Back To It

Thought I'd be a little late on this one but I think I'm going to pull it out of the bag. It's been a... strange week so far, between going back to work proper (on a limited basis) and the 3-4 days of intense heat back to back it's all been slightly surreal. It doesn't help I am one who intensely dislikes heat because I find it incredibly uncomfortable, but that's where the comfort songs come in. It's times like this I turn back to Eurobeat; It is pretty hard to be super mad or ornery when you've got the 160bpm lovechild of disco courtesy of Japan and Italy in your ears. And over the past few months I've been carefully slipping my toe back into the world of it because I decided I needed more, and yet I'm still constantly surprised with how shall we say unique the album art looks. Tracks after:

This is probably the best one of the bunch, I quite like it actually

Like so many other genres and songs I like it has become a bit of a meme in recent times but like I always say in these cases, I don't mind how people discover electronic music, if they like what they hear (ironically or no) then that's all good. And really I can understand that when it comes to Eurobeat, it's absolutely full to bursting with cliché lyrics (that often don't make sense as they're written by non-native speakers), some incredibly forced rhymes and sickly sweet synths. And yet despite it all, I can't help but like it, it does what it sets out to do well and doesn't pretend to be any deeper than that. We're not going to dive into the deep end yet, I thought I'd start off with a much more conventional one; I reckon you could turn Turn The Beat Around into a house track with a couple of small tweaks, or at least make a solid cover using the base elements. I will say get ready to hear extremely similar synths throughout the next few selections, it's a recurring staple of the genre.



Something I do like about Eurobeat is that unlike say your Euphoric Trance or similar, there are actually plenty of male vocalists in the genre too, my favourite of which being Christian Codenotti's work under the Ace alias, where you can definitely hear the Italo influence. This compilation doesn't show that off too well unfortunately and has a 70/30 split of vocals, but that Italo influence is definitely still there; Time After Time is an impassioned song about someone who seemingly can't make their mind up about someone, the choruses ending with "I don't need you in my life" while the verses are all loved-up which strikes me as very Disco-like in concept. Additionally, like Disco, the pop structure is also very evident here. Which is fine, but I would very much like a bit more of those post-chorus instrumentals. There are some pretty cool breaks in the last quarter though which do scratch that itch a bit though.



And finally one track from the sequel compilation. Vol. 4 in comparison to 3 is much more guilty of the sin of cheese but I have been absolutely relishing in it. I've been rotating through 4-5 tracks from Volume 4 that are intensely catchy, what's doing it right now is the machine gun rhythm of the chorus on Too Smart To Get My Heart. It's just an absolute blast to listen to, catch me in the shower vogue-ing and singing along to the few lyrics I can concretely make out. It's a fantastic injection of energy if you're having a pretty slow morning. I'm very aware by this point this is a very selfish post and that these eurobeat jaunts are potentially more alienating than when I go on about Ambient for pages at a time, but I hope this has brought a little levity to you wherever you are, even if it's just to have a giggle at the Eurobeat in all it's kitschy glory.



And with that, I'll be back soon with something a little more palatable. But as I mentioned above I hope that if you are reading this that you are well. And as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

One Year Older

It's that time of year again where by happy coincidence the blog and I share a birthday. It's been a bit of a rollercoaster for the last couple, this year doubly so. But I'm not to wallow in the current state of things (too much), in instead I thought I'd put together a list of tunes from the last 12 months or so that have really meant a lot to me.

Helen Frankenthaler - Yearning (1973)

Starting with back in December / January where I revisited the Everything But The Girl album Walking Wounded, a great album on its own but I had yet to check out the fancy expanded edition put out some time ago that has a second disc of remixes and the like to boot. It's there I would find what quickly shot up the list of my favourite of their works: a demo of what would become Before Today on the final album called Above The Law. I've always loved Tracey Thorn's vocals since I was first introduced to them on Massive Attack's Protection, her delivery is often really powerful and carries so much feeling. I mentioned last time I posted this that track sticks out on the album: being a demo it's got a slightly rough sound in comparison to the super polished smoothness of the rest of Walking Wounded. Which on paper wouldn't be something I'd like, in fact I probably would have argued it as a negative. But after spending a lot of time with this one I think it works perfectly, it twins beautifully with Thorn's impassioned, almost desperate delivery on the choruses.



