Picking & Choosing

It's getting to that time of the month where I have to start making some choices for Bandcamp Friday, with Feburary being shorter and all I run the risk of being a bit short. I have some stuff still to check out but I took a flick through my archives to see if there's anything that jumps out - which of course is always a good excuse to share them with you all as well.

George Luks - Hannaford's Cove (1922)

I've been going back to Susumu Yokota recently - Yokota's career was unfortunatley cut short, but you can't say he didn't make the most of the years he was active, Discogs lists 29 albums between 1999 and 2019, and that's not even counting the other releases under his many aliases. It can be a bit of a minefield with Yokota in the best way, over his career he's dabbled in Techno, Ambient, House, Breaks and more over his many releases. You'll find yourself surprised with some of them though - Love Or Die is listed on Discogs as 'Ambient', and while it does dip into that from time to time, there's so much beat action going on here I'd struggle to call it that. But that's getting away from the point - from my quick run through it's a great little slice of downtempo.

Two standouts for you: The Scream Of A Sage Who Lost Freedom And Love Taken For Granted Before is the most uptempo of the bunch, a frantic cut of Drum & Bass amidst the calm of the rest of the tracklist. But the moment I fell in love is track three - The Loneliness Of Anarchic Beauty Achieved By My Ego which for me is the perfect bridge between the more ambient parts of Sakura and his more beat oriented work. Give the whole album a listen if your taste aligns with mine, I'm really enjoying my time with it.



Keeping in similar theme, Rei Harakami, who has a similar tale to tell, albeit with less releases than Yokota. But even so, I'm a very well publicised fan of Harakami's work, I simply adore the delicate sound he nigh perfected by the time [Lust] released. Relatively simple all things considered, that trademark Harakami sound is a Roland SC-88 Pro using the basic Electric Piano sound with a touch of delay, but even so Harakami weaves wonders with it. I've deliberately left a couple of albums of his on the wishlist for a while as a result, it's the kind of music I treat myself to once in a while to both avoid overplaying it all but also to make it all the more sweeter. It doesn't take long for Wasuremono to follow suit, you could drop the needle pretty much anywhere on this record and be immediately immersed in it - Itoguchi showing it off in full force. I will also freely admit that a large reason this one is here is that I love me some pitch bends.



Following the Drum & Bass streak I've mentioned above, I've also been trying to broaden my horizons a bit. I noted down the 'Out Patents' series from Hospital Records well over a decade back at this point, back when I was really into the brand of Liquid Funk stuff they were putting out, but like so many of my noted down 'to check out' things it sort of fell by the wayside. Thanks to their Bandcamp having a fairly exhaustive backcatalogue it's back on the menu, we're taking a trip back 22 years ago to the very first Out Patients compilation - a far cry from the melodic Liquid Funk that you might know them for these days, this compilation is billed as having both 'Jazz Breaks, Future Soul' in addition to the expected Drum & Bass.

The one I"ve chosen from it certainly fits more into that Jazzy Breaks mold, more in line with something like the Moving Shadow Strom From The East compilations I've been revisiting recently. A little 'of the era' in its execution perhaps, but it's a style that I have a fondness for - the kind of tune that would fit right in on a playlist we refer to at work as Coffee Shop Electronic.



And that'll be all for now, I do have some others lined up, but as I've learned from previous months doing this kind of post - it pays to store some cards for later. That and I like how these play out back to back, feels fairly cohesive. Feels fairly long too, but my perception of that is kind of skewed these days now I've gotten into the habit of typing posts on multiple devices, so apologes in advance for any stange formatting choices! But I digress as usual. I'll be back with more of my Bandcamp scoops sometime next week but until then, as always - stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

20 Summers Back

I'm having a bit of a Warp renaissance as of late - this past weekend the usually dormant Boards Of Canada twitter account came out of the woodwork to retweet some articles celebrating the 20th anniversary of the release of Geogaddi. In times past, I'd have been among them at the time (or at least tried to be) but even having missed the actual date, I think the album itself is more than worth a revisit.

