Maps - It Will Find You (Mute, 2007)

Luminous electronic Shoegaze

Maps is the nom-de-Shoegaze of solo artist James Chapman. 'It Will Find You' was a single of no little shimmering beauty from his 'We Can Create' debut album.

It builds layer-upon-layer of gauzy melody around a puttering drum pattern. It has the open space and stately grandeur of Slowdive's classic 'Catch The Breeze' but is machine-based Shoegaze rather than guitar-based. So maybe it should actually be called Fingergaze instead?

Download Maps 'It Will Find You' (shoegaze mp3) (Divshare)

The Chemical Brothers - Life Is Sweet (Daft Punk Mix) (Freestyle Dust, 1995)

Tasty slammer, made more slamming.

Daft Punk give Tim Burgess' vocal the heave and turn the twisty synthetic funk of the original into a straightforward juggernaut.

Download The Chemical Brothers 'Life Is Sweet (Daft Punk Mix)' (House, Big Beat, mp3) (Mediafire)

Caribou / Manitoba - If Assholes Could Fly, This Place Would Be An Airport (The Leaf Label, 2003)

Tight, funky dancefloor electronica.

Beautifully spring, tight, tech funky electronica business from 2003 before Dan Snaith was forced to change is nom de tronica from Manitoba to Caribou.

Intelligently mental stuff from the ever-reliable Leaf Label that just stops short of a 'woo!... yeah!' moment.

Download Caribou / Manitoba - If Assholes Could Fly, This Place Would Be An Airport (The Leaf Label, techno, electronica, mp3) (Divshare)

Orbital - Belfast (Original Version) (FFRR, 1991)

Simply beautiful.

To me, this record is an utterly beguiling glide through late night, sodium lit streets, the remnants of the previous evening's tunes ghosting through your brain.

You drift along in a semi-conscious state. Jimmy Saville appears in one of those foil blankets they give out at the end of marathons. He proceeds to give you a lecture about the history of dance music and the fact that he was the first DJ to use twin turntables. And about how the US Army used to use MDMA, back in the day. Not the "back in the day" you're thinking, son, the 1950s.

Then you wake up.

Download Orbital - Belfast (Original Version) (FFRR, 1991)

Four Tet & Burial - Nova (Text, 2012)

Rolling Deep House through a haze of urban cold. 

Another Four Tet and Burial collaboration. Maybe we can expect a full album?

Fuses dubstep bleakness with Deep House patter what sounds like Eastern atmospheric samples.

Think the Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence soundtrack remixed by Photek.

Very subdued but very intriguing. Soon come on Four Tet's Text label (TEXT013).

Four Tet & Burial 'Nova' (Text, Dubstep, Deep House, Electronica) (Soundcloud)

Outshine Family 'Get Laid Like An Egg' (Black Maps, 2011)

Beautiful over-looked gem from 2011.

I picked this album early in 2011 on the back of giving it a spin on a listening post in Rough Trade.

It's a gentle, slowly-unfolding piece of laidback folkiness built up on what seems like an orchestra of instrumentation - banjo, strings, pedal steel, choir, guitars, drums, percussion, plus delays and backwards masking...

A distant cousin of the sleepy vibe of The Lilac Time's 'Black Velvet' with added atmospherics a la Neverest Songs 'Paper Trumpets'.

The album is a real treat too. Perfect Sunday fare.

Download Outshine Family 'Get Laid Like An Egg' (folk, indie mp3 download) (Mediafire)

Beige 'The Rhythm! The Message?' (Leaf, 2000)

Frentic, pretty-much bangin, slab of electronica from 2000.

The Leaf Label is a truly eclectic home for jazzers, drum'n'bass heads, electronica, folktronica, folk and artists who mix two or more of those things together.

This tune by one-man-mentalist Beige is a both efficient and linear as well as being just twisted enough to be interesting.

Available to buy as a 12" along with the great Beige album from The Leaf Label online.

Download Beige 'The Rhythm! The Message?' (electronica mp3) (Mediafire)

Goldfrapp 'Utopia (Live Session)' (Mute, 2000)

E

Exquisite live version with some of the squiggliest synths outside of the Radiophonic Workshop.

