☟YES/NO☟: 80s

Showing posts with label 80s. Show all posts

Sunday, 31 December 2023

🔮 IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER: E.M.M.A.'S TOP 9 TRACKS OF 2023

E.M.M.A., aka producer, label owner and person Emma Davies, has intrigued us as a musicmaker since her astounding 'Mindmaze'. A mingling of huge beats and medieval, dungeon synth-adjacent melodies, it was certainly well received here (it was a moment).

But, of course, Davies has done more than blended UK-flavoured beats with fugues to create Renaissance riddims. Years, various projects, two albums (Blue Gardens and 2020's Indigo Dream) and an EP (Change My Mind, released this year) have passed since. Along the way she's crafted commercial and artistic soundtracks, providing audio backdrops for brands such as Gucci, for example, and a selection of short films

Davies is one of the masterminds behind Producergirls, a "beginners' music production workshop for girls" (currently on pause). In a previous interview with yes/no, Davies stated the aim behind the workshop series is "to encourage more women to try out electronic music production and to see if we can make the industry more gender balanced." This is not her only endeavour outside of musicmaking itself. She's the founder of label Pastel Prism, host for NTS show Angel Food alongside journalist Aimee Cliff, and is a regular DJ and mixmaker.

Her most recent release, Change My Mind, is a result of going down a "Miami Vice OG TV series rabbit hole."

"I had a few demos together at the end of 2022 but they were all sort of psychedelic and mellotron-based," says Davies. More Glyn Johns than Jan Hammer. "But having immersed myself in Miami Vice episodes, and taking over the TV for many months ... I was reminded that I actually have a record label named Pastel Prism, which was a reference to the soft powdery hues of '80s aesthetic." Thus the '80s theme stuck. With the aesthetic set, Change My Mind came into fruition "inspired by wanting to extract the most emotion with as few sounds as I can," she says.

And so the E.M.M.A. take on the top tracks of 2023 was always going to be interesting. Broad-ranging but beat-focused, her selection is international and close to home, as involved with atmospherics as it is honed on the thud and boom of myriad BPMs. Read on ☟

1. SHIMZ343 – 35BAGUMBRELLA

Emma Davies: SHIMZ343 is my favourite producer of the year (insert goat emoji here). Listening to this track is like watching a movie. There is a proper narrative going on and a really immersive world being built around you which moves you to a different place from where you were before you listened. I don’t want to say any more because I'd rather you listen and buy the track and see what I mean. Also he’s got a great eye for the visual aesthetic too. SHIMZ34 film soundtrack ASAP plz.

2. Adrian Carter – Motif

ED: I speak to Adi [Adrian Carter] quite regularly and he’s always banging out a hit in the studio. The thing I like about Adi’s music is to me it’s completely timeless, in the same way a lot (all?) of these tunes are. His melodies grasp at the meaning of life while also having the ability to turn any time of day into a party, a party you could imagine happening at any point in the last 40+ years. He’s a wizard. Having said that this tune [taken from October album Salt Horse] is not a party tune, maybe more of an after party, while questioning your life choices.

3. Novelist – Big Novelist

ED: No one needs me to point out Novelist is in a league of his own, but here I am pointing it out. His approach to music is very inspiring, not only how it sounds but how he places his work in the world and the intent behind it. This track released this year [on album 3.5 4 THA RIDE] is one of my favourites, as is ‘Again’. It also goes without saying that as someone also on an '80s flex from time to time that’s a particular characteristic of his tracks and aesthetic that I am a big fan of, his ability to synthesize a detailed palette of film and music influences into something completely unique.

4. Teplice – Revival

ED: Matilda [Jones] aka Teplice was the first person I released on my label Pastel Prism Records that wasn’t me. Shout out Dexplicit who is the other person. This release [Call It Home] on Hot Concept out of Berlin is super dreamy and I love the progression. There are snatches of vocals which I can’t really work out what’s being said, which I think makes it more impactful because your imagination joins the dots and therefore the mood is profound.

5. Etch – Guardare Ma Non Toccare

ED: My pal Etch has had loads of releases this year but I’ve picked this one from a “quick lil mish mash of 1-2min long tracks made in one evening using Italian Library & Film Soundtracks (YES ALL OF IT, EVEN THE WEIRD SYNTHY SHIT, IT’S CALLED FX CHAINS)” to quote the man himself. Me and him have got a collab coming out at some point, I’m sure he won’t mind me saying. We both use FL Studio so I regularly ask him how TF he has done something in his mix. I only ask about 3 people and he’s one of them. There’s nothing this guy can’t do, throw a BPM at him, I dare you.

Taken from Pslightly Psychedelic Sounds Of Italy Vol.1, which appears to be missing

6. Céline Gillain – They Play Games

ED: I simply came across this tune [from Brussels-based artist Céline Gillain's album Mind Is Mud] and liked it.

7. O'o – Moon

ED: As a big fan of the moon, this [track by Barcelona duo O'o] caught my eye. You’ve got to be careful referencing the moon because it’s such a big deal. That’s why I called my track “Ryan Gosling in Space” instead of “Ryan Gosling on the Moon”. I think this track does the moon justice. What we’re looking for here is a feeling of being recharged by the moon whilst simultaneously feeling completely insignificant.

8. Yamaneko ft. J.Day – Nowhere

ED: Yamaneko was the person who kept me sane during writing my first album Blue Gardens. Anyone who’s followed me for more than 5 mins will know I’ve played him in all of my sets, most recently seamlessly and effortlessly blending him with 'Crockett’s Theme' on NTS on a Friday night no less. Get your ears around this.

9. Valentina Magaletti and Zongamin – Candles

ED: Please see answer to No. 6. [taken from percussionist and drummer Valentina Magaletti's album Suono Assente, out on AD 93]

Photography by Sophie Davies [top] and Kate Molins [above]

🔔 Keep up to date with the latest E.M.M.A. releases on Bandcamp.

📠
☟ E.M.M.A. Internet Presence ☟
youtube ⚘ facebook ⚘ instagram ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ twitter ⚘ spotify

Wednesday, 20 September 2017

🐣 MOON MASK — TWENTY MINUTES DREAM RUNNER

Like a heavy heart this track shifts its way into your perception, that sinking stomach feeling, emptiness, beginning with a slow ominous luscious clopping clock and insectoid ticking and slumbering breaths and then we fall into the urgent synthpop of it all, and the vocals of Manila's moon mask opens up a deep croon: "Met you asleep in a dream…" Big thumping drums create a driving energy – a gotta-do-something '80s filmic montage of an atmosphere – with simple kick-snare alternation with stomping gloopy bass that cuts a basic booming groove beneath the miasma of electronics that glide and soar and punctuated by sparkling starlit melodies twinkling beneath it, bright neon chords electrify the heavenward introspective gloom of it, shocking strobes in the murksmoke.

