Mixt Ape loves you.
Have a treat. From the Mixt Ape teat.
Saturday 30 January 2010
Mixt Ape Snippets
Mixt Ape loves you.
Have a treat. From the Mixt Ape teat.
Monday 25 January 2010
Hunter-Gathering
My imaginary female self has been foraging for the odd rock/folk/alternative berry, while masculine tribe leader me has been hunting a whole lot of meaty dnb/dub/electronica with a MASSIVE FUCKING SPEAR. Here you go tribespeople:
Berries first.
Surfer Blood - Floating Vibes
What's this? Guitars? Yeah, I found some unassuming and simple indie rock that didn't send me running for the hills. Catchy, muddy guitar riffs open a track that does exactly what it says on the tin. Although ironically the kind of guys who completely oppose surfer kids, this track really wouldn't seem out of place sound-tracking some American teen drama while the sun sets over the wash and some unrealistically-beautiful 'teenagers' (25, minimum) frolic hilariously about in celebration of the happy ending of a classically dramatic year. Oh, what? They're from Florida? Cue some strings in the closing minute to lather some thin layer of 'integrity'. Actually, I quite like it all.
JJ - Let Go
I think these guys also produce some hip-hop-infused electronica, but I'm happy with what's here. Dreamy vocals float over sparse, echoey pianos and guitars and retro synths. Think of tacky eighties-esque school disco slow dances. 'I like your sleeves, they're real big.'
Laura Gibson & Ethan Rose - Younger
If I'm entirely honest I'm not yet completely convinced by this track, but something about it intrigues me. Minimal and with very little direction or apparent structure, it's basically an odd scattering of soothing female vocal mumbles over ambient samples of rattling, jingling things. Having said that, whack some headphones on and those shimmering synth pads smothering the corners of your ears do seem to glue it all together pretty pleasantly.
But don't let those measly berries put you off. The lads are bringing in the prize kills.
Meaty, meaty meat.
Sorry, not much clever here, but BIG for sure.
Noisia - Deception
MEATY MEATY dnb! Noisia bring that persistently MASSIVE drop for this characteristically pounding new release. Although inevitably not a patch on last year's Stigma, it's still quite a banger. This is the kind of music that was made to scare grannies.
Johnny L - Evah
And then some more. This sounds like someone took a big spoonful of the late nineties and poured it into a modern-day dnb jelly-mould. Basically, it's plenty trancey, with tinny house hi-hats incorporated into its breakbeat, and beautifully cheesy trance pianos and blaring synth lines completing the distinct flavour.
AC Slater - Jack Got Jacked (Jack Beats Remix)
So why not something more housey? I've gone all club here, but it's a cheeky one. Saw-synths cue blistering wobble mania.
Rusko - Cockney Thug
Yeah, definitely nothing subtle about this one. What could make dub even more in-your-face? Oh, apparently Vinnie Jones samples and synth-horn. 'WAKE THE FUCK UP'.
Boxcutter - Glyphic
But who said dubstep can't be subtle? I finally found a dub producer and album I consistently enjoy, but then again it's probably cos it's a crossover, dub roots smeared with IDM elements. A lonesome producer of this kind of music out in his homeland of Northern Ireland, this man does for dubstep what Squarepusher and Aphex Twin did for jungle back in the nineties. A slowly dragged out introduction proves worth the wait as the sound-scape is stuffed full of choppy bass wobbles and echoey effects. Probably my favourite track here.
Martyn - All I Have Is Memories
Staggering but chilled breakbeat here, with all the snappiness of earlier garage, but the intelligence of more modern electronica. It's a comedown track, but with plenty of kick for that 'mummy, I don't want to go home' feeling preceding a groggy homecoming, also right at home on a night-time drive.
Here's some I made earlier. 2003 was a good year for dnb it would seem.
Twisted Individual - Bandwagon Blues
Clowny to the extreme, the wobbles on TI's cheeky response to criticisms of their 'singular' sound are over the top in exactly the right kinda way.
Fresh - Signal
Back to the time when breaks were even more aggressive, changing from bar to bar like some ultra-violent bruce lee fight scene. Tasty.
Sunday 17 January 2010
2009 Runoff
In keeping with being CLASSICALLY behind, I'm about to venture yet again back to last year. I'm livin' in the past, what you gonna do about it?
So basically, I've spent the last year holding desperately onto some kind of tasteful independence from the subscribed list of what's good - AKA the Hype Machine.
It's clearly a fantastic resource and a great concept (to merge the collective tastes of hundreds of different music blogs) but I think it gets a bit circular as bloggers notice what other bloggers are saying is cool, then re-post the same music, so that it snowballs and something (very possible SHIT) that a few blogs liked early on becomes invincible in the snooty eyes of the musical blogosphere, and thrives on little more than hype. Hence, hype machine.
HAVING SAID THAT they just finished compiling their 2009 'musical zeitgeist' which listed the year's 50 best albums and artists and a handful of the most hyped tracks as per the musical dogma, and I was forced to eat a small delicatessen bag full of my own words. Yummy.
