(no subject)
01. Arovane - The Storm
02. Shearwater - Seventy-Four, Seventy-Five
03. The Black Heart Procession - Voiture En Rouge
04. Tindersticks - For Those...
05. Gravenhurst - Trust
06. Herbert - Something Isn't Right
07. T - Dancing Together
08. Swod - Tucholskystr. 34
09. TV-Resistori - J.O.V.H.M.L.S.O.A.M.O (love)
10. Kode9 & The Spaceape - Quantum
11. Angil & The Hiddentracks - Trying To Fit
12. Machinefabriek - Afgebroken flats in Presikhaaf
13. Sandro Perri - Dreaming
14. The National - Santa Clara
15. Skallander - Forgiven
16. Part Timer - Theme from Part Timer
17. Ella Guru - On A Mountain
18. Richard Buckner - The Ocean Cliff Clearing
19. El Hijo - Los reyes que traigo
20. Ticonderoga - Why Do You Suppose?
21. Robert Wyatt - Just As You Are
22. Angil & The Hiddentracks - lift trip to mars (clip) [hidden track !!!]
Total time: 75:08 after edits.
Crossfaded tracks: 1&2, 4&5, 8&9, 11&12, 15&16 -- you know the drill.. convert crossfaded mp3s to wavs if you want it on disc
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Since I put this off for so long, I warn you... it's a long set of liner notes... eesh. I didn't think I had that much to say!
Before I start with this, let me just say that this mix has probably been the hardest one I ever created. I had to stop and start for about 3wks or so and actually DELETE 5 songs worth of edited tracks and start over when I figured out that all the tracks had a piano and put me to sleep. I feel a mix needs variety to get people moving. quiet / loud / quiet like um... a post rock song, but not as same-y. anyway, it finally came together, but lemme tell ya, even after burning the first copy, I almost scrapped the whole thing. it took adding track 8 and mixing it with track 9 to make me like the whole thing. I cannot even explain how that exactly works (though yeah, editing track 9 to a wav did boost the volume, so who knows, that might be why)!
01- This song is from the album Tides by Arovane aka Uwe Zahn. I almost used a song from Icol Diston due to finding it in a record store for $11.99.. this thing was selling for around $30 online. who knows, the price may have lowered in that time, but the point is that I was very excited and when I'm excited about something, I want to share. I got Tides when there was a summer promotion sale on boomkat though and had no intention of using anything from it till it sparked my inspiration when the Shearwater track didn't sound enough like an opener despite that pronounced piano.. it just started out too low to make it towards anything but a following track. At the first instance of hearing 'The Storm', I almost pressed stop hurriedly and started to edit it. I tried to contain myself. the whole song is around 7+min, so I edited it a lot. with some fade outs / ins, it almost sounds like it's supposed to end there.
02 - This track sparked my loose storyline / theme for this mix: "basically, someone loses someone in a storm at sea then flashes back to all the times they were awful in their life and how they want to learn to love" I seriously had to just go find the chat transcript where I told JC this in October (!!!) when I had just finished this mix. it is a rather dreary theme, I admit.
03 - This was taken from the In The Fishtank 11 series EP. there are other In The Fishtank collaborations I hope to one day collect. The Black Heart Procession worked with Dutch prog rockers Solbakken which I don't really know at all beyond what I searched out on google. they do work well together on this EP though. I think the whole thing is a masterpiece amongst masterpieces! I have other BHP albums, but they don't really compare.
04 - Recently I got obsessed with Tindersticks again. October was my month of scary collecting (as in $80 rare live albums and the like... this one is not from that particular live album nonetheless, but I do have it and am sharing it in the next post). this is from Bloomsbury Theatre '95 which I had read at some point was the top live album to get by them. it is quite nice.. warmer than others I've heard. anyway, this track I mostly chose 'cause it wasn't ever added to a studio album.
