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

[Lament]

I'll give this mixer another 24 hours to reveal himself, and then I'll reveal him.

And don't worry, you didn't sound impatient. I'm hoping once the song tournaments wind down this thread can get back on track. We were doing really well there for a while.

[Kaius]

I'm pretty sure the 60s tournament was in June.

[Lament]

It feels like the 60s tournament took place in the 60s.

[AndySlash]

sorry, i didn't know this was waiting on me.




STREAMING CONSCIOUSNESS
Artists and songs featured in documentaries currently available on Netflix Instant.

1. Harry Nilsson - Jump Into The Fire (7:05)
- "Who Is Harry Nilsson?"

2. The 13th Floor Elevators - You're Gonna Miss Me (2:27)
- "You're Gonna Miss Me"

3. Big Star - When My Baby's Beside Me (Alternate Mix, 1972) (3:23)
- "Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me"

4. Jimi Hendrix - Hear My Train A Comin' (5:42)
- "Jimi Hendrix: Hear My Train A Comin'"

5. Charles Bradley - The World (Is Going Up In Flames) (3:22)
- "Charles Bradley: Soul of America"

6. Levon Helm - King Fish (4:24)
- "Ain't in It for My Health: Levon Helm"

7. Chris Thile and the How to Grow a Band - How To Grow A Woman From The Ground (5:08)
- "How to Grow a Band"

8. Tom Zé - Curiosidade (4:12)
- "Fabricating Tom Ze"

9. Tony Bennett - Body And Soul (Feat. Amy Winehouse) (3:23)
- "The Zen of Bennett"

10. Julie Ruin - Love Letter (3:08)
- "The Punk Singer"

11. Gogol Bordello - Start Wearing Purple (3:42)
- "Gogol Bordello: Non-Stop"

12. Death - Politicians In My Eyes (5:50)
- "A Band Called Death "

12-2. LCD Soundsystem - Jump Into The Fire (5:50)
- "Shut Up And Play The Hits"


i wasn't going to participate in this at all, but had an idea a few weeks in to make a mix, so i threw my name in. i got the idea to do a mix based on music docs available on netflix after finally getting around to watching 'a band called death'. i knew then i wanted 'politicians in my eyes' as the closer- i'm in love with that outro (though yes, the final scream isn't exactly the greatest). in some ways, though, this mix idea was a mistake - i really limited my options right out of the gate. and some artists i was familiar with and others not at all.

at one point i planned to use nilsson's 'early in the morning' as the opening track, but after listening to 'jump into the fire' and having it in my head for a few days after, i changed my mind. the false start apparently was a pressing mistake on a special edition cd - i didn't have an mp3 copy of this song and just happened to download this version of the song - but after hearing it and thinking it could be kind of a cool way to start things off, i put 'jump into...' at the beginning.

in my very first ideas for the mix, 'you're gonna miss me' was going to open, and the hidden track was going to be roky singing 'for you', which is just an incredible scene in the context of that movie. when i decided to put the nilsson song to start, it didn't really make sense to to me to keep roky as the end. i still wanted a hidden track, though.

i had tried to use other lcd soundsystem songs in the mix, but they never found a good place to fit in - the live sound didn't help. eventually i figured i wasn't going to use them at all. but after coming back to them at one point, i realized they also played 'jump into the fire'. i really liked the idea of doing the bookends, so their version became the hidden track. i used a few songs that were also the title of the documentary, just to maybe give a bit of a clue to what the theme was.

i'm mostly atisfied with the result, but it did prove difficult to make a mix with many different styles, voices, and sounds due to the small amount of music docs that were available. i honestly thought there would be way more available on netflix and the resulting song pool wouldn't be as limited as it was. not being familiar with some of these artists/docs was also a negative. the mix drags in the middle-to-late part (though i do like these songs) and song 10 i would agree doesn't fit well enough.

tagged mix if anyone is interested

Code: Select all

https://www.sendspace.com/file/ypix1m

also, apparently 'you're gonna miss me' is no longer available to stream. it had been on there for so long i didn't even think about it. oh well. if you get a chance to see it, you should.

