Red Mosquito

I think people are too busy listening to their own Fixer-mixes to ever bother to stop and listen to anything else, even another Fixer-mix.

can't blame em, really

About to break into my first listen of #14...

Solid mix. Really into the first track.

This is really hitting the spot right now.


That's probably a sign that I'm not in a really good place, but whatever. I'm really into this twenty minute track at this second.

Back from a most awesome long weekend away. Will try and get to this tomorrow during work.

Great mix stip - really enjoyed it. Gotta say I'm surprised by the level of groove you bought to the table there - didn't know you had that much wucka-wucka in you!

Track 1: I like opening for this track, with the echo and glissando leading into a guitar or bass line that forms the track's backbone. Under most circumstances, I wouldn't be a fan of the vocals, but here they work extremely well and add a certain level of sadness to the whole affair. This is complemented nicely by the little guitar textures here and there throughout. This is a really nice and moody opener for the mix.

Track 2: The spare opener yields to a heavier stoner-rock tune for track two. As seems to be the case with the small amount of music in this vein that I'm familiar with, the vocals are just there to add another element to the track, whereas the instrumental arrangements are the real star. There's a nice bit of swagger here to accompany the low end groove. I like how there are certain points where the drums come to the forefront and really carry the song, like in the final couple of minutes.

Track 3: This one is a little more on the conventional side, being a singer-songwriter-type song with a lot of little arrangement and production touches. It's amusing that the first few vocals sound a little like Stone, but then the voice deepens. It still seems vaguely familiar to me, and I get the sense that this is one of those artists that gets high praise among music magazines and bloggers. It's not too bad, though it does go on longer than it should.

Track 4: The fourth song is a little more upbeat than the last with steady groove and backbeat that has some simple guitar parts mixed in with a female vocalist. About halfway through, it slows way down for a bit and then starts to build back towards the opening. Nice little structural trick there. A good "mixtape" song.

Track 5: And then we have another comedown with track 5. Or maybe not. It's just got a bit of a moody opener that switches into a drum-machine beat. Hm, not digging this vocalist; he's got that English indie-rock thing going on, and he's double-tracked with a vocoder or something. There's an overall spacey vibe with this one, but I thin that's mostly the little digital beeps and the vocoder that give off that sense. Like Daft Punk meets The Wombats with a dash of Arab Strap thrown in. Weird.

Track 6: This is an autumnal, rainy day mix if there ever was one. Too bad it's not raining here. This songs starts out being pretty folksy, but morphs into something else as it goes along. There's a nice, smoldering, slow-burn sense to the tune that's amped up when the guitars switch to electric and we get those jams. The whispery vocals seem to clash with the ragged edges that the rest of the song exhibits, but I can totally see how that would be endearing to someone else.

Track 7: I've got a feeling that this track is supposed to be the centerpiece of the mix, so let's see how it pans out. It's certainly pacing itself, as the song kicks off in a slow fashion that slowly swells around some piano, violin, acoustic guitar and drums. I'm getting a bit of a Dirty Three vibe from these first four minutes, which is pretty nice, though this is a fair bit cleaner. Oh, and I really like that droning breakdown that comes in around 4:15 or so. The chanting vocals are an interestingly unexpected addition to the song.

After the vocals are introduced the mood shifts for several minutes, and then shifts again around the nine-minute mark. I kinda think that if there weren't vocals, I might like this one a little more, because they don't really appear to add to the tune, but it's holding up pretty good, so far. There's more mood shifts to come, and then a male vocalist is added to the mix along with some horns towards the end. All in all, the song's probably longer than it needs to be, but it does a pretty good job of centering the rest of the mix into it's gravitational orbit.

Track 8: And now for the final comedown. This song evokes both sadness and hope, which is exactly how this mix needed to end. The lyrics are pretty verbose, so they don't quite fit the meter, but I think that's the point. I looked this one up, and I'm not at all surprised who it turns out to be. I think I've liked other songs by this group that I have been exposed to on this board, but this one's not too bad. As I said, it's pretty much a prefect end to the mix, so it does exactly what it's meant to.

Overall, this was a solid mix. I liked the first two tracks the most, but there's nothing I outright disliked here, and it flowed quite well. Kudos to the mixmaker. I suppose there's several people that this could be. I don't think I can narrow it down to one, but I'm thinking that ThePlatypus, Let Me Sleep, Spenno, and Mike are all possible candidates based on the last few decade tournaments.

Gonna try to put up #15 later. It's a busy week for me, so I might not get it up on time. I'm guessing it'll be up by Thursday at the latest though.

I've been sick and going to bed early but I've given mix 14 two listens and will be reviewing

stip wrote:I've been sick and going to bed early but I've given mix 14 two listens and will be reviewing

nah, that's ok

Lament wrote:Gonna try to put up #15 later. It's a busy week for me, so I might not get it up on time. I'm guessing it'll be up by Thursday at the latest though.

I have #15 in my possession, but I'm gonna put off posting it until Saturday and see if we can get another review or two up. I'd like to try to get my review of #14 up before I post the new one. The tournament I'm running has proven to be a bit time consuming. Fingers crossed...

Yeah, I owe a few reviews still. I'm gonna try and listen and type over the weekend.

Hey lament--what happened to the heathen's take feature on the tracklisting page?

Okay, here we go

Track 1: I like the slow whispery way the first song creeps up on you, and its rainy day forlornness. It's not a song I think I'll be seeking out as a stand alone listen, but it does a nice job kicking off a longer listening experience.

Track 2: Not a bad segue but this is bland grunge sludge rock to me. I like this kind of stuff when it's done well. But it's REALLY hard to do well without sounding like self parody.

Track 3: the music reminds me a little bit of Nirvana's You Know You're Right. I like the metallic desolation in the music, and the first few tracks flow together nicely. This singer sounds really familiar--I think he's someone a bunch of RMers have been pushing. I'm not a big fan of his, but there are some nice lyrical moments, but some of it is a bit over the top. I am definitely digging the music.

There are too many songs written about California

Track 4: Nice sunny morning vibe to this one—a welcome counterpoint at this point in the mix. I don’t know that I’m as much of a fan as the slower middle section

Track 5: I like the music here but the vocal gimmicks are a slight turnoff, which is too bad. There’s a good song underneath the effects, and I was looking past the stuff I didn’t care for until the outro, which was over the top. I liked the sense of space and distance in the song, but could have done without the space lasers. Probably my favorite song thus far, despite these issues.

Track 6: The cacophonous transition was unexpected the first time, but it was dynamic, a nice juxtaposition with the fragile and broken vocals—the sounds the singer couldn’t make himself. I was really into the outro. 5 and 6 are a nice 1-2 combo.

Track 7: I quite liked the music in the first half of this song, though I could have done without the vocals though. But by 11 minutes I was certainly ready for it to be over, and the back half didn’t win me back. It wasn’t bad or anything. Just too much.

Tack 8: I need to go add this artist to my list of people I don't like as much as I should. Excellent lyrics, as they almost always are, but this feels a bit overwritten for a sparse song, and i'm not so in love with his voice that I'm willing to sacrifice a more appropriate melody for it.


Overall a nice consistent listen that works quite well as a mix. 5 and 6 were my personal highlights. 1 and 8 were also pretty solid songs.

stip wrote:Hey lament--what happened to the heathen's take feature on the tracklisting page?

I think it fell victim to the lack of time I've been able to dedicate to this thread. We'll blame the tournaments I've been running for that one too.

Secret Mix #15...

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

This one is apparently titled "Margaret? This is God. Please Shut Up."

Enjoy!

Lament wrote:"Margaret? This is God. Please Shut Up."

harry lime back from the dead?

The answer may surprise you.

I have loaded this onto the ipod and I have some car travel without the girls this week, so this should get some listens. New Mark Lanegan and the S/T demos are taking up most of what little music time I have