Foxbase Ultra / 3 To New York Overnight

I’ve been obsessed with Saint Etienne’s first two albums (in their Deluxe Editions) more than any other LP over the last eighteen months so just for fun put together a 48 minute continuous mix of selected tracks from Foxbase Alpha. Click the image below for the link to stream or download.

Tracklist:

Intro / This Is Radio Etienne
Like The Swallow
Speedwell (Project Mix)
Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Andrew Weatherall Mix)
Studio Kinda Filthy
Wilson
Spring
Kiss And Make Up
Kiss And Make Up (US Version)
Nothing Can Stop Us
Girl VII
Chase HQ
Stoned To Say The Least
She’s The One
Sky’s Dead
People Get Real
Sweet Pea
Etienne Gonna Die
Sally Space
Carnt Sleep
Dilworth’s Theme / Outro

There may yet be a “So Tougher”, if time.

3 To New York Overnight

Also just recently managed to get the Ultramix 09 extract of Britney vs Falty DL & Hudson Mohawke back on YouTube. The original ‘3′ clip was from iTunes and it seems clips bought there are encoded in a way for YouTube’s Content ID system to identify them very quickly even if they’ve been re-rendered. To get around this I exported the clip in Premiere as a Targa sequence and then re-assembled it. Hopefully that will work. I don’t believe this kind of work, while still an obvious infringement, is a threat to the copyright as it’s presenting the material in a very different and exclusive context.

The clip features the new ‘text credit’ sequence I created featuring the ‘robin egg blue’ hexagon motifs associated with the base58/ghost food brand. This is intentionally reminiscent of music video channels ‘labelling’ of aired promos.

Spring Update

1. Hello you. Here’s what I’ve been up to lately.

2. You may have already noticed that I changed my Twitter name from @modeskeletor to @chezghost. Why? Because @ghostfood was annoyingly taken only recently and isn’t even being used much. Why @ghostfood? Because that’s my name of my new site(s): ghostfood.tv, ghostfoom.com and ghostfood.co.uk -- the first domain names I’ve bought for a few years.

I’ve alway been crap choosing and using names for my works. I dawdled on base58 for ages before conceding that I couldn’t come up with something ‘cooler’ and at least it was short and sweet and cornily reminiscent of Area 51 in a way that might just come off as cute. ‘Ghost Food’ is a name I should’ve been using already as it’s a (fairly obscure) joke from TMWRNJ that’s over ten years old now. The origin isn’t too important tho. What’s important is that I’ll be using it for almost everything I do from now on -- mixes, mash-ups, a/v edits, my own music, design work and so on. Soon ghostfood.tv will become the default URL for this site but I’ll keep base58.com anyway.

I wanted a name that was two syllables, two words that could be put together and for that combination to sound exciting and fun. After all a lot of what I do is knocked out with that principle in mind. For a particularly pretentious analogy that doesn’t quite hang together, I am like a ghost who eats other people’s art kids to make new monsters. Mm.

SO next up is a logo that demonstrates all the malarkey. Any excuse to create a logo. The base58/VCS emblem needs an update too. I need a better eagle with full wings, and it probably needs to be Actually 3D but finding the time to relearn 3D Studio Max or similar will be tough.

2a. I’ve set up a Ghost Food channel on YouTube which currently features the Beyonce/Flying Lotus mash-up and the Royksopp remix (neither had been added to the existing base58com YT channel so here):

And here’s the YT playlist featuring all my stuff currently on there. I will add to this as I go. Need to get the Britney/Falty/HudMo vid (which you can view in the player at the top of this page) on there. It got zapped very quickly because I’m pretty sure YouTube’s Content ID system can recognise most videos bought on iTunes immediately (happened with the Beyonce one too, and now the Black-Eyed Peas/Bag Raiders mash-up). Foiled again.

2b. I changed my Soundcloud name to GhostFood also.

3. The other big deal is that I finally finished the reworking of Ultramix 90 and there’s a new webpage for it here (the other mixes will use that design soon too). The new version of this mix I first did just over five years ago is to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the tracks featured. It’s split into five parts all just under an hour long and includes redone bits, a re-arranged order, extra tracks and some lovely new combos and segues. Very pleased with it to the point where I don’t expect to be messing about with it ever again. But I still want to make that 90 minute version somehow (as teased in this clip I put together some time ago)…

More later this week.

Re-Entry

Too much upheaval over the last few months to have been able to blog, due to moving house (twice) and being generally unsettled. The feed on the right gives basic updates at least. The problem is that I now have about a dozen unfinished (or even unstarted) projects. The Ultramix has stalled, although I did get three more parts to last year’s up – at least another four to come…but WHEN? Let’s say…June? Buh…

No point talking about what’s GOING to happen tho. For now, you may like this re-edit of Goldfrapp’s ‘Voicething’ I spent a couple of hours on. Nothing fancy, just a thumping kickdrum and a little sub-bass underneath.