Geogaddi is a very dense album, and not just because it's got the biggest tracklist of all their mainline albums. It's dense because it is steeped in atmosphere - here the Boards really lean into their aesthetic - resulting in an album that is brimming with psychedelia, tinged with 60's nostalgia, and thanks to some subtle (and some not so subtle) nods to the occult, a slightly menacing undertone - the subtlest being the inclusion of one final track of silence on the album that is purely there to raise the album's runtime to 66 minutes and 6 seconds.

As a result it's perhaps not the best starting point if you're new to the Boards, I'd recommend the previous album Music Has The Right To Children for that, but even so it's home to some of their finest works as well. Following the standard Boards Of Canada modus operandi - after a brief intro to set the stage in Ready Lets Go, we immediately dive into Music Is Math. Which is a tune that is going to make me instantly walk back the statement I just made about it not being a good intro to a first time listener - an almost distillation of the quintessential BoC sound, if you like this, you can pretty much go ahead and grab the rest of their discography for more.



But it's not long before the slightly sinister elements make an appearance as it's followed by Beware The Friendly Stranger, which you may recognise from David Firth's Salad Fingers series - it's a melodic interlude, but with a menacing crackle and fizz lurking just below the surface, which is will be a recurring theme throughout the tracklist. We're going to jump quite a bit forward to highlight another standout in 1969, which continues the trend of comforting yet unsettling. The beats are surprisingly heavy on all of Geogaddi which is demonstrated very well here. Crown it with some of the most explicitly deliberate cult imagery on the album (the sample here is "Although not a follower of David Koresh, she's a devoted Branch Davidian", just with Koresh's name reversed) and you have the complete Geogaddi recipe. It's hypnotic but doesn't outstay it's welcome at a (nice) 4:20, the final quarter when the track title's namesake comes into play it is magical - I can never get enough of that robotic '1969, in the sunshine'.



I am skipping over a majority here which does feel like a bit of a disservice, Geogaddi is a record that deserves to be experienced in its entirety at least once - but I am also playing favourites here. Speaking of favourites, some of my top Boards Of Canada tunes all follow a similar formula - the short melodic ambient interludes that punctuate the albums. Over The Horizon Radar is one of them, lovely but fleeting. I usually find myself saying 'just one more time' when they do come up as a a result, this one along with Olson from Music Has The Right To Children are probably my two most played of them all as a result. Over The Horizon Radar ushers in the final quarter of the album, and marks the end of the darker sound as well - the final few tracks are all beautiful in their own ways.



Over The Horizon Radar is followed by Dawn Chorus, which is also one of my favourites (and one I've not done a very good job of describing having searched the archives). You'd be forgiven for not really getting the darker side of the album given my selections, none of them other than 1969 really show it - and Dawn Chorus continues that trend - what can I say, I'm picking favourites after all! It's a sparkling, sun dressed celebration of its title. The end result is nothing short of euphoric, when this one hits on certain days it is like nothing else. It is just wonderful, an absolute treat to listen too, and one that is all the sweeter when its been a long time since hearing it last as is the case with me.



It doesn't seem that long since the 20th anniversary of the album before, Music Has The Right To Children, but then again I suppose everyone's perception of time is a little warped these days (no pun intended). That and Geogaddi will be forever linked in my head as I picked them both up around the same time when I went on my huge Warp Records deep dive however long ago. Two landmark albums that I think any fan of electronic music could do with hearing once - the Boards boys absolutely nailed their aesthetic by this point on both the visual and audio front and would go on to influence many others in the electronic music sphere.

This little excursion has been fun, I'll be sure to rifle through my collection and see if I can't spot any more upcoming album anniversaries that I could cover. I hope you've all enjoyed it too, (my coverage has matured a little bit since the first time I've covered these albums as a teen!) and if this is your first time really listening to the BoC, then welcome - and I'm sure you'll enjoy your time with them. Until next time - as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Get Popped

Fritz Glarner - Relational Painting #65 (1953)
Bit longer between posts than I would have liked, I just haven't had the energy to sit down and write anything, but that's because this week has been shite to put it mildly. And there's still one more day to go which is also shaping up to be the final shit cherry on top of the shit sundae. But let's not dwell on that too much, you don't come here to listen to me whine after all. Hot off the heels of last post, I've been revisiting the electronic pop of my collection, let's have a look.

