There's aslo a Tidal playlist... minus Themata, which is still annoyingly missing from the platform: 2024 Mix Tape on Tidal.
Tracklist, and background if you're curious:
YES - Owner of a Lonely Heart. Learning about music production and buying a proper audio interface to drive my headphones gave me a new level of appreciation for a lot of songs - and not always the "obvious" kind of songs. The production on this track is a great example - much more going on than I'd ever have been able to hear listening to it on average 1980s gear.
Supertramp - The Logical Song. Another track I loved as a kid but came back with fresh ears.
Tycho Brahe - Free (2024 Tour Version). Tycho cut this together after their crazy experience opening for The Human League's whole tour. I caught up with them a couple of times, doing a couple of airport runs and catching them at The Enmore. Fun moment getting a shout out during the Enmore gig (for running the website). I mean... web geeks do not usually get a cheer at The Enmore :)
DJ Misjah - Access (Original Mix). It was kinda this or putting something from Paul Van Dyk's Out There And Back on the list again. Classics that keep on giving.
MEUTE - Hypnose (Future Edit). Got onto a huge kick going through Meute's catalogue... who knew that a techno marching band could be a thing, let alone this damn good?
Karnivool - Themata. First of two "cancelled by COVID" gigs that I ticked off this year. They had to cancel a tour celebrating their Sound Awake album, eventually playing it as a live-streamed gig - which was good, but even while I watched it I longed to be standing shoulder to shoulder with my mates belting out the words. I'm not sure I have ever *longed* for a musical experience quite as deeply. Finally this year it happened.
Iron Maiden - The Writing On The Wall. The other cancelled-by-COVID gig was Iron Maiden so I was stoked to finally see the Irons again. With the lads not getting younger, I don't expect they can keep touring a hell of a lot longer - was worried this tour wouldn't happen when Nicko had his stroke. With good reason I suppose as he retired from touring a few months later. Glad I could see Nicko play one last time.
Fatboy Slim - Role Model. Fatboy Slim dropped a new track and it's just fun.
After Cooking - A Name I Don't Know. Playing techno on old pots, broken cymbals and a PVC pipe tubulum... because why not? Turns out anything sounds good with enough reverb and delay ;)
PPK - ResuRection (Space Club Mix) (2001). This classic popped up in a rolling playlist and I realised while I know the track incredibly well, it doesn't appear in my MP3 collection, itunes, etc. Extra geeky fact: the main theme is taken from a soviet movie soundtrack from 1979.
Underworld - denver luna. New album from Underworld is an absolute banger. We were meant to catch them at the Opera House again but got sick, unfortunately. Have to just console myself with memories of last time; and absolutely smashing the album.
The Cure - Drone:Nodrone. New album by The Cure, and it's really good.
Choirboys - Run to Paradise. This one is probably the surprise track (to me as well) which sneaks onto the list after a slightly odd night, out for a beer with a mate and ending up in a sort of lock-in at a brewery. The owner and his mates were kicking on and playing a bunch of Aussie rock classics. This track ended up stuck in my head for weeks.
Caro Emerald - The Ghost Of You. Know this one from its use in The Peripheral, and although I watched it a while earlier for some reason this track bubbled back up later.
The HU - This Is Mongol. The Hu and Alice In Chains, what's not to like? :)
VNV Nation - Wait. New single that I played to death.
Up Down Jumper - Boris Brejcha. Came up on a random discovery list in Tidal and got thoroughly stuck in my head.
Anyma & Chris Avantgarde - Eternity. This track was all over social media with its inseparable visuals, but what really impressed me was how they adapted it to a long, narrow venue (clearly not what they'd designed it for). Bit odd to end up on a music playlist because of the lightshow, but it is what it is!
Next three are from an absolutely massive gig, Regurgitator's "Unit" show which was really a mini festival. It was my first gig since Tool, pre-covid! Also it was like a time machine back to Brisvegas in the late nineties, in the very best way.
Butterfingers - Get Up Outta The Dirt
Custard - Girls Like That
Regurgitator - Polyester Girl
Back to the randomness..