But the dreamy atmosphere that dwells in 'twenty minutes dream runner' arises because, moon mask explained on Twitter, it's "based off a short story I wrote once about a decaying man reliving dream." There is indeed an aroma of decay that whirls around in this synth-laden dreamscape, the cardinal reverb that the drums are soaked in so they crack and roar in the song's verses, and in the literally decayed melody that twists and turns fizzing abrasive in the bridge, overdriven and piercing. The chorus is catchy, deliciously so, with rapid pogoing vocals: "20 minutes better run baby ah, 20 minutes left before they take you away…" A fantasy lovesong, an electronic pop elegy, this is the idealised grip of nostalgia manifested in the hazy hangover of something distantly dreamt.

🔔 You may purchase 'twenty minutes dream runner' digitally via Bandcamp if you like. It arrives ahead of moon mask's EP scheduled for release early next year; "I've been trying to take a bit of a new direction in my sound," says our boy in the track's description, and the new EP will probably mirror that sentiment.

📠
☟ moon mask Internet Presence ☟
Facebook • SoundCloud • Bandcamp • Twitter • Tumblr

Wednesday, 19 July 2017

🐣 ANNA OF THE NORTH — SOMEONE

In a hypnotising swirl of '80s flavours, a wash of mind-cleansing synth that spreads like nocturnal mist or faux fog from a smoke machine at a retro disco, Norwegian-New Zealand duo Anna of the North spin an expansive track in the form of 'Someone', exuding a sense of hopefulness, a filmic reverie whose soft focus scenes of neon-pink-and-green-on-black flash in your mind, a balance of feel-good fun and melancholy romance swinging to the rhythm of the thumping electro drums. "It’s about how easy it is to break your promises when you’ve had a couple of drinks," the band explains in a press release.

"Going deeper," it continues, "the song is about accepting that you’re only human and to learn how to forgive yourself for your own mistakes and accepting that sometimes we need someone to save us from repeating any old habits." You can definitely, definitely feel the drama of that explanation imbued in the track, something highly emotive at work as Anna literally sings asking for someone to come and save her. The wide, vast synths of this track suggest a newness, a discovery, a revelation, the feeling of having been closed up now cast aside in light of new acceptance, something about the cold light of day blaring bright as the glistening sheen of synth sparkles atop the juddering electro bass, sobriety and honesty set sail in a vessel of retro pop.

🔔 'Someone' is taken from Anna of the North's debut album Lovers, which is getting released on 8th September via, for some reason, three labels (Different Recordings / Honeymoon / +1 Records). You can pre-order it variously via this link.

📠
☟ Anna of the North Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ twitter ⚘ instagram ⚘ myspace

🐣 NSAY MADA — UNDER COVER

The vocals here are so softly done so falling over everything mistily like a veil, the long curls of its silken tones unfurling, whispers into the night air, the nocturnal desire effusing as from a smoke machine at an otherdimensional disco, how it is slowly serpentine like this, how it coils with the leisure and languor of looming lust, the low tones of Nsay Mada and her fluttering highs rich with feeling and focus, fragranced by its textures, pastel spray paint above the neon crunch of the throwback synth that frames this track perpetually in another realm of time where midnight is dark yet chequered with colours and promise of something more.

'Under Cover' keeps to this juddering syncopation, the clang of its electro mainstay providing the foundation, the simple alternating beat with the trebly kick and the shhff shaker shifting sand spray can snare (allegedly Joy Division achieved a similar drum quality in 'She's Lost Control' by spraying an aerosol can into a microphone), the sparse hi-hat chit-chat with the open sharpness echoing blissfully, drum machine tom tumbling occasionally, augmenting the sparse feel of the track, with the modulating synth, the hazy nebulous chords, the icy pings, all decorating and helping to augment that late night feeling with starlight apartment block window twinkles and slow hum of traffic taillights extending into night. Still, that voice, "under cover, under cover," this refrain unusual and fragmented, satin sheen on this sparkling bed of sounds.

🔔 'Under Cover' was produced by Cyenna Bay. You can catch more from Nsay Mada on SoundCloud.

📠
☟ Nsay Mada Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ official site ⚘ twitter

Monday, 17 August 2015

KODAK CAMEO – EVER COME BACK

Yahoo! Well, not exactly "yahoo" – more like a "whoaaah…" because you're not really going to be exactly leaping in the air over this one. It's not quite the energetic pick-me-up for sort of thing. It is however a soul-cleanser, an atmosphere giver, a set of sounds so vast and emotive that you cannot help but be possessed by them for the whole 4 minutes 11 seconds they exist.

"Wow sounds so nice already," you're saying, "What else?" Since you asked so nicely I'm gonna continue writing. It's called 'Ever Come Back', it's tagged "#pineapple", and it's by Kodak Cameo. Picture this: A warmcool breeze, a textured haze slowly fogging around a voidsome space, fragile melodies inching out from the swirling mists of imagination, '80s love ballad aesthetics rolling out like a panning shot of the Ciucaş Mountains, slowly zooming in until you a single blade of grass is crisp and clear onscreen. It's what the track sounds like.

If we're going to get label-y, then I suppose you could call this vaporwave – the transportive nature of the track (i.e. the feeling that you're somewhere else as you listen to it), the retro or throwback hints in the music, the slightly decayed or damaged veneer of it all. It's not un-vaporwave, that's for sure.

Unrelenting blasts of ambience wash over you with watercolour beauty and oil paint intensity, swathes of sound building a picture of bittersweetness decorated with aching snippets of saxophone snatched from some unknown jam, punctuated with glassy synth chords, rounding it all off with a flavour that's as robust as it is delicate, a fleeting ethereality that like passing clouds is huge and imposing but soon dissipates into nothingness.

The sparse sparkling melodies skipping over the merging meld of modulating synth and subtle rumblings, the minimal percussion in the form of reverbing shakers, the whole glittering mass of it, the gentle panning from left to right, the piercing light of its second third moving into the cooler stalwart sounds of its final third. It is an affecting morsel of sound, a touching example of just how epic and all-encompassing superficially "ambient music" can be, taking hints from cheese-laden romantic ballads and pop with its veilsome aesthetics and melodic refrain, but staying firmly in the realm of atmosphere-making, web-born music, an experimentalism hatched not just from a love of sounds, but a love of making sounds.