From a promo CD that must have been made available to radio stations so they could pretend Alison and Will were live in the studio.

'Utopia' is a highlight of the fantastically elegant Ennio Morricone-meets-Delia-Derbyshire sound of 'Felt Mountain'. The cinematic feel of Portishead, the Moog-y wonderland of Stereolab allied to a soaring Wagnerian swoop.

Also features the line "my dog needs new ears" which is pretty cool, though the song seems to be about the idea of the supermensch and maybe even eugenics.

You don't get that from Kasabian.

Download Goldfrapp 'Utopia (Live Session)' (electronica mp3 download) (Mediafire)

Download the whole Goldfrapp Live Session over on Archive:Live+Rare

Sweet Exorcist 'Testone' (Warp, 1990)

Early bleep magic from Sheffield's crucible of a machine-driven magic.

This record is made out of almost nothing, it's incredible. A bleepline, some echo, a very simple drum machine, a bassline, a snippet of vocal sample and a bit of synth for the breakdown. That's all there is to it but, my god, it conjures up so much more than the sum of its parts.

It's a groove. It's a feeling. It sums up a whole movement and the euphoria of succumbing to the tryannny of the bleep and echospace in between the notes.

Put together by former Cabaret Voltaire man Richard H. Kirk and Richard Barrett (aka Parrot, later to form the All Seeing I) in 1989, it was one of the first releases on Warp in 1990. Its lineage can be traced right back through Humanoid's 'Stakker Humanoid' to Mr. Fingers to Strings Of Life to New Order to Giorgio Moroder to Kraftwerk. Its impact was to directly inspire ten years of dancefloor mayhem - Tricky Disco, LFO and beyond.

A true work of art.

Download Sweet Exorcist 'Testone' (WAP3, bleep, electronica, acid house mp3 download) (Mediafire)

Hatchback 'Everything Is Neu' (Lo Recordings, 2008)

Burbling, electronic version of the motorik eternal groove.

Discovered this gem of krautrock-ing wonder on the recent Advisory Circle mixtape and have listened to it loads since.

It's a blend of kosmische groove, burbling Belbury Poly sequencer lines and expansive electronic joy, building into waves of warm squiggly energy.

"Kommen Sie aus Milton Keynes" it seems to be saying in that 1970s public information type way.

Spectacularly good.

Download Hatchback 'Everything Is Neu' (electronica, krautrock mp3 download) (Mediafire)

Thom Yorke 6Mix mp3 (BBC 6Music DJ Set) (16/10/2011) (Radiohead)

Nicely eclectic blend of electronica, glitch and downbeat indie by Radiohead's Thom Yorke.

Two hours of tracks selected by Thom Yorke for BBC 6Music's 6Mix.

Includes tracks from Radiohead's 'TKOL RMX' album, plus mixes by the likes of James Blake, Burial, Kode9 and Autechre and tracks from an eclectic selection from Low and PJ Harvey to Modeselektor, Ricardo Villalobos and Aphex Twin.

Tracklist (1hr 55min 30s):
Erykah Badu 'The Healer'
J. Dill 'Geek Down'
King Midas Sound 'One Thing (Dabrye Remix)'
Aloe Blacc 'Whole World'
Owiny Sigoma Band 'Margaret Okodo'
Thom Yorke 'Stuck Together (Remix)'
Radiohead 'Little By Little (Caribou Remix)'
Low 'Monkey'
-
Radiohead 'Little By Little (Shed Mix)
Modeselektor 'Kill Bill Vol. 4'
2512 'The Wind Up'
Steve Poindexter 'Short Circuit (C64 Bypass Mix)
FaltyDL 'My Friends Will Always Say'
Ramadanman 'Glut'
Pangea 'You & I'
Gil Scott Heron & Jamie xx 'New York Is Killing Me'
Radiohead 'Good Morning Mr. Magpie (Nathan Fake Harshdub)'
Thom Yorke 'And It Rained All Night (Burial Remix)'
Untold & James Blake 'Stop What You’re Doing (James Blake Remix)'
DJ Slugo 'Waiting For You Demdike'
Felix Da Housecat 'What Does It Feel Like?'
Tapes 'Outro'
Tapes 'Gold Love Riddim'
The Low Anthem 'Matter Of Time'
Aphex Twin 'Hy A Scullyas Lyf Adhagrow'
Radiohead 'Codex (Illum Sphere Remix)'
Ricardo Villalobos & Max Loderbaur 'Recat'
PJ Harvey 'When Under Ether'
Radiohead 'Paperbag Writer'
Emika 'Double Edge'
Radiohead 'Bloom (Remix)'
Autechre 'Drane'
Wiley '100% Publishing'
Kode9 '9 Samurai (Quarta 330 Remix)'
Flying Lotus 'Zodiac'