[Lament]

A kind soul has sent me in a mix, so we're ready to start rolling again. Time for Secret Mix #13!

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

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

[stip]

Not that I have the time for all this, but don't you owe me a MSP mix?

[stip]

Well, not owe...

[stip]

sorry, i didn't know this was waiting on me.




STREAMING CONSCIOUSNESS
Artists and songs featured in documentaries currently available on Netflix Instant.

1. Harry Nilsson - Jump Into The Fire (7:05)
- "Who Is Harry Nilsson?"

2. The 13th Floor Elevators - You're Gonna Miss Me (2:27)
- "You're Gonna Miss Me"

3. Big Star - When My Baby's Beside Me (Alternate Mix, 1972) (3:23)
- "Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me"

4. Jimi Hendrix - Hear My Train A Comin' (5:42)
- "Jimi Hendrix: Hear My Train A Comin'"

5. Charles Bradley - The World (Is Going Up In Flames) (3:22)
- "Charles Bradley: Soul of America"

6. Levon Helm - King Fish (4:24)
- "Ain't in It for My Health: Levon Helm"

7. Chris Thile and the How to Grow a Band - How To Grow A Woman From The Ground (5:08)
- "How to Grow a Band"

8. Tom Zé - Curiosidade (4:12)
- "Fabricating Tom Ze"

9. Tony Bennett - Body And Soul (Feat. Amy Winehouse) (3:23)
- "The Zen of Bennett"

10. Julie Ruin - Love Letter (3:08)
- "The Punk Singer"

11. Gogol Bordello - Start Wearing Purple (3:42)
- "Gogol Bordello: Non-Stop"

12. Death - Politicians In My Eyes (5:50)
- "A Band Called Death "

12-2. LCD Soundsystem - Jump Into The Fire (5:50)
- "Shut Up And Play The Hits"


i wasn't going to participate in this at all, but had an idea a few weeks in to make a mix, so i threw my name in. i got the idea to do a mix based on music docs available on netflix after finally getting around to watching 'a band called death'. i knew then i wanted 'politicians in my eyes' as the closer- i'm in love with that outro (though yes, the final scream isn't exactly the greatest). in some ways, though, this mix idea was a mistake - i really limited my options right out of the gate. and some artists i was familiar with and others not at all.

at one point i planned to use nilsson's 'early in the morning' as the opening track, but after listening to 'jump into the fire' and having it in my head for a few days after, i changed my mind. the false start apparently was a pressing mistake on a special edition cd - i didn't have an mp3 copy of this song and just happened to download this version of the song - but after hearing it and thinking it could be kind of a cool way to start things off, i put 'jump into...' at the beginning.

in my very first ideas for the mix, 'you're gonna miss me' was going to open, and the hidden track was going to be roky singing 'for you', which is just an incredible scene in the context of that movie. when i decided to put the nilsson song to start, it didn't really make sense to to me to keep roky as the end. i still wanted a hidden track, though.

i had tried to use other lcd soundsystem songs in the mix, but they never found a good place to fit in - the live sound didn't help. eventually i figured i wasn't going to use them at all. but after coming back to them at one point, i realized they also played 'jump into the fire'. i really liked the idea of doing the bookends, so their version became the hidden track. i used a few songs that were also the title of the documentary, just to maybe give a bit of a clue to what the theme was.

i'm mostly atisfied with the result, but it did prove difficult to make a mix with many different styles, voices, and sounds due to the small amount of music docs that were available. i honestly thought there would be way more available on netflix and the resulting song pool wouldn't be as limited as it was. not being familiar with some of these artists/docs was also a negative. the mix drags in the middle-to-late part (though i do like these songs) and song 10 i would agree doesn't fit well enough.

tagged mix if anyone is interested

Code: Select all

https://www.sendspace.com/file/ypix1m

also, apparently 'you're gonna miss me' is no longer available to stream. it had been on there for so long i didn't even think about it. oh well. if you get a chance to see it, you should.

That's a clever idea for a mix, and well executed, although I'm a little sad my initial suspicion didn't turn out to be correct. It was certainly better received than my gimmick mix.

Stick around for some of the others

[AndySlash]

i've downloaded several of these. i did enjoy your gimmick mix, stip - i like weird al - and wish i hadn't read anything before listening to see if i would have picked up on it before the reveal in the last half. there was one other one i liked quite a bit but will have to go back and see which one- i'm not sure i ever looked at who/what it was.

[Brett]

Track ten on this new mix has a tagging issue of some sort that causes it to display what the song actually is when played in VLC. Also, I gotta say, since I do use VLC to listen to these things, that I prefer when people use a numbering system like this: 01, 02, 03, etc. until you get to 10. Otherwise, the mix plays out of order. I didn't realize why this mix seemed so oddly put together until I discovered that it was playing track 1, then 10, 11, 12, and then back to 2 through 9. Otherwise, I haven't noticed any other issues. I think I know who this one may be, but I'll refrain from naming names until I get to a full review, especially since there's a few songs that cast doubt on my guess.

[stip]

i've downloaded several of these. i did enjoy your gimmick mix, stip - i like weird al - and wish i hadn't read anything before listening to see if i would have picked up on it before the reveal in the last half. there was one other one i liked quite a bit but will have to go back and see which one- i'm not sure i ever looked at who/what it was.

you should post your thoughts. Every mix maker likes getting feedback, even if it is something really brief

[Lament]

Not that I have the time for all this, but don't you owe me a MSP mix?

I do, but my external hard drive needs to be repaired, so I actually have no access to any of my music via anything other than my iPod right now (my cds are all in storage at the moment). When I get it fixed (hopefully), I'll get one to you.

[Lament]

Track ten on this new mix has a tagging issue of some sort that causes it to display what the song actually is when played in VLC.

That's on me. I double checked everything using iTunes and Windows Media Player, but didn't think to check VLC (which I should have, cause I do use it from time to time). Apologies.

[Lament]

I'm about to upload it again with track 10 stripped for VLC. I've also changed the numbering system to the one Brett requested. It should be up shortly.

[Lament]

Alright, the download links have been updated with the new files. Thanks for the heads up, Brett.

[Brett]

Thanks, Lament, though you didn't have to go to all that trouble. Fixing track 10 was probably important, but the rest I can and have easily done on my own. That track 10 was just weird, though, 'cause it didn't even display a length or anything in Windows explorer, and I had to skip past an error track when I was playing the mix to get to the proper point.

I'll download the new version and let you know if I encounter any other oddities.

[Brett]

Oh, and before I forget, thanks for the tracklisting and backstory for your mix, Andy. That's an interesting conceptual starting point, albeit a rather limited one, as you pointed out. It certainly did make for an eclectic listen.

[Lament]

I'm about to give #13 my first listen before work. I'm going to try to post a review of #12 this week too, hopefully.

[stip]

I just started a new job, and it's going to be harder than usual to find time, though I'll do my best. I promise I'll hit everything eventually

[Brett]

Here we go, mix #13:

Track 1: Opens with no build up, a combination of horns, piano, and banjo. And then there's the vocals that give away the artist at first blow:

Spoiler: show

Tom Waits.

This one's a quick little number that doesn't waste a moment. I like little bits and pieces of this guy's music, but overall I'm not real into him. This isn't a song that I would place on the more enjoyable end of that spectrum, but it's not bad.

Track 2: A little more electronic influence in the opening to this one, but then it reveals itself as a pretty funky tune. More horns, though I'm pretty sure those are samples from old funk releases.

Spoiler: show

Is this one Beck?

Lots of little production touches all over this one that connect together the little mini riffs and other disparate elements. Nice song for the mix, though not really connecting to me. The little outro bit's amusing, though.

Track 3: Another song that makes me think I know who this mixmaker is early on.

Spoiler: show

This one's Feist - "The Bad in Each Other."

I like the rhythms on this one, along with the very subtle use of horns. Actually, there's nice arrangements all around. The singer's vocals have an oddly muffled quality that I haven't really noticed in other song's featuring her, so I don't know if that's just a thing here or what.

