June's playlist might be the most mixed bag of the lot so far. There's a theme still, albeit a loose one. I got a little bored with my electropop playlists, so I went looking for tunes in my library that could slot into that category to inject a little more variety in there. Some of them like Miss Kittin were obvious choices, whereas a first glance additions like Squarepusher and ADULT. might seem a little out of place.
Surprisingly though, Tonight, We Fall is probably one of the most electopop style tunes that the duo have, definitely much more approachable than the anxious, nihilistic and often experimental electroclash that I mainly associate them with. Nicola Kuperus' delivery on the track is fairly nice as well, breaking out of the expected monotone delivery that is so prevalent in electroclash.
Things do go a little bit sideways towards the end though, I wanted to include Moby's Blue Paper because I've been listening to it fairy regulalry for the past month or so, but I couldn't find the perfecttune to follow it sound wise without it bing jarring. So I went completely in the other direction and made the last portion of the playlist all ambient, I do think that Tim Hecker's Borderlands was the correct choice to follow Moby, it's probably the mot alike in terms of sound (only without the beats). Months from Oneohtrix Point never plays us out, originally from Russian Mind, I was first exposed to it through the compilation of his early work called Rifts, which is a gorgeous dive into analogue soundscapes. The whole analogue gear angle might be slightly overplayed and a bit fetishised, but Daniel Lopatin is an absolute wizard when it comes to all things Juno.
A busy end of week has meant a departure from my usual chill slant to my listenings, so enjoy this week's little switch up. Starting off with a slice from the Portal 2 soundtrack, a far cry from it's purely ambient prequel, Portal 2 is full of gorgeous glitchy beeps and bloops twinned with the occasional cinematic orchestral feel. Case in point here with the fantastically titled The Part Where He Kills You, it takes a little while to get going, but the way the electronics come into the mix around 38 seconds in is sublime and it coveres all the bases I previously mentioned. Gets almost synthwave-y in parts methinks, and that title certainly wouldn't be amiss on something from the genre.
I'd actually forgotten that I even had this HEALTH song to hand, it kinda gets lost in the sea o Adult Swim singles. It's from after the release of Death Magic, the album that incorporated a more electronic feel to their work, but it has more in common with their previous noise rock stuff, particularly the raw drums that echo their work for the Max Payne 3 soundtrack at around 2 minutes in. That's not to say it's completley divorced from the electronic evolution they had, the ending breakdown starting around 2:45 is a fantastic melding of glitchy electronics and pounding industrial that you can hear just a little bit of Stonefist in, and actually reminds me a whole bunch of the kinda stuff Mick Gordon was making for the Doom 2016 soundtrack too.
And finally, speaking of glitchy sounds, another bit from Subhuman compilation. It's got kinda the same sensibility of Crusher in that it's mixing electronic styles with other industrial-esque sounds. Hearing it back to back with the above is a strange experience, it's a hell of a lot less raw in it's overall feel, some of the drums on Crusher feel like they're punching you in the gut whereas Memory is a lot more restrained in is delivery. Not to knock it though, I think it's combo of vocals and production is certainly interesting in it's own way. I only really have one complaint with it and that is the ending, the fade out just seems like a little bit of a cop out after the rest of the song.
I had time to think about what was going on this week's post, mainly because the train services in the UK remain as inefficient as ever so I spent a lot of time last week on platforms. The train I catch to work was super packed and I was in no mood to put up with that so I asked my music app to play me all things techno and it came up with some top tier suggestions. Starting off with another remix of Beyond The Bounds, and one I actually prefer to the dubstep-ified one I posted in the past. It's actually got a lot in common sound wise with the bits of the Rez soundtrack I talked about a couple of weeks ago now I think about it. Mitsuto Suzuki's solo albums can be a little tricky to get hold of if you don't want to use iTunes, but they're on youtube, and I definitely recommend you check them out if you're like some downtempo IDM style stuff like I do.
Moving from something new to something old now, The Knife's The Bridge has been one of my favourite instrumentals for a long time now. I think the last time I mentioned it on the blog was when I used it in that mixtape before I went on hiatus so me and Jordan could work out transfer of the domain ownership and the like, I think it's way past time I dust it off and give it another spin for you lot. Its very much unlike the rest of their output at the time and even the rest of the soundtrack its on for that matter, there's no vocal from Karin, and the electro pop feel of Deep Cuts is dropped in favour of a more eurobeat come techno dealio that I adore. I fall in love with the breakdown around 2:00 every single time.
And finally, another round from OverClocked Remix's Deus Ex: Sonic Augmentation album, this time the very final track that as the title suggests is a mashing together of a bunch of Deus Ex songs; (thanks to the artists comments I can tell you exactly which ones too). Granted this one isn't completely techno all the way through, but I can't fault the app's choice: Vig does an absolutely outstanding job of nailing a cyberpunk atmosphere from the get go, the transitions between 'verses' as it were are brilliantly executed too, the sample of the "I now have full access to your systems" line at around 3 mins in being a highlight.
A mixed bag of tunes on offer this week, I don't often like to do repeats so close to each other but we have another tune from Aimer to start off this week. I actually hadn't had this one come up at all in the few months its been in my collection thanks to my penchant for shuffling all, and it picked a hell of a time to come up too; a surprisingly sunny bank holiday weekend. It does take a little while to get gong, but when things come to a head around a minute in I got instantly transported back many summers ago. It gives me the same vibes that I got from Calvin Harris' output circa 2009, super weird to think that'll be a full decade ago pretty soon.
Speaking of songs that take a while to get going, I picked up Lorne Balfe's soundtrack to the 2017 Ghost In The Shell reboot yesterday too. From the sounds of things the soundtrack was supposed to get an official release but has been canned, so Balfe has a link to his work for it (as fully uncompressed .wavs no less) on his twitter for free. My opinions on the film aside, that's a super nice move from the guy, I must say that the soundtrack is very nice if a little clichéd 'cinematic score' sounding in parts. There's a lot of sedate ambient on there, the whole things sees fairly quiet actually, but there's a whole lot of beautiful electronic arpeggios and stabs a la Daft Punk's Tron: Legacy OST and wouldn't sound too out of place on a synthwave record. Here's Reborn which is a crash course in the overall sound.
And finally another soundtrack piece that just happened to come on as I was typing. Funnily enough this song from El Huervo samples Akira Yamaoka's "Tears Of..." that I talked about back in March. I always find it interesting to see musicians take cues from each other in this way, it's a nice way of paying homage to your influences and hopefully introducing them to more people to them to boot. I do wonder what the process of clearing a sample like that (if any) is, Konami isn't exactly known for their generosity, especially these days. But I digress; El Huervo takes the initial guitar of Tears Of... and gives it it an even spookier, slightly menacing feel, turning it into a lo-fi hip hop thing that's in keeping with the darker tone of the soundtrack for Hotline Miami 2.
