Friends In Beats (Links broken as of 2020)

Our own in-house producer hasn't been able to post for a while now, not that I mind because when you've been doing this for as long as I have it's easy enough to post a lil' something together. Not to say our man Evan hasn;t been putting work in tho, here he comes with another EP/Tape offering.



I adore whenever he drops one of these, The artwork is solid for one but also they're like a guided course of his influences and interests, often with a few Drum & Bass or House tracks thrown in for good measure. This time though it's all hip hop stuff, and there's few producers who scratch my instrumental itch like Evan does, I'm in love with the opening track, as well as the slightly re-worked version of an older tune now called Rolex. It's shaping up to be the soundtrack to my day, here's hoping it is for yours too!

-Claude Van Foxbat

The Fall

Hooray for Autumn, bringing with it lower ambient temps meaning I can do more rendering without turning my room into a greenhouse. But also a time for me to swap out playlists and get in that cooler mood again, here's some choice picks from my sorting:

Ed Ruscha - Fall All Leaves All Fall (2009)

It should be no surprise that I adore Boards Of Canada (although I still need to fix the enitre Warped series and get them back on the site). Here's a bonus track from The Campfire Headphase, I appreciate a lot of the Warp crew and musicians in general including bonus tracks for Japan to make up for the CD tax or whatever the exact reason was but I do wish we had easier access to them too. Not as show stopping as From One Source All Things Depend on Geogaddi, but a worthy addition to the LP nonetheless.



Keeping it in Warp territory I got around to the mixed bag that is Ultravisitor again. It's not my favourite Squarepusher offering, but I will forever love how the album ends. After a rollercoaster ride of experimental Drum & Bass with the occasional Jazzy interlude thrown in, Squarepusher closes the LP with an absolutely gorgeous combo of tracks; The first an extension of Tommib from Go Plastic which was already a favourite of mine, but the final track is simply some solo guitar work from 'Pusher. A fitting end for ride.



And seeing as I'm staying in familiar territory I may as well give a send up to my former favourite Swedes The Knife. Here again with my semi-annual coverage of one of their tracks from the soundtrack to the film Hannah Med H or A Different Way as it was titled in English. If you've gone and looked it up, it doesn't look like The Knife's icy electronics would gel with the film, but there's plenty of flexibility displayed on the soundtrack. So I leave you with their lush acoustic contribution to the film, Enjoy:

Animation Blues

About finished up my latest video project, and got time to get stuck into a project that stuck out in my inbox about a week ago. Now some introduction: the worlds of Jazz and electronic music may seem like odd bedfellows, but there's plenty of influence to be seen: from the Lounge meets Drum & Bass combo from the E-Z Rollers, combined with more of a trip hop feel from Red Snapper, the often frantic bass guitar work from Squarepusher to the more experimental parts of Flying Lotus' Cosmogramma, and again on the Ideas+Drafts+Loops tape.



Why do I bother setting that up you say? Well this is exactly more of that, albeit leaning more on the jazz side than the electronics. There's a lot of piano work on here too, but if it's good enough for Aphex Twin then it's good enough for Mr. James (And if I could play I'd make use of it too).

Maybe a little out of leftfield for our usual posting, but there's some highlights to be sure. Tracks 2 & 3 show off some lovely Downtmepo/Trip Hop and Indie-ish electronic respectively, and I'd recommend you start there for a perfect summary of the vibe here. (Also be aware the player starts on track 6 from some reason) I can definitely see some good stuff coming out of Mr. James' camp in future, particularly if he takes it in a more Hip Hop / Tip Hop direction but then again I am biased. Regardless, get stuck in, and I'll see you in a couple days!

-Claude Van Foxbat

Summer's End

Summer used to be a lot more enjoyable before I had to regularly render videos, now it is pretty much uncomfortably hot 24/7. But those days are numbered and I have some suitably chilled songs to give you in prep for that, less go.

Loui Jover - Anything (2014)

Starting with a recent addition to my collection, the rock turned Drum & Bass outfit Everything But The Girl. The title track from the LP has been haunting me as of late, parts of it are definitely a product of it's times; the dramatic strings, the liberal use of the Amen Break to name just a few. But towards the end it comes out surprisingly modern, Tracey Thron's depressive delivery isn't something you'd think would twin well with Drum & Bass, but truth be told I can't get enough of it.



Keping it mostly in England next with another part from Ladytron's Witching Hour. My all time favourite from the album is still Beauty*2, but I've already written about that a couple of times (and it's more of a winter song anyway). Considerably less electronic than their debut 604, but nonetheless still a solid addition to their catalogue, here's an early highlight:



And finally my first vocal love since I heard her guest on Felix Da Housecat's Kittenz & Thee Glitz, Miss Kittin. I've put Batbox away for a long time, but now it's back in rotation and I'm all in love once again. Everything from Kittin's playful delivery to the wobbly bassline underlining the synths between verses is hitting all the right buttons. It's a shame her solo output is so few and far between, none of it has disappointed.



-Claude Van Foxbat