WARMER MIXTAPES #457 | by Mic Newman

1. Moodymann | Shades Of Jae
No doubt a classic and IMO one of Mr. Kenny Dixon Jr.’s finest releases. I still play it in almost all of my sets, the same dusty old vinyl, which I’ve had for the better part of a decade. It ALWAYS gets the party started. It’s like the Duracell Bunny of House; it won’t let you down.

2. Master C & J | Face It (Leftside Wobble Edit)
I believe that when it comes to Music, context is almost as important as the music itself. This is one of those instances where I didn't really vibe this record in the store, but bought it anyway because it was a classic and a Trax Record and thought I should probably buy this because it’s a classic and a Trax Record. When I played it for the first time, it was intended as a gap-filler but the atmosphere in the club and sound system (and obviously the track itself) changed my perception entirely. It was a highlight and is now one of my favourite records.

3. Blake Baxter | Our Luv
Not sure exactly how old this is, but I have feeling it’s been around a while. Probably because the record company re-pressed a series entitled Classics. Anyhow, it chugs along beautifully with just the right amount of Soul, Acid and a lovely vocal hook, which repeats the phrase our love… will last for-ev-er’ without it ever getting tired. It has a unique summer terrace-slash-warehouse party juxtaposition, making it the perfect record to have in your box.

4. Takuya Matsumoto | Jump Rope Music
The word masterpiece comes to mind here. Probably one of the most unique House records I’ve heard. What makes it even better, is that it’s virtually impossible to obtain. If you don’t own the record, it doesn’t exist. Which makes it all the more exciting when you hear it or somehow get your hands on it. It reminds me (with the little memory I have) of the pre-Internet days of Music.

5. Jin Choi | You've Done Me Wrong
I bought this a few months back for the B-Side, completely overlooking the rest. I played the A side at Fabric by mistake and I was completely blown away by the excellent use of the sampled vocal hook. Haven’t been able to shake it from my brain ever since. As a music maker, if you can achieve that, you’ve clocked music.



6. Virgo Four | It's A Crime (Caribou Remix)
Caribou remixing Virgo Four? I could end it right there! This was always going to be good, without really knowing what to expect, except that it was going to be good. Which says a lot about both artists reputation. There are many peaks and troughs, and it’s so gosh darn analogue, it makes me sick. The chord stabs that come into play around the half way mark are undeniably awesome and the hook of the track. The only fault I can pick is that it may be too awesome.

7. Julio Bashmore | Battle For Middle You
It’s hard to describe the feeling I got in my pants when I first heard this. Not sure which had more of an impact, the time Carl Cox played it at Glastonbury or the other time I heard it at Space. Either way, it stayed with me. Both times I was amongst super charged crowds of several thousands. I suppose context played its part here too. At first I thought it might have been something from the likes of Basement Jaxx or the sort. But on second listen, it’s very much a House tune, but with obvious Grime, Drum n Bass and maybe even Dub Step (in a good way) influences. It’s always nice to hear something different in a scene that’s sadly oversaturated with mediocrity.

8. Boo Williams | Mortal Trance
It’s rare, especially in Dance music, for records to still be doing the rounds after a decade or so. This one does. Its enigmatic title; Mortal Trance couldn’t be further from the truth, it should be renamed; Immortal Trance. Its dreamy pads and wonky, syncopated bassline, somehow always sound fresh.

9. Todd Terje | Ragysh
I’m probably not alone in saying that this has been my ‘get out of jail card’ for some time now. It’s never EVER failed to blow the roof off. I love that it doesn’t, like all the best ones, have any inclination what so ever to anything en Vogue at the moment.

10. Theo Parrish | Falling Up
It’s pretty hard to choose a favourite when it comes to Theo Parrish’s music, so I’m not going to pretend this is, but it comes pretty close. It’s lovemaking on an MPC.

WARMER MIXTAPES #456 | by Jolan Lewis [Temple Songs]

1. The Embers | I Walked All Night
A perfect example of the power of the mix-tape: my first real job was working in a shop which involved long hours stuck in a back room opening boxes on my own with only a small radio/cassette player for company. It goes without saying that I wasn’t going to listen to the radio, so I spent every lunch-break I got trawling through charity shops looking for cassettes. I got some good hauls… Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl, Best Of Little Richard, Transformer and The Best Of The Walker Brothers spring to mind as back-room classics, but one cassette was played far more than any other. It was a mix tape that had come free with an issue of Vox Magazine, and it was called Abattoir Dogs. The theme was supposedly that it was all the kind of music that belonged in Tarantino films (which to a point was about right), but as far as I can remember, everything on there was on Ace Records, so I guess it was more just an advert for Ace dressed up as something that was popular at the time. Anyway, when you hear a compilation like that, all soaked together on a little string of tape, it’s impossible to think of the tracks on their own. The songs have a new home, and I can never listen to Johnny Allen’s Promised Land without thinking of John Lee Hooker’s Hoogie Boogie, or Sparkle Moore’s Flower Of My Heart without The Gladiolas’ Little Darlin', or Margaret Lewis’ Reconsider Me without Tommy McLain’s Sweet Dreams. These tracks have at various times been my favourite from the album, but the first one, the one which on my first listen made me stop what I was doing and constantly rewind the tape to hear it over and over, was I Walked All Night by The Embers. I couldn’t believe it when I heard it. They seem to be messing about while they record the vocals, it’s full of MAGIC CHORDS… And that ending is incredible! It’s recorded so perfectly that even if it were an instrumental with a different title, you’d still be able to tell that it takes place at night. But, anyway, my point is; if I had heard this song on it’s own, isolated from any memory, it might have passed without much more than a oh yeah, that’s a cool song, but being part of an experience (and a good mix-tape IS an experience) gives you a post to tie it to in your head so it doesn’t just float away into a void of vague memories. A good mix-tape can be better than an album.

2. The Savages | Roses Are Red My Love
When I lived in Manchester I ran a DJ night at a bar called Big Hands with a friend of mine. We were good at it, we got people dancing to songs they’d never heard (and there wasn’t even a dance floor). Without a doubt, the best thing about DJing (aside from the ACTUAL best thing about DJing) was introducing each other to new songs. Before we started, we usually got together to show each other the tracks we’d found in the past week, sometimes we’d wait until everything was in full swing to show each other certain tracks, because they would work better in the right atmosphere. This is a perfect example of that. People dance to this song even if they’ve never heard it. That drum fill which bridges the first and second verses... I love that bit. The first time I was shown this song, I remember thinking it was so perfect, thinking, it’s very rare that a song is so good that it doesn’t even need a chorus to feel like a perfect pop song, and then the chorus actually comes in and it takes it to another level entirely. It’s so infectious that you sing along the first time you hear it, and you and your friend sing in harmony, and you make up a harmony to sing in the verse… And you always play Nobody But Me by The Human Beinz next to even out the yeah, yeah yeahs with some no-no, no, no, no, n-no-no-nos. And you NEVER play Older Guys until after 1. The best thing about DJing is that it’s the perfect excuse for your friends to show you songs like this.

3. The Coasters | Three Cool Cats
Every time I hear this song I am reminded of the first time I heard it. It was the day I inherited my parents 45 collection. I must have been about 12 and had displayed enough of an interest in collecting CD’s that they thought I would appreciate their records. We spent hours in my bedroom going through them all on a little suitcase turntable, my mum and dad suggesting songs I might like. The main ones I remember from that night are The Coasters - Three Cool Cats (which was the flip to Charlie Brown on London Records), Fats Waller’s When Somebody Thinks You’re Wonderful (from an EP on the HMV label), and oddly enough, Jilted John. Three Cool Cats was the real stand out though, great harmonies, a powerful drum beat, wild sax solo and that comedic story-style that the Coasters did so well. I still have every one of those records my parents gave me, and treat them with the kind of care usually reserved for holy artifacts. Record collecting has since become a healthy habit and an unhealthy addiction since then, and between that and my obsession with trashy 60’s guitars, has drained every penny I’ve ever made. I’m perfectly happy though.

4. Alan Hawkshaw | Girl In A Sportscar
This is the song that started my obsession with Library music. I just happened to hear it one night and barely got any sleep, because I kept playing it over and over again. I had always had an idea of this kind of music in my head, full of bongos, flutes and Hammonds. I knew I had heard these kinds of songs before but I had no idea where or how to find them. This is most likely because Library music was recorded for use in film and television and never commercially released, which means that in England at least, plenty of people have heard plenty of these songs but few know what they are. Most people would recognise tracks like James Clarke’s Wild Elephants, The Graham Walker Sound’s Young Scene or Jimmy McGriff’s All About My Girl. Even more would know Hawkshaw’s themes for Dave Allen At Large, Grange Hill and Countdown, but the vast majority of people have no idea who he is. I tend to think of Alan Hawkshaw as England’s answer to Henry Mancini, less successful and well-known, but no less talented. I have done my best to track down as many of the green KPM records as possible, and Friendly Faces is still my favourite, largely due to the inclusion of this track (along with James Clarke’s Chatterbox, which would undoubtedly serve as my theme tune if I ever had my own chat-show). See also Alan’s mid-60’s stuff like Beat Me ‘Til I’m Blue for examples of his unmatched Hammond playing.

5. The Beatles | Carnival Of Light
I had to have The Beatles on here, what with them being by far the most important band that will ever exist, but I didn’t want to put something that everyone had already heard. So with this being an imaginary mix-tape, I figured it would be okay to include a track which pretty much no-one outside of Apple has heard, obviously including myself. My other reason for choosing this track is in defence of my ALL-TIME, UNASHAMED, 100% hero, Paul McCartney; Carnival Of Light is a 14-minute free-form Avant Garde sound experiment, recorded a year before John’s Revolution 9 (even George recorded a musique concrete piece for his debut solo album, Wonderwall Music, making John only the third Beatle to engage in Avant-Garde music, rather than the first as most people assume) for a happening at the Roundhouse in ’67. Various fakes have surfaced over the years, and there are many times I’ve considered recording one myself. After all, The Beatles are the reason I make music, and as far as I’m concerned, they are the reason that anyone is making the music they are, whether they know it or not.



6. The Tammys | Egyptian Shumba
This is the kind of song that if it were more well known, it would be the greatest DJing song ever. It is absolutely the wildest, loudest pop record I have ever heard. It was released in 1963, when America hadn’t even heard The Beatles… It starts loud, with an odd melody on some strange organ, thundering tribal drums which sound like Moe Tucker shot full of adrenaline, and piercing female harmonies singing nonsense. The chorus consists mainly of the girls screaming in absolute insanity. The bridge has them sreaming that they wanna dance, faster and faster, faster and faster, and the tension builds, and the drums get so heavy and loud and fast that they go out of time and the whole thing nearly derails, and right at that moment the girls scream even LOUDER and the strange organ hits a soaring high-note and we’re back on track, only LOUDER and more cacophonous and insane, and the lyrics are back but they’re still SCREAMING like monkeys in the background, and you can’t help but smile at this beautiful mess, this absolutely perfect destruction. 1963. 1 year before The Beatles arrived in America, 2 years before the first Sonics album, 3 years before Garage, 4 years before the first Velvets album… The song fades out with the girls screaming into the abyss, having not necessarily started anything (loud music had existed before them), or influenced anything (no one bought it), but just having done something completely insane, unique, repulsive and beautiful. Thanks, Lou.

7. Cannonball Adderley | Autumn Leaves (feat. Miles Davis)
The other thing in Manchester was I worked in a book shop. It was a pokey little place, and my favourite thing about working there was that we were aloud to put on whatever music we liked. I had a massive pile of CDs behind the counter, and every now and then I would take them all home and find replacements. But of all the music I listened to there, the one that really stands out above all else is Somethin’ Else by Cannonball Adderley. My boss always brought this one out at winter, especially over Christmas… Christmas was perfect for Jazz, because we tended to have people come in just to shelter from the cold darkness outside, and what on Earth could be better than ducking into a little bookshop on a cold night and hearing a record like this? Also, actual Christmas music was, for the most part, banned. The opening bars of this song, of this album, always make me think of those times. Another point to make about this record, aside from my own personal memories, is that this perfectly illustrates my argument for certain recording techniques; an album of Electronic music, or even real music recorded digitally, will never ever sound anywhere near as good as this. The sound of people, in a room, playing together, through a few ribbon mics, onto tape… I absolutely believe that this is how music should always be recorded (and preferably in Mono, too, but that’s a whole other discussion). I do not have the resources to be able to do exactly that, but I do what I can to get as close as possible to capturing a little of that magic and art that records like this are full of. I don’t think I’m anywhere near there yet, but, you know…

8. Scott Walker | Montague Terrace (In Blue)
I got into Scott Walker about 7 years ago. I got one of those Collection albums and immediately fell in love with every song on it. From there I went through the 4 Scott albums, skipped ahead to Tilt and The Drift, went back to Climate Of Hunter and then tried to fill in the gaps with whatever I could get my hands on. While Scott 4 is his undisputed masterpiece, my favourite track has to be Montague Terrace. The imposing string arrangement, the bar chimes which sound like a shiver down your spine, the snare which kicks the chorus in, the absolute enormity of the chorus itself… And some of the most visually stimulating lyrics ever written. Don’t even get me started on his voice. One of the closest things to perfection.


