Mixtape cover painting

Dear friends,

I always loved to listen to music
and explore new and unknown recordings.
I used to create mixtapes back then with friends.

This habit of mine came back last year
when we moved together with David
and started to capture
the essence of our musical discoveries
in form of mixtapes.

I kept the move this year too,
and it’s being a great fun of making playlists
to sample the mood of certain times.

That said, I’m offering “Last but one”,
my eighth mixtape,
to you,
dedicated to this very last part of the year.

Please find a short reasoning next to each song
why they were specifically picked for this set.
Wish you gonna enjoy it
and happy holidays!

If you have Spotify account,
please use this link
to support their service: https://txt.fyi/+/0abdf9d4/
Or whatever: https://txt.fyi/+/5039af8b/

With love,

01 Madredeus — Adoro Lisboa

Fado is the type of Portugese traditional music that is most widely known. I did listen to quite a lot of fado this year to get the hang of it. While on this journey, I came across Madredeus, a band from Lisbon playing a fusion of fado and Portugese folk. Really beautiful music to set the tone for dinner.

“The first album [of Madredeus] was recorded in their rehearsal space, a converted abbey in Lisbon. The recording was especially strenuous due to deafening interruptions every 5 minutes from Lisbon’s tram service, which ran directly above. In honour of this unavoidable presence in their every performance, they named themselves after the surrounding neighborhood, Madre de Deus (Mother of God), shortened to the vernacular Madredeus.”

02 Ivan & The Parazol — Cry

Balance is not a static point one can aim for rather than a constant seek to the lesser resistance. So after fado, you need some rock, dude! This band is absolutely a new discovery. I was looking at various concert options while I’ll be in Budapest, and that’s how I popped into this Hungarian rock band. Pretty cool, youth energy.

03 Malaria! — Leidenschaft

Yeah, talking about rock music, this song reminds me so much of last year at Epicentrum. Fucking crazy kraut rock from Germany, what else?

04 Patti Smith — Land

Recent discovery. I came across her while clicking through Last.fm. I wonder why I didn’t know her music before. She’s a bad ass punk singer from New York. Totally mixtape compatible.

05 The Beatles — Strawberry Fields Forever Take 27

It’s since I watched the Hard Days Night movie that I like the music of The Beatles. Actually I prefer their psychedelic songs over the Help! kinda songs. Like Strawberry Fields Forever is rather my choice. Bonus that Juli loves this song too. In fact, this track I’m including now is a numbered take of some recording sessions I presume, and is played a bit wilder than the radio cut.

06 Lupe Fiasco — Kick, Push

This song was already on a mixtape that I made twelve years ago. This dude is a hiphop artist from Chicago. And this song is an ode to skating. Every time I hear this song I just wanna get on the board and just kick, and push, and coast.

07 Nosaj Thing — 1685/Bach

Slowly tuning to electronics here. The balance, you know. This guy is an LA native and produces glitch hop. É tudo.

08 Zenzile, High Tone — Breathe Tone Mix

This track is a co production of two french dub formations. I used to listen to a lot of electro dub, specifically french dub like ten years ago. Nowadays I find them too dark to enjoy them much, and yet this track is a great reminder to good old times.

09 Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts — Discoteque

This is a solo producer from Canada. Also a recent finding. I have no idea what this music is but this album was sitting in my “discover” playlist for almost a month before I could even say if I liked it or not. This particular song was also a list minute change as I could not get my original choice of Unwelcome in downloadable format. It was unwelcome on the list, Juli says.

10 Musumeci — VI Original Mix

When talking about electronics, this is the kind of music I dig a lot! This is the music I strive to be able to produce one day. Until then, here goes some pure electronica from Italy.

11 Lee “Scratch” Perry — UnitCorn

I never really took the time to really discover the roots of dub, and to dig deep into the discography of Lee “Scratch” Perry. It’s just very recently that I’ve started to check out his works, album by album, and this is how I found this piece. In fact, this is a collaboration between Dieter Meier (Yello) and Perry. Amazing how this two people produce techno in 1997.

12 Twilight 22 — Electric Kingdom

This very last piece is where, electronics, rock and hiphop, it all comes together. This song is one of my favourites to dance to since my teen ages. It’s electro funk from 1984, the same year when I was born. Pop your bodies, dudes!

■ ■ ■