#265

Hey @shucks, I finally listened to your CD. Sorry it took so long. I am. It’s just that I knew it would be full of the sort of challenging stuff I don’t usually listen to, so I knew that, unless I approached it in the right frame of mind, I simply wouldn’t enjoy it. The time had to be right. So Friday night, I had a pint of dark oatmeal stout and finally took the plunge, browsing certain strange Tumblr pages to match the mood.

Well, it was interesting - and I don’t mean that in a dismissive “oh that’s interesting” sort of way. It was genuinely interesting. I listen to a LOT of music from a LOT of genres, and this mix simply confirmed that, in many ways, I’ve barely scratched the surface. I had no idea that a genre existed called “cinema-grind”, for example! I’m guessing it’s a genre of one. I’d ask for recommendations on where to start with Graf Orlock, as they seem to have quite a back catalogue, but I know that I’d struggle with a whole album. So I’ll leave it for now. Maybe one for Halloween.

It was the first time I’ve heard a Bad Religion song that wasn’t on the Crazy Taxi soundtrack, and the first time I’ve heard a Suicide Machines song that isn’t their cover of Rosegarden (which I really should have put on the covers CD!). I THINK it was also the first time I’ve knowingly heard any Shellac and Atari Teenage Riot! I’ll definitely be investigating Shellac further, but I think I’ll leave the latter.

There was a run of songs that was essentially people ranting over ugly noises (Sleaford Mods are irredeemably awful, sorry), but things really picked up with GosT and that thing from the Halo soundtrack. DJ Floorcleaner was mental and, again, something I intend to explore further, and the Turbonegro guitar solo was ace.

And closing with Fucked Up just gave further evidence that I need to listen beyond David Comes To Life. Any pointers on that front, Shucks?

So like I say, interesting mix. Some of it was very hard going, so I’m not sure I’ll listen to the full thing again. But you’ve given me a few new areas to explore. So thanks!

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#266

:open_mouth:

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#267

:smiley: That’s okay! Glad you found some gems in it and thanks for the feedback, appreciate it. Oatmeal stout sounds like a fine beverage to accompany my mix!

Graf Orlock are the best - that track is from an album called Crimetraveler which is based on an idea for a film they haven’t made about a time-travelling Canadian who goes back to assassinate the President. Destination Time Tomorrow is my favourite album of theirs - it’s only 8 tracks and features a brilliant Jurassic Park-breakdown. Graf Orlock - Destination Time Tomorrow | Vitriol Records

Yeah the GosT stuff is brilliant; you can get all his/her/their albums from blood music: https://blood-music.bandcamp.com/

Sleaford Mods are a massively acquired taste :smiley:

That DJ Floorcleaner track is from this breakcore comp: The Beast Within Compilation by Cock Rock Disco Label | Free Listening on SoundCloud - everything is great on this, especially the Teknoist track (it’s about the Fly).

The only other Fucked Up album I’ve got (aside from David Comes To Life) is The Chemistry of Common Life and various MP3s from their comp albums (Reset The Ride, Neat Parts). I’ve got half of Hidden World, which is pretty good. I thought the closing of POTUSA and Fucked Up would be suitably happy/anthemic to give the mix some kind of redemption.

#268

what BATS did you pick this time shucks?

#269

Death To Kent Hovind from their first EP. :smiley:

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#270

ah of course. AND BATS WILL DESTROY YOU.

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#271

Thank you for the pointers. I habitually listen to “darker” music circa Halloween (it’s the only time of year I’ll listen to Fantomas, for example), and I’ll definitely be adding Graf Orlock and that Beast Within collection to my playlists this year.

Also, for anyone who partakes in these CD exchanges who hasn’t yet received one from Shucks, know this - the album covers are without exception fantastic.

#272

Sorry for the delay. Had money troubles. CDs are burning now. Artwork to be finished by Tuesday. Should be with you on Friday or next Monday at the latest

#273

@prob500, thanks very much for your mix. The artwork was cool and with the preponderance of brass I ended up informally referring to it as The Trump(et)ocaplyse.

Loads of stuff to love on here, especially in the brass heavy numbers. Anna Meridith was very cool, though the song has all these crazy repetitions where I thought the CD was stuck for a while! The Ex was a big highlight - love that frenzy they build up and wasn’t expecting vocals to emerge from them, and then all the progressions in the song but that was really great.

I liked all the instrumental tracks - Gnod, Rock of Travolta and The Ex Orkest.

The Mae Shi song itself was cool, but those vocals set my teeth on edge. That hyper accentuated American accent is pretty weird and I always think it’s the American equivalent of the English estuary yelp that some UK inde bands affect.

Was nice to hear JSBX again (who I hadn’t listened to in years). They’re a bit one trick, but that trick is always good fun. Fela Kuti was a late highlight too - turns out I alreadt had it on my ipod, but not sure I ever listened to it before.

I could take or leave the punk ones - Dead Kennedys and Crass. ‘Sheep Farming in the Falklands’ is a great title mind.

Plenty of stuff to explore further, probably starting with The Ex I think. Thanks!

#274

Thanks for the feedback @woweezowee and glad you got something from the CD.

If The Ex were up your street and you haven’t listening to them before you are in for a treat. They have a monster of a back catalogue, they are definitely in the premier league of bands I like, probably pushing for Europa places (and they have been much more consistent than Spurs since the late '70’s as well). If you are going to spend money on their stuff you can get it direct from the band too:

http://exmailorder.nl/shop/

(and they are on bandcamp)

Personal faves are Scrabbling at the Lock (which is where their track came from on my disc), and Moa Anbessa, an extraordinary album they did with Getachew Mercuria (an Ethiopian saxophonist who recently passed away). Or they did a best-of album a couple of years ago which is a decent route in.

#275

Great, thanks. I was vaguely familiar with the name (think they were at an ATP I went to and seem to remember them doing some of the fishtank series), but I couldn’t have told you anything about them before. I’m guessing that The Ex Orkestra song on the mix was linked to the same band as well - also enjoyed that one.

Their back catalogue looks pretty intimidating from that link - “View full catalogue (178)” - so pointers where to start were much appreciated. Cheers prob!

#276

Yeah The Ex Orkest are (one of many) Ex spin offs. Their album (there’s only one) is also great, and sounds quite different to the ‘normal’ Ex. I saw them at an ATP upstairs at Camber Sands and they were just ridiculously enjoyable, would love to see them play that material again.

#277

Thanks for the words, very nice to read and glad that you liked it : ) I know what you mean about it not always feeling Apocalyptic… my original plan was a bit more over the top and my initial mix was like two and a half hours long but (in my head) seemed to tell a story of sorts. Anyways it didn’t quite work because it was too long and the story not evident enough, so it got cut into what it is now!

Now for my feedback to others now that I’ve listened to all of them a few times.

@ninetyeightytwo - What a great opening! Really loved the tone and mood that track brings about. So good! Tracks 8/9/10 flow really well together. The Space Rock track I’d not heard before, love the rhythm of it. Also great to have The Caretaker, never occured to me that I should include them on my mix and now I feel daft! transitions well into the Elbow track too, even though I’m not an Elbow fan sorry.

@paulo13 - I enjoyed the Broken Records and Jim O’Rourke track a lot. The double hit of Lima worked well too! I thought the second half of the mix was especially strong though and it brought up a good head of steam. Was a neat idea to use Jens Lekman twice. As a whole this felt quite well put together : )

@shucks - Not listened to Please Inform The Captain in a long time, completely forgot about that band. Worked well in the mix, I especially loved the Shellac and Gost tracks, never heard of the latter but I’ll check them out. I liked how this was generally quite a fun stab at the theme but also one of the heavier mixes I got and I appreciate that.

@woweezowee - That Calexico track has such a nice build up to it! Happy to see Portishead too and as said above I enjoyed the Jim O’Rourke track. I actually quite like when there are the same songs in entirely different mixes. Though I liked the sample from The Road and it flowed nicely into Earth, I think it started a little abruptly after Talking Heads but I’m nitpicking a little. Ending with Tom Waits was a great choice.

Thanks to all of you for the time you spent making these I’ve enjoyed them all, and sorry it’s taken me this long to write something!

4 Likes
#278

ok, my two remaining feedbacks:

@DustyNothing
As I think I mentioned above, I’m a big fan of Sufjan, Múm and Bowerbirds, but hadn’t thought of putting them on my cds. I haven’t listened to HEALTH before, but I really like this song and feel to it; although a brief listen to some of their other songs on Spotify sounds a bit too heavy for me.
Hope Of The States - I loved their Black Dollar Bills ep they released many moons ago, although the albums never reached that greatness for me. I have a demo/shorter version of the Static In The Cities song also, but not this longer version - nice to hear them again.
I should properly sit down and listen to Antony & The Johnsons, as I quite like what I’ve heard, but never listened to an album. & I have a few Trouble Books albums it seems, but not this song - it’s a nice ending to the cd, and not too bleak for me to cope with!

@Prob500
Anna Meredith - Nice feeling of foreboding with her song, good choice!
The Ex - I enjoyed this one, despite the noise. Or maybe the noise added to it.
The Mae Shi song reminds me of a band called Terror Pigeon (although they are a bit dementedly happy/upbeat), and so I really enjoyed this one.
Yacht - I didn’t even recognise this as the same song as the Jim O’Rourke one (which I understand is a cover also, so I’ve still yet to hear the original), but I prefer the Jim version!
and I enjoyed The Okkervil River song and the Frankie songs.
Most of the rest of it was too noisy for me, but definitely an apocalyptic feel.

thanks both!