9. Captain Beefheart And The Magic Band | Apes-Ma
Don Van Vliet’s death hit me far harder than any death I’ve experienced so far. While he is listed third in my Top 5 Heroes list (below McCartney and Brian Wilson, above Scott Walker and Gram Parsons), he is an entirely different kind of genius. While the others have/had an incredible understanding of music and emotion, I can understand how they got there. I can see that talent x knowledge x love equals greatness. But Vliet didn't operate like that. He never experimented, he never had to; he knew exactly what he was doing. I can’t imagine any other person even conceiving the kind of art he made, let alone actually create it, and so perfectly and instantly. It is completely unfathomable to me that he could have been from this planet, which I suppose is why his death (from multiple sclerosis) was such a shock to me. Before, no matter what, I knew that somewhere in the World, while everything else was going on, Don Van Vliet was out there somewhere, still thinking, still creating. And now he doesn't exist anymore, and he almost feels like a fictional character, someone far too incredible to have ever existed. Well. I could have chosen any of his music, but I chose this because it says more in a minute of spoken word than most people ever do in an entire discography. It was only after he died that I realized this song was autobiographical.

10. The Beach Boys | I Just Wasn't Made For These Times
This is the greatest song ever recorded. I absolutely mean that. As far as I’m concerned, nothing could ever be better than this. You know, some people cry at films, or at books, things like that. I’ve never done that. But every time I listen to this song, I cry. I mean, you know, if I prepare myself, put my headphones on, put the needle down, sit down and close my eyes, I’m completely immersed. I could be anywhere in the World. Even the version on the Pet Sounds Sessions box set, where you hear the harpsichord playing around with the chords in the song, the sound of the room, there is something completely otherworldly about it. I really don’t know what to say about this song. Nothing I could say could come close to describing it, I could never be over-flattering about it… I think that Sometimes I feel very sad is the greatest pop lyric ever written. Every chord change is magical… I am certain of 3 things; 1: The Beatles are the greatest band that has ever or will ever exist. 2: Pet Sounds is the greatest album that has ever or will ever exist, and 3: I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times is the greatest song that has ever or will ever exist. The Beatles were constantly brilliant, but Brian Wilson (with Tony Asher, later with Van Dyke Parks), for a short time, understood emotion better than anyone else on the planet, and was able to communicate it better than even McCartney. I see this song as the summit of his achievements. Actually, wait, no; I see this song as the summit of Music’s achievements. As I said… I don’t really know what to say about this song. It’s late. I guess, just… Well, we can all give up trying now, Brian Wilson beat us to it.


WARMER MIXTAPES #455 | by Jesse Briata [Lockbox]

1. Pixies | Hey
I used to smoke weed to this song in middle school.

2. Daniel Johnston | Walking The Cow
Johnston got me through a lot. I would talk about it but it's really sad.

3. James Ferraro | Moonshocked Dudettes
Things I see in this song include: seeing rollerblade chicks coated VHS purple riding the boardwalk driving Volvos 1995 LSD watching infomercials through the portal that opened in my living room with wacked out alien Zonggoids...

4. Wingdings | Zarathustra's Puzzle
It was a limited edition tape back in DA DAY. Dude it's so good, oh my god, it's my favorite album of all time. Talk about ice skating cartoons in blue.

5. Salem | Trapdoor
THEY ARE CALLED SALEM CUZ THEY ARE FROM SALEM MASS.

6. 8-bit Haiku | Chords Under Construction
You like the suburbs.

7. Lightning Bolt | The Faire Folk
This song changed my life when I was 12. I saw Lightning Bolt when I was 13 with my friends Ripley and Ronnie. USA Is A Monster was with them too. After the show Ripley and I were so amazed we started our own noise band called A Bunch Of Retards. Sadly the myspace was deleted. We played one show. I have about 60 hours of ABOR recordings.

8. Dimlite | Poor Fire
So beautiful, I remember I used to smoke to Dimlite when I first moved to Colorado and didn't know anyone.

9. Nero's Day At Disneyland | No Money Down Low Monthly Payments
Oh, you know, just anotha life changer. Used to bump it in boarding school when I thought IDM was the shit (so I was like 15).

10. Nujabes | Kumomi
I feel so much better now. This list should have just been Nujabes songs.

WARMER MIXTAPES #454 | by Michael Schwartz [Michael Myerz]

1. Aesop Rock | Daylight
I have always been a huge Aesop Rock fan but this song is the best. I remember during the jr. year in high school I was going through a lot of rough times. I was trying to fit in with a group of people who were all Christian and I’m Jewish so that never worked out. I wound up loving this song so much that I wrote my own poem to the beat and I hope that one day I can make it into a rap. My favorite line is Life's not a bitch life is a beautiful woman... Your only call her a bitch because she won't let you get that pussy... Maybe she didn't feel y'all shared any similar interests... Or maybe you're just an asshole who couldn't sweet talk the princess... That line is beautiful! I can relate to that so much. Every girl rejects me and I think of that line every time. All I ever wanted was to pick apart the day, put the pieces back together my way is something I wish I could do because every day is full of so much negativity but then at the same time positivity and like I just want to cut out the negativity or save it for the non important parts of the day, take ECONOMICS out of my day and were good...

2. Animal Collective | People
This song is so simple yet so magnificent at the same time. Everything is beautiful. It brings me back to the days of high school where I was so alone and would just sit in my room in the dark starring at the ceiling thinking about where my life is heading. I would walk to this song through the hallways in school and then get in my friend's car that had it on a mix CD I gave him and listen again. Even right now I’m listening to it just to take it all in. It’s a song that somehow envelops every emotion one can have into one giant ball of emotions and then when People is screamed you just feel a refreshing chill go up your spine which opens your eyes.

3. Black Moth Super Rainbow | I Think It Is Beautiful That You Are 256 Colors Too
BMSR is my favorite band and the funny thing is that when my best friend Joe showed me the band I HATED THEM!!! Then I grew to like them and then now I love them. Every song is different, every album is different, and they’re different! This song has always been my favorite because it makes me feel so warm and fuzzy inside and for me it’s my Everything Is Going To Be Alright song. From the vocals to the instrumentation it’s brilliant! Reminds me of Willie Wonka on acid… Oh wait I think it is...

4. Broken Social Scene | Guilty Cubicles
Two years ago I was in my room. I was informed that I didn’t have good enough grades to get into college, my friends had ditched me to go to a party, it was Halloween and the skies were darker than my black coffee. To make matters worse the girl that I was obsessed with started dating Mr. Perfect, which made me feel well, not perfect. I listened to this song I repeat and even to this day listen to it over and over again. It’s great, such a good autumn song.


5. Interpol | NYC
Jr. year, New Year's Eve. I was at a party that I really didn’t want to be at but a couple of my best buds were there so I tagged along. I brought my iPod and headphones just in case bad music was played which wound up being the case. I listened to Sufjan Stevens the whole night but wasn’t feeling it after a while, I needed some Ian Curtis type shit… INTERPOL BINGO!!!!! So I put on NYC and turned it all the way up, I have never vibed more to a song in my life, well I probably have but at this moment NYC was the best song ever! I watched all these people and looked into their souls I swear, I could see that these are not my friends and that I wanted to do something different than all of them. New York Cares blasted in my eardrums and I just got so excited for the future. I listen to this song whenever I’m done with a certain part in my life and want to leave it behind. This song fucking rocks.

6. Mark McGuire | Brain Storm (For Erin)
Okay, well, anything coming from the dudes from Emeralds is gonna be fantastic. This song though brings me back to my youth; well, anything this guy makes does that but this one especially! This song reminds me of the Bee Hive Level in Donkey Kong Country 2. I love Donkey Kong! Then it reminds me of DBZ like some epic scene where everyone is flying trying to get to a location in time before like Majin Boo is summoned or something like that. I remember listening to this song with my buddy Joe on the way back to my house and the sky was so gloomy and the song was like coming out of the sky haha. I love this song on rainy days as well or any day...

7. Quarashi | Tarfur
I am really not influenced by Rap but I sure do love me some Icelandic Rap where I can’t even understand what the hell they’re saying. Quarashi influenced me as far as Rap as concerned, they fucking rock. This song brings me back to the skateboarding days. I still blast this song all the time. The sample for the hook is so dope! All the stuff they made was great for the most part.



8. Why? | Simeon's Dilemma
I hope one day I can collaboarate with Why? because Yoni is such a huge influence! This song is amazing, beautiful and I can relate to it so much! I am a stalker when it comes to girls… Not in a creepy way. For example I’ll just become so fascinated with a girl if they remind me of my youth or make me feel warm inside. I don’t know... It’s weird. The lyrics in this song are brilliant! I can visualize so much from it. I just want to sing this to the girl who just broke my heart...

9. Danny Brown | I Will
This might not be my favorite song in the World but it has to be up here. I love women and pleasing them first... This song is all about that another winky face... I listen to this when a girl turns me down because they are missing out another winky face... The beat is great; the lyrics are great and turn me on. I want to hook up with a girl to this.

10. Tycho | Cascade
I am a huge Toonami fan and when I first heard this song I felt so much nostalgia hit me in the face like a water balloon filled with cold water. I get goosebumps when I hear this song. I found out later that this song was used in the last broadcast of Toonami and I almost cried when I saw it on YouTube. Tycho is awesome! I hope one day to work with him as well! This song is so basic but so damn good. Reminds me of Black Moth Super Rainbow’s album Falling Through A Field which is one of my favorite albums.


WARMER MIXTAPES #453 | by Malkovich Music of B.L.X.

This life isn't fair. Still haven't gotten over that. These songs don't help me accept it. But they help me live with it.
I love a whole bunch of songs, but these are family, the ones that stuck with me. Nobody ever loved these songs more than me.

1. Cesária Évora | Mar Azul
I don't play this song. Shuffle plays it on the occasional drunk Sunday, and from her first sigh I'm back home, adrift between worlds. There's no land in sight to this song. I can’t listen to it too often.

2. Nat King Cole | Nature Boy
This song finally gave me a dream worth chasing. After thirty-two years here I know my goal. Nature Boy is the story of my young life; now I just have to figure out how the rest of it goes.

3. Pink Floyd | Shine On You Crazy Diamond
The night before Hurricane Katrina, the topic along the bar at Igor’s in New Orleans was to leave or not to leave? The air was stiff and heavy; so were the drinks. This song was playing on the jukebox. It was the first time I had ever heard it, synth keys sinking into the wind outside like a UFO was landing on the roof. This song is for my dad, and me, and everyone else trying to find their way out of themselves.

4. Gang Starr | The Planet
Listening to Guru as a teen was like trying to stare at the Sun. He told the simple truths. There's only one way to grow up. The darkest hour is just before dawn. And sometimes hours last decades.



5. Al Green | Simply Beautiful
Love after the fall. In the World I’m a man, but in my mind I’m a boy. I knew the rules, but I didn’t believe I could cause that kind of love, and pain. I didn’t know my power, I couldn’t fathom the punishment. I used to love this song for its mystery, but it’s no mystery now.

6. Donald Byrd | Cristo Redentor
The base chords are time: slow and steady. The horn is you: a constant melody even when you don’t know it. The piano is life's details, filling in the gaps. And every now and then they all come together and swoop over Jesus’ shoulders down a mountaintop in Brazil. My funeral song.

7. Miles Davis | Tasty Pudding
So perfect it’s almost hard to notice. Miles Davis lived the lives of ten men fearlessly and unapologetically and he is my hero.

8. Stevie Wonder | Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday
I always know what’s coming when this song begins to echo in my head. In the moment, we can handle anything. It’s the memories that can kill us. A eulogy for those of us who live in hindsight.

9. George Harrison | My Sweet Lord
A song better than anyone’s valiant attempt to play it. My Sweet Lord exists in perfection in our minds, under our breaths. A song I’ve known all my life and maybe longer.

10. Curtis Mayfield | Move On Up
Everyone has a million sad songs in them. Weakness comes naturally. Joyful music is the antidote, what we need instead of what we know. And it's harder than it sounds. 20 years after he released Move On Up, falling stage lights paralyzed Curtis Mayfield onstage. He died nine years later. And I only remember him smiling.


WARMER MIXTAPES #452 | by Jarno Van Rijt [Yesjar]

1. Pink Floyd | Mother
Pink Floyd is one of the most influencing bands since I was born, my dad is a real oldy Rock fan, I grew up with Pink Floyd and they are the most influencing band for me because they did something that was new for their time. Playing with the effects and doing something that was never/not much heard in that time.

2. Aphex Twin | Afx237 v7 (w19rhbasement Remix)
And Gwarek2... Wikipedia says: the most inventive and influential figure in contemporary electronic music. This is exactly how I think about his tracks, productions and as an artist. I have chosen this track because it was the first track I've ever seen/heard of him. The video is exactly the sound he used for the track itself. It's like he made the film first and then he used the sounds of the film for his release. It's like all the sounds has their own influencing meaning for the whole video and track.

3. Radiohead | Idioteque
Radiohead is my favorite band of all time. I heard this track at a friend of mine, not knowing it was Radiohead. I said: this is a realy awesome beat, is it possible to get this only in instrumental?... But that's not why the track is great, I thought. It's the whole thing, beat and voice. So I began to check Radiohead out, found some great tracks on the Internet and I was in love right away hearing their diversity in sound. Every track is so different and still you hear it's Radiohead.

4. Tommy Four Seven | Sor
The first time I heard this track was at a big party. Thinkin' by myself this is something really different as the rest and still so Techno like. Later I checked it in a set of one of the CLR podcast, and heard Liebing saying: A new release of Tommy Four Seven. I right away checked it on YouTube, found this video of an oldskool tape where people where dancing on a beat, not the Tommy For Seven track, no, it was just a video edit for the track. I thought by myself. This is what I want to make as an artist, this pure raw and energetic feeling of Bass And Rhythm . This is one of the biggest releases in the nowadays Techno scene in my opinion.

5. Perc | My Head Is Slowly Exploding
This album is released this year, checked some of the tracks out at Perc’s Soundcloud, I thought this is something new and exciting, the same as the Tommy Four Seven - Sor track. I searched for some other thing on YouTube and the Internet. Found this video of this track, I saw a dude hitting with a bat or pipe on a big (sea)container. It gave me exactly the same feeling as the Tommy Four Seven track, he made a big change in the Eectronic and especially the Techno scene. Doing something never heard, what is really needed nowadays. The album name is Wicker & Steel, it gives you a little hint of how it's made and tells something about the sounds that were used. Rough and hard! How I like it!!!

6. St. Germain | Rose Rouge
Another big influence of my dad and the music he listened when I was younger. I always had this big love for Jazz, so complex and sometimes hard to listen and understandable music. And if you hear something made by St. Germain it almost sounds like Jazz made for the easy listeners and those who love the Electronic Dance music. A big inspiration for me and still love to hear their sounds.

7. Doop | Doop
This is realy the first Electronic Dance music tune I can remember from my youth. When I listen to it now it still is such a good track, in production level and sounds and sample work. I think as a BIG artist/dj you still can play this track and the crowd will love it.

8. Daft Punk | Rollin' & Scratchin'
I started creating music and making tracks from the great inspiration of Daft Punk, they are the most influencing Electronic Dance music for me. All there tracks are so huge and so important for the beginning and evolution of the Dance scene. Rollin' & Scratchin' is (one of) my favorites because it sounds so Techno like. One of the best artist in the EDM scene.

9. The Jimi Hendrix Experience | Hey Joe (The Leaves Cover)
Another track and especially artist I know from my dad's music collection. The tracks self is a cover of the by the Los Angeles garage band, The Leaves. Jimi just made a cover, but damn what a great one. Jimi is now one of the most influencing artists for that genre and time, not only made a big inspiration source for Rock music, he also made some changes in how diverse you can handle with your instruments and sound. Still a big inspiration for so much people in the music business and scene.

10. wAgAwAgA | The Wolf
I know about this track for just a few months now and rightaway I was blown away by the big sounds and sample work he did, just incredible. Checked out more of this promising producer and found out he made a lot of tracks, as big as this one. Really inspiring sounds!

WARMER MIXTAPES #451 | by Petter Seander of Sleeping Beauty

1. PJ Harvey | Meet Ze Mostra
I first heard this track when I was in France, maybe ten or twelve years ago. I was bicycling up the hills of a narrow village to visit the local graveyard (and it’s view of course…) when I finally gave PJ a chance. That voice changed my view on music totally. Prior to that I had some kind of notion that a good voice was to be preferred, but in the same second as I heard Meet Ze Mostra I realized that it is what the voice is narrating that matters. Ugly has been beautiful since then and it will probably never change for me.

2. The Bear Quartet | I’m Not In Here With You (You’re In Here With Me)
Swedish Pop music were probably at some kind of height in the mid nineties. I had my 1995 walls covered with Brainpool, This Perfect Day and Popsicle. The Bear Quartet, from the Northern part of the country, was always too weird for me. A few years back I rediscovered BQ and realized that they are a fantastic band. The melodies are so weird, the lyrics great and the production is like a war between the good and the bad: mesmerizing. This track is from 1997, when I didn’t, but should have, like(d) them.

3. The Fiery Piano | Sirens
I’m not really listening too much to the current Swedish Indie scene, since you tend to lose interest if you feel too tied to it. The Fiery Piano, with its eclectic mix of Swedish 90’s Indie and Postal Service always gets me in the mood. It’s something with that lightweight guitar, which I always tend to love, and memorable easy melodies. Their debut EP has been a good fellow the last couple of weeks.

4. Jenny Wilson | The Wooden Chair (Peter Visti Remix)
It feels like the music scene in general is turning towards remixes as being just as important as the original tune, which I do not necessarily approve to. This heavy rework of Jenny Wilson’s Wooden Chair is so expressive and brings something real new to the song. Jenny is probably one of the most exciting artists in Sweden at the moment.

5. The Vaccines | If You Wanna
It’s three simple chords all the way through. And that’s probably why I like it. I grew up on a diet with Kiss, The Ramones and Swedish Marshmallow Pop (aka Roxette) and that still kinda holds me pretty tied up. I like it when things does not always have to be experimental or groundbreaking. It’s other things that matters in those cases - songs, lyrics that goes straight to your heart or, like in this case, just a catchy guitar solo for 8 bars.

6. Jaqueline Du Pré | Elgar: Cello Concerto In E Minor, Op. 85
The story behind Jaqueline Du Pré, the most amazing cello player I have ever heard on record, is so saddening. To be at the top of the world at a young age and then be forced to quit due to illness is heartbreaking. Du Pré (and in this case Daniel Barenboim) stretches every note, makes every sound matter. I always return to this piece when I need directions, when the waves tend to be overwhelming. It always feels like Du Pré’s got everything under control. She assures that everything will be okey.

7. St. Vincent | Cruel
For a long time I’ve been totally obsessed with repetitive melodies, the ones that works best in major scales and changes meaning by the choice of backing chords. With that in mind, the melody can return any time in the song and still sound great. I love that. St. Vincent was the great finding of last year for me and the new record is even better. Cruel is what I consider perfect Disco-Pop. I also have a soft spot for the smooth blend of Lo-Fi and high end production. The drums sounds perfect, but the guitars, saxophones and vocals are all dirty.

8. Dirty Projectors | Cannibal Resource
This provides me with the same feeling every time I hear it. I got totally blown off the road the first time I heard this. The amount of great ideas that could be put into one single song is amazing. We get something new every ten or twenty seconds, and still: It holds together. I also admire the way no ideas seem like bad ideas. Everything is squeezed in there. Good and bad makes super good.

9. Ma Rainey | Dead Drunk Blues
Sometimes I get some damn bored with music, at least the current set of sounds. This is when I always return to my musical roots. I remember being maybe 13 or 14 and listening to Ma Rainey's 1923-recordings in the dark of my childhood room. It was like something extra terrestrial had approach me, it felt like a totally different world - which it in many aspects actually were. Ma Rainey is, together with Bessie Smith and Memphis Minnie my favorite Blues singers. It’s a thing that I tried to keep with me all the time - to put feel into the performance and the lyrics. Sing like you believe it.

10. Big Star | The Ballad Of El Goodo
One of the most underrated band of all times. Wonderfully Beatlesque and weirdly perfect. This chorus (ain’t no one going to turn me around) has been following me through thick and thin. I do not know what Alex Chilton was pointing at, but I know what it means to me. It’s also pretty funny when you realize that some chord progression get really stuck on you. This is one of those. Falling and landing safe. Full of dreams and precise at the same time. The seventies never got better than this.


WARMER MIXTAPES #450 | by Frederick Rundqvist [au delà de Stockholm] of Sameblod

1. Little Dragon | Summertearz
Not only that I'm in love with Yukimi Nagano but their music is probably the best from Sweden at the moment. They have a great sense for small details and I love that.

2. M83 | Intro (feat. Zola Jesus)
I heard this song just yesterday & totally fell in love with it. I've been longing for some new stuff with M83 for quite some time now & now it's coming true. He is gonna release a double album this October. I get this strange craving for running in pooring rain when I listen to his music - it's a good thing. He is a true genious.

3. Niki & The Dove | The Drummer
Their old stuff is brilliant. When I heard this song from their upcoming EP, I just wanted more. They've found their sound. Love it.

4. I Break Horses | Hearts
Have you seen the video to this song?! I mean, the song itself is amazing but with the video it enhances every emotion that a human body haves. Their debut album is really pure. I want to live in the woods when I listen to this fellow Stockholm duo.

5. Snörök | Me At Last
This is a Swedish duo from a really small town called Järna. I just came across these two lovely girls on Soundcloud. When I heard this song, I had this huge crush on this girl, to be honest I still do. Everytime I hear this song it takes me back & at the same time a view into the future. Really strange & cheesy story but it's true.

6. Jonsí & Alex | Indian Summer
I listen to this song every night. True story. I can't sleep until I've listened to this song. It's like religion for some. Indian Summer is my religion.

7. Simian Ghost | Bicycle Theme
I got this love for Simian Ghost when I saw them at Way Out West Festival, in Gothenburg, Sweden.
I'm not getting why they aren't bigger than they are at the moment. This song is one of my happy songs at the moment. Love it.

8. Summer Heart | I Miss You
This guy is a dear friend of mine. He is a genious when it comes to pure music with beautiful melodies and so on. Especially in this song. He has this special feel in his voice and the shitloads of reverb & delay enhances everything.

9. Efterklang | Bright
I've got a huge relationship with the Danish band Efterklang. It brings up so many emotions. I can honestly say that they give me goosebumps everytime I listen to one of their tracks. It's connected to the Snörök song, about this really awesome girl. Love it and the same time hate it, that feeling you know.

10. Interpol | Not Even Jail
Okey. Here comes the greatest song of all time. I'm totally serious. I've even got this song as a tattoo on my arm. Paul Banks is a genious when it comes to lyrics. Daniel Kessler is the mastermind behind it all. Best band in the world, in my opinion. When I listened to this song at the first time, my body kinda shut down for a litte while. It was after that I became a man. No joke. This song is gonna be played on future my wedding, my future kids birth & on my funeral.



WARMER MIXTAPES #449 | by Arturo Evening [Rainbo Video]

1. Don Caballero | Haven't Lived Afro Pop
Thanks to the wonders of Audiogalaxy's old peer-to-peer system (R.I.P.), the first song I ever heard by Don Caballero was The Peter Criss Jazz, from American Don. I was in high school then and really getting into Chicago-centric Math Rock and Post-Rock. I became obsessed with that song, but the more I listened to American Don (as well as Don Cab's other releases), I realized the real gem on the album was Haven't Lived Afro Pop. It contains hints of the simultaneous technical rigidity and structural messiness of What Burns Never Returns - my favorite Don Cab album - while incorporating Ian Williams's new style of undistorted tapping. It's such an odd song. It seems to begin mid-statement, tripping over itself with starts and stops, and then it falls into its own beautifully self-defined logic of gradually evolving repetition. It definitely laid the groundwork for my later love of Steve Reich's work. To this day, Ian Williams-era Don Caballero is still my favorite band of all-time.

2. Gastr Del Sol | Mouth Canyon
This is such a gentle, carefully constructed Pop song, which was really at odds with all the louder Rock I was listening to at the time (Don Cab, Sonic Youth, Pixies, Guided By Voices, etc). It's a studio song, not a Rock band song. I was largely unfamiliar with Baroque Pop and Folk, which is probably why it sounded so intriguing to me. For being made by two titans of cerebral Avant-Rock/Pop music, it's such an organic and human song. It's also noteworthy for being one of the only Gastr songs that Jim O'Rourke sings solo on, and being on Camoufleur, for which O'Rourke and David Grubbs collaborated with another big influence for me, Markus Popp.

3. Brian Eno | Weightless
And Always Returning... These two are back-to-back songs from Apollo, and I always seem to listen to them in tandem. They remind me of my university days. My school had a beautiful campus right next to Lake Michigan, so there was gorgeous scenery available year-round. The lilting guitars of Weightless remind me of sitting lakeside, staring up at the drifting clouds in the sky, while Always Returning evokes the water's gentle waves. Sometimes when I was in the library, studying or doing research, I would look out to the water and play them. Sitting in a place devoted to human knowledge, they managed to remind me of the beauty of nature, something that no amount of writing or intellectualizing can ever truly capture.

4. Steve Reich, Kronos Quartet, Pat Metheny | Different Trains: After The War
And Electric Counterpoint: III. Fast... At one point I had a job in my university's music library sewing musical scores into bindings. I have no formal or theoretical background in music, so ironically, I found it fascinating to look at the scores and absorb them visually - their symbols, their structures. While many scores were of a more traditional variety, I often came across exciting and bizarre graphical scores by the likes of Christian Wolff and Karlheinz Stockhausen, or unbelievably rigorous ones by someone like Brian Ferneyhough. If the scores had accompanying CDs, I made a point of listening to the music that went with them. Steve Reich's Different Trains/Electric Counterpoint was one of these instances. While these two tracks are taken from drastically different compositions, the fact that they were on the same CD made me approach them at the same time. Never before had I encountered classical music that sounded so modern, and was so melodically enjoyable. The third parts of both pieces are for me the best. The way he brings out the musical content in the vocal samples was revolutionary for me, and the interlocking melodies on Electric Counterpoint: III. Fast are an endless source of pleasure. Pat Metheny is a machine. I remember thinking it was like a Don Cab song cleaned up and performed in a concert hall. These pieces also got me listening to and reading up on everything Reich did. When I learned about phasing, a lightbulb went off in my head. There was a question I had asked friends and family intermittently since I was in grade school: What do you call it when the turn signals of two cars are blinking on and off at the same time, and then they start to alternate, and then they go back to blinking at the same time? I finally knew the answer!

5. Aphex Twin | Yellow Calx
The sound of a computer thinking has never felt so organic. Until writing this list, I honestly hadn't listened to this song in a year and a half, which is surprising to me, because I remember practically every note of it like I had heard it yesterday. I've listened to this track hundreds of times. It's one of the most perfectly composed songs I've ever heard.


6. Simon And Garfunkel | The Dangling Conversation
They're one of the few bands from my childhood whose music I still profoundly enjoy. I'm convinced this is their best song. The poetic brilliance of the lyrics is matched by an equally clever musical arrangement. When I was old enough to finally understand the syncopated time line that is made literal by Garfunkel's harmony, my brain just about exploded. It's such a great musical joke. There are so few instances of that kind of conceptual synergy between lyrics and music in Pop that when it occurs, you can't believe it actually just happened. Simon And Garfunkel used other similarly clever devices, but the purest other example I can think of right now is in All I Want To Know by the Magnetic Fields, where the guitar solo actually sounds like someone playing pinball.

7. Prefuse 73 | Storm Returns
One Word Extinguisher was huge for me. It was the first time I heard Hip-Hop that could be as musically intricate as all the IDM and Glitch I was listening to, and that focused as much on melody as it did on rhythm. This track is especially successful on both accounts.

8. Fennesz | The Other Face
This track makes the buzzing, clicking, and humming of processed guitar and synth sound more like a natural environment than anything manmade. Digital rain drizzles down onto the ocean below, and when the vocal loop finally emerges from under layers of swirling noise, it seems to arrive from a natural place, even if it's another world entirely.

9. The Field | Istedgade
For me this is still The Field's most successful track because it uses the chopped sample technique to maximum melodic and euphoric effect. I listened to the Sun & Ice 12" obsessively while driving around in the winter of 2007, and this song in particular made it a true pleasure to observe the golden sunlight streaming down from bright blue skies onto the snow below. When you listen to this song, you suddenly feel ecstatic to be alive.

10. Benoît Pioulard | Sous La Plage
I wish he was more well-known than he is, or at least better appreciated. His atmospheric Ambient tracks are as deft as his Folk Pop songs, and unfortunately I think the former keep less adventurous people from appreciating the latter. I think if he released an album that only had songs like this, Shouting Distance, Forming At The Mouth, Tack And Tower, and A Coin On The Tongue, you'd start hearing him in Starbucks. I'm really glad he recently released the lyrics for his albums; they're so strange and literate and beautiful. This is one of my favorite songs of all time, and I don't think I'll ever tire of hearing it.

+11. Mathhead | Dream Tigers
I first heard this track at the tail end of my obsession with Breakcore, and right when Dubstep was really starting to influence Electronic music in America. It straddles both genres fantastically, and is one of the most well-organized pieces I've heard in either genre. It's the musical equivalent of a gritty cyberpunk film set in New York City, imbued with the sounds of alleyway puddles, robots, shattered glass, and street warfare. Aggressive jungle snare assaults alternate with passages of heavy bass workouts and finally give way to a nice melodic synth theme that suggests the slick sophistication of life in a different part of the city.

+12. Scott Walker | The Big Hurt (Toni Fisher Cover)
Scott 2 and Scott 4 are my favorite Walker albums, but this track from Scott is excellent. It condenses all the orchestral, Baroque grandeur of his longer, more bizarre songs into less than two and a half minutes. It's actually a cover of a Toni Fisher track, which is also worth checking out.

+13. Jim O'Rourke | Untitled (Please Note Our Failure - A-side)
Of all the pieces Jim O'Rourke has composed, I'm not sure why I chose this one; I probably should have picked the labyrinthine riddle that is The Visitor. I guess I went with this because it's so drastically different from all his others. It's a jarring, eerie, beautiful piece of Musique Concrète, roughly the equivalent of watching a bunch of films from the 1940s while on acid. The B-side is also great. Oneohtrix Point Never's new track Sleep Dealer is a better reference point for this than Pierre Schaeffer.

+14. Andy Partridge & Harold Budd | Through The Hill
I first encountered this song last summer while watching Jerry Maguire with my girlfriend. Definitely an unexpected source for such a beautiful Ambient track, though I must say, I somehow always end up finding music I really enjoy in Tom Cruise movies (e.g. Tangerine Dream in Risky Business, Aimee Mann in Magnolia). I had already been a Harold Budd fan for several years, and the piano melodies certainly sounded familiar, so when I looked through the credits for the song, I was pleasantly surprised to find a track by him I didn't yet know. My favorite Budd piece is Agua (his live, expanded performance of The Kiss), but Through The Hill stands as an excellent, concise introduction to his gorgeous piano work.

+15. Tim Hecker | Ghost Writing, Part 1
I've listened to this more than any of his other tracks, so I'm embarrassed to say I must've heard it fifty times before realizing the sound samples in the background were from Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?... And even then it was only because I happened to read an interview with him where he talked about it. Somehow he was able to blend Regis Philbin's grating voice seamlessly into the ebb and flow of the synth tones. Surprisingly, knowing what the source material is doesn't lessen the sublime and haunting effect of a human voice shrouded in a patchwork of gentle digital clicks. This is the sound of lost transmissions from a distant time and place.


SIDE A | by Jarle Bråthen

1. Humanoid | Stakker Humanoid
In 1988 I heard this track and got hooked on the energy and the crazy 303 sounds. For me that was something very new, fresh, different and from that moment I know that Electronic Music was gonna be my passion.

2. Eric B. & Rakim | Follow The Leader
I was very into Hip Hop, djing and scratching my sister recordplayer to pieces, and likes such as 3rd Bass, Public Enemy and De La Soul. But I think Rakim has the best Rap-voice ever and with the deep and serious vibe of this track I think Rap is all about.

3. Goldie | Inner City Life
The vocals and string-pads making it a really atmospheric, sad but happy tune. By far the best DnB track ever…

4. Massive Attack | Unfinished Sympathy
Combined with the video this has a feel that gets under your skin.

5. The Orb | Little Fluffy Clouds
Watching MTV Party Zone late night and was introduced to many rare and new sounds. Introducing me for setting different samples in good order.
6. Madrugada | Majesty
Norwegian band who didn't get the big international fame but with the great vocals by Sivert Høyem I think that's a shame.

7. Isolée | Beau Mot Plage
I was in a recordstore called HS Records in Oslo in '99. It was the spot for DJs who want to buy 12 inches and I think every DJ in Norway was a costumer. Ole Martin (DJ Omar) was the clerk and on Saturdays he normally listen to all the new stuff on the loudspeakers and if you were in the shop at that time you could put your hand up if want the record he was playing. I heard this and thought whoaaww!! What is this?... I raised my hand and bought what to become a classic. Love the way elements come in and out and I think this track is as good now as it was when it was released.

8. Nuyorican Soul | Runaway (feat. India) (Original Flava 12'' Mix)
Happy! Happy! Happy! Originally by Loleatta Holloway (R.I.P.), the greatest female voices ever. India has a fantastic voice too and together with Little Louie Vega and Kenny Dope Gonzalez they made a great version... What grabs me about this tune is that the vocalist suddenly switch to singing in Spanish towards the end of the track. I soon played this 12" vinyl to a wreck... Hehe...

9. Samuel Barber | Adagio For Strings
Classical masterpiece!!! If you manage to not get moved by this you have a stone cold soul.

10. Depeche Mode | Enjoy The Silence
This is my favorite band and I think this is the best Pop-track of all times. The synths, Industrial feel and the vocals… Man!! Great influence and inspirations for many band, DJs and producers all over the World.


SIDE B | by Marius Våreid

1. Bogdan Irkük a.k.a BULGARI | Early Light On The E80
This track is food for the soul, soothing, complete with out of this World synths and and perfect key-changes. The bass and pads are working the track, driving the feel into every part of your body till you find yourself in an almost euphoric state of mind. The work of a master, no detail is accidental, music like no other. It's like those pads embrace me, it's not just music, it's medicine.

2. The National Bank | Tolerate
These lyrics accompanied by the beautiful voice of singer Thomas Dybdahl and the masterful songwriting talent of Martin Horntvedt. What can I say about this song? You must listen to it, it is most relevant in these times of war and disturbances. Makes me think and strive to focus on the important things in life. And Tolerate, what a title!

3. Odd Nordstoga | Orda Du Gav Meg
I love this song, it makes me cry, and feel good afterwards... The wonderful voice, the beautiful lyrics and the simple, but effective music. Performed on the very beautiful dialect spoken in Vinje in Telemark, Norway. Odd Nordstoga has qualities only a few handful of musicians possess. He is from a family of who takes cultural heritage very seriously, but he himself have become a Pop artist here in Norway, singing in his native tounge and the Vinje dialect. Born and raised on the farm build by a famous Norwegian poet, Odd Nordstoga keeps the Norwegian alive and breathing.

4. Locussolus | Next To You
A stroke of genius from the mythical DJ Harvey. I feel so at home in this song, it's like a favorite sweater, you just want to wear it! So simple arrangements, no disturbing elements. And the coolest lyrics this year I've got to get next to you, closer than walking next into…It is so relaxing and uplifting, I love it!

5. Gonzales | Gentle Threat
The warm full-bodied piano of Mr. Chilly Gonzalez. Music that makes you understand things your mind can't explain in words. The language of music. Feel this song. It is moving and will change you.

6. Valerie Dore | Get Closer
I must be patient when I listen to this song, it needs your full attention, it is beautiful, but plays hard to get. The vocals are special, you need to listen a couple of times at least. I always come back to this one, I play it at home, but never out, it is personal, still don't know why though…

7. James Yuill | First In Line (Justus Köhncke Remix)
This is quite new, I don't know much about it other than that I love this track. It is so straight to the point musically, and it goes straight into my heart. Feeling happy and relaxed, just floating on top of Justus beat, riding along and enjoying!

8. Arthur Russell | In The Light Of The Miracle
Prins Thomas introduced me to this track a long time ago. We worked on some music in my flat in Oslo, both still young and poor, smoking Marlboros and relaxing to this amazing piece of music. Arthur communicates with emotions, the language of music. You cannot describe the feelings this track evokes. It is magic, a warp gate into another/parallel dimension. My soul gets fueled by this music, I need it in my life.

9. Rona Hartner & Valentin Rotary & Petre Badea | Dandaro
It is nasty and so full of life! The rhythm of life, uncensored! It makes me feel alive. Every time I have made people dance to this playing out, I'm looking at the crowd to see if anyone understands the lyrics. What a driving force this beat has, and the naughty warm voice teasing on top, so free, so brilliant! (and so,so nasty!)...

10. Q-Tip | Getting Up
Oh yes!!! Q-Tip fill my day with joy with this song, amazing feel! I love this guy, he just makes music that fits my soul, the soundtrack for my life. I grew up listening to A Tribe Called Quest and Q-Tip, and for that I am eternally grateful. My guiding light!