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!)...