Keeping it older for now, I put Garoad's soundtracks for VA​-​11 HALL​-​A back in rotation after a long absence, they're delightfully retro in parts. This one in particular could easily be a shared B-Side with Mitch Murder's brand of synthwave-esque stuff. I didn't realise how much I'd missed this kind of melodic slow jam until I had them back in rotation. It makes for very good 'doing stuff' music as is to be expected from the OST of a Visual Novel about bar-tending, I knew when this was one of the first tracks you hear that it was going to definitely be something that was almost designed for me. Garoad's done some other soundtracks and a solo EP that I still desperately need to check out, but like so many other things that I love I'm trying to pace myself and not dive in all at once and get burned. With a sequel to VA​-​11 HALL​-​A on the horizon the equally punnily titled N1RV-Ann-A, here's hoping we get more sweet synths heading our way soon.



And of course I can't write a post about favourites of the last 12 months without mentioning Rei Harakami. I simultaneously can't believe it took me so long to finally get fully immersed in his works but am also very happy that I waited until no because I feel like I appreciate them more now that I would have years ago. And really what is there to say about Harakami's work that I haven't said already? Supremely lush synth work, incredibly smooth productions and an ambient sensibility make for some electronic music that is just an absolute joy to listen to. 2005's Lust is a perfect diving in point, home to some of my favourite 'Harakami in a nutshell' tunes such as the title track. But since I've talked about that one a couple of times already, lets look at Come Here Go There instead. It fits the bill of everything I've mentioned so far, with the addition of a surprisingly intense kick drum being added for the final minute or so. It's just divine, if your taste is at all similar to mine, you absolutely need some Harakami in your collection, perhaps not this album, but go exploring the discography!



It has also taken me a very long time to branch out when it comes to ADULT., partly because I made that mistake of diving headlong into their discography and picking up almost half of it in one go a few years ago so for a long time I didn't feel like I needed more. Enter this year though where I finally got around to looking at their stuff that was newer than what I had. After a couple of tries I settled on The Way Things Fall, which was again almost tailor made for me. It was the punky electro of the ADULT. that I had, but this time with an almost more electropop edge. I'd almost say that this makes this album in particular more approachable than their early work but it's not a huge change. If you like this, there's a high chance you'd also like Anxiety Always for example. The biggest change here is Nicola Kuperus' vocals being more dynamic, as much as I love her stoic monotone on tracks like Hand To Phone I don't think it would have worked as well here so it's a welcome change, her lyricism remains on point; full of visceral imagery and interesting rhythms. Not to overlook Adam Lee Miller's production, the nervous synths throughout this track are perfectly selected and the little bits of 808 that poke through every now and then really lend themselves to that now slightly retro edge that ADULT. have.



And finally, HEALTH's Death Magic. It's not their newest release sure but it's a damn fine album. The whole thing is permeated with this kind of nihilistic outlook that is thematically completely at odds with the thundering instrumentals and I adore it for that. There are lots of little flourishes that make HEALTH even further blur the lines between a traditional band and an electronic act; only after looking up a live version of this track did I even know that what I thought were synth pads backing up the whole thing is actually just a really distorted (or otherwise messed with by pedals) Guitar. I've mentioned before how much I like the more electronic direction they took starting with this album but it bears repeating, it's like they tapped into a sound that I didn't know I needed until I heard it. I've been holding onto Dark Enough for a while now for just such an occasion as I think it perfectly sums up all I've talked about above. Whenever it comes up I cannot help but listen to it in full as soon as I hear that incredibly powerful intro.



I think that'll about do us for today. I didn't cover some stuff I had planned because in hindsight it would have clashed with the overall vibe of this post, but that's OK because it would have been a little long that way too, it'll easily roll over into the next post. As always: Stay safe and enjoy the music all,

-CVF

Shopping List (...?)