Armin van Buuren - Computers Take Over The World. Another one that came up on Tidal, at a time when everyone was talking about AI taking over everything AND I was learning to make music. Also it's very tongue in cheek, self-referential humour for music producers. Bit of a gimme for me, then.
Underworld - and the colour red. Underworld released another amazing track. That's it, that's all they need to do...
VNV Nation - Invictus. Double-dipping VNV as this one got stuck in my head after the album came out.
Big run to the finish with three gigs that happened in the space of about two weeks, which were all amazing in their own ways, so I'm double-dipping all three.
G. Love & Special Sauce was a total wildcard, suggested by a mate. It lead to an improbable night of running into another mate at the venue; and shenanigans ensued that were Very Inner West.
G. Love & Special Sauce - Blues Music
G. Love & Special Sauce - Cold Beverage
Devo's Freedom Of Choice album was one of the first cassettes I had, after my sister dubbed a copy for me. Pretty sure the tape had Scritti Politti on the other side. She was also showing me stuff I might like on VHS-recorded episodes of MTV and Rage - I remember Tears For Fears, The Cure, and lots of totally bonkers Devo film clips.
Somehow though I never quite made it to a Devo gig, nor saw them at a festivale, etc. So when they announced it was their last tour, it had to happen... and it didn't disappoint. They were just as unapologetically weird as I'd hoped.
Devo - Freedom Of Choice
Devo - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
Followed that up just a few days later with Kraftwerk, which was just amazing. To be able to go see the urtext of electronic music felt like a privilege to me.
Background if you care... not much deeper meaning really:
Starbeam - William Orbit: gorgeous new track from William Orbit was a nice way to start the year, musically speaking. Set a bit of a theme of "bands I didn't expect new music from".
Show Business - Hilltop Hoods feat Eamon: fun clip, and where did they dig up that old Mitsubishi?!
Drink The New Wine - Bauhaus: definitely didn't expect a new track from Bauhaus, nor one that references Oblique Strategies. Odd but sticks in the head.
The Hunt - Briggs feat Gurrumul: Gurrumul's vocals and the blues guitar are just incredible in this. One of several standouts on Sheplife.
The Dying Song (Time To Sing) - Slipknot: even I continue to be surprised that I like Slipknot. Awkward thing to discover in your forties.
Renegade Soundwave (Leftfield Remix) - Renegade Soundwave: digging into a lot of classics this year.
A Whole Day’s Night - Hilltop Hoods feat Montaigne, Tom Thum: the Hoods continue their re-evaluation of life and lifestyle.
Give Me Mercy - The Cult: The Cult still know how to make a great track.
Black Thunder - The HU: sadly despite waiting through years of lockdown, when the Hu finally played in Sydney I had a cold and was too sick to go. Next time maybe...
Shut The Party Down - Butterfingers feat East Coast Alien, Bluntfield: what's the colour of a two-cent piece? Another fun track from Butterfingers, and another no-budget film clip. I don't know why it amuses me so much that they drive around in an Orana rental truck.
Dirty Rat - Orbital feat Sleaford Mods: when electronic gets angry, you get this. Love it.
Adieu - Rammstein: they continue their push with extraordinary film clips, and a track that got stuck in my head for weeks.
Goo Goo Muck - The Cramps: we watched Wednesday like everyone else ;)
Short playlist for a long year, listened to lots of mixes and sets; and had a lot of days that were all meetings and no time with the cans on (which...really sucks).
Background if you care:
I'm Good? - Hilltop Hoods. Probably don't need to explain why a pandemic track heads this list.
Miss U Less See U More (Purple Disco Machine Remix) - Faithless. Went through a phase of listening to sets and mixes; and Sister Bliss used this in a DJ set, fixing it into my head for the rest of the year.
Klein aber Doctor - Atmos. A track that periodically bubbles up in my head because it has a sound/sample that's an incredibly good expression of goa. You hear it about 1min into this one, the reverby little stab. That's it, that's the reason it's on the playlist. On spotify I can only find a remix which uses a modified version almost immediately, it'll have to do.
Aviator - Photek. Lots of delving into techno, acid, etc led to this one on Spotify.
Treat Em Right - Chubb Rock. Playlists takes a sudden turn here ;) It was used in some social media video and got utterly stuck in my head, so here it is.