So, listening to their collection of top tracks, a few sprung out at me that made me feel guilty for leaving them out of my 2009 reminiscing. Here they are in all their outdated, mixt-ape-proving-wrong glory:
Florence + The Machine - You Got The Love (The XX Remix)
This one forced me to sulkily pour away a few of my preconceptions, like non-alcoholic beer you'd been sipping nonchalantly for hours under the impression it was regular 5%. Yeahp, I've been forced to sober up to realising that I might have been wrong about BOTH artists in the title. I've always been weirdly suspicious of female-fronted bands (it's probably cos girls are shit at music. :) ) and the XX seemed annoyingly sedate to me. Plus I was clearly suffering from that arrogant aversion to hype in both cases. But this remix in all its glittery splendour is making me think I shouldn't have ignored two of 2009's most prominent artists. It's fucking lovely, its staccato beats and deep bass are a bit reminiscent of old school UK garage (sweet, like chocolate boy?) but without the guilt that went with it, and the singers' replacement vocals perfectly fit the weirdly dispassionate yet emotional sound to the track (and the XX generally if I'm not wrong) before the actual Florence samples begin bleeding through, chopped up and knocked about with effects. This being the second Florence remix I've fucking loved (see Drumming Song remix a couple of posts down) my words might just end up in the shitter.
Sigur Rós vs Mobb Deep - Shook (Emancipator Mash Up)
Probably my favourite one here, although more for the Sigur side than Mobb Deep's, Emancipator takes Jonsi's vocals from an otherwise gentle and fluid track and supremely beats the shit out of it with a sampler, creating an entirely new melody, before Mobb Deep comes back from the nineties to bounce verse off of an otherwise soul-touching track. Still, he's totally allowed to, it's cool.
Notorious B.I.G. - Party And Bullshit (Ratatat Remix)
Here's where the hip hop can definitely happen. Biggie + Ratatat's cheeky production = beyond the grave satisfaction.
Radiohead - Reckoner (The Twelves Remix)
And I failed to hear this last year probably owing to my sensible suspicion of radiohead remixes. This one does pretty well though, the twelves seem to have a way with the upbeat transformation of very haunting minor songs (hear their remix of Fever Ray).
We Plants Are Happy Plants - Apollo
Unsigned euphoric bleepy electronica. I possibly only remembered this artist when mishearing the name as 'Weed Plants Are Happy Plants' which I reckon would be much better. Still, ears peeled for this one.
Yeah, so there are the ones I'll give Hype Machine. Well done lads and ladettes, you did good. Listen to these tracks and more on their radio show/podcast (and try to fight the temptation to kill things when their presenter speaks. She says EVERYTHING in the same tone of voice like she's a Californian freshman ready for spring break).
So basically, I've spent the last year holding desperately onto some kind of tasteful independence from the subscribed list of what's good - AKA the Hype Machine.It's clearly a fantastic resource and a great concept (to merge the collective tastes of hundreds of different music blogs) but I think it gets a bit circular as bloggers notice what other bloggers are saying is cool, then re-post the same music, so that it snowballs and something (very possible SHIT) that a few blogs liked early on becomes invincible in the snooty eyes of the musical blogosphere, and thrives on little more than hype. Hence, hype machine.
HAVING SAID THAT they just finished compiling their 2009 'musical zeitgeist' which listed the year's 50 best albums and artists and a handful of the most hyped tracks as per the musical dogma, and I was forced to eat a small delicatessen bag full of my own words. Yummy.
So, listening to their collection of top tracks, a few sprung out at me that made me feel guilty for leaving them out of my 2009 reminiscing. Here they are in all their outdated, mixt-ape-proving-wrong glory:
Florence + The Machine - You Got The Love (The XX Remix)
This one forced me to sulkily pour away a few of my preconceptions, like non-alcoholic beer you'd been sipping nonchalantly for hours under the impression it was regular 5%. Yeahp, I've been forced to sober up to realising that I might have been wrong about BOTH artists in the title. I've always been weirdly suspicious of female-fronted bands (it's probably cos girls are shit at music. :) ) and the XX seemed annoyingly sedate to me. Plus I was clearly suffering from that arrogant aversion to hype in both cases. But this remix in all its glittery splendour is making me think I shouldn't have ignored two of 2009's most prominent artists. It's fucking lovely, its staccato beats and deep bass are a bit reminiscent of old school UK garage (sweet, like chocolate boy?) but without the guilt that went with it, and the singers' replacement vocals perfectly fit the weirdly dispassionate yet emotional sound to the track (and the XX generally if I'm not wrong) before the actual Florence samples begin bleeding through, chopped up and knocked about with effects. This being the second Florence remix I've fucking loved (see Drumming Song remix a couple of posts down) my words might just end up in the shitter.Sigur Rós vs Mobb Deep - Shook (Emancipator Mash Up)
Probably my favourite one here, although more for the Sigur side than Mobb Deep's, Emancipator takes Jonsi's vocals from an otherwise gentle and fluid track and supremely beats the shit out of it with a sampler, creating an entirely new melody, before Mobb Deep comes back from the nineties to bounce verse off of an otherwise soul-touching track. Still, he's totally allowed to, it's cool.Notorious B.I.G. - Party And Bullshit (Ratatat Remix)
Here's where the hip hop can definitely happen. Biggie + Ratatat's cheeky production = beyond the grave satisfaction.
