Playlist:
Title Music from A Clockwork Orange
Geinoh Yamashirogumi – Dolls’ Polyphony
Air – Dark Messages
Pole – Fragen
Aphex Twin – Domino
Hector Berlioz – Fantastic Symphony (excerpt)
Clint Mansell + Kronos Quartet – Coney Island Dreaming
Clint Mansell + Kronos Quartet – Tense
Bernard Herrmann – Vertigo Suite
Air – Ghost Song
Michael Andrews – Manipulated Living
Aphex Twin – Curtains
Aphex Twin – White Blur 2
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – They Don’t Sleep Anymore on the Beach
Radiohead is conducting another round of their remix project, this time for the song, Reckoner. More info available at http://radioheadremix.com/.
I had heard about the last remix project but never got around to having a go at it. This time I’ll download the individual song elements on iTunes and see what I can come up with. I’m a big fan of the remix, particularly the work of Matthew Herbert and Carl Craig, but this will be my first attempt at creating anything. Garageband has been collecting dust on my machine since it arrived in the mail, so I might as well try to do something useful with it.
Recently installed OpenTape and created my first mux with it. Very easy process. This mix is mostly cover songs, with a sprinkling of remixes and tributes.
Tracklisting:
Jose Gonzalez – Love Will Tear Us Apart
Firewater – The Beat Goes On
Johnny Cash – Hurt
Nouvelle Vague – The Guns of Brixton
Ellen McIlwaine – Higher Ground
John Forte – What a Difference
Club Sodade – Angola (Get Down Dub by Pepe Braddock)
Gift of Gab/Lateef/Mix Master Mike – Kalakuta Show
Nirvana – The Man Who Sold the World
Johnny Cash – One
Gary Jules – Mad World
Jill Scott – Slowly Surely (Theo Parrish remix)
Platinum Pied Pipers – 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover (feat. Rogier)
I can’t say I ever remember being excited for the release of a G-rated movie… not that I attach much importance to ratings anyway, especially after watching This Film Is Not Yet Rated. But the point is: there’s a G-rated movie coming to town, and I’m excited for it. Just so happens that it’s animated. Yep, I’m really pumped for the release of a G-rated, animated movie. How old am I? A grizzled 28.
Pixar hasn’t let me down yet, and I’m expecting big things from Wall*E. When I’m looking forward to a film, I try to avoid all reviews until after I’ve seen it, but I noticed that AV Club gave it an A. They also published an interview with Andrew Stanton, the film’s writer/director.
Mel and I learned our lesson from going to see The Incredibles opening night in NYC, and this time we probably won’t smuggle in 2 giant cans of Sapporo each (way too much liquid for a comfortable viewing experience), but we’ll be there. Oh yes, we’ll be there.
I think this has been around for a bit, but it’s new to me… and completely awse. It was made in Buenos Aires and produced by Mercurio Film, who I’ve never heard of but need to check out.
Muxtape.com has been my favorite site for the last couple weeks. The premise is simple: upload your favorite mp3’s and create an online mixtape that you can both listen to and share with your friends. The interface is sparse to the point that you wish it would offer more features, and I’m sure more are on the way (already within the last day I’ve noticed a “Buy This on Amazon” link appear next to track titles), but the simplicity keeps the focus on the music.
It’s been much abuzz among the Twitter/Geek crowd, and some tools have already been built to enhance the muxtape experience. The best example I’ve seen so far is a Yahoo Pipe that will provide muxtape recommendations based on your last.fm profile. This is only useful if you’re both a last.fm user and your profile accurately represents your musical taste, but similar tools are likely to keep popping up that will provide communication with other sites.
I was never much of a vinyl collector, and as a result of that I was a latecomer to Metro Area. They released a number of well-received 12″s in the early 2000’s, and I was finally able to take those sounds home with me in 2003 (or was it 2002?) when I picked up their self-titled CD compilation released on the Brooklyn-based Environ label. Very nice tunes rooted in disco, with warm synths and lots of handclaps. I won’t try to explain their sound any further, but 5 years later I’m still loving this disc, and I’m glad I dug it out.
Metro Area is a duo composed of Morgan Geist and Darshan Jesrani. Geist has loads of solo material out there, all of which is definitely worth checking out. I’ve never stumbled across anything by Darshan Jesrani but I bet there’s something if you dig hard enough.
To pass the time during my daily commute, I’m digging through my neglected CD collection and listening to some of my past favorites. Today I selected a DJ mix by Dan Bell (DBX) titled “The Button Down Mind of Daniel Bell,” released by Tresor in 2000. I picked up this disc back in the day when one of my primary ways of discovering new artists was through mix CDs. This album did not disappoint, and it was in constant rotation with me for a good two years. It introduced me to Matthew Herbert as well as Farben, and it also helped me to realize that Thomas Brinkmann was more than a German dude with a gimmicky two tone-armed turntable. Thomas Brinkmann – Karin (mp3) Nick Holder – Feelin’ Sad (mp3) Shake – Detroit State of Mind (mp3)
The disc opens up with a mid-tempo track by Farben, and it carries this minimal tone throughout. Some of the standout tracks are “Karin” by Thomas Brinkman, featuring overlaid dialogue from a movie I can’t place; “Feelin Sad” by Nick Holder; and “Detroit State of Mind” by Anthony “Shake” Shakir.
While many tech-house mixes of this era tend–in my mind–to run a little too repetitive and monotonous, Dan Bell manages to select tracks that drive forward to a steady beat, but also feature subtle melodies that sustain my interest. Just at the point where I begin to tire of it, he switches up the tempo with the closing track by Shake, ending things on a Costanza high note.
So how does it stand up to the test of time? Surprisingly well. I think most listeners would be surprised that this mix dates back to 2000.
Some of my starred items from Google Reader over the last week:
Daptone Doppelgangers – I’m not too familiar with Daptone (I think they’re a soul/funk record label in Brooklyn), but I’m a fan of a few of the artists mentioned here, and I’ll be checking out the rest soon.
