WARMER MIXTAPES #273 | by Ed Cianfanelli [Rodion] of Alien Alien
Photo by Ivan Divanto
Photo by Ivan Divanto
1. The Doors | The Crystal Ship
I'm in deep love with The Doors since I was a teenager: Their songs have been the soundtrack of my teenage loves. Jim Morrison sounds like Frank Sinatra on acid, and Ray Manzarek playing a synth with his left hand instead of the usual electric bass, simply drives me crazy. I can't believe they did it in the late 60ies, in the middle of the Elvis kingdom. Sexiest music ever.
2. The Cure | 10:15 Saturday Night
I have this theory that most of musicians wrote their best things at the beginning of their careers. The first works of many people, in many different genres and periods, are usually the simplest and the ones where the music lays in front of everything else. That applies both to Beethoven and Prince. You're not famous yet, you probably just don't care about what other people say about your music, so you just do what comes spontaneously to your mind. 10:15 Saturday Night is a good example of what I'm talking about. It's such a simple song but it immediately sticks in your head as the drip it tells you about. The Cure came in my life when I was a teenage. Then I started dressing darker clothes and feeling things in a more intense though sometimes painful way. Good job Mr. Smith!
3. Depeche Mode | Leave In Silence
I discovered DM shortly after The Cure. I was a piano student at those times and I think my passion for electronic sound mostly comes from them. As for The Cure, I also feel like they did their best into their very first works, like A Broken Frame. I was so much into the Gregorian choirs at the beginning and into the slightly hip-housey synth bassline. Then the final synth solo is pure analog magic to my ears.
4. Giacomo Puccini | O Mio Babbino Caro (Performed by Hayley Westenra)
I'm not a big Opera fan, though my mother used to work in Rome's Opera Theatre when I was a child. I know it might sound like a godfather' behaviour, but EVERY SINGLE TIME I heard this song in the past 25yrs I just feel like I wanted to cry. And, honestly, tears come to my eyes most of the times I listen at. There should be magic beyond this music. The Italian lyrics are quite crap and out of fashion, but the way in which the vocal lead sounds togheter with the orchestra is something that we're really missing since those gone times. To me Music made from the 17th till the beginning of the 20th century is something higher and more precious than whatever came after Puccini and Prokoviev.
5. Dave Withaker | Shadow Of The Beast OST
As most of the teenagers of my generation, I spent endless hours playing with videogames. The music I heard during those endless gaming session are going to be stuck in my head forever. The cool thing about those games and their music is that, being made with poor technical means, they were meant to suggest you things rather than giving you a superdetailed picture of what was going on. It's amazing what Withaker did with only 4 channels of crap chip sounds. He really put me out of this world with his looping music tricks...
6. Yellow Magic Orchestra | Rydeen
Rydeen was the main theme of a very popular TV quiz show in Italy during the early 80ies. I remember I used to watch the show togheter with my grandma. I was hypnotized by the energy of the tune and I was in love with all of those baroque but futuristic sounds: watching a quiz show but thinking about intergalactic adventures... Then when I saw the Japanese guys performing the tune on TV, I suddenly thought (and I still think) that they were with no doubt the coolest guys on Earth.
7. Daft Punk | Veridis Quo
I have a sort of religious reverence towards classical music and I like Bach more than every one else. So I usually am quite pissed by the often cheap attempts to mix classical and modern in music, though sometimes the results sound superfunny to my ears. But Daft Punk really made it happen: I can feel the majestic serenity of Pachelbel meeting slow house pulses on the shores of Normandy... It's really uplifting music for my heart.
8. Al Usher | Lullaby For Robert (Bogdan Irkuk Remix)
I'm in deep love with this song since when I heard it first time. It gives me similar feelings to those of Veridis Quo. Plus it adds some maybe excessive but enchanting powerful mechanic feeling and a spice of freaky Bulgarian orthodox atmospheres. Really an evocative tune.
9. Broadcast | Come On Let's Go
I still wonder how Broadcast didn't manage to achieve an interplanetary success: they used to make amazing songs, with cool chord changes, mellow and tricky vocal melodies and one of the sweetest voices around. Their acoustic and synthetic sound mixture was probably cooler than Air on acid. I was very much into their works and generally into all of the Warp stuff around 2000. Then they probably went too mental and I probably went too easy.
10. Kerrier District | Realistique
I'm pretty convinced that Luke Vibert produced the best Nu Disco ever, back in 2005 with his Kerrier District project. I think he featured a cool sense of humour in all of his arrangment and sound, so Kerrier District music sounds way cooler to my ears than any of the following attempts at recreating NY disco boogie atmospheres. This song is a bit more on the Andine side I'd say, but I find it really irresistible with its flute-like melody, funky bassline, disco hats and amazing changes coming togheter in a freaky Saturday Nite In The Bronx form.
+11. Lucio Battisti | Ancora Tu
I don't know what is going on with Battisti: I listen at his music since I was a kid in my father's car, and the more it goes the more I like it. I like most of his many songs in the same way, though they were all quite different. He simply wrote a massive series of amazing songs. I think the best italian songwriter ever. It's a pity that most of the people on Earth could not understand Italian, otherwise he would maybe have been one of the greatest songwriters ever. His style still sounds actual and there's plenty of straightforward and moving poetry in all of his tunes.
I'm in deep love with The Doors since I was a teenager: Their songs have been the soundtrack of my teenage loves. Jim Morrison sounds like Frank Sinatra on acid, and Ray Manzarek playing a synth with his left hand instead of the usual electric bass, simply drives me crazy. I can't believe they did it in the late 60ies, in the middle of the Elvis kingdom. Sexiest music ever.
2. The Cure | 10:15 Saturday Night
I have this theory that most of musicians wrote their best things at the beginning of their careers. The first works of many people, in many different genres and periods, are usually the simplest and the ones where the music lays in front of everything else. That applies both to Beethoven and Prince. You're not famous yet, you probably just don't care about what other people say about your music, so you just do what comes spontaneously to your mind. 10:15 Saturday Night is a good example of what I'm talking about. It's such a simple song but it immediately sticks in your head as the drip it tells you about. The Cure came in my life when I was a teenage. Then I started dressing darker clothes and feeling things in a more intense though sometimes painful way. Good job Mr. Smith!
3. Depeche Mode | Leave In Silence
I discovered DM shortly after The Cure. I was a piano student at those times and I think my passion for electronic sound mostly comes from them. As for The Cure, I also feel like they did their best into their very first works, like A Broken Frame. I was so much into the Gregorian choirs at the beginning and into the slightly hip-housey synth bassline. Then the final synth solo is pure analog magic to my ears.
4. Giacomo Puccini | O Mio Babbino Caro (Performed by Hayley Westenra)
I'm not a big Opera fan, though my mother used to work in Rome's Opera Theatre when I was a child. I know it might sound like a godfather' behaviour, but EVERY SINGLE TIME I heard this song in the past 25yrs I just feel like I wanted to cry. And, honestly, tears come to my eyes most of the times I listen at. There should be magic beyond this music. The Italian lyrics are quite crap and out of fashion, but the way in which the vocal lead sounds togheter with the orchestra is something that we're really missing since those gone times. To me Music made from the 17th till the beginning of the 20th century is something higher and more precious than whatever came after Puccini and Prokoviev.
5. Dave Withaker | Shadow Of The Beast OST
As most of the teenagers of my generation, I spent endless hours playing with videogames. The music I heard during those endless gaming session are going to be stuck in my head forever. The cool thing about those games and their music is that, being made with poor technical means, they were meant to suggest you things rather than giving you a superdetailed picture of what was going on. It's amazing what Withaker did with only 4 channels of crap chip sounds. He really put me out of this world with his looping music tricks...
6. Yellow Magic Orchestra | Rydeen
Rydeen was the main theme of a very popular TV quiz show in Italy during the early 80ies. I remember I used to watch the show togheter with my grandma. I was hypnotized by the energy of the tune and I was in love with all of those baroque but futuristic sounds: watching a quiz show but thinking about intergalactic adventures... Then when I saw the Japanese guys performing the tune on TV, I suddenly thought (and I still think) that they were with no doubt the coolest guys on Earth.
7. Daft Punk | Veridis Quo
I have a sort of religious reverence towards classical music and I like Bach more than every one else. So I usually am quite pissed by the often cheap attempts to mix classical and modern in music, though sometimes the results sound superfunny to my ears. But Daft Punk really made it happen: I can feel the majestic serenity of Pachelbel meeting slow house pulses on the shores of Normandy... It's really uplifting music for my heart.
8. Al Usher | Lullaby For Robert (Bogdan Irkuk Remix)
I'm in deep love with this song since when I heard it first time. It gives me similar feelings to those of Veridis Quo. Plus it adds some maybe excessive but enchanting powerful mechanic feeling and a spice of freaky Bulgarian orthodox atmospheres. Really an evocative tune.
9. Broadcast | Come On Let's Go
I still wonder how Broadcast didn't manage to achieve an interplanetary success: they used to make amazing songs, with cool chord changes, mellow and tricky vocal melodies and one of the sweetest voices around. Their acoustic and synthetic sound mixture was probably cooler than Air on acid. I was very much into their works and generally into all of the Warp stuff around 2000. Then they probably went too mental and I probably went too easy.
10. Kerrier District | Realistique
I'm pretty convinced that Luke Vibert produced the best Nu Disco ever, back in 2005 with his Kerrier District project. I think he featured a cool sense of humour in all of his arrangment and sound, so Kerrier District music sounds way cooler to my ears than any of the following attempts at recreating NY disco boogie atmospheres. This song is a bit more on the Andine side I'd say, but I find it really irresistible with its flute-like melody, funky bassline, disco hats and amazing changes coming togheter in a freaky Saturday Nite In The Bronx form.
+11. Lucio Battisti | Ancora Tu
I don't know what is going on with Battisti: I listen at his music since I was a kid in my father's car, and the more it goes the more I like it. I like most of his many songs in the same way, though they were all quite different. He simply wrote a massive series of amazing songs. I think the best italian songwriter ever. It's a pity that most of the people on Earth could not understand Italian, otherwise he would maybe have been one of the greatest songwriters ever. His style still sounds actual and there's plenty of straightforward and moving poetry in all of his tunes.
