Return Of The Soundcloud Roundup

Been a long time since I pulled one of these, and now that Soundcloud only offers previews for a lot of stuff you might see a lot more of it in future. Regardless here's one from my feed that caught my ear, there's always a gap in my library for more A:xus-esque hosue numbers that are home to some slightly downbeat lyrical content despite the upbeat backing.



It should be no secret by now that I'm a sucker for instrumental hip hop stuff and slow jams. Chalk it up to early exposure to Adult Swim, which is actually relevant here with the cover being The Big O and all. Regardless, this one ticks all my boxes for that, with maybe just a smidgen of bonus Vapourwave in there too.



Me and Adam were talking a while back about how HudMo is never going to bless us with another LP like Butter, and that got me a lil nostalgic for that ever changing genre that wavers between ridiculous names like aquacrunk and #beats. Lucky there's enough floating around to scratch that itch a little, my mind would have melted had FlyLo been putting samples like this in Los Angeles.



-Cluade Van Foxbat

Tuesday

Frederic Leighton - Songs Without Words (1860)

Not feelin' so hot again, so once again be prepared for more downbeat offerings. Not ideal given it's getting warmer but I ain't feelin' up to it right now. Starting with an instrumental as in the spirit of the painting above, here's an ambient piece from the usual noise rock folks of HEALTH.



Revisiting Blu Mar Ten hot off the heels of the international bent Thievery Corp sent me on. It's been in my collection for a long, long time. And like HEALTH's example above is a bit of a far cry from their Drum & Bass stuff, check out their debut if you're in the mood for some downtempo vibes with some house sprinkled in.



Röyksopp's Senior also fits that bill to an extent, though I'd probably say errs more on the ambient side throughout. Didn't think it'd been six years since the album came out, it's still pretty fresh in my mind, but then again even though there's only a year between it and the electropop sweetness of the previous album Junior, that gap felt like forever. Time is weird like that.



-Claude Van Foxbat

Hangin'

Claude Monet - Impression, Sunrise (1873)

Hello, it is a sunny day here in England,it was yesterday too which is why I'm takin' it easy after an eve of merriment and a pretty big fire. So here are some tunes that I am on ATM. Starting with Massive Attack's Weather Storm again, only this time it's slightly ironic cos there's no rain for once.



Here's one I always forget about. Thanks to shuffle tho I get treated to it every now and then and it's a treat. There are some rough patches on Daft Club for sure, but that's to be expected given it's a remix album and all. Thankfully, Romanthony's acoustic take on One More Time isn't among them.



And just for funsies, one of the smooth jazzy drum & bass numbers from the E-Z Rollers' Weekend World. The opening for it is gorgeous for starters and it only keeps it up from there. Suppose you could call it Liquid, but I don't think Liquid Drum & Bass was a thing in '98 when it came out. Anyways I'm off again, enjoy!



-Claude Van Foxbat

That Time Again

George Stefanescu - Harlequin’s Sadness (1978)

Been a surprisingly fine couple of weeks but it looks like that downbeat train has pulled into the station again. Shan't dwell too long mind, onto some Massive Attack to start. Del Naja's delivery remains on point, and the slightly unnerving instrumentation certainly helps deliver that classic Massive darkness.



Since we're talking vocals, lets pay Karin Dreijer a visit. Those of you who are regulars will know she's pretty far up there when it comes to my favourite voices. Here's The Kinfe's live version of Heartbeats in which the sibling duo absolutely nail it.



And finally my all time favourite from Kenji Kawai's soundtrack to the original Ghost In The Shell. The entire album is a masterpiece of dark ambient, but Nightstalker (and the scene it plays over) pretty much summarise the entire atmosphere in just under 2 minutes. A gorgeous piece that I definitely recommend.



-Claude Van Foxbat