I took the train to Erik's studio. We sat in the courtyard, underneath the upside down circus tent, and smoked cigarettes. Patrick came to tell me it was my turn to press play:

1. Claude Speeed - Untitled
I always joked that any collection of my music could just be called "Intros and Outros", which, let's face it, is basically true.

2. Claude Speeed - STE8
I found this recording when I was living in Moscow in early 2020, before the pandemic had reached Europe. Over the course of a few days I was pretty obsessed with listening to this and one other improv recording from the same day. One day I'll finish that one, and still no-one will care.

3. Boards of Canada - Kaleidoscope
This EP reminds me vividly of driving home from my grandmother's house on Christmas Eve, in the dark, shortly before she died.

4. Claude Speeed - grief lasts forever lol
Recorded on an iphone 6 in our bedroom. I don't know what to do with this track because whenever I re-record it, somehow it lacks the sad magic of the original, but, I'm embarrassed about the recording.

5. Mice Parade - Brethren (O’Rourke remix cover)
I love that he did a cover of a remix of his own track. The bassline, wtf.

6. Claude Speeed - • • • – • • • • • • • – • • • 
As part of a workshop with Metahaven we made videos over Zoom, to be honest we were just trying to make it feed back and do pretty colours, at one point Zhenya asked "Who of us is real?". How are you supposed to answer that?

7. Ducktails - Landrunner
Been trying to put this is a mixtape for about ten years. Cool World.

8. Don Caballero - Haven’t Lived Afro Pop
recently I went through an absolutely obsessive don cab phase, listening to all the albums back to back. I got the craziest ASMR when my gf cut my hair and this song came on, when it gets to the wild release.

9. Tortoise - Ten-Day Interval
TNT isn't my favourite Tortoise record but this is just such an iconic track for me, another world.

10. 1991 - Open to the Dark
Listen to the cure song that the vocal comes from. Honestly this is one of the best sample flips of all time. 

11. Sand Circles - Endless Nights
When I first moved here it was the first extended period of joblessness I'd really encountered. I found a sublet for six weeks up in prenzlaeruberg. I went running every day in the gentle late summer. I stayed up all night just smoking weed, listening to music, eating biscuits, making tracks. My roommate Michael introduced me to this album (amongst other brilliant music).

12. Art Crime - Release
I asked Calum, who was sitting next to me, to recommend me some music. He looked at his computer for a very short time and then said something to the effect of, "you'll be into this". I listened to it on the bluetooth speaker in my hotel room every night about five times in a row. Something much more important happened but this isn't the time or the place. It probably never will be.

x

Mix for Radio 80k (June 2021)

I'm not allowed outside so am just field recording stuff in the house

hooverdrone

Work, Live & Sleep In Collapsing Space

Work, Live & Sleep In Collapsing Space (Claude Speed 'Infinity Ultra Rework' feat. Jivraj Singh)

Kuedo - Work, Live and Sleep in Collapsing Space (Claude Speeed Infinity Ultra ReWork)

My Skeleton

Hold on ft LW

Karra

01 Washaa

07 Spectral Choir

09 An Imperial Message

Modeselektion Vol. 04

A Different Point Of View

pvre gold body remix

Remember The Time  (Claude Speeed Version)

"Travelling the far east for the majority of the last year with nothing more than 4Kg luggage, headphones and a macbook air, Claude has written a series of albums for his band Americanmen & of course his more electronic, amorphous solo material. But this is not a selection cut from a salt-bleached, tie-dyed cloth. No, this seems more like a loving tribute to the West. Like he’s cracking knuckles and returning home anew. He has continually provided this series with our favourites and I know that time will count this ‘White Horses & Swells’ Mix amongst them. A perfectly picked selection of contemporary classical stirred into musique concrete and his own exclusives. We can’t wait to reveal more Claude Speeed & American Men projects as the year rolls on. Peace to the Najaaraq, and welcome back Stuart "