Download Part 1 - Thom Yorke 6Mix mp3 - BBC 6Music 16/10/2011 (electronica, indie mixtape, DJ set) (Rapidshare)

Download Part 2 - Thom Yorke 6Mix mp3 - BBC 6Music 16/10/2011 (electronica, indie mixtape, DJ set) (Rapidshare)

New Music - 65daysofstatic 'Come To Me (featuring Robert Smith of The Cure)' (Monotreme, 2011)

Frenetic, driving post rocking electronica business. Good to have them back.

Great band that blazed a trail for the likes of Three Trapped Tigers.

They deal in a cut-and-shut of post-rock attitude, indie guitars and a sound-mangling electronica sensibility. It's the melodic guitar attack of Explosions In The Sky battered by Three Trapped Tigers with a bit of Pivot or Oval's electronic sound-bending. Plus a bit of Foals-y mayhem.

'Come To Me' is more of the same but it's a fantastic, headrush of sound and energy, using vocal snippets from Robert Smith of The Cure to add yelping shade to the mix.

Very good.

New album - 'We Were Exploding Anyway' - released in November on Monotreme.

Download 65daysofstatic 'Come To Me (featuring Robert Smith of The Cure)' (postrock, indie, electronica mp3) (via Stereogum)

Shy Child 'Noise Won't Stop' (Wall Of Sound, 2007)

Intense, unrelenting stream of frenetic noisy electro pop.

Shy Child are/were a duo who knocked-out this irresistible spew of Keith-Moon-as-a-robot drumming, sequenced bass, electronic squiggles, frantic vocals and call-and-response backing vocals.

Download Shy Child 'Noise Won't Stop' (electronic, indie, dance, electroclash mp3) (Mediafire)

Triosk 'Two; Twelve' (The Leaf Label, 2004)

Intense and organic hybrid of post-rock, jazz and glitchy looping.

Triosk were an Australian jazz trio who blended post-rock grooves and electronic loops and glitches into their mellifluous, flowing pieces. They incorporated the sound of Tortoise's lock-groove wonder with controlled intensity, dynamics and improvisatory nous of The Necks. They evolved into Pivot (later shortened to Pvt) who have released a couple of albums on Warp.

'Two; Twelve' is a teasing, languid jam that grows in intensity across some expansive, jazzy drumming. There some Tortoise-y vibes and some rich, dark brown double bass action. Little touches of glitch and squiggle rough up the smooth edges, making the sound akin to Miles Davis' fusion band somehow jamming with Autechre at the Isle of Wight in 1970. Under sedation.

Magical. Triosk's two albums on The Leaf Label are highly recommended.

Download Triosk 'Two; Twelve' (jazz, post rock, electronica mp3) (Mediafire)

Four Tet & Burial 'Moth' (Text, 2009)

Crafty slice of rhythmelodic electronica with dubstep undertones. Or is it dubstep with rhythmelodic overtones?

From the unmarked Text 12" that was snuck out to a scrum of interest prior to last year's Burial/Four Tet/Thom Yorke 12". I managed to get my hands on a copy thanks only to the benevolence of the Rough Trade West cru.

'Moth' is just a total genius record that's a perfect marriage of Burial's crunchy dubstep bleakbeats and Four Tet's crisp, flowing melodies.

Or is it a sublime confluence of Four Tet's crisp, dubstep loneliness and glitch with Burial's late-night angel vocal melody?

