I used to love putting together mixtapes for friends, I used to have an old “music centre” from the 1970s which comprised of a turntable, radio and cassette deck in a large wooden box with a CD player connected to it.
I used to sit putting together compilations for friends, hands poised over the pause button as the track was approaching the end, trying to roughly calculate how long the recording had gone on for and whether I could fit one more track on the side. A lot of the mixtapes were Reading bound as two friends were living there at the time, I think some of the tapes are still kicking around, as tapes have that wonderful habit of surviving moves, clear outs and falls, drops and cracks… maybe they still get listened to.
I haven’t put together a mixtape in a long time, but have recently got really into makimg mix CDS for friends, sometimes burning a quick iTunes playlist so I have some music to share with them if we are meeting up but mostly I like to record a mix from turntables/CD players using Audacity and burn that to a CD… one mix one person… I don’t like to make a mix and pass it out to everyone, there’s something I enjoy in producing a mix knowing it is for one specific person, and that it is for them and them only.
And even more recently I have been swapping some mix CDs with people that I haven’t met before and using the internet in its various guises to arrange with people to swap some mix CDs… so Twitter has seen a couple of CDs head off to Rhode Island (hope they got there), a mix CD head off to Massachusetts and some more sets staying in the UK heading south and north.
Arthur Mag (a website covering music, films, art, poetry and more) had a post last week about a guy in the US who was signing people up for a year of mixtapes to be sent out 6 times across 2011 – Plastic Crimewave’s 2011 Galactic Zoo Mix Tape Club. For $40 (delivery to the UK) I am signed up for a chance to hear not only the possibilities of introductions to new music but to also hear and enjoy how someone else puts together mixtapes, the cover art they use, do they give out the tracklist (I like to try not to include track lists with my mix CDs).
If you want to swap mix CDs then the best way to get in touch is to follow me on Twitter – @SoundscapeMixes
and then send me a direct message and I will get onto it!
