WARMER MIXTAPES #315 | by Dijf Sanders and Jason Dousselaere of Teddiedrum

SIDE A | by Jason Dousselaere

1. Hildegard Knef | Im Achtzigsten Stockwerk
I recently stumbled upon this old German track through a friend and I immediately fell in love with it. I still like the friend. Listen to that amazingly sweet loud bass, yummy. The music is very poppy but her voice and lyrics give the song a harsh edge. Great combination.

2. Glass Candy | Beatific
This is the shit! Perfect dancetrack. Simply irresistible. Love love Johnny Jewel.

3. Steve Miller Band | Abracadabra
This is one of my favorite popsongs at the moment. Respect the whips and guitarsolo.

4. Can | Yoo Doo Right
Yes! 20 minutes of pure pleasure. One of the loveliest drummers in the world. Listen to those metronomic drumrolls! rRRRRR...

5. Captain Beefheart | Moonlight On Vermont
Something else and also: oh boy, teenage memories! When I discovered this album, I listened to it for eight months in a row. I rode the bike to school everyday for an hour. I was 15 and this blew me away like a babyfeather. It put me on to all the old bluesstuff too.

6. Scott Walker | 30th Century Man
So simple yet so big. Croonerpower. Great confusing lyrics. Play it cool and saranwrap all you can!

7. Balthazar | The Boatman
Soundtrack to my modern life.

8. Devo | That's Good
Devo have so many excellent tracks. I like the way they treat rhythm and use synths. Fresh, quirky and original. They also had philosophy. Score! I want to be like them.

9. Paul McCartney & Wings | Band On The Run
A great record to have a long slow coffee breakfast to.

10. Emerald Web | Flight Of The Raven
Listen to this late at night. It's on YouTube. The grand synthfinale is your best friend. I'm pretty sure they used the Yamaha DX7 on this. Isn't life wonderful?

SIDE B | by Dijf Sanders

1. Autechre | Pir
I really love very organic and complex sounding music. It's like extracting music from something that's alive but without a consciousness. I also have much respect for music which I don't understand how it's been made, because then there is no demystification!

2. Dark Dark Dark | Daydreaming
I've seen this band for the first time a couple of months ago in my favourite bar. This song gives me goosebumps. Even now, while writing. I'm a very melancholic person and this girl just knows how to play me (the melancholic part I mean...). This track has a superb apotheosis. Build up, not too much, not too long, and lay down.

3. Guided By Voices | If We Wait
Song from my teenage dreams. Sunfish Holy Breakfast might be the first record I bought... Again... Melancholy...

4. Animal Collective | Peacebone
What can I say? Animal Collective is brilliant, but who doesn't know this? This song is the first one I've ever heard from Collective. It made me very humble and powerful at the same time. Humble, because I was so impressed by the musical and poetical (the lyrics are genius), that all the music I was writing at the moment suddenly became bleak and unimportant. Powerful, because the song has so much energy that you simply cannot be be unaffected by it.

5. Köhn | Goodbye Pluto
Heil to the warm, the soothing and smooth. Analogue feel and bourdon ambient. Hmmm...

6. Neon Indian | Terminally Chill
One of the first gigs of Teddiedrum was with Neon Indian. I had to be their mixer as well, because the other mixer didn't show up and one of their keyboardplayers had plugged a Juno synth with American voltage into the European net (twice the voltage...) so they had to use my Casio CZ101 as well (which is a great synth: check Miami)... Anyway, it's a great band.

7. Jean Michel Jarre | Ethnicolor-Diva
This intro is so horror. My brother listened to this when I was a kid and he used to make creepy faces. It made a big impression! It's a great track for audiophiles. If you have good speakers, turn up the volume and listen to the Fairlight in full glory! Some parts would make a great Tron soundtrack.

8. Boudewijn De Groot | De Heksensabbath
Dutch/Flemish artist from the hippie period... Sound exiting, huh? But this track of more than 45 min (I think... never actualy timed it) is a crazy, dopey, mythical journey. A story with Satan, goblins, Homunculus, Gaudicus... It's scary and funny and completely out there. I listened to this this record every single night when I was sixteen, just to fall asleep. No need to tell I know every single word.

9. Aphex Twin | Acrid Avid Jam Shred
I don't need to introduce him. This is my tutor, of course. This is the first song I've heard from Aphex. I was seventeen. It builds up a long time and then you hear that wonderful tune. This music is so childish and nasty at the same time. Rockmusic suddenly became a bit less impotant.

10. Moondog
Sorry, but there are no preferences here, just everything... Every single piece from Moondog is a state of being... Sounds nerdy. Maybe it is, but I don't mind. No posing, no hypes, no calculations, no nothing, just short and long musical pieces of any kind. Inspiring, meditive, calm and exciting and worldly. Very pure and real. For example: a drumkit played with the feathers of an ostrich... That's it!

WARMER MIXTAPES #314 | by Elliott Fiedler [p e a c e FIRE]

1. Cocteau Twins | Ivo
Near the end of my university days in Colorado, I was completely addicted to this song, wearing out the black MiniDisc I had copied the album to. I love the guitars and vocals, so trebly in shades of blue and white, punctuated by synthetic drums, cracking and crumbling in triplets. Sex all over. Hypnotic, yet no frills. The main groove of the song feels like a kind of Native American spiritual dance rhythm.

2. Yes | Close To The Edge
Mellotron strings and wet, overflowing light, thrashing within darkness. I get up, I get down. From high school on, this piece made a big impression upon me, in that it was the first really long song that I could get into. During the same period, I was also discovering Schoenberg, Webern and Varèse for the first time, but at that time I couldn't quite appreciate the breadth of their expression yet. Close To The Edge for me is shades of orange, burning red, light-blue flickering in constellations on my bedroom ceiling.

3. Metallica | Ride The Lightning
Doom and gloom coupled with a strange intensity and enthusiasm. Love the sparse imagery of the album artwork that really encapsulates the aesthetic of the music.

4. Michael Jackson | Smooth Criminal
I recall that when I was still in, and when I listened to this song in my bedroom, I'd do these little choreographed MJ-style moves, though I was too shy to let anyone watch. The breakdown, with all the police sirens and talking over mega-phone right before, is still awesome.

5. Salamander 2 | Silvery Wings Again
This is one of those few songs that strongly declares itself in a major key and still creates exciting points of tension and release. Melodies that spark innocence and cosmic beauty.

6. B'z | Alone
I came across this song on a Japanese maxi-single CD that my high-school Japanese teacher had brought back to the States. I don't know why I didn't think just to ask her if I could borrow it, but (I'm not proud of this) I ended up stealing the CD along with another one of the group, Checkers. (That one I do regret taking.)

7. Stephen Scott | Vikings Of The Sunrise
One organic soul of the ancients, burning in the night. Alight through secret darkness. Bows saw stars, suns and planets are plunked from the Void.

8. Carcass | Heartwork
My sixth grade choir teacher once asked us to bring in an album or song to introduce to the class, basically as a show-and-tell. I ended up bringing this Carcass album and played the second track, Carnal Forge. I distinctly recall the teacher looking horrified as she heard what probably upon first listen sounded like a searing blaze of howling bass and furious static. Overall this album, and in particular the track, Heartwork, is such a unique amalgam of emotional chaos with sensibility and philosophic reasoning. Heartwork uses its apparent contradictions to great emotional effect, and to me, expresses the Universal.

9. Dracula X | Cross A Fear
I don't care if it's video game music... This song has an incredible melody and chorus that's incredibly beautiful and instills wonder. Reminiscent of Kiss From A Rose by Seal.

10. Olivier Messiaen | Méditations Sur Le Mystère De La Sainte Trinité, Méditation II : Dieu Est Saint
Emotional. Empty, growling periods of stasis, moments of meandering in forests of darkness, silence punctured by the clamor of birds. Contemplation in solitude within an empty cathedral... Its ceiling clustered with stained glass, fixed with blinding hues of orange, green, and yellow. Framed in purple and black light. Walking counter-clockwise and gazing up above at this mystic, kaleidoscopic shifting of harmony within my being.

WARMER MIXTAPES #313 | by Pedro Rios [Branches]

1. Blues Control | Rest On Water
This Blues Control record is so special. It’s a lo-fi out-rock record, but it’s not what you expect from that tag (which, like all tags, say little about what’s it all about). And you don’t expect a jewel like Rest On Water: delicate guitar strumming on the background, a sinuous-sexy saxophone, childlike piano, lots of free space. It’s breathing music and you need to breathe nowadays, more than ever. In the last months my long term passion with the ocean has been growing (specially by surfing), so music that evokes the sea is perfect for my mental/body flow.

2. Panda Bear | I’m Not
Noah Lennox is my favorite modern artist. Every time I listen to Person Pitch that idea gets deeper in me. Total immersion music, so simple, so powerful. It’s like aquatic dub music, but with less focus on the rhythm and more on the echoes, the reflections, the sound of sound being manipulated, the power of a four second sample being repeated until another samples gets in, naturally, without friction. The importance of “Person Pitch” is yet to be assessed, I believe.

3. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti | For Kate I Wait
We need a serious academic article about the current generation of so-called hypnagogic artists. David Keenan article was one of the only serious efforts to do it. There’s of course a lot of hipster aspects of that scene, but I think that to see only the superficial side of things is to diminish the relevance of a new generation of artists comfy with pop music. A refreshing change in a conservative indie rock scenario and also in a holier than thou out-rock scene. What Ariel does in this song (his undisputed masterpiece) is superb: total wisdom in pop balladry, from obvious years and years of digging pop from other eras, delivered with the attitude of a kid who found Throbbing Gristle to be an epiphany. A miracle.

4. Richard Youngs | Once It Was Autumn
Seeing Richard Youngs in Oporto in 2005 was an important moment for me, as a music fan and as a music maker. A lone man on stage using an e-bowed guitar and his voice (his voice is the center of his most beautiful work). I could put here almost any of Richard Youngs tracks. This one is astonishing: alien electronic sounds, the voice of Richard multiplied and disfigured in noise, a mantra that invites you to be with yourself seeing the passage of time and nature - and becoming time and nature.

5. Ramones | Baby, I Love You
You can’t get a better pop song: perfect lyrics, euphoric orchestral parts with an early rock’n’roll attitude. End Of The Century is one of my favorite Ramones albums. This is the song that I choose to evoke my punk rock background in this list.

6. Deerhunter | Desire Lines
One of the best records of this year. Fuck indie rock music, this is heart music. It’s your daily dose of torpor but shaped in a rock form (like a wolf in sheep’s clothing). And the never-ending crescendo and twin guitars… Ah damn!, straight to indie rock canon.

7. Roxy Music | India
Oh my God, what a miniature gem! With less than two minutes, it has so many things going on with beautiful grace. Also, it was great to recognize that Excepter’s Rockstepper beat was sampled from the end of India.

8. Kanye West | All Of The Lights (feat. Rihanna)
The fast beat intertwined with fake horns makes this my most beloved hip-hop track of 2010 (even though I’m not an hip-hop head). Rihanna sounds so confident. There’s a part in which she reminds me of M.I.A. - she’s so great at doing it that it reminds me of how bad the last M.I.A. record was.

9. William Basinski | Dlp 1.1
This is the sound that you get from a deep hole listening to the world outside (all the world, all the people, all the streets from all countries) - at least that’s what I imagine that would be. An unbearable/impossible noise turned into something beautiful, via continuous degradation processes.

10. Ali Farka Touré & Toumani Diabaté | Kala Djula
One guitar, one kora, nothing more than greatness. This is music I listen while I’m working. I am a journalist, so I spend way too many time on computer. When I listen to something like this, I can escape from the grim reality of being in a cubicle in front of a computer rather than enjoying nature.

WARMER MIXTAPES #312 | by Andrei Ungureanu (Dor Mărunt, The Amsterdams) and Noamme Elisha of Nebulosa

SIDE A | by Noamme Elisha

It’s 6:30 am here in Chicago, and I’m completely jetlagged from my flight from Bucharest.
Here’s some of what was playing on my iPod on the way here.

1. Sunset Rubdown | Swimming
Spencer Krug told me that the things he learnt in music school don’t really apply to his songwriting now. It’s rock’n’roll, he said. To which I replied, pshhtt whatever. This piano introduction here is so beautiful and delicate, and then when the synth comes in, the song turns into an eclectic mesh of classical/electrical awesomeness.

2. IAMX | President
First time I heard this song was on some TV program where another band picks out their top five videos or something, I really don’t remember anything except that, shiiiittt, the video for this song was like dark cabaret mixed with glitter dust, and there’s nothing I love more then theatricals in music. Chris Corner’s voice is striking, and his use of lyrical imagery is very moving.

3. Explosions In The Sky | Lonely Train
This is my favorite Explosions In The Sky song. It makes me think of a post-duel western scene, where the village is abandoned and all the cowboys are dead. All their stuff is amazing.

4. Fink | Move On Me
When we were recording Chimes, I was listening to this album on repeat. I like his sad, expressive voice, and the really delicate piano and guitar.

5. MGMT | The Youth
I remember listening to this on repeat while half asleep on an eight-hour drive, and it made me have really vivid dreams. Maybe it’s all that reverb, but this song is very haunting.

6. Sigur Rós | Gobbledigook
Every single song of Sigur Rós transports me into a very tribal and magical thick forest fairyland. I also love the fact that I can’t understand what they’re singing about.

7. Vampire Weekend | Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa
These guys have this chipper, academic and private school anti-frat boy party vibe that always puts a smile on my face. I can completely relate.

8. The Whitest Boy Alive | Keep A Secret
I remember having a really bad day before I went to see their show, but these guys just sucked all the bad vibes out and injected dance moves into my blood stream. Brilliant and sophisticated.

9. Wolf Parade | I’ll Believe In Anything
This is just one of those perfect songs that has the ability to get stuck in your head for weeks, but you’ll never be annoyed by it. It’s so mesmerizing and flawless.

10. Frédéric Chopin | Two Nocturnes, No. 1, Op. 48: Nocturne In C Minor (Played by Arthur Rubinstein)
Genius. Enough said.

SIDE B | by Andrei Ungureanu

1. The Stone Roses | Mersey Paradise
The first song I ever heard of the best band in the world. It changed my life forever. I remember listening to it and feeling that nothing else in the world mattered. Pop-perfection. Even though it’s reminiscent of the Byrds’ I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better and even though Ian is a bit off key at times, this song just proves that if you have IT, it’s there and that’s that; it’s a song that would’ve sounded terrible if played by anyone else. And it’s not even on the album, it’s a B side that proves that what they had back in ‘89 was magic!

2. Fuck Buttons | The Lisbon Maru
I do think that one should look at Tarot Sport as a whole, but this song is definitely one that stands out. It’s a multi layered, perfectly mannered song that takes you, as Mr. Picard would say, boldly where no man has ever been before. You get teleported to some place far away from your place of being. Top-notch musical drug.

3. New Order | All The Way
They followed the musical rulebook on this one and it turned out great! Great melody and wonderful guitar arrangements. Even it’s flaws can be considered assets: I’ve never been much of a fan of Bernard’s simple lyrics and his voice is obviously not of the extraordinary, but in this case they fit together like a hand in glove. And the main synth is so simple and catchy, it’s a wonderful feeling of well being.

4. Bon Iver | Blood Bank
Someone very dear to me made me listen to this one; it’s nostalgia and waste. I need not say more.

5. The The | True Happiness This Way Lies
The song is more of a monologue with music than an actual song. But it conjures up the fabric of life in a way that’s deeply touching and troublesome revealing.

6. Happy Mondays | God’s Cop
How can you not like the crazy mixture of hooliganism, rave and lad culture? This is the definitive Happy Mondays track that sums up what they’re about. It’s all there, and, indeed, God made it easy on them. He made them cocalars, the best kind though. They’re hundreds and hundreds times better than any other artsy gentlemen (and gentlewomen) who talk about how their music reflect their soul, growth and troubled relationships and they’re hundreds and hundreds times more gentlemen ( and gentlewoman counting Rowetta) then them. They’re the gentlemen of keeping it real and not climbing up your ass as soon as you get some attention from the media/fans. ‘Nuff said.

7. The Smiths | Girlfriend In A Coma
This has to be one of the most honest music ever made. I can never grow tired of this song; the melody is deceivingly simple and straight forward and you can’t go wrong with lyrics like that. It’s the morbid that challenges the routine which is transformed into caress when the routine is no more. Human!

8. The Whitest Boy Alive | Fireworks
The highlight of the (probably) best show I’ve ever seen. Magic. These guys are so tight live that you couldn’t find the place to fit a needle between them. And the best part is that I didn’t really bother listening to them thoroughly before the show, therefore didn’t know what to expect so the contrast between my expectations and what came out was even higher. My ass started dancing on the spot. I am much obliged!

9. Delorean | Stay Close
Dance songs generally don’t last very long with me, but this one is different. Nice uplifting, feel good, clap your hands, show ’em how it’s done on the floor Gufi dance party song. Oh, and I’m a sucker for the piano chords in the background. Party hardy!

10. Montgomery Clunk | Lemonade
The guy obviously knows his beats; the song is a bit weird but it’s colourful, meticulously crafted and you don’t really know what you’re gonna get next. So many wonderful sound ideas befriend each other in only two and a half minutes’ time. I fancy seeing him live! (Thumbs up for the Romanian beer brand hidden on the cover of the Superbus EP, nice twist!)

WARMER MIXTAPES #311 | by Sun Angels

DOWNLOAD

1. Aaliyah | Rock The Boat
I was really upset when Aaliyah died back in 2001. I was 15 at the time, and there was a commemorative programme on the radio; Timbaland spoke really tenderly about her. This song wasn't written by him though, but by Static Major who, coincidentally, also died an untimely
death.

2. Mariah Carey | Make It Happen
Mariah is probably my favourite female vocalist ever (male Ditto? probably Luther Vandross, thanks for asking). Also, I like it when gospel house jams make their way into the mainstream (see: Mary Mary et al), so this is both things in tandem.

3. Deborah Cox | Nobody's Supposed To Be Here (Hex Hector Club Mix)
Although this is a poor man's Toni Braxton remixed by a poor man's David Morales, it's pure class. I first heard it on Gaydar radio, which I used to listen to while working in an office; you can't make proper spreadsheets without quality vocal house banging in your headphones, that much I know.

4. Armand Van Helden | You Don't Know Me
The lyrics are really powerful, with a simple message of libertarianism and amorality, but more importantly, the beats are amazing, still to this day. Pretty much the gold standard of house music.

5. Dark Society | Rose Rouge (Rework Mix)
Well, you should all recognise the sample. This is the kind of subtle remix that is really difficult to pull off; no grand gestures, no big breaks, no unnecessary flourishes, just more oomph.

6. David Ekenbäck | Breathe (Jamie Anderson Remix Dub Edit)
One of my favourite tracks of 2010, and works like a charm in combination with the previous song. Although I love the groove, I felt it was a tad monotonous for a mixtape, so I threw another track on it, namely...

7. Jasper Street Company | Smile (Smile-A-Pella)
When I first got into house music in the beginning of the noughties, I was all about gospel house: if God was somehow mentioned in the lyrics, you could be sure it was my cup of tea. Consequently, at the time, Jasper Street Co. was my favourite group, and I still have a few acapellas of theirs that come in handy every so often.

8. Sun Angels & The Radio Dept. | All About Our Love (Sade Cover)
I don't want to say too much about my own track, only that it owes a great deal to Oni Ayhun and soca. Hope you enjoy it.

9. The Lovefreekz | Blue Water (Lovefreekz Vocal Mix)
As much as I like warm, subtle deep house grooves, I will never turn my back on big, brash pop house records like this one. I want to jump up and down like a school girl when the chorus hits, that is the power of music.

10. Ellie Goulding | I'll Hold My Breath
Lights was my favourite album of 2010, if anyone is keeping tabs. I don't understand why she isn't bigger than Lady Gaga, although that might be an irrelevant comparison. Anyways, this song is just ace.

WARMER MIXTAPES #310 | by Matthew Joel [Bank Heist]

1. The National | About Today
I’ve always been partial to sad sounding songs. It’s not because I have a tragic life, my life is far from tragic. If anything the greatest tragedy I’ve experienced is waking up in a warm bed, eating three square meals, getting back in that bed and realizing life seems to easy. There’s something about an over-ironed life, about living in a way that just throws a venire on imperfection that ruins me. This song reminds me to remember the tragic.

2. Bob Dylan | Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
Sometimes the right thing to do is sit back, let it go, put on a Bob Dylan record, and enjoy nice things.

3. This Will Destroy You | This World is Our ____
This is my favorite post rock track, hands down. I started listening to post rock when I was finishing high-school, and I think the whole time I was looking I was looking for something specific. This Will Destroy You turned out to exactly that. This track is everything I love about post rock.

4. Keane | Bedshaped
Everyone always says that the music you listen to as a kid is the most important. Hearing that I’ve always been jealous of people who grew up around really good music. Unfortunately, this was less the case for me, with a few exceptions, Keane’s first album Hopes And Fears is one of them. I still love thais album, it’s so full of gems, Bedshaped being my favorite. I really appreciate the way this band puts away the guitar, and let’s a piano take the forefront. Piano’s have been in music for hundreds of years, and when ever a band honors that I appreciate it.

5. Johannes Brahms | Symphony #4 - 4. Allegro Energico E Passionato, Più Allegro
Listening to Brahms entire body of work, notably his 4th Symphony, and even more specifically the 4th and closing movement of that symphony will forever be humbling experience. I remember the first time I heard this piece. I was sitting in History Of Western Music II, in my second year of studying music in College. When the professor took out his iPod and played this movement for us, this was one of the first times classical music clicked for me. There may be arguably better composers, but Brahms’ work will always be, to me, the embodiment of real music, what ever that means. I remember so clearly what the teacher said as the song finished, he told us boys and girls, if you want to make good music, I don’t care what kind it is, listen to Brahms.

6. The Weakerthans | Bigfoot
This song defines, to me, what Canadian music - something very important to me - means. Everything about this track: the signers voice, to the horn melody, to the lyrics screams Canadian identity. The first time I heard this song I put it on repeat and listened to over and over again.

7. Aidan Knight | Jasper
This makes me happy to be canadian. It reminds me of the good things in life. There are many memories attached to this track. I first heard it as an 11th grader. I went to a show at a local college that looking back wasn’t really that spectacular, but ended up being one of the most influential experiences watching live music I’ve ever had. At the time I was going to a small highschool, and loved music, but didn’t know anyone with similar interests. I even tried to write, but it was all trash, and no one I showed it toliked it. Seeing Aidan, among the others that played that night made me realize, this is what I want to do. It was the kind of night that is so unbearably inspiring it’s almost painful to be there. Aidan’s music, Jasper in particular, kind of set me off in the right (I hope) direction musically.

8. Daft Punk | Da Funk
I love dance music, and Daft Punk is one of my favorite bands. I don’t have much to say about this song, all the same I think think that fact that I love it so much anyways is why it’s so important. Every time the bass drops after the intro, I loose it.

9. Means | Connected
Hardcore was a staple of mine in highschool, and while I don’t listen to very much heavy(er) music anymore, this track remains one of my favorites. Some times I put on this record and wish I was straight edge. Means last show was one of the most touching things I’ve ever experienced, they had so much heart. xRIPx.

10. Fleetwood Mac | The Chain
Rumors was one of the first records I ever bought on vinyl. I had never heard it before, but I was so sick of seeing it in every thrift store, so I bought it. I love music that crosses boundaries, and Fleetwood Mac had a way of writing music that traversed decades. You know something is significant when it speaks to kids over 30 years later. This song makes me wish I was twice my age, and able to experience it when it was fresh. I’m still waiting for the single note guitar solo to have a come back.

WARMER MIXTAPES #309 | by Adam Gil of YAWN

1. Salem | Asia
Love the tearing-off-your-eyeballs effect they get with the frantic drums - aka massive amounts of distortion and delay - but seriously, sounds like a knife cutting through human flesh that's been solidified through days of roasting in the Sonoran Sun. I'm pretty sure the producers of this track were coroners in the past life. Anyway, first heard this song through the Fader blog and they had me at rip out your eyelids and stare straight at the Sun... Need I mention this goes perfectly with sci-fi Danny Boyle?

2. Kanye West | Lost In The World
It's really just the way the power sample comes back in it's more raw form that I love this song, and that the build up to that point is ridiculously seamless.That's really the essence of pop music, isn't it? When you don't notice the climaxes, but feel every bit of energy in them? Also, yeezee clearly had the best album of the year... Next to Ariel Pink... Which leads me to....

3. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti | Reminiscences
Picture this: a washed up mobster (not unlike Ray Liotta in Goodfellas) late in his life, sitting in his 1980's buick regal under the BQE, smoking a cigar waiting to be wacked. The Sun sets perfectly through his windshield as his life flashes before his eyes. I could write a shit-ton about Ariel - mainly about how I love his voice, but this track is my favorite of his at the moment, only cause I've listened to his stuff to the point of exhaustion, and it's instrumental so I'll save it. Also, that one video of the early 90's weatherman works with this song too!

4. Talk Talk | It's My Life
The bass line!

5. Keepaway | 100
Feels like a song we should have come up with! JK, but srsly, these guys I feel are like right in line with us... Percussion heavy, production oriented, harmony minded (or as Sam says Giorgio harmony... [like Armani lol]) and clearly into recording on their own. Alls I got to say is, tour together guys? Please?!

6. Shankar Jainkishan | Bombay Talkie
Discovered this on my girlfriend's iPod as we drove on a bus around Jamaica, I think she got it from the Darjeeling Limited soundtrack. Love the sweeping, effortless chord changes and the emotion in the dude's voice - ultimately want to make music like THIS. Although the grainy recording is something unique to it's time, don't want to try to replicate that but rather make the same thing of our time - capturing the aimlessness and wanderlust. Love it.

7. Britney Spears | Hold It Against Me
What the fuck? Are you kidding me? It's Britney, betch... But really... Gurl got her self some new ass song writers... Albeit stealing the words from an old ass country song, but ultimately getting her back into the place where she always belonged - euro/gay clubs. That being said: solid, untouchable chorus, with a fancy ass break-down and an awesome 80's synth sound - nuff said.

8. Brian Eno | Mother Whale Eyeless
Really, I can think of nowhere I'd rather be than Brian Eno's house/studio working on shit with him. Has he been indoctrinated as a saint yet? Or at least knighted? Whatever, he's YAWN's one and only hero, hands down, only dude who knows where we want to be at any given moment! On a side note, this song goes really well with a nice shiraz from South Africa, aka what I'm drinking as I write this.

9. Paul McCartney & Wings | Jet
Been looking for a fuzz bass sound like this every since I heard this... Then I realized it was just Paul doing his shit, and I could never replicate it. He's really the best pop musician out there. Numbers don't lie. I've had countless dreams about meeting Paul, smoking weed with him. Fuck the haters. Go bears.

10. Os Mutantes | Baby
Dis my shit. I cry to this at the end of every week. Arnaldo Babtista has got to be my favorite voice in classic rock music. This song is merely a sneak peak of what he can do vocally but I love how he holds back on the verse and lets his voice crack in the chorus. By no measure is this all he can do, but just an honest plea to his lover. Amidst the whirlwind of being a musician, finding time to relax and be yourself, is easily conveyed to my girlfriend through this song. Thank you Arnaldo and the Mutantes and whoever originally wrote this (but Mutantes did it much better, P.S.: I wrote to you Sergio Dias and you never got back to me!, jk... Your show at the Metro here in Chicago was great... I'll love you guys forever and ever!)...

WARMER MIXTAPES #308 | by Luis Clara Gomes [Moullinex]

10 tracks I love + The best song ever written + I'm sure I'm missing hundreds of them...

1. Shuggie Otis | Strawberry Letter 23
I was digging for the original sample in Soul Bells by Le Knight Club, and I found the Brothers Johnson. They had this amazing track called Strawberry Letter 23, which I found out to be a cover of Shuggie Otis' original. And what a track that was.

2. Dntel | (This Is) The Dream Of Evan And Chan
Dntel aka Jimmy Tamborello did this track with Ben Gibbard (Death Cab For Cutie), paving the way for what The Postal Service would be. A gem.

3. Add N To (X) | Metal Fingers In My Body
If awesome was a street, Add N to (X) would have their own zip code.

4. Sultans Of Ping F.C. | Where's Me Jumper?
In the town I grew up there was a huge disco with 5 different theme rooms. Our gang would get pissed drunk, take a bus from the city center and enter directly to one of these rooms. That was our source for new music, in a time music was exchanged via tapes. I owe a lot to those DJs. I can distinctly remember the mosh pit (and me in it) when this track played.

