These are my 3 three favorite mixes of the year.

3. The xx – FACT Mix 70

The xx put together 30 minutes of mostly dark and moody sounds for the UK’s FACT Magazine back in July. The mix peaks with John Forde’s “Star Dance” which comes in at the 19:00 mark.

2. The Twelves – The Twelfth Hour

The Twelves are a duo who dropped a couple of my favorite remixes of the year with their take on Fever Ray’s “Seven” and especially with Noah & The Whale’s “Blue Skies.” From the moment this mix starts it truly never lets up. There aren’t many tempo changes in here but if you want something that will keep you moving for a solid 60 minutes it doesn’t get better than this. My favorite part of the mix comes early… at 3:20 Daft Punk’s “Da Funk” is put into the back of the mix then at 4:23 the bass line drops on top of DJ Agent 86′s “Wavestate” to earth shaking results.

1. Phaseone – White Collar Crime (zip)

Phaseone dropped a handful of individual remixes throughout the year gaining attention mostly for his rework of Animal Collective’s “Daily Routine.” Eventually he wrapped them into a single remix album of sorts. While I am a sucker for the echo’y hand claps in “Daily Routine” this mix really hits its stride with tracks 12 & 13, “Panda Jawn” and “Villain Jawn.” I haven’t heard a mix all year with as much variety and excellence in execution. I’m looking forward to an album of originals via Lefse records in 2010.

///The following went up on PMA on 10/05/09 (7 days ago). Currently the mix has been downloaded from there 1,652 times. (photo via Last Nights Party)///

When Pretty Much Amazing asked me to create a mix for them I immediately started putting something together that was all encompassing, a mix to show what Living Ears was about in the past, the present and where I see the future of the site going. I put together a playlist that had just over 40 songs. As I started playing through it what quickly stood out was the number of incredibly strong tracks from the past 3 months or so that stood up to much of what I was pulling from the past. Personal favorites from Panda Bear, The Streets, !!!, LCD Soundsystem and No Age were quickly cut and the list whittled down to a really strong 17.

These are 17 songs –all from this year, some still unreleased– that represent where I think the future of the site, and popular independent music are headed. From woozy dubstep, chillwave, and melodic lofi to pure pop, clouded bloops+bleeps+noise before closing with one of the most direct and beautiful pieces of straightforward indie rock I’ve heard all year.

It’s only a mix but it’s probably my favorite thing I’ve done as a blogger. Much of this music is still relatively undiscovered even by the big blogs and sites out there and I think that most of these tracks are going to be stepping stones for bigger movements that will emerge from their respective genres.

Put on a pair of really good headphones, turn it up and get lost.

Pretty Much Perfect Fall09 Mix (150mb)

Tracklist:
Joy Orbison – Hyph Mngo (Original Edit)
Guido – Way You Make Me Fee
Becoming Real – Let the Right One In
Blondes – Spanish Fly
SALEM – FROST
The xx – Infinity
Small Black – Despicable Dogs (Washed Out Remix)
Toro Y Moi – Blessa
VEGA – No Reasons
Gotye – Learnalilgivinanlovin’ (Passiot Pit Remix)
Japandroids – The Boys Are Leaving Town
Times New Viking – Move to California
Girls – Lauren Marie
Memory Tapes – Stop Talking
Memory Tapes – Graphics
Universal Studios Florida – Clovers, Carpet Samples
Atlas Sound – Quick Canal