Bite-sized Bits 13

Lothar Charoux - Horizontais (1960)

Making good on my promise from a few weeks back to expand more into the Italo Disco world - but a little different this time. I've made a big show of the inherent cheese that is present in all Italo Disco and its eventual evolution in Eurobeat, and it's an element I do love in a completley un-ironic way, however I am also aware it's very much not for everyone. So today I bring you some Italo that I think is quite far removed from that.

The vocal version might suffer a little from that classic Italo/Eurobeat pitfall of the lyrics being written by non-native speakers, but otherwise I find Spacer Woman to be much more modern sounding than the Italo I've posted before - slightly ironic as I think it'll be the oldest example I've pulled up, originally released in 1983, but I figure that might also be a factor in how different it is - it avoids a lot of Italo clichés because those they hadn't had chance to become cliché yet. I absolutely adore the spacey feel of this one, it's almost in that same 'space-synth' category as bands like... well, Space of Magic Fly fame, the way the pitch bends on the repeating melody is to die for.

I actually found this one years ago on a Vitalic mix on a complation called Colette N°7 and recently unearthed it again as I sail those Italo waters once again. At the risk of repeating myself, it does sound quite modern considering - and it's perfectly at home on Vitalic's mix of his various influences, if you're a fan of his you'll probably be able to hear some similarities here and there. I saw some folk complain about the vocal but I personally like it, while lovely, the instrumental can get a little stale over the 7 minutes. Thankfully both the instrumental and vocal are included on the single so you can have both!



And that'll be all for this time, another time where these small posts have paid off becuase it gives me a chance to talk about tracks I've been in love with recently without worrying abiut sound cohesion with 2-3 other tunes. That and who knows if I could find other Italo tracks on Bandcamp. Spacer Woman is actually a pretty popular tune and even had a new EP of reworks put out this year that you can find on that Bandcamp as well, they're pretty faithful to the original from what I've heard - no super wild genre flips that don't really fit or anything like that. It's also pretty heartwarming to see a label so old embrace Bandcamp as well, a lot of these older Italo and Eurobeat releases can be tricky to get your hands on legitimately otherwise. And finally, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Bite-sized Bits 12

Karl Benjamin - Black & Gray Curves with Purple (1960)

I don't think I can overstate how much I appreciate Warp's appearance on Bandcamp. Of course there's a bit of bias there as my love for the label is well documented over the past decade and a bit - but it's made pulling up stuff to talk about that much easier, from the relatively obscure to the slightly overlooked, to things I just plain haven't managed to mention over the years there is plenty of material to talk about.

Enter the Port Rhombus EP - Squarepusher's first release on Warp after a couple of EPs under other aliases and the stellar Feed Me Weird Things on Aphex's Rephlex label - decked out in that trademark Warp Purple and sporting an unassuming cover you could be forgiven for overlooking it. But my oh my, what a debut it was, title track Port Rhombus wastes no time in getting into Squarepusher's unique brand of properly mangled Drum & Bass that he was making at the time. It's contrasted with these lovely delicate syths and some solitary twangs that get plenty of time to shine during a couple of extended breakdowns - I might not be as into the beat butchery as I was back when I was first discovering Warp's back-catalogue, but I must admit I do have a lot of love for this one for that, the backing behind the beats is just lovely.



Perhaps not the best starting point if you're looking to explore Squarepusher's work (I'd recommend Feed Me Weird Things or the Big Loada EP for that - though interestingly the Port Rhombus EP was included as bonus tracks on the USA version of Big Loada) but a quality bit of 'pusher nonetheless. Not to mention an interesting bit of history too, it's odd to imagine a time where Squarepusher wasn't one of Warp's mainstays after all. He's adopted a lot of different genres over the years, but for many this kind of wild D&B will always be that quintessential Squarepusher sound.

The rest of the EP is pretty great as well, though the title track does absolutely steal the show - Problem Child sees a return to Feed Me Weird Things style jazzy breaks ran through a blender with Squarepusher's bass noodling over the top of it, give it a look! And that'll be all for this time, I'll be back tomorrow with another Bite-sized bit - until then, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Bite-sized Bits 11

Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart - Composition No. 15 (1925)

The revisiting trend continues, after a long time in storage I've dug out the Moderat again. But in the interest of variety though, I've skipped over II this time though as I think I definitely over did that, instead we're going back to their debut on the album front - the self titled Moderat.

To be fair I also completely rinsed parts of the debut too, Rusty Nails is potentially one of my most played tracks of all time after all. I was of the opinion for a long time that II was a much better album but I've grown to appreciate more of the original on revisit. I remember feeling like it was a bit long in the tooth but it's only 15 tracks (13 for the non-deluxe), but maybe over the years my definition of 'long' has changed!

Coming back there are plenty of signposts of the direction they'd take on II, the self titled is a little more varied, a little more minimal in parts but also sporting quite a healthy IDM streak which both Modeselektor and Apparat both dabbled in previously. Today I've picked a tune that has grown on me massively - Nasty Silence, which dwells pretty heavily in that IDM side of things, with perhaps a hint of Post-Rock to the structure as you can pretty cleanly divide it into two halves as it builds to a crescendo and then falls back into a more ambient feel. It's pretty wild to me that I pretty much forgot about this one, it's very much up my alley in terms of sound - I might have to come back and do a full on Retro Review of this one someday.



This album, and all of Moderat's work actually, has incredible visual direction. The cover illustrations are always a highlight - and the design work and videos from Pfadfinderei are usually a real treat too (and not to mention amazing 'research' work when I was in Art School). That'll wrap today's entry, expect the next couple of posts to be things that I'm planning to pick up for the upcoming Bandcamp Friday (and also look up if they're actually doing it this month too!) As always - stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Bite-sized Bits 10

Katsushika Hokusai - Nihonbashi Bridge in Edo
Something new for a change. I was pleasantly surprised by an announcement email in my inbox that Soichi Terada had a new album coming out. Well, not too surprised really, he's been consistently releasing things for ages now, most recently another instalment called Dodarebachi from his Omodaka project that merges house, electronics, chiptunes and traditional Japanese Enka. Instead the surprise this time comes from the release not being on his own Far East Recording label, but rather on Rush Hour Music, who put together that compilation a few years back of Terada's House works called Sounds From The Far East.

This new release is billed as a throwback to that very same house work as well, to steal a quote from the Bandcamp page from Terada himself: "a new album that sounds like a reissue". And based on the preview track Bamboo Fighter, he's not wrong - that bouncy bassline is immediately evocative of Sunshower, one of his early hits with Nami Shimada - with other nods to his Deep House works with some gorgeous synth sweeps as well. A real treat if you're like me and have a real love for this kind of sound, as much as I'd love to hear more Drum & Bass from Terada, I'll happily check out more of anything from him.



The full thing isn't out while November 12 - I might be still pretty busy by then so perhaps don't expect a full review, but you can certainly count on a couple of tracks from this popping up here once it's released. As always: stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF