The Sun is Like a Flower [LivingEars Summer10 Mix]

Summer came late in Salt Lake City this year and while we had a handful of 100°+ days it appears that the days are getting shorter and the nights a little cooler. This mix is to remind us of those beautiful days and also to prepare us for the impending Fall. I hope you enjoy it.

The Sun is Like a Flower

Tracklist:
Korallreven – The Truest Faith
Cults – Go Outside
Delorean – Grow
Neon Indian – Sleep Paralysist
The Streets – Trust Me
Janelle Monae – Tightrope
Quadron – Simili Life
Baths – Maximalist
Gold Panda – You
Jori Hulkonnen – I Am Dead (CFCF Remix)
ceo – come with me
Active Child – When Your Love is Safe
Gobble Gobble – Lawn Knives
Flying Lotus – Do The Astral Plane
Sleigh Bells – Kids
Dom – Living In America

Pretty Much Amazing debuted this mix earlier today. Those folks asked me to put a mix together last Fall as well. In less than 24 hours The Sun is Like a Flower has been downloaded 1,635 times. Keep your ears opened, if you can recognize the samples I used in this mix there might be a contest on the way…

Contest is now live! Win new Sony headphones!

Hard Mix

Music video I created for my song “Memories.” Composed entirely of footage from the past 8 years of my life.” -Noah Smith (aka Hard Mix)

Hard Mix – Memories
Hard Mix – Alright

And here is a mix Noah did for Strangers in Stereo.

Hard Mix – Summerfun

Tracklist:
Chaka Khan & Rufus – Ain’t Nobody
Hard Mix – Memories
Whitney Houston – I Wanna Dance With Somebody
Running in the Night – Lionel Richie
Cyber People – Void Vision
Go West – The King of Wishful Thinking
Heart – What About Love
Toto – I’ll Supply the Love
Go West – We Close Our Eyes
Level 42 – The Sun Goes Down
Eugene – Livin’ in Your Love
Lovables – It’s Beautiful
Helicon – You See

oOoOO – Actual Pain Mix

oOoOO Actual Pain Mix

Speaking of dark bands doing light mixes, on Wednesday this mix from San Fran’s oOoOO started making the rounds. Actual Pain is a clothing label from Seattle. I don’t know what connection the two have but Actual Pain does have a pretty interesting site. Check the mixtapes section.

Accompanying an excellent cover this mix is heavy on disco-y 80s rnb, the type of music that Nite Jewel has been putting out. Though oOoOO original “Hearts” has been around for a while it makes an official debut on this mix and really makes sense within the context of this mix. You can make distinct connections between the newer oOoOO sound and the sounds showcased here.

oOoOO – Actual Pain

Tracklist:
Nocera – Let’s Go
Barbara Mason – Another Man
Sylvia Striplin – Gimme Your Love
S.O.S. Band – The Finest
oOoOO – hearts
Mapei – Video Vixens
Yo! Majesty – Club Action
Triple Six Mafia – Pimp Dem Sluts Gimme Sumthin

Salem – Dis Raver Stay Wif Me

Fresh off the decks is a new mix from night crawler trio Salem. Perhaps the first chopped and screwed mix featuring rave hits?? I found this over at Dis Magazine. There is no tracklist, drop the names of the tracks you recognize in the comments… The second track is “Better Off Alone” by Alice DJ. The last track is “Forever Young” and is definitely the highlight. A classic brought to a syrupy speed…

Salem – DIS RAVER STAY WIF ME

Javelin

Javelin made a splash in 2009 with the track “Vibrationz.” It was featured on an odds and ends type of album that felt more like ideas rather than fleshed out songs. In fact the album was called Jamz n Jemz, a title that sounds very much like a collection of things.

Well the band is back and it turns out they included a more complete version of “Vibrationz” on their upcoming album No Mas. I can’t post that version yet but you can hear the original along with another goodie “Lindsay Brohan” and my personal fave from J&J, STD Fury.

