Retro-future electro-hip-hop-alien-abduction-funk from Barclay Crenshaw

February 9, 2017 7:37 PM

If you're into house music, you might know the name Claude VonStroke for his "punchy percussive basslines that sound like a giant rubber ball being dropped on the roof of the club." He has toured extensively, released numerous mixes and three albums under that moniker. But he has shifted gears, musically speaking, and recently released a self-titled debut album as under his birth name, Barclay Crenshaw. And he gets weird, exploring themes of alien abductions and inquiries of time and space, set to electronic with hip hop reminiscent of the 1990s. His music videos and album art / liner notes (PDF) point to hidden messages about extra terrestrial artifacts, discovered in 1884, which indicated alien abductions.

From his website:

In 1884 an explorer found some artifacts suggesting that an alien race has visited the earth and abducted a large group of its children and then returned them a few days later. There are no records of what happened to the children or who they were or even if they returned in the same shape as they left.

The only clues to these strange occurrences are in the cryptic art and music left behind. With every release, the cosmic manifesto at the heart of the Barclay Crenshaw project reveals itself further...

To get a feel of his new signature style, he also released a mixtape in December 2016, though you can also find his first mix as Barclay Crenshaw, from 2015, on his Soundcloud account. That same year, Barclay released an EP with EPROM on his own Stx & Brx, a sub-label of his more prolific Dirtybird Records, but both of those older productions lack the other-worldly aspects of his most recent material.

And finally, Claude VonStoke, previously.

posted by filthy light thief (7 comments total)

This is great! We took a roadtrip from Orlando in the mid-2000s to catch VonStroke at Space. One of the best nights I've had there.
posted by synthetik at 8:37 PM on February 9, 2017

You had me at "and he gets weird"
posted by sleeping bear at 9:45 PM on February 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

Should get together with Q-Bert for some 2-way alien communication!
posted by asok at 1:34 AM on February 10, 2017 [1 favorite]

The "Who's Afraid of Detroit?" (10 Year Anniversary Remix)" was really hot. I first heard this in Barcelona 7/8 years ago.
posted by james33 at 6:44 AM on February 10, 2017

We took a roadtrip from Orlando in the mid-2000s to catch VonStroke at Space. One of the best nights I've had there.

If you'd like to see him live again, he's on tour as Barclay Crenshaw now, with the list of upcoming dates in the US.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:46 AM on February 10, 2017

I hadn't heard of him before, but this is really hitting the spot for me right now. I'll see if I can pop over to the SF show in a couple weeks!
posted by crossswords at 3:29 PM on February 10, 2017

Was all ready to hate but The Real X Files thumps and the next track is the Underachievers. Worth at least a couple plays, bravo.
posted by cashman at 4:44 PM on February 10, 2017