Mix CDs and Tapes

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!

It’s a Digital Mixtape Frenzy

OK so I have submitted another mix to a competition running on Mixcloud, this one is in association with Drowned in Sound.

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

The Mixcloud Bench Warehouse Project Competition

Mixcloud have a competition running – The Bench Warehouse Project Competition – on the site, Adventures in the Soundscape has submitted an entry, 30 minute mix and it needs listeners!!

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!!

Brian Jonestown Massacre – I want to hold your other hand – Video

This video is billed as work in progress but The Brian Jonestown Massacre are sounding great on this track

The music swirls and the guitars pick their way through the hazy soundscape… delicate, eastern-tinged psychedelia

Also want to recommend the amazing Dead Mantra 10″ release by Dead Skeletons… thick drones, chanting vocals and a steady beat which drives the track from start to finish.  The vocals blend into the mix of the track, mummered rather than projected – part of the soundscape rather than leading the track, and there is a beautiful moment when a female vocalist takes over the chanting… a dark, wonderful slab of psychedelic vinyl… and it’s etched on the reverse

It’s released on A Recordings which is Anton Newcombe’s label… found mine on Cargo Records website but Norman Records have some too

Psychedelic Soul Mixtape Uploaded and Gaslamp Killer EP lands

Latest mixtape has been uploaded to Mixcloud, Soundscape Tapes 11 is a psychedelic soul stew of horns, drones and electronics and some sweet slow grooves

The mixtape was inspired by the soundtrack to Werner Herzog’s “Bad Lieutenant” an amazing film with the perfect soundtrack…

Here’s what I have to offer

The Flowers of Hell – The Joy of Sleeping
Bobby Womack – Everything’s gonna be alright
Demiran Cerimovic and his Orkestar – Competition rehearsal song 2
Flying Lotus – Do the astral plane
Curtis Mayfield – (Don’t worry) If there’s a hell below we’re all going to go

Can – Halleluhwah
Dr John – I walk on guilded splinters
Brightblack Morning Light – Past a weatherbeaten fencepost

Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee – Old Lost John
Garnette Mimms -
The Flowers of Hell – White Out
Tremulous Monk – Dear Sky
Johnny Adams – Release Me

Blogging while listening to the new Gaslamp Killer EP “Death Gate” which has just arrived from LA on 10″ vinyl, amazing track “When I’m in awe” which just jumps out – great laid back vocals from Gonjasufi, beautifully produced track… hunt down a copy on vinyl but here’s some Youtube teasers

Watch out for a mix soon which will be for a Mixcloud competition – will need listeners!!! Make Sheep on Drugs a New Years Eve reality for the Warehouse Project in Manchester…

Soundscape Tapes 10 – Up on Mixcloud

Soundscape Tapes 10 is now uploaded to Mixcloud… a bit different to the last few mixes, I have put together this one using some records I haven’t listened to in what seems like ages.

They’re some great records here though, Leather Girls reminds me of being at a friend’s student house in Reading as he tested out some mixes using the Leather Girl single on vinyl and playing a CD of a Jack Kerouac spoken word reading at the same time, no mixer available it was two seperate music players playing at the same time! I always remember it sounding amazing…

Soundscape Tapes 10 Features:
Spectrum – Undo The Taboo
Stereolab – Lock-Groove Lullaby
The Sisterhood – Finland Red, Egypt White
Prodigy – Spitfire
Death In Vegas – Leather Girls
Thom Yorke – Harrowdown Hill (The Bug Remix)
Dusty Springfield – Spooky
Portishead – Magic Doors
Drugstore – French Devil
Kris Kristofferson – Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down
Steve Reich – Music For 18 Musicians (Ruoko Ruotsi’s Pulse Dub Remix)

Serpentina Satelite – Mecanica Celeste

The new album Mecanica Celeste by Serpentina Satelite is out now on Rocket Recordings, and it is worth hunting down.

The first thing about the album “Mecanica Celeste” by Serpentina Satelite is the album cover, no one else seems to have mentioned this in the reviews I have seen and it is worth the time to heap praise on this wonderous cover. The design itself is fairly simple but the execution and the end result is simply beautiful, with a metallic foil in electric blue printed onto the cover, I got lucky and my copy is pressed on blue vinyl (there are 99 other blue copies out there, with 500 pressed on black vinyl).

Serpentina Satelite are a five piece from Peru, I must confess to having no previous knowledge of this band, but I do know that this is their third LP, but I think it is great to be able to approach a record not knowing what to expect and with no prior knowledge.