05 - Gravenhurst has been a band I followed for at least the past few years. it was a fluke that I had even heard a new album was about to be made. might've been a blog? at first I was underwhelmed and reading reviews that 'Trust' was the best track made me shake my head. it just seemed too noisy IMO. I was pick and choosing between a few other tracks, but none really stood out compared to past albums / songs. that's when I came back to the song 'Trust' and it really did stand out. it sounded like it belonged in the 90's and that's why I stuck it after the Tindersticks track.
06 - I really did like this album I guess. I think a song has appeared in all my recent mixes.. hm. it never did make my '06 end of year list go figure.
07 - I've been wanting to use a T. track since someone on maybe the SR boards shared it with me on soulseek.. this was probably '05? maybe even '04? the years pass so quickly lately... especially when I consider the music. it's really hard to look up this album considering that it is self titled and yes, T. is the name. when adding it with a song title, it's easier, but I cannot seem to locate it right now. maybe one day I'll find it and buy a real copy. anyway, basically, all the tracks have that lo-fi dance quality and yes, it might even be considered twee, but I like their accents, so it doesn't make me gag.
08 - A new album came out called Sekunden around September, but it didn't stand out enough for me to get that one. I've always liked Gehen, but listened to it on a burned copy (I actually thought this particular track was called 'I Think He Was A Journalist', but I was wrong all this time! darn tricksy mp3s). it was on sale during that same summer promo, so I got that along with the Arovane. they're both on the City Centre Offices label which I seem to pay attention to as much as Type and some others. this album sounds a lot different than Arovane's stuff though. it's more cinematic / classical elements interspersed with electronical blips and loops. I love when it seems something cuts right through the middle of the song and how it rolls along on a skateboard till it flips over... okay, so that's a bad analogy, but you get the point.
09 - I first added a track of theirs on the last mix I made. I love the Fonal label and their Finnish-y goodness. this particular band is the most fun though! I described them as sounding a bit like Stereolab... if Stereolab sang in Finnish. really, a lot of the tracks are so smooth and catchy, you may almost think they are in English. in fact, when I read a blurb just now to catch me up on what to write, I almost did a double take when I remembered that yeah, it was in a different language. I love the screaming bit in this track. when I let mom sample the mix on headphones, that was the one part I could distinctly hear through them!
You can watch the video here. it's so trippy.
10 - Recently I watched some youtube video interviewing Kode9 & The Spaceape and it appeared to be dubbed in French... what was odd was that Kode9 looked bored and was playing with an unlit cigarette in his mouth and Spaceape was almost rapping out his interview... um yeah. I still find his Jamaican accent very hypnotic.
11 - This was a complete surprise. I had discovered French artist Angil in maybe '04? I still have yet to own that one, but I did eventually find the whole thing to download. for awhile, I just repeated two tracks over and over again when I needed my fix. that album was called Teaser For Matter. it is completely different than this one, which I found on one of those new album blogs... this one is poetic rapping with a dash of jazz tossed in, so yes, it goes well after the last track. I'm determined to find this to buy! I also love the video that accompanied the download if you want to hear more.
12 - Machinefabriek's Rutger Zuyderveit is the most prolific artist of this past year and well, even past ones! he basically puts out a ton of 3" cds, sometimes 2 a month, in limited supply. the one this song is on, Huis, sold out before I could get it from boomkat and if not for my friend Andi bringing up that I could email him directly to get a copy, I wouldn't have been enjoying it for some time. I did eventually find it on mp3, so I could add it nonetheless. I do not trust 3" cds to be shoved into laptops. the most recent album I purchased by him was Fabriek+Fabriek which also sold out, but interestingly enough is not on a 3" cd. there are only 5 tracks, but they are long, so that might be why.
13 - Aww, I LOVE the new Sandro Perri album Tiny Mirrors. I didn't have it yet at the time of making this mix though. this song was the best one on the Sandro Perri Plays Polmo Polpo album though. it also somehow summarizes what has transpired in this mix's story thus far, with this line: "So many ways to forget what's in you / you're a maverick at sea / you hide in space and you filled your time and you don't dream"
I almost used the song 'Double Suicide' which I did have on mp3 that may've been a live version since it sounds different than the one that made it on the album, but I felt it was maybe too harsh for the introspective section. yeah.