Southbound Again - Dire Straights. Kept running into Sultans of Swing and realised I hadn't really given the rest of the album a proper listen...
Watch Out - Chaun Davis. YouTube channel I watch used this a few times, earwormed its way into the playlist.
Start The Fire - Twelve Foot Ninja. TFN finally dropped their new album.
The Writing On The Wall - Iron Maiden. Yep, new Maiden! Very much to formula - if you love Maiden you'll love it, if you're over Maiden it won't win you back.
All It Takes - Karnivool. Eight years since their last new track, they released this single. They've been playing it live for a few years so hopefully this is a teaser for a full album.
Now in YouTube and Spotify flavours, noting each platform is missing a different track.
Background if you care:
Play Dead - Björk. I discovered that this track was a bonus track added to the Australian re-press of Debut. Despite it also being the third single released 'off the album', when I shared this on teh socialz a few people said they'd never heard it. It amazes me that this wasn't part of the original album, it fits so well. Though I like The Anchor Song, it's a challenging track to finish an album. Play Dead though... those soaring strings, big vocals and deceptively tricky drum line... what a finish. It's one of my Bjork favourites and I'm glad I got the allegedly obscure edition of Debut that included it.
Pneuma - TOOL. Tool turned out to be my only gig of the year, thanks to the covid lockdown. First time I had properly seen them live - despite seeing them at Alternative Nation in '95, I knew them but wasn't a fan yet so that didn't really count. It was a great gig :)
Catch 22 - Butterfingers. New album with an ecclectic mix, oddly this was the track I got stuck in my head the most (it was going to be this or Dem Billz for the mix tape).
(not in youtube playlist) The House - Mr.B The Gentleman Rhymer. Mr.B dropped perhaps the most-2020 album of 2020 with A Very Modern Existential Crisis. Songs of isolation, garden envy and the social minefield of Zoom calls.
Inside - Moby. Having my own modern existential crisis, stuck at home, I went back to a fair bit of older music. This one's almost meditative.
Skyhigh - Yan Cook. Yan Cook was both a new discovery and my most-listened artist of the year. Drawn in by some cool tutorial videos he's made about music production, I listened a live set mix and I just haven't enjoyed a mix as much as that in a long time. So this track stands in for a whole lot more.
The Business - Tiësto. Not sure how I ran into this one, think it was a YouTube or Spotify recommendation/autoplay. At a tiny 2:41 it feels like a sketch for a full track that got cut off early, but the goofy film clip (zombie breakup song? why not I guess) and weird vocals got stuck in my head so here it is.
Avenue - Paul Van Dyk. Another one from the vaults, turns out I'll never tire of Out There And Back (2000). I love the big sweeping lines of this track, but most of all the chirpy/bleepy bridge at around 4:15.
Get Smart - Melbourne Ska Orchestra. Another YouTube discovery. It's just fun. I mean, why NOT do a ska version of the Get Smart theme?
Sad but True - The Hu. I think we can all agree now that Metallica just wasn't Mongolian enough.
Mad Poet - Phunkey Rhythm Doctor aka Cari Lekebusch. Somewhere along the line I got into a big 90s techno kick. As in, the actual genre Techno and not just 'some people call all electronic music techno'. A lot of this stuff is tenuously hanging on thanks to perilously-copyright-infringing YouTube rips of obscure limited-press vinyl. Some stuff is in Spotify/iTunes/Bandcamp though. Also I figure 14-20min tracks don't work well in the middle of the mix tape. So this is another kind of 'stand in' track for a whole lot of other stuff.
(not in spotify playlist) Goth Night (2020 mix) - Cari Lekebusch, Krister Linder. Another Lekebusch track, although I didn't know it when I first picked these two so it stays in ;)
The Blame Game - HVOB. This is used heavily in the soundtrack for Pikes Peak: On The Edge. So this track got in my head alongside images of cars ripping up the mountain, and it all just works together. Plus it's a weird crossover style of electronic and guitar, so I actually thought it was parts of two different songs until I gave this a listen. When you hit the change at 2:30 you can probably see why.
The Mr.B album isn't on YouTube, but you can listen on Bandcamp and Spotify:
The Yan Cook mix - my reaction to this is a bit complicated. Somewhere between wanting to dance in a very dark room, and feeling like I'm wrapped up in a warm blanket.
Whole playlist of 90s techno:
Honourable mentions to Leo's cover of Walk Like An Egyptian...
...and to The Police, think I need to spend some more time on their back catalogue.
Cashout - Fugazi. Digging back into old punk stuff got me onto Fugazi and this classic protest song.
FIGJAM - Butterfingers. Saw Butterfingers live on the Breakfast At Fatboys tour. Hell of a lot of fun.
Wolf Totem - The Hu. Seems people either love or hate these guys. I think they're great and really only hamming it up as much as any other metal band. They just have a really big budget for film clips ;)
midas heel & drama free (feat. Lights) - deadmau5. Listened to these as a pair a lot when they came out as a single, basically feels like one track. Dug back into the deadmau5 back catalogue a lot this year.
Let It Go - Sietta. Interesting soul/electronic duo from Darwin, pity more people don't know them. Spotify popped them up as I have Caiti Baker's solo stuff. I get the feeling even they think the film clip is overwrought but the song's great.
Schism - Tool. Tool finally decided to join the streaming world, so I no longer had to pull out my ipod to listen to their back catalogue. Apparently I've gone from a die-hard iPod Classic user to a Spotify junkie. There are clearly two camps - the "I'm over Tool" and "fuck yeah new album and tour"... you can guess which one I'm in ;) It's probably their swansong and epitaph but it was fun to see Tool owning the charts and confusing da yoof.
DEUTSCHLAND - Rammstein. Speaking of well-executed more-of-the-same, Rammstein dropped this jaw-dropping clip seemingly out of nowhere. Part socio-political commentary and part trolling, making it typical Rammstein fare. Interesting statement on a nation's relationship with its history, or cynical attention seeking? You decide.
Closedown - The Cure. We got lucky and had nearly-front-row tickets to see The Cure play Disintegration at the Opera House. I nearly didn't include it in the list because, honestly, I was a bit overwhelmed. Also which song to include? My favourite song's on the album but that's a moment I won't attempt to share. In the end I chose this because Cooper's drumming was just superb on the night and this track really showed it off. It's not actually all about our beloved Bob ;)
Shudder/King Of Snake - Underworld. Back at the Opera House just a few nights later, almost in the same seats. An unexpected standout of Vivid Live, it deserved the rave reviews. I'd wanted to see Underworld live ever since I'd heard the Everything Everything version of Rez/Cowgirl on my car radio nearly 20 years ago. Despite that, I'd been preoccupied with The Cure and hadn't built up big expectations around this gig. But hooooooly shit. They ripped the roof off the place. The band were incredible and the crowd fed it back, demanding an encore so loud and long that turning the house lights on didn't move us. The band came out and did an encore, exclaiming... "we don't do this... YOU did this!" No recording can capture it.
Into The Abyss - Hilltop Hoods. New Hilltops = high rotation.
Hey Ladies (Paul Nice Remix) - Beastie Boys. Just a catchy remix.
Please - U2. I got a line from this stuck in my head for days before we saw The Joshua Tree. We didn't get it on the night but somehow this is the track that feels right for the mix tape. Also since this surprises someone every single time - yes I really do like U2.
Honourable mention goes to the Black Hole Recordings psytrance recordings, Psytrance 2018 vols 1 & 2:
They hit the spot and helped get a lot of code written, but several hours of bleepy psytrance doesn't really fit into a mix tape.
See also: Spotify top 100 for 2018 (generated playlist). Spotify's wrap claims I am 'adventurous' as I listen to non-mainstream artists 105% more than the average Spotify listener. Err, go me?
Backstory if you care. Entirely optional:
A Tribe Called Quest - Luck of Lucien. Early in the year, chilling out at Thirty Coffee waiting for take-aways, just the perfect track that got stuck in my head for... well half of January. Thirty Coffee's playlist was always awesome (as was the coffee and food of course), pity the cafe's changed hands.
deadmau5 feat. Chris James - The Veldt. I realised that although I'd quite liked for lack of a better name I'd somehow never looked up another deadmau5 album since. So I dug into the extensive back catalogue. This track also has an interesting back story, with the random way the vocals came into it; and the fact it's based on a Ray Bradbury story.
Leftfield - Space Shanty. Saw Leftfield play Leftism start to end; which was basically a religious experience for me. While this was never my favourite track listening to the album, it absolutely came to life played live. So while the recording isn't great, it goes some way to how it felt.
Prophets of Rage - Unfuck The World. It's been years since I've reacted so strongly to a video clip. Sums up how fucked the world is at the moment.
Serj Tankian - Empty Walls. Having thrashed on System of a Down I moved on to Serj Tankian's solo stuff. Also ties in politically with the Prophets of Rage.
The Muppet Show Theme (metal cover by Leo Moracchioli). Leo's covers remain a source of joy. I mean, headbanging muppets - what more do you want?
Killing Joke - New Jerusalem. Reminded of the track after a discussion at work (we have a metalhead channel on Slack). Album subsequently went on high rotation.
Butterfingers - Big Night Out. Digging into Aussie hip hop while expanding a playlist. Tour promo blurb claims it's based on a true story, haven't seen it confirmed anywhere though.
Evil Eddie - Queensland. Probably a bit obvious why I find this one amusing.
James Gang - Ashes the Rain and I. Another playlist dig - this time listening to songs sampled by later hits (3:30 if you're impatient, the later hit if you're baffled).
Underworld - Between Stars. More back-catalogue digging, love Barking and this track seems to capture the vibe of it.
DJ Shadow - Fixed Income. Listened to a ton of DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist mixes on YouTube. Also after a long time digging trying to get myself my own copy of DJ Shadow's Live In Tune and On Time, I realised the solution was obvious and bought it off eBay. This is the track that opens the set. Also played the set while driving out to the Hunter Valley for a work event, adding nice associations of a drive in the country.
VNV Nation - When is the Future? New VNV, and love the clip.
Severed Heads - Dead Eyes Opened (Love Experiment) (Love Experiment isn't available on YouTube at the moment; so the 1994 remix will suffice as Tom Ellard's just uploaded a good quality copy :)). We saw Severed Heads and Itch E and Scratch E live. Hell of a fun gig, felt like a big party.
Itch E and Scratch E - Other Planets. Profane and fun. Part of a brilliant set.
System of a Down - Sad Statue. Just a track that really grabbed me as I was driving around the deep northern suburbia of Sydney, picking up an ebay purchase for a mate. So this feels like bombing around semi-bushland with the radio cranked up. Nothing more or less :)
Living Colour - Cult Of Personality. Saw them live, finally! One of those bands I thought I'd never actually see, having missed them a few times. Awesome gig at The Metro.
The Algorithm - Autorun. I'd been listening to this a bit and had posted a couple of tracks somewhere. So a mate pinged me to see if I was interested in seeing them live - lucky since I didn't know about the gig! It wasn't a question, of course I went.
Voyager - Misery Is Only Company. A great gig moment - The Algorithm were part of the lineup for Voyager's album launch. Being a Sunday night there was a moment we weren't sure if we'd call it a night having seen what we'd come for. But L and I had missed Voyager supporting Deftones last year, so I figured give it a couple of songs... and there was no way I was leaving after that. It was an awesome set, the crowd and band pumped and bouncing off each others energy. They even commented at one point that Sydney on a Sunday night was putting other cities to shame ;)
Skunkhour - Sunstone. After the fun of last year's Skunkhour gig, we were back with bells on for Feed. The night didn't disappoint, great energy and a crowd in full voice.
DJ Shadow - Nobody Speak. Really hard to pick a track from this. We saw DJ Shadow supposedly 'opening' for The Avalanches on the Opera House forecourt (harbour side), but he was by far the standout of the night(*). There were tracks off Endtroducing that I'd wanted to hear live for perhaps 20 years... it was almost overwhelming for it to finally happen. But as the show was for The Mountain Must Fall I eventually plumped for this one to go in the yearly list, particularly with the mad film clip that's a reflection of contemporary politics.
Beth Orton - Moon. We saw Beth Orton in the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, a headline show for Vivid Live. It was a gorgeous gig, it seemed a little unreal. I listened to this track a lot leading up to the show.
Mint Royale - Blue Song. I think this clip was mentioned somewhere almost being a pilot for the movie Baby Driver. But with a catchy hook and a great clip with Noel Fielding lip synching I played this a bunch of times.
The Hillbilly Moon Explosion - My Love For Evermore. A track I'd run into on a huge rockabilly playlist ages ago, but got a bit obsessed with when I heard it again.
Dan Sultan - Hold It Together. A crazy night with the gig interrupted by a fire alarm and full evacuation of The Metro. Genuinely a full evac as the crowd realised the band was in the back alley with them. One thing leads to another and we end up with a sing-along of Hold It Together. The building was cleared and we went back in... the band reprised this song and the crowd went nuts.
Caiti Baker - Thursday. Debut album came out and this is the track that stuck in my head the most. Soul meets trip hop :)
Leo Moracchioli featuring Rabea & Hannah - Africa (Toto cover). So much fun. After posting some of Leo's covers, we spent the best part of a day on twitter with people mining the back catalogue and posting them back :)
Leo Moracchioli featuring Rabea & Hannah - the Africa outro. Leo's outros are usually silly, but in this case they made a whole extra song and the comments are full of people asking them to release this separately.
Rag'n'Bone Man - Human. L grabbed me to come and listen to to this. Pulled up the video of an unlikely looking lad and a song starts slowly, but about a minute in when he really lets it out... just wow.
* No Avalanches track in this list despite the gig. It was a big musical moment for this year, but not a happy one. Their show wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either. It made me realise the new incarnation is simply a different band; and not an even an Aussie band. They weren't excited to play in front of the Opera House, they sing about the 'subway', all of their references are American and that's the market they want. This isn't a problem (good luck to them!), it just means that the band I loved doesn't exist any more; and the notion that they are an 'aussie band' should be left to history. The specific gig left a bad taste as it was billed as Since I Left You played in full; and actually it was just their usual new-album set with a couple of old tracks grudgingly thrown in. Half the band looked bored with the old material, which isn't a surprise really given they had nothing to do with it.
That one duff note (hah) notwithstanding, it was a great year for music. Saw a bunch of great gigs including a couple that were decades overdue (DJ Shadow and Living Colour); and found new artists, both new-new and new-to-me. Pretty much what you want as a music geek :)
The self-indulgent backstory is eminently skippable, but if you care:
David Bowie - Let's Dance: the playlists starts with a Bowie track for obvious reasons. I also listened, a lot, to the live version of Sunday from the Reality tour as it was a truly astonishing moment during the show and a memory I treasure. But after a while, I found Let's Dance felt like a better choice for the mix tape.
The Sheep Of Sam Clams Disco: saw Skunkhour live. Didn't really think that would ever happen, but it did and it was awesome. Took a mate along to the show, his observation was they're Australia's answer to The Roots which isn't a bad way to put it.
Iron Maiden - If Eternity Should Fail: up the Irons! Finally saw Iron Maiden live. This track opened the show. So, so good!
System Of A Down - B.Y.O.B.: not sure how I got onto it but listened to a lot of SOAD this year.
The Avalanches - Frankie Sinatra: couldn't quite believe we were really going to get a second album. I didn't really dig a lot of tracks on the album (gasp!), but this track is brilliant.
Meat Beat Manifesto - Asbestos Lead Asbestos: dug into the MBM back catalogue a bit and got this song stuck in my head for days.
Covenant - Sound Mirrors: first track released off the new album and it's a good'un.
Deftones - Hearts/Wires: saw them live, supported by Karnivool. Would have included a 'vool track in the mix tape but they haven't released their new album yet ;)
Leonard Cohen - Everybody knows: obvious reasons. My young teenage self found a sort of grim joy in music like this - songs that spit in the eye of the evil of the world, while still keeping a sweet humanity.
Dan Sultan - Magnetic: saw Dan Sultan live, correcting the mistake I made by missing him on his Blackbird tour.
Caiti Baker – Heavy On My Heart: bonus! Caiti Baker supported Dan Sultan and she absolutely blew the roof off the Manning Bar. Great set and really hope to see her release more solo stuff.