Kicking off with a record I'm surprised I haven't mentioned more - Young Ejecta (FKA just 'Ejecta'). The duo had been on my 'to listen' list for ages after looking deeper into the discogs of Joel Ford, as I looked for something to scratch my Ford & Lopatin itch. Dominae isn't quite in the same retro vein as the Ford & Lopatin record, but its a lovely slice of the kind of electropop I really dig. Small Town Girl is the one I've had on repeat recently - the intro is a little bit darker than the main event, the switch up in sound around the 23 second mark is lovely, the electronics are lush and Leanne Macomber's breathy vocals compliment them really well. The uptempo switch around 1:10 also never fails to get me toe tapping, there are tons of great moments like that scattered throughout the album actually! I've not got around to their other LPs yet so expect them to make an appearance when I get to them.



What would an synth/electropop post be without Au Revior Simone? They're the usual suspects whenever I talk around this space, I love their style and their albums have been a great source for when I need to scratchy that synthy poppy itch. I've gone with a non-album tune this time, Come Away is a one-off released a couple of years ago now, though it originally debuted at David Lynch’s Festival of Disruption in 2018. It, and it's sister one-off release How Long are the most recent things we've heard from them, and while I ache for more from there, there is plenty in their back-catalogue to get stuck into. Come Away gets a little lost in my collection by virtue of it being in this single format, but when it does come up, its a real good time - the chorus is delightfully dreamy.



Taking a bit of a turn away form the pure electronic for the next one - another band I'm surprised I haven't mentioned before: Trembling Blue Stars. My first introduction was Sometimes I Still Feel The Bruise, which is one of those songs that for me was brutally relatable in its lyrical content - the Blue Stars' output does have that streak of melancholy running throughout most of it (though ironically not on No More Sad Songs, the original final track from the album I'll be talking about today). I feel like Fast Trains And Telegraph Wires strikes a nice balance between the electronic and acoustic, Cold Colours comes out feeling a little bit retro as a result, twinned with lyrics dealing with being ghosted makes for a suitably dour experience, especially given the week I've had.



One more to see us out, I've gone back to Helen Marnie of Ladytron's first solo album (as one reviewer cleverly put it, Lady, without the Tron). It's incredibly hard to avoid drawing comparisons between the two, given Marnie's contributions to Ladytron. Not to diminish her solo effort though, the record does have it's own distinct and different identity than a Ladytron record - but at the same time if you like Ladytron, you will like this LP as well. Slick electronics are the order of the day on Crystal World, and the opening duet of The Hunter and We Are The Sea makes for a stellar opening to the album, but I've talked about The Hunter before so I'm going with the latter this time. Crystal World does a fantastic job of displaying Marnie's songwriting: lots of creative rhymes and an interesting rhythm to the delivery makes her vocal as much a highlight as the electronics.



And that'll be all for this time, apologies for the slight delay but hopefully this makes up for it a little bit! I still have a couple of half finished posts in the archives I might try and spruce up, but I may put a few other smaller ones in there as well just for exercise. But enough about the internal runnings of the site - I hope you find some tunes here you really dig and as always: Stay safe an enjoy the music.

-CVF

Re-Broadcast

Returning to an old flame of mine with this one - we're talking about one of my all time favourites and one of the more lesser known Warp acts, Broadcast. A unique sound amidst the other Warp clientele, Broadcast's works were a refreshing change of pace for a teenage me, who until then had been strictly listening to only electronic music. Not that I didn't have any non-electronic music, but the things I was finding were so much more interesting, you know? I'd still say it's a good 80-20 split to this day, but Broadcast were one of the acts that started that shift.