14 - The National's Boxer is basically the best album this year. no questions. I may as well not even make a top albums list unless you just want to know what else is good. this song is a bside on the Mistaken For Strangers single and what I ended up titling this mix after is quoted in this song, 'Cool Happy Genius Heroes'. it's a sad song, but it goes well after the repeated line in the Sandro Perri song, "I could see the colours of your eyes turn away into stone / where did they go where did they go where did they go"
15 - When I first played this album for mom, she called him the pretentious guitar player... hah. I'm sure she also used the words... Simon & Garfunkel... yeah. really, I used it for the harsh lyrics: "I kick you down the stairs and you ran away and left me..." + "I'll beat you till you tell me you forgive the signs" New Zealanders Bevan Smith and Matthew Mitchell aka Skallander on Type Records really know how to mix dark folk with a sense of ambient jam sessions... this is the perfect album for autumn, but I think I might get it out again to take me through winter, too.
16 - This makes perhaps the best transition from the previous track. I love how autumn-esque this is, too. Part Timer I had heard before in clips on Moteer label's website, but had never delved into it.. I mostly paid attention to The Boats and Manyfingers. anyway, now John McCaffrey aka Part Timer's on Japanese label Flau along with the band Cokiyu (which I'd like to get, but it sold out.. so did this, but I was lucky enough to order it before then). the album encompasses that which makes a good interlude and that which makes a good song. there's loop variants throughout, but it doesn't sound like a typical electronic sampling at all.. it sounds warm and fresh. really, if at all possible, find this. if you can't, I'll try to share it.
17 - Another Ella Guru track... I don't think I'll ever get sick of this album. it could be that '04 was the most quality year as I continue to bring up. I can't say I really get out the #1 albums from previous years that often. this one always makes me think of the book Love in the Time of Cholera... which is now a movie, but I am not sure I'm curious enough to see it. I like the images in my head.
18 - This song is off the album Since from '98. I had been wanting to use a track from this one for awhile. it's the first album I heard by Richard Buckner (and I still need to buy an actual copy!). it also includes the song that made it into a VW commercial, 'Ariel Ramirez'. anyway, I find that the stuff on this album sound timeless. I think the best bit is when he says "..and she's smokin' hot"
19 - Abel Hernández of former Migala (which I only heard some songs by), now El Hijo was sent to me by my friend Andi along with another Acuarela records album by Aroah which I also happen to like, but isn't as good as past albums. this album really blew me away though. in this song, I especially like when he says "Shangri-La-Ah AH AH LA LA LA LA LA!" that's what sealed its spot on the mix. it follows the past song 'cause of the line in the Richard Buckner song, "This fellow belts out a warning of some spanish house I'd known"
20 - Another song I had been waiting to use... on the album Heilig-Levine from '05 which I did once share in full. I always smile at the line, "Well, I swear on my mom / I didn't flip through your notebook... / I've got my own!"
21 - A last minute add-on. this song had been pimped on the popular blog stereogum and made a top album pick at boomkat at the time when I was trying to come up with a way to end this mix. I just found it so haunting and I had never heard of Robert Wyatt before in my life... the song also features Brazilian singer/songwriter Monica Vasconcelos which I also had never heard before, so this is a complete fluke add-on. it also has a lovely message behind it. also on the same album, Comicopera, Anja Garbarek's 'Stay Tuned' is covered which is lovely. I hadn't heard her stuff in forever.
22 - I added this on as a joke 'cause y'know... hiddentracks... Hidden Track! I also thought the question asked could be a rhetorical one to the listener: "Is it shit music? is it small room? no it's not.. it's sounds to occupy my vital air" (at least I think that's what is said...) I am unsure if those who got a real copy ever did discover the track considering I put 20sec or so of silence before the track to make it officially hidden.
Here's the video to the full track I found by chance... it kinda scared me.