Radiohead - Reckoner (The Twelves Remix)
And I failed to hear this last year probably owing to my sensible suspicion of radiohead remixes. This one does pretty well though, the twelves seem to have a way with the upbeat transformation of very haunting minor songs (hear their remix of Fever Ray).We Plants Are Happy Plants - Apollo
Unsigned euphoric bleepy electronica. I possibly only remembered this artist when mishearing the name as 'Weed Plants Are Happy Plants' which I reckon would be much better. Still, ears peeled for this one.
Yeah, so there are the ones I'll give Hype Machine. Well done lads and ladettes, you did good. Listen to these tracks and more on their radio show/podcast (and try to fight the temptation to kill things when their presenter speaks. She says EVERYTHING in the same tone of voice like she's a Californian freshman ready for spring break).
Sunday 10 January 2010
Randoms
Just a few tracks that slipped fresh into my ears in recent days, along with some pathetic links between each:
Splashed all over bloggers this week like snow and swine flu dregs over the British public is this preview into the imminent project involving The Knife (Andersson's Fever Ray project still mustily wafting in 2009's wake, it being almost universally agreed upon as integral to the year's sonic zeitgeist). Basically, this track is one of many that will comprise a Danish opera based on Darwin's On the Origin of the Species. And yeah, it's about as weird as it sounds, though completely accessible. Expect this to be not only the first but the last post I ever make about opera. You can find out more on the group's website, and there's a free download of the track available to anyone who joins their mailing list. It's only about two clicks away, I'm not giving a direct link fool!
Collections of Colonies of Bees - Flocks III
From pigeons to birds in general. Not new this time, but equal in length (yeahp, both tracks are 11 minutes long, what you gonna do?) The group make up several parts of Volcano Choir, who I've blogged about already and released their album Unmap this year (listen for anyone too lazy to scroll down) in collaboration with Bon Iver's Justin Vernon. They're all chums basically, and you can hear the distinctive emphatic swells in instrumentation throughout that both Jagjaguwar-signed artists share. It's essentially a very long and drawn-out lovely mess of traditional instruments sampled in a pseudo-ambient (it's not exactly sleepy) fashion, lots of guitars and repetitive cymbal rushes pieced together like electronica. It's either fantastically profound and complex or victim to a bit too much artistic license, but it sits well on the ears in any case. Try the whole album (Birds), this track was chosen just because it was the only one readily available for download, Flocks IV is actually superior.
Easy Star All-Stars - Airbag
Okay, the best I can do for some kind of link between this and the previous track is as follows: the last track had a lot of cymbal rushes, Thom Yorke released a track called Cymbal Rush (his live version alongside Flea was pretty special), Thom Yorke leads nicely on to Radiohead! Anyway, a massive drop in profundity there, it's the opening track to the dub reggae rework/cover of Radiohead's OK Computer, which seems to equally offend and impress previous fans (I think it's the fanboys who feel insulted. Get over yourselves). Does exactly what it says on the tin, it's the same track, pretty similar arrangement only with accentuated offbeat, horns, rasta vocals and dub-style delays. What I like about these dub reworks of classic albums (see Dub Side of the Moon, Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band) which overly-rigid radioheads don't seem to grasp is that the covers are respectful and playful. They know there's nothing serious about a reggae cover (although the musicianship and arrangements are pretty meticulous) and are only messing about with music they fully respect, leaving the melodies fairly well alone. All these do is provide a bit of a giggle and remind you what you loved about the albums in the first place. To me, Airbag is the definitive Radiohead track of all time (in what other track does each member's input shine through so strongly?) but I don't like this cover any less. The rework of Let Down on this album (Radiodread) is definitely the best - featuring Toots & The Maytals - but I've had that knocking about for ages. Even Thom Yorke himself heartily agreed that the Toots cover of the track was superior. Nuff said.
Future Prophecies - Dreadlock
And we've definitely hit rock bottom in the profundity pot here. It's some pretty old DnB, and it's definitely not the intelligent type. It just reappeared in my iTunes recently after I enjoyed it far too much (causing some temporarily dangerous driving, I'm not gonna lie) in an old Fabriclive mix. Plus, the title has a semantic link to the last track :) Expect a repetitive and coarse synth line. Shut up and take it like a man.
