Photos by Lily Cup and LRNC.
1. Boris Christoff | Farewell Happiness (Proshchai Radost)
This mixtape was quite hard for me to do. For once, I had the opportunity to list something other than Housy 808 bass bangers, but the choice was far too hard to make. It felt like it was the first and last time someone actually took care of the origins of a sound, so it had to be the good ones! It's all about honesty. So my first track will be one that I've been trying to share with my friends and family, but that nobody ever liked, whereas it is, for me, one of the most powerful songs ever. I never understood the lyrics, but I'm sure you can't get any darker.
2. Madvillain | Fancy Clown
Some songs just vibrate in your mind and heart forever. I guess we've all had some sort of funding tragedy that could explain lots of things of our life, of our behavior with people, of how we treat ourselves. Everytime I listen at this song, I remember this so called tragedy. I knew you was f--kin around. Playing all innocent and hoing since the foundation. But I put all my chips on the worst bet and Now you apologize... That's why they all say. You wasn't sorry when you sucked him off in the hallway. It's after this event I decided to wear a mask all day. Some find it ridiculous. I find it necessary.
3. Billie Holiday | Gloomy Sunday (Pál Kalmár/Hal Kemp & His Orchestra Cover)
I used to listen at this all the time when I was a kid in high school... This gigantic noisy monster of 3000 students didn't really have time for kids acting gloomy and listening at this kind of Music. This song is also called The Hungarian Suicide Song because of the recurring urban legend that says that many people committed suicide with this song playing... To be honest this song never helped. Why do we always listen to depressing music when we're down? I use to think Billie Holiday's lyrics were the only thing able to describe and express how much I was disappointed by people, by how they could be cowardly and weak... For a long time I thought the song was also about a break up, and that the lyrics were full of hatred. With time, I understood Holiday sang the death of a loved one... Ironic isn't it?
4. Aba Shanti-I | Tear Down Babylon
You must think that I'm a very boring dude with everything I say (and I guess it's true), but I used to party (and listen to Aba Shanti-I) all the time with my friends. Reminds me how ferocious and commited you can be when you're young and how time can tear everything apart. The only thing I've kept of this time is the 4x4 kick and the sub bass. I've never understood... How such a cheap sound could do the trick?... Aba Shanti-I reminds us that no matter what we have lived, there's always good to take out of it.
5. Gramatik | Don't Get Weary
Few are by my side. They were even fewer when this character I created and expressed, with what was only a side project at the time (Heblank) was taking advantage of what I used to be. Don't Get Weary is one of the songs we used to listen to in loop with my brother Cham during his moving, which took days. It was a real therapy at the time, being alone with people I love, being able to talk, share and forget. When I listen to this song, it's tainted with hope and despair. I don't even know if it's a pleasant feeling...
6. Keith Jarrett | The Köln Concert
I feel the same kind of tainted feelings when I listen to the Köln Concert. I remember when I was a child, my father used to play this record when he was disappointed or angry about something... So everytime I hear notes of it, it immediately reminds me of a whole atmosphere. I've listened to it tons of times, I honestly know it by heart. But this concert reminds me of books such as the Ethics or Thus Spoke Zarathustra: Everytime you get to read it or (hear it), you learn something new and unexpected. That's exactly how I think Art should be: in constant movement and unpredictable, imitating Life. What's unbelievable about this concert is that it's totaly improvised, and that it nearly never happened: Jarrett piano's sound wasn't right according to him, but he did his best to take advantage of the strange metalic sound it had... Giving, I believe so, one of the most incredible Piano concert ever.
7. Jeremy Glenn | Surrender
My favourite House track, without a doubt. Heard it a couple of days after moving into my new apartement in Lyon. This track was, in my opinion, a revival for House Music, but also for me at the time. I've never wanted to play it live, because if I had to, I would have to play the entire song, and an 8 minute track can appear to be long on stage, even if the bridge is one of the sweatiest things I've ever heard...
8. Teeth | Shawty
Another sweaty thing. This song reminds me of the Death And The Maiden motif, especially with the video clip... This motif is one of the sexiest and freakiest things ever, just like the song: it highlights the dark link between Sexuality and Death... Exactly what I wanted to do in my Flowers And You EP I released on Fullfridge Music: show how silky synths could slowly turn into whirling stabs, making it, like the British producer Kab Driver said, a ravegasm.
9. Kylie Minogue | Can't Get You Out Of My Head
I re-discovered this track a couple of months ago while digging into a forum speaking about the best tracks ever with an M1 synth type sound. I was young when this came out... Around 10 years old. It was everywere, on TV, on radio, in magazines... And at this time, I used to listen to an insane amount of Heavy Metal, with bands like Marilyn Manson in his Spooky Kids era, Black Sabbath, Pantera... So no time for Kylie. I used to hate it, but I was forced to hear it everytime I took the bus for school, so I knew it off by heart. Somehow (the track Satisfaction by Benny Benassi had the same effect on me), I started secretely liking it, and with time, forgot it. 2012 here we are, I'm 21, and I think this track is probably the one that pushed me to producing House Music. True story.
10. Venetian Snares | Vache
I seriously didn't knew what Aaron Funk track I'd to put in the mixtape, but I knew he would be there, somewhere. If there had to be ONE track I've listened to in loop for ages, abusively, compulsively, it's this one. Modern Genius. He's one of the rare artists I've never stopped listening to. Some tracks remind you of a moment, some can capture your whole Life Essence. If I was a doctor, he would be Avicenna.
+11. John Coltrane | Venus
He might be my first real musical discovery. A long time ago, when I was a child, with my mom at the library, there was this insane music playing in the background, something crazy that I couldn't understand... Too many notes, too many things happening at the same time. This was John Coltrane, A Love Supreme. I brought back the record at home, listened it with my dad who didn't knew him. Since, we're both big fans of Coltrane, especialy of the Interstellar Space album, which is his last and most crazy one.
+12. DJ Rashad | Itz Not Rite
Think I had the same kinda feeling when I heard Rashad for the first time: the rythmical structure was hard to understand, but not to feel. I immediately started to share some of his tracks with my friends, but none liked it. Still, I used to love those syncopated snares and raw-cut samples. A now classic.
+13. Sylford Walker And Welton Irie | Lamb's Bread International
Rashad might be raw, but this is even more... Those trumpets... If my music had to sound like something, it would be like this: something powerfull, yet tragic ... "Wille zur Macht".
+14. Strict Face | Evil Sequence
Think a couple of friend of mine have reached this goal (or are definitely reaching towards it). I could name a couple, like Yoin, Doctor Jeep, Rommek... But my favourite one is without any doubt Strict Face. His newest tracks are the perfect example of what I'm willing to approach: gloomy journeys to Zarathustra's cave threw foggy fields, and this to the sounds of death drums.
+15 Black Sabbath | N.I.B.
That's also what tried and managed to do one of my favourite band ever. Very thankful to my dad for being a fan, I've been listening to their music since... Well, ever. Guess nobody has ever been as Black as them.
+16. Demdike Stare | Hashashin Chant
Maybe Demdike Stare has. Some say it's just a Mainstream band for old Dubstep fans who think they're smart. Well, the hell with it... My friend LRNC and I really are astonished every time we listen at their productions... And look at their video clips: aesthetics at its finest. Guess it's the Devil doing its work... Again.
+17. Robert Johnson | Crossroad
Here's an other one who sold his soul to the Devil, and without him I would have never played any instruments. Robert Johnson introduced me to the Blues, and that's already 70% of the job done.
+18. Zenzile | Mafate
20 other percents were accomplished in highscool, when my brother and all time friend, Cham, gave my, during lunch time, a pair of earphones: inside, the best Dub song ever, Mafate. Everything at its finest, from the guitar solo to the delayed drums. A must listen song.
+19. Anthill Mob | Was She Ever Mine
Might be my favourite track ever. No Classical Music. No Intelligent Music. Just vibes, Dancefloor sweat, Shoulder business. The pure result of everything I talked about before...
+20. Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky | Pictures At An Exhibition - Movement No. 4: Bydło
And if I had to name one track to rule them all, it would have to be this one. Listen.
