WARMER MIXTAPES #337 | by Svala Björgvinsdóttir aka Kali (Svala/Scope/Bubbleflies) of Steed Lord
1. Bryan Ferry | Slave To Love
I remember seeing the video for the song when I was very young in Iceland. The video was so beautiful and elegant and the models look so stunning. The song is kinda sad but full of nostalgia and sweetness. I especially remember when Bryan is being chased by photographers and he's trying to get to his little baby daugther to hold her and put her to sleep. The photographers give him privacy and leave him be. I thought that scene was so touching and it reminded me of me and my dad. This song is my all time favourite. I can't get enough of it. It's perfect songwriting.
2. deadmau5 + Kaskade | I Remember
I heard this song last year when we were at Electric Daisy Carnival, which is a huge rave in L.A. where we live now. There were probably 150 thousand people there and this song came on and it just gave me goosebumps and I remember feeling so happy and young and alive in that very moment. Looking over all these people under the stars in the night dancing to electronic music, it was magic. It's a somber song with a lot of heart and soul in it. The words are very poignant.
3. Alison Krauss & Union Station | New Favourite
I adore Alison and her voice. I love her music. This song is especially close to me cause it brings back all kinds of memories, good and bad. I am always drawn to kinda sad and melancholy sounding music. I don't know why. Sorrow is always kinda alluring. It's just a beautiful and perfect song. It's raw and her vocals are very minimal and up close.
4. Björk | Hyperballad
Oh how this song has inspired me through the years. It's just so pretty and magical. I love the album Post and it was a huge part of my life when it first came out. I was a teenager singing and writing music with my band in Iceland at the time. We performed at the same festival as Björk in Iceland and I remember being so proud and honoured to be on the same stage as her. And then she performed Hyperballad and it was amazing. It was a festival out in the countryside in Iceland and all these rave club kids were there dancing high on ecstacy out in the nature. It was pretty fantastic. Everytime I listen to this song I can smell the fresh grass and feel the cool air night breeze.
5. Booka Shade | In White Rooms
I am a huge fan of Booka Shade and I love their music. They make very melodic and beautiful minimal techno music. This song was on repeat on my iPod when it came out. I still listen to it and just drift away to some hidden place. I was working at this Icelandic design shop called Naked Ape in Iceland when I heard it first. It kinda made me feel like I was 16 years old again and the year was 1994 and I was going to an underground club or a rave. That was the feeling it gave me. Just total nostalgia and it brought all these youth teenage memories back to me.
6. Brian McKnight | Anytime
I love r 'n' b and soul music and the song Anytime is from the golden era of that kind of music. It came out in the 90's and I had just broken up with my boyfriend at the time and I heard it on the radio and it was like my boyfriend was talking to me through the song. The words just spoke to me directly. Brian has the most amazing voice and his songs are so bittersweet but somehow also very sexy. I got back with my boyfriend shortly after hearing the song and it kinda became one of our songs. Love u boo.
7. Gazebo | I Like Chopin
I have always been obsessed with 80's synth music. I was just a young kid in the 80's and I used to hear all these songs on the radio in Iceland and I used to daydream when I was listening to them. This song was one of those melancholy pretty sad songs that I just adore. It's cheesy but an instant classic. The piano melody is my favourite part. I love classical music and that part of the song is classic inspired.
8. Bruce Springsteen | I'm On Fire
I am a big Springsteen fan. There are so many Springsteen songs I love but this one is close to my heart. His music reminds me of all the summers I spent in America at my aunt Helga's house with my family. This song makes me think of hot summer nights and cute boys. Youth and dreams. Desire and the past. So many feelings and so many memories.
9. Whitesnake | Is This Love
This song is special to me. Me and my brother, Krummi adore this song. When we were kids watching MTV, we used to love this song and the video. It's the total 80's rock power ballad. Everytime I listen to it, it makes me think of my brother. Maybe we'll do an acoustic cover of this song. Who knows. We would just do it for us and for the fun of it. It would be our little secret.
10. Fleetwood Mac | Gypsy
I adore Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac. I love all their music and this song is major inspiriation and I can never get enough of it. It's a classic and timeless. When I saw the video for this song I wanted to be a performer. My parents are huge Fleetwood Mac fans and they used to play their music at home all the time. Everytime I listen to Stevie or Fleetwood I feel safe and secure and all warm inside. The video is like this fantasy gypsy world where Stevie is dancing with these little children, wearing these amazing chiffon hippie dresses and ballet shoes. Divine. Pure art. I have always felt like this song is about me and my life... To the gypsy that remains... Faces freedom with a little fear... I have no fear... I have only love... That's me!
WARMER MIXTAPES #336 | by Christian Zucconi of Grouplove
1. Hot Snakes | Plenty For All
Hannah and I drove out to Los Angeles last year from New York. It was January. There was a lot of snow on the ground. And as we headed South and West, and the weather got warmer, the windows came down and we'd blast this song speeding along the interstate. It was Southern California's calling. And a year later it still is.
2. Neil Young | Expecting To Fly
On our last Northeast tour this was frequently being played in the van. Sets a real nice tone for traveling. You know in that Neil Young biography, Shakey, he and David Briggs spent a month mixing this song? Can you tell?
3. Leonard Cohen | So Long Marianne
I think this one is a song I'll be listening to now for the rest of my life. So Long Marianne will always bring me back to the trip Hannah and I took to Greece two and a half years ago - where we would soon meet our future life-long friends and Grouplove members. We were flying into Athens and saw in the newspaper that came with the plane ride that Leonard Cohen was playing that night and that the song was inspired by his love, Marianne, whom he had met in Greece. We would have gone but it was sold out and tickets were way too expensive, but we had some good listens to the song on our ten hour boat ride through the middle of the night to Crete. We met when we were almost young.
4. Paul Simon | Duncan
I found all these old records up in the attic of my mother's house in New York before moving out to LA. So when we got here we had a lot of new music to play. When Sean arrived from London this record began a heavy rotation and we all fell in love with Duncan. Hearing the words New England, so delicately sung, really brings me back home to the East Coast when I need a little home-sick fix.
5. Alex Walker | Caught Starin
I was very fortunate to grow up with Alex in upstate New York because this cat helped me find my first footings in music when we started our first band together in high school. My friends happened to all be awesome musicians and I was just starting to learn the guitar and sing, and they provided a great welcome into what was then, the most exciting new world I'd ever seen, it was all so fresh and new. Alex just moved out to LA this month and he's been dropping his new tracks through our stereo, and this one's been on repeat.
6. Björk | Unravel
You know how you just sometimes need that Earth shattering love song up in your spot?
7. Sean Gadd | Pacific Coast Highway
Sean Gadd of Grouplove writes some real classics on the acoustic guitar. This is just one of them. He wrote it when he came out to LA to live, after a trip up the coast in Matt Wessen's (Andrew's big bro's) old boat-like beauty of a Cadillac. Highway 1 is a long way from London. I know it's not fair to write about a song you can't get your ears on but be on the lookout we'll be recording it one day!
8. Arcade Fire | Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
I got into Arcade Fire pretty late in the game. Three years ago an old dear friend of mine who I hadn't seen in a long time was visiting Brooklyn and we went out for some dinner and cigarettes and things turned a bit sad, nothing too heavy but we were just feeling weighed down by certain aspects our lives, of our memories, of our childhoods, of nolstagia, lost loves, the uncertainty of the future, death, and so on. (Wait, that does sound heavy!) Upon leaving the place we sat down on these metal steps outside the restaurant and she put headphones in my ears and played me this song. We were not alone.
9. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky | Swan Lake
Remember those records I was telling you about before? This one made the trip as well. Ironically we started playing it at home a few weeks before the film came out. After seeing the movie we have kept it up, keeping the black and white swan alive at the same time! What drama!
10. Black Flamingo | Golden Girl
Grouplove is in the backhouse where we live, and Black Flamingo lives in the front house. They are the best neighbors we could have asked for. And on quiet evenings out in the yard we can hear them practicing, their lush sounds floating out their windows onto our porch. They have some really great songs, but Golden Girl has been killing it lately.
Hannah and I drove out to Los Angeles last year from New York. It was January. There was a lot of snow on the ground. And as we headed South and West, and the weather got warmer, the windows came down and we'd blast this song speeding along the interstate. It was Southern California's calling. And a year later it still is.
2. Neil Young | Expecting To Fly
On our last Northeast tour this was frequently being played in the van. Sets a real nice tone for traveling. You know in that Neil Young biography, Shakey, he and David Briggs spent a month mixing this song? Can you tell?
3. Leonard Cohen | So Long Marianne
I think this one is a song I'll be listening to now for the rest of my life. So Long Marianne will always bring me back to the trip Hannah and I took to Greece two and a half years ago - where we would soon meet our future life-long friends and Grouplove members. We were flying into Athens and saw in the newspaper that came with the plane ride that Leonard Cohen was playing that night and that the song was inspired by his love, Marianne, whom he had met in Greece. We would have gone but it was sold out and tickets were way too expensive, but we had some good listens to the song on our ten hour boat ride through the middle of the night to Crete. We met when we were almost young.
4. Paul Simon | Duncan
I found all these old records up in the attic of my mother's house in New York before moving out to LA. So when we got here we had a lot of new music to play. When Sean arrived from London this record began a heavy rotation and we all fell in love with Duncan. Hearing the words New England, so delicately sung, really brings me back home to the East Coast when I need a little home-sick fix.
5. Alex Walker | Caught Starin
I was very fortunate to grow up with Alex in upstate New York because this cat helped me find my first footings in music when we started our first band together in high school. My friends happened to all be awesome musicians and I was just starting to learn the guitar and sing, and they provided a great welcome into what was then, the most exciting new world I'd ever seen, it was all so fresh and new. Alex just moved out to LA this month and he's been dropping his new tracks through our stereo, and this one's been on repeat.
6. Björk | Unravel
You know how you just sometimes need that Earth shattering love song up in your spot?
7. Sean Gadd | Pacific Coast Highway
Sean Gadd of Grouplove writes some real classics on the acoustic guitar. This is just one of them. He wrote it when he came out to LA to live, after a trip up the coast in Matt Wessen's (Andrew's big bro's) old boat-like beauty of a Cadillac. Highway 1 is a long way from London. I know it's not fair to write about a song you can't get your ears on but be on the lookout we'll be recording it one day!
8. Arcade Fire | Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
I got into Arcade Fire pretty late in the game. Three years ago an old dear friend of mine who I hadn't seen in a long time was visiting Brooklyn and we went out for some dinner and cigarettes and things turned a bit sad, nothing too heavy but we were just feeling weighed down by certain aspects our lives, of our memories, of our childhoods, of nolstagia, lost loves, the uncertainty of the future, death, and so on. (Wait, that does sound heavy!) Upon leaving the place we sat down on these metal steps outside the restaurant and she put headphones in my ears and played me this song. We were not alone.
9. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky | Swan Lake
Remember those records I was telling you about before? This one made the trip as well. Ironically we started playing it at home a few weeks before the film came out. After seeing the movie we have kept it up, keeping the black and white swan alive at the same time! What drama!
10. Black Flamingo | Golden Girl
Grouplove is in the backhouse where we live, and Black Flamingo lives in the front house. They are the best neighbors we could have asked for. And on quiet evenings out in the yard we can hear them practicing, their lush sounds floating out their windows onto our porch. They have some really great songs, but Golden Girl has been killing it lately.
WARMER MIXTAPES #335 | by Vinko Pelicaric and Eduard Raos of SymbolOne
SIDE A | by Eduard Raos
1. Chaka Khan & Rufus | Ain't Nobody
Heard it first in Breakin' movie. Got me dancing alright and can't stop ever since.
2. Iron Maiden | 2 Minutes To Midnight
First bad boy rebellion. It didn't last long enough to grow long hair.
3. Prince | Sometimes It Snows In April
Best ballad of all times. You can make a mix tape for a girl with only this song on and she'll melt.
4. Black Uhuru | What Is Life
This one is hazy, can see it in some kind of smoke.
5. David Bowie | Let's Dance
Was reading Shining when this one came out. Playing it on repeat on turntable is pain in the ass.
6. Duran Duran | Save A Prayer
What can I say. Probably learned english singing along to this one.
7. Killing Joke | Requiem
Still remember custom tape cover I draw for it.
8. Dead Kennedys | California Über Alles
Their logo was all over me.
9. Bauhaus | Spy In The Cab
If you locked me into the empty room with just this song on, on repeat, I would be happy. Weird, I know.
10. Dalis Car | His Box
Mick Karn respect here.
+11. P.I.L. | Death Disco
My man Johnny.
+12. Jean Michele Jarre | Oxygene
I would be in my own bubble, completely separated from the rest of the World when this was on.
+13. Prodigy | Voodoo People
This was a big crossroad for me.
+14. Ralf Hildenbeutel | Looking Beyond
The best ambient track ever.
+15. Daft Punk | Da Funk
Best New Year's Eve Party mix track for the end.
1. Phil Collins | In The Air Tonight
The ultimate song for everything final, like brake up, like final battle, like friggin everything... This one will probably be playing on my funeral, haha... Oh, and they say this song makes Chuck Norris sleep.
2. Giorgio Moroder | Knights In White Satin
What to say about this one, me and Ed like to get in to our snuggies (don't get any weird ideas) and listen to this blessing that came from outer space...
3. John Carpenter | Assault On Precinct 13
If you listen to this one with your eyes closed you can see tiny red spots vj in your eyes.
4. Daft Punk | Rollin' & Scratchin'
I still remember the look on my father's face when he entered in my room while I was head banging on this, his eyes popped out, maybe because before this song started I was listening to some of his records on his TOSCA turntable so he probably thought that I'm messing with it again, haha...
5. Tangerine Dream | Love On A Real Train
What to say... I'm a sucker for this kind of emo stuff... Best soundtrack for the best movie love scene.
6. Wendy Carlos | March From A Clockwork Orange
This one space me out every time I listen to it...
7. The System | You Are In My System
No one can resist to dance to this sweet jam... And if you have a chance listen to Spanish version it's even better...Tu Estas En Mi Systema, aiiiiii mamacita !
8. Imagination | Music & Lights
I just love this slow disco jam... So smooth.
9. Charlie | Spacer Woman
Timeless tune... Brings back memories to some best parties I've been to.
10. Sonic Youth | Shadow Of A Doubt
I know it sounds totally dopy but this one is fitting in my high school soundtrack.
+11. Hüsker Dü | Diane
A band with a name that sounds like a 21st century disease... I remember me and my brother listening to this tape while we were kids, we even made DIY Hüsker Dü t-shirts... If you asked me 15 years ago to choose some tracks this one would be in my top 3 probably.
+12. Japan | Ghosts
Absolute classic and my fav Japan song... That lead synth give me goosebumps every time I listen to it... Crazy.
+13. Ryuichi Sakamoto | Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
I'm always totally speechless when I listen to this song...
+14. Space | Velvet Rape
For me this is the greatest love song and it doesn't matter that it has Rape in tittle, even better!
+15. Mr. Oizo | Analog Worms Attack
Thanx to Mr.Oizo and Vincent Belorgey I started to train worms and now I'm officially a worm trainer! So if any of you want to win in worm race feel free to contact me and I can make your worm a champion.
1. Chaka Khan & Rufus | Ain't Nobody
Heard it first in Breakin' movie. Got me dancing alright and can't stop ever since.
2. Iron Maiden | 2 Minutes To Midnight
First bad boy rebellion. It didn't last long enough to grow long hair.
3. Prince | Sometimes It Snows In April
Best ballad of all times. You can make a mix tape for a girl with only this song on and she'll melt.
4. Black Uhuru | What Is Life
This one is hazy, can see it in some kind of smoke.
5. David Bowie | Let's Dance
Was reading Shining when this one came out. Playing it on repeat on turntable is pain in the ass.
6. Duran Duran | Save A Prayer
What can I say. Probably learned english singing along to this one.
7. Killing Joke | Requiem
Still remember custom tape cover I draw for it.
8. Dead Kennedys | California Über Alles
Their logo was all over me.
9. Bauhaus | Spy In The Cab
If you locked me into the empty room with just this song on, on repeat, I would be happy. Weird, I know.
10. Dalis Car | His Box
Mick Karn respect here.
+11. P.I.L. | Death Disco
My man Johnny.
+12. Jean Michele Jarre | Oxygene
I would be in my own bubble, completely separated from the rest of the World when this was on.
+13. Prodigy | Voodoo People
This was a big crossroad for me.
+14. Ralf Hildenbeutel | Looking Beyond
The best ambient track ever.