#279

New thread for the next one here if anyone has missed it:

@Otto and @WardrobeGruber I still owe you some overdue feedback. I’ve been listening to both of them lots but the lack of familiarity with the material (particularly yours @WardrobeGruber , not sure I’d heard a single track on there before) and the single mix track means I need to sit down properly and work out what I’ve been listening to. Both absolutely nailed the apocalypse though.

#280

@Prob500
If it helps I’ve put my mix up on Mixcloud and timestamped it so it should tell you who the artist and track is whilst playing.
https://www.mixcloud.com/The_Airing_Cupboard/apocalypse-now/
Apologies for the one track but the initial mix overran by 85 seconds with no obvious candidate for either removal or editing, thus meaning bits were shaved off all tracks.

I’ve still got to review yours which will now happen this week as I’ve been unable to sit down and listen to it in one go.

#281

Hey @Otto, apologies for the delay feeding back to you. I’ve been enjoying your mixtape. Had to copy across to my ipod to overcome one track mix issues and consequently have forgotten where I put the tracklisting. Will find it again eventually, but makes specific feedback tough and I’m conscious that the mix round is moving on. Essentially I thought it started really well and I liked the early tracks, then you lost me for a little while with the more industrial stuff like Throbbing Gristle and one that sounded like it had a dentist’s drill on it. Then the Knife kicked in and everything from there on out I liked it all.

The second half flows very well and has a nice cohesiveness to it, which is what I was hoping for from a mix from you. Tim Hecker was a good reference point to reorient myself when I got a little lost where we were up to. I need to find that tracklisting as there were some I was wanting to check out more. It may be amongst a pile of papers at work…

Sorry, rubbish feedback for a really enjoyable mix. Thanks again for sending. :slight_smile:

1 Like
#282

OK finally some long overdue feedback for @WardrobeGruber and @Otto . One thing they both had in common was a beautiful single track that flowed seamlessly between tracks. Really upped the ante on the professional flow, and captured the apocalyptic vibe perfectly (but very differently). Changes how I listen to these discs as they don’t lend themselves for being put on in the car and dipping in and out, and I’ve tried to find 75 minutes to listen from start to finish whenever I’ve put them on (which mainly explains how overdue the feedback is).

@WardrobeGruber - as I mentioned above your disc was musically very unfamiliar for me. In the 30-odd discs I’ve received whilst doing these swaps I don’t think I’ve come across so far off my musical radar (apart from one that contained only Japanese music). The only band which I’d knowingly heard tracks by were the Baader Meinhof. As @bornin69x mentioned earlier in the thread the '80’s picked up the apocalyptic vibe just perfectly and from what I little I know of the bands (and with a little help from Wiki) I gather there’s a good sprinkling of '80’s stuff on here. Plenty of stuff I’ll be following up, particularly loved that Ela Orleans song, Fanny Kaplan also sounded just great. I’m aware that I was the only recipient of your disc and it really deserves a wider audience so I’d really encourage anyone to listen to Wardrobe’s link a couple of posts up if they like the sound of what I’ve described.

@Otto Another top effort (I also got your winter disc). Liked the way it mixed in and out of stuff I was familiar with (Hecker, Frost, Sunn) via musically similar things I wasn’t familiar with, so gives me plenty of new to explore which is one of the best things about these swaps. Biggest surprise was the Mica Levi song, which wasn’t like what I know Mica Levi to sound like (and was a big improvement on what I’d heard before), was aware she’d done soundtrack stuff, will be getting some more based on this. Best new discovery was Pharmakon, will definitely be getting some of that. And best reminder is that I really need to pick up some more Throbbing Gristle, got a ‘greatest hits’ in the chazzer ages ago and really enjoyed it, and a lot bands I listen to cite them as an influence but for some reason I’ve never really followed them up, what would you suggest as a starting point? Read the extracts of Cosey’s autobiography in the paper, sounds generally nuts so got to get that book too.

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#283

Unfortunately I’m not a big Throbbing Gristle fan - I usually just listen to a lot of their stuff on random via youtube. Always been listening to listen to more of them. Thanks for the feedback from both you and @woweezowee, I’ve started on the Space mix and I’m hoping to raise my game!

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#284

Like everyone above massive apologies to @Otto for nor getting back sooner! I really really enjoyed your mix (it’s the first time that I’ve had a CD through where everything has been seamlessly blended into one track and I thought it worked really well). Machine Gun was the key track to me, establishing a very nihilistic and sinister atmosphere that you sustained throughout. I particularly liked hearing songs that I recognised coming out of the mix and working well as part of it: Chelsea Wolfe in particular. Great stuff!

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