...where we listen to a tape
 

Table of contents [added later and changing as it goes]
tape 1 it's a compilation of tracks that came out in 2018. link to the tape
tape 2.1 tape with songs that ask questions (in the title) Starts here. First part: link
tape 2.2 Second part of the above:link
tape 3 the Red Balloon (entitled tape 9 in mixcloud) writing about it starts here. Link for getting to mixcloud and hearing the tape here.
tape 4 Aesop Rock tape starts here and you can listen to it here.
tape 5



[tape 1 starts here]

ok so i m gonna play you a tape.
but not just like that, cause that would be boring.
i ll write some things about the songs.
so it ll also be like a radio transmission.
when i get to the middle i ll put an edit right here and link to the whole tape so you can listen to it. or maybe i ll do that in the end we ll see.

of course anyone is welcome to comment on the songs,sayings or whatever else he wants....
if i (and at least 1 more person) like this we can do it all over again..

i got a tape-pilot but i m bored to play you that one right now. so i ll start with another one which consists of things that got out in 2018. not a best of, just some songs i liked and i think kinda fit together.
and it starts like that:

Courtney Barnett is one of the really interesting new artists of the last 3-4 years.
she already has 3 solid albums out and although if i had to rate them then this years would be third, its also, with its quality, an assurement that the girl is here to stay. i choose its opening track as tape opener

https://courtneybarnett.bandcamp.com...hopefulessness

i ll put bandcamp links whenever they re available. if you prefer youtube say so and i might reconsider.. they have the advantage that you can hear it without leaving the page, i understand but i like bandcamp a lot better.

i was introduced to Julia Holter's music reading an article in the wire magazine (which is usually too eclectic/experimental for my taste but which i also hold in high regard) and listening 2013's loud city song. Its a good+ to great album. its also best listened to as a whole. 2018's aviary is almost as good in my opinion. as the aforementioned, its one unit and its hard to remove a track and put it on a tape. theres one exception: whether. that was the track i was gonna put but then i changed my mind......twice :)
here are all three with the last one beeing the one i used.

https://juliaholter.bandcamp.com/track/whether
https://juliaholter.bandcamp.com/track/i-shall-love-2
https://juliaholter.bandcamp.com/tra...neath-the-moon

around december i got a mini-mania of reading year-end lists and listening to records. one of the good stuff i discovered (second time i mention the wire) was the Sons of Kemet. i know nothing else about this group but i will be following them. (p.e one of their members got a new album out last month (link))

so here's the 3d track of the tape:
https://soundcloud.com/sonsofkemet/m...rriet-tubman-1

Wire has been the best music magazine for at least a decade.

Ty segall is a swell guy, saw him play live a couple years ago and i had a great time. i cant find a reason for him to have recorded 15394 albums. i heard 3 maybe 4 of them including 2018's goblins. there were like 3-4 tracks i could play you from there, i choose this one cause i think it mixed nice with sons of kemet's.

Ty Segall - talkin 3

ftr

I have the Bandcamp app and prefer it to youtube unless there’s something very interesting about the video.

agreed.
most of the stuff it covers i cant listen, i mean i cant even finish the record :)
on the other hand i discovered things there i probably wouldnt in any other way.
they are dead serious about the way they treat music and that is so apparent in there.i love that. i used to buy it like 1-2 times a year in the mid 00's. i would even now if i could find it easily but that is not the case where i live..

i didnt watch it, i usually hate videos, is just that i couldnt find it anywhere else. if you got a link of it please post it!



:

I just meant in general. I subscribed to Wire for a while but it’s too expensive for me. I still read their free content, and listen to their AOTY list and every month I check their cover and look into any musician I’m not familiar with. My only complaint about their writing is they started branching out too far into beat orientated electronic music at the expense of free jazz.

Another reason I cut my subscription is their downloadable Under the Radar music content isn’t downloadable on my phone and I don’t have or even want a computer. And **** a free CD. I don’t want anymore hard copies of anything. If they had a digital subscription service that worked entirely on my phone including all their UTR stuff with a convenient player I’d probably get back on board. What they really need is a really bad ass app.

Actually I quit dealing with LEO Records for similar reasons. They refuse to make it convenient. Now I basically live with whatever gets put on Bandcamp and Spotify. I know I’m missing stuff but it’s still way more than I can listen to anyway.

idles are also one of my great discoveries of the last years, uk punks (or is it post punks? doesnt really matter) , they already got 2 solid albums, and they seem to be doing pretty good. i read that they played a ton of gigs between the 2 albums (i guess in the uk mainly) i hope i get to see them live before they record a 3d one.
i should note that this album took me a bit more, than their debut, to get into but now i believe that is as (or almost as) good as brutalism.

this is a track about brexit mostly, loving the irony:

idles-great

https://idlesband.bandcamp.com/track/great

^love it

you can hear any of their 2 albums, they're really good! i prefer the first one but thats probably because then i knew nothing about them so they took me by surprise :)

now to the next track:
we almost know nothing yet about the greek garage band goodbye bedouin. if you listen to this track here you ve listened to the 50% of their discography. and, well, i think you should do just that:

goodbye bedouin -submarine
https://goodbyebedouin-innerear.band...rack/submarine

i like it when a band seems to have the time (and resources) to do things as she likes. this is the case with the breeders who took their time and surprised us (well at least surprised me) with a new record in 2018 - a pretty entertaining one too!
wait in the car, i got business. (i absolutely love how she says that line)

the Breeders -wait in the car

^I really love their new album. I saw them live this winter, it was a really moving experience. Kim's voice is worn in such a beautiful way

its a pretty good time to see them live! and i d easily choose them over pixies (who in my opinion are absolutely great but probably should have never reunite..)

next on the tape is a new artist i liked: Snail Mail. i m kinda worried about her beeing so young and having this kind of success, especially at this time when success seems to be big and last a little. i hope she can handle all this sh*t. i think this is my favorite track of the album

Snail mail -heatwave
https://snailmaillush.bandcamp.com/track/heat-wave

if this 'd be an actual tape this is the part where you should press eject and flip it over. now, play again and you ll hear the one-track collaboration between yeah yeah yeah's frontwoman Karen O and singer/songwriter Michael Kiwanuka. i was introduced to Kiwanuka by his 2nd album love+hate. Interestingly that album was produced by Danger Mouse who also produced the new album by Karen O (actually the later is dubbed as a collaboration between the two artists). this track here however is produced by (Danger mouse collaborator) Danielle Luppi.

Karen O feat. Michael Kiwanuka -Yo! my saint

the whole project is related to a short-film. i never watched it but here it is if you are interested:
https://karenomusic.com/projects/yo-my-saint

i didnt like the hip hop records i heard in 2018: Vince Staples, No Name,ye, Cupcakke. Pusha-t had an ok+ album and Earl Sweatshirt which seems kinda good i just listened to it the day before yesterday..

the next two tracks are very nice i think, but i wouldnt advise you to listen to the respective records. Open Mike Eagle's is an ok ep and JPEGmafia's has an ep worth of interesting music in it.....


Open Mike Eagle -Southside Eagle
https://autoreverserecords.bandcamp....eagle-93-bulls

and then
JPEGmafia -1,539 N.Calvert
https://jpegmafia.bandcamp.com/track/1539-n-calvert

it seems that most of the good albums are stacked in the last part of the tape. the next track is by a band called BEAK>, i discovered them last year although this is their 3d full lenght and they also have published many other stuff including some under the name KAEB<.. they are mostly known because geoff barrow 1/2 of portishead is a member. i wouldnt know how to describe their music neo-psychedelia/krautrock? there's such elements in there. its pretty interesting, i d recommend you hear the whole album if you like this one. its the main single of the album and its called

BEAK> - brean down
https://beak.bandcamp.com/album/brean-down

last week i got sick and missed a gig of Wooden Shjips. that was really unpleasant.
i didnt have this band in high regard. at some point last year i heard their album v and immediatelly i grew a fond of it. i listened to it many many times since..
you wouldnt call this an important album whatever that means. but its an overall good album and a highly entertaining one, i have a good time listening to it. i recommend you hear it. i changed my mind between 3-4 tracks (already gone, red light, golden flower) of its 7 in total and finally decided to put:

wooden Shjips -staring at the sun
https://woodenshjips.bandcamp.com/tr...ing-at-the-sun

the debut of the viagra boys is, if not the top, one of the top3 records of 2018 for me.
i love the energy and the sound, i love that horn/bass saxophone/tumba whatever that thing is. i love the songs.

in the tape you ll find the song that is probably the least representative of the album. i d advice to listen to the whole album, if you re not interested, do at least hear another song, lets say "just like you" or "shrimp shack" so you ll get a good taste of what this is about.

the one i choose is called

viagra boys -worms
the only place i could find this track streaming is on spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/7GCnSXQc6H4vF8TU7hSdSk

not much to say about this. it's one of my all-time beloved groups, scottish (then called)
post-rockers Mogwai in a another-day-in-the-job soundtrack. this track here i kinda liked but mostly i used it as a bridge between viagra boys and the last track of the tape.

dont bother with this soundtrack, if you wanna listen to a recent mogwai album i d rec 2017's Every Country's Sun, if you just wanna listen to Mogwai try young team, ep+6 rock action/my father my king ep or basically anything until mr. beast...

mogwai -scrap
https://soundcloud.com/mogwai-official/scrap

not sure if the soundcloud link will play so:

http://cdn3.pitchfork.com/albums/168...e.f8135346.jpg

West
Album by Wooden Shjips

Mother****ing masterpiece right there - yo

yes! west seems to be their great album. well i havent heard them all, but west is great.
v feels like a more low stakes album but its very warm and laid back and cheerful. you could say its inferior than west but, give it a listen,you ll have a good time.


back to the tape and its closing time:
the last track comes from another all time favorite band but this one produced a(nother) great album. Spiritualized may sometimes repeat themselves (or should i say himself?) but i dont really mind at this level of quality. the album grows better as it goes, i think its best tracks are all in its 2nd side. Pierce said this is going to be their last album and he seems to truly believe that so maybe this also gives a bit extra weight to it. i was sure that Spiritualized would close this tape, i just didnt know which track, i was between "damaged" and "the prize". i decided on the prize cuz i think it sounds a little more... well optimistic :)

spiritualized -the prize

And Nothing Hurt was the best guitar rock album of 2018 and maybe since 2010

agreed about 2018. at least one ofe the 2-3 best. about the decade i dont know, havent thought about it..

closing the tape i want to show you the outside: on the cover theres a frame of this strip here. i thought about this tape as "fresh" when i was making it so at some point that caesar line came to my mind (its also the title of a book-collection of boondocks strips) i had the intention of changin '01 with '19 but then i got bored and left it as it was.

i dont know how famous the boondocks were/are in usa. at their peak it seems that they were printed in a huge number of newspapers all over the country, but still i dont know... i consider them to be a pretty important (and also entertaining) comic strip. especially their book "a right to be hostile" that covers the pre and after 9/11 era. at this point the strip turned heavily political. when browsing through it i many times wonder how is it possible that such a thing got through with beeing published to mainstream media at this period of time..


http://s24195.pcdn.co/wp-content/upl.../Caesar1-1.png

last (but not least i hope) here's the link to the whole thing:

https://www.mixcloud.com/%CE%B3%CF%8...tape-for-2018/

its about one hour long. if you give it a listen do share your impressions!

any other comments on the tape or the concept of this thread or whatever else i havent thought of will also be appreciated.

Loved this thread, there's a lot of awesome music in here. I will definitely listen to the whole tape some time soon

Nice to see this. I've often said that people here should have Mixcloud accounts.
The amount of detail given about the construction of only an hour of music is funny,
but at least the talk is about music. I think my 4 posts about 14 hours of good things
from 2018 was a restrained version of this (and a few of the same releases, I think).

Marie thanks! you re most kind.
Rostasi thanks also! what you say is right, it was a verbal presentation in written form :)

Have you heard Expo ‘70?

never heard of them.

Check ‘em out

I think you’ll dig it

nah, not my cup of tea. to be fair i m talkin about a specific album cuz i i shaw they have a huge discography. after 2min searching i choose to download 2007's animism. its too abstract for me. could we call this drone? or ambient-in-a-rock-context? i dont care for it. and when it got less abstract (in the 5th track where a guitar goes in the front) i like it even less.. you fond of them? which album(s)?

i heard a similar (in my ear at least and i m not used to this kind of sound...) record the week before: RMFTM&10.000 Russos. didnt care about it as well (although i love most stuff by 10.000 russos)...

i ll seize this opportunity to say that for some reason the past couple of months people rec me....japanese stuff :) i ve heard: Mitsutama Sobodan (i hope i got their name at least 50% right..) they re okay, Mid-Air thief (i dont understand why the big fuss about them) , acid mothers temple [great band], Hiroshi Yoshimura's postcards, and Mariah - Utakata No Hibi. the last two were pretty interesting records.

ps. next post i ll add some 2018's honorable mentions that werent on the tape (mostly cuz i havent heard it on time).

fair enough - I’ll still be keeping my eye open for your faves

i appreciate that considering that most of your posts seem to indicate inclination toward waaaaay more experimental stuff than those in here..


other 2018 stuff i liked:
Carla Dal Forno's ep and ex:re album. i havent heard these on time. especially Carla dal Forno's ep is excellent! i discovered it in MB (i think it was Frownland who talked about it)
the Young Fathers album. i heard this (many times) before i made the tape, but hadnt digested it. its pretty much an ex-hip hop you could say group that made an album of electronica-soul-gospel-pop (at some points i was sure i was hearing michael jackson bumpin in and singin a verse.) and this thing actually made sense and is published by....ninja tune. (in fact i think that they were in big dada - ninja tune's hiphop subsidiary before this album) its a nice record and i think that in a fair world it would be a big (mainstream) success.
Jon Hopkins had a great album out but i didnt knw what to do with it :)
Childish Gambino - this is america- pretty interesting track-video-political statement.
Tom Waits singin' bella ciao! i cant remember why i didnt use this. maybe it would be unfair to the others :)
RTJ had a so-so by their standards track but i could easily put it in (Let's Go (The Royal We))

i am definitely forgeting stuff but...that's the way it is, so, nevermind!
[end of tape 1]

[start of the 2nd tape]
sometimes i like to have a theme when making a tape. i like it cause it narrows down the choices and makes you search your memory, your hard disk, sometimes even listen to new stuff or stuff that you dont remember hearing,or havent paid due attention to.

some time ago i started making a tape with songs that pose questions.since this was vast i narrowed it down to songs that have a question as a title. even so it got big so i cutted it to 2 parts (and i have a folder collecting songs for a possible 3d one....)

Do You Love Me?
Is This Desire?
Nevermind (What Was It Anyway?)
What's He Building?
What Is A Dollar?
Where It's At?
So What'Cha Want?
Who's gonna save my soul?
Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?
Where Is the Line?
Who named the Days?
Is It Wicked Not To Care?
What you want?
What Do I Get?
So What?
Is She Weird?
How do you tell a child someone has died?

now that i see it this looks like some kind of quiz. (who sings it?) :)

ps.at some point i ll put a table of contents with the links in the 1st post of this thread......

Cool theme

thx OH!

all these questions are asked in the 2nd questions-tape. the last track hasn't a question for a title, but in it is where we get asked the question that gave the name to these tapes:
"where were you while we were getting high?" i remember always liking something very much about this sentence. i used to write it in books when i was at scool-age and stuff. i like how its sounds and how it looks with all these w's in the beginning of the words, its...architecture you could say.

well anyway here's the artists participating in this 2nd part, and then the link to it!
hope you enjoy and if you do hear it give some feedback!
on the next episode we will have the 1st part (i kinda liked the 2nd part more when it was made, hence the change of order)

the question askers in this part are (in order of appearence):

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Pj Harvey
Sonic Youth
Tom Waits
Chain & The Gang
Beck
Beastie Boys
Gnarls Barkley
Moby
Bjork
the Arab Strap
Belle & Sebastian
My Bloody Valentine
Buzzcocks
Anti-Nowhere League
Pixies
the Black Lips


and finally the link: https://www.mixcloud.com/%CE%B3%CF%8...-getting-high/



ps even on the cover we got asked a question: why not?

https://thumbnailer.mixcloud.com/uns...1-3cce995206dc

in the other part of the tape those were the questions asked:

How the west was won and where it got us?
Which side are you on?
What else is there?
Where i end and you begin?
Whatever happened to my rock n' roll?
What's the story morning glory?
Why don't we do it in the road?
What goes on?
Who the hell is mrs Valdez?
Why aren't you laughing now?
Who's been sleeping here?
Where did you sleep last night?
Where is my mind?
What went wrong? (in your head)
the last track breaks the rule again. its a track by the beta band that tells a story about the people with the questions and the people with the answers so.....you get it.