+15. Daft Punk | Da Funk
Best New Year's Eve Party mix track for the end.
SIDE B | by Vinko Pelicaric
1. Phil Collins | In The Air Tonight
The ultimate song for everything final, like brake up, like final battle, like friggin everything... This one will probably be playing on my funeral, haha... Oh, and they say this song makes Chuck Norris sleep.
2. Giorgio Moroder | Knights In White Satin
What to say about this one, me and Ed like to get in to our snuggies (don't get any weird ideas) and listen to this blessing that came from outer space...
3. John Carpenter | Assault On Precinct 13
If you listen to this one with your eyes closed you can see tiny red spots vj in your eyes.
4. Daft Punk | Rollin' & Scratchin'
I still remember the look on my father's face when he entered in my room while I was head banging on this, his eyes popped out, maybe because before this song started I was listening to some of his records on his TOSCA turntable so he probably thought that I'm messing with it again, haha...
5. Tangerine Dream | Love On A Real Train
What to say... I'm a sucker for this kind of emo stuff... Best soundtrack for the best movie love scene.
6. Wendy Carlos | March From A Clockwork Orange
This one space me out every time I listen to it...
7. The System | You Are In My System
No one can resist to dance to this sweet jam... And if you have a chance listen to Spanish version it's even better...Tu Estas En Mi Systema, aiiiiii mamacita !
8. Imagination | Music & Lights
I just love this slow disco jam... So smooth.
9. Charlie | Spacer Woman
Timeless tune... Brings back memories to some best parties I've been to.
10. Sonic Youth | Shadow Of A Doubt
I know it sounds totally dopy but this one is fitting in my high school soundtrack.
+11. Hüsker Dü | Diane
A band with a name that sounds like a 21st century disease... I remember me and my brother listening to this tape while we were kids, we even made DIY Hüsker Dü t-shirts... If you asked me 15 years ago to choose some tracks this one would be in my top 3 probably.
+12. Japan | Ghosts
Absolute classic and my fav Japan song... That lead synth give me goosebumps every time I listen to it... Crazy.
+13. Ryuichi Sakamoto | Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
I'm always totally speechless when I listen to this song...
+14. Space | Velvet Rape
For me this is the greatest love song and it doesn't matter that it has Rape in tittle, even better!
+15. Mr. Oizo | Analog Worms Attack
Thanx to Mr.Oizo and Vincent Belorgey I started to train worms and now I'm officially a worm trainer! So if any of you want to win in worm race feel free to contact me and I can make your worm a champion.
WARMER MIXTAPES #334 | by Alin Crihan [Aeromaschine]
1. Pink Floyd | On The Run
This track is from the band’s Dark Side Of The Moon LP and for me it represents a sort of vision of things to come, a close friend showed it to me one day and I was blown away they could do that in 1978!!! If you enjoy modern electronica, avant-garde stuff, forward thinking house and so on, this song is an inspiration in it’s own right.
2. Space Dimension Controller | 2EZ (Autopilot’s Lament)
2EZ is such a beautiful track, it makes me kick back and enjoy the small things, it’s a perfect setting for some inspirational brainstorming I would think, or just to have a quite (haha) moment alone with your thoughts.
3. Massive Attack | Exchange
Exchange was released with the Mezzanine LP and I consider it to be one of their best songs, it’s deep, it glows in the dark, it has all the trimmings. It might be overrated to say it’s sexy, but there is no other term I would use to describe this broken beat symphonic mastery of suave chords.
4. Luther Vandross | Never Too Much
This song is so captivating and Luther’s voice is so prominent he just hits each note exactly where it needs to be hit. The instrumental is something of a mindbender as well.
5. Tensnake | Holding Back (My Love)
This is one track that makes me giddy with joy each time I listen to, or play it at parties, it’s a constant smile thief. It features Tensnake’s own warped voice in the beginning and middle and the warmest chords you’ll hear in your life. But what I find to be the defining aspect of the song is, and it might come as a surprise, the cowbells. Everyone knows those cowbells when they hear ‘em, and everyone knows that it’s summer whenever they hear it, be it even the coldest of winters.
6. Fabrice Lig | Cosmic Booty
I’ve only recently been accustomed to Fabrice Lig’s work. Cosmic Booty I’ve got to say is a track that starts different to most. It’s an electronical organic piece of synthcraft that showcases how even the coldest robotic tones can be soothed by way of analogue orgy ridden chords.
7. Little Dragon | Twice
First track off their self entitled album, Little Dragon’s Twice is something of a heartmelter, it’s so intimately intrusive that I think it can soften even the coldest of tempers. And what a set of lungs and vocal skills on the lead singer! One of the best pieces of vocal interpretation I’ve heard in my short existence on this planet.
8. Capracara | Panic Beats
It was released recently on Fine Art and is one hell of a journey, fantastic vibe, love it to bits. This italodisco thing has had quite a comeback in recent times, since I am very young and still exploring genres and emotions I can only assume that the revival comes nothing short of welcome. At least, that’s the vibe that this song gives me. Piece of art, every second of it.
9. Mr. Fingers | Can You Feel It
Classic, still sounds fresh after 20 something years, its power cannot be denied. Everyone knows this track, especially for the vocal bootleg, it’s what house is about, and for me this is what deep house is. An auditory expression of lust.
10. The Model | Stars End Tazenda
Tazenda is a planet I believe in one of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series books, and while skimming through it on the edge of my seat something felt amiss. It was only after hearing The Model’s track had I realized that the missing part was a soundtrack. Stars End Tazenda is a stellar (if I may) piece of art. It’s exactly what Asimov’s story telling invokes, dark mysterious tones, mystical patterns and something that you can’t really put your finger on, but you know is always present.
This track is from the band’s Dark Side Of The Moon LP and for me it represents a sort of vision of things to come, a close friend showed it to me one day and I was blown away they could do that in 1978!!! If you enjoy modern electronica, avant-garde stuff, forward thinking house and so on, this song is an inspiration in it’s own right.
2. Space Dimension Controller | 2EZ (Autopilot’s Lament)
2EZ is such a beautiful track, it makes me kick back and enjoy the small things, it’s a perfect setting for some inspirational brainstorming I would think, or just to have a quite (haha) moment alone with your thoughts.
3. Massive Attack | Exchange
Exchange was released with the Mezzanine LP and I consider it to be one of their best songs, it’s deep, it glows in the dark, it has all the trimmings. It might be overrated to say it’s sexy, but there is no other term I would use to describe this broken beat symphonic mastery of suave chords.
4. Luther Vandross | Never Too Much
This song is so captivating and Luther’s voice is so prominent he just hits each note exactly where it needs to be hit. The instrumental is something of a mindbender as well.
5. Tensnake | Holding Back (My Love)
This is one track that makes me giddy with joy each time I listen to, or play it at parties, it’s a constant smile thief. It features Tensnake’s own warped voice in the beginning and middle and the warmest chords you’ll hear in your life. But what I find to be the defining aspect of the song is, and it might come as a surprise, the cowbells. Everyone knows those cowbells when they hear ‘em, and everyone knows that it’s summer whenever they hear it, be it even the coldest of winters.
6. Fabrice Lig | Cosmic Booty
I’ve only recently been accustomed to Fabrice Lig’s work. Cosmic Booty I’ve got to say is a track that starts different to most. It’s an electronical organic piece of synthcraft that showcases how even the coldest robotic tones can be soothed by way of analogue orgy ridden chords.
7. Little Dragon | Twice
First track off their self entitled album, Little Dragon’s Twice is something of a heartmelter, it’s so intimately intrusive that I think it can soften even the coldest of tempers. And what a set of lungs and vocal skills on the lead singer! One of the best pieces of vocal interpretation I’ve heard in my short existence on this planet.
8. Capracara | Panic Beats
It was released recently on Fine Art and is one hell of a journey, fantastic vibe, love it to bits. This italodisco thing has had quite a comeback in recent times, since I am very young and still exploring genres and emotions I can only assume that the revival comes nothing short of welcome. At least, that’s the vibe that this song gives me. Piece of art, every second of it.
9. Mr. Fingers | Can You Feel It
Classic, still sounds fresh after 20 something years, its power cannot be denied. Everyone knows this track, especially for the vocal bootleg, it’s what house is about, and for me this is what deep house is. An auditory expression of lust.
10. The Model | Stars End Tazenda
Tazenda is a planet I believe in one of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series books, and while skimming through it on the edge of my seat something felt amiss. It was only after hearing The Model’s track had I realized that the missing part was a soundtrack. Stars End Tazenda is a stellar (if I may) piece of art. It’s exactly what Asimov’s story telling invokes, dark mysterious tones, mystical patterns and something that you can’t really put your finger on, but you know is always present.
WARMER MIXTAPES #333 | by Willy Joy
This leaves out current dance music (Pandora's Box) and by the time I send it I'm sure I will have thought of 10 songs I should have written down instead.
1. Bad Religion | You
This is going to start a little theme of me picking one of my current favorites by some of my all time favorite musicians. I love Bad Religion and it's hard to pick just one. I like this because it combines their punk roots and epic out-of-nowhere harmonies with a bit of a personal touch. They so rarely break out of the anti-establishment tunes and make a song about a person or a relationship that when they do, it's awesome. This band takes me back to 7th grade, sitting on the floor of my house and just rocking back and forth with my eyes closed, full of the music and my sense of adolescent self-righteousness!
2. The Prodigy | Your Love
The Prodigy's Experience album is one of the most directly influential albums for me and what I'm doing these days. I'm pretty sure I re-played Your Love for months when I got it. It was everything I loved about raves and dance music distilled into this immediate shock to my system. My earliest experiences with rave music all came losing my mind dancing to music like this, and this is maybe one of the most successful examples of this oldskool sound...
3. Son House | Grinnin' In Your Face
This song should be played for anyone getting into music - one man singing and clapping packing a bigger emotional punch than pretty much anything else I can name. I love the sound of human voices, and his is heartbreaking. I still get goosebumps.
4. Ol' Dirty Bastard | Dog Shit
Again, hard to pick a favorite ODB joint. There's a lot of musicians who inspire me, but I don't count many as my true heroes. ODB is a hero to me. The people that really allow me to keep trying to live my dream are the outsiders, not the virtuosos or the masters. I love when someone just comes in so sideways, in such a weird way, that they can't be denied even though it's hard to define exactly WHY they're so incredible. Someone who just confuses and warps the system to fit them, instead of the other way around - that's a hero to me. Here comes rover, sniffin at your ass/but pardon me bitch, as I shit on your grass!
5. Devo | Jocko Homo
This is the jamming-est non-jam ever recorded, as far as I'm concerned.
6. Psykosonik | Welcome To My Mind
So this is a terrible song that would have been on the Matrix soundtrack, if it hadn't been made close to a decade before the Matrix. However, it's from a band and album I was obsessed with a kid, and that nostalgia has kept it close to my heart ever since. I remember playing nerdy games with my nerdy friends listening to lines like drive your mind down deep underground/feel the Cosmos swirling around/take a trip across the neural sky/you got to enter my mind. It's like jock jams for the kids... The jocks would torment, and I still sing along to this day.
7. Seu Jorge | Carolina
Another example here of me being completely blown away by a human voice - for whatever reason, Seu Jorge's voice cuts right through me. I don't speak Portuguese and have very little idea what any of his songs are about, but I've listened to this one probably 10000 times.
8. Herbert | The Audience
The entire Bodily Functions album by Herbert is one of my favorites, but I keep coming back to this tune for two reaons: the piano that drops in the second half takes me completely off guard, and secondly, I've been obsessed with this one line for years: You and I together, together in this room/you will not remember, this passing moment soon. It's such a powerful way to express the melancholy of every day relationships, and I've thought of it often when spending time with my loved ones that I hope to never forget.
9. Sepultura | Escape To The Void
One of my all time favorite metal groups with a BARN BURNER. Especially at this early stage, Max Cavalera could barely speak English and still managed to make some of the most brutal imagery and sounds around, ever. I was a huge metalhead growing up and this kind of brute force, by-any-means aggression has definitely helped to shape how I work today making music.
10. The Streets | Weak Become Heroes
Never has there been a better way to express how amazing a night of dancing can feel. It's hard to evoke a real feeling you might have in life via song, and this one works for me, takes me straight back to off-season ice arenas in Minneapolis, MN. That's where we had raves when I was a kid.
+11. El-P | Tuned Mass Damper
This album got me through some rough times in college, and, looking back, it's an insane piece of artistry. Outside of the Bomb Squad it's hard for me to even see what might have influenced it. So dense and so heavy, but still a head-nodder.
+12. Black Sabbath | Sabbra Cadabra
The ultimate. Period.
WARMER MIXTAPES #332 | by Harald Björk
1. Joy Division | Disorder
I was kind of late to discover Joy Division. Of course I had heard Love Will Tear Us Apart at several pop clubs through the years but it wasn't until the release of the film 24 Hour Party People I listened to all their albums and fell in love. Disorder is one of many great songs that I never get tired of.
2. Mount Sims | No Yellow Lines
Lovely song by Mount Sims, some kind of post Joy Division feeling over it. Great melancholy and lovely production.
3. 52nd Street | Can't Afford
I have always been a fan of New Order's Blue Monday but this other Factory Recordings act is taking it to the next level... It is a perfect mix of indie, funk and disco, I just love the combination of stiffness and funk. In a way, this track is completing the music circle of life by bringing back the soul to the Blue Monday production that more or less is borrowed from Donna Summer - Our Love. And the acid beginning and break just makes it one of the best songs ever made. On top of that it has the best video ever made. This is the future.
4. The Radio Dept. | Ewan
The Radio Dept. is one of the best bands to come out of Sweden. They have their own unique shoegazing lo-fi soundscape and dare to use some really ugly sounds (and make them fit in great) and flirt with a lot of genres that not many bands would dare to involve in their music. Every release just have a special feeling. They also have some political messages which takes it to a next level.
5. Cat Power | Say
Cat Power is a real master of emotions. Fantastic track.
6. Yeah Yeah Yeahs | Maps
I originally found out about this song through a cover made by Ada released on Areal that became an all time favourite. When I later on started listening to Yeah Yeah Yeahs I heard the original and was very surprised and pleased. I really love both versions and the Michael Mayer & Tobias Thomas Remix as well. Still play all three once in a while depending on where I am and in which mood.
7. Ada | Bum Bum
One of my favourite artists of all time. It seems like everything she lay her hands on becomes wonderful. She has got this naive, emotional, melancholic nerve in everything she does that just results in 200% feeling. Most of Areal releases are lovely and Ada has done some of the best ones.
8. Kate Wax | Bodies In Grace (Crowdpleaser Remix)
Kate Wax is a great and mysterious artist with a unique style. I found out about her through the record label Mental Groove that put out some lovely releases around 2004-2006. She will soon put out an album that I can't wait to hear.
9. The MFA | The Difference It Makes
The MFA came into my life through Petter who introduced me to James, Nathan and the Border Community family when they were about to launch the label. The MFA had something really special, a perfect mix between love and frustration that resulted in something energetic and a feeling of moving somewhere. The music often fits a feeling I usually have when I get inspired. I went to their gig at Berghain alone in 2007. I took the last S-Bahn train in the wrong direction at first and ended up in some suburb (it looked like a swamp) with an empty battery on my cellphone. But luckily some old lady (or was it a ghost?) came with a taxi that I jumped into. I arrived arround 5-6 am with money left for the entrance and 2 beers. But I got there in time for the gig at least and had a lovely time. At first I was a little bit afraid being alone among a horde of really big hard looking guys but after a while, when The MFA started playing and the really hardcore techno crowd easened up for a bit more warmer and softer clientele, it became one of my best club experiences ever.
10. Frak | Uttoz Gives A Song
Frak is true Swedish underground at its best. The genious behind Frak is also the man, the myth, the legend behind Sweden's best record label Börft that have been releasing underground casette tapes and vinyls since 1987. This track by Frak/Uttoz/Jan Svensson is just top notch, it is Swedish summer at its peak, pure endorfin. I found this Swedish treasure in a second hand box in Berlin, today I have been having some contact with the man himself and have ordered some fantastic records from the Börft backstock.
+11. Bobby Forester | She Loox Different
When I started playing records the coolest thing you could do was to go to a small record store called Snickars Records and search trough their fantastic stock of exclusive techno and electronic music releases. The store was constantly smoke filled and in the corner behind the desk, under a gucko clock, was either Mika Snickars or Isaac Spayes. I was allways a little bit afraid of them because they were like Jedi DJs, they knew what was the shit. I heared from a guy (who at first place told me to get a pair on 1200s) that if you got to know theese guys you just had to step in to the store and they would know exactly what you would like to check out. The store still exists, with a new adress though and without smoke. Anyway here I found out about Plumphouse Records and the roots of Swedish techno (Joel Mull, Cari Lekebusch, Thomas Chrome and all thoose geniouses). Later on when I lived in Berlin in the year of 2005 I found this record at top floor of Space Hall. I listened and fell in love. Later on I found out that Bobby Forester is an alter ego of the genious Jori Hulkkonen which gives the track an extra dimenssion. I met Jori when I was playing in Turku and had the honour to visit his lovely studio.
+12. Piroth | Sing To Me
A very old track by the Swedish duo Piroth who is now working with remixers like Nathan Fake and Popnoname. This was recorded in Berlin back in the days together with a very talented guy called Sascha Steinfurt. One of the more anonymous persons in the hyped inner circle of people like Leslie Feist, Erlend Öye, Peaches etc. who used to rule the indie scene in Berlin back in the days. Piroth is still releasing lovely music and run their record label Oma Gusti Records.
WARMER MIXTAPES #331 | by Peter Carrol and Manzur Iqbal of Futurecop!
SIDE A | by Manzur Iqbal
1. Stan Bush | The Touch
Without this there would have been no Futurecop! Ha! I could just get lost in another world watching this movie. Times when everything was new nothing mattered and you can dream as much as you like. The synth sounds and chord progressions are beautiful on this.
2. Robbi Robb | In Time
Of course from the Bill & Ted movie - so uplifting. The synths are very heartfelt. The track is so under-rated, I love the build up with muted guitars and the guitar solos are amazing. We did a remix of this track few years ago, while going through our tour in USA. RUFUS!!
3. Funeral For A Friend | Roses For The Dead
One of my favourite bands of all time, they have so much emotion and power to their music, I'm an emo kid at heart! Love this track the most. Going to see them live soon, I can't wait I'm going to go mental and cry ha - no really I will...
4. Deftones | Teenager
This is so beautiful and reminds me of when I was moving schools, and how I'd miss my family and friends. I love the Deftones, when I was a kid I used to think Chino Moreno was the coolest dude on the planet, I used dress like him and got into skateboarding just to be like him. I tried to grow a goatie beard but couldn't, I still cant! LOL...
5. Sally Dworsky | I Found My Way
From the movie The Wizard; my heart skips a beat when I listen to this, reminds me of childhood innocence, especially the guitar solos and uplifting synths; Awesome times. So amazing how music can take you back to the days for a few minutes. Nostalgia can be sad. Loved that movie too.
6. Kenny Loggins | Meet Me Half Way
Reminds me of my childhood obsession with TV in the 80s and 90s. I used to rewind the part when this track comes on while watching the movie because I loved it so much; I still do now, I've got only one movie on my Mac right now and that's Over The Top.
7. Sigur Rós | Hoppípolla
Awww... So beautiful, cute and thoughtful. Makes me sad, I love feeling sad from music, it makes me happy... Hehe...
8. Weezer | Undone Sweater Song
I love this band, how they were geeky yet so cool and their music was so pop/innocent yet cutting edge. Their songs are soo good, Rivers is a genius. I got into this band very late, and other similar bands like Superchunk, Pavement, Saves The Day (their lyrics to their track Freakish has been on my FB since FB started!) and that track from that show Pete & Pete, I think the bands called Polaris. I listened to their Blue Album for years constantly at school, its so American shubarb, garage rock; I love it!
9. At The Drive In | Arcarsena
Punk rock at its finest, it's so loud and powerful but yet so emotionally driven and heartfelt. It's so raw too with minimal hi tech production; which adds to the emotion; perfect.
10. Van Halen | Jump
It's pretty obvious why we like this track... The synth is immense. Love the whole LA hair metal scene in the 80s. Sounds so futuristic but retro at the same time. Eddie Van Halen is legend.
1. Ocelot | Beating Hearts (Louis La Roche Remix)
LLR gives this song his really subtle French house treatment. Lovely.
2. Kele | Everything You Wanted (Fred Falke Remix)
The best thing about this song is the big, yearning chorus. So much pain in his voice, and that always works well with Fred Falke's style.
3. Robyn | Dancing On My Own (Fred Falke Remix)
Another FF, love the way this song is so weird and creepy when you listen to the lyrics. I think everyone can relate to the unrequited love theme in some way, and the driving, relentless synthes by FF are perfect.
4. Cut Copy | Need You Now
New album from one of my favourite bands, this is my #1 track so far.
5. Daft Punk | Derezzed
Only really appreciated this when I saw the film, on its own it can sound a little underwhelming and subtle. But the electro songs on here are as good as anything they have ever done.
6. Bag Raiders | Sunshine
Big, brash feel-good song. Very Australian, mean that in the most positive sense!
7. Kanye West | Monster
This songs cool, but the female rap who goes on and on in the middle for about 30 bars is hypnotic. Hearing this in a club feels like everyone starts dancing in time.
8. Janelle Monáe | Tightrope
Weird horn laden number from hier to OutKast.
9. MGMT | Congratulations
Nice, synthey singalong from their last album that not many people seemed to like as much. I think they meant it that way though.
10. Katy Perry | Teenage Dreams
A bit cheesy to end with but I can't help it. I just love it! The chorus is massive. It's probably great to watch live.
1. Stan Bush | The Touch
Without this there would have been no Futurecop! Ha! I could just get lost in another world watching this movie. Times when everything was new nothing mattered and you can dream as much as you like. The synth sounds and chord progressions are beautiful on this.
2. Robbi Robb | In Time
Of course from the Bill & Ted movie - so uplifting. The synths are very heartfelt. The track is so under-rated, I love the build up with muted guitars and the guitar solos are amazing. We did a remix of this track few years ago, while going through our tour in USA. RUFUS!!
3. Funeral For A Friend | Roses For The Dead
One of my favourite bands of all time, they have so much emotion and power to their music, I'm an emo kid at heart! Love this track the most. Going to see them live soon, I can't wait I'm going to go mental and cry ha - no really I will...
4. Deftones | Teenager
This is so beautiful and reminds me of when I was moving schools, and how I'd miss my family and friends. I love the Deftones, when I was a kid I used to think Chino Moreno was the coolest dude on the planet, I used dress like him and got into skateboarding just to be like him. I tried to grow a goatie beard but couldn't, I still cant! LOL...
5. Sally Dworsky | I Found My Way
From the movie The Wizard; my heart skips a beat when I listen to this, reminds me of childhood innocence, especially the guitar solos and uplifting synths; Awesome times. So amazing how music can take you back to the days for a few minutes. Nostalgia can be sad. Loved that movie too.
6. Kenny Loggins | Meet Me Half Way
Reminds me of my childhood obsession with TV in the 80s and 90s. I used to rewind the part when this track comes on while watching the movie because I loved it so much; I still do now, I've got only one movie on my Mac right now and that's Over The Top.
7. Sigur Rós | Hoppípolla
Awww... So beautiful, cute and thoughtful. Makes me sad, I love feeling sad from music, it makes me happy... Hehe...
8. Weezer | Undone Sweater Song
I love this band, how they were geeky yet so cool and their music was so pop/innocent yet cutting edge. Their songs are soo good, Rivers is a genius. I got into this band very late, and other similar bands like Superchunk, Pavement, Saves The Day (their lyrics to their track Freakish has been on my FB since FB started!) and that track from that show Pete & Pete, I think the bands called Polaris. I listened to their Blue Album for years constantly at school, its so American shubarb, garage rock; I love it!
9. At The Drive In | Arcarsena
Punk rock at its finest, it's so loud and powerful but yet so emotionally driven and heartfelt. It's so raw too with minimal hi tech production; which adds to the emotion; perfect.
10. Van Halen | Jump
It's pretty obvious why we like this track... The synth is immense. Love the whole LA hair metal scene in the 80s. Sounds so futuristic but retro at the same time. Eddie Van Halen is legend.
SIDE B | by Peter Carrol
1. Ocelot | Beating Hearts (Louis La Roche Remix)
LLR gives this song his really subtle French house treatment. Lovely.
2. Kele | Everything You Wanted (Fred Falke Remix)
The best thing about this song is the big, yearning chorus. So much pain in his voice, and that always works well with Fred Falke's style.
3. Robyn | Dancing On My Own (Fred Falke Remix)
Another FF, love the way this song is so weird and creepy when you listen to the lyrics. I think everyone can relate to the unrequited love theme in some way, and the driving, relentless synthes by FF are perfect.
4. Cut Copy | Need You Now
New album from one of my favourite bands, this is my #1 track so far.
5. Daft Punk | Derezzed
Only really appreciated this when I saw the film, on its own it can sound a little underwhelming and subtle. But the electro songs on here are as good as anything they have ever done.
6. Bag Raiders | Sunshine
Big, brash feel-good song. Very Australian, mean that in the most positive sense!
7. Kanye West | Monster
This songs cool, but the female rap who goes on and on in the middle for about 30 bars is hypnotic. Hearing this in a club feels like everyone starts dancing in time.
8. Janelle Monáe | Tightrope
Weird horn laden number from hier to OutKast.
9. MGMT | Congratulations
Nice, synthey singalong from their last album that not many people seemed to like as much. I think they meant it that way though.
10. Katy Perry | Teenage Dreams
A bit cheesy to end with but I can't help it. I just love it! The chorus is massive. It's probably great to watch live.
WARMER MIXTAPES #330 | by Vito De Luca [Aeroplane]
1. Voyage | From East To West
It's one of the first disco records I bought. It definitely has this naïve melodic feeling that I like a lot in disco music. Also the drummer of Voyage played on the Aeroplane album. It's perfect to listen in the car, perfect travel music.
2. Talk Talk | Such A Shame
This is one of the songs that makes me want to break everything. It has a certain kind of violence in it, specially just before the first chorus and the first IT'S A SHAME from Mark Hollis. It's the ideal music I have in my head. I have a lot of ideals like that, but I'm sure they are just a product of my mind and are actually unreachable.
3. The Streets | Blinded By The Light
I've been told that I look like Mike Skinner a lot. This song often comes to my mind when I'm kind of nostalgic or sad. Don't know why. The chords make me feel like I'm levitating.
4. The Smashing Pumpkins | 1979
This represent my youth. The period when I learned how to play guitar. My rock years. This song remained great and brings me back to sweet and not so sweet memories.
5. Sébastien Tellier | La Ritournelle
Honestly this song is a masterpiece. I know obviously that people know it and think it's great but for me it is one of the finest piece of pop music recorded in the last 20 years. And Phillipe Zdar doing the final mix is a life lesson.
6. The Rolling Stones | Gimme Shelter
I mean... Do I have to explain anything about this? Raw power. Pure talent.
7. Ratatat | 17 Years
I always feel like playing this song when I DJ, if I heard a DJ play that, I would get naked and jump everywhere. I guess I don't have the same definition of dance music?
8. Pink Floyd | Welcome To The Machine
This one is the one I listen to in the plane. It reminds me of my travels around the world. I close my eyes and just let the plane fly. Sometimes this song make me feel dizzy.
9. Carly Simon | Why
This the kind of electronic music I like. Good songs produced in an electronic way. The drums are fantastic and she is amazing. It's funny first time I saw her face I was really surprised! and for me none of the other things she recorded is even half as good as this.
10. Bill Conti | Gonna Fly Now
Epicness. If a song doesn't make me feel like this one, it's not worth it. It makes me want to cry, scream, jump, run, I don't know... It is so powerfull it's scary, with also a really funky drummer on the original soundtrack version!
WARMER MIXTAPES #329 | by Joe Howe of Ben Butler & Mousepad
1. Haroumi Hosono & Tadanori Yokoo | Cochin Moon
Best start to an imaginary mixtape ever. Mysterious, funky, funny and complex.
2. David Bowie | African Night Flight
Continuing the sub-tropical mood with this track. Sums up frantic travel perfectly.
3. King Sunny Ade | Sweet Banana (Side Two)
Transporting to a bright studio in Paris, escaping the rain for an afternoon.
4. King Crimson | Waiting Man
Great synth-percussion intro and warm, longing vocal from Adrian Belew. Somehow both fast and slow at the same time.
5. Brian Eno | The Big Ship
Soft and sombre - plus it reminds me of my wedding day (!)...
6. Synergy | Delta Two
Epic, yet awkward.
7. Jacno | Rectangle
Back to Berlin and teary discussions about childhood, chocolate, milk, advertising.
8. Kraftwerk | Tanzmusik
Bringing back some energy but not removing the sweetness.
9. Mobius Und Plank | Rastakraut Pasta
We're settled in Germany now - rocking weirdly in the studio.
10. Ryuichi Sakamoto | Das Neues Japanische Elektronische Volkslied
...And finally back to Japan through the portal installed between the two countries in the late seventies.
WARMER MIXTAPES #328 | by John Thornley of U.S. Royalty
Photo by Jake Davis.
1. The Easybeats | Good Times
I get so excited whenever I hear this song. So loose and groovy but it's still a footstomper. It should get played out more often than it does. Makes me want to jump off a table.
2. Stevie Nicks | Gate And Garden
I love the slow beginning and how it then picks up into a mid-tempo jam. I would get chills when she would do the every night part... b/c she would switch the timing of it each time she did it, and it felt like she was whispering the line in my ear. Plus I can never get enough of 80's pop piano/keys.
3. Tamaryn | The Waves
...And Dawning. I listen to these two songs on constant loop. They make me feel like I'm sinking into the waves off the coast of that lighthouse in H.P. Lovecraft's story, The White Ship.
4. Yuck | Georgia
Reminds me of middle school/high school. Hanging out at those awkward birthday parties for your schoolmate and thinking you were cool b/c you knew about these bands that no one else did. But at the end of the night realizing that no one really cared and that the only person you could cash those cool points in with was yourself.
5. The Blue Nile | Stay
I like the crisp, sterile recording. Most of the music I listen to is more rough around the edges but this is almost mathematical. The drums and bass propel the song along with machine like precision while his vocals waver and lyrics trail off at the end of sentences... It feels very vulnerable.
6. The Three Degrees | Rosegarden
So much attitude in this song. The tambourines are hot and her vocals are tearing through the mix. I hadn't heard this song until recently but by the 2nd listen I felt I had been listening to it all my life.
7. Birdlips | Under Crooked Trees
This band to me is a subtle mix of psychedelic and bossa nova... And this song feels breezy. All their stuff is great but this melody sticks with me all the time... And you have to stay tuned for the clarinet solo at the end.
8. Memoryhouse | Heirlooms
I played this song a lot during the fall. Dreamy dreamy. I like the droning drumbeat with her clear vocals... Reminds me of Ireland for no good reason
9. Destroyer | The Laziest River
If a song has a solid groove, I don't want it to end... This song has it and milks it for about 20 minutes. This song is on the vinyl release and a friend showed it to me. Makes me think of Jean Claude Van Damme filming a movie on a rainy day in Singapore.
10. The Highwaymen | Highwayman
A good buddy introduced me to this song a few years back and the supergroup attached to it. He's from Georgia and is always talking about how good country is... And this song made me a believer. Also I am really into the 80's country production.
WARMER MIXTAPES #327 | by M and K of affair
SIDE A | by K
1. Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark | Souvenir
When I first heard this song I thought it was an apology but now I know it's just someone telling us they've had to struggle too. The haunting lamenting intro and then suddenly the happy hopeful synth riff confuses my emotions... It's happy sad music to expressing life's highs and lows. He sets his goals in life, takes the path and then obstacles forces him to change or reconsider. You can't control all of life itself... You have to just take from it what you can.
2. The Mobiles | Drowning In Berlin
When you dream of places sometimes it's not all rosy it can be weird and uncomfortable. I love the lyric Sind sie allein in Berlin?... It makes you feel really uncomfortable. The lyrics repeat a lot but they express the reality of the nightmare which became the Berlin wall. There's a strange and random fairground circus middle eight, it sparks a memory of those horrendous house of horrors rides that you go on as a child. I think of dark streets at night, misty air and people wearing trilbies and macs, smoking cigarettes in alley ways and leaning out at you when you pass. When this song was written the Berlin wall still stood, dividing a city, dividing people, you get the feeling of the city's tragedy from this song through the singer's own personal frustration.
3. Cocteau Twins | Iceblink Luck
Soaring into the air exquisite... I love that you can only just make out certain words that Elizabeth Fraser sings... Ethereal, weird, hopeful. Sound that has no ego it's just pure innocent beauty. All the best moments of your life wrapped up in one song. If you develop an ear for sounds that are musical it is like developing an ego. You begin to refuse sounds that are not musical and that way cut yourself off from a good deal of experience. -John Cage
4. Telepathe | Can't Stand It
Uncomfortable silence, sweaty palms, rapid eye movement, palpitating heart beat, anxious to say something that will connect, pressure. Sometimes certain relationships are doomed to fail.
5. The Tough Alliance | 1981 -
I feel like I'm floating when I listen to this even though it has tropical references in the music... I always think of the gorgeous beautiful skies above the lost valley in Scotland. Some things are hard to grasp but this song allows you to just be submerged... Just exist.
6. Quad Throw Salchow | Unwelcome Guest
A gorgeous piece of paranoia. A song for a loner in a big city. Nasty guitar distorted driving repetitive bass riff that's really infectious when the vocals come in its so creepy spending time with you... Well, you probably wouldn't want to... Although I do. I really do want to meet the mysterious figure in the corner of the room. This is one I play when I'm traveling in London alone. I get a mixed feeling of paranoia but the music drives me on... Gets me to my destination. I think of the Titanic when I hear the line guiding through the thin ice sheet made of steal and of steal works, or even Battersea power station along the river Thames, a dark industrial city scape.
7. Phone Tag | Taking In The Sun
This became my autumn pick me up. When the clouds don't seem to break and there's a lot of dampness in the air and it get in your bones. This is some light I let it come in.
8. Caribou | Odessa
I couldn't stop myself dancing when I first heard this. It has that 90s dance trance sound really hypnotic and warm. The song title Odessa I thought referred to the city in the Ukraine as I listened to the mystic Middle Eastern sounds. But then one day I stepped back from the song and started listening to the lyrics which tells the story of a woman's suffering of abuse and escape from a life of domestic violence... It's severely dark . In the chorus she can finally voices an opinion she can say she can say... I then discovered that Odessa is also a town in Texas which maybe this woman is fleeing from. I always thought that the initial shrill cooing sound sounded like an exotic trapped bird, the woman finally finds her freedom.
9. David Lynch | Ghost Of Love
I feel hynotised transported into the Bang Bang Bar and Mr. Lynch is sitting down, cigarette in hand, singing this song. It's haunting and tragic and unfathomable. Warbbled distorted androgynous vocals at their best. He must have wanted to be a cross between Muddy Waters and Nina Simone after smoking a pack of 40 fags.
10. Beach House | Norway
Endless air, endless skies, mists that surround you and envelope you in their mystery. Somewhere you want to go but maybe now is out of reach. It has such a driving yet pure and peaceful sound. Androgynous vocals gliding through the ether, gorgeous.
1. Salem | King Night
There has always been something creepy and vulnerable to this tune... Salem bring that feeling out and it feels like redemption. Heraldic and self destructive. I love every second of it. It’s like all my haunting childhood choirboy memories can be finally put to rest. Forever.
2. Young Galaxy | Cover Your Tracks
The opening rhythm in the intro of track is so good… I keep rewinding it just to listen to that intro again and again. Lovely Calypso vibes combined with some of the finest Swedish craftsmanship. It reminds me of Pass This On (The Knife) but hats off to anyone that can come up with anything so good.
3. Pearl Fiction | Ruby Fever
I wouldn’t stop listening to this when I found it, I bought it on iTunes while walking one morning. I was obsessed with it for 2 days, I would listen to it on repeat. It came out with a video that was takes from Zed And Two Naughts, a twisted masterpiece of a film.
4. ceo | Oh God Oh Dear
I love TTA’s melodies and had been looking forward to any new stuff by them so when White Magic came out - it was a real treat. This song is a burst of optimism in only 2 lines. And it’s hardly a song but I’ve been playing it non-stop because of this recurring melody that keeps haunting me.
5. Vondelpark | Hippodrome
Sinister, hypnotic and repetitive, the good kind of repetitive. All with a simplicity that keeps you mesmerised.
6. oOoOO | seaww
I’ve been listening to this a lot. I think you should too.
7. The Knife | A Lung
A classic. When the two different vocals intertwine at the end I get shivers. Has to be in the mixtape.
8. Cocteau Twins | Heaven Or Las Vegas
The sheer character in this woman’s vocals captivates you and her voice stays in the back of your head for days but the music is of course just as strong... This takes me to a different place every time I listen to it.
9. MGMT | Siberian Breaks
The textures in this song are so rich and intriguing, and the structure keeps on changing making you follow it through all the different emotions and stories, there’s I think about 7 different parts to it, every single one is incredible. And the lyrics break my heart.
10. The Radio Dept. | It’s Personal
I only got hold of this album recently, it was hard to pick a track but there’s something about this track particularly like. It sounds like a fresh take on Mogwai’s Sine Wave, one of my most favourite instrumental tracks of all time. So there, 14 tracks in one answer.
10 songs I have chosen.
Chosen because if I didn't play these in one given month it wouldn't be a month.
I fear however that when they are posted to the blog I will realise I have forgotten some others that are also priceless.
To those songs I am sorry.
Chosen because if I didn't play these in one given month it wouldn't be a month.
I fear however that when they are posted to the blog I will realise I have forgotten some others that are also priceless.
To those songs I am sorry.
1. Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark | Souvenir
When I first heard this song I thought it was an apology but now I know it's just someone telling us they've had to struggle too. The haunting lamenting intro and then suddenly the happy hopeful synth riff confuses my emotions... It's happy sad music to expressing life's highs and lows. He sets his goals in life, takes the path and then obstacles forces him to change or reconsider. You can't control all of life itself... You have to just take from it what you can.
2. The Mobiles | Drowning In Berlin
When you dream of places sometimes it's not all rosy it can be weird and uncomfortable. I love the lyric Sind sie allein in Berlin?... It makes you feel really uncomfortable. The lyrics repeat a lot but they express the reality of the nightmare which became the Berlin wall. There's a strange and random fairground circus middle eight, it sparks a memory of those horrendous house of horrors rides that you go on as a child. I think of dark streets at night, misty air and people wearing trilbies and macs, smoking cigarettes in alley ways and leaning out at you when you pass. When this song was written the Berlin wall still stood, dividing a city, dividing people, you get the feeling of the city's tragedy from this song through the singer's own personal frustration.
3. Cocteau Twins | Iceblink Luck
Soaring into the air exquisite... I love that you can only just make out certain words that Elizabeth Fraser sings... Ethereal, weird, hopeful. Sound that has no ego it's just pure innocent beauty. All the best moments of your life wrapped up in one song. If you develop an ear for sounds that are musical it is like developing an ego. You begin to refuse sounds that are not musical and that way cut yourself off from a good deal of experience. -John Cage
4. Telepathe | Can't Stand It
Uncomfortable silence, sweaty palms, rapid eye movement, palpitating heart beat, anxious to say something that will connect, pressure. Sometimes certain relationships are doomed to fail.
5. The Tough Alliance | 1981 -
I feel like I'm floating when I listen to this even though it has tropical references in the music... I always think of the gorgeous beautiful skies above the lost valley in Scotland. Some things are hard to grasp but this song allows you to just be submerged... Just exist.
6. Quad Throw Salchow | Unwelcome Guest
A gorgeous piece of paranoia. A song for a loner in a big city. Nasty guitar distorted driving repetitive bass riff that's really infectious when the vocals come in its so creepy spending time with you... Well, you probably wouldn't want to... Although I do. I really do want to meet the mysterious figure in the corner of the room. This is one I play when I'm traveling in London alone. I get a mixed feeling of paranoia but the music drives me on... Gets me to my destination. I think of the Titanic when I hear the line guiding through the thin ice sheet made of steal and of steal works, or even Battersea power station along the river Thames, a dark industrial city scape.
7. Phone Tag | Taking In The Sun
This became my autumn pick me up. When the clouds don't seem to break and there's a lot of dampness in the air and it get in your bones. This is some light I let it come in.
8. Caribou | Odessa
I couldn't stop myself dancing when I first heard this. It has that 90s dance trance sound really hypnotic and warm. The song title Odessa I thought referred to the city in the Ukraine as I listened to the mystic Middle Eastern sounds. But then one day I stepped back from the song and started listening to the lyrics which tells the story of a woman's suffering of abuse and escape from a life of domestic violence... It's severely dark . In the chorus she can finally voices an opinion she can say she can say... I then discovered that Odessa is also a town in Texas which maybe this woman is fleeing from. I always thought that the initial shrill cooing sound sounded like an exotic trapped bird, the woman finally finds her freedom.
