WARMER MIXTAPES #243 | by Brad Rose [The North Sea] and Eden Hemming-Rose of ALTAR EAGLE
SIDE A | by Brad Rose
1. Kanye West | Heartless
I was late to the Kanye party but at this point I'm convinced that 808s & Heartbreak is pretty much the best album of the 00s. Since I can't list an entire album, I just picked one of the songs. It's dark and minimal and frankly so brutal that it's mindboggling. For the biggest name in hip-hop to drop a record like this takes such guts - I remain in awe.
2. Huggy Bear | Her Jazz
So raw, so amazing. When I was a 14 year-old kid growing up in the middle of nowhere USA, I'd order records out of catalogs in skate mags and I ordered Weaponry Listens To Love for no reason other than I liked the title. Shit changed my life and I can easily point to Huggy Bear (and to a lesser extent Bikini Kill) as a catalyst. It's still an amazing album and the thing Huggy Bear had over Bikini Kill for my bucks was some of the just plain fucking weird shit they did (Prayer anyone?). Essential as ever.
3. Terry Riley | A Rainbow In Curved Air
One of the greatest pieces of music ever composed - Riley at his peak. The absolute ecstasy the piece builds to is mind-wrenching. You really want to get your mind blown? Check out some of the videos of him playing it live.
4. Bruce Springsteen | Incident On 57th Street
I'm a die-hard fan of THE BOSS and am kind of a sucker for whatever gospel he's spouting, but this song is total perfection. When he croons, it's total heartbreak in every way. I mean come on, it's the best song on one of the greatest albums ever.
5. Joker | Tron
I'm a sucker for dubstep and I'm a total fanboy for Joker. Nobody on the planet can touch the dude's bass sound. It's completely mental and on Tron it just pummels the ever living shit out of you. If he ever drops an album, it's going to turn the world into a black hole.
6. The Mountain Goats | Going To Georgia
Truth is I probably wouldn't be making music today if I hadn't discovered the Mountain Goats when I was 15. John Darnielle has been a hero of mine ever since and as far as pre-4AD tMG goes, this song is it. Beautiful in its simplicity, deceptive in its impact. I still get chills when I hear him wail Forty miles from Atlanta, this is nowhere. Hero.
7. Peter Tosh | Stop That Train
If there's one song I want ALTAR EAGLE to cover, it's this one. Most people have heard the version with Marley singing lead, but versions with Tosh are so much better it's a little ridiculous. His voice is pure syrup.
8. Gareth Williams & Mary Curie | Beguiling The Hours
Flaming Tunes is one of my desert island albums for sure and one of the single biggest influences on ALTAR EAGLE.
9. The Magnetic Fields | Strange Powers
Holiday is one of my all-time favorite records and another huge influence on ALTAR EAGLE. Stephen Merritt's low-pitched, understated vocals have had a huge impact on how I use my own voice. As much as MBV gets thrown around as a starting point for our sound, MF rings more true to me.
10. Quasimoto | Return Of The Loop Digga
Madlib is a hero and this is the kind of shit that will make a believer out of anyone. His beat construction is just on another level from just about anyone around - I don't even know. This track seems to be as quintessential Madlib as there is and basically sums up everything you need to know. Please take me to your planet.
SIDE B | by Eden Hemming-Rose
1. Grey Field Recordings | Nancy's Song To Charlie
My friend Rebecca's music is sadly unknown. A little bit goth, a little bit folk, a little bit spoken word... She's got slow string instruments and a beautiful voice, yet doesn't let that restrict her.
2. Ira Rat | Cellar Door
This song is my latest addiction (well, besides 808s and Heartbreak, but see Brad's list for that). It combines dual ideas into a comforting, constrictive blanket that I would love to nestle under forever.
3. Drivan | Det Gör Ingenting
I used to study Swedish in my free time (before I didn't really have free time anymore) in the hopes of someday moving to Sweden and, as far as I can figure out, this song's title translates to It Does Nothing. But the Swedish shouldn't intimidate you; this is an intimate song with a nice, quick beat to keep it from getting too sad.
4. Suicide | Ghost Rider
This is kind of a two-for-one. When I first heard M.I.A.'s new song Born Free, I was pretty (happily) stunned that she used a sample from Ghost Rider. Not only did it make me want to listen to Suicide a lot, it convinced me to give M.I.A. - whose music I had never really liked before - a second chance.
5. Lady Sovereign | Ch Ching
I swear I don't love Lady Sovereign because she's short and proud, just like I am, but because of the way she rhymes. It doesn't hurt that I've always liked female MCs better and that I always loved the darker, heavier sounds in my rave days; when I first learned about grime a few weeks ago and started exploring the genre, Sov got me first.
6. Sanso-Xtro | Unsentimental
The best of the best, if you ask me. It's pretty academic, sure, but there's also that bass throb to throw a hook around your organs like a cartoon wolf being pulled offstage.
7. Godheadsilo | Guardians Of The Threshold
One of my earliest exposures to the idea that music didn't have to be Top 40 crap all the time was working at a student-run radio station in the cultural black hole that is eastern Washington state. Years later, I still remembered this song as both ear-splitting and brilliantly mind-boggling. In other words, I was doing digital drugs before it was cool.
8. The Kills | Alphabet Pony
Even though Goodnight Bad Morning was the song that convinced me to buy The Kills' album, Alphabet Pony convinced me to love them.
9. Peaking Lights | Silver Tongues, Soft Whispers
If I had to pick a band as an impetus for getting Brad and I to start ALTAR EAGLE, Peaking Lights would be it. Not just because Indra encouraged me to try to get over my fear of singing in front of other people and getting up on stage, but also because I could hear how the weirder music that I love so much could also be combined with the pop and not get lost.
10. Link Wray | La De Da
Sure, the warm guitar tones, jangly percussion, and Wray's voice all make a great combination. But it's even better when you can like a song for the words that are being sung as much as you like it for the instrumentation. Does that make me a big cheesy hippy at heart? Yeah, probably.
+11. Blue Hawaii | Blue Gowns
Exquisite. That's all I'm gonna say.
1. Kanye West | Heartless
I was late to the Kanye party but at this point I'm convinced that 808s & Heartbreak is pretty much the best album of the 00s. Since I can't list an entire album, I just picked one of the songs. It's dark and minimal and frankly so brutal that it's mindboggling. For the biggest name in hip-hop to drop a record like this takes such guts - I remain in awe.
2. Huggy Bear | Her Jazz
So raw, so amazing. When I was a 14 year-old kid growing up in the middle of nowhere USA, I'd order records out of catalogs in skate mags and I ordered Weaponry Listens To Love for no reason other than I liked the title. Shit changed my life and I can easily point to Huggy Bear (and to a lesser extent Bikini Kill) as a catalyst. It's still an amazing album and the thing Huggy Bear had over Bikini Kill for my bucks was some of the just plain fucking weird shit they did (Prayer anyone?). Essential as ever.
3. Terry Riley | A Rainbow In Curved Air
One of the greatest pieces of music ever composed - Riley at his peak. The absolute ecstasy the piece builds to is mind-wrenching. You really want to get your mind blown? Check out some of the videos of him playing it live.
4. Bruce Springsteen | Incident On 57th Street
I'm a die-hard fan of THE BOSS and am kind of a sucker for whatever gospel he's spouting, but this song is total perfection. When he croons, it's total heartbreak in every way. I mean come on, it's the best song on one of the greatest albums ever.
5. Joker | Tron
I'm a sucker for dubstep and I'm a total fanboy for Joker. Nobody on the planet can touch the dude's bass sound. It's completely mental and on Tron it just pummels the ever living shit out of you. If he ever drops an album, it's going to turn the world into a black hole.
6. The Mountain Goats | Going To Georgia
Truth is I probably wouldn't be making music today if I hadn't discovered the Mountain Goats when I was 15. John Darnielle has been a hero of mine ever since and as far as pre-4AD tMG goes, this song is it. Beautiful in its simplicity, deceptive in its impact. I still get chills when I hear him wail Forty miles from Atlanta, this is nowhere. Hero.