LuckyMe Mixtape

LuckyMe Mixtape No. 110 White Horses & Swells Mixtape

"A beyond refreshing selection of drum-less eclectic songs spliced with talk radio, lectures and sound concede. But it’s more than that. It’s heart achingly beautiful music that helps remind us that in compiling other peoples songs into a narrative one can have a great impact. Together these songs becomes a unique whole. From the guitarist and keyboardist of American Men this mixtape is guaranteed to cut to the core of you. Peace to Loren on the cover of The Face"

boards of canada – corsair 
james orr complex – fade grey to fade blue 
bump and bubble – tyrone slothrop 
fuck buttons – sweet love for planet earth 
chris clark – reen 1930s 
khonnor – i was everything you wanted until i quit 
sun kil moon – trucker’s atlas 
lusine – jetstream 
david grubbs – a dream to help me sleep 
hood – untitled 
dorian concept – teeth and vhs tapes 
rachel’s – his eyes 
joni mitchell – banquet 
sunczartemple – sun3 
solum – drone_police 
boards of canada – olson version 3

+ a bunch of spoken word samples etc. Mostly from "The occult explosion", but also from david icke and alan watt (not him, the other one) radio interviews. 
+ recordings by stephen mcgreevy of the dawn chorus etc

LuckyMe Mixtape No. 29 Claude Speeed No Drums Mixtape

"We asked Claude Speeed of AmericanMen to make us a tape of his favourite ‘real’ music to offset all our tricks, soft synths and fakery. This tape has been played in the daytime, more than any other tape we have published. Peace to Anna & Rosie"

russia – how i first imagined central park 
lightning bolt- assassins 
trans am – television eyes 
maps and atlases – every place is a house 
ganger – capo (south of caspian) 
russia – output 1-2 (piano) 
chavez – top pocket man 
les savy fav – i.c timer 
big black- bad penny 
oxes – dear spirit, i’m in france 
americanmen – ccccccc 
tortoise – glass museum 
slint – rhoda 
gastr del sol – blues subtitled no sense of wonder 
do make say think – classic noodlanding 
growing – onement 
lightning bolt – wonderful rainbow 
laeto – tears on the golf course

LuckyMe Mixtape No. 13: Solum "Cool World" Mix

Radar Mix June 2017

"Stop me if you’ve heard this one before but we put out a record called Cool World in July 2010. It’s an electronic vision of rock music by our friends American Men. We added a remix disk with work by Falty DL, Optimum & Ikonika, Machinedrum & Hudson Mohawke and hence put out our first gatefold double vinyl. It’s probably the most satisfied we’ve been as a bunch of guys making records, that we made a complete project. And if you’ve ever been lucky enough to catch the full band live you will be as hooked as we were, many moons ago when Claude Speed showed me their myspace page. And so kick back and enjoy Claude’s own heady mix of golden era electronica and drone-pulled corporate rock: a mission statement for the year ahead. Peace to Becca"

LuckyMe Mixtape No. 83 4th Day Mixtape

Paradisia is the every other year compilation Gang of Ducks digitally releases.

This issue, named 20 after the possibly craziest year in recent human history, is also the first issue not curated by the label itself.
In fact, it is curated by Mana, Hyperdub affiliate and long-time G of D friend.

He took care of the compilation asking contributions to some of his favourite musicians and friends, not focusing on a single mood but rather letting them express their ideas and personalities in a free-flow.

The compilation so happened to be on the very same page with the label's philosophy.

Digital romance, analogue rawness, curated productions, instinctive approaches, dancefloor-ready and introspective compositions, beautifully co-exist through this 17-tracks collection, where each piece stands by its own and is still somehow linked with the others through a common shared attitude.


Curated by Mana
Mastered by Nick Foglia at Polo Torino
GODREC025
© Gang of Ducks 2020
released August 7, 2020

Claude Speeed

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