Who cares when a track is this good?

Download Four Tet & Burial 'Moth' (post-dubstep, dubstep, electronica, glitch, mp3) (Mediafire)

The Rapture 'Olio' (Output, 2002)

Seminal piece of dancefloor-indie hybridisation.

Check out footage of The Rapture on Youtube and you'll see a gangly, fairly conventional band line-up knocking out some machine beats and melancholy. It's a hybrid that Foals and Friendly Fires were paying attention to. It's inspiring stuff.

'Olio' is another track from the excellent 'Channel 2' complilation on Output (see previous posts on Blackstrobe and Playgroup). It's a rough-edged piece of tech-edged dancefloor misery that deserves to be segued nicely into LCD Soundsystem's 'Losing My Edge'.

It's beautiful.

Download The Rapture 'Olio (Full Length Version)' (punk funk, alternative, electronica, mp3 download) (Mediafire)

New Music - El Perro Del Mar 'What Do You Expect' (2011)

Darkwave synth work and political commentary - not what I expected from El Perro Del Mar.

Something of a diversion from the pure, almost twee, pop of yore.

Featuring dialogue samples of comments on the London/UK riots last month, 'What Do You Expect' is minimal, dark and edgy, nudging up next to Fever Ray/The Knife and reminding me of the great dubby, mutterings of (C)'s 'Witch' album. (Memo to self: must post from that soon.)

New album El Perro Del Mar expected in 2012.

What Do You Expect by El Perro Del Mar

Blackstrobe 'Me And Madonna' (Output, 2002)

Edgy hybrid of punk funk, deep house and New Order.

A simmering, late night ride on a propulsive rhythm, farting bassline and sleek synths with icy, detached female vocals and an almost-rapped, almost-Europop male vocal.

A breakdown brings some Peter Hook/New Order bass guitar and it grooves, elegantly to a close.

Download Blackstrobe 'Me and Madonna' (mp3) (Mediafire)

Kruder & Dorfmeister 'High Noon' (G Stone, 1993)

Very deep shit from kings of dubbed-out, jazzy hip-hop flavoured instrumentals.

Very, very languid stuff. Brown slabs of moody keys slide over a brushed drum shuffle. Hasn't dated a day to my ears.

File alongside Red Snapper, DJ Shadow, Isolee 'Beau Mot Plage', Ultramarine 'Saratoga' and then forget about the filing and listen to 'Girma's Lament' by Karl Hector & The Malhouns.

Download Kruder & Dorfmeister 'High Noon' (trip-hop, downtempo mp3) (Mediafire)

Radiohead vs Four Tet 'Separator' (XL, 2011)

Radiohead remixes series - including Four Tet's mix of 'Separator' - to come out on CD.

At Ease reports that Radiohead are to release the current 12"-only remixes on CD later in the year as 'TKOL RMX'.

It'll be a double CD featuring a second disc of previously unreleased mixes, including versions by the mighty SBTRKT and Jamie xx.

It's released in the UK on October 10th and the USA on October 11th. Check-out Four Tet's version of 'Separator' while you're waiting...

Disc 1 Tracklist:
01. Caribou 'Little By Little'
02. Jacques Greene 'Lotus Flower'
03. Nathan Fake 'Morning Mr Magpie'
04. Harmonic 313 'Bloom'
05. Mark Pritchard 'Bloom'
06. Lone 'Feral'
07. Pearson Sound 'Morning Mr Magpie Scavenger'
08. Four Tet 'Separator'

Disc 2 Tracklist:
01. Thriller 'Give Up The Ghost Houseghost'
02. Illum Sphere 'Codex'
03. Shed 'Little By Little'
04. Brokenchord 'Give Up The Ghost'
05. Altrice 'TKOL'
06. Blawan 'Bloom'
07. Modeselektor 'Good Evening Mrs Magpie'
08. Objekt 'Bloom'
09. Jamie xx 'Bloom Rework
10. Anstam 'Separator'
11. SBTRKT 'Lotus Flower'

Separator - Four Tet RMX by Radiohead