☟ Kodak Cameo Social Media Presence ☟
Facebook • SoundCloud • Twitter

Saturday, 2 May 2015

LANCASTER – SUNSET DANCE

Here's a lovely rich and crunchy gravel-zest slice of future funk from a producer called Lancaster. What do you need to know? His real name is Luis Rodriguez and he is from Philadelphia and from the looks of things he was born in 1996, making him like 18 or 19. As many other talented purveyors of future funk are, he is an associate of KEATS//COLLECTIVE – spiritual home to other creators of modern funk/disco/soul classics, including Skylar Spence (fka Saint Pepsi), Harrison, and Rollergirl, to name just a few on their long and illustrious roster.

Looking at the lists of artists included in their compilations sometimes it's like… Pokémon, or something equally collectible. Each of the numerous artists exists in this stylistic, aesthetic-led, nostalgia-breathing space, yet they're all different people, with their own individual styles and flairs. Let's get going on the Future Funk Trading Card series – that would be suuuper fun!

Anyway, here we are with Lancaster (a fine name) and his track 'Sunset Dance'. It begins with a sample of some sort of interview with… some punk people (forgive me for not knowing), something which pops up throughout the track; they talk about being individual, and not wanting to wear Lacoste clothes, and how punk is "overwhelmingly loud". An interesting thing: the interviewer notes that in being different to everybody else, punks end up looking the same. More on this in a second~

This song is thick with funk, a multicoloured miasmia of music that samples a lo-low pitch-shifted version of '80s group Manhatten Transfer song 'Spice of Life' , distorted and overdriven, with classy-breezy horns added along with semi-brutal ricocheting drums – it's even tagged "oversaturated".

Now, this could be a reference to the actual music itself, or something else: if you take the snippets of punk interview present here and equate them with future funk, this track could be taken as a message about the current online music scene being oversaturated. Maybe. Rodriguez also says in the SoundCloud description, "this song means a lot to me." On the other hand, the insertion of this punk interview could just be ascribing to a punk aesthetic, a rebellious spirit, alive in the sample-heavy music of future funk; this kind of attitude, just because it's not distorted guitars and gobbing on people, can thrive in any new music form. For me, chopping up old songs and making new jams outta them, well, I love it, and I definitely think there's something punk about it: nobody's asking permission here, it's about producers using raw materials (samples, sounds, effects) in any way they want in order to portray a fantasy, an idealised throwback to the past, a netting of old music bent to the will of the producer and moulded in whichever way they want: it's freedom.

Another note in the SC description simply says "press play pt 2," which – judging from the title of his 2013 Bandcamp release Press Play, could be heralding a brand new album from Lancaster. Hooray! (maybe)

☟ Social Media Presence ☟
Facebook • SoundCloud • Bandcamp •

Saturday, 24 January 2015

YES/NO GUEST MIX 024 :: OH WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? A DREAM DISCO MIX BY STATS

It's that time again. What time? Guest mix time. It's a bit of a different guest mix this time around because the tracklist isn't so much a tracklist as a set of "ingredients" – it's not in order, I'm not 100% certain that enough of each and every track was used to warrant it being listed as a "track", and I don't know if some of the sounds in the mix were even listed. Instead, elements are spliced and mixed together, just like ingredients. Flour and eggs and sugar and butter kinda stop being those things when you make them into a cake. And so it is with this mix, courtesy of London band Stats – in particular, from just one of its members who is called Ed.

I stopped trying to dissect this mix after a while and just enjoyed it, trying to guess which parts came from where on the ingredients list was just getting to be impossible. To use the cake metaphor again, it's like digging into your favourite cake to try and find the original components that came together to create it. Well, it's obviously not as impossible to discern which sound comes from which song, but it definitely does show the abilities of Ed, who is the actual frontman of Stats.

Filled with meaningful snippets from documentaries and interviews – the voices of people as diverse as Werner Herzog and the digitised female voice of the Narrator for Windows (I think?) – the mix moves through a wormhole lined with pulsing disco basslines and fragmentary electronica, the groovesome nature of the mix clear at the very outset as 'Beam Me Up' by modern-but-authentic disco outfit from Brooklyn, Midnight Magic, moves into Stats' own 'Where is the Money'.

Music contains everything, and you can make a song about anything, so it’s like the world but bigger. Once you’re doing it, it’s difficult to remember how you first started, like when you learn to talk. It becomes second nature, which is more interesting than first nature because it’s not strictly necessary, but it feels like it is.

ED (STATS)

The jaunty poetry (check out 'D'you wanna eat') and art-pop sound of Stats, inspired by acts like Talking Heads, is as clean-cut as it is angular; they incorporate funk grooves and rock noise into their songs, coupled with catchy vocals and spoken word quirks that suit the urban environment in which they exist. Frontman Ed also says, "Stats songs often try to look at what’s specific about how we live right now, especially in cities." So there you go.

Taking inspiration from the opening line to Bryan Ferry's version of 'A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall' (Bob Dylan), the mix is called Oh Where Have You Been? "And that," confirms Ed, "is loosely its theme."

Playing for La Roux (whom Stats remixed a couple of months ago) on tour recently, he tells me about the experience of travelling the world, having not really been anywhere apart from the UK. "Songs people write about touring often complain about [it], on the grounds that it’s repetitive and alienating - but I really enjoy everything about it," he tells me. "Because you have so little time and control, you are under no illusions about discovering the 'real' St Petersburg or Los Angeles or wherever: your experience of a city is guaranteed to be short, incomplete and highly subjective."

With much of Stats' lyrical output dedicated to contemporary living, traveling to many different cities was eye-opening for Ed. "One thing common to pretty much every city I’ve seen, from Berlin to Boulder, Colorado, is people saying they can’t afford to live in them any more because property is impossibly expensive," he explains, relating it back to 'Where is the Money', adding, "Many of the songs and films and stories in this mix stay in my head because they seem to relate to things like that."

So, in conclusion: please enjoy the dreamy disco feels running through this mix. I hope you like it. Thank you to Ed, who also would like to thank William Bowerman, Tom Hatfield and Ali Staton.

"This mix is by Stats.
Stats are a minimal pop band.
Stats are six people.
Stats can’t dance and Stats don’t take drugs.
Stats are a grown-up thing to do.
Stats have big plans tomorrow.
Stats are all over the place."

1. It is a journey to the end of the world 
2. Remember the future (beam me up)

1. You have to keep moving out, but remain in orbit 
2. Happy man, happy man, that's me

1. This green world of God’s 
2. You can almost taste the hot dogs and french fries they sell

1. Nature here is vile and base  
2. When I’m working, or washing my hair

1. Oh, where have you been?
2. It was lots of fun, the mechanics of getting together

1. Well go on, tell me something 
2. There’s a big building, that's me.

• I N G R E D I E N T S •

Laurie Anderson - Sharkey’s Day
Laurie Anderson - Walking and Falling
Caress - Love Spell
Charizma & Peanut Butter Wolf - Tell You Something
Chic - Happy Man
Bryan Ferry - A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
The Flirtations - Nothing But A Heartache
Werner Herzog - speech from Les Blank’s ‘Burden of Dreams’ (speech)
Patrick Keiller/Paul Scofield - London (speech)
Klein & MBO - Dirty Talk
La Roux - Cruel Seuxality
Carson McCullers - Interview (speech)
Jonathan Meades - Remember the Future (speech)
Midnight Magic - Beam Me Up
Gaz Nevada - Special Agent Man (12” Female Mix)
Notown - Cannon
Flannery O’Connor reading A Good Man Is Hard To Find (speech)
Steve Reich - Piano Counterpoint Arranged From Six Pianos By Vincent Corver
Laurie Spiegel - Patchwork
Stats - Bring Me The Stats
Stats - Do It On The Weekend
Stats - Where is the Money
Stats - D’you wanna eat?
Stats - You Have To Say So
Stats - Private Party Stats - 2 Minds
Talk Talk - Happiness Is Easy
Talking Heads - Road To Nowhere
Tom Tom Club - Under The Boardwalk
The Walker Brothers - Nite Flights

☟ Stats Social Media Presence ☟
Facebook • SoundCloud • Last.fm • official site • Twitter • YouTube • Instagram

Saturday, 13 September 2014

Y/N GUEST MIX 015 :: JOLLY MARE

I saw a person on Twitter like last week say something like, "There are too many mixes therefore they are obsolete" – when questioned they cited "inflation" but I think they meant "saturation" maybe. Anyway, it's a ridiculous statement: replace "mixes" with any other thing of which there might too many or too much – food, videogames, paintings – and you can see how. I just thought that would be a nice thing to say cause, like, here's another mix. But I'd really hate to be the one to push you over the edge, so if you think you've heard one mix too many, then go take a cold shower, talk it through with a loved one.

This guest mix is from Fabrizio Faberismi, aka Jolly Mare: an Italian DJ, producer, and a participant in the Red Bull Music Academy 2013. I've also read that he has a PhD in Vibration Dynamics, something that led me to stare at gifs of wobbling catilevered L-beams on the wiki page for 'Vibration'; this might be why in an email he sent to me he described himself as "Something in between a gone-bad scientist and a musician." He also loves old music, and if this mix is anything to go by it's obscure old music in particular that is his penchant.

I got good taste in music

Self-confessedly inspired by a "groove, any kind of" when it comes to his own music, it also seems to lead his choices for this wondrous guest mix, itself a lil' under half-an-hour of groovesome entities. Mostly taken from the 1980s, and most you've probably never heard OF let alone actually heard, it runs from the sultry 'Marinero' by Spanish singer Lucía who also provided the Spanish entry, 'Él', for the 1982 Eurovision Song Contest, held in the UK at Harrogate (really weird choice), to the synth-disco of 'Histoire D'un Soir' by Bibi Flash, aka Brigitte Gasté, a French singer active in the '80s. The song really really sounds like Blondie's 'Rapture' – mainly in the rap-singing, the bassline (almost note-for-note), etc.

"There is some freakness in every one of them," says Jolly Mare of the tracks in the mix – and it's true: from the first vital, note-hopping bassline of 'Use My Body' by the unknown Mavis John, through the stretched out, night-anticipating 'Sunset' (L33 and Sven Atterton) and the effortlessly cool remix by Luke Million of The Swiss's summery 'In The City', to the Italo disco of Big Ben Tribe's 'Tarzan Loves The Summer Nights' and the indefatigable soulfunk of 'Better By The Minute' by unlocatable group Glass Pyramid, it's an amalgamation of genres and styles that basically utilise "freakness" as their foundations, namely funk, disco (regular & Italo), soul, boogie, R&B.

What does it demonstrate? "That I got good taste in music," replies Jolly Mare. I mean, well, yeah, these are good songs. And for those of you who are looking for some obscure tracks to boogie the fuck on down to, chill to, do your taxes to, stir fry some noodles to, fix that thing in your car to, clean your living quarters to, whatever to, then don't worry cause this crate-digging mix has done it for you.

• T R A C K L I S T •

Mavis John - Use My Body (1980)
L33 & Sven Atterton - Sunset (2013)
Lucía - Marinero (1986)
The Swiss - In The City (Luke Million Remix) (2014)
Desi - I Want To Be With You (1984)
Gladys Knight & The Pips - Save the Overtime (For Me) (1983)
Big Ben Tribe - Tarzan Loves The Summer Nights (1984)
Bibi Flash - Histoire D'un Soir (1983)
The McCrarys - Love On A Summer Night (1982)
Glass Pyramid - Better By The Minute (1984)

☟ Jolly Mare Social Media Presence ☟
Facebook • SoundCloud • Twitter • YouTube • Mixcloud

Sunday, 20 July 2014

EGGROLL – NO SATISFACTION (VALIANT VERMIN REMIX) [FREE DOWNLOAD]

Brilliant! That's the first word I'll say about this. But before I even begin to tip-tap some words out about the song itself: Just WHO is Valiant Vermin anyway? FURTHERMORE — Eggroll…?!

(The) Valiant Vermin aka Bettina Campomanes is a young (I believe currently she is 17) producer from the Philippines. A self-described bedroom project, the Facebook page for it shows off Campomanes' modesty and humour: her bio reads "I didn't want to go outside so this happened," whilst her description is "I'm 16 years young and bored as hell." The very epitome of bedroom producer if ever there was one. Bettina is also a prized member of the Manila-based artist collective, Youngliquidgang – the co-founder of which, Zeon Gomez (aka Ulzzang Pistol), made a lovely guest mix (#014) for Y/N recently showcasing the group's talent; it included the electro-pop goodness of 'Good Girls Sin' by VV herself.

Her latest track is an impressive remix of an obscure and rather ungoogleable '80s duo, Eggroll. Called 'No Satisfaction', the original is as '80s synthpop as you can imagine: power drums, keytars, twangly guitar. I was gonna just link you to the video (dated 1987, aired on NY Public Access) but I'll embed it at the end of this post because you'd like it probably.

Anyway: the remix is a different kettle of fish.

Taking the strong, soulful vocals of the original, Valiant Vermin puts these to use in an extremely appealing way, setting them above an elastically punchy four-on-the-floor beat and syncopated stabs of robust house piano, as well as the occasional synth chord. Wheeling synth melody screams over the top with all the exciting intensity of Sonic 2's Chemical Plant Zone – but more jazz, less urgency. Speaking of jazz, piano fills spill over between chords in virtuosic fashion, further highlighting the elated funk of this track. It's house, classic 90s house – with a dash of French-touch sound – combined with the fun-loving nature of jazz and electro, simply brimming with energy. Download it for free!

Two things are immediately clear: 1. To find & utilise well such an obscure gem; 2. Production is high quality. Here is a talent still relatively undiscovered, from somebody barely even an adult (in the true sense of the word) yet. You can only hope that Miss Campomanes continues on this creative path; who knows what she will dream up in years to come.

And, as promised…

Like The Valiant Vermin on Facebook
Listen to The Valiant Vermin on SoundCloud
Follow The Valiant Vermin on Twitter
Visit The Valiant Vermin on Tumblr
Check The Valiant Vermin on Instagram

Friday, 4 April 2014

MIRROR KISSES – GENIUS [VIDEO]

Is this a photograph of the young George Clanton, aka (or at least the brains behind) Mirror Kisses? I think it might be. Now, with that kinda cleared up we can move forward. Who is this George Clanton? He is a musicmaker from Richmond, Virginia (USA innit) who creates hazy nostalgic vaporwavey tracks under the alias ESPRIT 空想 but with Mirror Kisses – a more real, less dreamy, less idealistic project – there's something quite different going on. Maybe there's a similar sense of nostalgia, but that's where comparisons end: this is truly heartfelt: a live, wriggling entity with 80s aesthetics, punk energy and a romantic sensibility, seemingly miles away from the bedroom lassitude of ESPRIT 空想.

The perfect opportunity to show this off arrives now, in the form of the brand-spanking-new video for 'Genius' – taken from Mirror Kisses' album of last year, Heartbeat, it's a brilliant example of the sights and sounds that go with this exciting project. In the video we see shots of the man himself singing live at a show in Washington DC, alternating with two guys painting a wall black and then erasing what they've done with white paint. "I didn't even know he [Robb Payne] was making it," said George himself. "It was shot at a show in Washington DC and a couple of the guys who were there made a painting for the song." Luckily, or maybe it was something that was just meant to be – either way it worked, and it suited the song: "I think it's really cool how they make it and then erase it," he said, explaining, "I thought it was very fitting to the spirit of the whole song about second-guessing yourself but still doing what you love in the end."

So without further ado…

It's George's favourite song from the album and you can see why. It's a corker of a song, a cracker even, one that bulges with as much drunk shuffle-dance-inducing sway as it does heartfelt emotion. Thin flanging chords keep their sombre time above the slow 80s-style lo-fi drums with syncopated hi-hats, whilst ear-pinching icicles of high-register synth strings pierce the air above the heavy muffle of the jouncing distorted bass squelch. But what makes this so real, not that the music isn't dead nice on its own, is the vocals, the voice of George, an aching rich baritone that simmers with just enough reverb, crooning lines like "I know… I'm no genius / But when you say those things / It makes me feel so dumb" that seem summoned from a deep well of emotion, gently echoing into the atmosphere.

NB. If you ask me, it sounds kinda like a slowed-down version of 'Last Christmas' by Wham (minus any Christmas-theme ofc) which ain't a bad thing at all. It shows that the 80s synthpop influences are there, well and truly, and they're blissfully endearing.

In honour of this fancy new video, the Heartbeat LP is now available for FREE.
A little birdie told me there will be new Mirror Kisses stuff soon, so GET ACQUAINTED with pre-existing stuff (see first bullet point).

Like Mirror Kisses on Facebook
Listen to Mirror Kisses on SoundCloud
Hear more Mirror Kisses on Bandcamp
Visit Mirror Kisses's official site
Follow Mirror Kisses on Twitter
Check Mirror Kisses on Instagram
Watch Mirror Kisses on YouTube

Wednesday, 2 April 2014

YES/NO GUEST MIX 012 :: ABIOGENESIS – A MIX BY JACOB 2-2 FOR YES/NO MUSIC

Ah Jacob 2-2. I fell in love with him, well not actually him – his MUSIC – last year when I was introduced to his song 'Milo De Venus', a beautifully nostalgic track, via cool Canadian label King Deluxe. This was taken from his album Herbivore, which was like taking a journey through the idealised childhood of a young reluctant hero from an 80s movie where real life is slowly taken over by fantasy – it sounded like shiny red bicycles, oversized baseball jackets, and empty suburban stretches of road in the summer holidays. You'd probably like it. Naturally, I thought his tastes would be cool for a mix; I asked, he was happy to do one, and he even made some super nice artwork for the mix. He's titled it 'Abiogenesis', which is (thanks Wikipedia) "the natural process by which life arose from non-living matter such as simple organic compounds" – a fascinating though now discredited concept, and one that fits his mix perfectly, as it features a lot of older music (the music world's "organic compounds" perhaps) that gave life to what we have today.

From jazz to hip hop to electro to prog rock to jazz to disco, it's a fabulously varied mix and one comprised equally of new, shiny, modern and old, endearing, reliclike. There's the crazy frenetic groove in Ras G's noisy and bleepsome 'One 4 Kutmah', Jacob 2-2's own junkyard clattering remix of Navigateur's 'Breathe' as well as Joob's brand of chiptune hip hop in 'Sacred Science'. But then there's surprise Hammond organ virtuoso in British prog rock band Egg's take on Bach's 'Fugue In D Minor' (featuring, if you'd care to notice, a beat that any hip hop fan'd tell you was decent, and certainly not bad for 1970); French disco champion Cerrone's 1978 oddly hypnotic 'Rocket In The Pocket'; Organized Konfusion's fiery underground hip hop in 'Releasing Hypnotical Gases' taken from their debut self-titled album (1991). Then there's the finale, 'White Eagle' by German electronic outfit Tangerine Dream, still going strong since 1967 having recently provided some original music for the Grand Theft Auto V OST.

But enough of this! Go soak up the sounds and download it for free too. THANKS J22!

