WARMER MIXTAPES #1373 | by Evi Vine and Steven Hill of Evi Vine
SIDE A | by Evi Vine
1. Roxy Music | Avalon
We spent a great deal of time with our family in the US when I was growing up, my cousin Aiden had taken up residence in the basement - he painted and played guitar and he was cool, I wasn't, and I was at that awkward age, too old to hang out with little kids and too young for the older ones to be interested. I drifted into his private world one day when he was out, and I was painfully board, on his turntable was a copy of Avalon by Roxy Music, the Music moved through me like a wave, a symphony of dreams charged sensual energy and melancholy. This album changed the way I experience Music: not just something to listen to, but something to feel deeply. Music should change your mood.
2. Vangelis | Main Titles (Blade Runner Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
I am awestruck listening to Vangelis. The film, his compositions - so delicate, complex, lonely and pure. Always a source of Inspiration.
3. Fields Of The Nephilim | And There Will Your Heart Be Also
I heard this just before my 16th birthday and just before I would fall in Love the first time. This song, the whole album, was beautifully crafted. Dreamwave. Listening to this record is like walking into a dream. It was a defining moment for me and influenced the way I write.
4. Arvo Pärt | Für Alina (Performed by Alexander Malter)
A friend sent me home with Für Alina one evening after a recording session. He knew I was listening to Gregorian Chant, so knew I would find home with this new sacred introspective, Minimalism, less is so much more.
5. New Model Army | Vagabonds
I absolutely love this band and this song is driving and Tribal, the gathering and oneness, that sense of Change in the air, when people unite they are strong together. This song makes me want to dance and change the World. Amazing, amazing band and I love Justin Sullivan.
We follow the taillights out of the city
Moving in a river of red
As the colours fade away from the dusky sunset
We roll for the darkness ahead
We are old, we are young, we are in this together
Vagabonds and children, prisoners forever
With pulses a-raging and eyes full of wonder
Kicking out behind us again
Night-time
City Beat the radio is calling
The lost and lonely in vain
Out here we are running for the wide open spaces
The road-smell after the rain
6. Simple Minds | Don't You (Forget About Me) (The Breakfast Club Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Featured at the end of The Breakfast Club, the song resonates with me and gives me a deep sense of nostalgia... Ally Sheedy with her junky, just out of bed, smudged charcole eyes and ankle length skirt layed the foundations for a new direction, a new wardrobe and a new musical journey away from the Mainstream Radio dirge and into the New Wave/Alternative scene and thrift store heaven... I had found my tribe and I still love that movie and director John Hughes (he always had great soundtracks).
7. The Doors | Riders On The Storm
I remember seeing/hearing a re-release of Riders On The Storm when I was little, probably the first time I had ever heard anything quite like it, mesmerised by the dark rhythm, I wanted to be a rider on the storm, I still do... Sinister and dark.
8. Echo & The Bunnymen | The Killing Moon
I have a romantic heart, sadly I don't remember when or where I first heard it, but it doesn't matter, as Ian McCulloch says himself it's one of the best songs ever written...
In starlit nights I saw you
So cruelly you kissed me
Your lips - a magic world
Your sky - all hung with jewels
The killing moon
Will come too soon
I got to have beers with him backstage a couple of years ago at a Siouxsie And The Banshees gig when I was recording with Sally Herbert (arranger).
9. Killing Joke | Love Like Blood
Stirs something in me that I can't quite explain, everything about this song makes me want to dance and be lost forever.
10. Kate Bush | This Woman's Work (She's Having A Baby Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
I had the 12" of This Woman's Work, she suspends you in the moment with her voice every time, such rare beautiful talent and the only song that has ever made me cry.
+11. Bauhaus | Hollow Hills
I don't think I had ever heard anything as sad in my life. I listened with reverence in my bedroom with candles lit, my life was my records and the space and privacy I could claim as my own in my room. The one place I could control all things.
