(no subject)
01. Bill Callahan - Night
02. Eluvium - In A Sense
03. Burial - You Hurt Me
04. Kode9 and The Spaceape - Nine
05. Herbert - Birds Of A Feather
06. Marissa Nadler - Feathers
07. Berg Sans Nipple - Aquarium Life
08. Giardini Di Mirò - The Swimming Season (Hood Remix)
09. 17 Pictures - The Garden
10. Ella Guru - Park Lake Speakers
11. Thee More Shallows - Night At The Knight School
12. TV-Resistori - Intiaanidisko
13. Kieran Hebden & Steve Reid - Our Time
14. David Thomas Broughton - Execution
15. Hush Arbors - Wooded Reel
16. Stuart A. Staples - Say Something Now
17. Jan Jelinek avec The Exposures - Collage Of Digital Passion
18. Arcade Fire - Ocean of Noise
19. Shearwater - Nobody
20. Menomena - West
Total time: 79:35 after edits.
Crossfaded tracks: 2&3, 6&7, 9&10, 13&14, 17&18 -- remember, these work correctly on an ipod or on your computer, but burning to disc (at least on itunes) creates a glitch, so put those tracks in wav format just to be safe
p.s. even if you've received an actual copy of this mix, read the liner notes! I just typed them up today since I didn't keep copies of the ones I sent out + this is a better, more in depth, set of notes.
01- This comes from Smog's Bill Callahan on his first album under his own name, 'Woke on a Whaleheart', that comes out in April of this year. it's so good, it makes me want to check out the Smog catalogue even if the couple songs I heard off of 'A River..' didn't catch my attention.
02- Off of 2004's 'An Accidental Memory in the Case of Death', this makes a good interlude. I love piano tracks and this whole album is solo piano; we remember what I thought of Gonzales' 'Solo Piano' album, right? (scroll down to #5; ahh memories.. 2004 was a good year in music)
The new album, 'Copia', does have some piano, but I still like this type of minimalism best even if there's nothing entirely unique about it. after purchasing 'Copia' this past week, I must say it's grown on me since hearing the downloaded copy, so yeah, buy that one, too if you like this.
03- Burial.. what can I say? Kode9 and The Spaceape clicked with me first off the Hyperdub label, but Burial grew on me after seeing it on the top albums woebot video which went off on a tangent about horns. it was so compelling that I went and listened to the album again. I am going to find some of those albums that were compared in due time (whenever I get on soulseek). click here to see them; unfortunately the video is no longer available -- they're replaced with each new show.
04- I love when he says 'pain'... there's not much else to say about this beyond that I put the songs back to back 'cause they're on the same label! actually, Burial sounds way better than Kode9 when compared to this song. it makes a good interlude, but there are way better as you probably gathered when I put it on my top albums list with better samples.
05- Another one of those growers. when I first heard Herbert's 'Scale' around September, I found it boring; the songs just sounded like rambly r&b in duet / musical-esque format -- some sounded like disco and I s'pose those were the ones I was mildly entertained by such as, 'Moving Like A Train'. nonetheless, after watching the recording sessions to see how much work went into this album (over 700 samples speaking of which!) and eventually buying the album, I fell in love with it.
06- I don't have much to say about this. a lovely dark folk singer I don't know much about (someone tossed the album up in a forum talking endlessly about how good it was, so I gave in) which ended in a nice violin transition into the next track; I should note that tracks 6&7 weren't originally meant for this mix. when I had troubles with crossfading, these were the tester tracks which I just tossed together mindlessly as wav files and burned to disc to see if I had fixed the problem. not only did I fix the problem, but I made just about the second best transition ever. I think the rule is that violins mixed with anything else just... works.
07- From the new Berg Sans Nipple album 'Along The Quai'. while not as good as 'Form Of..', this track, along with the leading track, made me accept this. one day I shall actually purchase it! really, I'm sure this track went over well with me 'cause it sounds like it could've been included on 'Form Of..' I think the best parts of the song, for me, come in around the 1:59 / 2:00 + 2:56 + 3:46 + 4:20 marks. ahhh yesss...
08- I was going to include a song from the new giardini di mirò album, but none really fit. here's a link to it though.