As mentioned in previous posts, I'm currently sizing up my ever growing wishlist to see what will make the cut come this Friday, and truth be told I've been slacking a bit, and there have also been new additions in the last few mins before I started writing this post to complicate things further. Even then this post is still going to contain one thing I already own (two things if you count the B12 track that I already have from another album) but I'm getting sidetracked. Today's order is lovely bleepy early to mid 90's techno, the kind that Warp was putting out around that time as part of their {Artificial Intelligence} series (of which two of these choices are from!) Let's go.

Jeffrey Smart - The Four Closed Shops (1982)

I might as well get into the Warp stuff first off, starting with my favourite underrated entry in the series of LPs: Richie Hawtin's Dimension Intrusion. I could never get into Hawtin's output as Plastikman but I absolutely adore this album, its a shame none of the tracks appeared on either of the Artifical Intelligence compilations because for me they are up there with the big names in terms of demonstrating what that series was all about. That's not to say that you can't hear the direction that Hawtin would take, one of the tracks on Dimension Intrusion is a 13 minute slow arpeggio only punctuated by bass pads and occasional samples from THX 1138. I've chosen the title track this time around, it's one of the more upbeat bits of the album actually which gets super ambient in places but it also shows off both the differences and similarities with Hawtin's later more minimal work. It was never re-issued internationally after it's 1993 pressing, but it's now real easy to get your hands on now as Hawtin himself published a 25th anniversary edition to his Bandcamp, albeit with a slightly different tracklist to the original release.



Next up is a bit of a strange one. I can't remember how exactly this one came to my attention, I do have some vague memories of a discogs reccomend but even then I don't really remember the page, likewise I don't remember what made me even find it on bandcamp either. I think I may have heard it in a live set maybe? I definitely do remember hearing it somewhere with the incorrect title and having to listen to the whole thing to find that initial track that caught my interest. Anyway, that's irrelevant, as it hits the same buttons for me as the Warp brand of electronic at the time, in fact coming out around 1994 after the Warp crew and others had taken techno from the dancefloor to the home stereo. It's not quite as cool and hi-tech as the Warp stuff to my ears, but it also wouldn't sound very out of place on one of the compilations either. I have to agree with the Resident Advisor review that says the whole album has a much more warm feel than it's contemporaries I listed, it's techno that feels very tactile and for want of a better term (also borrowed from the RA article), Cosy. Very much embodying that 'home listening' concept that the original Artificial Intelligence compilation was based on.



Taking a bit of a turn around with B12, another of my favourite examples of this kind of sound. B12 are pretty much the opposite of what I mentioned above; in contrast their brand of listening electronic is that cool, hi-tech sound that drew me to this kind of stuff in the first place. With album titles like Time Tourist, its cover art featuring retro-futuristic covers of a Neo-London is certainly in line with that "Future Music" aesthetic, which as you all probably know is supremely up my street. Telefone 529 originally appeared on Electro-Soma in 1993, as well as on the first Artificial Intelligence compilation under their 'Musicology' alias. As noted on the cover of that compilation, Kraftwerk among others were the inspiration for this new wave of electronic, and that influence is plain to see here from the track being focused on technology (though this time ironically Phones and not Computers as in Kraftwerk's case) to the repeating samples of automated phone operators.



And finally a little bit more from DMX Krew. Purely instrumental this time which means yet again no self-aware retro lyricism, but as the title would suggest the track itself is very funky indeed. I was hooked even before the first of many wobbly bass warbles came through, but even then, every layer of the composition of Wave Funk is incredibly well done. As Ed messes with the filters toward the end making the main hook go from bouncy to squelchy, to nervous and back again I can't help but grin. It's only short especially considering its the title track and all but I honestly can't complain, nothing else on the EP has anywhere near this level of funk so it just makes the whole thing even sweeter. If you're in the mood for some analogue jams and have completely rinsed the Analords over the last decade like I have, this EP and it's sequels are definitely ones to look out for.



-CVF

Digital Digging

I've been looking through my Bandcamp collection and Wishlist in prep of the upcoming Friday, where they're continuing the tradition they've had recently of waiving their cut of the sales for that day. I've been taking advantage of this because it feels nice to do, and also it turns out having a set date to get music on actually makes me actually decide on things instead of throwing them in the pile of "to get to". Anyway, here are the results of that perusal.