+12. Nine Inch Nails | Closer
+ Hurt... Trent Reznor is in my blood. His Music has accompanied me since the release of his first albums both Hurt & Closer from The Downward Spiral were probably the first to catch my attention, the album is a masterpiece.
+13. Cardiacs | Is This The Life
It's the third single from the album A Little Man And A House And The Whole World Window. I had split from a guy who I was totally head over heels for, such is the way of things, coincidentally my best friend at the time had also broken from her first love. In an attempt to recover from our overwhelming sorrow and heart ache we decided that we would become members of Volunteer UK ... What better way to recover… We trauled the pages of our handbook looking for distraction. We accidentally found ourselves a few weeks later in North Yorkshire, neck deep in the biggest snow fall in recent times at a Buddhist monastery. they hadn't told us that our time there coincided with a silent retreat week chipping tiles. Helpless miles from anywhere and snowed in with no hope of escape. Our time at the monastery was followed by a more mutually beneficial experience, a two week stint at the Wooly Monkey Sanctuary in Looe, Cornwall (can you imagine?), perhaps they would be ready for a turquoise haired Grunge goth (I was a lone traveller by this piont)... The people and the monkeys were amazing and once I had established myself within the group and done my week preparing monkey breakfast (listening to the Revolting Cocks every morning at 5.30 am chopping pineapples) I was put on the library rota... On my first morning I rummaged aroud a basket of mix tapes and pulled out one with the Cardiacs scribbled in red biro - Is This The Life shook me to my core at the same time I picked up a copy of Bukowski... And Life changed forever.
+14. Nirvana | Smells Like Teen Spirit
The NME and Melody Maker had become a staple in my daily life relieving me of the drudgery at School, I was so desperate to get out, grow up and leave (I was at Boarding School). With a rush of excitement we had read about a place where people gathered in their thousands in fields to camp and watch their favourite bands play… I was 14, from that day fourth a whole new world opened up to me... The first time I ever saw Nirvana was their performance at the Reading Festival. They were on in the afternoon Sun and Smells Like Teen Spirit had yet to be released…
+15. David Bowie | Ashes To Ashes
+ Space Oddity... He was so alluring. The idea of being alone calling out resonated with me even at a tender age watching the Earth from a distance ( I had no concept of drugs references at the time)... He sings there is nothing I can do... The stillness about it, the only connection you have with the life you had below is lost… Communication is broken and find ourselves floating alone with only the thoughts you left with. Also Neuköln by David Bowie and Brian Eno in 1977 for the album Heroes. We live in Neukölln when we are in Berlin.
+16. Madonna | Into The Groove (Desperately Seeking Susan Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
There is a place for Pop in my life. This song ended up on the film Desperately Seeking Susan. For my little baby eyes Madonna was just the most exciting thing I'd ever seen (I hadn't seen Siouxsie And The Banshees yet). On my first visit to New York City locked my possessions in the port authority locker and bought an enormous bag of cheese puffs. The dance floor is an empowering place for the Freedom that I always feel when I'm dancing, letting yourself go, expressing yourself through Music. 116 bpm, something we have yet to achieve, but it is written in the key of C minor, so that's still pretty sad.
+17. Serge Gainsbourg | Ballade De Melody Nelson
Playful, sensual, wonderful string arrangements.
SIDE B | by Steven Hill
1. Madder Rose | Bring It Down
Madder Rose were the first live band I ever saw, around '96 at the Astoria 2. I don't even remember how I heard of them, but I'm guessing through NME or Melody Maker. The first time you walk into a venue aged 16, the smell, the heat, the nervous anticipation... It defined a time and a moment. I remember the gig vividly and this song with the guitar feedback and drums with Mary Lorson's vocals was magical, scary and completely overwhelming. The second time I saw them live was the day after Kurt Cobain had shot himself and the mood was thick with emotion - information was slow back then, pre-Internet, so the song carried even more weight that night... The album version still sounds raw and fresh and it's something I listen to often. We were so thrilled when Billy Cote (guitarist) agreed to send some Music for this album - my 16 year old self would be blown away - and actually even my mid 30's self still is.
2. Elliott Smith | Between The Bars
I think Music when you are growing up has a strong connection - not only do you have hours and days to listen to Music with your friends, in their cars, at parties, but it's a confusing time - I found complete solace in this record and especially this song. It contains some of my favourite lyrics, double meanings and, although I've heard this song a million times, it is like listening to a new poem everytime I hear it. The lines below sum up much of what I think about potential and wasted talent that I see so often and a reminder that it is easy to talk about doing something and much harder to actually do it, but it starts with one step...
Drink up baby, stay up all night
With the things you could do
You won't, but you might
The potential you'll be
That you'll never see
The promises you'll only make
3. The Cinematic Orchestra | All That You Give (with Fontella Bass)
I heard this record in May 2002 and it was a sunny Spring day - I lay down on my bed and didn't move for the whole hour, it finished, and I played it again - when it has ended I text my best friends and said that my musical landscape had just changed forever - probably melodramatic... But I had never heard anything so lush and deep. With the best drums probably recorded, Luke Flowers is just stunning. As a drummer first and foremost, it's the first thing that connects. This song with Fontella Bass vocals is empowering, inspiring and food for the soul.
4. Talk Talk | Myrrhman
I have to be careful not to waffle on... I love Talk Talk, and am becoming an obsessive bore… We heard this in the background of a party one evening - again, the drums were amazing and something about the sound, a bit Post Rock, a bit Jazz, I couldn't put my finger on it. Our friend burnt us a mixtape and put the album on - and it was the start of a long journey... The record followed us around, we would hear it in a party on tour, then our soundman Stephane played the Mark Hollis record Colour Of Spring over breakfast in Liege, and we chatted about the sound - it was the first time I learnt the name Phil Brown, until then I hadn't paid much attention to producers really - I was more band/instrument focused. We then read Phil Brown's book and knew that we had to have him mix our new record. Phil agreed and had been a guiding light ever since. However, back to the track - the drums, Hollis' vocals just in the mix, and the bass underpinning the whole thing. I have spent hours sat inchs from my speakers hearing new things every listen - so it's either the best record in the World or I'm going slightly insane - both are quite possible.
5. Lamb | Trans Fatty Acid
This was the soundtrack to my University days - Drum And Bass had hit, Roni Size, LTJ Bukem and Lamb emerged with their own Manchester Breakbeat sound - along with the whole Bristol scene and Hip Hop was happening - it was the best time to hear new and exciting musical landscapes. I didn't understand this track and was why I loved it - it was Dance Music, Listening Music, Travelling Music, and an all night smoking record. When Kruder & Dorfmeister remixed it a few years later I was horrified, until I heard it and they did an amazing job - so much so both tracks stand up as individual pieces from the same song. Obviously Lou Rhodes vocals are haunting as ever on this and the production just wobbles your brain and your speakers!
6. DJ Shadow | Midnight In A Perfect World
Instrumental Hip Hop changed the way I listened to and made Music. This song and album is etched into my brain, it was the reason I bought an MPC2000 and turntables and learnt to sample and scratch... Badly. The beats are incredible - enough said.
7. Mogwai | I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead
I've been listening to Mogwai for 20 years and I love whatever they do. This is beautiful, lush and menacing. The sonics are inspirational and simple, clever drums... What else do you need?
8. Portishead | Roads
Probably my favourite band & favourite gig I've ever seen... And this is one of the most emotional songs and the reason I own a 1972 Fender Rhodes. It's just a beautiful song - that is enough with a strong string section. Geoff Barrow's beats and sampling make this the perfect platform for Beth Gibbons to lay her soul on, it really is the saddest piece of Music.
9. Terry Callier | Lazarus Man
I found this song on his TimePeace album quite by chance by waking into HMV when I was 24 and picking up a CD as a gift for my friend. It was this record and my introduction to TC. This track is a story - beautiful lyrics. It's like a sermon. I also love the fact it was his first record for 30 years and he never thought he'd record again until an English bassist/producer wrote to him persuading him to. So it's never too late for anyone. I was lucky enough to see him perform many times, he was a soul man - a beautiful spirit.
10. Radiohead | Everything In Its Right Place
The piano progression and House beat was original and broke the mould from the Guitar Music they had been making. It was the start of Kid A for the band too and when they realised they might be on to something. It was brave and for that reason alone it would be included, bands should be brave, to push themselves, to try new things, new instruments or they all end up like Oasis' 3rd album - utter shite (Noel Gallagher had said that so I'm allowed to). The band are a constant source of Inspiration, not only musicianship but production styles, tips. If you meet someone who doesn't like Radiohead - just walk away - it's a lost cause...
+11. Gil-Scott Heron | Pieces Of A Man
Just listen to the lyrics and weep...
+12. The Streets | Weak Become Heroes
The album was a soundtrack to South London lad culture at the time - it was Exciting New Music, 2-Step Garage with lyrics - it had never been done - this is the best description of mid 90's Rave culture clubbing. The people you meet, talk to, connect with on a deep level to, then walk away, forget their names when another tune comes on to dance to, but at that moment it was as real as anything.
1. Roxy Music | Avalon
We spent a great deal of time with our family in the US when I was growing up, my cousin Aiden had taken up residence in the basement - he painted and played guitar and he was cool, I wasn't, and I was at that awkward age, too old to hang out with little kids and too young for the older ones to be interested. I drifted into his private world one day when he was out, and I was painfully board, on his turntable was a copy of Avalon by Roxy Music, the Music moved through me like a wave, a symphony of dreams charged sensual energy and melancholy. This album changed the way I experience Music: not just something to listen to, but something to feel deeply. Music should change your mood.
2. Vangelis | Main Titles (Blade Runner Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
I am awestruck listening to Vangelis. The film, his compositions - so delicate, complex, lonely and pure. Always a source of Inspiration.
3. Fields Of The Nephilim | And There Will Your Heart Be Also
I heard this just before my 16th birthday and just before I would fall in Love the first time. This song, the whole album, was beautifully crafted. Dreamwave. Listening to this record is like walking into a dream. It was a defining moment for me and influenced the way I write.
4. Arvo Pärt | Für Alina (Performed by Alexander Malter)
A friend sent me home with Für Alina one evening after a recording session. He knew I was listening to Gregorian Chant, so knew I would find home with this new sacred introspective, Minimalism, less is so much more.
5. New Model Army | Vagabonds
I absolutely love this band and this song is driving and Tribal, the gathering and oneness, that sense of Change in the air, when people unite they are strong together. This song makes me want to dance and change the World. Amazing, amazing band and I love Justin Sullivan.
We follow the taillights out of the city
Moving in a river of red
As the colours fade away from the dusky sunset
We roll for the darkness ahead
We are old, we are young, we are in this together
Vagabonds and children, prisoners forever
With pulses a-raging and eyes full of wonder
Kicking out behind us again
Night-time
City Beat the radio is calling
The lost and lonely in vain
Out here we are running for the wide open spaces
The road-smell after the rain
6. Simple Minds | Don't You (Forget About Me) (The Breakfast Club Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Featured at the end of The Breakfast Club, the song resonates with me and gives me a deep sense of nostalgia... Ally Sheedy with her junky, just out of bed, smudged charcole eyes and ankle length skirt layed the foundations for a new direction, a new wardrobe and a new musical journey away from the Mainstream Radio dirge and into the New Wave/Alternative scene and thrift store heaven... I had found my tribe and I still love that movie and director John Hughes (he always had great soundtracks).
7. The Doors | Riders On The Storm
I remember seeing/hearing a re-release of Riders On The Storm when I was little, probably the first time I had ever heard anything quite like it, mesmerised by the dark rhythm, I wanted to be a rider on the storm, I still do... Sinister and dark.
8. Echo & The Bunnymen | The Killing Moon
I have a romantic heart, sadly I don't remember when or where I first heard it, but it doesn't matter, as Ian McCulloch says himself it's one of the best songs ever written...
In starlit nights I saw you
So cruelly you kissed me
Your lips - a magic world
Your sky - all hung with jewels
The killing moon
Will come too soon
I got to have beers with him backstage a couple of years ago at a Siouxsie And The Banshees gig when I was recording with Sally Herbert (arranger).
9. Killing Joke | Love Like Blood
Stirs something in me that I can't quite explain, everything about this song makes me want to dance and be lost forever.
10. Kate Bush | This Woman's Work (She's Having A Baby Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
I had the 12" of This Woman's Work, she suspends you in the moment with her voice every time, such rare beautiful talent and the only song that has ever made me cry.
+11. Bauhaus | Hollow Hills
I don't think I had ever heard anything as sad in my life. I listened with reverence in my bedroom with candles lit, my life was my records and the space and privacy I could claim as my own in my room. The one place I could control all things.
+12. Nine Inch Nails | Closer
+ Hurt... Trent Reznor is in my blood. His Music has accompanied me since the release of his first albums both Hurt & Closer from The Downward Spiral were probably the first to catch my attention, the album is a masterpiece.
+13. Cardiacs | Is This The Life
It's the third single from the album A Little Man And A House And The Whole World Window
+14.
The NME and Melody Maker had become a staple in my daily life relieving me of the drudgery at School, I was so desperate to get out, grow up and leave (I was at Boarding School). With a rush of excitement we had read about a place where people gathered in their thousands in fields to camp and watch their favourite bands play… I was 14, from that day fourth a whole new world opened up to me... The first time I ever saw Nirvana was their performance at the Reading Festival. They were on in the afternoon Sun and Smells Like Teen Spirit had yet to be released…
+15.
+16.
+17.
1. Madder Rose | Bring It Down
Madder Rose were the first live band I ever saw, around '96 at the Astoria 2. I don't even remember how I heard of them, but I'm guessing through NME or Melody Maker. The first time you walk into a venue aged 16, the smell, the heat, the nervous anticipation... It defined a time and a moment. I remember the gig vividly and this song with the guitar feedback and drums with Mary Lorson's vocals was magical, scary and completely overwhelming. The second time I saw them live was the day after Kurt Cobain had shot himself and the mood was thick with emotion - information was slow back then, pre-Internet, so the song carried even more weight that night... The album version still sounds raw and fresh and it's something I listen to often. We were so thrilled when Billy Cote (guitarist) agreed to send some Music for this album - my 16 year old self would be blown away - and actually even my mid 30's self still is.
2. Elliott Smith | Between The Bars
I think Music when you are growing up has a strong connection - not only do you have hours and days to listen to Music with your friends, in their cars, at parties, but it's a confusing time - I found complete solace in this record and especially this song. It contains some of my favourite lyrics, double meanings and, although I've heard this song a million times, it is like listening to a new poem everytime I hear it. The lines below sum up much of what I think about potential and wasted talent that I see so often and a reminder that it is easy to talk about doing something and much harder to actually do it, but it starts with one step...
Drink up baby, stay up all night
With the things you could do
You won't, but you might
The potential you'll be
That you'll never see
The promises you'll only make
3. The Cinematic Orchestra | All That You Give (with Fontella Bass)
I heard this record in May 2002 and it was a sunny Spring day - I lay down on my bed and didn't move for the whole hour, it finished, and I played it again - when it has ended I text my best friends and said that my musical landscape had just changed forever - probably melodramatic... But I had never heard anything so lush and deep. With the best drums probably recorded, Luke Flowers is just stunning. As a drummer first and foremost, it's the first thing that connects. This song with Fontella Bass vocals is empowering, inspiring and food for the soul.
4. Talk Talk | Myrrhman
I have to be careful not to waffle on... I love Talk Talk, and am becoming an obsessive bore… We heard this in the background of a party one evening - again, the drums were amazing and something about the sound, a bit Post Rock, a bit Jazz, I couldn't put my finger on it. Our friend burnt us a mixtape and put the album on - and it was the start of a long journey... The record followed us around, we would hear it in a party on tour, then our soundman Stephane played the Mark Hollis record Colour Of Spring over breakfast in Liege, and we chatted about the sound - it was the first time I learnt the name Phil Brown, until then I hadn't paid much attention to producers really - I was more band/instrument focused. We then read Phil Brown's book and knew that we had to have him mix our new record. Phil agreed and had been a guiding light ever since. However, back to the track - the drums, Hollis' vocals just in the mix, and the bass underpinning the whole thing. I have spent hours sat inchs from my speakers hearing new things every listen - so it's either the best record in the World or I'm going slightly insane - both are quite possible.
5. Lamb | Trans Fatty Acid
This was the soundtrack to my University days - Drum And Bass had hit, Roni Size, LTJ Bukem and Lamb emerged with their own Manchester Breakbeat sound - along with the whole Bristol scene and Hip Hop was happening - it was the best time to hear new and exciting musical landscapes. I didn't understand this track and was why I loved it - it was Dance Music, Listening Music, Travelling Music, and an all night smoking record. When Kruder & Dorfmeister remixed it a few years later I was horrified, until I heard it and they did an amazing job - so much so both tracks stand up as individual pieces from the same song. Obviously Lou Rhodes vocals are haunting as ever on this and the production just wobbles your brain and your speakers!
6. DJ Shadow | Midnight In A Perfect World
Instrumental Hip Hop changed the way I listened to and made Music. This song and album is etched into my brain, it was the reason I bought an MPC2000 and turntables and learnt to sample and scratch... Badly. The beats are incredible - enough said.
7. Mogwai | I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead
I've been listening to Mogwai for 20 years and I love whatever they do. This is beautiful, lush and menacing. The sonics are inspirational and simple, clever drums... What else do you need?
8. Portishead | Roads
Probably my favourite band & favourite gig I've ever seen... And this is one of the most emotional songs and the reason I own a 1972 Fender Rhodes. It's just a beautiful song - that is enough with a strong string section. Geoff Barrow's beats and sampling make this the perfect platform for Beth Gibbons to lay her soul on, it really is the saddest piece of Music.
9. Terry Callier | Lazarus Man
I found this song on his TimePeace album quite by chance by waking into HMV when I was 24 and picking up a CD as a gift for my friend. It was this record and my introduction to TC. This track is a story - beautiful lyrics. It's like a sermon. I also love the fact it was his first record for 30 years and he never thought he'd record again until an English bassist/producer wrote to him persuading him to. So it's never too late for anyone. I was lucky enough to see him perform many times, he was a soul man - a beautiful spirit.
10. Radiohead | Everything In Its Right Place
The piano progression and House beat was original and broke the mould from the Guitar Music they had been making. It was the start of Kid A for the band too and when they realised they might be on to something. It was brave and for that reason alone it would be included, bands should be brave, to push themselves, to try new things, new instruments or they all end up like Oasis' 3rd album - utter shite (Noel Gallagher had said that so I'm allowed to). The band are a constant source of Inspiration, not only musicianship but production styles, tips. If you meet someone who doesn't like Radiohead - just walk away - it's a lost cause...
+11. Gil-Scott Heron | Pieces Of A Man
Just listen to the lyrics and weep...
+12. The Streets | Weak Become Heroes
The album was a soundtrack to South London lad culture at the time - it was Exciting New Music, 2-Step Garage with lyrics - it had never been done - this is the best description of mid 90's Rave culture clubbing. The people you meet, talk to, connect with on a deep level to, then walk away, forget their names when another tune comes on to dance to, but at that moment it was as real as anything.