T R A C K L I S T :

Like Jacob 2-2 on Facebook
Listen to Jacob 2-2 on Soundcloud
Hear more Jacob 2-2 on Myspace
Visit Jacob 2-2 official site
Follow Jacob 2-2 on Twitter
Check Jacob 2-2 on Tumblr
Watch Jacob 2-2 on YouTube
Listen to more Jacob 2-2 on Bandcamp

Wednesday, 5 March 2014

TOUCH SENSITIVE – SLOWMENTS

I've been thinking about this song ever since it arrived in my inbox. I didn't write about it straight away because 2013's timeless-incredible track from Touch Sensitive, the indomitable and eternal 'Pizza Guy', was just so good that I was worried the next instalment from this Future Classic-dwelling Australian producer just wouldn't match up. With that worry firmly locked in my mind last night, I finally steeled myself: it was on the cusp of sleep that I resolved, tomorrow – today – I would write about Touch Sensitive's new track, 'Slowments'.

The song itself is a remix, essentially – or perhaps more correctly, a re-envisioning – of Art of Noise's bizarre and sensual 1985 track 'Moments In Love' (also responsible for the Prince-covered 1988 hit, 'Kiss'), yet when the slow arpeggio of synth bips rippled through the air, my first thought was of the 'Prelude' from Final Fantasy VII, and if that makes you angry, or you think I'm stupid, I'm really sorry. Just listen to the song and forget I said anything.

Turning the original vocals into high-register piercings of soul-moving sound, Touch Sensitive – real name Michael Di Francesco – lays on controlled torrents of warm, flowing bass, enough to rumble your very blood, whilst organising jumbled metallic hits to reverb their way through the faraway romance of the song. It's a perfect match of old and new – modern drum sounds clapping and thudding out a mid-tempo, extremely danceable rhythm; glittering old synths like vintage jewellery raining from the sky. At heart, it's a retelling of 80s synthpop and it's very pretty.

But— is it better than 'Pizza Guy'? Well, in my opinion, no. I say this because I have been and still am obsessed with that track. It's one of my go-to songs. But 'Slowments' is different in style, eschewing the bold and bright Drive inspired sounds of last year for something subtler, and maybe prettier; something that, by description, pays homage to something else (and as such it's difficult to compare to the originality of 'Pizza Guy'). I like it, I like it a lot, but I am yearning for something that is going to jolt my heart with such energy that I can't help but listen to it on repeat for days on end – perhaps that's what's to come.

Get this for free right here (clickety-click-click).

Like Touch Sensitive on Facebook
Listen to Touch Sensitive on Soundcloud
Follow Touch Sensitive on Twitter
Look at Touch Sensitive's photos on Instagram

Monday, 3 March 2014

SOSLYLOVE – AGELESS

A good compilation is sometimes all you need to open up a previously unexplored section of the music world; Various Artists are my favourite kind of artist. These compilations are like portals to an incredible 'elsewhere' – like opening a Pandora's Box, except with less of the world's evils and more of the world's good music. And besides, if Pokémon has proven anything, it's that we love collectibles – the mystique of Various Artists compilations hits us like the heady whiff of Nintendo's motley crew of monsters.

That's not to reduce the ever-surprising V.A. down to a lower status – not at all. I love finding new things. And as such, this compilation (discovered thanks to LA producer Spazzkid) is a particularly special one. Now, talking about this whole thing – Amicus Curiae by fledgling collective/label Stratford CT. – would be ridiculous, so I'll start with the first track. It's by American producer sloslylove and it's called 'Ageless' and it's really nice.

Taking cues from sunset-imbued 80s balladic pop, the track is a smooth escape into warmth and nostalgia, led by a cracking marvel of a bassline. A huge cradle of slapbass, thick and soulful, holds within it dreamy fragments of saxophone that lap at the edges of your mind's fondest memories whilst beautiful washes of soft synth watercolour the scene with twilit skies. You're struck by the timelessness of the song, its atmosphere pummelled gently by epic-inspired reverbing drums, slow and steady. It is indeed ageless. A sound to be lost in – an aid for unwinding – yet filled with heady romance on the cusp between action and fantasy.

If you know what's good for you, and you wanna listen to some songs that have a similar vibe to this one, then please I do really urge you to check out Stratford CT.'s collection of curated tracks on Amicus Curae. You can also download it for free/name-your-price; definitely do this.

Like sloslylove on Facebook
Listen to sloslylove on SoundCloud
Hear more sloslylove on Bandcamp
Follow sloslylove on Twitter
Watch sloslylove on YouTube

Monday, 24 February 2014

FVLCRVM – NOTCH EP

Hello and hi to everybody. Thanks to the wonders of free and plentiful communication media, people from all over the world are able to send me their sounds. It is honestly very exciting for a curious person like myself to stumble dizzily fatigued onto Facebook in the morning to find a message from somebody enclosing a link to some music. It could be from anywhere! But of course like all things, no matter how much I like it, I still add it to a list of things to feature and invariably this list gets longer and longer until it gets silly and I start afresh. But no longer. Organisation is now my middle name, hear me roar!

With that in mind, I'd like to focus on such a thing sent to at the beginning of the year. Sent by Slovakian netlabel Gergaz Records, this is the Notch EP from Bratislava-based musicmaker FVLCRVM. Having grown up playing jazz and funk guitar, as well as possessing the insatiability of a multi-instrumentalist, he self-admittedly fell in love with synth music in his teens, and since then has formed a band – NVMERI – as well as DJing and making music himself under his inscriptive moniker.

The variegated background in music makes itself known on the EP – five wildly differing tracks from the mind of a guy who "can't get himself to use the same pattern twice" (SoundCloud bio). From the offset in 'Work It Out' – a twisted vaporwave-sounding 80s affair in 37 seconds: glitching, sampled, noisy – you get to know that this is a producer who loves to make exciting, dynamic music. This is confirmed when the second track blasts into your ears, a smooth slice of soulful singing set to addictive juke beats called, funnily enough, 'Gospel of Juke'. Its slow glossy bass and popping-candy electro beeps intertwine with rich sun-god vocal choruses, summoning the dew-tipped grass of a summer morning; samples abound to make this a universally appealing track, and one that makes me long for some heat and some sun (it's actually sunny right now and I'm loving it). A slower juke vibe appears in perhaps more techno-inspired 'Yummy!', with its altered-vox samples swaggering low and the sub-bass kicks summoning the pure dirt-sludge of ghetto house; again we have beeps popping around, hollow intergalactically modulating synths, whooshing and speckling the bustling beat for a future-finding sound.