Yiannis Tsaroychis - Cafe "Neon" At Night (1965)
I don't even have that much in my Bandcamp collection but already its easy for things to get a little lost, take The Flashbulb's Love As A Dark Hallway, I picked it up some time ago but then never really mentioned it here. I think the main reason for that is that it was an album I'd loved from afar for a couple of years by the time I got it, so while it was new it wasn't 'new' y'know? To cut a ramble short definitely check out The Flashbulb, Benn Jordan is a fantastic musician and his work under The Flashbulb moniker is often a lovely mix of ambient sensibilities and fairly accessible IDM. I'd almost argue it's easier to introduce folk to the genre with Flashbulb (although now I'm writing this, that's not counting the more melodic Aphex Twin pieces!), all the key elements are there just not as face melty as some others. Pastorial Whiskers almost sounds like it could be something from Squarepusher funnily enough, especially the Hello Everything era with those swooping synths and jazzy bass guitar work. One last side note I do like how Benn included different album art for each individual track for this album, it's a nice touch, a shame most music players don't support it fully though.



It's a similar tale with this next album actually, maybe even a longer one than the above. I first fell in with this one back on Grooveshark of all places, back when it would have been a new release in 2013. For all it's flaws I did really like its recommended system, it was better at showing you new stuff than Spotify at any rate which at least for me gets stuck in a loop of the same few albums and tracks, but I'm digressing again. It's been a while since I listened to it properly, the one album is very much lost in my usual MO of shuffling everything I own. Which is a shame because its a very slickly done slice of Ambient and IDM and is totally in line with that techy sounding vibe I've been after lately. There's definitely more than a bit of Burial influence on here and it sounds a lot like there's a touch of Moderat as well, especially the II album, they were only released a few months apart actually! It can get a little long in the tooth for me on some days, but as you might expect with my recent techy kick I'm very much into it today.



Third verse same as the first! I was a long time admirer of Soichi Terada's work on various soundtracks but his solo work was at that point either only on vinyl, out of print or just tricky to get hold of. Thankfully that's changed in recent times and a compilation of his various solo pieces is now easily grab-able on BC, Sounds From The Far East is essentially a 'best of' of Terada's House works, as much as I love his Drum & Bass from Ape Escape he has a real knack for the slower tempos too. Part of the reason I love Terada's work so much is that it sounds like he has so much fun when making them, something you can hear in the production and is reflected in the album art for this comp too. It's an unfortunate casualty of the digital version having a different tracklist curse, but it's not too hard to find the missing / replaced tracks out there if you're so inclined like I was. There are a ton of tracks I could pick but I went with one of my favourite deep house bits in Purple Haze which wastes no time getting into the swing of things, and is full of the hallmarks of Terada's sound of this era: sweeping synths, big kicks and bouncy basslines.



Something new (to me) to wrap up, once again making me further amend my "I don't like minimal" sign to say "I don't like a lot of minimal" (although this is technically tech house but the point stands if you give it a listen!) I checked out Swayzak based off the electro-poppy State Of Grace and I Dance Alone, and was greeted with this and similar tracks instead. I was surprised for sure, but then again this isn't the first time I've seen an artist make a dramatic 180 in sound. I've yet to take a proper dive in but I have found more than a few tracks to catch my ear that are once again scratching that techy itch I have. Low-Rez Skyline is fairly sedate which makes for really good at-the-computer music, there's a lot of little flourishes and switch ups throughout that keep things fresh and interesting for me. It echoes of one of my other favourite Tech/Deep House pieces: Marshall Jefferson's Mushrooms remixed by Salt City Orchestra, albeit minus the absolutely stellar spoken word element. If you asked me originally I'd say that Skyline could benefit from that type of treatment too, but now I'm not so sure. It's a little lengthy at almost 10 minutes, but that makes it one of the shorter tracks from this album, I could see that being a deal breaker for some and on paper I would include myself in that, but I'm only now beginning to feel it growing stale after my fourth or so listen in a row when prepping this post.



And that'll do us for today. Stay tuned this week as both mine and coincidentally the blog's birthday come up on Saturday, I don't know what if anything I'm gonna do yet but I hope to come up with something. There'll be certainly no party this year that's for sure. And on that note, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF