03/01/2009

the mixtape

thought i might make a track listing of the cd i made for everyone here, since i didn't give anyone an actual track listing with the disc and also to point out specifically what i think might be helpful to telafonica from each track. and if anyone else wants to make their own copy, soulseek is my preferred p2p platform. (blake, feel free to add your own collection in another post - eliza and bec, feel free to make your own collections to share with us all!)

1. bow wow wow - c30, c60, c90, go!

this is just so raw, but without any nihilistic punkness. and it bases a pop song squarely around the rhythm. the little jarring rhythms in the chorus just kill me every time. it's all such simplicity but orchestrated brilliantly. lyrics are nice too - especially from the point of view of anti-corporate d.i.y.ness (though malcolm maclaren was no doubt behind that, simply as a gimic)

2. the flying lizards - money

the rawness and lack of much in the music is what i like most here. i've already started attempting to get that with 'don't speak for me'. the noises that constitute the instrumental break are also great. don't look up any of their other songs, though, they're all exactly the same - horrid deadpan vocals on 50s and 60s cover songs. they were a one trick pony, but this track made the best of that one trick.

3. beem - rer

i came across beem when i discovered skwee and went looking around the net for it. beem put his whole album up for free download and i highly recommend the whole thing. i picked out this track because of it's jerky, yet eternally propulsive rhythm. i also like its minimalism. as everybody already realises, i have difficulty keeping production simple. i always admire simple production that can maintain interest and always aspire to it. i just never quite get there.

4. bjork - earth intruders (spank rock remix)

bjork at her poppiest and then twisted up by spank rock. i really love the very natural blend of acoustic and electronic sounds. the acoustic drums are great, and the tambourine, which sounds very raw, tops it all off perfectly. but the rest of the instrumentation is very electronic (and i would guess that the actual rhythms are programmed electronically). and, again, the rhythm is propulsive, just slightly jerky and therefore captivating.

5. clinic - the second line

two and a half minutes of brilliance. mouth percussion samples, simple drum machine, semi-giberish vocals. the way voices are used throughout are great, and the way it builds and builds towards the final release... nice guitar riffs - everything i could want in a short pop song.

6. miss mend - living city plan

i like this for the same reasons i like stereolab (who miss mend no doubt have rested most of their inspiration on) - just a propulsive drone in the music, nice catchy melody and instrumentation we can aspire to. again, simplicity deployed well.

7. parts & labor - satellites

i became a bit obsessed with this band for a while a couple of months back. this is the first track off their newest album. it deploys electronics as noise making then lays guitar as the harmonic carrier over that - kind of the inverse of what we've come to do a lot this year. i also like the tempo, which has the kind of energy we don't really generate with any of our music, but i like it and think we could aim for some of it a bit more. it's alos melodically and harmonically more complex than we generally get, without becoming baroque - it's still quite direct. the guitar sound is also great - very energetic without reliance on distortion.

8. lcd soundsystem - all my friends

i could have put any song from either of their albums (except maybe 'new york i love you' which is fine in its context but nothing i'd ever wish to emulate). i went with this one because it featured piano, so i thought it might hook eliza a bit easier. memorable melodies etc. as with all their great stuff, it starts out with great energy and yet somehow manages to build upwards from there. it shifts almost imperceptably throughout - dynamically i love it. and it also uses the mix of acoustic/electric/electronic sound brilliantly which you're probably noticing is a feature of everything in this collection.


download the mix here (49mb)

1 comment:

Blake said...

i did love the blend of the real and the electronic.

what a wonderful collection of songs.