It's been a long time since then, and to this day returning to Broadcast is a very cosy experience - I have loved and will continue to love these records, but it has been a while since I've been back to them. I've spent a good part of this week doing one giant revisit, as Warp announced some new Broadcast stuff: some reissues of previously tour-exclusive works and a proper official release of some sessions they did for the BBC. It's the latter that has me the most excited, after the Peel Session they did wasn't included when Warp reissued the other ones from the label recently I thought hope was gone. Naturally, I've had bootleg recordings of the sessions for years already, but I am very interested in hearing proper professional versions of them.

Of note is the track Forget Every Time, never released on any albums or EPs, but it is one of my favourites the group ever did. A perfect demonstration of their sound circa the mid-late 90's, full of swirling synths and underpinned with that distinctive 60's throwback psychedelia that would define their first few albums. Coming back to them now, I've fallen in love with Trish Keenan's lyricism all over again - from the playful wordplay and abstraction of Tender Buttons to the more traditional songwriting of their early work, Keenan has penned some lines that sometimes appear from the ether in my head. So I thought I'd share some of them here today.

Going quite early to begin with - Lights Out from the compilation Work And Non Work, a summary of their first few EPs. This compilation was a companion for me during a pretty strange time in my life, and to be honest could make up the whole post with the lines I could quote from it. Lights Out is a slice of melancholy compared to the rest of the tracklist, one that brings the whole compilation tracks to a suitably mellow end. Trish's lyrics on it are also suitably listless as well, full of intensely relatable lines to late teen like I was at the time. Most obvious of them is the curtain call of the chorus: "I want to watch the car park empty / It's easy when they're strangers to say goodbye", but my favourite one is in the very first stanza: "My room's too small for parties / Too spacious when you're lonely"



It's not all gloomy tough, we're jumping forward to their proper debut on Warp Records from 2000, The Noise Made By People. A strong contender for one of my favourite album covers as well - designed by Julian House who does a fantastic job of capturing the audio experience of Broadcast in visual form. On revisit The Noise Made By People is quite a bit more somber than I remember, but Look Outside sure isn't. The whole album is a very good jumping in point for Broadcast (for this era at least), I'm scrolling through the tracklist now and each one is an integral part of the experience. There is of course some admitted bias on my part there, but if you like the sound of the above and this one, you too will fall in love with this record. My favourite moment from this one remains Trish's delivery of the line "You colour in the everyday, wherever I go"



Let's touch on their later work now with Tender Buttons, named for the Gertrude Stein collection of poems and employing a simialr abstract approach to the lyricism. I think that approach works better when set to music as it lets the abstraction play with the rhythms, which Keenan does to great effect throughout, best seen on the title track Tender Buttons. The album itself marks an interesting development in the Broadcast sound beyond the lyrics though, reduced at this point to a skeleton crew of just James Cargill and Trish Keenan, the album is a much more DIY sounding affair - the electronics taking a much more pronounced role than on previous releases. It can be a bit divisive among the fans but I really like it, the feeback-y bits of tracks like Black Cat and this one here are nice (if a little confusing if your phone is nearby!). There are plenty of lyrical highlights scattered throughout the tracklist, but I want to highlight this line from Corporeal because it has a really nice rhythm to it: "Under the white chalk / Drawn on the blackboard / Under the X-Ray / I'm just a vertabrae".



I've neglected to mention the album between these ones - Haha Sound but rest assured I could easily pop it on here among plenty of other examples as well, honourable mentions to Inside the mask, another disguise / I fall to sleep before closing my eyes" from Valerie. But I'm going to put a pin in it for now as I've gone a little long - and I will probably be revisiting this theme once again once the aforementioned 'new' Broadcast stuff comes out. I adore Broadcast, and the passage of time has done little to dull that shine. Very happy to see new material officially coming out as well, James Cargill has mentioned in the past that there is a fair amount of unreleased work they have, and he semi-frequently posts bits and pieces to the web as well.

We'll take this trip again closer to the release of those goodies in a month or so, but until then - as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF