DOWNLOAD

 

MIX NOTES

Spring In The Artificial Garden (snippet) – Whenever I make these mixes specifically for headphones, in addition to digging through my own crates, I often research what music audiophile nerds think is brilliantly recorded. Mexican experimental musician Murcof’s name shows up frequently. I really just used two big chords from this song and thew in a snippet of Allen Ginsburg reading “America”. Both the actual song and the full poem go on for quite some time and are well worth further investigation.

Prologue – This is from the opening scene of the criminally underrated Jonathan Glazer movie “Birth”. Alexander Desplat is one of the big cheeses in orchestral French soundtracks. Peep his catalogue and you’ll understand why he’s the fucking man.

Albatross – A very early Fleetwood Mac instrumental from 1968 that actually reached #2 on the UK charts, if you can believe it. This is from their original lineup, with Peter Green from John Mayall’s Blues Breakers at the helm, 5 years before Lindsay Buckingham and the white winged dove Stevie Nicks joined the band.

These Days – Annie Clark doing her own beautiful rendition of Nico’s “These Days”, which was actually written by Jackson Brown and his version sounds like the fucking Eagles. I’ve always thought there was something about Nico’s vocal phrasing on this particular song that is reminiscent of Simon & Garfunkel. Did I mention I have a mad crush on Annie Clark? Get outta my dreams and into my car.

Drugs – If Daniel Johnston had a band that played in bars and were heavy drinkers, they might sound like this. I discovered this song on this INCREDIBLE mix from Twitch & Wilkes for the last night of their Optimo party in Glasgow 2010. When it comes to eclectic mixes, we should all bow down to these mofos.

Like A Ship – these headphone mixes often call for a little gospel. Probably because the Black Rock desert is a religious experience, whether you acknowledge it or not. Chicago’s Pastor TL Barret is a controversial figure, no doubt, but this rare 1971 recording is undeniably great.

Come Together – Ike & Tina doing an equally great version from their 1970 LP of the same name.

Hailu – Philophon Records recently recorded brought Ethiopian jazz/funk keyboard legend Hailu Mergia to Berlin to record these raw instrumentals at their own studio. They put it out on 7” and both sides are fucking DOPE.

A Lost Village – Brighton’s Grasscut are Andrew Phillips and Marcus O’Dair. They’ve been putting out bugged out experimental music on Ninjatune since 2010. I always like coming across weird tracks like these that interject random spoken word stuff just to mess with your head.

Nature Boy – Ol Blue Eyes early in 1948. This song always sounded hauntingly surreal to me. Like something out of Twilight Zone. Maybe its just me. It was written by proto-hippy Eden Ahbez, as an homage to the German Lebensreform Movement (“life reform”) of the late 19th Century that he had embraced (and which later became a foundational chunk of the whole California hippy philosophy).

Re Run Home – I’ve been telling everyone on earth about this Kamasi Washington album, “The Epic“, all summer long. Buy this record. See this man live. You can thank me later.

The Secret Field (Todd Terje Remix) – This 2007 remix is one of Mr Terje’s finest moments IMO. It takes its own damn time and drifts around like an outtake from and early album by The Police. Kaoru Inoue is a Japanese DJ and Producer who runs the label Seeds & Ground. To my knowledge, this was the only version ever released.

Sometimes – The roots of Hip Hop run deep. This acapella freestyle cypher came out in 1960. You may remember if from such electronica jams as Moby’s “Honey” (1998)

Strange Powers – Indie rock from 1994. This song appears in my head from time to time and I need to listen to it just to let it recede into the catacombs for a bit. I feel like his vocal cadence is actually hypnotizing me. From their 4th album “Holiday”.