Track 4: Slowing things down a bit, we have another easily recognizable artist within moments of the vocals appearing. And yet again, I must say I think I know who compiled this based on this song and the three preceding it. I've spoken about my feelings on this band before, and how they're not very strong either way. This song's just got a nice, low, simmering vibe about it. There's lots of potential energy built up in it, but the tension is just allowed to slowly seep without a big explosion, though it does cause the whole thing to fall apart into noise at the end.

Track 5: Here's the first song that made me think maybe I was wrong about the mixer on this one.

Spoiler: show

This song's Bonnie "Prince" Billy or some other alias of Will Oldham.

This song's built on a foundation of piano and a really nice little backbeat that has touches of guitar and harmonica adorning it. Another instantly recognizable singer, and one that I quite like despite not knowing very well. There are also some female backing vocals that are kind of "soul," but don't really add greatly to the tune.

Track 6: Here the energy picks up again, and we've got a very "new wave," post-punk style driving rhythm. The vocalist featured here sounds familiar, but I can't quite place him; that's a first for this mix. Beyond that propulsive beat and the vocals, there's little else going on here. There's subtle keyboard noises throughout, and something that might be considered a guitar solo towards the end, but it really falls more safely into the realm of an instrumental break. Not particularly remarkable.

Track 7: I cheated and googled this one because it sounded like Bob Dylan, but not really. Instead, it's more like a Dylan impersonator.

Spoiler: show

The search engine tells me that it's Dan Bern, whose name sounds vaguely familiar.

Anyway, the Dylan takeoffs are numerous in appearance here: primarily the vocal stylings, but there's also the twangy slide guitar, the harmonica, the "profound" lyricism, the general vibe of "America." Not my thing by most accounts, but it slides nicely into this mix, which has been well put together so far.

Track 8: Every time I hear this one, the first note makes me think it's something else that I know, but I can't remember what it is because the rest of this song plays rather than the other one. That ever happen to anyone else? Anyway, this one's a sparse and moody number, with some dry guitar tones married to a rich, but subtle organ and some some chiming notes that I can't name. The vocalist fits this one really well, too, with the just the right amount of existential drama to complete the song.

Track 9: This one's an odd one. The arrangements are fairly sparse, but pretty; there's some piano, some strings, a bit of organ, an accordion and mandolin here and there, and a bass guitar whose timbre melds at times with the deep male vocalist to become indistinguishable. I also looked this one up out of curiosity and discovered that it's

Spoiler: show

Leonard Cohen, furthering my suspicions of the person behind this mix.

Track 10: I posted before how the initial file containing this mix had the tags still applied to this one, so I do know who this artist is:

Spoiler: show

Amanda Palmer.

Now, without those tags, I never would have known who this is, and I probably wouldn't have my expectations of the song colored by the less than savory opinions I've got about this artist. Anyway, this one's got another really heavily produced arrangement with lots of little keyboard and synthesizer parts building it up. It also shifts gears a bit about halfway through and picks up a heavy drum beat that then takes over the direction of the song. Really, this is a pretty nice song despite knowing who it is.

Track 11: Hm. I want to say that I might know the singer here as well, but I can't name him. I like the tone of the guitar that opens the songs; it has a really nice sound with lots of echo. The rest of the song I'm not particularly fond of, though it is short and it still fits pretty well into the rest of the mix. Kind of "indie," which is weird, considering who I think this comes from.

Track 12: And we end with some ragtime, taking us back to the first artist in the mix. When I first listened to the mix, as I pointed out in an earlier post, this song played in either the third or fourth slot due to VLC's quirk of playing the playlist based on the file names. So it really threw me off hearing this artist appear twice so early in the mix and it initially turned me off pretty hard because of that. It doesn't help that I don't really like most of the stylistic choices on this one. I tend to like the darker material from this artist, with the noisier, more industrial arrangements, rather than this old-timey stuff.

Anyway, as I said, this is a really well put together mix, with seemingly lots of consideration placed on flow and tone. There's also a pretty strong focus on what I believe to many of the mixmaker's favorite artists. That said. I'm going to place my bets here on the person responsible for this one.

Spoiler: show

This is another Stip mix, is it not? There's way to many cues pointing towards him for it to be anyone else. And if it's not Stip, then it's someone doing a really good impersonation of him.