Splashed all over bloggers this week like snow and swine flu dregs over the British public is this preview into the imminent project involving The Knife (Andersson's Fever Ray project still mustily wafting in 2009's wake, it being almost universally agreed upon as integral to the year's sonic zeitgeist). Basically, this track is one of many that will comprise a Danish opera based on Darwin's On the Origin of the Species. And yeah, it's about as weird as it sounds, though completely accessible. Expect this to be not only the first but the last post I ever make about opera. You can find out more on the group's website, and there's a free download of the track available to anyone who joins their mailing list. It's only about two clicks away, I'm not giving a direct link fool!Collections of Colonies of Bees - Flocks III
From pigeons to birds in general. Not new this time, but equal in length (yeahp, both tracks are 11 minutes long, what you gonna do?) The group make up several parts of Volcano Choir, who I've blogged about already and released their album Unmap this year (listen for anyone too lazy to scroll down) in collaboration with Bon Iver's Justin Vernon. They're all chums basically, and you can hear the distinctive emphatic swells in instrumentation throughout that both Jagjaguwar-signed artists share. It's essentially a very long and drawn-out lovely mess of traditional instruments sampled in a pseudo-ambient (it's not exactly sleepy) fashion, lots of guitars and repetitive cymbal rushes pieced together like electronica. It's either fantastically profound and complex or victim to a bit too much artistic license, but it sits well on the ears in any case. Try the whole album (Birds), this track was chosen just because it was the only one readily available for download, Flocks IV is actually superior.Easy Star All-Stars - Airbag
Future Prophecies - Dreadlock
And we've definitely hit rock bottom in the profundity pot here. It's some pretty old DnB, and it's definitely not the intelligent type. It just reappeared in my iTunes recently after I enjoyed it far too much (causing some temporarily dangerous driving, I'm not gonna lie) in an old Fabriclive mix. Plus, the title has a semantic link to the last track :) Expect a repetitive and coarse synth line. Shut up and take it like a man.
So long Paul MacInnes
Isn't the Guardian a beautiful thing? Proudly-intellectual leftyism aside, the cultural commentary provided in their weekly Saturday supplements the Guide and the Weekend never fails to prove insightful and entertaining. The love-children of these sections includes the fantastic Guardian music website and its regular and on-the-ball Music Weekly podcast.Anyway, the chronological relevance of my unashamed arse-kissing here is that the long-standing main presenter of the podcast, the firm-tasted and (in terms of new music given the 'cool' label) hard-to-convince Paul MacInnes, has just had his last cast. Definitely worth checking out (I'd recommend a trip to the iTunes store to subscribe the the whole podcast), the last podcast summed up Music Weekly's place in 2009 through a series of exclusive live performances from guests they'd had on the show, including performances by Ellie Goulding (in one live track boosting my opinion of her) and Mumford & Sons. Although unrepresentatively acousticy, the mix of artists on this week's cast do mirror the variety yet persistent quirk rife on the podcast generally.
So anyways, I mourn the loss of the bloke, and hope the podcast retains its reliability without him - the man had a rarely free-of-bullshit attitude to music commentary and tastes which were comfortably compatible with mine. It's definitely worth checking out any previous episodes to reel in the last of his musical-taste-juices before his replacement comes in.
Oh, look, I didn't really talk about music at all. Just music journalism. And I gave away one of my sources! Fuck it, if there's one thing wrong with music blogs, it's their pretentious avoidance of mentioning the places where all their recommendations usually stem from. No, we're not all musical hunter-gatherers waiting by the proverbial stream for the first catch, we're just nicking the best crop from others' nets.
Monday 4 January 2010
Definitive Christmas Mix
In keeping with my unavoidable keenness for shoving my music taste down people's throats, I carried on with my yearly tradition of making a series of individual compilation CDs for close friends this year as Christmas presents.
But is this nearly keen enough of me? Nope. I thought, fuck it, why not make a definitive mix-tape for the masses - one for those unlucky enough not to receive a CD in the first place, and for those who've already received one but JUST CAN'T GET ENOUGH!
Although inevitably to translate to the universality of a blog, the purpose of this mix has become more of a 2009 gap-filler, a late opportunity to mention tracks and artists (mostly) little dwelt on in the posts below (I know I just said dwelt on by the way - big whoop, wanna fight about it?), as well as a rare moment to stray away from the usual confines of chronological relevance to my posts. That's to say, a lot of tracks here are a bit old, but have resurfaced in my attention or just come to my knowledge late. You'll get over it.
Now, I got a bit carried away with length, and got to the point where I could cull no more, feeling physically sick at the thought of deleting another track of the mix, but still having an 18-track-long mix, spanning 1.5 hours, so the mix takes the form of two phases. So basically, for those who can stomach it, it's meant to all flow together as one mix, but it's in two halves for convenience's sake.
Download links are to zip folders containing each track of each phase, all painstakingly re-tagged to preserve the order of the mix, so keep it that way yeah?
Phase I
(Tracks 1-10)
1. Dizraeli - Bomb Tesco
Things start off light-heartedly with some earthy-sounding homegrown white pseudo-hip-hop from the Bristolian dub poet/spoken word scenester/frontman for rootsy family-friendly reggae band Bad Science. It's basically a pretty whimsical fairy tale of Dizraeli starting a rhythmical revolution amongst the workers of a local supermarket ('In the car park a strange guy is playing a djembe/What a weird way to waste a wednesday') with the usual familiar British undertones and lyrical mastery that make Dizraeli special (yet fairly underground). For a more upbeat version try the Scifax DnB remix but also listen to some of the man's fantastic spoken word before this musical ship sets sail:
("And here are three kids, their mother aged 18/And they dream of stardom, watching the X-Factory/But they have no garden and nowhere to practice being/And therefore they wonder what they're there for/And why there's armed policemen outside Mr. Blair's door/Then they reach their teens and learn how to count up to ten Bensons/Hiding behind hedges burning pubescent tensions/What's progression? Let the Daily Mail write your star chart/This week you'll lose your virginity in a car park/Next week you'll take your first ecstacy pill, nine pints of white lightning and get messily ill/The week after that perhaps you'll get a job in Lidl")
Back to the music.
2. Nightmares On Wax - Jorgé
Bit of a jump back in time there, precisely a decade ago to some Warp-released chillout. A masterpiece of funky ambience, let that repeated vocal slide from ear to ear like Scarlett Johansson across butter. Lovely.
3. Pretty Lights - Hot Like Sauce
Let's take that inevitable journey from funk to hip hop, things are getting a bit exciting now... The man (/men?) behind this project knows his way around a sampler like Brosnan does a tux. The man passes Compton through a filter and comes up with a vial full of slick and bounce, while the crass runs off through a tube into dead air. It's fucking sweet basically, the smartest hip hop since DJ Shadow's better work. And the man gives away all his music for free alongside optional donations.
4. Alix Perez - The Cut Deepens (feat. Foreign Beggars)
Thinks are getting darker now... Perhaps a bit repetitive for some, but some more flowing and intelligent British rhyming (Although we're closer to South London now than Bristol) sit comfortably over this breakthrough young DnB producer's characteristically dark and minimal beats and tense horror-film strings. If there's another Kidulthood sequel this is gonna be in it.
5. Fever Ray - If I Had A Heart
We've passed through the hip hop gate now into something darker but less malevolent. Yup, it's 2009's favourite Swedish songstress, leaving her role as one half of The Knife (the duo responsible for the electro original of José González's 'Heartbeats') for her debut project as Fever Ray. I probably couldn't add anything to the numerous words music critics have had to say about the beautiful weirdness that her album exudes. The spooky and grandiosity of her arrangements that characterise her sound sometimes become transparent to reveal her charming Nordic quirk ("Accompany me by the kitchen sink/We talk about love, we talk about dishwater tablets") which is what really shines out for me. This track's all-encompassing bassy synth drone is layered with the singer's pitch-shifted ogre voice, which occasionally delves into normal frequencies to squeal into the echoey flanks of the track.
6. Florence + The Machine - Drumming Song (Boy 8-Bit Remix)
Firstly I'd like to point out the above isn't actually some kind of weird sum. I wouldn't know the answer. I've actually spent far too long ignoring her soulful voice but it baited me out of my stubborn female-vocalist-free cave like the smell of roast chicken in a Warner Brothers cartoon, having only listened to the track for the remixer (who released the excellently quirky club track Baltic Pine earlier this year). Don't be put off by the slightly repetitive lead line (shut up and take it) and give the man a chance to gradually unleash the full effect of Florence's vocal sample in a euphoric crescendo, alongside pulsing bass drums and tribal yet industrial snare crackles. Let it creep up on you and throw you about like a ragdoll before placing you gently back down amongst the sawdust of the song's subdued entrails...
7. Simian Mobile Disco - Hustler
...And you're up again dancing! We're back a couple of years to the birth of this production team, but it's still slick as fuck and unfalteringly sexy (watch the music video, you'll understand. Sorry ladies). If this is how good electro house sounds when it's so simple, why aren't they all doing it like this? What the fuck is you gonna do? What the fuck is you gonna do about it? Nothin.
8. Ratatat - Wildcat
While we're still here in 2007 let's pop back another year. Keeping the electro feel of the last track, we're dropping the sultry sexual undertones for the relative innocence and harmless quirk of this track. Gentle beats and simple synths sit alongside funky guitar lines and all come together in a tornado of buzzy electronic melody at the track's climax. And back down...
9. Animal Collective - My Girls
We're back in 2009, and did things just get echoey? Yeah they did. Enter the stereo-filling helmet of trilling retro synth repetition that marks the entrance to the personal highlight of this year's (probably) most buzzed about album Merriweather Post Pavilion. Rhythmically sparse and gripping, the track boasts chanty vocals and an acceptable degree of psychedelia.
10. Three Trapped Tigers - 6
And we're continuing in that mode of experimental indie/rock/electronica crossover. Lemme be lazy and just copy and paste how I summed up this track when I threw it on a monthly mix earlier this year: 'Sounds like Foals having acid-laced tea with Aphex Twin on the wall of China. Trust me'. Yeah I'm gonna go with that. And so finishes phase I. Please take this opportunity to get some light refreshments or take a toilet break and the show will resume in a short time.
Phase II
(Tracks 11-18)
In terms of energy, this phase is set to be the climax and comedown of the mix.
11. Enter Shikari - Havok B
How's this for a return to the fray? Enter Shikari doing what I think they do best: inventive dance/rock crossover intermission tracks for their albums. Let the provocatively subdued synth intro (the quiet before the storm) give way to a winning combination of grizzly distorted guitar rhythm and wobbles, before it all comes together in seamlessly rock-infused dubstep when the real elastic bassline announces its presence. Add rou's signature growling throat ejaculation and some pseudo-political chanting to round the whole thing off.
12. Dirtyphonics - Quarks
Now we're really getting somewhere. It's the only real submersion of this mix into something really dirty. It's like someone got the illegitimate love-child of drum 'n' bass's uncle that is dubstep to make friends with dnb once and for all. It sounds like either things worked out very well or very violently, as the characteristic tempo and buzz-saw synth lines of dnb give way to some serious wobbles. A reversion to classic dubstep tempo in the middle ensures dubstep gets his way. It's not subtle, and the near seven minutes it takes to complete its cycle is almost certainly unnecessary, but it does the job.
13. Klute - Hell Hath No Fury
We're still on the dnb train (which has inadvertantly travelled back to 2007) although things get refreshingly more jungle here, and we're entering the realms of the subtle for the final leg of the journey. Here incessantly evolving snappy jungle breaks storm through the sea of melodic piano ambience, with a result that's euphoric in a very distinctive way. This sound seems to encapsulate the long-standing purity of drum 'n' bass alongside the modernity of more experimental production. Nothing much changes, retaining that comforting sense of harmony, but there are just enough barely-present ambient swoops across your ears, as well as fluctuations in rhythm and melody for it not to get boring.
14. Sunchase - Violet
Don't prop your bags on your lap just yet, the drum and bass train is still well and truly on its way. Its clarity is warping somehow now, as sounds turn more refined and echoey. The continuous beat is met by a number of unexpected sonic rips and tears as the haunting piano melody drifting in and out of audible distance. Expect mind-numbing lapses into gentle ambience as the beat disappears, only for the melody to bait your attention into its disappearance, just before throwing the drop back in your face. Overall, it's stunningly beautiful and ever-changing, and the perfect soundtrack to a lonely night-time drive. Only don't take your eyes off the road, as the mix is becoming ever sleepier.
15. David Holmes - Hey Maggy
I'm afraid that beat's not coming back, it's ambience and lullabies from here on out. We're slipping back to last year for the next two tracks. Let those electronic lulls wash away to reveal a more acoustic ambient sound here, as Holmes unleashes the brilliance of his dream-like instrumental composition. Gentle guitar and piano harmonies are softened to the point of the whole mix sounding like a chocolate mousse (if that's possible). The man tends to write as if he were composing a film score, but this track is so unfalteringly peaceful and soul-calming that it's difficult to imagine images alongside it. For more similar stuff from the same album try The Ballad Of Sarah And Jack (The reason I bought the album in the first place.
16. The Acorn - Lullaby (Mountain)
Familiar musicianship returns here for a folkier number, albeit one with equal sleepiness potential. Having seen the band support Bon Iver a few months ago I felt their album was worth a chance and just about enjoyed it, despite being oddly unable to concentrate on it for more than a few seconds. That is up until the closing track, which abandons the vocalist for the more serene and gentle female croons of Ohbijou's Casey Mecija, her angelic voice having at least as much hypnotic effect as the last track.
17. Jónsi & Alex - Boy 1904
No, I'm no avoid Sigur Rós fan (although more for foolish reasons of annoyance from listening to avid Sigur Rós fans drivel on about them) but the track Happiness from last year's Dark Was The Night compilation had be hooked, with its gentle repetition of fluid, barely-changing strings. This track utilises choral vocal samples to similar effect, the melodies drifting in and out as soothingly as (undeniably) some of Sigur Rós's quieter tracks.
18. Bop - Tears Of A Lonely Metaphysician
We're at the spiritual peak of the mix now, this track just about ready to float your consciousness off into auditory neverland. I've harped on about this producer no end in my college paper, but I can't help but feel it's just representative of the seamless awe that his music continues to stimulate in me. I won't go on about him, although for anyone ignorant you are completely obliged to download this micromix (right click, it's direct), but this track alone delivers a fairly concentrated payload of his ice-cold subtlety. Bop's characteristically soothing pads are met with the inconceivably emotive crackles and pops that reflect the song's title. Altogether unbeatably celestial. And so ends the mix, although you're probably asleep by now. I challenge anyone to listen to these last few tracks in bed and still be awake by the end. And I maintain that that's a good thing.
But is this nearly keen enough of me? Nope. I thought, fuck it, why not make a definitive mix-tape for the masses - one for those unlucky enough not to receive a CD in the first place, and for those who've already received one but JUST CAN'T GET ENOUGH!
Although inevitably to translate to the universality of a blog, the purpose of this mix has become more of a 2009 gap-filler, a late opportunity to mention tracks and artists (mostly) little dwelt on in the posts below (I know I just said dwelt on by the way - big whoop, wanna fight about it?), as well as a rare moment to stray away from the usual confines of chronological relevance to my posts. That's to say, a lot of tracks here are a bit old, but have resurfaced in my attention or just come to my knowledge late. You'll get over it.
Now, I got a bit carried away with length, and got to the point where I could cull no more, feeling physically sick at the thought of deleting another track of the mix, but still having an 18-track-long mix, spanning 1.5 hours, so the mix takes the form of two phases. So basically, for those who can stomach it, it's meant to all flow together as one mix, but it's in two halves for convenience's sake.
Download links are to zip folders containing each track of each phase, all painstakingly re-tagged to preserve the order of the mix, so keep it that way yeah?
Phase I
(Tracks 1-10)
1. Dizraeli - Bomb Tesco
Things start off light-heartedly with some earthy-sounding homegrown white pseudo-hip-hop from the Bristolian dub poet/spoken word scenester/frontman for rootsy family-friendly reggae band Bad Science. It's basically a pretty whimsical fairy tale of Dizraeli starting a rhythmical revolution amongst the workers of a local supermarket ('In the car park a strange guy is playing a djembe/What a weird way to waste a wednesday') with the usual familiar British undertones and lyrical mastery that make Dizraeli special (yet fairly underground). For a more upbeat version try the Scifax DnB remix but also listen to some of the man's fantastic spoken word before this musical ship sets sail:
("And here are three kids, their mother aged 18/And they dream of stardom, watching the X-Factory/But they have no garden and nowhere to practice being/And therefore they wonder what they're there for/And why there's armed policemen outside Mr. Blair's door/Then they reach their teens and learn how to count up to ten Bensons/Hiding behind hedges burning pubescent tensions/What's progression? Let the Daily Mail write your star chart/This week you'll lose your virginity in a car park/Next week you'll take your first ecstacy pill, nine pints of white lightning and get messily ill/The week after that perhaps you'll get a job in Lidl")
Back to the music.
2. Nightmares On Wax - Jorgé
Bit of a jump back in time there, precisely a decade ago to some Warp-released chillout. A masterpiece of funky ambience, let that repeated vocal slide from ear to ear like Scarlett Johansson across butter. Lovely.
3. Pretty Lights - Hot Like Sauce
Let's take that inevitable journey from funk to hip hop, things are getting a bit exciting now... The man (/men?) behind this project knows his way around a sampler like Brosnan does a tux. The man passes Compton through a filter and comes up with a vial full of slick and bounce, while the crass runs off through a tube into dead air. It's fucking sweet basically, the smartest hip hop since DJ Shadow's better work. And the man gives away all his music for free alongside optional donations.
4. Alix Perez - The Cut Deepens (feat. Foreign Beggars)
Thinks are getting darker now... Perhaps a bit repetitive for some, but some more flowing and intelligent British rhyming (Although we're closer to South London now than Bristol) sit comfortably over this breakthrough young DnB producer's characteristically dark and minimal beats and tense horror-film strings. If there's another Kidulthood sequel this is gonna be in it.
5. Fever Ray - If I Had A Heart
We've passed through the hip hop gate now into something darker but less malevolent. Yup, it's 2009's favourite Swedish songstress, leaving her role as one half of The Knife (the duo responsible for the electro original of José González's 'Heartbeats') for her debut project as Fever Ray. I probably couldn't add anything to the numerous words music critics have had to say about the beautiful weirdness that her album exudes. The spooky and grandiosity of her arrangements that characterise her sound sometimes become transparent to reveal her charming Nordic quirk ("Accompany me by the kitchen sink/We talk about love, we talk about dishwater tablets") which is what really shines out for me. This track's all-encompassing bassy synth drone is layered with the singer's pitch-shifted ogre voice, which occasionally delves into normal frequencies to squeal into the echoey flanks of the track.
6. Florence + The Machine - Drumming Song (Boy 8-Bit Remix)
Firstly I'd like to point out the above isn't actually some kind of weird sum. I wouldn't know the answer. I've actually spent far too long ignoring her soulful voice but it baited me out of my stubborn female-vocalist-free cave like the smell of roast chicken in a Warner Brothers cartoon, having only listened to the track for the remixer (who released the excellently quirky club track Baltic Pine earlier this year). Don't be put off by the slightly repetitive lead line (shut up and take it) and give the man a chance to gradually unleash the full effect of Florence's vocal sample in a euphoric crescendo, alongside pulsing bass drums and tribal yet industrial snare crackles. Let it creep up on you and throw you about like a ragdoll before placing you gently back down amongst the sawdust of the song's subdued entrails...
7. Simian Mobile Disco - Hustler
...And you're up again dancing! We're back a couple of years to the birth of this production team, but it's still slick as fuck and unfalteringly sexy (watch the music video, you'll understand. Sorry ladies). If this is how good electro house sounds when it's so simple, why aren't they all doing it like this? What the fuck is you gonna do? What the fuck is you gonna do about it? Nothin.
8. Ratatat - Wildcat
While we're still here in 2007 let's pop back another year. Keeping the electro feel of the last track, we're dropping the sultry sexual undertones for the relative innocence and harmless quirk of this track. Gentle beats and simple synths sit alongside funky guitar lines and all come together in a tornado of buzzy electronic melody at the track's climax. And back down...
9. Animal Collective - My Girls
We're back in 2009, and did things just get echoey? Yeah they did. Enter the stereo-filling helmet of trilling retro synth repetition that marks the entrance to the personal highlight of this year's (probably) most buzzed about album Merriweather Post Pavilion. Rhythmically sparse and gripping, the track boasts chanty vocals and an acceptable degree of psychedelia.