9. David Lynch | Ghost Of Love
I feel hynotised transported into the Bang Bang Bar and Mr. Lynch is sitting down, cigarette in hand, singing this song. It's haunting and tragic and unfathomable. Warbbled distorted androgynous vocals at their best. He must have wanted to be a cross between Muddy Waters and Nina Simone after smoking a pack of 40 fags.
10. Beach House | Norway
Endless air, endless skies, mists that surround you and envelope you in their mystery. Somewhere you want to go but maybe now is out of reach. It has such a driving yet pure and peaceful sound. Androgynous vocals gliding through the ether, gorgeous.
SIDE B | by M
These are 10 tracks I’m listening to right now…
It’s what I’d give you to listen to on tape.
If you had a player and I had a recorder.
And a tape.
It’s what I’d give you to listen to on tape.
If you had a player and I had a recorder.
And a tape.
1. Salem | King Night
There has always been something creepy and vulnerable to this tune... Salem bring that feeling out and it feels like redemption. Heraldic and self destructive. I love every second of it. It’s like all my haunting childhood choirboy memories can be finally put to rest. Forever.
2. Young Galaxy | Cover Your Tracks
The opening rhythm in the intro of track is so good… I keep rewinding it just to listen to that intro again and again. Lovely Calypso vibes combined with some of the finest Swedish craftsmanship. It reminds me of Pass This On (The Knife) but hats off to anyone that can come up with anything so good.
3. Pearl Fiction | Ruby Fever
I wouldn’t stop listening to this when I found it, I bought it on iTunes while walking one morning. I was obsessed with it for 2 days, I would listen to it on repeat. It came out with a video that was takes from Zed And Two Naughts, a twisted masterpiece of a film.
4. ceo | Oh God Oh Dear
I love TTA’s melodies and had been looking forward to any new stuff by them so when White Magic came out - it was a real treat. This song is a burst of optimism in only 2 lines. And it’s hardly a song but I’ve been playing it non-stop because of this recurring melody that keeps haunting me.
5. Vondelpark | Hippodrome
Sinister, hypnotic and repetitive, the good kind of repetitive. All with a simplicity that keeps you mesmerised.
6. oOoOO | seaww
I’ve been listening to this a lot. I think you should too.
7. The Knife | A Lung
A classic. When the two different vocals intertwine at the end I get shivers. Has to be in the mixtape.
8. Cocteau Twins | Heaven Or Las Vegas
The sheer character in this woman’s vocals captivates you and her voice stays in the back of your head for days but the music is of course just as strong... This takes me to a different place every time I listen to it.
9. MGMT | Siberian Breaks
The textures in this song are so rich and intriguing, and the structure keeps on changing making you follow it through all the different emotions and stories, there’s I think about 7 different parts to it, every single one is incredible. And the lyrics break my heart.
10. The Radio Dept. | It’s Personal
I only got hold of this album recently, it was hard to pick a track but there’s something about this track particularly like. It sounds like a fresh take on Mogwai’s Sine Wave, one of my most favourite instrumental tracks of all time. So there, 14 tracks in one answer.
1. Oliver Shanti | Tang Xingqing Park
I was a 10th grader when I first heard this song. At that age I was mainly into hip hop, and this was the song to shake my hip hopish attitudes. Listening to this, I couldn’t tell myself anymore that I was the best, f*ck the rest. It simply functioned as a firewall against pride, jealousy, anger which are so popular emotional fuels over there. This song took me close to what Bruce Lee always told about Be like water, my friend…
2. Moby | Honey
Shortly after High School graduation, and after 1 year of listening only to cultural and meditational music from Africa, Tibet, China, and Middle East, as distinctive as he is, Moby was the first artist to reactivate my appetite for music which was played on MTV in that time. Songs from cultures I didn't knew, with vocal parts sang in languages I didn’t understand activated in me a 100% emotional approach to music. I no longer wanted rationally to form folders in my head, and try to attach to them. And this was the same thing that Moby's Honey was activating: feeling that I can't categorize Moby in one known style, made it easier for the song to reach my feelings, and not my thoughts. Wonderful mental process to witness...
3. Lamb | What Sound
In the following period, I was searching for more known western artists, and Lamb came as the second, after Moby. Her comming was in good timing. I think that if I would have listened to this song 1 year earlier, I wouldn't have understood that much of it. There I was, big hearted 19 year old boy who was for the first time seriously thinking about girls as emotional providers and receivers, and not only as desirable flesh. This song simply enforced the idea of soul mate, and stimulated my mind in such ways that I was dreaming about girls that... Prepare well... Saved me from difficult situations, ha ha!!! My mind sent me so many mating imperatives, that in not even 2 months I've found one girl to form a team with. Saw her on the streets, approached her, and transformed the approach into a 2 and a half year relationship. I’ve never met an artist to express the idea of passionate love, better than Lamb.
4. Afro Celt Sound System | Lovers Of Light
Gone studying Psychology, I thought I need to continue my Kung Fu practice, which began in my home town. As a student I've found Wing Chun, which is an unbelievable max speed martial art which in the same time is also very scientific, exact. I was watching some show on Atomic, some old music programme, and boom, this song hit me. As soon as I bought the CD, I trained hours and hours punching and kicking air in my room, while listening to this song.
5. Lama Gyurme | Offering Chant
When I was 20 years old I got in touch with Buddhism, and started to practice through meditating and reading a lot. This song was recommended to me by an opera singer. The instant I listened to it, I deeply understood the mental construct named compassion.
6. The Music | Getaway
No matter how much fame you want, how attractive you want to be, how many lovers you want to have or how much cash you want to make, in order to have a healthy relationship with these joy-providers, you need to contemplate the idea of impermanence, and in the end death. It's much easier when you're aware of the expiring date, otherwise you’ll drink the sour milk. Buddhism is very rich in describing death, I studied the unavoidable phenomenon with great interrest, and it helped a lot, 'cause when I was 21, my brother lost his body in a car accident. This song was one of the ones I used for getting in meditative mental states where I felt love like electricity, so I could send it to my bodiless brother in order to ease his transition. Very very powerful song, when you think it was written by people which were only kids at that time.
7. Eagle Eye Cherry | Desireless
But one song which made me comfortable with the idea of my own possible death, was Eagle Eye's Desireless. This still is one which I wish to be played when I take off from this life. It gives me the feeling of ease, so that I could imagine leaving all behind in an unattached but grateful way, taking only my luggage with all the experiences saved in my mental data base.
8. Eskmo | Cloudlight
When I first listened to dubstep I wasn’t attracted much, but Eskmo showed me new ways of making it. Just jump into this song, wash your ears with it, it’s fluid, the broken ice sounds, the bubbles, the human breath, the whispers, everything combined takes you back to the primal womb, my friend.
9. Psychofreud | Run For Cover
I like to observe my own mental processes when I listen to music, but I also like to put my body on turbo sometimes. If I had the chance to time travel and bring music to our ancestors, let’s say 30.000 years b.C.... I don’t think that they would feel Beethoven, would they? Not even the annoying sentimental mainstream mating music would they feel. So, when I listened to Psychofreud, I knew: This is it! The Neanderthals would definitely react well to raga drum’n’bass. Go back, just hunt, go gather, go fight for females, mate, raise kids, build houses, somehow this music expresses survival and mating, the 2 main jobs our ancestors had back then.
10. Four Tet | Parks
This guy is a mind lubricator. I mean, I’m also a very sociable person, and like to drink beer, and dance to energetic music along with hundreds of others sharing nothing but joy. If I would hear this song at a party, the before described scenario would feel superficial. It makes me connect with a part of me which feels so timeless, so pure, but so common in the same time, somehow undestructable. As if I was a kid not once, but thousands of times. It makes me go back through my ancestors with unimaginable speed, and wonder how far can I go? Darwinism is one theory, may be the ape, but it may be not. I travel even till the point when the Earth was only forming. This song makes me wonder if this is our planet's first shape, or were it’s main ingredients already grouped in other ways, other planets, with other life? How old are my raw ingredients which form the body I drive? I like to imagine these ingredients dancing in the Universe along with other particles, dusts, lights, where everything is a giant soup, where the basis of this life parties.
