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

[stip]

Okay, based on the first track I want to predict that this is Brett's, but the songs are all so short.

[stip]

this is Brett. Every one of you lazy selfish fuckers who has already posted a mix should give this a listen and a review. He's earned it.

[stip]

I think this second song is cooler than anything you've drafted in the tournaments, btw.

[stip]

ahh, the hell with it. I'm going to review it on the first listen.

Track 1: This was a loud, clangy, angry number, but I just can't get into this singer, so the overall effect is kind of irritating. This is probably what people who don't like Tom Waits hear when they listen to a song like Hoist That Rag. This is evangalista, right?

Track 2: this was an awesome funky, jazzy little number that probably sounds a little bit like what people in the 1970s thought avant garde music would sound like in 2010. As I said in that last post, this was, thus far, the best thing I've heard from you in any of these tournaments.

Track 3 makes me feel like I'm sitting at a european cafe in a pixar movie, which is pretty neat.

[stip]

Track 4 was a pleasant enough song, but didn't really stay with me. A nice smooth piece with some staticy guitar cutting across it but (I can't believe I'm saying this) it would have been helpful (maybe) if it was longer to give you time to really get into the mood. But in fairness, I've got a kid yelling in the other room so this isn't the best environment for a song like this. It seems like the sort of song Prince could have made really cool

Track 5: The industrial beat boxing sound at the beginning was fairly intriguing but then nothing really ever happened

Track 6: Nice transition. I had to check to make sure this was a new song. Especially because I'm used to having to devote 10 minutes to a track. Another case where there's a curiously organic feel to a clearly artificial sound. this is a slightly longer track after two shorter ones that cut themselves off before they went anywhere, so it'll be interesting to see how this develops.

Ehh, nowhere special. After a really strong 2-3 that had me really excited for this mix my interest is starting to wane. A lot of background tracks that fit well together, but aren't taking me anywhere.

[stip]

Track 7: this was a good track. Haunting and ethereal and coming from just beyond anywhere you could touch.

[stip]

Track 8 was also pretty decent with its electric ringing haze. Not something I could see myself ever feeling a need to listen to as a stand alone track, but if I go back and put together an instrumental compilation to use for background or mood music this would probably find a place on it.

Track 9: surprisingly hypnotic in a good way, given the off kilter marching cadence of the song.

Track 10: another song that fits well into the mix, but isn't interesting enough to make any kind of impression

[stip]

Track 11: the way the music felt like it kept flattening out and opening up worked well with the singer here--it gave him some depth he wouldn't have otherwise had. This was a pretty good song.

Track 12: This was one of the better longer (by most people's standards, not yours) songs that I've heard from you. I like the way the song often sounds like it's discovering itself as it goes along

Track 13: this sounds like Phil Collins delivering testimony while in a witness protection program.

[stip]

Track 14: I was skeptical when the bird sounds started in the beginning, but this won me over pretty quickly and the song has a fluttering quality that made them oddly appropriate. The spoken word stuff was kinda lame though. When you throw a spoken word moment into a song you better be saying something profound. You're usually not.

Track 15: This feels like a transition piece, which given the length of the final track, I suspect it is (despite its 3 minutes length). So it's hard to measure its effectiveness yet. If it was just intended to be a stand alone track I'm just not that interested. It was fine for what it was, but slightly discordant brass pieces aren't really my thing

Track 16: I like the subdued ringing intensity of the music so far. This has promise. Although by the 4 minute mark I find myself starting to flag a bit. That's more a function of my expectations, though. I almost always see the music as a platform for the vocals and lyrics, and start to get a bit distracted when they don't appear. Oh here we go. They kick in at about 5:30. Well they just made everything worse.


I figured this was brett after the first song. I haven't cared much for his playlists in the decades tournaments, so I was a bit nervous about this one. It was surprisingly (to me) good. Overall a solid and coherent listen with more than a few high spots and while there was some stuff I didn't care for, there was nothing I flat out disliked. Nicely done.

[Brett]

Alright, I've been unofficially outed, so I will confirm that yes, this mix is mine.

Firstly, the tracklisting:
1. Evangelista - Smooth Jazz
2. Shalabi Effect - Cum Duster (Tempting Gods)
3. Saint Dirt Elementary School - Grand Opening at Ting
4. Sandro Perri - Futureactive Kid (Part Two)
5. Monstre - Moonlove
6. Animal Collective - Baby Day
7. Boris - See You Next Week
8. Pacha - Starcevo
9. Eric Chenaux - Worm and Gear
10. Kanada 70 - Krankqui
11. Oceansize - Getting Where Water Cannot
12. The Allison Cameron Band - 2 Guitars
13. Vic Chesnutt - Vibratile Nerves
14. The Books - Smells Like Content
15. Colin Stetson - Clothed in the Skin of the Dead
16. Deerhoof - The Last Trumpeter Swan

My mix went through several incarnations before I finalized the tracklisting, which actually didn't happen until the day Lament asked me to step in for this round since the other mix-maker had to back out. I knew that I wanted to start with the Evangelista and Shalabi Effect tracks because they were louder and more extroverted. I also had an idea how I wanted it to end, but the tracks got mixed around a bit.

In between that was more difficult. Early iterations slowed down way too fast and I had a hard time finding good pairings that would flow well. Eventually I managed to start getting together a mix that seemed to flow okay and it was helped along by the vague feeling of dreamy unease that some of the songs exuded. I was able to use that as a thematic launching point to tighten things up and push the mix towards completion, with only a few songs still up in the air when Heathen's mix was up. The day before I got Lament's message was when I had the tracklist mostly solidified, with only the very middle of the mix left to figure out. Then I got called up early, which inspired me to add in the Pacha track to close the first half of the mix.

Anyway, thanks for your thoughts Stip. While I know our tastes are often at odds, I do appreciate your feedback, even when it confounds me. I'll post up my own thoughts on each song individually later, so maybe people get more of a feel where I was coming from.

[Brett]

1. Evangelista - Smooth Jazz; As I said in my little write-up, I knew that I wanted this to be the opening song of the mix, in part because I wanted something attention-grabbing. I like the explosive nature of the music, so it worked really well as a first song, despite being in the second slot on its home album.

2. Shalabi Effect - Cum Duster (Tempting Gods); The title is just one of many enjoyable things about this song. This was another early "in" song for my mix, as it really carried the mood very well from the first tune, while also dialing down the angry, confrontational nature of it. I think I had a couple other potentials for this spot, but this one ultimately won out.

3. Saint Dirt Elementary School - Grand Opening at Ting; This one was a little bit more of a latecomer in the mix, as I added it in probably a week or so before the mix was posted. I had a lot of difficulty finding an appropriate song to follow the Shalabi Effect track, but this one proved more than capable of the task. First, it reflected a tonal shift away from the heavier, noisier first two tracks, but it also had a few superficial similarities to the Shalabi Effect song, so as to keep things from being too abrupt.

4. Sandro Perri - Futureactive Kid (Part Two); This song sounds like an underdeveloped transition track largely because it is. It's meant to transition towards the final part of the album it's drawn from, but I wanted to use it here because I felt that it had the most appropriate arrangement and tone of all the songs from that album (there were another couple that I was considering using, so that's why I point that out).

5. Monstre - Moonlove; Another song from the mix's earliest incarnations, I thought it paired well with both the Sandro Perri song and the following Animal Collective track, thus making them a trio. Unfortunately, as Stip pointed out, it does make for a slightly weaker set of songs a little too early in the mix, but I thought it led well into the last section of the first half of the mix.

6. Animal Collective - Baby Day; Okay, so this is a lesser Animal Collective song, being one of their earlier B-sides, but I thought it went extremely well with the Monstre song, and I also like that it is just utterly bizarre. It was another one that was present early one, but I had actually dropped it from the mix for a little bit as I was tightening things up. I brought it back after hitting too many walls in terms of flow.

7. Boris - See You Next Week; Like the Animal Collective song, I had this one in early versions of the mix, but it was later cut and then even later reincorporated. I think it was originally meant to come towards the end of the mix, sitting right before the final song, but I eventually moved it to wrapping up the first half. That was eventually modified because I didn't think its ending felt right for that position.

8. Pacha - Starcevo; My Hail Mary of sorts, as I was really struggling to find the right song to fit in here. The day I sent the mix to Lament, I had actually tried a couple different tunes in this position, and had even made a zip file of the mix with a different song before I even thought about trying this one. Needless to say, I felt that this song fit better than any of the others. It's reserved enough to be a song that has "closure," but is still unsettled enough to leave room for resolution.

9. Eric Chenaux - Worm and Gear; And here is the start of that resolution. When I was trying to incorporate the theme of dreamy unease into the mix, I knew that I wanted to start to unravel it towards a slow climb to consciousness with this track position. I had a few different songs here before I allowed myself to disengage the theme a bit. But this one fit in so well that I kept it. I like Stip's description of it: "surprisingly hypnotic in a good way, given the off kilter marching cadence."

10. Kanada 70 - Krankqui; Another more "transitional" piece, although I do really like this song on its own merits. This was also one of a number of tunes that I picked in part because I wanted to try to represent a wide array of different types of music that I enjoy.

11. Oceansize - Getting Where Water Cannot; Being one of my favorite bands, Oceansize almost always had a spot reserved in this mix, but I had a few other songs in different versions before I came up with this one. At one point, I used "Cloak," the final song on their final album, as the mix closer, but I wasn't sure it did the mix or the band appropriate justice. I finally ended up with this song because it had the kind of precise, but almost off-kilter feeling that I wanted to highlight as the mix shifted towards its final quarter.

12. The Allison Cameron Band - 2 Guitars; I love the way this piece follows the end of the previous song. I also really like Stip's observation that it sounds like it keeps rediscovering itself as it goes. That's something that I think the three band members (one of whom is Eric Chenaux from a little earlier in the mix) would really like to hear. I think it's a great description of a defining aspect of their collective aesthetic, in this group and the various other projects they're involved in.

13. Vic Chesnutt - Vibratile Nerves; Um, that's an odd observation from Stip. Anyway, there were two Vic songs that I was thinking of using in this mix, and this one won out. This is one of my favorite Chesnutt tunes, and I find it to be a shame that it never really saw any official release besides a a label sampler, since the album it comes from was shelved when Vic was dropped from the label. This is where I feel like the dreamlike aspect of the mix finally lifts at the end of the song, and the last few tracks are the awakening.

14. The Books - Smells Like Content; Another one that is one of my favorite songs from the artist in question. This one was never really rooted in any particular part of the mix at first, so it got shuffled around a lot before finding its home towards the end. I thought the quiet, sort of searching nature of the song lent itself well towards a sense of reflection that I wanted to establish.

15. Colin Stetson - Clothed in the Skin of the Dead; I didn't intend for this one to really function as a transitional piece, since I feel like it stands up well on its own, but it is one of Stetson's quieter and more reserved pieces. It does do a mighty fine job of setting us up for the last song, though.

16. Deerhoof - The Last Trumpeter Swan; After ditching the idea of a quiet closing piece, I decided to go the opposite direction and find one that was a little harsher and darker. There were two Deerhoof songs that I thought fit the bill really well, and this one is the one that seemed to work better. I like the minimal nature of the lyrics (although by Deerhoof standards, they're pretty normal) and the extended raising of the tension bar that defines most of the song's duration.

So, there you go. I hope anyone else who cares to listen enjoys the mix and finds my write up somewhat enlightening, despite not really saying much about the songs themselves.

[Lament]

Alright, I'm gonna try doing this review track by track like most people instead of trying to assemble paragraphs

Track 1 - Excellent opener. I love the drumming, and the energy is great.

Track 2 – I dig the noisiness of it all, but it never really came together and clicked for me.

Track 3 – There's a quirkiness and playfulness in this song that is absent in the first two. I like the change of pace. The few little bursts where the melodies seem to come together in unison are rather delightful.

Track 4 – I like everything that's going on in this track. I can see where stip is coming from about wanting it to develop a bit more, but I love the guitar work at the end. I could've definitely enjoyed another few minutes of it.

Track 5 – I didn't really care for this track on its own merits, but I definitely see its transitional value in the mix.

Track 6 – I hadn't heard this Animal Collective song before this mix, but it's a good one. I love the layered vocals. This might be my favorite song on the first half of the mix (although the Sandro Perri one might be as well).

Track 7 – This fell a bit flat for me coming after the Animal Collective track. When it started I thought it would leave more of an impression on me than it ultimately did.

Track 8 – The opening for this one grabs me after losing the previous song lost me a bit. I'm glad Brett decided to include this one. I really like the percussion on this one.

Track 9 – This one stuck out to me right away as being more conventional than everything that had led up to this point. I think that's a good move though. I know for me personally it felt like it refocused things a bit. This felt like the start of the second half of the mix to me, even though I know it technically isn't. I'm a fan of the weird synth in the middle.

Track 10 – I like the tones in this one, but what they're doing musically doesn't really do anything for me. It helps track 11, tough.

Track 11 – Because, yeah, this contrasts well with the previous track. I like the way the scattered-openness of the previous track is instantly followed by maybe the tightest, most directly focused song on the mix. This song never blows up the way it threatens to at a few points, and I think it's much stronger for that. Parts of it remind me of Mansun, which is a wonderful compliment in my world. This is my two favorite songs on the mix.

Track 12 – I couldn't get into this one. It probably suffers a bit from coming after a song I enjoyed as much as the previous one, but on the flip side, this is the kind of track I often have a hard time getting into. The whole “discovering itself as it goes along” description makes sense, but none of the things it discovered about itself were very interesting to me.

Track 13 – This was awesome. I've always meant to check out more Vic Chesnutt. I love his song on the soundtrack from The End of Violence. This is my other favorite song on the mix. Excellent song. I loved stip's comment as well, though I don't really agree with it.

Track 14 – Like track 12, this one probably suffers from following a much better (in my opinion) track. There are flashes where I find myself starting to get into, but they seem to instantly fade. I suppose that may be the point of the song though.

Track 15 – The first time I played the mix I was worried this would be the closer. I'm glad it wasn't. This was one where as soon as it ended, I feel like I had forgotten what it sounded like.

Track 16 – The previous two tracks made me feel like maybe the mix should've ended with the Vic Chesnutt song, this one brought it together a bit more. It definitely ends the mix on a darker, more foreboding note.

It was nice to spend some time with a mix that was so largely constructed out of songs that reside outside of my usual wheelhouse. My two favorites, as I mentioned, were the Vic Chesnutt and Oceansize tracks, followed on a lower tier by the Sandro Perri and Animal Collective ones. Well thought out and put together, Brett. Good work.

[Lament]

I'm gonna post mix #12 tomorrow and we'll restart the running order from there. Brett has put a lot of time into this thread and provided us with some really thoughtful reviews, so I wanted to make sure his mix was up long enough to at least get a couple in return. I'm sorry it took me so long to get mine up.

Heathen, I still owe you a review as well. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten.

[William Bloke]

OK, so this is Brett's mixer. Let's review the Reviewer. Looking at the tracklist I'm not gonna pre-know anything here, so let's see where it takes me.

Track 1...we start with big drums into an unusual female vox. This is the sort of stuff my wife hates. I'm not super keen either to be honest, but there's certainly something to those driving drums. Brett mentioned the 'vague feeling of dreamy unease' that some of the songs have in the mix, and this sits about there with me, albeit not so much dreamy as just unease.