Javelin – Vibrationz
Javelin – Lindsay Brohan
Javelin – STD Fury

As a lil bonus, even though these are not new, there are a couple of mixes I’ve had for a while that are an excellent entrée to the band. These mixes of island and oceanic sounds help to show where the band gets its inspiration.

Javelin – Andean Ocean Mixtape
Javelin – World MIDI Classics Vol 2

If you like what you hear you can purchase a post Jamz n Jemz EP on vinyl from some guy on Amazon but hurry there’s only one left.
Or you can preorder No Mas on CD or Vinyl.

oOoOO

oOooOO

Perhaps the most un-google-able band name in history (and I thought Girls owned that honor) oOoOO have been making blog rounds for a few months with super dark, stark, glitchy music that many will hate but I love. Obvious comparisons are to Salem but beyond that I’m not sure… I like it and hope to dig up some other artists doing this.

oOoOO just released a mix for 20JazzFunkGreats. I’ll let xxjfg explain the mix in their own words:

Finally, oOoOO, the creator of some intensely good nightcrawler jams and a firm favourite of ours, recently sent 20 Jazz Funk Greats an exclusively made mix which we’re now more than a little happy to be able to share with the wider world. So go sit in the cupboard under the stairs, light some candles, and absorb the sounds of creeped out, decaying booty bounce colliding horribly (meaning wonderfully) with dusky, drug drip teengirl balladry, slinky necronomi-pop rhythms, and backwater freak outs.

All I will add to that is be on the lookout for some doowop ballads, overwhelmingly repetitive hiphop and some dark sound bites.

oOoOO – xxmix
Tracklist:
1 oOoOO – mumbai
2 BrowngirlBlackhare – Inanition
3 Nipslip – My Baddest
4 MNDR – Do It Sandwich Time
5 DJ D-Wizz – Clap It
6 DJ Fela – Take Me To Yo Stash
7 Johnny Woods – ?
8 Little Peggy March – Wind Up Doll
9 The Tammys – Gypsy
10 Actually Huizenga – Marquis de Sade (Blazing Lazer remix)
11 Balam Acab – See Birds
12 John Frusciante – A Fall Thru the Ground
13 Linda Perhacs – If You Were My Man (Demo)
14 Twin Powers – Alex
15 Julia Holter – Willow Weep

Here are some of the previous tracks making the rounds:
oOoOO – seaww
oOoOO – mumbai
oOoOO – NoSummr4u

Bullion Mixes

One of my favorite new-ish producers was chosen to represent FACT for their 118th mix (Jan ’10). It is a very eclectic effort that stays pretty light and soft but maintains intrigue throughout… expecting big things from this guys debut.

Bullion – Fact Mix 118 (Jan ’10)

Tracklist:
Caravan – Ride
Brainticket – Places Of Light
David Crosby – Orleans
Delaney – Some Things Coming
Kraan – You’re Right
Buffy Sainte-Marie – Adam
Orchestre Veve Star – Bassala Hot
Syreeta – Move It, Do It
Hudson-Ford – Shy Girl
Cabaret Voltaire – Sensoria
Paul Hart – Strides
Fleetwood Mac – Coming Home
July – I See

Here is another great mix he put together in ’09 for Fader.
Bullion – Fader Mix

LivingEars 2009: 3 Mixes

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.

Pretty Much Perfect – LivingEars Fall09Mix

///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

Joker & Ginz Mixes

I know everyone is creamin their shorts over Joker but of all the new woozy Dubstept that I’m coming across lately I think he’s less interesting than his contemporaries.

I featured many of these contemporaries in Pretty Much Perfect and still stand by my claim that this will be the next scene to blow up.

Joker and Ginz have collaborated on a number of different things including a “Raindrops” remix as well as a few original pieces. In digging around for some more material from these guys I came across a couple of mixes. Joker’s is from the last week of 2008 and Ginz’s is from this Summer. While Joker’s does eventually get interesting, it starts off a little slow. Ginz on the other hand brings it from the beginning and never lets up.

Ginz – Data Transmission Podcast
Joker – Purple Wow Sound Mix