That futuristic feel also appears on EP-closer 'That's The Way It Is', whose slow-sway clicking beat evokes winding-down nocturnal chill and supports fog-like bursts of synth, tied together wonderfully with harmonising vocal samples: "That's the way it is / When you fall in love," lifted from who-knows-where. It's a gorgeous song to end on, sumptuous with a buffet of different sounds, crackling ambience in the background, fading out long and slow with sensual heavy breathing to accompany it. You could see the whole EP as a journey, a night out at a party with this final track indicating romance of some sort, thus becoming the proverbial "notch" after which this EP is named; but I dunno if it's open to interpretation.

Great disco house vibes – with perhaps some garage influence here with ongoing high-register strings and syncopating percussion – permeate the menacing analogue sounds of 'Prism Vision', bustling with rich synth chords and a thudding bassline that leads the track through itself to its post-Earth orbit, the remnants of our population dancing in the galactic night. Next track 'Tokyo 360' features as its mainstay the warlike booms of a taiko drum, enveloping the skittering scuttles of the house beat, thin synth chords popping mutedly till changes in dynamic bring about expansive extensions of synths, the introduction of modulated arpeggios, sailing and soaring until they fade, leaving the busy beat in place to finish up.

It's this faith in beats that prove FVLCRVM's Notch EP to be gloriously listenable; giving them such room to speak for themselves in many instances across the EP means that within the rhythm itself there is something for your curiosity to drink up. These are interesting multilayered tracks, not just in the beat, but in the clear futurism of the synths and other instruments, offering up rich time-capsules of music that do not overcomplicate but move on simply, often with forgotten ancient pop culture from the Earth of yesterday running through their veins in the form of vocal samples. It's something that suits here and now perfectly, from a musicmaker whose future work – which I hope will be even more varied and evolved – I look forward to hearing.

Get it now on a "name your price" (free?) basis at Gergaz Records' Bandcamp page (C L I C K).

Like FVLCRVM on Facebook
Listen to FVLCRVM on SoundCloud
Hear more FVLCRVM on Mixcloud

Wednesday, 18 December 2013

EN2AK WOODWORK MISFITS (JOLLY MARE REMIX)

It's Jolly Mare! Hooray! I probably could've written about this guy a hundred times between now and the time that I last wrote about him, but I haven't, so— anyway, here he is again with a remix of Wrocław-based Polish musicmaker En2ak's bristling track 'Woodwork Misfits'.

Before I go any further, some of you may be thinking, "who the literal hell is Jolly Mare?" – well, that's kind of easy to answer. From Italy, his real name is Fabrizio Faberismi, and I've written about a couple of his songs before – namely 'Nobody Cares', a vaporwavey number, and 'Castlemare', sounding like the hardest videogame boss fight ever; he was also a participant in the Red Bull Music Academy. So too was En2ak – and that is how the two met. And so Jolly Mare ended up as one of the artists featured on 3 Remixed – a set of remixes of the songs from En2ak's 3, set for release on Christmas day (25th December lol) of all days, via Warsaw-based label U Know Me Records.

But what about the actual remix? En2ak's original – from his third album, simply titled 3 – is a bustling tin-pan assortment of percussion mixed with bubbling bass and phasing synths polka-dotted with tuned vocal samples, turning in its second half into a more menacing rumbler of a track, all with a distinct ghetto house feel to it.

Jolly Mare's version is nothing short of brilliant. Taking on the mind-bending dub sounds of reggae, this remix is a warm and synth-laden foray into a stress-melting atmosphere; bass bulges lazily alongside the raw drums and the glitchy lead synth sounds. Occasional samples from the original cut through the chilled blanket of noises in thin reverbing stabs. By the end of the track, you're so far engrossed in its bliss that it's almost as if you could be on holiday – soaking up the sun and feeling a single beat of sweat drip from your forehead. It also positively aches with an 80s sensuality, perhaps in the raw, almost primordial synth sounds that Jolly Mare chose to use in the track.

His remix, though different to original (which ain't a bad thing yo), is a sultry, head-bopping number that whisks us away from the cold gusts of wind that winter is currently throwing our way – at least in the UK anyway – and takes us to a fantasy island, where the beach is endless, and all the amenities you could ever desire are sitting right behind you, nestled under rows tall palm trees. It's the soundtrack to a sexy dub holiday, that's what.

Like En2ak on Facebook
Listen to En2ak on SoundCloud
Hear more En2ak on Bandcamp
Follow En2ak on Twitter

Like Jolly Mare on Facebook
Listen to Jolly Mare on Soundcloud
Follow Jolly Mare on Twitter
Watch Jolly Mare on YouTube

Monday, 2 December 2013

BLUFRANK TR-808 & A BABE

It might just be me (but then again if ONE person does it then it's probably quite likely that another person or multiple people will also do the same thing) but I like a song title or artist name or whatever kind of thing that requires you to look further into what exactly it is. Being the innocent mind that I am, I had to google 'TR-808' – and what fun! It's short for The Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer, "one of the first programmable drum machines" (thanks Wikipedia) and "TR" is an acronym of "Transistor Rhythm". There may be some of you out there thinking, "omg what stupid is this guy! HA ha!!" but to others who were wondering what BLUFRANK's song title meant, there you go.

Hang on, wait—what? Who's BLUFRANK? Don't worry. BLUFRANK is a producer from Cairo, Egypt, who makes mostly house (to use a very general and very useful term) music. The stuff about the TR-808 refers to this song, titled 'TR-808 & A Babe' – I can only imagine or guess that this was a fun time. It has to have been, surely? Sorry for being male.

The track is a minimalist escapade of house music, complete with ticking hi-hats claps and gloriously subbed-out kicks which give the track a juicy bedrock that shakes your very brain. Slightly atonal synth chords dip in and out of earshot as long-horizon glittering synth melodies soar across the landscape of the track. It's filled with a cheeky funk from 2:00 for around a minute, taking a different theme and running with it, changing back to that liquid-like flow for the final third. It's simplistic stuff but it works exceedingly well, combining bassy kicks more typical in hip hop or even juke with a future-facing house beat. The retro sounds of the synth is an obvious love for BLUFRANK, who is "inspired by the 60's, 70's, 80's, Cairo nightlife, love, dance-floors, bars, summertime, beaches" as they say on their Facebook page.

It's nice to hear a different take on dance music, one not ultra-minimalist nor wholly experimental nor completely stuck in the 80s. And something from Cairo! Which is fun, because I've never heard anything from Egypt. Oh, by the way, BLUFRANK has a load of other really nice songs on his SoundCloud – two very good ones are 'MID(s)' and the very sunny 'Never Ending Summer'. Bye!