Track 2 is more interesting to me straight off the bat. I like the underlying rhythm and I'm glad the dissonant sounds don't actually overwhelm that backbeat. This has me grooving along as I work on excel, always nice.

Track 3 is...not too promising I'm afraid. Tea for Two? I'm not a fan of the sing-song whimsicalness of this one. I can't escape the feeling that I'm stuck watching an old Dick Van Dyke movie on a Sunday afternoon.

Onto track 4 with a very nice transition if I do say so. Love the rocket ship build up in the background at the start. We've moved from the early 60s to the early 70s here - we've gone prog, baby! And this certainly has a groovy peaceful build to it. This could have used another 10 minutes of guitar noodling imo. But I know Brett's definitely a 'short songs ftw' kinda dude.

Track 5 is again onto the more abrasive side of things to my ears. Dreamy unease indeed. I feel a bit like I'm inside an 80s video game. Not for long though.

Track 6 with the electro beat boxing beginning. Long build here. Not sure the pay-off was worth it unfortunately. It's not bad or anything, just meh. They should have left out the actual words and just kept with the oo-oohs. Had a bit of a rock opera song feel to it in that it seemed really important to know that she was having a baby, as if it was in the scheme of a bigger picture.

Track 7 is into a more industrial feel. Again, not a huge fan - see track 5. The dreamy vocally breathing is all very breathy. I just wrote that sentence to see if anyone was paying attention. And a sudden .

Track 8 takes me away. It's got that tribal feel happening with the drums and tuneful wails. I like this one a lot. This sort of floating, driving song is exactly the type of thing I'm enjoying more and more of these days. Build a beat and jam with it, rolling on as you go. This is nothing like Endless Boogie in style, but it shares that build a groove and go mentality. Love the drums - I'm convinced they are being played with the palms of hands. This was excellent.

Track 9's banjo was bit of a jarring comedown after the beauty of track 8. The Scottish sounding vocal and the musical stylings have me imagining a band in kilts playing at a wedding. I was holding out for the bagpipe solo to fade. Not a fan of this one. Fuck me - there they are! It's not bagpipes but those kazoos are exactly what I was talking about! Haha!

Track 10 back into space invaders territory. Bleep-bloop-bleep. I can picture the little symmetrical fleet of aliens advancing, step to the right - step to the right - step to the right - step forward - step to the left...commando firing as I dash between my barriers.

Track 11 is pretty enough. Rolling drums are always a winner with me, but the vocal is a bit standard for me. Reminds me of John Mayer to be honest. That's not the worst thing in the world. This was cool enough but nothing that grabbed me. The feel works well on this mix though, which I must say is turning into, in my mind at least, quite the enjoyable stroll through various musical inspirations and eras. By the end of this I was actually feeling a bit Pacific Ocean Blue Dennis Wilson, and that's certainly a welcome enough place to be. I sold this tune a bit short in my initial assessment - I actually quite enjoyed that, espescially the little acoustic guitar noodle at the very end.

Track 12 is various soft and inocuous enough musical tidbits seemingly copy and pasted together, mostly in time and to a satisfying enough sonic result, but not quite always. There's that dreamy unease rearing its butt-ugly face again. This is weird, but weird isn't by definition bad, so that's possibly good. But weird, certainly. Brett seems quite fond of the banjo, which I kind of am also. This song played for a while and then finished.

Track 13 is a bit more immediate and directed from the outset. Again the instrumental build. Curious vocal here. The dude sounds a half step from unhinged, but oh so controlled at the same time. And I find myself listening to the lyrics with a sense of trepidation as I realise I'm expecting him to be singing about...nasty things. But he used the word dirigible! Awesome! I was joking about the appalling under-utilisation of that word when I selected The Decemberists' Son's and Daughters in the 2000's tourney! Ha! This song was alright actually. Unlikely much repeat play though.

Track 14 is another shift into a bit of alternative 80's college post punk, but with a very light serving of punk. Sort of more post punk. This is has an interesting melody and I like the dude's vocals, unobtrusive as the admittedly are. There's gotta be some backwards stuff going on here. Gotta get that dreamy unease from somewhere, amirite? And the 80's John Hughes movie dialogue snippet ending! Ha! I actually quite enjoyed that song.

Track 15 finds me at the carnival, off to play the laughing clowns I fear. Back to that familiar discordant theme of a portion of this mix. I'm picturing drunken clowns and that's pissing me off a bit. The horns are impressive though.

And on to the ultimate track number 16. Looks like we are back into a bit of industrial stuff at the outset, and there's that discord again with the acoustic guitar. I know this is a long track and I recall stip wasn't a fan, so my expectations here aren't huge. Yeah, I just got to the bit were that single high pitched note is held for like 30 seconds or something. Fuck this is annoying. If I put this on at home the wife ould have a fucking conniption. All it needs is a bit of screamo to make it her perfect hate track. I'm not enjoying this either I must say. Like so many of the songs on this mix though it never goes totally unhinged, its always kept in check, if just barely.

Well, overall this was an interesting and enjoyable mix. It certainly had a feel and theme and I appreciate the effort that went into its structure. It's certainly a mix that needs to be tasted as a whole, and I'd say I'll be pulling it out as background work music from time to time. I like when music and mixes make me feel and this mix certainly managed that. There's at least 4 songs that I really enjoyed and will be revisiting soon, and a few that just weren't my thing.

Its the damndest thing but I have such a vague feeling of dreamy unease. Thanks Brett - that was cool.

[William Bloke]

I'm sorry it took me so long to get mine up.

A few of us fellas seem to have that affliction I fear.

[Brett]

Thanks for the reviews, guys; it's certainly nice to get some feedback about how people perceive the music that I enjoy, even if it is usually a form of mild confusion.

A couple of things that I thought I should point out: In the Eric Chenaux song, that sound that is present from about midway through the song to the end is actually Eric's guitar solo recorded and played back on small spinning speakers with distortion added, then re-recorded and overdubbed into the song, for you trivia fans. Varis, some of those drums in the Pacha track are very likely played with the hands. Pierre-Guy Blanchard is Pacha, essentially, and he's basically a student of various types of percussion, many of them from Eastern traditions. I also was really hoping that you would listen to this mix and catch that instance of "dirigible" appearing in lyrical form.

[William Bloke]

I also was really hoping that you would listen to this mix and catch that instance of "dirigible" appearing in lyrical form.

[Lament]

Alright everyone, here's Secret Mix #12!

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

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

[William Bloke]

Mix #12.

Track 1 has an interesting sneaky little start going on but I'm not sure if there's a small glitch in my download at the start or if the song's meant to roll like that. No biggie. I like the standard bass/drums/guitar rock interplay going on here, the vocals pretty straight ahead too. This grooves along happily enough, and I like the drum solo towards the end. This was a nice opener setting up for what I'm gonna guess is a bit more of a straight-ahead rocking mix than the recent ones in this thread. But I say that ready to be proven wrong.

Track 2 and we are off to the 60's with some R&B. I think this is the

Spoiler: show

13th Floor Elevators

and I'm a fan of their stuff as well as garagey blues in general. This is the sort of tune I'll always be happy having on a mix as I can just sit back and tap my foot along.

Into Track 3 and it seems like a sensible enough progression. I'm being proven right so far on my "more straight ahead mix" comment it seems. This song is familiar but I can't put my finger on who it is. Mid 70s vibe going on. FM radio on driving my convertible mustang with the top down along the Pacific Coast, long hair trailing in the wind.

Track 4 is

Spoiler: show

Jimi Hendrix doing Hear My Train a Comin'

. Great song. I'm a big fan of his deeper, bluesier side and this captures that well. This is my best mates favourite song by this artist and he's a BIG fan. Nice.