7. Peter Tosh | Stop That Train
If there's one song I want ALTAR EAGLE to cover, it's this one. Most people have heard the version with Marley singing lead, but versions with Tosh are so much better it's a little ridiculous. His voice is pure syrup.
8. Gareth Williams & Mary Curie | Beguiling The Hours
Flaming Tunes is one of my desert island albums for sure and one of the single biggest influences on ALTAR EAGLE.
9. The Magnetic Fields | Strange Powers
Holiday is one of my all-time favorite records and another huge influence on ALTAR EAGLE. Stephen Merritt's low-pitched, understated vocals have had a huge impact on how I use my own voice. As much as MBV gets thrown around as a starting point for our sound, MF rings more true to me.
10. Quasimoto | Return Of The Loop Digga
Madlib is a hero and this is the kind of shit that will make a believer out of anyone. His beat construction is just on another level from just about anyone around - I don't even know. This track seems to be as quintessential Madlib as there is and basically sums up everything you need to know. Please take me to your planet.
1. Grey Field Recordings | Nancy's Song To Charlie
My friend Rebecca's music is sadly unknown. A little bit goth, a little bit folk, a little bit spoken word... She's got slow string instruments and a beautiful voice, yet doesn't let that restrict her.
2. Ira Rat | Cellar Door
This song is my latest addiction (well, besides 808s and Heartbreak, but see Brad's list for that). It combines dual ideas into a comforting, constrictive blanket that I would love to nestle under forever.
3. Drivan | Det Gör Ingenting
I used to study Swedish in my free time (before I didn't really have free time anymore) in the hopes of someday moving to Sweden and, as far as I can figure out, this song's title translates to It Does Nothing. But the Swedish shouldn't intimidate you; this is an intimate song with a nice, quick beat to keep it from getting too sad.
4. Suicide | Ghost Rider
This is kind of a two-for-one. When I first heard M.I.A.'s new song Born Free, I was pretty (happily) stunned that she used a sample from Ghost Rider. Not only did it make me want to listen to Suicide a lot, it convinced me to give M.I.A. - whose music I had never really liked before - a second chance.
5. Lady Sovereign | Ch Ching
I swear I don't love Lady Sovereign because she's short and proud, just like I am, but because of the way she rhymes. It doesn't hurt that I've always liked female MCs better and that I always loved the darker, heavier sounds in my rave days; when I first learned about grime a few weeks ago and started exploring the genre, Sov got me first.
6. Sanso-Xtro | Unsentimental
The best of the best, if you ask me. It's pretty academic, sure, but there's also that bass throb to throw a hook around your organs like a cartoon wolf being pulled offstage.
7. Godheadsilo | Guardians Of The Threshold
One of my earliest exposures to the idea that music didn't have to be Top 40 crap all the time was working at a student-run radio station in the cultural black hole that is eastern Washington state. Years later, I still remembered this song as both ear-splitting and brilliantly mind-boggling. In other words, I was doing digital drugs before it was cool.
8. The Kills | Alphabet Pony
Even though Goodnight Bad Morning was the song that convinced me to buy The Kills' album, Alphabet Pony convinced me to love them.
9. Peaking Lights | Silver Tongues, Soft Whispers
If I had to pick a band as an impetus for getting Brad and I to start ALTAR EAGLE, Peaking Lights would be it. Not just because Indra encouraged me to try to get over my fear of singing in front of other people and getting up on stage, but also because I could hear how the weirder music that I love so much could also be combined with the pop and not get lost.
10. Link Wray | La De Da
Sure, the warm guitar tones, jangly percussion, and Wray's voice all make a great combination. But it's even better when you can like a song for the words that are being sung as much as you like it for the instrumentation. Does that make me a big cheesy hippy at heart? Yeah, probably.
+11. Blue Hawaii | Blue Gowns
Exquisite. That's all I'm gonna say.
