@ninetyeightytwo @allnerve @WardrobeGruber
Just a heads up for you three that I’m really behind on mine but I am working on it. Sorry about the delay I’ve been very busy!
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Things coming thick and fast. @DustyNothing yours just dropped through my letter box. Looks like a choice selection, one song in common with mine (the for carnation). One of my favourite songs of all time, hope the rest of it lives up to that quality!
@static I still owe you some feedback. Need to listen to it some more due to unfamiliarity with the track listing.
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Thanks very much @Prob500 much appreciated! The John Murphy thing is from the soundtrack to the criminally under rated Danny Boyle sci-fi film ‘Sunshine’. I love both film and soundtrack!
I do take your points on the Circle Takes the Square song. I hummed and hawed a long time about removing it as I was worried that it would rub people up the wrong way (and it has some!) but a) I love it and b) I thought that if this whole cd swap makes us listen to things we wouldn’t normally then that’s all to the good.
Really glad you like Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith: i have the lp on vinyl and it’s just burbling and blissful the whole thing.
Thanks @Prob500, glad you found stuff to enjoy. I take your point about the Necro Deathmort track, it could be a minute or two shorter and achieve the same.
My username did indeed come from that track, but not really because I’m a massive Butthole Surfers fan but more when I was trying to think of a username when I registered back in 2001/2 it was something I’d listened to recently.
It’s from their last album Weird Revolution from 2001, by no means their best. I think most people would agree that 1987’s Locust Abortion Technician and 1988’s Hairway To Steven are their finest moments and are definitely the two albums I would recommend hearing first, if you like them move on to 86’s Rembrandt Pussyhorse and their debut from '84 Psychic Powerless Another Man’s Sac. 1991’s Piouhgd is worth checking out if only for their trippy cover of Hurdy Gurdy Man. 1993’s Independent Worm Saloon saw them moving into more straightforward rock territory but still with a fair few weird bits. 1996’s Electriclarryland drops almost all the weirdness and leaves an ok rock record but no more.
Came back from holiday to find your CD on the doormat @DustyNothing, lovely artwork and an awful lot of tunes that will be new to me (again, either I’m being lucky or I’m not as widely listened as I thought!), cheers! I shall report back presently.
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I have uploaded my mix to Mixcloud in case anyone else fancies a listen;
I’m not sure if it will! I wanted to make Moonbeams the centrepiece of the mix. Incredible song. Incredible album. Incredible band. Think that’s the third mix in a row I’ve put them on now. Hope you find other stuff you enjoy though.
Your mix has definitely opened me up to not dismissing anything classed as jazz in the future as The Comet Is Coming and Soil & Pimp are two real favourites. Soil & Pimp in particular. Can imagine live they must be a lot fun. Great description of TAMTAM. Sounded like really interesting and intelligent pop music so hope the rest of their stuff is in a similar vain. Jonathan Donahue does have a very distinctive voice but it did take a while for me to get it. A lovely way to end it.
You did a top job in both mixing the tracks in together and keeping the flow going. Nothing jarred. I got lost on your track listing which I would take as a compliment. It was also my first try at mixing the tracks in together and I used Audacity. Drove myself mad constantly tweaking and playing my mix back through to the point where I hated it and had to leave it alone for a couple of weeks. Ultimately enjoyed it though and will look to do the same for the next one as should you based on the strength of this mix.
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I find Locust Abortion really hard work in places but Human Cannonball is one of my favourite songs ever. I think Psychic, Powerless is a stronger album without a proper ‘best song’ (although I fucking love Cowboy Bob.)
Agree with what you say about Worm Saloon (produced by John Paul Jones of Led Zep.) I love the song Strawberry.
Thanks for the few I’ve received so far - will be taking them into my car for commutes next week!
I half made my mix a few weeks back but have been crazy busy. Should be posted on Monday 
Sorry for taking so long with feedback!
My favourites on here are the one with Stephen Hawking at the start and Caribou (someone I know of but haven’t properly ever listened to.) Really enjoyed Dr Octagon and Beta Band too.
Wasn’t dead keen on the Underworld track (but know they’re ace otherwise) or Flaming Lips (who I’ve never really got.) I go through phases of really liking PSB and it really boring me so not sure how I really feel about them! There are a limited number of Beastie Boys I like and unfortunately Intergalactic isn’t one of them.
Really well sequenced and there are always points for linear notes too!
Thanks!
@shucks, @paulo13 and @riverwise - i finally had time to get to the post office today so your mixes should be there in the next few days!
definitely not as ‘interesting’ or conceptual as the ones i’ve received so far (FEEDBACK INCOMING SHORTLY) and probably stuffed full of obvious choices but hopefully there are a couple of interesting new things in there for yiz. there are definitely a couple of shucks-approved choices towards the end!
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No problem Keith, I don’t think it has been that long for feedback. Glad you found some things on there to enjoy. Caribou are great imo – it was a toss up between that song and another one by them called ‘Mars’. I went for that in the end purely because I already had another song called ‘Mars’ that I didn’t want to lose and ‘Sun’ helped begin the narrative at the centre of our solar system. The one that I added the Stephen Hawking dialogue to was Pye Corner Audio – they’re on Ghost Box, along with The Pattern Forms, who are also on the mix. The label has a really strong graphic design aesthetic, so all their releases look beautiful and are recognisable as being part of the same family. The artists can be a bit hit and miss though with some stuff that I just don’t think is very good hidden behind gorgeous covers. I really like both the bands included here though and the albums they’re taken from.
