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May. 22nd, 2006 03:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aekastar
01. The Books - Three Day Night
02. The Boy Who Spoke Clouds - Fear at 3am
03. Radio Phnom Pehn - Indefinite State of Emergency
04. Elf Power - Somewhere Down The River
05. Ultramarine - British Summertime
06. Why? - Crushed Bones
07. June Brides - Heard You Whisper
08. Orange Juice - Blue Boy
09. The Oranges Band - Ride The Wild Wave
10. Three Mile Pilot - Glitter Wave
11. Ticonderoga - They Can Run
12. manyfingers - 3 forms
13. The Mountain Goats - Sometimes I Still Feel The Bruise (Trembling Blue Stars cover)
14. Women & Children - Build Me a Castle
15. Hanne Hukkelberg - Break My Body (Live) [Pixies Cover]
16. Birdmonster - No Midnight
17. Richard Buckner - Loaded At The Wrong Door
18. Machinefabriek - The African Guy
19. Matinee Orchestra - The Matinee March
20. Es - Summer and Smiles of Finland
Total time: 75:23 after edits. 3, 11 and 15 are altered the most -- meaning beyond a fade in/out
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01- Really, I think of this song as a representation of the passage of time.. how it can go from winter to summer faster than you can blink practically. I still remember the beginning of the year like it happened yesterday. I also like the owl hooting at the end, yes...
02- This was the first transition I heard randomly on iTunes that inspired this mix. it also prepares the listener for the sense of panic this mix has...
03- Especially at the beginning of this song with the warning. even if you're not into world music, this song still has a good beat, damnit.
04- It was hard to find something to go after the cambodian song without turning the whole mix into a world mix or just hopping into something random. before I discovered this song, it was just going to jump into british summertime showing the contrast between fear and a sense of calm elsewhere. I am still glad I added this song even if the vocals aren't really the warmest out there.
06- It was about time I put a Why? song on a mix... this song also goes nicely along with a british summertime: 'In london, where the sirens yelp like a helpless dog with his paws stepped on / ..and the rain comes down in late july'.
07 & 08- This starts the 80's portion of the mix... the only reason I used them was for the summery vibe they conveyed while still being rather ominous. I just discovered the June Brides recently thanks to reading an article (I had to google for this) that Dave Eggers liked them and used to bike miles to the closest record store to get their albums. it intrigued me even if I think Eggers can be a bit pretentious sometimes. I wasn't disappointed in checking them out anyhow.
09- It still went along with the 80's vibe while being a song from the 00's. this band semi-reminds me of a mix between The Beach Boys and The Smiths.. hrm. I'm not even sure why, that's just the first thing that came to mind.
10- It had that same take charge beginning and is a song with the word 'wave' in the title. it's also my favourite Three Mile Pilot song. I think I've listened to it a trillion times and it's about time it got a spot on a mix. this is another one I noticed through random transitions while listening to my playlist. did you know I recently realised (thanks to the lyrics booklet), that they say "black liver" in the chorus before saying glitter wave? definitely dark.
11- I can't get enough of this Ticonderoga album and I think of this song as the one I listened to most ("If a stem should sprout / from a seed inbetween the both of us / I'll breathe for the three of us")... I like how the way it transitions seems to give the image of waves rolling out and the fog rolling in... it also carries along the vibe of summer and things growing in more ways than one ("On the search for love").
12- The piano seems to capture that sense of running in circles. it also sounds like the start of a death... the romance was pretty short lived :P
[ETA: I just now noticed that from 10-12, the #3 is brought up in some fashion.. well, sort've.. 'three mile pilot, breathe for the three of us and 3 forms' ...the things I don't plan!]
13- Yep, it's the "tasteful emo" song. when I first heard The Mountain Goats were going to cover this song, I pictured it being more acoustic than it ended up being. it's still less smoothed out pop like the original, but there's more to it than I thought there'd be. Trembling Blue Stars is always the band that makes me get nostalgic / mopey. I stopped following them once they changed their sound and were less about breakups / unrequited love and more about just straight pop. I'm not sure what they're doing now, but I did download a song last year. it didn't move me in the least. this song.... "making contact gets harder / as the silence grows longer / Why would you think of me? / When you were not the one in love / When you were not the dreamer / When you were just the dream" ..lines like that are what make a song, yo. certainly not this cheap emo crap happening the past few years.
14- This song isn't as sweet as the title may suggest it'd be ("Build me a castle / in which I may die / Bring me some poison / to dry out my eyes"). it's pretty doom and gloom, but I like the pretty piano and the slight crackles. I downloaded this album, but I do think it's only on vinyl, so perhaps that's the source of the crackles. anyhow, just a continuation of the moping from the last and so forth.
15- I first heard this on
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paperandglue's radio show that first Thursday (I forgot to listen if there were more episodes though :\) and it gave me chills.. I didn't even remember the Pixies version at that point (I later got it out; it's just faster really.. eh, not their best song). afterwards, I immediately searched one of those mp3 aggregators for an mp3 version and all I did with it for this mix was edit out the clapping at the end. it's still known as a live track even without it. I just wanted a smoother transition.16- I like how putting this song after the last gives it new meaning. "She held your babies / safe in her arms / then they called her in the night / to the grave where she belongs". the babies could represent the bones and of course, bones lead to death and the grave.
17- This song turns the whole story around.. asking why it is you wasted all your time pissing and moaning... if you're really digging for connections, it could represent dying and reaching the other side.. the door being the gateway. I choose it to just represent the changing of an attitude and not taking the rest of summer for granted. that synth line makes me smile everytime.
18- This song is from the little 'Manchester' album... I used it 'cause it gave me a sunny summer day vibe.
19- Everything is full of la la la's now.. still not better than oh oh oh's, but do a good job of creating that big finale where everything turns out okay and everyone dances across fields amongst flowers. tra la la...
20- I put this in just as a silly joke.. "Make you cry / Make you laugh" ...a simple summary.
A sense of worldly delight in a small summer package.
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no subject
Date: 2006-05-22 10:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-22 10:09 pm (UTC)Any album I should start with? I did consider downloading some.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-23 01:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-26 06:03 am (UTC)credence or cadence.
Date: 2006-10-18 02:40 am (UTC)my first question involves purpose. inspiration to create a mix defines the entire process, in my opinion. my friend is celebrating a birthday in about a week, but my driving motivation is derived from an obligation in response to the disproportion in exchange with this individual. i've been fortunate enough to receive all kinds of gifts and attention from my friend, but i have yet to reciprocate. i suppose this mix is an expression of gratitude for all the unsolicited grace my friend has shown me. i don't want the mix to be cliche appreciation; i want to include songs that represent the commonality, perhaps unrecognized, between my friend and i.
which brings me to my next question: how selfish should i be in creating this mix? certainly i am aware of my own emotional connection to the music, but how much attention should i pay to the reception of these songs? i want to choose music that represents the commonality i share with my friend, but when do i become too patronizing? i want to share music with my friend as well as entertain and enlighten. i don't want to be predictable, but i can't be alienating. how do you make this compromise?
i want to achieve an even representation on the mix. i don't want to treat an artist at the expense of another, but sometimes i feel two or three songs by the same artist are appropriate. what balance should i strike within an artist's catalogue? stylistic diversity affords me more latitude in selecting multiple songs by the same artist, but am i beating a dead horse? as i mentioned before, i don't want to be predictable.
i'm struggling most with my favorite artists. unwound, don caballero [specifically 'american don'], and tortoise are giving me fits. 'standards' is my favorite tortoise album, but, as with several albums, i find it exceptionally hard to isolate a particular song because of its relationship with the rest of the album [radiohead, amirite?]. i don't want to exclude these songs simply because of their participation in a cohesive whole, but i also want to preserve the emotion implicit in the original work. perhaps i'm letting my personal relationship to the music interrupt the project. the books, radiohead, blockhead, and beck also make strong showings on the mix, but every team has its role players and there are some songs that serve to ease the brevity of my project. david bowie, elton john, and self [specifically their cover of "what a fool believes" by the doobie brothers] do a good job of providing universally appreciable toe-tappers in the midst of some cagey gems.
i was inspired by your album covers; i hadn't thought of that level of personalization so i was prompted to create my own:
album cover art. (http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r13/incunabulator/cover.png)
given my bashful and forced use of similes, i thought it appropriately humorous.
i serve an ftp off my machine and have my mixes as well as my library available to those who care to peruse. if you'd like to take a look at my latest mix or browse my catalogue i'd be happy to give you the login and password.
i recently emailed you to tell you that i enjoy reading what you write. if you feel anxious about the attention i've paid your journal and website, i completely understand. having an ambiguously anonymous nobody plug you with questions can be quite uncomfortable. i'd be happy to hear your answers to my questions, but if i don't i will understand.
i hope this note finds you well. have a pleasant evening.
Re: credence or cadence.
Date: 2006-10-18 09:47 am (UTC)As for how I go about making mixes for individual friends and especially for a special occasion, I consider stuff they like then find stuff I like that is similar in sound.. say, one friend of mine likes a lot of jazz, but mostly sticks to contemporary jazz, I'd go find all the underground/indie jazz I could and mix it together with some stuff I find meaningful as well. I've done this many a time. most friends have appreciated the effort in trying to find things they'd like while hearing some of the stuff I usually listen to as well.
Hmm... this second question sort've corresponds with my first answer... give a mix of both, so that way they feel comfortable within the confines of their taste as well as your own mixed inbetween. one friend gave me a purely jazz mix; nothing else within it, and I'm sad to say, but I lost interest since jazz was never really my favourite genre.. I did appreciate the effort that friend made, but I only listened once. a mix is meant to be treasured, so I always feel bad thinking about how I couldn't get into that particular one.
In the past, I used to add more than one song by a particular artist, but now I get about a dozen+ albums a month in some form or another, so I feel there's not enough room for more than one. if you feel the need to though, never stick them one after the other.. mix it up.. maybe do this trick I've seen done before.. a palindromic mix by using the same artist at the top as the bottom and continue this trend till you reach the center solo artist.
Hm... I think I get what you're saying in terms of an album being a cohesive whole. I feel I can't use explosions in the sky on a mix very well since each track was meant to continue into the next. I did once make a post rock mix, but it was my least favourite one since it felt like I just took fragments and tried to make a new whole which didn't work as well. I have found a good way to make it feel whole is to try crossfading your tracks. I just learned how to imitate this trick since I never figured out the actual tool on my editing program. if you'd like to know the trick, let me know!
Is that you in the album cover or someone from a band? sorry, if that's a stupid question :P
It looks good to me though.. really, covers should represent your personality in a way.
Sure, I'm always curious about other people's mixes!
I didn't seem to get an email beyond this... maybe I accidently deleted it? I get a lot of spam. I only noticed this one 'cause it was an alert from livejournal, so they always stick out.
I don't mind the questions.. I like when people take interest in my entries/site. that's why I have it up ;P
Hopefully you get notice of this considering I don't think anons get alerts, but coincidentally, I'm making a new mix right at this moment, so mixing has been directly on my mind again; it was a good time to ask :D