One man, a word-processor, and too much free time.
The guys over at the Truth and Beauty Bombs forum are doing mix exchanges, both virtual and disk-shaped. They are doing this here.Naturally, I have done one also, and would like to think that it is pretty good. Track #9 does not work, owever, and must be uploaded seperately here. It is a pretty great song by Dappled Cities Fly, and I recommend that even if you don't download my mix, you down load that single. They have other songs available on their site, as do a lot of the bands which I've listed.As listing, part of that virtual mix thread involves etailing the how and why of your selections. So here that is:
1. Hyperballad – Big heavy Stuff – Like A Version is basically one of the best things to happen in ages, and this Bjork cover is one of the best things to come out of it, winning points for managing to sound new and interesting whilst also remaining true to the original. Doing bosa covers of Motorhead tracks is only funny for so long.
2. Arabian Gothic – Dead Can Dance
– What isn’t to like about this song? It’s the kind of music that I’d like to have playing as I go out to fight to the death against a minotaur warrior in the decrepit arena of a lost jungle fortress with the perfume of flowers in the air beneath the light of a three-quarter moon.
3. The Fairest of the Seasons – Nico
– The album Chelsea Girl is just so warm and cuddly in production, though not always in lyrics, especially compared to the album I picked-up after it, which left me lying shivering splintered on the bedroom floor, and this song is one of the most fun to listen to, although I would have put “It was a pleasure then”, had it fit the CD, and this is rather melancholy. But Nico is all about the melancholy.
4. Incidental Backcloth – Pivot –
The sound of walking through the suburban hills at night segueing into going for a drive down into the city after all the shops are closed and running around the park until you get bored and go to a loud pub.
5. The Ghost of Corporate Future – Regina Spektor
– Such a happy, whimsical, irregular song, and Spektor’s voice is gorgeously up-beat. It has a nice message, too. Coffee is the devil.
6. Cast of Thousands – Darren Hanlon
– Such a sweet, sad, gentle song; which is what Hanlon is often about. I don’t know who he has singing on this, but she sounds lovely. I like it best because it’s an amicable break-up song.
7. The Unknown Bosa
- The first few seconds of this track sound like their setting-up something cheeky by Herb Alpert. What we have instead is a smooth, quiet, smoky little number perfect for cocktails or a turn around the dance floor with a woman sporting bangs and Capri pants.
8. Poughkeepsie’s Always Proud – Soltero
– Embittered, sarcastic vitriol from a screwed-over friend. I chose this song for its combination of lyrics and catchiness, one of which Soltero seem to sometimes skimp on.
9. My Head’s Queen Ant – Dappled Cities Fly
– I mostly love this song for the title. But the exuberant “Hey!”s and the couple of seconds of cosmic roiling before the chuh-chuh-chuhs combine to make this one damned fun song. It is like hanging-out in a wind-tunnel of music.
10. Doin’ the Ganglion – Lederhosen Lucil
– 60s girl-group-aping catchiness about wrist cists! Every one of her songs that I’ve heard is fun, but this is fun in a vial.
11. Voo Doo Doll – April March
– This is an “End Credits” song, something to be played over the names of the technical staff at the end of a screwball comedy. I am writing a film where it coincides with a zombie attack. The vocals are in a silly 60s nasal pop vein, and the lyrics are frequently grammatical nonsense, but I wouldn’t like to get on Ms March’s wrong side.
12. The Gypsy’s Wedding Day – Unknown
– A fun little folk number about a pretty young gypsy with a mercenary approach to marriage, the woman’s voice is delightful in a clear, straightforward way that not enough people employ. Also, accordion - vs. - fiddle death match.
13. La Certitude – Françoiz Breut
– The backing guitar is just so headlong and exciting and powered, enabling one to rock-out whilst Breut sings along with a gentle lilt like a butterfly in a hurricane.
14. Moby Octopad – Yo La Tengo
– I used to listen to this coming home every night on the train. It has one of the best balances of vocals and instruments on I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One, and is very much a late-night track. It sounds just like Spencer Street Station at 11pm looks.
15. Chewing Gum – Annie
– So damned danceable! Even though I don’t dance! Everything about this song is great. It’s got a clever pun, interesting timing, and vocals designed using an advanced algorithmic computer geared towards isolating the sixteen principle elements that comprise the sonic alloy fun (fn). Those little “wee!”s are adorable!
16. Counting Sheep – Sarah Blasko
– For my money Blasko is one of the best songstresses out there right now. Her tracks are comprised of careful combinations of many little patterns, and her vocals are gorgeous. She always comes across with an absolute earnestness, no matter the material, but never sombre or self-important. The best thing is that this is also exactly how she sounds live.
17. Biological – Air
– A ghostly, funny and sweet love song, taking probably the least romantic approach to romance you can conjure whilst keeping it rated G. The final two minutes, with the repeating pattern of guitar, synths and minimal percussion, is one of the loveliest loops the group has managed to come-up with.
18. Hypnotique – Martin Denny
– Martin Denny can often be saccharine and annoying, but since he was making pop in the 50s you can forgive him. Hypnotique is not annoying, it is gorgeous. It’s not silly like “The Quiet Village”, just beautiful and exotic and sweeping. It is music to dance with sexy spies to or have playing on the soundtrack as you romance white women in brown-face named Fatima.
19. Danarfregnir – Sigur Rós
– The guys at Sigur Rós like metal, and this is pretty clear on this track. It is an epic tune of power, appropriate for steampunk warfare and fighting dragons using only you iron sword and iron thews, but in an artsy manner on top of a glacier. Also, maybe underwater exploring in a rusty bathysphere, with icebergs threatening the cutter that’s lowering you and some kind of kraken giving you the stink-eye.
20. Johnny Cash – The Sons and Daughters
– Gritty Scots rock-out with their metronomic drums and dancing guitars! Exciting vocals! Not as much fun as “Dance Me In”, but more appropriate and pretty damned cool.