Track 5 has the late 60s soul thing going on. Again, all sitting nicely in the flow of the mix. Everyone loves this sort of stuff don't they? This continues the foot-tapping groove of the mix, I'm down with that.

Track 6 seems like it may be the first misstep of the mix. The N'awlins feel and brass band thing fit with the mix flow easily enough, but I'm just not so much of a fan of the style of tune. Nothing offensive, certainly, just not as interesting to me as all before it.

Track 7 starts off with a bit of banjo, which leads me to think of Kermit the Frog's Rainbow Connection, which I just love. This isn't that though. There's a fiddle going on as well, so It feels to me like we haven't moved that far away from the swamp lands we visited with track 6. This is a softer, lilting tune, again nothing much to dislike here, even when the singer reaches a bit for the higher notes. We seem to have now officially reached "Americana", which is fine enough by me. As I typed that I thought of the first mix that started this thread off all that time ago -

Spoiler: show

Is this another bada jam?

.

Track 8 is certainly not Americana though, we are off down south of the border here. I often quite enjoy non-English language songs, I like hearing how other languages and foreign words and unknown phrases fit into the song structures. The music here is quite lovely, the expected finger picked nylon guitars to the fore. I'm enjoying my time in Mexico - this was excellent. Relaxed and relaxing.

Track 9 brings the late night wine bar class, straight away. Piano lead and strong old school vocals, a duet shared between the male and female lead. This stuff is always classy and is always welcome on my stereo. I'm a Deano, Frank, Andy Williams, Nina Simone et al fan, excellent stuff.

Spoiler: show

This is Amy Winehouse and Tony Bennett, 2 vocal superstars, great choice.

.

Track 10 is different though, recorded under bed covers in a box at the bottom of the pool by the sounds of it. This is the first big step away from the previous flow of the mix, ceasing with the perhaps more "old school" vibe and jumping on the 90s alt trail. Not sure what the story is here. This was a bit of a nothing song to me.

Track 11 is

Spoiler: show

Googol Bordello doing Start Wearing Purple

. I'm a fan of these guys and have loved some of their live festival sets that I've seen. I think my Lithuanian heritage might move me towards these guys as I kind of think of myself as a bit of a Eastern European Anglo Australian Gypsy Punk. This is a fun song that I've always enjoyed, and who doesn't love the accordion, amirite?

Track 12 continues what is obviously the 2nd half and direction of the mix, with an insistent driving rhythm propelling this song forward. There's a bit of a Fugazi feel here (but it's certainly not them), but there's that angry political overtone for sure

Spoiler: show

(obviously aided by the fact the dude is singing about "politicians in his eyes")

. Not a fan of the dude's prolonged wail towards the end, but the music to this track was cool enough. The bass and drums in particular motored along. I can't get a trace on where this song sits historically though - I'm guessing it's early 80s but it could be 70's through to the 90s. I'm interested to find out who this is, not necessarily to listen to more, but so I can address my OCD and fit it into the appropriate category of my own personal musical tracking system.

Oh! That was the last song, except that I see that there's some shenanigans at play here! A secret hidden track is afoot I feel! Oh! I know this! This is

Spoiler: show

LCD Soundsystem from his final MSG live set released this year

. I've played that set a lot and generally really enjoy it. This is a good tune and brings back the rockin' bluesy beats of the first half of the mix, albeit in an updated and far more modern way. I like this as an end piece to this mix, it's rolling along and the band are obviously having a lot of fun. Cool.

OK, fun mix. I really enjoyed this from start to end. The mix-maker obviously put in a fair degree of thought and effort and I'm looking forward to the tracklisting. I've always enjoyed the old school rhythm and blues genres, so this mix was always going to be a winner for mine.

I fully suck at picking mixmasters but I'll stick with my (spoilered) guess above in my comments on track 7. Thanks again!

I plan on catching up on the few reviews I've missed asap.

[stip]

I'm not sure how long this one is supposed to be up for, Lament, but I will get to it as soon as round 1 of the tournament is over and I'm not listening to the playlists.