Recently I went exploring in Sweden (Gothenburg) and Norway (Oslo, Tromso and Bergen). The photos are slowly appearing. A cold and lonely yet inspiring and memorable experience. I did not see the Northern Lights, disappointingly, but the glacial beauty of the snow-covered mountains almost made up for this. Gothenburg and Oslo are lovely places but I enjoyed the nature more than the city environments and the coach journey from GBG to OSL itself was fantastic (wonderful scenery, the most comfortable coach I’ve ever been on – thanks bus4you.se – and imo pretty cheap esp. compared to everything else). I flew no less than five times during the tour which helped ease my flying anxiety after having gone over 18 months without being on a plane. The descent into Tromso was pretty rough tho – bumpiest I’ve had but the view was spectacular as the plane broke through the snowclouds to reveal white land between the gun-metal blue fjords and inlets. Amazing really. Amongst other things I also went dog-sledding and had my face nearly frozen off.

What I would like to do now is try and finish at least ONE track (the second demo from this clip is the leading candidate but it’s been what six months now!), start (re)learning 3D animation for the benefit of the video edits I’ll be doing more often, new Ultramix shit, more 00s mixes and lists of course including a 00s Albums list and the definitive 00s tracks list (based on the five categorised ones I already did). Too much? Never enough!

Favourite 00s Albums, as chosen year by year

In preparation for some kind of forthcoming favourite 00s albums list, here’s a recap of which albums I picked as favourites at the end of each of the last ten years.

2000: Laurent Garnier – Unreasonable Behaviour (FR)

2001: The Avalanches – Since I Left You (AU)

2002: The Streets – Original Pirate Material (UK)

2003: OutKast – Speakerboxxx / The Love Below (US)

2004: Annie – Anniemal (NO)

2005: Broadcast – Tender Buttons (UK)

2006: The Knife – Silent Shout (SE)

2007: Feist – The Reminder (CA)

2008: Erykah Badu – New AmErykah Part 1: Fourth World War (US)

2009: The Juan Maclean – The Future Will Come (US)

Think less than half of those will actually make a 00s top 10 now, using the average percentage rating system. I think I overrated Garnier, OutKast (tho maintain there’s as many good-great tracks on there as on any of the other single albums here), Broadcast and Feist a bit but still like them all. Of course there’s a few albums I overlooked or didn’t get round to in their year of release that became firm favourites later, one of which is likely to top the overall list.

Pleased also about the amount of different nationalities there. Three American albums, two British and one each from France, Australia, Norway, Sweden and Canada. Only three debut albums which is interesting although for three others (Garnier, Feist and The Juan Maclean) it was the first album I’d heard in full by each. Two solo men, three solo women, one male duo, three male/female duos, only one group of sorts – again quite a nice balance (I guess I hate Actual Bands tho ha).

I think that’s enough sad-statting for now…

20 Favourite Albums of 2009

1. The Juan Maclean – The Future Will Come (US)
2. Washed Out – Life Of Leisure [EP] (US)
3. Mungolian Jet Set – We Gave It All Away…Now We Are Taking It Back (NO)
4. Fever Ray – Fever Ray (SE)
5. Röyksopp – Junior (NO)
6. St. Vincent – Actor (US)
7. Telefon Tel Aviv – Immolate Yourself (US)
8. Toddla T – Skanky Skanky (UK)
9. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion (US)
10. Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport (UK)
11. Flying Lotus – Los Angeles (US)*
12. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz! (US)
13. The xx – The xx (UK)
14. Major Lazer – Guns Don’t Kill People…Lazers Do (US/UK)
15. Electrik Red – How To Be A Lady (Vol. 1) (US)
16. DJ Sprinkles – Midtown 120 Blues (US)
17. Andrew Weatherall – A Pox On The Pioneers (UK)
18. Friendly Fires – Friendly Fires (UK)*
19. Washed Out – High Times [EP] (US)
20. Meanderthals – Desire Lines (NO/UK)

Just under: The-Dream, Cortney Tidwell, Franz Ferdinand (with ‘Blood’, not ‘Tonight’!), Falty DL, Moderat, Lindstrom & Christabelle, El Perro Del Mar, Ebony Bones, Junior Boys, Little Boots, Julian Casablancas and Broadcast & The Focus Group

* released in 2008. Artist name in bold indicates debut LP under that name.

Ignored by pretty much every big mag when it came to end of year lists, ‘The Future Will Come is an ambitious, bittersweet but dry-witted album with a general theme of a relationship on the edge (be it in the painful process of deterioration or literally a love affair with a machine) carried primarily by three practically perfect pop dance tracks; the very lovely ‘One Day’, marred only by it’s relative briefness and not-quite-satisfactory arrangement, the terrific ‘No Time’ with it’s dry ‘lovers tiff at a rave’ theme and ‘Mentasm’ revival, plus the teary epic disco of ‘Tonight’ demonstrating what the Pet Shop Boys COULD be doing now instead of their stagnant (by their standards) ‘Yes’ LP). But the title track, ‘Accusations’ and the poignant ‘Human Disaster’ aren’t far behind and with ‘Happy House’ closing proceedings I remain frustrated by the lack of love for the album out there. The sudden death of drummer Jerry Fuchs in November may add extra poignancy to the experience now but this seemed like a winner even before I saw their small but perfectly formed live show at Cargo in the Summer.

