Getting ready this morning for work I caught the end of a song which caught my attention at a time of the day when nothing ever does…digital radio station scrolled across…. Billie Holiday by Warpaint… never heard anything by them but this track had me transfixed

Proper investigation this evening led me to this Rough Trade Session, and it is simply stunning, a beautiful track which everytime hits me, speechless, gentle and sublime…

And there was more, more perfect songs by this fantastic new band, and so beautifully filmed by Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth (they performed Silent Sound, soundtracked by Jason Pierce, the world all falling into place…), in particularly the facial expressions and looks captured on Composure are beautiful, simply filmed but effective

so the Too Hot in the City Mix features beats, bass, guitars and grooves and the following roll call….

• Tokimonsta – Smoke & Mirrors
• Creedence Clearwater Revival – Heard it through the Grapevine
• Declaime/Flying Lotus – Whole Wide World (featuring Pattie Blingh)
• Ornette Coleman – Friends and Neighbours (vocals)
• Samiyam – Frosting Packets
• King Midas Sound – Earth A Kill Ya (Mala Remix)
• Federation Sound – Flatlands (Brooklyn Dub Mix)
• Lee Scratch Perry – City Too Hot
• The Temptations – Ball of Confusion (That’s what the world is today)
• Pocahaunted – Threshold
• CAVE – Hunt like Devil
• Spacemen 3 – Suicide
• White Noise Sound – Blood
• Sunray – Baby Honey
• Forest Swords – Riverbed
• Suicide – Dream Baby Dream
• Radiohead – Lotus Flower (Jacques Greene Remix)

2011 has seen some amazing releases from XL… Tyler, the Creator.. Radiohead and some fabulous releases from Jamie XX including his reworking of Gil Scott-Heron’s I’m New Here is one of my top releases of the year, and having NY is Killing Me on vinyl already I was extra pleased to see the sampler had I’ll Take Care of U on it.

It was also really great to have a copy of Yonkers on vinyl, the track comes alive on vinyl, brooding and the beat leaps out at you in a way that can’t be achieved on a MP3

So I put together a mix using a few tracks from the sampler….. listen to my “I Love my Sampler” mix here, featuring:

Radiohead – Supercollider

Jamie XX / Gil Scott-Heron – I’ll Take Care of U

Tyler, The Creator – Yonkers

As great a track as Yonkers is I want to post a couple of other videos, one is of Tyler and Hodgy Beats performing Sandwiches live on Jimmy Fallon and the second is a Hodgy Beats track called Mystery, which I think could well be my favourite track to come out of the OFWGKTA collective

The first.. Souundscape Tapes 15 was uploaded to Soundcloud… so get it downloaded… 3 people already have!!

The last mix was uploaded to Mixcloud, so no download, but with only two listens could do with a little love!!

Soundscape Tapes 16… listen, enjoy and tell a friend!!
This mix includes some of the more electronic and bass-focused music I have been listening to recently and I am loving Footcrab by Addison Groove.. don’t care if I am late finding out about this, who cares just dance

The room was hot, sweaty and the music was loud… I’ve been listening to the Wooden Shjips for a few years now but this was my first experience of them live. The bassist anchored in the centre of the stage, hitting a groove with the drummer and not letting go till the songs fade into fuzz…

An audience dancing, shaking lost in the throb and the layers of sound, drones from the keyboards and Ripley’s voice are draped over the throbbing bass and pummelling drums, the momentum builds up and then the soundscape unleashes that wild guitar sound and we are lifted to a fucking psychedelic heaven… we wind down and the next song builds up, the piece picking up as the gig draws towards a close, the band leave the stage, the bassist is carried into the crowd… they’re back and the encore kicks in, harder, faster, wilder these guys are ripping the Brudenell apart and it’s glorious

We want it psychedelic, but we’re not looking for paisley and whistles we want mind melting, soul lifting, retina burning fuzz, drones and guitars that would make Zeus throw his eyes to the heavens and bust a move

The Wooden Shjips are amazing on record but live they step up a gear and you become immersed in the sound, a place in which I could happily remain

So today is meant to be the Rapture, a coming apocalypse and judgement for us all… no one has said how long the judgement will take, I imagine it is going to be an administrative nightmare so here’s a mixtape to listen to you while you wait…

Put together with two old turntables who refuse to give up…. Judge them favourably when it is their turn

The Rapture Mixtape rollcall…

Sheep on Drugs – The Flaming Church

Primal Scream – Burning Wheel

The Rootsman – Show me some Love

King Midas Sound – Cool Out

Mercury Rev – Deadman

Portishead – Only You

UNKLE – An Eye for an Eye

Sun Araw – Heavy Deeds

Drugstore – French Devil

LA Vampires meets Zola Jesus – No No No

Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie XX – NY is Killing Me

Spiritualized – Let it Flow

I kept meaning to get some posts up, share some mixes and videos… but here we go, two and half months in and I have plans for plenty of blogposts!

Just uploaded my first Mixcloud tape of 2011 too – Soundscape Tapes 13

Picked up some great records recently – currently enjoying some New Orleans Funk while the sun shines outside

Will post more soon, but until then, check out the mix and enjoy the video

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!

Check the mix out here – http://www.mixcloud.com/adventuresinthesoundscape/dis-is-10-competition/
Hopefully this one will do better than the entry for the Warehouse Project competition which is looking like automatic elimination is a definite possibility!!

Will stop pimping my competition mixes and get some more music reviews and thoughts up soon!!

Enjoy the mix – it’s got the Gaslamp Killer on again, can’t get enough of “when I’m in awe”

Video Action!
Death in Vegas ft Hope Sandoval – Help Yourself from Scorpio Rising

If you want to make Sheep on Drugs and PWEI a New Years Eve reality I need at least 100 listeners, and my mixes have crawled past 27 once I think!!!

Tracklisting:

Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee – Me and my dog
Death in Vegas – Neptune City Concrete Funk 2 (Two Lone Swordsmen remix)
The Gaslamp Killer with Gonjasufi – When I’m in awe
Blood, Sweat & Tears – Mama Gets High
Sheep on Drugs – Let the Good Times Roll
PWEI – Wake Up! Time to die…
Leftfield – Open Up (I hate Pink Floyd mix)
Paul Butterfield’s Better Days – Take Your Pleasure where you find it
Jerry Lee Lewis – Johnny B. Goode
Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee – South Bound Express

Thanks!!