Seth Sentry - Punch In The Face: heard this once on a Sunday afternoon out the back of The Vic, but never knew what it was. Just remembered one line from it - if your best friend's a racist / your best friend's an arrrrrrsehole. Finally worked out it was this Frenzal cover from Like A Version 9.
Garbage - Empty: finally saw Garbage live for the first time. Hard to pick a favourite from the gig... I loved seeing Queer live, Even Though Our Love Is Doomed was an amazing set piece in the gig, Sex Is Not The Enemy and #1 Crush both went off in a big way. In the end I picked Empty as it's one off the album they were touring; and it's a great track.
Dead Kennedys California Über Alles: dug through an old box of CDs to find this album, which feels freakishly contemporary given the year's political climate.
Twelve Foot Ninja - Sick: somehow picked up the name of this band from shirts and posters at other gigs and checked them out... subsequently thrashed their two albums at the end of the year.
Leftfield - Universal Everything. First great album of the year.
Mr Scruff - Music Takes Me Up. One of those bouncy little riffs that sticks with you.
Thievery Corporation - The Forgotten People. And another bouncy little riff.
The Delta Bombers - Tin Can Boogie. Feel like I should be sitting in a basement bar drinking whisky. This is a good thing, btw.
Phosgore - Here Comes The Pain. Jokingly said we should play this during personal training.
Regurgitator - Fuck You Sweetness. Hadn't looked into the Gurge's back catalogue for a while after we missed their sydney gig due to illness. This one's a cracker!
Iron Maiden - Wasted Years & Caught Somewhere In Time. \m/
The Bravery - Above and Below. For a while it was hard to get The Bravery's stuff due to various record label fuckery; but I finally heard something other than their self-titled album... and there's some great stuff!
Professor Elemental - Under Command of the King & The Inn at the End of Time. Both are on YouTube but "unavailable"... you can always check back in on #ProfessorElemental - YouTube later I guess.
Tycho Brahe - Savage. Tycho dropped part three of Triplex :)
Do You Need Some? - Mind Bomb. For some reason this one bubbled up from memory and I couldn't get it out of my head.
New Day - Karnivool. Saw Karnivool live, in a packed room with basically everyone belting out this song at the top of our lungs. It was a great gig and restored a lot of my energy and desire to go to gigs - those moments when *that song* comes on and everyone goes nuts.
Too Many Puppies - Primus. Saw them live again in their Evening With Primus format and this track went off... but with a sobering reminder that the song has not stopped being politically relevant in all the time they've played it.
Spooky Boots - Reverend Horton Heat. New RHH album is an absolute ripper.
War Dance - Killing Joke. Classic punk recommended by a friend. As recommended, tracked down the original 10" version which is faster and somehow feels like the 'true' version.
The Death & Resurrection Show - Killing Joke. KJ changed a tad over the years and while this isn't punk it sure is a hell of a track.
Black Betty - Spiderbait. Kept playing this when I was excited about starting a new job :)
Old Fitzroy - Dan Sultan. Much as I love the new album, I keep going back to this track.
Under The Milky Way - The Church. This one just took my fancy a few times, including one night after a work event where I got it played by the guy singing in the pub. I was strongly reminded of it at our work Christmas party where we really did have dinner under the milky way (seriously, we were out in the mountains where it's clear enough to actually see stars).
(There used to be a Grooveshark playlist here, but then record companies happened.)
Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb
Pink Floyd - Run Like Hell Two PF tracks; mostly because I saw The Wall live and partly because I ended up in hospital with a raging fever - and yes, the lyrics to Comfortably Numb did wander through my head a few times.
Hilltop Hoods - Recapturing the Vibe I'd been sick for a month, at home doing nothing for days on end, feeling increasingly disconnected from life. The day I finally went back to work, effectively the day I rejoined the world, I put on my headphones and this was the first song... now bound to that moment.
Garbage - Control While I was sick my computer was in pieces (we'd just moved) and I'd hardly listened to any music at home. L bought new headphones and lent them to me one night so I could listen to the new Garbage album off my laptop. It made a huge difference to my general state of mind, reminding myself of the joy in music; the simple pleasure of just zoning out with some great headphones and a new album.