Like BLUFRANK on Facebook
Listen to BLUFRANK on SoundCloud
Follow BLUFRANK on Twitter
Check BLUFRANK on Tumblr
Watch BLUFRANK on YouTube

Wednesday, 27 November 2013

ELEN NEVER SLEEPS RUM EP

This is a treat. I remember reading something about Tokyo based indie singer/musician Elen Never Sleeps' SoundCloud page about his song 'Rum' being part of an EP of the same name, but I never knew when this would surface. About a month ago, ENS (as it is conveniently shortened) emailed me himself with a link to his EP - probably because I had written about the song 'Rum' a while ago. Mainly, I feel terrible that it's taken me this long to get around to writing about it. However, there is a decidedly positive undertone in my spirit as I'm listening to the Rum EP: it's really gorgeous.

Awash with nostalgia, the EP is a knowing throwback to sounds of the New Romantics, yet having been created this year, it is also dreamily modern. 'Emerald' is a good example; with glassy synth chords as a constant gentle foundation to it all, ascending bass notes and super-reverbed clean guitar twiddling in the shade, it's driven by a house beat to the very end of the song. Added to this is the distinctive voice of Kaji (the only name I can attribute to the man behind the music), a crooning style that sometimes - especially in the chorus of 'Emerald' - is overcome by wild surges of emotion, trembling yelps that perfectly evoke feeling and, in its tones, inspire a nostalgic mood.

Likewise, the minimalist retro drum machine beat of 'Saudade' (a title that shares its name with an untranslatable Portuguese word that is the state of feeling deep nostalgia for something/someone that you love) has a modern lilt to it. The wide synths here float over a sparse yet slow-funk bassline. Here, the vocals drift occasionally into falsetto as taiko drums boom with incidental, tropical drops of marimba loveliness now and again; this sound that leans towards feelings of melancholy in a supposed paradise (i.e. "The City") is conjured throughout.

No better is this demonstrated than in the pathetic fallacy of EP closer, 'The Dark Star' – backdropped with the sound of a menacing storm complete with crashes of thunder, a drum machine beat frazzles over subdued yet disco style bassline as the vocals croon a song of loneliness. Most of the song is delightfully simple, leaving the sounds to speak for themselves, making the loudly reverb-laden chorus with its dreary storm samples rather powerful. Opener and the eponymous 'Rum' (covered in more detail here) is a great start; with its jazzy, late-night feel and catchy vocal pattern, it's certainly my favourite – the muted guitar chords, the seagull-esque sounds: all perfect.

Like no other song on the EP, bouncy track 'Skyline' stays true to its title and conjures a glittering montage of a city at night: lights blinking, cars whooshing below skyscrapers. It's an upbeat 80s-indie-style tune that should inspire at least a little wiggle of your toes. The vocal harmonies in the chorus here are lovely, rich and warm, which, combined with its pop doo-doo-ing and join-in claps towards the end, makes for arguably the "happiest" song on the EP. But all in all, it's fitting that an EP about nostalgia, loneliness and love should start with rum and end in the middle of some dreadful weather. Slotting into the retroactive concept of drowning one's sorrows before taking a long walk at night, the Rum EP shines with minimalist elegance, with Elen Never Sleeps re-using some retro styles in his own unique depiction of nostalgia.

Grab the EP on a name-your-price basis over at Elen Never Sleeps' Bandcamp.

Like Elen Never Sleeps on Facebook
Listen to Elen Never Sleeps on Soundcloud
Hear more Elen Never Sleeps on bandcamp
Follow Elen Never Sleeps on Twitter

Friday, 22 November 2013

FORTUNE HOWL PAWS (BO EN REMIX)

Yo. Wow. This is good. Let's rush straight in. Rush we go. So, this is another one of the pretty damn awesome re-workings of the songs from Fortune Howl's Earthbound, collectively called Earthbound [Remixed]. I wrote about one of them - Bwoy De Bhajan's remix of 'Interzone Export' - the other week. And, listening through it now, there is so much talent going into these remixes that it's impossible for them to be bad. Or perhaps talent on its own isn't sufficient; each of these remixers has a definitive voice and style, making each one more than a remix - something closer to an original track.

There's XXYYXX's synth-heavy trap-leaning version of 'Echo The Sun', for instance, and also the lush, ghostly remix of 'A Terrible Machine' by Mister Lies. Likewise, London producer bo en sets off some seriously sweet fireworks for us in his remix of 'Paws'. Fortune Howl's original is a luscious, ballad-like number that swoons with vocal samples, warm synth waves and slow-dance drums. bo en's remix is very different.

Taking cues from a synth-heavy revival of Japan-exclusive genre Shibuya-kei (a mix of jazzy lounge sounds with traces of synthpop and lashings of pop energy), bo en - real name Calum Bowen - turns 'Paws' on its head and makes it his own. Beginning with a deliciously funky, 80s-themed intro, complete with some scene-setting slap bass, at once we're bowled into the nu-Shibuya-kei that bo en does best. Puffs of fidgety synth chords overlook a fast house kick as the original vocals float over in washes of reverb. At 0:55 he samples Yoshi's down+B move from Super Smash Bros. before launching into a candy-coloured world of modulating synths, squeaky bed sounds, claps, down-south hip hop snares and remnants of samples.

The rest of the song reads beautifully, a floating mist of the song's original vocals, a saxophone solo, wah-wah chords, samples of "Hey — hey!" all cradled by a rainy-night synth bassline and 80s drum machine beats. A classy yet magical finish, like a rendezvous with a high-class escort who turns out to be searching for someone to help her solve an existential, metaphysical mystery - you becoming the reluctant detective. It moves flawlessly between sugary sweet nu-Shibuya-kei and retro-infused sounds - a teapot brewing leaves of tea-breaks past - combining many different elements that on paper would seem barmy. Hip hop drums? A little known Japanese genre? Slap bass? 80s aesthetic? Videogame samples? Yep, all of that. But the way that Mr bo en melds these sounds into a cohesive, dynamic showstopper of a track that's as jaw-droppingly impressive as it is unabashedly enjoyable.

You should definitely check out Earthbound [Remixed] for your fix of totally fresh sounds. And a FREE DOWNLOAD. (The fact that the album and its original are named after one of my favourite ever games has no bearing on the matter).

Also, check out bo en's lovely debut album Pale Machine out on supernice Japanese netlabel Maltine Records - and download the whole thing for free.

Like bo en on Facebook
Listen to bo en on SoundCloud
Follow bo en on Twitter