10. Three Trapped Tigers - 6
And we're continuing in that mode of experimental indie/rock/electronica crossover. Lemme be lazy and just copy and paste how I summed up this track when I threw it on a monthly mix earlier this year: 'Sounds like Foals having acid-laced tea with Aphex Twin on the wall of China. Trust me'. Yeah I'm gonna go with that. And so finishes phase I. Please take this opportunity to get some light refreshments or take a toilet break and the show will resume in a short time.
Phase II
(Tracks 11-18)
In terms of energy, this phase is set to be the climax and comedown of the mix.
11. Enter Shikari - Havok B
How's this for a return to the fray? Enter Shikari doing what I think they do best: inventive dance/rock crossover intermission tracks for their albums. Let the provocatively subdued synth intro (the quiet before the storm) give way to a winning combination of grizzly distorted guitar rhythm and wobbles, before it all comes together in seamlessly rock-infused dubstep when the real elastic bassline announces its presence. Add rou's signature growling throat ejaculation and some pseudo-political chanting to round the whole thing off.
12. Dirtyphonics - Quarks
Now we're really getting somewhere. It's the only real submersion of this mix into something really dirty. It's like someone got the illegitimate love-child of drum 'n' bass's uncle that is dubstep to make friends with dnb once and for all. It sounds like either things worked out very well or very violently, as the characteristic tempo and buzz-saw synth lines of dnb give way to some serious wobbles. A reversion to classic dubstep tempo in the middle ensures dubstep gets his way. It's not subtle, and the near seven minutes it takes to complete its cycle is almost certainly unnecessary, but it does the job.
13. Klute - Hell Hath No Fury
We're still on the dnb train (which has inadvertantly travelled back to 2007) although things get refreshingly more jungle here, and we're entering the realms of the subtle for the final leg of the journey. Here incessantly evolving snappy jungle breaks storm through the sea of melodic piano ambience, with a result that's euphoric in a very distinctive way. This sound seems to encapsulate the long-standing purity of drum 'n' bass alongside the modernity of more experimental production. Nothing much changes, retaining that comforting sense of harmony, but there are just enough barely-present ambient swoops across your ears, as well as fluctuations in rhythm and melody for it not to get boring.
14. Sunchase - Violet
Don't prop your bags on your lap just yet, the drum and bass train is still well and truly on its way. Its clarity is warping somehow now, as sounds turn more refined and echoey. The continuous beat is met by a number of unexpected sonic rips and tears as the haunting piano melody drifting in and out of audible distance. Expect mind-numbing lapses into gentle ambience as the beat disappears, only for the melody to bait your attention into its disappearance, just before throwing the drop back in your face. Overall, it's stunningly beautiful and ever-changing, and the perfect soundtrack to a lonely night-time drive. Only don't take your eyes off the road, as the mix is becoming ever sleepier.
15. David Holmes - Hey Maggy
I'm afraid that beat's not coming back, it's ambience and lullabies from here on out. We're slipping back to last year for the next two tracks. Let those electronic lulls wash away to reveal a more acoustic ambient sound here, as Holmes unleashes the brilliance of his dream-like instrumental composition. Gentle guitar and piano harmonies are softened to the point of the whole mix sounding like a chocolate mousse (if that's possible). The man tends to write as if he were composing a film score, but this track is so unfalteringly peaceful and soul-calming that it's difficult to imagine images alongside it. For more similar stuff from the same album try The Ballad Of Sarah And Jack (The reason I bought the album in the first place.
16. The Acorn - Lullaby (Mountain)
Familiar musicianship returns here for a folkier number, albeit one with equal sleepiness potential. Having seen the band support Bon Iver a few months ago I felt their album was worth a chance and just about enjoyed it, despite being oddly unable to concentrate on it for more than a few seconds. That is up until the closing track, which abandons the vocalist for the more serene and gentle female croons of Ohbijou's Casey Mecija, her angelic voice having at least as much hypnotic effect as the last track.
17. Jónsi & Alex - Boy 1904
No, I'm no avoid Sigur Rós fan (although more for foolish reasons of annoyance from listening to avid Sigur Rós fans drivel on about them) but the track Happiness from last year's Dark Was The Night compilation had be hooked, with its gentle repetition of fluid, barely-changing strings. This track utilises choral vocal samples to similar effect, the melodies drifting in and out as soothingly as (undeniably) some of Sigur Rós's quieter tracks.
18. Bop - Tears Of A Lonely Metaphysician
We're at the spiritual peak of the mix now, this track just about ready to float your consciousness off into auditory neverland. I've harped on about this producer no end in my college paper, but I can't help but feel it's just representative of the seamless awe that his music continues to stimulate in me. I won't go on about him, although for anyone ignorant you are completely obliged to download this micromix (right click, it's direct), but this track alone delivers a fairly concentrated payload of his ice-cold subtlety. Bop's characteristically soothing pads are met with the inconceivably emotive crackles and pops that reflect the song's title. Altogether unbeatably celestial. And so ends the mix, although you're probably asleep by now. I challenge anyone to listen to these last few tracks in bed and still be awake by the end. And I maintain that that's a good thing.
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