WARMER MIXTAPES #576 | by Robert Olin Smith [V†LENCE]

1. Alizée | La Isla Bonita (Madonna Cover)
I remember my mother bought me an mp3 player from some mall or the gift shop at the hospital. While I was figuring out how to use it I went to the video menu and found this waiting for me. I was at school and I think my plan was to download music onto my new mp3 player from the library because I didn't have Internet at home but instead I just listened to and watched this video all day long... Man, I thought that this was the most beautiful thing I'd seen in a long time. It was like a different type of Beauty. At the time I was only listening to Death Metal, and a large part of what interested me was Complexity (that will never change, probably). But something about this song really struck me. Typically I can explain the interesting aspects of things, but this song is just completely pleasurable to hear. It reminds me of the Supper At Emmaus, the first one, by Caravaggio.

2. Pavor | Inconsistent Clayblood Totemist
This song is amazing. Pavor's romantic Existentialist ponderings and complex riffs combine perfectly here to create a dissonant, frantic, and melancholic meditation. I fantasize about seeing it performed. I always found the masturbatory musicianship, worshipping a craft that is old and useless, interesting; how one can force oneself into a lineage and expand its original boundaries? Although Pavor is known for being arrogant (with good reason) I think that the format that they portray their ideas in is inherently humble, and they express an awareness of that, as well as a frustration with their self imposed Humbleness. The denial of the Self for the craft, they drown themselves out and put on a true display of Art, acknowledging Historicity as well as the futility of Human Achievement, while simultaneously striving to become the best. Also, the solo is one of my favorite guitar solos I have ever heard.

3. Necrophagist | Fermented Offal Discharge
I remember when I first heard this song. Necrophagist always reminded me of decaying metallic plant matter. All of their songs have a beautiful environment, one of prayer, as if you are enclosed in a temple of stone about to witness some archaic primal ritual. The compositions of Necrophagist's songs are on another level entirely. They get a lot of shit from people, but the way their songs are constructed is so entirely subtle, careful, and complex… It makes them somewhat incomparable in my book.

4. Paradisio | Bailando
When I first heard this song I listened to it on repeat for three days. It is beautiful. The Manic Happiness of the Hypothetical Party. It breaks my heart. Completely bittersweet, revelry and worship.

5. C-Murder | Y'All Heard Of Me (feat. B.G.)
This song is a type of Rap that I've liked since I was young. I think it's probably C-Murder's best song. The soft muttered vocals by C-murder… B.G.'s attitude and energy… It gives me visualizations of the warm quiet Absence that I was filled with when I was young visiting my great grandfather's old home in North Carolina. Chickens gutted and killed behind the house; the doors stayed unlocked at night. There were no windows, only screens. It was always hot and quiet. A piece of Historicity, antediluvian America.


6. Nobukazu Takemura | Songbook
This entire album is something that must be listened to all at once. The songs form pieces of a puzzle of Cheerfulness, Melancholy and Reverence for the Banal. I always wanted to sing with little girls in my songs.

7. Namco Sound Team | Tekken 2 Original Sound Tracks
An emotional soundtrack, so many different moods are conveyed through these songs. Urban Jazz. I can picture landscapes, cityscapes, movies… So many different ideas of places. It's amazing to me that they could create something so varied in Sound. Most Video Game soundtracks now feel very repetitive to me, but this varies so much in Sound, and created its own style. The game itself is very beautiful, as well. I feel like I can feel the hopes of the people that created it when I listen to this soundtrack. It has 82 tracks but I have listened to it all the way through on multiple occasions.

8. Evil Pimp | Give A Damn (feat. Lady Dead)
A hard hitting heavy song. Very fast paced. Absurdly catchy, almost as catchy as Bailando. Lady Dead is never disappointing. But instead of talking about this song, I think Krucifix Klan's No I'm Not That Nigga is more interesting to talk about. I love self aware Rap that plays on its own tropes, Psychoanalytic Rap that creates a portrait of the rappers personality in comparison to Mainstream ideologies and how they relate to taboo subjects.

9. Demilich | Nespithe
I feel like I'm in a planet's stomach.

10. Velvet Cacoon | Laudanum
This song is heart breaking. It's like looking at a swamp and feeling like your lungs are on fire. Autumn, sipping tea and looking out the window, or being in the darkest room and feeling coils of smoke all around you.