Little Blue

Things ain't been a treat as of late, but I suppose thins could always be worse. Anyway here are some songs that I am employing during this blue period. Here goes nuffin.

Miwa Ogasawara - Gang 1 (2014)

Leading off with the final non-remix track from Walking Wounded. Don't think it's as fresh sounding as the other ones I've posted from the LP, but I remain a sucker for their breed of melancholy Drum & Bass, and of course it's one of my few time capsules I like to take part in from time to time.



Another final track, this time from UNKLE's follow up to Psyence Fiction. Never, Never, Land also ends in a suitably downbeat trip hop fashion. Couldn't find a credit for the vocal on this one but methinks it may be Robert Del Naja of Massive Attack again, whoever it is nails the delivery, and the production goes hand in hand with it extremely well.



Working on a psuedo-retro project at the minute, and OPN seems only fitting. He's blowing up in popularity as of late and I still have to get around to checking out his latest, but in the meantime I have a couple dozen cassettes worth of his older works to see me through, here's one of my favourites I first heard on Rifts.



-Claude Van Foxbat

A Different Kind Of Hotline

Looking to make space on my HDD I went looking for fat I could trim. There I discovered I've had a Hotline Miami Remix EP tucked away in my steam folder for months without me realising. Well I gave it a listen last night and thought I'd share some of it with you lot.

It doesn't take long for the signature Hotline Miami aesthetic to make an appearance, it's been a long time since I immersed myself in it's neon-soaked world of ultra-violence and the days where I would subsist on a heavy diet of strictly Electro House are long gone. But I'll be damned if the soundtrack isn't full of tracks like this that make me feel the way I used to back in those blog crawling days.



It's not long before the more surreal side of the Hotline rears itself though, though you probably already guessed from the title. Imagine if Mr. Oizo gave his twisted electro styling to the soundtrack of some 80's slasher flick and you're in the right ballpark in terms of sound. I'm not a fan of the kinda cliche air raid siren sample towards the end but even then it kinda works with the vibe, and the rest of the track doesn't put a foot wrong so I'll let it go.



Rounding it out with the last track (and my favourite of the bunch). It errs more on the side of the conventional 'outrun' sound that was big a while ago, and honestly could almost be a remix of Kavinsky circa Pacific Coast Highway in parts. Wouldn't say it necessarily fits the Hotline Miami theme woven throughout the others, but I can't fault Carpenter Brut's touches here, I must remember to keep tabs on what he's up to these days.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Winter Is Coming

A slight miscalculation on my part means that my tactic of waiting out the soundcloud drought ain't happening. There's been more stuff put up since I posted last, but I only put one tune aside for posting, and I wasn't in the mood to go digital crate digging again. So here we are again with another installment of the classic ilictronix™ shuffle post.

Indie184 - Take Me Away 3)

As some of you may have seen, I'm currently animating some dark 3D shapes that hopefully should react to the audio within the scene, and of course you can't talk abstract black shapes without a mention of FlyLo's Los Angeles period. This tune would actually make a great one to animate to if I hadn't already picked one out. Maybe in future I might do just that.



A lot of the smooth techno sounds of Warp's {Artificial Intelligence} series are also assisting me through my arty endeavours. Autechre themselves may try to distance themselves from this LP but for me it's a lovely slice of the era, and one that still sounds great some 22 years after it's release.



Miss Kittin also makes a reappearance, this time with one of a few tunes from Batbox that are almost spoken word. I've seen a lot of divided opinion on on Batbox, and granted it's not the combination dancefloor and home companion that I Com was, but it's clear that Kittin has fun producing and as a result the tracks themselves are fun to listen to.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Another Day

This was supposed to be another soundcloud dealie, but my feed is being understandably slow as of late what with all the holidays. So instead I guess we'll shuffle again and see what comes of it.

Jim Rosenquist - The Kabuki Blushes (1986)

Thought it about time to dig this one out again, I love Rossz Csillag Alatt Született throughout, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that Mr. Funk's breakcore treatment of Billie Holiday's Gloomy Sunday wasn't near the top of the list of favourites. A bit different from the rest of the albums classical angle, but it's a treat to listen to.



Trip Hop has been seeing me through my video experiments as usual, and the more depressive cuts of UNKLE's debut are making an appearance again. Honestly when I get wrapped up in animating or whatever I only really hear the lovely beats + strings combo, which is probably for the best otherwise I might end up being sad.



And to round out the downtempo side of things, a little something from Senior. Dug it out once again as December rolls in, and it remains just as fitting as ever, I would love to see Ryxp try their hand at another ambient style record in the future, here's hoping.



-Claude Van Foxbat