This Is CapeFox – Single and EP Review

Time for something a little bit different here on Musically Fresh.

Last week I was contacted by CapeFox, a student of the University of Falmouth, and more importantly, a young man trying to make a name for himself in the music industry.

Admirable. So I checked out his new single he wanted MF to review, ‘Tea Cups’, and I just had to review his entire EP.

On his official Facebook page, he describes his music as being within the ‘HipHop//TripHop//Experimental//Electronic’ genres.  All true, but I think a genre has been left off, and I also believe it’s where CapeFox excels – and that’s in ‘Trance’. Now this could be down to the fact a lot of his tracks perhaps don’t hit the required BPM count to be considered true ‘Trance’, but his music definitely achieves that hypnotic/meditative state of consciousness Trance music is derived from.

How can I explain this? Well, I’ve never experimented with recreational drugs, and I don’t advise it. Instead, get onto CapeFox’s Soundcloud profile and it won’t take too long for you to feel euphoric.

First, let’s look at the new single;

‘Tea Cups’

My first introduction to Electronic music was (like many others) through a video game. And this track immediately brought me back to how I felt when I was five years old, playing Donkey Kong Country on the SNES. In fact, my ability to dissect the method and production of these genres is limited, so I can only focus on the feelings I felt when listening to CapeFox.

But it’s that feeling of being innocent, naïve, and lost in a world you don’t understand and yet you must explore. Yes, it’s a bizarre comparison to make to being a child playing a video game – but not an unfitting one.

It’s atmospheric . There are voices you can’t understand, and two layers of melody, one of a high tone and another low, synced together in unison.

The prominent use of percussion appears to be placed in with almost surgical precision, and the track’s ongoing repetition is another factor that plays into the entrancing nature of CapeFox’s music. You’re lost in this track, and lost in time. It could play for hours and hours and you wouldn’t notice. And when you did notice, you wouldn’t care.

After that, it didn’t take me long to want to discover more from CapeFox, so let’s move on to his earlier released EP;

L’amour Et La Mort 

1. ‘You Get Nothing (Intro)’ – Without a doubt one of the most powerful intro tracks to an album that I’ve ever heard. CapeFox has taken dialogue from the 1971 family film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and done something incredible.

The track opens with a mechanical, fairground-ride-like mechanism, introducing us to the wonders of another realm (The Chocolate Factory). The track then plays the dialogue from the scene at the end of the film where Grandpa Joe is asking about Charlie’s lifetime supply of chocolate, when Willy Wonka slams his request down and explains that Charlie broke the rules.

My guess is that CapeFox has utilised this scene for its true meaning. As the fairground music continues, Wonka’s voice has become distorted… demonic, to the point where every person can relate back to a time where they have had something taken away from them because they didn’t read the small print.

You get nothing. You lose. Good day sir!

2. ‘Etta’ – Next track, and CapeFoxhas incorporated vocals from Lana Del Rey’s single, ‘Video Games’. The tracks’ opening is another display of CapeFox working with atmospheric sounds; pangs and calls that somewhat resemble both nature and industry – both sides of a busy world being slowed right down.

We then get Del Rey’s, ‘It’s you, it’s you. It’s all for you. Everything I do.’ And I feel the tone of the original meaning behind ‘Video Games’ has been carried through and heightened by Capefox’s warping sound. Perhaps ‘Etta’ is a girl abandoned in a world and in love with a man who’d rather keep his attention on his video games. In fact, this track definitely encompasses that feeling of abandonment. And where ‘Etta’ may be in a one-sided relationship, CapeFox and Del Rey work beautifully together.

3. Bisou – A French term with many English translations, but most recognisably a way of signing of a conversation with a friend – a ‘sweet kiss’. And this track definitely carries a more upbeat tone, with its catchy and buoyant riff.

The vocals I am yet to decipher exactly which song they’re from (maybe CapeFox can enlighten me here?), but they’re repeated and slowed down, perhaps to mirror the motions of a relationship.

I can’t go into more detail about this track, only that it’s as pleasant to listen to as its title. Bisou.

4. Eleven Thirteen Thirtyfive – I cannot explain how long it took me to make any sense of this track.

For the EP’s closing track, CapeFox has enlisted the vocals of Brazilian-born, Dillon, an upcoming female artist based in Germany, and her track, ‘Thirteen Thirtyfive’.  Like Del Rey, Dillon’s vocals carry such a recognisable and unique tone, and work with CapeFox’s ability to entrance the listener extremely well.

‘Thirteen Thirtyfive’ is believed to be a track about a miscarriage; ‘You’d be thirteen, I’d be thirty-five, gone to find a place for us to hide’, so attempting to figure out what CapeFox’s inclusion of ‘Eleven’ is in the title is possibly a lost cause.

CapeFox has utilised his knowledge of his genre to really grind this track down, making the lyrics feel more raw. More real. ‘Head is filled. The thought, unlocked’ – Definitely suitable lyrics when listening to this entire EP.

Overall, I rank ‘Teacups’ and L’amour Et La Mort extremely high in regard to artists I’ve discovered whilst working on Musically Fresh. Being new to the genre, CapeFox appears faultless to me, and I was mesmerized and hypnotised throughout. It’s borderline genius. I guess you could call CapeFox the “gateway drug” for Electronic music.

It won’t be long until people know about CapeFox.

For more information, or to get the single/EP (pay your own price), visit the following links:

• Facebook/ IAmCapeFoxMusic
• Bandcamp: IAmCapeFox
• Soundcloud: IAmCapeFox
• Twitter @IAmCapeFox