I’m a big fan of that Underworld track and its steady pulsing rhythm. It was one of the first names on the teamsheet so shame it didn’t click – but that’s the nature of individual taste. ‘Intergalactic’ is the sound of every club night I ever went to as a youngster, not one I thought I’d be introducing anyone to for the first time, but a good sci-fi banger imo.
Glad to hear the sequencing worked. I cut a lot of my long list choices on the basis that they didn’t quite feel like they fitted in anywhere and tried to make it feel like a coherent mix that still retained some kind of concept. Thanks for the feedback
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@static - thanks for your excellent mix. Lots to really enjoy on here. I wasn’t keen on the more indie ones (single frame, roommate & figurine - though the arrangement for single frame was great, I just couldn’t get on with the vocals), but liked pretty much everything else.
Hadn’t heard of Bats before, but loved that; the modern classical of Roger Goula was beautiful; GZA pushed all the right hiphop buttons for me and I hadn’t heard the song before; and the Paul Jebanasam drone piece was a great closer.
The Evpatoria Report track was my favourite of the disc though - that was astonishingly good. What a great piece of music, I hadn’t come across the name before so thanks for bringing them to my attention. The artwork was simple but really effective - all round a very enjoyable listen. Thanks!
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O @LastAstronaut, I have finished listening to yours.
As I said upthread, I like how it’s a proper mix. It’s well-mixed too - the electronic and post-rock songs towards the end flow so well they could be a single track.
The volume levelling’s a bit jarring on the spacey samples you’ve used (though “It’s full of stars!” is a great one to end with), and there was a strange high-pitched squeaking noise under the Nils Frahm track - is that meant to be there? But this is technical nit-picking. Beyond this it was loads of fun.
It was good to hear Brakes. I’ve not listened to them since I saw them supporting Belle & Sebastian 12 years ago (scream). Also, Public Service Broadcasting. The song was undeniably lovely, which further compounded an ongoing problem of mine - though I like every single thing I’ve heard by them, and though I really like their “technique”, for some reason I always find myself thinking “really?!” whenever I see their name! Absolutely my problem. I’ll get over it. That Go song helps.
Interesting to learn the origin of your username (I’d never heard that BHS song before), and I would never have expected a band called Necro Deathmort to sound like that.
Thanks for your feedback @ninetyeightytwo, I had a few problems with trying to get the levels right with the film samples and especially the Humanfly track which on my first pass was ridiculously louder than anything else leading to me having to re-burn the CD, I’m still a novice using Garageband and this is something I’ll work on for the next mix.
Glad the mixing was enjoyed, I was really pleased with how it flowed in the end (apart from the levels!), the squeaky noise in the Nils Frahm track is meant to be there, he placed the mic inside the piano when it was recorded so those noises are the piano hammers etc. Personally I’d have preferred him to just record it normally as I don’t think the noises add anything to the track but with that title I just had to use it to close the disc!
Thanks again!
Oh, Nils!
@ericthefourth, thank you for your great mix, this IS the synth mix I was looking for! In getting it out there so quickly, it’s first on my feedback list…
Your choice of opening trio was exactly what I was hoping to hear when you said you’d be synth heavy, in particular Tetsu Inoue’s warm and embracing spirit of data, which is my favourite of the three (where should I start with him?). I know the Grouper and OPN tracks, which fit well, particularly the latter which breaks the sequence of ambient washes nicely. Where was the dialogue from at the start of Grouper?
Also really enjoyed track 6 (reminds me of Alien, shiver, is this really a NASA Voyager recording?) and track 7, but not too keen on the organ starting track 8 (when the mix is so synth heavy, it felt out of place to me, gets better though). The Tool track sort of passed me by, but the mix closes strongly with Wolves in the Throne Room, which I’ll also look into (again, where should I start)?
Overall, I really enjoyed the mix, it has been great to work to and opened up some new artists for me to follow through. I like that you stuck to courage of your convictions and went full synth / ambient (does this reflect your listening habits?). It was framed nicely with the artwork too (which is important to me, as I often have the artwork in mind when I listen to music)…thanks again…
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Thanks for your considered feedback! Glad you enjoyed. I figured I’d do a more ambient mix because I imagined a lot of people would do more of a mixtape with songs that are about space, etc. but I listen to all kinds of stuff really. I’d recently watched 2001 so was obviously thinking about that a lot! That’s where the hyper sleep quote comes from.
I figured the Artemyev track would be a little bit jarring but it’s from the ending of Solaris and with the idea of ‘memories of earth’ I thought having something a bit more organic was alright in that instance. The Tool track I just took a small chunk of to segue into the WITTR track. WITTR are a black metal band but have one ambient/synth record called Celestite, so if you enjoyed the track definitely check it out. If you’re into metal then their record Celestial lineage has a lot of similar synthy stuff running underneath it.
The only Tetsu Inoue record I know is hilariously titled YOLO which that is from and it’s great. As far as I know the NASA recordings are real, I remember listening to them ages ago and thinking it couldn’t possibly be, but… 