I have eased my way into Sunday with a few coffees and listened to the washing drones and picked guitar lines of James Ferraro’s “Last American Hero”, and suitably caffeinated I place the album over the spindle and drop the needle…

Fuzzing bass, soaring guitars, percussion falling through the tracks and voices dripping with echo greet the listener on the first side.
The opening track sets the pace for the album, slow grooves and psychedelic explorations. Across side 1 we are treated to swirling guitars, the percussion hitting a mind-expanding groove, the vocals arcoss the first side are spoken word, the texts read with reverance, a psychedelic sermon to the listeners.  Hypnotic laughing drifts through the mix in the third track as the guitars blend with wild oscillations, wrapping around each other in celestial glory as the third track sets its sights for the heavens… and then the pace drops and the side ends with a chanting choir underpinned by a heartbeat-like drum as the narrated style vocals pick their way through the chants

Side 2 opens coated in fuzz, the pace has dropped and the mood darkens, hidden under this fuzz and electronics the guitars scream, reaching up to the heavens and higher into the mix as the track progresses. Chanting female voices opens the closing track, before a military-style drums kicks in, the mood again heavier than side 1, the track building up as the drums begin to pummel themselves into a frantic rhythm the guitars keeping up every step of the way before it all slows down and the album closes with a female choir singing a hymn

A great album from a band I have never heard of before and thanks to Rocket Recordings for bringing it to my ears and releasing a record produced and put together with such love and attention

The tracklisting:
Side 1
Fobos
Sangre De Grado
Mecanica Celeste
Imaginez Quel Bonheur Ce Sera De Voir Nos Chers Disparus Ressuscites!

Side 2
Al Apaec
Sendero

Soundscape Tapes 9 – New Mixcloud Tape Uploaded

Uploaded to Mixcloud – Soundscape Tapes 9

Experimental Audio Research – Beyond The Point Of No Return (Part 1)
Mercury Rev – Shhh/Peaceful/Very Sleepy Rivers
Getatchew Mekuria & The Ex & Guests – Ethiopia Hagere
Astral Social Club – Nitrous Foment
Unkle Ft. The Black Angels – Natural Selection
The Strange Attractors – Reverberation (Doubt)
Cave – Brigitte’s Trip (White Light/White Jazz)
The Rolling Stones – 2000 Light Years From Home
Comets On Fire – The Black Poodle
Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. – Grateful Head
John Renbourn – Nobody’s Fault But Mine

The Dirtbombs – Ultraglide in Black

I was recently recommended the album Ultraglide in Black by The Dirtbombs… I haven’t been let down, the album is a collection of covers, but it doesn’t feel like a covers album, it sounds like your stood in a garage with sweat dripping off the ceiling as one hard rocking band knocks out killer tune after killer tune, the rhythm section is tight, and the whole album is drenched in fuzz, which is sliced through with some searing guitar lines, and when the harmonica kicks in… head back, eyes closed and get lost in this fuzzed-up psychedelic soul…

I love it, the album never drops the pace for 10 tracks and then half way through “Livin’ For the Weekend” the fuzz drops away, and a filthy soul swagger kicks in… late night… club closing, lights on, bottle for the walk home, sun rising, the morning sun not a problem walking home in sunglasses

In the track “Ode to a Black Man” the harmonica will wrench you out of any reverie and your feet should move, your feet will move, there’s no way they can’t… couldn’t find a video which includes the harmonica though!!

This album is the sound of the best band you could ever imagine playing in your town, they sound so raw, they’ve honed these tunes through practice, but they still do not sound cold and clinical, how can they when they ooze fuzz, soul, filthy sleazy harmonica lines and guitars which will make you pick up a beer pick up your feet and hit the dancefloor… two drummers, two basses… enjoy

And for some reason I came across The Doors on YouTube, and couldn’t not put up this video… Roadhouse Blues

Soundscape Tapes 8 – Sonic Assault Uploaded

New mix uploaded to Mixcloud – Soundscape Tapes 8

Featuring the psychedelic onslaught of white-hot blistering guitars, thundering bass, psychedelic blues and scorched grooves straight from the aether

High Wolf – Cloud Head
Fraction – This Bird (Sky High)
Dead Meadow – Through the Gates of the Sleepy Silver Door
Magic Lantern – Planar/Sonar
Soledad Brothers – Downtown Paranoia Blues
The Rolling Stones – Shake Your Hips
Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. – Pink Lady Lemonade

The Heads – Spliff Riff

Loop – Thief (Motherfucker)
Brain Donor – Get Off Your Pretty Face

White Hills – I Will Find Peace of Mind

Spiritualized – Shine a Light (Clear Light/Clear Rush)