5. Squarepusher | Iambic 9 Poetry
Genius. This got me into Warp Records and changed my life in all but a good way.

6. The Smashing Pumpkins | Landslide (Fleetwood Mac Cover)
While the Fleetwood Mac original is in itself a masterpiece, this acoustic cover version by the Pumpkins is pure bliss. I used to listen to this on repeat to ease some of that teen angst...

7. The Beach Boys | God Only Knows
Quoting Weird Al" Yankovic, those are the kind of harmonies you can only get from YEARS of parental abuse...

8. Air | Radian
Too see Air perform 10,000 Hz Legend live was to fulfill a dream. My favorite band, period.

9. Carly Simon | Why
This Chic-written, produced and performed track is the best thing Carly Simon has ever done.

10. Pulp | This Is Hardcore
See the Sultans Of Ping F.C. track. In the same place, Pulp was in heavy rotation. The hits were Disco 2000 or Common People, but this track is one of their masterpieces. Jarvis Cocker is one of my personal heroes and to listen to him sing on a modern disco track (Discodeine's Synchronized, that is) is just a dream come true.

+11. Stevie Wonder | Golden Lady
If my life had a song on repeat, this would be it. You just can't escape the sheer beauty of this. And reminding myself of it just made me have it on repeat the entire day.

WARMER MIXTAPES #307 | by Olivier Olivier and Nigel Diamond of Bikini

SIDE A | by Nigel Diamond

1. Houses | Soak It Up
Olivier played this for me in Los Angeles after we visited the cemetery. He hadn't visited LA properly before so I decided to show him around and after an early lunch we put together that we should visit the MoMA because he is very into art. I fell in love with the song when it came on and later I reached out to Houses to tell him that I liked it. He said thank you and later I learned how to play it on a beautiful weathered old white grand piano in Paia where I stay with my family over the holidays. I played an hour long duet with my sister's friend of it on the piano and sent the recording to Olivier. I tell my friends who I play it for The Snare Is A Tennis Ball.

2. crystal light no-xqsz | Crystal Light
It's so rare to hear something special now. Paris sounds like Berlin which sounds like Toronto which sounds like LA. Then sometimes you hear one song that reminds you that you're wrong and stupid and small. This one was 15 minutes long and I listened to it on repeat. It's hard to capture infinity but they did.

3. Dreamboat | Patterns
This song is eternal because it will never crash. Dreamboat is a God to us because he is from our hometown and makes music that sounds like our hometown, but in a gay way. He can capture that reflection of Victoria like we can't. At this point in time I dont think we will ever be as good as Dreamboat. I often forget how beautiful things are and this song reminds me of that because it uses restraint.

4. The Killers | Read My Mind
I don't listen to this song often but I like it a lot and it stays with me because I noticed on Wikipedia that critics liked it because it had lyrics about poor people.

5. Dreams | Sennennes
This song is an important song for a close friend of ours. He has made music for many years but recently has made much more and has been sending it to us occasionally. Each new song shows a marked improvement from the previous one and it is tremendously exciting to watch. He has taught himself production and knows a lot about a lot of things. He is also very humble. During the day he works two very difficult jobs but he never complains. Then he makes songs like this.



6. Hey This Is Brian
This isn't a song but it's a conversation I had tonight a few hours ago on the phone when I called Olivier in New York to confirm that we were going to start our record label and a man named Brian answered and I asked him Have I got the right number? and he said Yes and I said Who is this? and he said It's Brian. There was a party going on in the background. He wasn't overly polite and accommodating as everyone is and I liked that. Plus, I found out later that he and Olivier are going to be purchasing a gallery space together in New York so that made me like him more. I hope that both people are Brian; I may have that wrong. They may be two people. One may be Greg.

7. Puff's Intro
We listened to this song in Los Angeles as well, coming home from a trip to the museum. We stopped in at a store that sold props and asked how much it would cost to buy the large Hollywood sign they had for sale. It was $10,000, which was more than we had for a prop like that. When we got back to the car this song was playing. I want to make a song like this but am afraid to because doing it right takes a lot vulnerability. I must be okay with who I am. Or stoned.

8. OO Studio
This is a recording I did in an old lodge on the water back home with James who plays guitar and it will be on our album when that come out. He played for hours and I recorded it all and then we talked about it for a small amount of time and then I dropped him off at home to take care of his half-sister because his father had escaped to South America. We were meant to get together the next night but he came down with the flu so this is the only recording that exists.

9. Le Knight Club | Nymphae Song
I like this song because it is loud and easily heard on small speakers, where so much of our music is played these days. Our fathers would have discussed this in terms of transistors and amplifiers in the 60s and 70s but now people are over that.

10. Pictureplane | This Is My New Song
I saw him in LA and came late because I was with a girl I have been seeing and we were fucking in a hotel room down the road. When we arrived the songs I saw were ok but I wanted something more because I had seen him before and was very impressed and wanted to take the next step with him and see where the road led. I was dissapointed at first that things were the same, though with more naked men and more people in attendance this time, and then he said I'm going to play a new song you havent heard yet and he played it and I swore to myself because it was brilliant.

+11. Bikini | ACheerlaeder (Teen Daze Remix)
This song was made after we met Teen Daze in British Columbia. He introduced a piano line that I love a lot. It is very house-y and 90s and I get what he is trying to say. He is very talented and I imagine him as 4 people instead of 1 because I think that would be better for him. Olivier played this recently at a fancy club in Manhattan and the owner of a large modeling agency there told him that he wanted it desperately for a runway show he was putting on.

SIDE B | by Olivier Olivier

1. Phillip Glass | Mad Rush
I woke up after having a dream about a house by the water, seemed like a Gulf Island or something because it was protected waters close to the sea. The house was so large, it must have had 20 rooms. The odd thing was that everyone I had ever met in my life was there.

2. The Pixies | La La Love You
The first time I kissed a girl was in the summer of grade 9. There was a party at this rich kid's house; it was a private school party but it was one those rare times where the public school kids came in equal numbers and there was no fights. Anyways, this kid's house had a tennis court in the back yard with lights that filled the whole yard with this really surreal light, like there was a goddamn UFO above. Anyways, this girl's last name was alphabetically behind mine so she sat behind me in every class we shared. She grabbed me by my hand and we walked to the back of the yard. I had two Mike's Hard Lemonades and we sat in the grass. She sat cross-legged and leaned in and we kissed. I remember someone saying that you never forget your first kiss. I don't really remember the actual kiss anymore but I do remember this song was playing thru the open French doors from inside the house and I was so grateful for whoever was picking the CDs that night.

3. Meinrad Jungblut | Sonnendeck
I don't know what this guy is saying but I'm sure it's about babes.

4. The Smashing Pumpkins | Bodies
This song is one of the all time favorites, it's the perfect song. It's just got the right balance of fear and ignorance. I think this song really could be the front door to my house; it's what I want people to see before coming in. It's everything I try to get at with writing music, especially in terms of building and building a song until it caves in on itself.

5. Townes Van Zandt | Snow Don't Fall
At 30 seconds in he brings in a great organ. This song is really amazing. You gotta hear the lyrics. The strings are something to die for.

6. Nina Simone | Baltimore
This guy who I worked with for a bit at this art studio put this on one afternoon. It was one of those hot New York summer evenings where it was still light out, but like 9pm. I had been working for like 12 days straight and all the paintings were finished. It felt good to have a cold beer at the end of it all.



7. Bumblebee Unlimited | Ladybug
Post-Disco-Pre-House. Makes you want to drink a Nectar and Tonic.

8. Lee "Scratch" Perry & The Upsetters | Huzza A Hanna
This is one of my all time artists, he was just the best. This song can get you a date, get you that job you've always wanted, get that girl to take her clothes off, get your boss to give you a raise, get that girl pregnant and then get fired all in about 3 and a half minutes.

9. Inner City | Til We Meet Again
The artist I work for and I went on a stint where we would just listen to Kevin Saunderson, Derrick May and Inner City. I just convinced him to get a dope new sound system for the studio and listening to this song on those speakers was really nice, it made work pretty easy. I felt like the end of the summer last year I heard this song everywhere, we were in a cab dropping our instruments off at my apartment, we had just played like our 3rd show ever during CMJ and this song came on in the cab.

10. The Proclaimers | And Then I Met You
Duh!

+11. Nirvana | School
Bleach is one of my favorite Nirvana records. This song is amazing.

+12. The Smashing Pumpkins | Eye
This was for Lynch's Lost Highway (crazzzzy film, amazing soundtrack). This song plays during the club scene, I really like the idea of this song being a club banger, like instead of people going nuts for hearing Kate Perrier they were losing their shit over this. Eye made me want to start Bikini.

WARMER MIXTAPES #306 | by Chris Glover [Penguin Prison]

1. Kanye West | All Of The Lights (with Rihanna, Alicia Keys, Alvin Fields, Charlie Wilson, Drake, Elly Jackson, Elton John, Fergie, John Legend, Ken Lewis, Kid Cudi, Ryan Leslie, Tony Williams)
This is my favorite song on Kanye's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy album. It makes me want to go nuts. I love the production on it. It has a lot of energy.

2. Lykke Li | Get Some
I love this new song by Lykke Li. It's her best song so far in my opinion. It's a little bit shocking when she says I'm your prostitute... You gon' get some. I like songs where there is a moment of shocking lyrics.

3. Twin Shadow | Tyrant Destroyed
This is a very beautiful song. It's mysterious and dark and it makes me feel good. I like how the lyrics are a little hard to understand but I think I get it anyway.

4. Switch | I Call Your Name
This song just makes me feel good. It's kind of funny cuz his voice is ridiculously high. The groove is also ridiculous but in a different way. Crazy bass line.

5. The Flamingos | I Only Have Eyes For You (Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler Cover)
This is one of my favorite songs ever. Those background vocals sound so crazy. I don't know how they got them to sound like that. I can't understand what they are saying. Sometimes that makes me like a song even more if there is something about it that I don't fully understand.

6. Dirty Projectors | Stillness Is The Move
This song has no bass in it. I always think it's cool when someone can make a good song with no bass in it at all. The vocals are nuts here. And the guitar line is really insane. It's a great song.

7. Richie Havens | Going Back To My Roots
One of the best of all time. Amazing intro and build up and then the groove is ridiculous when it comes in. Great lyrics, great voice. I read that he didn't like it when he heard that dj's were playing this song in clubs. Well sorry man because this song makes people want to dance.

8. Led Zeppelin | Going To California
This is one of my favorite Led Zeppelin songs. Everyone thinks of them as a really heavy rock band but some of their best songs are the quiet acoustic ones. This is probably the best one of that kind.



9. Beck | Hollow Log
I like a lot of Beck's songs but this is one of my favorites. I don't know why. It's very simple and short but I think it's just classic.

10. Johnny Cash | That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls Around Heaven All Day) (Frankie Laine's 'That Lucky Old Sun' Cover)
One of the best songs ever written. I also like the version by Ray Charles. It's a perfect song. It paints a very clear picture. It is very direct and the listener gets exactly what the writer is trying to convey. Great songwriting.

WARMER MIXTAPES #305 | by Ulrich Schnauss [Ethereal 77/Hexaquart/View To The Future/The Extremist] of Ulrich Schnauss & Jonas Munk, Hair, Ulrich Schnauss & Mark Peters, Police In Cars With Headphones, Tinkabell, Beroshima, A Shoreline Dream, Long-View and Engineers

TEN SONGS TO SOOTHE CHRISTMAS, HEARTBREAK AND OTHER PAINS

1. Propaganda | Heaven Give Me Words (Honey In Heaven)
Like a child before it learns to speak, I turn to stone... While everyone expected another secret wish people simply overlooked how brilliant 1-2-3-4 was - and how could you go wrong having an arranger like Michael Mertens, William Orbit at the mixing controls and Howard Jonas as a co-writer? Although I understand that Claudia Bruecken's vocal contributions were missed, I really like Betsy Miller's performance as well...

2. Jonny L l 2 Of Us (EP Version)
Here, two of us, even though I'm on my own... Back then we used to think of d'n'b as the sound of today - and still by now it's impossible to ignore that the genre has spawned a vast amount of tracks that still sound just as exciting almost fifteen years on. This is one of them - in fact, because of its beautiful chords and delicate melodies this song would work with almost any kind of arrangement. However, having Jonny L's crisp production on board certainly is a most welcome bonus.

3. Cosa Rosa | In Meinen Armen
Deine Augen sind grün, das Meer könnte nicht grüner sein... I love Reinhold Heil's production and sound design and Rosa Precht's unmistakeable ability to create mesmerizing melodies and vocal harmonies. The fascinating synergy of this amazing couple can be witnessed here...

4. Étienne Daho | L'Adorer
Avant que ses baisers ne deviennent couteaux, que ses bouquets de fleurs ne me fassent la peau, désadorer l'adorer... It's always hard to believe for me that this is not a cover - I guess only in France people are still recording pop music of such quality and emotional depth...

5. Luke Slater | Love (Album Version)
This may as well be the most romantic techno track ever recorded - even by Luke Slater's high standards (i'm a fan of his 7th Plain releases in particular) the chord changes are outstanding - who says dance tracks can't make you cry?



6. The Fred Banana Combo | Nowhere Bei Mir
You're not near, you're not far and it's nowhere bei mir where you are... Nicolle Meyer... The 80's seem to have left a particular legacy of songs describing feelings of despair and isolation - this is a good (although less known) example. Don't get scared off by the band name - an almost shockingly contemporary sounding piece of music.

7. Prefab Sprout | Life Of Surprises
You don't have to pretend you're not crying... Lennon? McCartney? Bacharach? David? If you'd ask me who the greatest songwriter was I'd always go for Paddy McAloon. It's hard to make any choices given the overwhelming amount of timeless pop music he's created - however, this one somehow's always been my favourite...


8. Leona Naess | True Love Will Find You In The End (Daniel Johnston Cover)
Don't be sad, I know you will... A heartbreakingly beautiful song already in its initial state - somehow Leona Naess has mastered the impossible task of improving even the original - still hoping for an official release just as much as we may be hoping for true love...

9. Quartz | It's Too Late (feat. Dina Carroll) (Carole King Cover)
Something inside has died and I can't hide... Another great cover - probably not necessarily improving the original, but delivering a unique and sensitive take. Furthermore, Dina Carroll's incredible voice never fails to send shivers down the spine...

10. Bonnie Raitt | Nick Of Time
No matter how you tell yourself it's what we all go through, those eyes are pretty hard to take when they're staring back at you... This seemed a good ending to the selection - it's a deeply comforting piece of music - while lyrically it doesn't obscure or even ignore the reality of things, the stoically moving groove and the warm chords provide with just enough hope...

WARMER MIXTAPES #304 | by Andrew Means of Velella Velella

Here's a crack at the current top 10...

1. The City | Now That Everything's Been Said
It's part of an incredible album with some super incredible tracks. King's vocals are beautiful and really charmingly unpolished. Especially I love the way the track starts off with a shaker, then tambourine, then sleigh bells - it's the perfect example of the way production decisions, when done right, can totally change the way a song feels without anybody noticing. Add to all that the incredible guitar and drum work and you've got a really smoking song.

2. DâM-FunK | Rollin'
DâM-FunK is like 140 proof funk. The guy tosses most of the pop calculations that people generally make and distills it down to a sick bassline, a simple (played live!) drum machine beat and then proceeds to lay down synth noodles on top of it. No lyrics, no verses, few choruses, it's just hooks for miles. I love the feel on this track, it's awesome.

3. Max Roach | January V
This track is kind of hauntingly beautiful; I love the way it's done with instruments that all sound very similar; it really creates an incredible feeling.

4. Dynasty | Do Me Right
I discovered Dynasty a while ago, but they've been kind of riding this long wave of awesomeness for a while in my mind. Disco kind of gets a bad rap, but Dynasty, Pleasure, Kleeer - some of this stuff is just brilliant.

5. James Pants | Thin Moon
James and I used to be in a band in college; the dude singlehandedly opened up my eyes to a huge array of music, introduced me to countless artists. The dude's solid. See also.


6. Rick James | Mary Go Round
I've been on a big Rick James kick lately. His hits are fine, but this track, and Fool On The Street are both kind of sleepers, and I think twice as bangin' as most of his hits.

7. The Esquires | How Could It Be
This track is one of those tracks where if you listen to any one of the individual tracks you kind of get blown away - you could just do the vocals, or the guitar, or especially the bass, and you'd be blown away - I love these guys, their record (Up And Away) is probably my favorite soul record at the moment. Especially at 2:15, hot damn!

8. Karin Krog | The Meaning Of Love
This is possibly my favorite song/arrangement of all time. The drums, the bass, the keys, and Karin Krog's glorious voice, dripping with reverb; it's amazing. Somehow the incredibly sad lyrics are pushed forward with this incredible urgency, like the rhythm section won't let her rest on the sad words, they turn it into this joyous thing. In some ways that's what music does for me, it holds the hope, the longing, the sadness and the joy, and you feel them all, and it's lovely.

9. Janelle Monáe | Tightrope
While her album was really scattered and felt kind of art-school-student-project in its attempt at a bunch of different styles, Tightrope is a serious barn burner, and her performance on this clip just destroys 90% of everything else out there right now.

10. MF Doom | Rap Snitch Knishes
MF Doom is easily my favorite rapper. His lo-fi production is fantastic too, full of cartoon samples and off-beat drums. This track is off his awesome record Mm.. Food. Mr. Fantastik is awesome on this track too.