WARMER MIXTAPES #1203 | by Eric Bessel and Laura Mariposa of Lore City
Photo by Sam Doyle
SIDE A | by Laura Mariposa
1. The Doors | The Crystal Ship
Those first words Jim sings are divine: Before you slip into Unconsciousness, I’d like to have another kiss… Um, yes please. When I hear this song, my whole body drifts off into Space. It reminds me of those hazy nights at parties with the best of friends, when everything felt right and everything was possible. I only wish it was twice as long, so I usually listen to it at least twice in a row. It’s my happy place.
2. Beach House | Wishes
I’ve been following this band since the beginning, and this has become a favorite staple. Victoria sings the phrase, wishes on a wheel, and it makes me think about the revolving desires of your life, and how your longings can seem so strong at times, but then suddenly change without notice. Kinda like the weather. One of Life’s mysteries, and inspirations, I suppose.
3. Radiohead | You And Whose Army?
I pretty much love everything Radiohead does, but this song has been ringing true lately. I’ve found that putting yourself out into the World not only brings good attention, but bad attention too. We’ve had some people trying to cut us down for petty reasons, and this song, You And Whose Army? gives me strength. The message is: oh, yeah, bring it on—you can’t hold us back!... And I need to hear that. Thanks Radiohead, for once again crafting a message I need to hear so badly, in such a beautiful, moving way.
4. Grimes | Nightmusic (feat. Majical Cloudz)
OK, it’s really hard to pick just one Grimes song, but this one really moves me. I love to dance. We don’t dance enough in modern day culture. It’s something primal that we mostly deprive ourselves of. Anyways, what I specifically love about this one is the progression into the second half of this song. The rhythm of her vocals along with the deepening of the beats is absolute genius. It reaches some deep spot in my spinal cord, and I’m compelled to dance every time.
5. Lower Dens | Candy (Steve Moore Remix)
Again, hard to pick a favorite from this band, but I found this remix from a song off their album, Nootropics, to be really special. This remix makes the song sound like a pinnacle track from an 80s movie. You know, the song that cues up at the most intense moment in the film. I’m a sucker for that kind of nostalgic sound, and it works particularly well here. When this song comes on, it literally turns my head, and all I can do is listen in rapture.
6. Hole | Asking For It
Now, of course, I love my rocker songs in addition to all the previous dreamier stuff. This song has to be the best feminist anthem out there. Now, when I say feminist, I don’t mean man-hater, I mean the belief that all people are equal, regardless specifically, of gender. This song is basically about how it’s wrong to make women into sex objects. But how Hole goes about delivering this message in the best way—with pure rage and sarcasm.
7. PJ Harvey | Meet Ze Monsta
I listened to this on headphones everyday when I lived in Brooklyn. I’d walk to work with this blasting in my ears; I’m pretty sure I looked like a total badass stomping down the street with bleached hair. It really got me pumped up in the early days of the band, and I think this song embodies many qualities you find in our Music; the Minimalist beats, low fuzzy guitar, and raw female vocals. I learned it all from one of the best—PJ Harvey. Rock goddess extraordinaire.
8. Sir Richard Bishop | Saraswati
This song sends me straight to a place of just being. It’s totally zen. The end.
9. Pink Floyd | Welcome To The Machine
Everything about this song is perfect. The creepy sound collage at the beginning makes me imagine being buzzed into some sterile building with terrible fluorescent lighting and no windows, knowing you have to check your soul at the door, in order to go make some money. Total Desolation. That’s how I feel about having to conform to a Capitalistic society. In general, it’s soul-less, destructive, and alienating. I think that’s why I am an artist, because I need to create my own world on the side, where the Soul rules with Love, Compassion, and Endless Openness.
10. Timber Timbre | I Get Low
Oh, another band where it’s hard to pick just one, but this was my very first favorite of theirs. The full lyric is I get low, on my own. That really rings true to me. I’m equal parts introvert and extravert, and this is my introvert side that likes to sit alone and think. When I do that, I usually get pretty down. There’s a lot of things that happen in Life, that can get you pretty, well, low, if you think about them. But the sound of this song isn’t depressing, it’s kinda sassy, and the sparse piano line is key. (No pun intended.) This song makes me shuffle my feet and feel OK about bumming myself out. In the end, it makes me pretty sassy.
+11. World Of Skin | 1,000 Years
I started singing kinda like Jarboe before I even knew who she was. When Eric played Swans for me, I immediately loved her vocals. They’re so deep and epic. This song has a sweet 80s/90s vibe to it, with that cinematic quality I talked about earlier. This song is also very obviously about Mortality, which I think is at the Root of Everything. It’s why people make Art, why people make War, why people Forgive, why people Forget, Everything. At the end of the day, no one knows for sure what happens when we die, and that question shapes peoples lives, for better or worse.
SIDE B | by Eric Bessel
1. Talking Heads | The Overload
It seemed that my childhood home in Manchester was imbued with the Talking Heads. The album Remain In Light practically got its own mail delivered to our turntable. Tracks Once In A Lifetime and The Great Curve fueled after-dinner dancing, while the apocalyptic track The Overload brought silence to the room — like we were suddenly a part of something very small. The cyclical rhythmic throb, and mysterious woodwind wail have stuck with me ever since. At a very young age, I understood that it was possible to balance upbeat and Wistful with Darkness to form a sound truly powerful.
2. Iceburn | Sphinx
My concept of song structure was forever changed after hearing this track. Meandering, building, driving, annihilating — then losing its way. A saxophone seemed to rise out of guitar swells and EBow wails, like a mangled tin whistle. Was it Jazz? Hardcore? Space Rock? Whatever it was, it went on for at least 20 minutes, and had me mesmerized every time. Without question, Iceburn’s album Meditavolutions was the best record I bought in 1996.
3. Falling Forward | The Great Union Divide
Formative. I stumbled across this song on a compilation CD, and was hooked. I’d never heard anything like it at the time — melodic, heavy, driving… And then that guy’s voice. Nobody was singing like that. I understood how Instrumentation could wrap around Words, and the importance of pairing the right sound to the message. I had the opportunity to see a later incarnation of the band (as Elliott) in the late 90’s, and by that time they’d smoothed all their edges into a sound so balanced it almost didn’t seem real.
4. Parts & Labor | Solemn Show World
I first heard Parts & Labor at Market Hotel in Brooklyn. They played with Aa and Pterodactyl, trading band members and changing from band to band between songs in a triangular circle formation. The audience kept moving in a circle like a heard of emperor penguins. Anyway, I latched onto this song a couple of years later… Reminded me of the Background Music the old Nintendo game, MegaMan 2.
5. Helium | Revolution Of Hearts Pts. I & II
I discovered Helium at a used record store in Middletown. I picked up their album, The Magic City because of the cover, and quickly got lost in the Music. This song in particular really got to me — it's driving, sprawling, Psychedelic, and unmistakably 90’s Alternative. In retrospect, I wish Helium had continued more in this direction.
6. Swans | In The Eyes Of Nature
Love Of Life, Ten Songs For Another World, and The Great Annihilator — records that have shaped my understanding of Sound as a Communicative Tool. One evening, while inching through patterns of gridlock traffic, this phrase echoed through the car speakers, we are nothing but Experience in the eyes of Nature. In a moment of clarity I took a sharp left off the avenue, and took the road less traveled, home. After all, Reality is naked beneath the Moon.
7. Quicksand | It Would Be Cooler If You Did
This song. The loosest track on Manic Compression, and in my opinion the best. I remember trying to play along on guitar over the course of many summer afternoons at my parent’s house. The track would finish, and I’d drop the needle back in the groove and play it again and again. And, if you listen carefully, you can even hear a reprise of Landmine Spring at the end.
8. Pleasure Forever | Magus Opus
Drop what you’re doing and buy Pleasure Forever’s debut album immediately. Nothing that’s come before it, or after it, has even come close. I’ve lost entire days to this record.
9. Heather Duby | September
I remember driving around late at night in the fall of 1999 in an old Volkswagen with Heather Duby’s debut album playing in the background. This track is the peak of the album — slow, rhythmic and a fitting accompaniment to the fallen leaves crinkling beneath my car tires when parked along empty black rural roads.
10. Planes Mistaken For Stars | Copper And Stars
I saw Planes perform an in-store at record store/saw shop in Wallingford back in High School. There must have been 10 people there (including myself and the band). You’d have never known it — they played their hearts out. Planes kept evolving sonically in the years to follow, and I feel fortunate to have caught them at this early point in their career.
1. The Doors | The Crystal Ship
Those first words Jim sings are divine: Before you slip into Unconsciousness, I’d like to have another kiss… Um, yes please. When I hear this song, my whole body drifts off into Space. It reminds me of those hazy nights at parties with the best of friends, when everything felt right and everything was possible. I only wish it was twice as long, so I usually listen to it at least twice in a row. It’s my happy place.
2. Beach House | Wishes
I’ve been following this band since the beginning, and this has become a favorite staple. Victoria sings the phrase, wishes on a wheel, and it makes me think about the revolving desires of your life, and how your longings can seem so strong at times, but then suddenly change without notice. Kinda like the weather. One of Life’s mysteries, and inspirations, I suppose.
3. Radiohead | You And Whose Army?
I pretty much love everything Radiohead does, but this song has been ringing true lately. I’ve found that putting yourself out into the World not only brings good attention, but bad attention too. We’ve had some people trying to cut us down for petty reasons, and this song, You And Whose Army? gives me strength. The message is: oh, yeah, bring it on—you can’t hold us back!... And I need to hear that. Thanks Radiohead, for once again crafting a message I need to hear so badly, in such a beautiful, moving way.
4. Grimes | Nightmusic (feat. Majical Cloudz)
OK, it’s really hard to pick just one Grimes song, but this one really moves me. I love to dance. We don’t dance enough in modern day culture. It’s something primal that we mostly deprive ourselves of. Anyways, what I specifically love about this one is the progression into the second half of this song. The rhythm of her vocals along with the deepening of the beats is absolute genius. It reaches some deep spot in my spinal cord, and I’m compelled to dance every time.
5. Lower Dens | Candy (Steve Moore Remix)
Again, hard to pick a favorite from this band, but I found this remix from a song off their album, Nootropics, to be really special. This remix makes the song sound like a pinnacle track from an 80s movie. You know, the song that cues up at the most intense moment in the film. I’m a sucker for that kind of nostalgic sound, and it works particularly well here. When this song comes on, it literally turns my head, and all I can do is listen in rapture.
6. Hole | Asking For It
Now, of course, I love my rocker songs in addition to all the previous dreamier stuff. This song has to be the best feminist anthem out there. Now, when I say feminist, I don’t mean man-hater, I mean the belief that all people are equal, regardless specifically, of gender. This song is basically about how it’s wrong to make women into sex objects. But how Hole goes about delivering this message in the best way—with pure rage and sarcasm.
7. PJ Harvey | Meet Ze Monsta
I listened to this on headphones everyday when I lived in Brooklyn. I’d walk to work with this blasting in my ears; I’m pretty sure I looked like a total badass stomping down the street with bleached hair. It really got me pumped up in the early days of the band, and I think this song embodies many qualities you find in our Music; the Minimalist beats, low fuzzy guitar, and raw female vocals. I learned it all from one of the best—PJ Harvey. Rock goddess extraordinaire.
8. Sir Richard Bishop | Saraswati
This song sends me straight to a place of just being. It’s totally zen. The end.
9. Pink Floyd | Welcome To The Machine
Everything about this song is perfect. The creepy sound collage at the beginning makes me imagine being buzzed into some sterile building with terrible fluorescent lighting and no windows, knowing you have to check your soul at the door, in order to go make some money. Total Desolation. That’s how I feel about having to conform to a Capitalistic society. In general, it’s soul-less, destructive, and alienating. I think that’s why I am an artist, because I need to create my own world on the side, where the Soul rules with Love, Compassion, and Endless Openness.
10. Timber Timbre | I Get Low
Oh, another band where it’s hard to pick just one, but this was my very first favorite of theirs. The full lyric is I get low, on my own. That really rings true to me. I’m equal parts introvert and extravert, and this is my introvert side that likes to sit alone and think. When I do that, I usually get pretty down. There’s a lot of things that happen in Life, that can get you pretty, well, low, if you think about them. But the sound of this song isn’t depressing, it’s kinda sassy, and the sparse piano line is key. (No pun intended.) This song makes me shuffle my feet and feel OK about bumming myself out. In the end, it makes me pretty sassy.
+11. World Of Skin | 1,000 Years
I started singing kinda like Jarboe before I even knew who she was. When Eric played Swans for me, I immediately loved her vocals. They’re so deep and epic. This song has a sweet 80s/90s vibe to it, with that cinematic quality I talked about earlier. This song is also very obviously about Mortality, which I think is at the Root of Everything. It’s why people make Art, why people make War, why people Forgive, why people Forget, Everything. At the end of the day, no one knows for sure what happens when we die, and that question shapes peoples lives, for better or worse.
1. Talking Heads | The Overload
It seemed that my childhood home in Manchester was imbued with the Talking Heads. The album Remain In Light practically got its own mail delivered to our turntable. Tracks Once In A Lifetime and The Great Curve fueled after-dinner dancing, while the apocalyptic track The Overload brought silence to the room — like we were suddenly a part of something very small. The cyclical rhythmic throb, and mysterious woodwind wail have stuck with me ever since. At a very young age, I understood that it was possible to balance upbeat and Wistful with Darkness to form a sound truly powerful.
2. Iceburn | Sphinx
My concept of song structure was forever changed after hearing this track. Meandering, building, driving, annihilating — then losing its way. A saxophone seemed to rise out of guitar swells and EBow wails, like a mangled tin whistle. Was it Jazz? Hardcore? Space Rock? Whatever it was, it went on for at least 20 minutes, and had me mesmerized every time. Without question, Iceburn’s album Meditavolutions was the best record I bought in 1996.
3. Falling Forward | The Great Union Divide
Formative. I stumbled across this song on a compilation CD, and was hooked. I’d never heard anything like it at the time — melodic, heavy, driving… And then that guy’s voice. Nobody was singing like that. I understood how Instrumentation could wrap around Words, and the importance of pairing the right sound to the message. I had the opportunity to see a later incarnation of the band (as Elliott) in the late 90’s, and by that time they’d smoothed all their edges into a sound so balanced it almost didn’t seem real.
4. Parts & Labor | Solemn Show World
I first heard Parts & Labor at Market Hotel in Brooklyn. They played with Aa and Pterodactyl, trading band members and changing from band to band between songs in a triangular circle formation. The audience kept moving in a circle like a heard of emperor penguins. Anyway, I latched onto this song a couple of years later… Reminded me of the Background Music the old Nintendo game, MegaMan 2.
5. Helium | Revolution Of Hearts Pts. I & II
I discovered Helium at a used record store in Middletown. I picked up their album, The Magic City because of the cover, and quickly got lost in the Music. This song in particular really got to me — it's driving, sprawling, Psychedelic, and unmistakably 90’s Alternative. In retrospect, I wish Helium had continued more in this direction.
6. Swans | In The Eyes Of Nature
Love Of Life, Ten Songs For Another World, and The Great Annihilator — records that have shaped my understanding of Sound as a Communicative Tool. One evening, while inching through patterns of gridlock traffic, this phrase echoed through the car speakers, we are nothing but Experience in the eyes of Nature. In a moment of clarity I took a sharp left off the avenue, and took the road less traveled, home. After all, Reality is naked beneath the Moon.
7. Quicksand | It Would Be Cooler If You Did
This song. The loosest track on Manic Compression, and in my opinion the best. I remember trying to play along on guitar over the course of many summer afternoons at my parent’s house. The track would finish, and I’d drop the needle back in the groove and play it again and again. And, if you listen carefully, you can even hear a reprise of Landmine Spring at the end.
8. Pleasure Forever | Magus Opus
Drop what you’re doing and buy Pleasure Forever’s debut album immediately. Nothing that’s come before it, or after it, has even come close. I’ve lost entire days to this record.
9. Heather Duby | September
I remember driving around late at night in the fall of 1999 in an old Volkswagen with Heather Duby’s debut album playing in the background. This track is the peak of the album — slow, rhythmic and a fitting accompaniment to the fallen leaves crinkling beneath my car tires when parked along empty black rural roads.
10. Planes Mistaken For Stars | Copper And Stars
I saw Planes perform an in-store at record store/saw shop in Wallingford back in High School. There must have been 10 people there (including myself and the band). You’d have never known it — they played their hearts out. Planes kept evolving sonically in the years to follow, and I feel fortunate to have caught them at this early point in their career.
