WARMER MIXTAPES #165 | by James Theron Chapman and Michael Colin Chau [Oaxomoa/Bedroom] of Liquid Days

SIDE A | by Michael Colin Chau

1. My Bloody Valentine | Sometimes
I purchased Loveless back in high school without really knowing much about their music at all. I think I was just drawn to the cover. I love that cover. Upon first listen, it felt like music I had heard before. It had a very nostalgic quality to it as if it was music I've had floating in my head all along. The album solidified for me the idea that mood and atmosphere can be just as important as a catchy melody.

2. Talk Talk | New Grass
The sloping, languish guitar riff is totally melancholy yet it's so beautiful that I can't help but feel uplifted when I hear this song. Mark Hollis's delivery is so brutally honest and unaffected, it's as if he recorded himself in a stream-of-conscious right after a break up. It totally floors me every time.

3. Talking Heads | Naive Melody (This Must Be The Place)
James was actually the one who turned me on to Talking Heads for the first time several years ago. It's probably my favorite love song of all time. David Byrne is brilliant because he uses metaphors about mundane things to communicate grandiose ideas. The song is unbelievably yearning under the guise of a stoic man who just wants a few simple pleasures.

4. Oneohtrix Point Never | Ships Without Meaning
Daniel Lopatin is like the Jimi Hendrix of modern day synth music. He has completely honed his craft so meticulously, and his methodology seems very deeply rooted and conceived. This song is a fine example of what the man can do. Straight from the aether, it floats yet at the same time has this pulsating rhythm just below the surface. Amazing.

5. The Field | Everday
I love the Kompakt sound and this is a great example. Pure, dreamy minimal techno. Halfway through there's this break where you hear a woman's voice from a distance that bursts through the song for a brief moment. I'm not quite sure why, but I love the break to death.

6. John Coltrane | Psalm
I listen to this piece of music whenever I feel like I need a good cleansing. Total jazz meditation. This is Coltrane using his saxophone as a conduit to God, everyone, or even himself. Somehow the sound of his horn seems a more pure form of communication than a human voice ever can be. Sound waves, carefully played notes, all meticulous yet completely unfettered spill out of his instrument.

7. Brian Eno | Discreet Music
What can I say about Brian Eno? The guy pretty much legitimized ambient music. Eno's work is as much about the process as the result. This track was just him fucking with tape loops, allowing for a huge element of chance and unpredictability. His entire methodology and theories on art have been a huge subconscious influence to me in a lot of ways.

8. Manuel Göttsching | E2-E4
For me electronic dance music has always been about more than just getting people to shake their ass. I had already started making music before I heard Manuel Göttsching, but for some reason after hearing E2-E4 it sort of validated the medium for me as an intelligent form of expression. I get really into the droning, almost meditative repetition in dance music.

9. Can | Mushroom
The drums are fucking killer on this track. When I was younger, I used to write a lot of standard rock songs. Bands like Can sort of helped steer me away from the verse-chorus-bridge way of thinking. It opened some doors in my mind.

10. Rhys Chatham | A Crimson Grail
Ever since I was five years old, I had always wondered to myself what 400 guitarists playing in unison inside a cathedral would sound like. No, but seriously...


SIDE B | by James Theron Chapman

A Very Short Collection of Haiku (and the songs that inspired them in alphabetical order):

1. The Velvet Underground | All Tomorrow's Parties
Widescreen piano.
Blameless ghost casts the first stone.
The party's over.

2. David Bowie | Ashes To Ashes
Everything so wrong.
Bizarre sonic bedfellows.
Everything so right.

3. Joy Division | Atmosphere
I just wants to touch
Hannett shimmers in the clouds.
Drums splash like raindrops.

4. R.E.M. | Half A World Away
Wildlife woozy, dazed.
Who'd predict this hurricane?
Pick up the pieces.

5. Talking Heads | Heaven
Nervous man on a
Circular conveyor belt.
Each pass calms him more.

6. Prince | I Would Die 4 U (Purple Rain Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Messiah in tights.
This lush, clattering jetstream.
Has no analog.

7. Brian Eno | Mother Whale Eyeless
Born in the basement.
Blasts off to the cloud-ocean.
Are those singers ABBA?

8. Radiohead | Motion Picture Soundtrack
Sleepwalk travelogue.
Lovers part to love again.
This harp is heaven.

9. The Righteous Brothers | Unchained Melody
Elegant trappings
Can't mask elemental need.
Chains couldn't hold this.

10. Björk | Unravel
Damn, this is Gospel.
It's the Holy fucking Truth.
All love is fleeting.