If there is one thing that I miss about my pre-Internet life it would be the making of mixtapes. Before eMusic, Last.fm, iPods, and fat broadband came into my life I obsessively bounced tracks from CDs and other tapes to make the perfect soundtrack for a moment in time. July back roads, October in Greenwich Village, February in a steel shop, there was a mix for every time and place. For whatever reason, technology and life in general saw the need and time for mixtapes evaporate and the couple of times that I tried to reboot the process for a mix trading group I was a complete failure, either phoning the mix in or just not delivering.
It seems odd that I listen to music all day long, obsessively hunt for artists and albums that are completely new to my ears but don’t organize them into neat little packages to remember that place and time when they first crackled on the cheap speakers in my car on the way to work or swam out of my headphones late at night. Here’s my first crack at getting back into mixing and while it is a little disjointed and skips from Africa to Brooklyn to Jamaica it is a quick glimpse into what I have been listening to this past month.
C60 for May 2009
- Miriam Makeba – Malouyame
- Thomas Mapfumo – Mhondoro
- Mulatu Astatke / The Heliocentrics – Masenqo
- Buraka Som Sistema – Kalemba (Wegue – Wegue)
- Bronx River Parkway – El Resbalon
- Chin Chin – Hotter Than Hot
- Richard Swift – Lady Luck
- King Khan & The Shrines – Welfare Bread
- Holly Golightly – You Have Yet To Win
- Mama Lucky – These Are My Tattoos
- Sly & Robbie / Amp Fiddler – Black House (Paint The White House Black)
- Culture – I’m Alone In The Wilderness
- Dungen – Minda damer och fasaner
- The Goretti Group with Dennis De Souza Trio – Of My Hands
I’m hoping that each month I can knock out a mix of what might be dominating my ears at the moment with the goal of keeping those mixes to the reasonable constraint of a C60 tape. Enjoy!
I love this idea. Can’t wait to listen!
I’m hoping that I can actually keep up with this side project and not succumb to my usual capriciousness. The next mix should be tighter and more focused on a particular genre or mood.
Chin Chin & Dungen were my favs
Both those albums are fantastic, Dungen’s is a there best so far and Chin Chin’s, while lacking the raw sexiness of their debut is a slow burner that makes for a good summer night soundtrack.