Secret Mixtape Review: Mix #16 (10-31) is up!

[super nintendo chalmers]

Thanks for the write ups guys. I'll write more myself in a bit,.But just so I can sleep soundly tonight, y'all picked up on the Neil Young cover, right?

[Heathen]

well, overall (with a handful of exceptions) this was maybe the worst thing I've ever listened to. I wonder if this is how Heathen feels all the time.

Pretty much.

[William Bloke]

well, overall (with a handful of exceptions) this was maybe the worst thing I've ever listened to. I wonder if this is how Heathen feels all the time.

Pretty much.

I am beginning to picture stip as this dude:

[Jorge]

[Heathen]

Stip's rage towards 'shitty singers' is one of my favourite things ever.

[Alex]

Stip's rage towards 'shitty singers' is one of my favourite things ever.

stip is one of the better-executed joke accounts on RM

[Lament]

I'm not gonna be able to get my review up until after #10 is posted, but I will post one before I post a review of #10. Just a bit tied up here lately.

[Alex]

Just a bit tied up here lately.

take it to the dating thread

[Lament]

I was hoping you'd post about it, Alex. You tell the story so much better than I do.

[LetMeSleep]

Chud's mix was alright. It had some nice pieces of electropop in the first half, though I think the hip-hop tracks felt out of place. It kinda nose-dived with that Taylor Swift song, though. The end was pretty boring, and the REM song was even more out of place than the Beasties and Fugees. Good effort, though.

I wholeheartedly agree with Brett on this on. I've sat through this twice and I wonder if Chud skips very often. This is all a bit too happy and fun for me. My wife will probably like this if I delete the REM.

Lots of stuff I'd never listen to. May even check out 1 or 2 artists. Special mention to the Taylor Swift - State of Grace. Surprisingly good song but man the vocal treatment gave me a headache. Bit of harmonic distortion there.

[Lament]

Secret Mix # 10...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6VItz ... sp=sharing

Let me know if there are any issues with the download. Enjoy!

[LetMeSleep]

Mix 4. I enjoyed a lot of moments in this mix but not many of the actual songs. Below are the keepers but I'm not sure if I will delve deeper into any of them. A few names I'd heard of but never heard. Really liked the interlude pieces too.

Spoiler: show

3. Calla - "It Dawned On Me"
5. Pure Bathing Culture - "Ivory Coast"
7. Benoît Pioulard - "Sunsol (Version One)"
11. Max Richter - "The Road Is a Grey Tape"
13. Alice Boman - "Waiting"
15. Majical Cloudz - "Bugs Don't Buzz" **Best of the bunch***
16. William Basinski - "Melancholia VI"

Cheers bodysnatcher.

[Kaius]

I was hoping you'd post about it, Alex. You tell the story so much better than I do.

[Birds in Hell]

Mix 4. I enjoyed a lot of moments in this mix but not many of the actual songs. Below are the keepers but I'm not sure if I will delve deeper into any of them. A few names I'd heard of but never heard. Really liked the interlude pieces too.

Spoiler: show

3. Calla - "It Dawned On Me"
5. Pure Bathing Culture - "Ivory Coast"
7. Benoît Pioulard - "Sunsol (Version One)"
11. Max Richter - "The Road Is a Grey Tape"
13. Alice Boman - "Waiting"
15. Majical Cloudz - "Bugs Don't Buzz" **Best of the bunch***
16. William Basinski - "Melancholia VI"

Cheers bodysnatcher.

Hey, this mix looks alright, 'snatch - I'm going to check it out soon.

[Lament]

'snatch

From now on, bodysnatcher, I will be referring to you as "'snatch" as well.

[super nintendo chalmers]

This vocalist actually really reminds me of an old West Aussie singer named Dave Warner who had a band "From the Suburbs". He was iconic in Perth in the 70's. Yeah, I like this a lot, vocal and music, and the nostalgia trip is a nice added bonus. This may be my favourite thing on the mix so far - that beat is just awesome. Oh I just realised - this must be the Fall song that Brett mentioned. I have always meant to look more into these guys, and now I shall. Seriously, that drum beat throughout this song is the best thing I've heard since hearing Skee Lo's I Wish when it was picked in the 90's tourney. Brilliant.

Dude this stuff is pretty great! Thanks.

[Brett]

Within the first few seconds of Secret Mix #10, I was pretty sure I could narrow down the mixmaker to a couple of people, which is interesting because I've usually got to think about it a little bit to identify an overall style or aesthetic.

Track 1: I can't remember the title offhand, but I recognize the piece. Hauntingly minimal solo piano with either some tape hiss, ambient room noise, or perhaps both. A nice, somewhat familiar reference point to start off the mix. As I said, when this track opened I could identify who the mixmaker was likely to be because I know who has been repping this artist. The artist is

Spoiler: show

Otto A. Totland, the song is from his Pinô album, released this year.

Track 2: There's a bit of a jarring contradiction here. The song opens with a few leading notes from an oud and is fleshed out a bit with some other Middle Eastern instrumentation. I quite enjoy the arrangement. The vocals are a sharp contrast, though, adding in an element that seems to me to be like some sort of European minstrel. I have no idea where I get that connotation from, and I'm not sure if I like the combination.

Track 3: The opening here is a very distorted and affected sample that sounds sort of like it was originally sourced from a violin. More samples and noise are layered in, along with hints of rhythm and percussion. There's a few moments where the dense mix lets up, and it feels like you can breath, but they're brief. It's a pretty neat piece that brings to mind a more electronic version of

Spoiler: show

Tim Hecker.

Will be interested to find out this artist.

Track 4: A return to some quieter music, with a piano opening that is expounded upon with some strings and perhaps some woodwind. I really like the atmosphere set up in this one, too. I can think of some ensembles who play in a similar style, but I can't identify this group. Still, another good track on what is overall a really good mix.

Track 5: The melody on this one feels really familiar. I really like the string arrangements on this piece. They add a lot to the piano's building blocks without obscuring them. The vocalist has a very unique quality to her voice that I'm trying to figure out if it's simply a character of her vocal cords or the language that she's singing in (which, again, I cannot identify). An abrupt ending, just as it feels like it could keep swelling ever upwards.

Track 6: The mixmaker has a thing for great timbres, and this track is no different. I'm not quite sure what the instrument at play here is, but it sounds wonderful. Okay, I guess there's several instruments which sort of combine together, and then become more identified as the song expands. Guitar, strings, woodwinds, marimba, harpsichord perhaps? I really like how this one has built up over its duration from an understated intro to the much fuller peaks and troughs that define the middle sections, and then the inevitable denouement.

Track 7: A very quiet opening with little bits of sound here and there. Odd percussive bits that at times sound like rattling metal, and at other times sound like sawing wood. This piece is very minimalist as we've got a simple, steady drumbeat, some light cymbal play, and some quiet strings to add into the stew of percussion formulated in the intro. Another really great atmospheric piece.

Track 8: This one delves back into more electronic territory with a droning field of sound that subtly shifts and flows throughout the duration. Music for visualizing to, I get vast icy expanses overtopped with a star-studded sky and the aurora borealis. The last forty seconds or so, there's a shift in tone that's rather ominous, but quickly fades.

Track 9: The first time through, I really thought the mix was entering into much harsher territory with the squalling, noisy, blown-out introduction of this piece. Instead, it yields to a spectacularly uplifting piece with a prominent drumbeat, some organ and saxophone lines, and an overall vibe that is a strong counterpoint to its opening. One of my favorite pieces on this mix.

Track 10: At the start of this track, it feels like we're heading back into some of the more Eastern-tinged neo-classical styles that have been visited in several forms thus far. Things are a little darker, here, though, with more baroque arrangements and a sense of something looming. It evokes a similar mood to

Spoiler: show

Kayo Dot

without the bluster. There's hints of wordless vocals here and there among the horns, strings, and percussion. It feels like it's setting up for something, but doesn't appear to get there.

Track 11: The longest track on the mix makes use of its running time by slowly and quietly unfolding with subtle drones giving way to minor melodies. Around the halfway point, the slow swelling begins to rapidly expand and become distorted before finally bursting into a spacious ambient swirl with tiny bits of chattering electronic percussion. Light washes of static or ocean noise also begin to put in appearances.

Spoiler: show

This could possibly be Loscil, but I'm not familiar enough with his music to be sure.

Track 12: This one finishes up the mix in a characteristically unexpected fashion. A piano framework houses a singer with another unusual voice that is backed by a choir of hums. Despite some of the more ominous and haunting parts present in a lot of the music on this mix, this song is one of the more unsettling ones because it's difficult to really a get a handle on it. The piano melody is pretty, but the vocals appear to be aiming for something much darker with snatches of lyrical phrasing shedding light on some convoluted tale that I can't quite understand.

Overall, I quite enjoyed this mix, as it sits much closer to my musical sensibilities than most of what's come before. I also really like how it seems thematically pitched to evoke quiet nights spent in contemplation. I'm going to spoiler my guesses as to the mixmaker so as not to put off certain people who may be disinclined to check this mix out based on who's behind it.

Spoiler: show

I'm pretty sure this mixmaker is Heathen, though if not him, then probably Kreng.

[stip]

listening now, so these are all first takes

1. This is a pretty cool opening piece of atmosphere. Uses its minimalism and the silent spaces that follow (and the tape hiss) to really nice effect

2. I like the how sparse everything is so far. This has a ren-faire feel to it, but not in a way that feels cliched. The vocals work well for this kind of music. I have no idea if this is a new song written in an older style (my suspicion) or a traditional piece, but it feels convincing.

3. A crackly, static begining--I bet this is what moths listen to as they swarm a porch light. There's a sense of self-importance to the music thus far that I hope pays off. It's kinda cool, but not quite as interesting or exciting as it thinks it is. Although there's still a few more minutes, so lets see where this goes.

It was a nice piece of background music, but I don't know that i'd seek this out again

Three songs in and this is definitely unlike anything we've gotten so far, but I've been enjoying it.

4. Excellent transition into the 4th piece. Another instrumental piece that calls to mind old open forests. I liked this one a lot. Probably my favorite thus far. The first song that's likely to make it into a regular rotation.

5. This melody sounds pretty familiar. Falling Slowly? I'm sure this isn't Dime's mix. Interesting vocals, that sound powerful and swallowed at the same time. Something otherworldly about it. This song gets much more interesting as soon as she gets involved. Pretty abrupt ending, in an unsatisfying way

6. Another instrumental. Very pretty. A rich sound from just one (I assume) instrument at the start. Starts to get a bit crowded when everything comes in, and not necessarily to great effect, although around 3:30 or so it takes a dramatic turn that I quite enjoyed.

Halfway there and this has certainly been worth my time

[ABNorman]

Mix 10:

Quick thoughts I jotted down as I listened the other night, as I was falling asleep.

1: Not sure I particularly see the point of the hiss, but otherwise I like the space on this track. Just about the right length too.
2: Nice flow into track 2. Not a fan of the vocals on this. Sounds like the singer is trying too hard to be off-kilter.
3: I wanted this to build into a frenetic climax, the kind of thing Thom Yorke would dance idiotically to. Instead, it felt like I was watching an endless version of that cliched "planet rises from behind another planet" shot that never ended.
4: My favourite so far. It has the sense of track 1, but no needless hiss.
5: Again, the vocalist is too affected for me - and why is he/she so afraid to let me know what he/she's saying? He/she sounds a bit muppet-like here and there.
6: Like the others, good background music. I wasn't really paying attention for this one.
7: Like the winds on this.
8: This is another one I feel should build up to a big techno-y climax. The droning chopper noise is just annoying. I may have to skip this one. I keep waiting for some kind of release from these tracks, but a lot of them just hit me with claustrophobia.
9: Holy shit. That was some hellish segue. This would've been mighty pleasant without the segue: the second half is great.
10: It feels like a lot of these are by the same band, or bands that were influenced by others on the list. No idea who any of them are, though.
11: Fine way to pass 12 minutes, but nothing stands out.
12: Another vocalist I don't like. But it's a fitting final track - not quite the release I needed after listening to that mix, but a definite different feel.

Overall: Nothing really stands out, and the vocals generally weren't my thing (and that track 9 segue was awful), but all in all this is the kind of mix I could have on in the background of a rainy day. I won't guess who's list it is because I only vaguely recall most of your tastes.

[stip]

Track 7: Kind of unnerving.

Track 8: Open, impactful spaces. I'd call it spacey, but space is too empty

Track 9: I admit it. I jumped. A thoroughly unpleasant beginning, especially because it goes to such an interesting and exotic place (puts me in mind of a desert oasis) about 90 seconds again. I'm not sure the contrast is needed, since this is one of my favorite pieces on here.

Track 10: another forest song. The percussion is used really well here, though the whole piece is well done (excepting maybe the chanting but that's a pretty minor thing)

Track 11: A long track, soothing, but a bit less cinematic or transportive in scope compared to what's come before. If the mix ends here I'm not sure it needed a cooldown like this. Maybe this is setting up the final track

Track 12: ha, this is almost as jarring as the 8-9 transition. Although this is doing very little for me. The singer sounds pretty affected (though it may not be an affectation). Sounds like a dark story being told by someone in a porcelain mask