill aesthetic, it runs the full gamut from near dubstep and future bass to more conventional House and a whole heap of UK Garage influence too, but it works ever so well in practice. Speaking of variety, it helps that the OST is massive, the DLC soundtrack that this is from is 51 tracks, and the main game has an extra 81 on top of that - granted a lot of them are super short but still. I've yet to hear a dud from ThorHighHeels, and even if I did there's so much to get at on this album that I don't think it'd be a big deal even if.



Speaking of aesthetics, we're revisiting Mitch Murder again now. Out of all the 'Retrowave' (and it's million other umbrella terms) artists, Mitch's works always felt the most... honest, for lack of a better term. Mitch's work certainly takes a whole heap of inspiration from actual 80's music, but unlike some other artists of the synthwave persuasion, I think a lot of his work is more of a love letter to the style of old rather than just aping the overall sound and vibe. Take Frost from his latest release Then Again - it has massive echoes of Vangelis' score for Blade Runner, which I know is an incredibly cliché comparison to make but those brassy synths are almost absolutely intended to be taken that way. It's been a while since I heard Mitch tackle something so downbeat as this and I'm really digging it, it's at the top of my list to check out and scoop up come next BC Friday.



Another one from my list to round out - L'usine (or just Lusine as they go by now). I very briefly dipped my toe into their work when I was on my ambient streak a little while ago, but as is so often the case I ended up finding out they have a ton of releases under their belt, the early stuff falling under the IDM label to boot. I did a little bit of exploring, and is so often the case with me I checked a couple out based on the cover art alone, which is how I found The Waiting Room. Made the mistake of reading the reviews on discogs but they weren't useful, just full of folks lamenting that it was a house record and not like their older works, I was undeterred though and thought I should at least sample the first track.

I haven't really had time to sit down with the album properly yet, but Panoramic is nice enough, a real driving song that worked real well during my WFH periods - it actually reminds me a lot of Röyksopp in a way, I think it has some of the same structure that was on The Understanding's bonus tracks that are like the refined results of a bunch of jam sessions. It's on the ever-growing list either way, so you may be hearing more of this in the future, if not this album then certainly L'usine's other works.



Right, I think that went pretty well. A *little* bit shorter than usual but not by much I will admit. Still, my thoughts remain the same, I plan to do more of these quick-fire posts in the coming future, too many times recently I've ended up writing across multiple days which I think sometimes makes my writing a bit scatterbrained (more so than usual at least!), not to mention the extra time taken too. Anyway, that's neither here nor there, hope you enjoy these selections - I'll be back as usual with more soon enough.

And as always - Stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Short Sharp Shot

A break from tradition today as there won't be so many words as usual. I'm just feeling a little tired, I think the twee nothing statements about how valued we are and mental health 'awareness' is finally getting to me a little - I know for a fact that the sheer prevalence of this mask off selfishness, the 'fuck you, got mine' mentality has me absolutely disgusted.

Or as one internet user perfectly summarised it:

Trying not to sound like your average 'hurr faith in humanity lost' edgelord there, but it does always bother me that out in the media everyone has to be all smiling faces all the time - you are allowed to have other emotions! The talking heads come on asking why there's a rising mental health problem among young folk and yet also never show a single hint of anything other than an obviously fake saccharine attitude.

It's ok to admit that things aren't all that great, to do otherwise is at best insincere and at worst simply unhinged. I'm gonna stop here because I am aware it's already getting a bit preachy but I just had to get something down. Feel free to skip over all this and just get to the tracks below.









And as always, stay safe and enjoy the music

-CVF

Retro Active

I have climbed out of the ambient / field recording hole for the time being - I could write about some of it in future but it's one of those things that it's a bit tricky to get streams of legit (especially for Wendy Carlos' work for some reason.) But we're back in electronic territory for the time being. And in another return to form I've picked out some tunes that were served up back to back courtesy of the chaos theory of the shuffle algorithm that are nicely sonically linked.

Jeffery Smart - Study for Bondi Penthouse (2002)

The order of the day is a slight retro vibe, some stronger than others. Another cut from DMX Krew's Nu Romantix leads this time - those who've seen me post about DMX before might have an idea of what to expect going in: deliberately emulating the aesthetics of the 80s for better or worse. This usually manifests in some dangerously cheesy lyrics and some delicious synth backing with a bit of vintage breakin' influence (especially on his early work), Nu Romantix has it's fair share of that too, but there's more variety on there than just that generalisation. Take the final track, a remix of I'm All Alone by Cylob, label mate on Rephlex at the time - you'd maybe expect it to be a little more IDM in style given Cylob's other works but here it's kept in line with the overall feel of the rest of the album. It wastes no time on things like intros and gets straight down to business, there's some absolutely gorgeous melodic synth work on show throughout, culminating in an incredible duet in the latter half.



Returning to the VA-11 HALL-A soundtrack once again now, most times I talk about the OST albums for it I mainly focus on the more atmospheric tracks. There's no shortage of them across the two main OST albums and I do love them a whole lot: I say it every time it comes up but they are pretty much aesthetic perfection when it comes to twinning with the art direction of VA-11 HALL-A, they're not quite full on synthwave but certainly carry that sensibility with them.

This time we're not talking about the chill vibes to make cocktails to that have made up the previous posts, tucked away on the Second Round album among other little nuggets of gold like the fictional OS startup sounds is All Systems, Go!. Much like Simon Viklund's Hot Pursuit from a little while ago, it's a little slice of high energy retro goodness - sounding like it was ripped straight out of a promo video for a then top of the line personal computer, especially with that MIDI as hell brass at the beginning. It's not all novelty though, see it through to about 50 seconds in and after a mighty flourish it gets a little more fleshed out, full of lovely touches like those slow arpeggios that really come into their own on headphones.



Another soundtrack name to round out, this time on a solo record though. You might have seen me bring up Jasper Byrne a few times in the past, his appearances on the Hotline Miami soundtracks are what pointed me in his direction. Those soundtracks have a reputation for being equal parts face melting electronic and hazy psychedelic, Byrne's work leans more toward the latter than the former, but still has that neon soaked feel that bridges the gap between the two - a more sedate style compare the squealing synth chords of some other synthwave acts.

I first heard Night on the Adult Swim synthwave-style compilation called Fever Dreams and had assumed that like a few of the tracks on there that it was an exclusive. A trip to discogs though soon pointed me towards his solo work and the album of the same name. If you're at all a fan of the kind of stuff he made for the Hotline Miami games you will find a lot to like here, Night isn't my top favourite of this album (that would be Bliss that I've posted before), but it's a great intro to the album and the overall aesthetic Jasper plays with on it: It follows the same formula of the more downtempo electronic pieces he makes but with the addition of these hazy chillwave style vocals. From what I remember I don't think they suited all the tracks but they fit really nicely on Night and Bliss.



And that'll do it for this time. Things have been much quieter so I should be able to keep to schedule a little better. I have fallen behind on the republishing front though so it may be time for an old post to make an appearance again but I'll try and balance it with something new, or add to it like I did with that OPN post from December. Either way, stay tuned for more and as always: stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF