eashfa
Head is alive. Hence the sound of music.Archive for mixtape
A Midsummer Night’s Jam
There was a storm yesterday, and as plastic bags were swallowed by the cafe latte hole in the sky, people running for cover down in the streets, girls screaming It’s Raining Men! I was just playing music in my head.
A Sunny Day In Glasgow - The Best Summer Ever
Boris w/ Michio Kurihara 道夫栗原 - Rainbow
Tommy Guerrero - Introspection Section
a loose cannonball part 1 (mxtp)
A pletora of artists for you on this.. (I’m considering terminating eashfa or updating more rarely than I have because well, that’s the tragedy of my character and I can never really finish off what I start) one of the final posts.
I get urges to post like anyone else. But then I type and retype things and annoy myself and others, and read other audio blogs. Some of which actually say things. Lots better than I.
I might consider podcasting though, then I’d feel more useful! Anywho, here’s a fully-furnished indie-perspective playlist. If you’re not indie, you still need the indie perspective. Because indie sounds so .. backyard with disneyland potential.
The Catchy Ones
Matt and Kim - Yeh Yeah mp3
(props to Matt and Kim for posting the music on their site) - they were supposed to be touring with French Kicks. Alas, now they tour still but no French Kicks (dates on the site natch) , and you can hug them for me. An electro fuzzball of keys and drums, stomping hot, there’s a lot of nerve in the vocals and a lot of drums to set an otherwise setting-down summer on fire.
Ratatat you should’ve heard of until now. I have a propensity for music that goes all out on layers and melody instead of focusing on words.. Ratatat don’t need no words! the “band” name itself follows universality rather than contextual meaning. They are sort of a feast aren’t they.
This is the part where indie leaves conspicuously. The Futureheads are a great band, and they surpassed britpop 2005 tendencies with a gimmick you’d expect from 40’s TV commercials, but the syncopated vocal harmonies work like a charm forgotten. Skip To The End doesn’t have the polivalence of Decent Days and Nights, but I’m just nitpicking here, it’s worth listening to much more than say, most of Razorlight’s last LP.
The Futureheads - Skip To The End mp3
Golden Smog are left almost Jeff Tweedy-less as Gary Louris steps in with the vocals. Turns out, this is good:
Brightblack Morning Light (formerly BrightBlack) have a stunner of a record and a corker of a website. This is the type of music that’s so chilled I can see it coming straight out the freezer along with a fairy-like duo, their trees and rivers thrown in. The Brightblack bargain.
Brightblack Morning Light - Everybody Daylight mp3 (via Matador Records)
Switches have Graham Coxon as a fan (they’ll be touring with him in October) and while the backbone of their music might remind you of generic britpop, they’re rehashing it as orange-juiced breed of classic rock where you might even hear a couple of familiar new-wave style riffs and coordinated bellowing. Something very catchy about them - maybe it’s the clap-instigating drums. Their myspace has 4 downloads, so get ‘em while they’re still indie. Also, they have an EP out.
Switches - Message From Yuz mp3
End Of Part 1
Ginger pieces for my Little Red Riding Hoods
I’m out until the 12th or the 13th, depending when or if I choose to come back from Open’er. But before I go, here’s some of my favourite music to smoke, eat, shower, walk, imagine driving, drink a nice bevvie to, this darkening side of 2006.
Love Is All - Make Out Fall Out Make Up mp3
Nouvelle Vague - Ever Fallen In Love mp3
Larrikin Love - Downing St. Kindling mp3 (6 Music - BBC Session)
The Kooks - She Moves In Her Own Way mp3
Conrad Newholmes - Noonday night mp3
Beirut - Rhineland (Heartland) mp3
The Radio Dept. - Why Won’t You Talk About It mp3 (via Labrador)
Sunset Rubdown - A Day In The Graveyard mp3
Herbert - Something Isn’t Right mp3
and a remix - Wolfmother - Woman (MSTRKRFT remix) m4a
Sigur Ros you’ll just have to buy. Or take a look here.
Right, now go and check out some of my fave blogs on the Further music page. Although some of them might be on hiatus too, they’re all worth a try, especially bigstereo. My main inspiration, although it might not look it.
Oh and wolf! Don’t let’s be snarky.
Eskiimo
the word mixtape as you know by now, avid reader (or not) , conveys to me a complex act, involving to several degrees of inner torment both passion for music and placement skills. it's an entrepreneurial endeavour almost, an act of friendship, narcissism because you can't wait to see the reaction. music can only say so many things for you. then again you can't rattle on too much about it. and you can't prevent others from talking all over it when you play it for them (fools).
the mixtapes i used to do for myself were thus moulded: listen to radio preferably between 10 pm and 2 am on Mondays for classic rock, Friday nights for indie rock, Wednesdays for leftfield electronic; press record; pay attention to the song's curvature and predict if that lame-ass dj will step in with his tongue all over my music. No rest. I'd have the radio on, studying, reading, drinking, being idle. Waiting. whenever i run into an old tape (I don't throw them away even though I have most of the songs in mp3) i get a whisk of something, something specific like a smell, or a book i was reading, or a colour. so, accidental and lonely-late-night-radio-driven as they may be, mixtapes can mean something.
i don't like people that bring me something in sweaty hands (when you choose to forge a determinist destiny for yourself, you're usually nervous), i rather like a nice throw then a ceremonious gifting. Dear Eskiimo threw me a link (an provided inspiration for my preamble). Dear Eskiimo are Simon, Katie and Jules, they make pop music that on occasion cavorts with a propensity for "technicolour musicals". their music is stripped of snobby references and it's perhaps simplicity that attracted me to it.
Dear Eskiimo - Pretty mp3
Dear Eskiimo - Jo mp3
Mancunians of mortal descent, higher beings in happy-go-lucky mixtape realm.
what starts off all powerpuff-girls-in-a-30's-style-ad (redundantly harmonic vocal arrangement- or maybe i just forgot how euphony hears like) rapidly decants into a mesmerizing joyous mixtape for days both sunny and rainy. a tribute to their influences - the likes of Eels, Eminem, Depeche Mode, Phoenix, PiL, Gwen Stefani and a bit of Frank (I wasn't too happy about the Eminem, it's the only detail that seems a bit out of place); very little self-indulgence. harmony yes, harmony i love. it's exceptional because it's become so rare in something else than mainstream music, and there it's heinously lacklustre and disengaging.
myspace is misused by many an artist. They slack off creativity, information is scarce and so is humour. Dear Eskiimo know there's a job to be done, and they're driven. If they're not, it certainly looks that way. These are people who can make a near-flawless pop mixtape that doesn't force a highlight; a bucolic landscape for my ears. It's like riding a train instead of an aeroplane. You can relax, move around, feel the earth, talk to your neighbours, solve a murder mystery. I don't know if I make myself understood very clearly (probably not.. clearly; I know I can twirl subjects sometimes). OK here's the link.
Dear Eskiimo mixtape (mp3, 17.5 Mb)
A mixtape that rings true. With a plan, but still spontaneous.
And I hope that was an accurate portrayal of someone I don't know based on a mixtape 
And I hope my radio story made me a complete buffoon to everyone, god bless.