Moby - Be The One I hadn't listened to Moby's more recent albums and finally gave Destroyed a listen; and loved it.
Tom Waits - Hell Broke Luce Knockout song, knockout video.
Rammstein - Te Quiero Puta I'm amused at Rammstein being ambiguous - are they being political or just plain filthy? Knowing them, both.
Mindless Faith - Canaan Couldn't add this to playlist; but this track just kept coming up on random after I discovered I liked their older album even more than the first one I bought.
Massive Attack - Girl I Love You Just a soundscape that took my breath away at the right moment.
Once again I will stubbornly call it a mix tape, even though no actual tapes were harmed in the making of this entirely digital playlist.
The yearly play list is simply a set of songs which have been on high rotation or were just the song of the moment. I used to try to reorder it to make a coherent play list but frankly they're always a grab bag, so I just leave them in the order I add them. Enjoy!
(There used to be a Grooveshark playlist here, but then record companies happened.)
Mostly for my own record, this is how these tracks came to be part of the list...
Lightbringer - Covenant (inspired simply by the release of the album)
Derezzed - Daft Punk
TRON Legacy (End Titles) - Daft Punk (because TRON Legacy redefined what cyberspace looks like, in the general psyche - it was scrolling green text for years after The Matrix; now it's blue neon. Also I listened to the sountrack constantly during an Atlassian FedEx, during which I made a Tron theme for Confluence... yes, Tronfluence! ...it's unusable for any length of time but damn it looks cool.)
Oh My Brother - Mr. Percival. Note - annoyingly not available to include in the playlist, guess you'll have to go check out the albums yourselves ;) (inspired by Mr Percival singing it during a secret gig I was lucky enough to attend)
Hell - Squirrel Nut Zippers (another track picked up along with Tiger Lou - yes, the playlist at our gatherings can vary a tad!)
Jumping Someone Else's Train - The Cure
All Cats Are Grey - The Cure (back to the Opera House! ...and while UNKLE was awesome, Reflections was a religious experience)
Somebody That I Used To Know - Gotye (this is probably on every other playlist for 2011, what a ripper of a track...)
Jilly's on Smack - Primus (I never saw Primus back in the day and only properly got into their back catalogue in the past couple of years. Anyway we saw them live and they played this ahead of the album's release.)
Insect/Suspect - Pigface (Purely random - this came up in the car with the ipod on shuffle, and became my song of the moment. Something about the rhythm, I think.)
I've no idea if anyone else will like a single track off this. Well, apart from the Gotye, which echoed over the waters as we were going to sleep in the tent on Cockatoo Island on New Year's Eve. Pretty clearly that one's going around :)
Crocodile Shop - Order & Joy (Dessau Remix) ... note the Youtube list has the original track rather than this mix, which doesn't seem to be on YouTube.
For all the convenience of an ipod or the sound quality of a CD, for some reason discs and playlists just don't have the same feel as a mix tape. Probably just nostalgia I guess. But there was something kind of satisfying about the way you could slam a tape into the car stereo, and you were away.
In my first car, the venerable Industrotank, the centre console spent its entire time filled with tapes. I didn't even have to take my eyes off the road. I could pull out the current tape; flip it into its case with one hand; move it to the back of the console; then flip out the tape at the front of the queue and slap it into the stereo.
You really can't do that with CDs. With CDs, sooner or later you have to look down. Not good. Ipod's ok so long as you don't mind the insanity of 60gigs + ecclectic taste + set to random.
Mix tapes took time and planning. You had to work out what you wanted to fit on; then you had to check that you weren't going to run out of tape mid-song; then get taping. If you were impatient and didn't mind reducing your favourite songs to Chipmunks covers, you might use high speed dubbing.
Meanwhile you'd try to scribble all those track names onto the inserts, which all had two things in common. First, they resisted ball points, but flowing ink pens took forever to dry; so you had to damn careful not to smudge them. Second, they always seemed to be one line too short (five lines if it was a punk tape).
So anyway by the time your tape was finished, you'd invested plenty of time in it. Why not run off a couple of copies for your mates after all that? Except of course now you've got to do that damn insert all over again ;)