Just missing out on the top spot is the equally scintillating but deeply frustrating Life Of Leisure EP from Washed Out. The hooks, moods and ideas throughout this sequence of demo-like half-songs sounded SO pure, fresh and exhilarating to me (and of course capturing that sense of hedonism thru a melancholic lens that I tend to favour) that despite every track being far too short and under-developed it came very close to edging out The JM. Hopefully 2010 will see a longer FLESHED out piece of work from Ernest Greene that builds on the potential shown here.

From the agonisingly short to the almost unbearably long, Mungolian Jet Set’s own universe of sonic splendour was completely new to me last year so although many double-album’s tracks are remixes and go back a couple of years, it felt like a genuine ‘blast of future’.

Karin Dreijer Andersson left brother Olof on the dancefloor to take The Knife’s dark fantasies out of the club, through paranoid suburbia and back to the forest – retaining all that was great about ‘Silent Shout’ bar the dancefloor dynamics (instead provided by reliable remixers from Rex The Dog and Studio, to Martyn and Scuba) and consolidating her position as a towering goth pop force.

Röyksopp finally returned and so keen was I for them to do so that Junior was the year’s easiest sell. Armed with a new cascade of dreamscapes, deftly twisted samples of Funkadelic and Stevie Wonder, and an all girls guestlist of Karin, Robyn, Lykke Li and Anneli Drecker, no ambient pop album last year sounded as unfussily lush and comforting.

I can thank Pitchfork for introducing me to Annie Clark aka St. Vincent who delivered where The Bird And The Bee failed to this time and threw in all kinds of extra wonders with co-producer John Congleton, including shades of Talking Heads and Bowie on the superb ‘Marrow’. ‘Save Me From What I Want’ even reminds me of LFO’s ‘Loch Ness’.

Telefon Tel Aviv also mesmerised with ‘Immolate Yourself’ esp. its highlights ‘The Birds’ and ‘Stay Away From Being Maybe’ (too bad Depeche Mode’s ‘Sounds Of The Universe’ didn’t sound more like this imo), released a week before the death of its co-creator Charles Cooper whose dazzling talents as demonstrated here reveal another huge and terrible loss.

Youthful Yorkshireman Toddla T released my favourite (and the funn(i)est) British album last year with the help of Mr Versatile, Serocee, Roots Manuva, Tinchy Stryder and more. A few annoying bits (most of ‘Sunny Money’ and the inclusion of the “Queens Of Noise” skit) couldn’t spoil the party.

Animal Collective made up for often annoying vocals with a brilliant palette of sounds daubed throughout the duration of MPP, evoking Magnetic Fields ‘Holiday’, The Orb’s wackier escapades and…I’m still trying to work out what else it can be compared to, which means I should stop.

Fuck Buttons, assisted by Andy Weatherall, built giant beautiful storms of rhythmic textures, and though some of them went on too long without progressing for me, the results overall were pretty undeniable.

I listened to a few more albums than usual in 2009 thanks to Spotify making it much easier to do so. As a result this list is a bit more detailed and thorough than what I usually come up with (despite my continued annoyance at how album-centric things remain). Part of that may be down to thinking it might be the last time I do such a thing but as it’s likely to become even easier to hear them…I can’t decide. Anyway for the first time ever I made the list based on rating each track on an album out of 10 and calculating the average score from the total – a technique I find quite useful but hadn’t used in this way before. It’s not really worth posting all the scores but fwiw Juan and co. scored 81/100 and there were only 5 points between St. Vincent (74) and Meanderthals (69).

Some albums from 2009 I didn’t make time to hear and rate (but might get in next year’s list if I do one) in 09:

• Black Meteoric Star – Black Meteoric Star
• Hudson Mohawke – Butter
• Joe Goddard – Harvest
• Martyn – Great Lengths
• Memory Tapes – Seek Magic
• Neko Case – Middle Cyclone
• Neon Indian – Psychic Chasms
• Nite Jewel – Good Evening
• Redshape – The Dance Paradox
• Smith & Mudd – Le Suivant
• Shafiq Husayn – Shafiq En’ A-Free-Ka

I’ve really enjoyed being able to hear music the way I want to this year (streamed in high quality and CORRECTLY TAGGED for last.fm purposes Spotify may already be too successful a method tho – I’m inclined to download stuff less and less without hearing it first, and I effectively abandoned last.fm’s own radio system last year which is a shame as it remains good in its own way.

I just wrote way more than I meant to so that’s enough for now. Happy listening in 2010 and beyond.

« Older Entries