Thursday, 14 February 2008

week 3 mix day futurism introducing



Week 3, Mix-a-Day: Futurism / Introducing Jeffrey Beaumont

Click here for the week's schedule.

One of my favorite things to do in the entire world is make mixes.

Calling me a music obsessive probably understates the true intensity

with which music grips me. It is no coincidence that a number of the

activities on this Hyperliving calendar play with my relationship with

music, because so much of what has mattered to me in life has defined

by that relationship.

Part of my appreciation for music includes a slavish attention to the

way it makes me feel. Certain songs pull at every string in my heart

and unravel me until i am nothing but a throbbing heart. Examples?

"Try a Little Tenderness." "If You Need Me." "Boys Don't Cry." "In My

Life." Und so weiter. Maybe you get the point--these weary songs ache

and ache and ache some more. [Some of these will be repped in the

Jeffrey Beaumont Meta Mix at the end of the week.] They make me feel

like, if I look hard enough, I can really discover a way in which all

of life can be distilled to five minutes.

Anyway, I will write a lot more about this next week when I will not

be able to listen to music at all. So, without further adieu, here are

the week's first two mixes:

Futurism in Dark and Light

I began these mixes vaguely with the idea in mind that I really needed

to make a mix that I could put some Pink Floyd on. Which, depending on

who you are, may seem hilarious, or "Right on, man" or confused. I've

sort of come full circle on the Floyd, as they were crucial to my

psychedelic-explorative (but still sort of mainstreamish) development

stage. However, the Floyd I was into during those times was mostly

Meddle through Animals--the burgeoning "classic" era--but the music

I've been into lately is all earlier and wraps up with Meddle. After

years of intense love, I dismissed Pink Floyd at some point in

freshman year of college, around the same time I stopped listening to

Phish, the Dead and the Allman Brothers. Beyond my decreasing interest

in "guitar workouts," I also disdained the folk I met who cited them

as a "major life influence," and so Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You

Were Here, and Animals all became part of a mass of my cds that never

made the transition to ripped mp3.

While a lot of that change-of-heart still makes sense to me now--"Wish

You Here" or, especially, "Another Brick in the Wall" seem to be

particularly difficult to listen to--in the past few years I've come

back to Pink Floyd as I've gone back to seeking out experimental rock

and roll (as opposed to the experimental electronic music I sought out

in college). It's hard to listen to Krautrock, King Crimson or

Canterbury scene sounds and not want also to hear mid-early Floyd for

peer context. Umm... yeah.

Anyway, since I began crafting a mix that featured mostly Floyd and

Can and some prog (Gong, King Crimson), but as a began expanding it, I

realized that a) i'd moved away from those genres a bit, b) had enough

songs to fill up more than one disc, and c) it seemed like it would

make sense to subdivide the themes into light and dark (i like

ying-yang balance in art). I generally try to give no more than one

song to an artist on a mix, but it made sense to me to have two each

from Pink Floyd, Faust, and Can since they were centerpieces of

inspiration. And so, here they are below. Let me know what you think

and/or if you're interested in anything specific and would like to

know more.

"Futurism in Dark"

Click here to download mix

1 David Lynch - The Ghost Of Love , 1:05

2 Amon Tobin - Bloodstone , 4:10

3 Can - Tango Whiskeyman , 4:03

4 Broadcast - DDL , 2:28

5 Portishead - Requiem for Anna , 2:39

6 Silver Apples - Ruby , 2:28

7 Cluster - Caramba , 3:57

8 Burial - In McDonalds , 2:07

9 Slint - Glenn , 6:11

10 Sixtoo - Boxcutter emporium pt. 3 , 2:58

11 Kroke - The Secret Of the life Tree , 4:29

12 Nina Simone - Sinnerman , 10:21

13 Boom Bip - Last Walk Around Mirror Lake (Boards of Canada Remix) ,

4:31

14 Japan - Ghosts , 4:37

15 Air - Cemetary Party , 2:37

16 King Crimson - The Court Of The Crimson King 9:23

Total: 67:59

"Futurism in Light"

Click here to download mix

1 Gastr del Sol - Our Exquisite Replica of "Eternity" , 8:28

2 Boards of Canada - Dayvan Cowboy , 5:01

3 Pink Floyd - Fearless , 6:08

4 Faust - It's A Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl , 7:25

5 Frank Zappa - Peaches En Regalia , 3:31

6 Stereolab - Analogue Rock , 4:13

7 Sonic Youth - New Hampshire , 5:13

8 Can - I'm So Green , 3:06

9 Gong - Tried So Hard , 4:39

10 Faust - Chere chambre , 3:08

11 Psychic TV - The Orchids , 3:01

12 Grateful Dead - Beautiful Jam , 4:41

13 Tortoise - Cornpone Brunch (Mike Watt Remix), 4:18

14 Robert Wyatt - Raining In My Heart , 2:43

15 Pink Floyd - Wot's ... Uh The Deal , 5:09

Total: 70:30

Until tomorrow,

Jeffrey


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