I've always liked 'Punk..Not Diet' best anyway. this song is a remix by Hood (everything is better with Hood!) on the North Atlantic Treaty of Love album. it was one of the first albums on vinyl I purchased when I got my turntable. I still don't have the cd version which has parts one and two yet though. I should get that one eventually.
09- It took decades to get a copy of this album... all for another interlude! the laughter bit with the banjo at the end does make it rather special sounding though. that is all..
10- When coming up with the concept for this mix, I felt it needed some old songs on it.. this and the Eluvium track were the biggies -- I think this may be my favourite song ever! at least when combining music and lyrics. knife in the water's 'Norma' + Carissa's Wierd's 'Fluorescent Lights' are my favourite in terms of lyrics. if you've never read my review, to get a bigger idea of why it made #1 for me in '04, go here.
11- From the upcoming album 'Book of Bad Breaks' on Anticon. I love Thee More Shallows! their first album, "A History of Sport Fishing' is still my favourite, but this track shows promise of things to come. I think this is the one album with a set tracklisting and one sample track that I haven't found to have leaked yet which is driving me crazy! perhaps I'm just not looking in the right place? well, I'm going to buy it anyway.
12- I've been into fonal records since last year and this just happened to be the latest one I sampled. I recently bought their latest album in a record store used and it's about as good as this one. on Boomkat, it's compared to Stereolab and I can see some similarity despite this band being finnish and not british. the phrase 'itchy gitchy aye yi yi!' shall get caught in your head!
13- The collaboration between Four Tet's Kieran Hebden and Steve Reid who combine electronica and free-jazz into one entity. this is off their first full length, 'Tongues', coming out soon! I haven't heard the other two mini albums ('The Exchange Sessions 1 & 2') in full, but if it's as good as this, I may check them out. the teaser video.
14- I've been wanting to use this track on a mix for awhile now, but thought maybe it was too crass. o' course, it is lovely in a twisted way, so after awhile of fiddling around, I gave into it. there's a new album coming out soon.. I hope it's as gooey.. yes, gooey (the word just came out of nowhere!) as this one. "I wouldn't take her to a live sex show" indeed.
15- It's the only ominous recent track I could think of that could follow the latter one. I love dark folk. Hush Arbors was found courtesy of a boomkat album of the week recommendation.
16- As I've mentioned quite recently, I found Stuart Staples', of the band Tindersticks, solo albums. this was the first track that resonated with me.. I found it when looking for his new compilation, 'Songs For The Young At Heart'. it didn't sound like a song for children though obviously. the stuff on that compilation are rather good and I almost went with one of those for this mix, but after the dark path this mix was taking, I changed my mind. it also goes well with the Arcade Fire song coming up...
"Most of those words / I drive past 'em like sands in the fog / most of those words / I kick through 'em like leaves in the fall" ..could those words also be an ocean of noise?
17- Another song I've been dying to use. I almost used it as an opener on one of the mixes in the yoga series, but mom insisted that this song was not very relaxing at all.. but! but the guy at the beginning sounds like Barry White!
Jan Jelinek hasn't been good since this or 'loop-finding-jazz-records' IMO. I'm unsure what it is.. length of tracks? his newer stuff has more of a long tiresome ambient vibe to it which I just can't figure out.
18- Oh yes! yes! Yes! YES! song of the year!
19- lhb made me want to check out the Shearwater album this song is off of, 'Palo Santo'. just recently I figured out that this band has members from Okkervil River in it. I did find another one of their albums at the record store last week and bought it. it's not as good as this one, but it was worth the purchase.
This is just a nice little folky song that continues the ominous vibe which almost didn't make the mix, but the other song that I tried kept skipping no matter what I did thus the change.
20- Menomena is a band I kept ignoring, but I heard enough hype about this one that I went ahead and sampled it. this song hit me while reading a poem... the almost secret piano bit at the end pulled me in so hard that it had to be the closer. this mix starts and ends with a piano.
Also, in later listens, I loved when the female vocals rise overtop in an 'aaaaah' that swoops down upon the repeating lyrics ("Honey, this will be the future you should care enough to / carve your heart into a tree / initial it with someone special") near the end.
If this mix had to have a theme, it'd be about the games we all play with each other to win over the one we love and how these games sometimes backfire with repeated plays. I titled it after lyrics in the Ella Guru track, "I joke, but I don't joke".