Seabird

So I was thinking of ways to continue this BLOG when the thought of hosting mixes occured to me. Even though it's just a puffed up way of getting people to listen to what I've been listening to lately, I've always been into making mixtapes for people. Below is a compilation I put together to someone, which I thought might advance a discussion of the mixtape* idiom.

If you haven't taken a look at it, the Turston Moore edited Mix Tape: Art of Cassette Culture, is an homage to the medium. It attempts to capture the visual impact of mixtapes (e.g. the book is shaped like a freakin' mixtape) and includes photos of mixtapes cherished by Mr. Moore's coolest musician friends. Essentially a flipbook of giant sized mixtape cassette inserts from the past 20 or so years, what bothers me about it (besides its almost complete focus on rock/punk) is the slightly discomforting nature of its presentation. The hi-res scans of the tapes and inserts are so eerily reminiscent of the real thing that you want pick them up off the page and in the end I really think a project of this nature comes off as way too much of a fetish and possibly even a weird form of voyuerism. The whole innocence of a lovingly compiled and personalized mixtape seems somehow trivialized by a term as hokey as "american folk art" and really, a mixtape makes no sense presented without any music. This should definitely come with a CD or something. Reading tracklistings isn't really that interesting unless you understand why they were chosen so you find youself just staring at artwork, which ranges from triumphantly cheap to weirdo way to serious experimental art. Let's just say, my friends make better and more sincere looking mixtapes. And sure, I guess you could say that, "Mix tapes mark the moment of consumer culture in which listeners attained conrol over what they heard, in what order and at cost", but that really needs to be the subject of an essay and not a picture book.

Alright, maybe it's not a lot of bologna, but here's a tasty selection of songs that are mostly funky and spacey in nature. Not a seriously-minded mixtape, mind you, just a batch of songs I put together for a friend that I think are interesting and fun. Some minimal house, space disco, forgotten 80s pop, etc. I also threw a couple Arthur Russell tracks from the World of Echo album I gushed about in an earlier post. Trust me, I'll be mentioning that album again.

Seabird Mixtape (Megauploud)

Tracklisting:

1) Delia Gonzalex & Gavin Russom - Revelee (Carl Craig Remix)
2) Señor Coconut - Electrolatino (Ricardo Villalobos' 'Lecktro Carino Mix)
3) Phantom/Ghost - Perfect Lovers (Unperfect Love Mix - Tobias Thomas & Superpitcher)
4) Lindstrøm - There Is a Drink In My Bedroom & I Need a Hot Lady (Prins Thomas Remix)
5) Margheuritas - Margeherita (Hot Edit)
6) Marcos Valle - Velhos Surfistas Querando Voar
7) Richard Schneider Jr. - Hello Beach Girls
8) Alessi Brothers - Seabird
9) Arthur Russell - Wax The Van
10) Arthur Russell - Place I Know / Kid Like You



*Here and for the entirety of this post I use mixtape to refer to both the fantastical plastical audio cassette (my prefered mixtape format) and the more generally employed "mix CD" of which for the purposes of this BLOG, I employ. These however, are two very different formats. A traditional mixtape takes at least 60-90 minutes to record since it's done in real time whereas a mix CD made from mp3s can be sequenced and recorded usually in under 10. While a mixtape is definitely way cooler in an aesthetic sense since it takes so long to make and looks badass, making a mix CD is way easier, and facilitates the sharing of a shitload of music.