And another CD swap (v6) SPACE IS THE PLACE

excellent, thanks! I will definitely give Audacity a go sometime and give you a shout if I need any pointers.

1 Like

@woweezowee had a listen to yours during the week. really nice flow, the way it all fits together.

already very familiar with the tracks by Caribou (Sun was the track that got me into him actually), Flaming Lips and Beastie Boys but didn’t know much else.

i only know the obvious by Underworld and their track was quite different to what i’d expected from them - does much of their stuff sound like this? like Keith said i alternate between really liking Public Service Broadcasting and finding them a bit boring but this remix was quite good. i don’t think i made it to the end of The Race For Space, is the remix album worth checking out then?

i love The Three EPs but somehow have never listened to much else by The Beta Band, really enjoyed Space so that’s been a handy reminder to listen to more of the later stuff. have never listened to The Notwist before but used to see the name around a lot, sounded from that track like something i would like.

i didn’t really think the Chris Bell track stuck out like you said, it’s a bit different to the stuff around it but thought it still fit in quite naturally as an end-of-mix track. was good as well, never heard it before. there’s an Irish electronic duo called I Am The Cosmos so presume this is where the name came from.

those were the standouts for me then. admittedly i completely forgot about/didn’t really notice the concept you had in mind while i was listening to it, i just enjoyed the overall spacey feel. cheers!

Glad you enjoyed the mix and it flowed well Ic-Smic. Don’t worry about the concept, it was just an idea to order the sequencing of the mix around really.

Re. Underworld, I personally think there’s plenty of stuff by them worth checking out. Second Toughest In The Infants and Dubnobasswithmyheadman are pretty much flawless albums in my opinion. Beaucoup Fish and Barbara, Barbara… are in the second tier, and then 100 Days Off which my selection is from a step below that I think. You can’t really go wrong with those first four, so I’d start with Second Toughest… and take it from there.

On The Beta Band, this one’s from Heroes To Zeroes which I like a lot. They followed Three EPs up with a s/t album that they disowned on release day. Made the promotional interviews quite funny and to be honest, it is a complete mess. They tightened their song structures up after that, and Hot Shots suffered for that a bit I think as it’s a bit one paced and they got stuck in the grooves they made. HTZ is best of both worlds imo.

We’re big fans of the Race to Space album in the zowee house, but I’d be cautious of recommending a remix record if you maybe find the original a bit boring. Definitely a good companion piece though, it’s a little dancier and there are some interesting remixers on there - Field Music, Dutch Uncles, Maps etc. I think remixing’s an underrated art and really enjoy hearing music I like reinterpreted, so was a sucker for it.

The Notwist are very good, I often imagine them alongside Hood. This is from The Devil, You + Me which has been a regular fixture on my stereo for about ten years now. Think they started off doing punk/metal and then somehow became something completely different.

Will have to check out I Am The Cosmos, thanks for bringing them to my attention. Thanks for the nice feedback!

@ericthefourth, thanks a lot for your mix. It was exactly what I was hoping I would receive from one of the mixes in the exchange - big, spacey ambient synth sounds. It meant it took a little longer to really listen to as I often listen to these CDs in the car, but car engines and ambient music don’t often go too well together.

The artwork was really nice and I liked the sub-titles you gave each piece, I thought they made for a great narrative. The mix worked really well as a whole. The Thomas Koner and Tool pieces were a bit too abstract for me in isolation, but worked well in the context of the mix I think.

I don’t know a huge amount about ambient music beyond the big names, so some new ones to check out here starting with Secret Pyramid, Tetsu Inoue & Edward Artemyev I think. Oneohtrix Point Never were a big highlight, not sure I’d heard of them before. I also enjoyed Wolves In The Throne Room a lot - usually a black metal tag would be enough to send me running in the other direction, so thanks for bringing something to my attention I wouldn’t have otherwise heard.

Enjoyed the CD very much. Thanks for sending :relaxed:

1 Like

Have listened to Hot Shots once or twice but don’t remember much aside from Squares. Have always heard they hated the s/t so skipped it (though i’m a bit intrigued by it) and never even got round to HtZ so i think that’s definitely due a listen. always find it funny when bands are already disowning an album by the time it’s come out, i suppose the gap between recording and releasing can be relatively long. i remember Girls Names had disowned their first proper album by the time it came out as their gigs had already sounded very different while the album lagged behind

i really enjoyed the first PSB album at the time and was disappointed to miss them on tour a couple of times, but didn’t get round to The Race for Space until quite late and had little interest when i did. i’d say i could easily stick it on again in a different mood and quite enjoy it. yeah i’m not someone who bothers to check out remixes very often but there’s often some gems in there when i do. i haven’t heard Maps in a while actually. will probably listen at some stage but i think i’ll try the parent album again before i do.

1 Like

Vein of Stars is a great song. you might like the one i went for off Embryonic, no whimsy in sight

1 Like

Hello @DustyNothing thanks for your space CD, I’ve been enjoying it for the last couple of weeks. As previously mentioned Moonbeams by The For Carnation is an amazing song, and it a very worthy centre-piece of the disc. I’ve never really bonded with Slint, but TFC really hit the spot for me. Other (not heard before) highlights were Gerling who were a lot of fun (could imagine really enjoying this at a festival), I’d always had Errors down as a more workmanlike Mogwai (saw them do a fairly lacklustre live show once) and had never really bothered exploring them but their song on your disc was really interesting. If I were to get one album what would you suggest? Julianna Barwick was a lovely way for the disc to go out. It all hung together really well and flowed very nicely. If I were being picky the only weak spot (for me) was the Thao & Mirah song, which reminded me a bit too much of one of those songs that seemed to be used all the time for mobile phone adverts.

@ninetyeightytwo @allnerve @otto @static @Scagden Your discs from me finally went into the postbox yesterday. Hopefully you’ll get them soon after the bank holiday.

more electronic than Mogwai definitely. bits of Rave Tapes, particularly Remurdered, are very Errorsy. which song was it? briefly considered Earthscore for mine but wasn’t sure that was spacey enough.

@paulo13 - I had a really good listen to your space mix Friday and Saturday. That first track by Hans Appelqvist was really weird and a brilliant opener, from the thunder/crunching footprints and then that bit that’s basically someone being attacked! That was terrifying. Other standouts were Beach House (beautiful song that), the jaunty keyboard one by Elf Power, Photo Hemispheres (interesting voice on that one!) the Air one, Kelly Watch The Stars - which shifted brilliantly into the Public Service Broadcasting track (I kept playing these two over and over as they worked so well). I reckon both of these would be great to listen to whilst driving at night. Favourite track might be the Fog one - very delicate and warming. Thanks! :slight_smile:

thanks, and glad you liked it! & pleased/relieved that you liked the Windmill song (Photo Hemispheres), as he has got such a high pitched waily voice that he makes The Flaming Lips seem quite conventional, plus it mentions Carl Sagan also. Kelly Watch The Stars is by far the oldest song on my mix, and one I used to love/was nice to revisit. I’m not that keen on the album the Public Service Broadcasting song is from, but that song (Go!) is great. The Fog song probably isn’t too representative of him - a lot more quiet than his normal laptop/mixing type sound, but I’m quite a big fan. He did a join album with Why?, as Hymie’s Basement, a number of years ago now, which is also very good.
anyhow, thanks again! :slight_smile:

1 Like

@Icarus-Smicarus

Thanks for the mix, which I’ve just gotten around to listening this weekend. My thoughts:
I was considering a couple of songs from The Flaming Lips for my mix, but not this song as I never really liked Embryonic (much preferred the whimsy!). Although I have been enjoying their last couple of albums, so maybe I should revisit it again sometime.
I’ve never really listened much to Beck somehow, other than his singles way back when, but this song is nice.
Really surprised by/enjoyed the Alvvays song. Had a brief listen to them before, but didn’t like the song. Will be sure to listen more as they will be playing at End of the Road this year - so will Smog/Bill Callahan, who I only really knew from (and loved) the song Rock Bottom Riser. I do love his voice and need to properly investigate him.
I chose a different Bill/Aidan song for my space mix (The Greatest Story Ever Told), and am quite keen on the album it’s from.
The start of the BATS/Astronomy Astrology song makes me think that they’ve watched Carl Sagan’s show, Cosmos, where he mentions that when being born you are more likely to be affected by the doctor’s small (but close) gravity, in comparison to a planet’s big (but far away) gravity - basically just debunking Astrology. Like a cosmic Fr Ted sketch. Not too keen on the song when it gets all loud, but kind of like the chorus bit.
and ooh, Lisa O’Neill… I thought she sounded familiar. I saw her support The Divine Comedy earlier this year, where she was quite entertaining.
thank you! :slight_smile:

1 Like

the Smog song is from Knock Knock which is his best album out of the ones i’ve heard, i reckon. definitely a good starting place anyway.

i’d imagine so, they’re very sciencey lads in most of their lyrics.[quote=“paulo13, post:213, topic:13377”]
Lisa O’Neill… I thought she sounded familiar. I saw her support The Divine Comedy earlier this year,
[/quote]

ah same here, which is where i bought the album! i’d been meaning to see her for a while though

cheers for the feedback!

1 Like

oh yeah and my favourite is Come Down With Me. though like the other earlier stuff it’s where they’re still balancing guitars and synths in a bit of a more post-rock influenced way, whereas later they dive a bit deeper into electronics and reverb with (unintelligible) vocals - from your description above you might like that side of them more? Have Some Faith In Magic is my favourite of the later stuff (the latest one never really grabbed me).

@DustyNothing could recommend something different entirely though!

@Icarus-Smicarus - your mix arrived a few days back, have given i a few spins and liking it (Moon Duo, TV on the Radio, Brakes, Sonic Youth all stand out so far). Good BATS choice, I resisted the urge to include something off The Sleep Of Reason, but glad someone did :smiley:

@riverwise @static @MROC and @Scagden - I’ve managed to get to a computer with a printer! Album covers done and in a jiffy bag. Will send tomorrow when I get into work. I apologise for the delay.

4 Likes

had to be done…

@Icarus-Smicarus I’ve been away at a festival (Bearded Theory) since Weds night, but got back today and realised yours had arrived sometime in that period. Far too broken to listen tonight I’m afraid, but the tracklisting looks pretty interesting. I’ll dive in tomorrow…

1 Like

Thanks for the lovely feedback. My first attempt at trying to mix the tracks together to have a continuous flow to it so really glad to hear that it sounded okay to someone else’s ears. As soon as the theme was announced I knew I wanted Moonbeams to sit in the middle and that I’d end it with a floating back to earth style track and that Julianna Barwick would be perfect so nice that you pointed those two out.

I heard of Gerling back in the late Nineties Evening Session days. They had a song called “Death to the Apple Gerls” which was like a scuzzier sounding Pavement and I bought the album on the strength of that one track. Turns out the rest of the sounded nothing like it and barely had any guitars on it at all which the teenage me hated.

@Icarus-Smicarus Yes I used Earthscore. After the tribal sounding start I thought it had just about enough outerpspacey synth sounds across the track to fit the theme. I also picked it over other possibles as at that stage in the mix I wanted to keep the pace up and it has an energetic feel to it. Agree with your recommendations. I would choose Come Down With Me or Have Some Faith In Magic which this track is from. Their latest Lease Of Life has had little plays in comparison.

I completely get what you mean about the Thao & Mirah track and on my multiple playbacks tweaking things it was the track I always skipped so in hindsight I should have removed it!

2 Likes

Thanks a lot for yours too @static . Nice space journey through a wish mash of genres which slotted together very well. The only band on there I’d heard before were New Kingdom, who cropped up on a mix by @funkycow a while back so took me a while to work out what was what. That Figurine song was a lot of fun, took a very interesting direction that I wasn’t expecting. Love a bit of scratchy drone and had never come across Paul Jebanasam before so will be listening to more. Could take or leave the song by Euphoria Report, was very competent, but kind of sounded like post rock by numbers for me. Probably the highlight was the Roger Goula track, stirring stuff! Many thanks again.

1 Like

Thanks Dusty,

Great to hear you like some stuff on there, As I said to Astronaut I almost swapped out Figurine, (should have done) more of an old place in my heart band and definitely dntels twee’st output. To be fair to Sontag Shogun, that track is very much a remix and in no way representative of their output which is more an old post rock band gone experimental modern classical/ambient thing, so you may like their normal output –‘tale’ was in my top 3 albums a few years back.

The Boats are probably my favourite british band, and likely the most featured band in my collection with over 200 songs, 14+ albums of goodness, They’ve switched up their sound a little bit (not hugely exlcuding nomenclature) since their first output in 2004. The original ambient electronic lullabies picking up more electronic static in the ballad albums and Nomenclature and the Abstraction EP are very different hard heavy beat electronic. Their early years Lp box set is also the most expensive bit of music I’ve bought, knocking disintegration loops of the top spot. Pretty prolific artists too, Danny Norbury is a kind of third member on a lot of the later albums but one half of the duo is also tape loop orchestra, bepu and half of the Misty’s and the other is the humble bee, half of seamen and the tattered sail, a former member of hood and ran cotton goods. Anyway yeah, very fond of the boats, most of the their output is just great for background work and bedtime lullabies.

And very happy to hear the flow of the last tracks worked well. cheers

Thanks Woweezowee,

Happy to hear there was some stuff on there you liked. Bats definitely up there in my post hardcore/mathy favourites and definitely my favourite bit of Richter collective. I’m really hoping GZA brings his dark matter album out soon, it’s been a long time coming, but based on that song I think it could be great and give us more fodder for our space mixes. Really glad you liked the last 3 long ones, the other 2 tracks on the jebanasam album are similar but a little harder so worth checking them out if you like it.

Thanks for your mix looks great, things have been a bit hectic but will get to listening soon and feedback.

Likewise @riverwise, thank you for your mix too, I have given it one listen and there is some lovely stuff on there but want to give it another before I can feedback. Cheers.