As promised, here's my full write up for Mix #12.
Track one: We start off with a groove that is interrupted by some sort of mistake, either in the recording process, or in the performance. Either way the song restarts itself, and then we get going with a little blissed-out sunshine groove-along song that sounds more like a pastiche than an authentic genre piece. I hope it is the former, because it does a pretty decent job of highlighting and exaggerating some of the characteristics of this sort of song. I like the breakdown to drums and bass just past the halfway point.
Track two: Into the '60s we go. The little "turkey" vocal thing that's going on underneath most of the song is kind of weird. The rest of the song is an okay blue rock thing that I'm not really into. It's got a nice bridge, though. Not keen on the harmonica, but I'm usually not fond of its utilization in this style of music.
Track three: A little further into "classic rock" territory, but I'm still not quite certain if any of these tracks are actually from the eras that they're sounding like, or if they're simply homages. This one's pretty okay, too. It's got some real nice instrumental interplay that serves to provide something to pay attention to, since the vocals are uninteresting.
Track four: Now here's some authenticity that pretty much everyone will be able to recognize. I think it's pretty obvious by now that I'm not real well-versed in the intricacies of rock music history, so I'm not familiar with this particular tune. Is this one an old blues standard that's been adopted? Obviously, there's a lot of focus on the guitar work here, which is probably great, if you're into it.
Track five: Continuing our stylistic journey, we've got some classic soul music. I don't recognize the artist or the song because this is pretty far outside of my own upbringing, both literally and musically. Again, I've got nothing particularly critical to say about this track, because it's just "there" for me. I do enjoy some of the arrangements, which is a plus.
Track six: Peter Griffin takes over the mix on this tune, with a brass-heavy New Orleans big band tune. I looked this one up because I was curious, and discovered that it's
- Spoiler: show
- Randy Newman.
I like it in a humorous fashion, though I don't know if that's what the mix-maker was going for.
Track seven: A little bit of a quieter folk style here, which makes it a highlight in my eyes. Some light banjo and guitar strumming that's accompanied by an emotive fiddle and a singer who's not trying to be the star of the show. I like the way that the music rises and falls in waves that are less predictable than a standard build-to-climax formula.
Track eight: Varis mentioned this one as being "Mexican," which I don't think is quite right. The language sounds more like Portuguese to me, which leads me to believe that this is Brazilian. It's got a little bit of that not-quite-Bossa-Nova feel to it that reminds me of Milton Nasciemento in a way. Another highlight song, as it's well put together and doesn't sound played out to me.
Track nine: Once again, we're shuffling along through a tour of musical genres, and here we land in the midst of some classy old pop songs in the style of Frank Sinatra, et al. I'm not a fan of the female vocalist's drunken slur style, but looking at Varis's review reveals the reason behind it. This is more music that is far outside of anything I've ever really associated with, but it's nicely arranged. My only other gripe is with the big "epic" climax at the end. Nothing about the rest of the song seems to support that kind of huge payoff.
Track ten: This one's totally out of place and is where I think the mix-maker lost the plot. Not that the song's necessarily bad. I like the "underwater" beat that supports the vocals. It reminds me in a vague way of early Polmo Polpo, though more rock-oriented. With the vocals being the only thing not mixed under oceanic depths, there's a strange minimalist quality at play. And then again, even some of the vocals are recorded the same way. And then it stops, and there's a break to some cheering. What the hell?
Track eleven:
- Spoiler: show
- Gogol Bordello.
I like these guys in small doses. I think they try at times to be too "zany," which helps to lose my attention, but they always seem to go full on with whatever they're up to. This is one of their more well-known songs. Accordion, tambourine, violin, bouzouki (perhaps); lots of Baltic, Eastern European musical elements topped off with a vocalist who is quite mad.
Track twelve: The "final" song of the mix takes us back to rock, but with more stylistic derivations from punk than the bluesy genres of early on. There's an anti-war theme at play here, though it's hard to get a bead on the complaints because of the vocalist's quick-spitting delivery. Like Varis, I don't know from whence this song comes, since it also seems to have some of the new(no)-wave elements of bands like Television. A fun little warped outro, too.
Track "thirteen": Our hidden track is live cut. Wait, is this the same song that opened the mix? I believe that it may be. If not, it's at least extremely similar, giving the mix a cyclical feel. I'm not really a fan of albums that include live versions of tracks of songs already present, and I can't say that I like it any better on a mix. While I applaud the effort that the mix-maker took to stitch this hidden track in using audacity or whatever, it's kind of left a sour taste for the end of the mix.
Still, thanks for the time and effort. I have no clue who this may be.
