Spotify Recommendations Thread

[Paranoid Android]

I would have been very happy to get a mix with Bonnie Prince Billy on it. Even if the other tracks were all doom and sludge.

Can't believe he's not on there.

[Soda Jerk]

Right, the draw's up. Here's your matches. The names were enthusiastically picked out of a glass mixing bowl by my missus as she muttered "what the fuck's this even for anyway?".

Mr Owl PHD - Woodsinho

Paranoid Android - KarmaTsunami

Flights - Dave Officer

Old Gold - Soda Jerk

Surfer_Rosa - Girl Anachronism

ca_gere - Davewarden

So now you just gotta PM your Spotify playlist address to your mixtape buddy asap, then share your thoughts on it in this here thread.

YEAH!

[girl anachronism]

Cool, I've sent mine. At least I think I have, I'm a little confused because everything is all new and weird.

[framheim]

ace, mine has been sent too. how exciting!

[Paranoid Android]

Cool. I'm happy with Karma T, think there's a good chance I'll like a lot of her mix and she wont hate everything on mine. Away to send my PM.

[Flights]

I'm liking the look of the playlist I've recieved

[Paranoid Android]

I'm going to try and not look properly at the tracklist of the one I get before listening to it. Keep some surprises for the listening experience.

[Flights]

we p'ming feedback or posting it here?

[framheim]

i think the idea is to post up a review on here, then we'll stick the playlists up for everyone to enjoy once they've been reviewed. glad you're liking it so far! I'll listen to yours tomorrow evening and report back. it's got a couple of crackers on it though so it should all be pretty positive

[KarmaTsunami]

Right. Finished my mix last night and the theme I went with was 'Girls, girls, girls'. So hopefully Parandroid likes it. PMed!

[Paranoid Android]

recieved it, I'll listen tomorrow.

Most of what I've been listening to lately has been with female vocals so hopefully this hits the spot.

[Soda Jerk]

Mine has been sent. Awaiting a mix back to seduce my ear drums.

[Old Gold]

Sorry for the delay Mr Jerk. You shall have it tonight, once I'm back from Bristol. I'm in Lancaster already!

[Flights]

I think Spotify Swapsie Sunday should be regular thing

[Paranoid Android]

I'm listening to the mix I got just now. started off very well. I was going to do a track by track review but I can't be arsed. I'll write something once I've finished it all.

[Surfer_Rosa]

I would be the first to give a review, but I'm too much of a wuss.

[Flights]

I'm doing a track by track review. I got half way through last night but I'll finish it later on

[framheim]

in first with the review, yus:

Road Trip Mix Tape by flights

This is good driving music. None of this ace of spades or midlife crisis driving music as seen on the top gear compilations. Kicking off with a band I've never heard of (actually a surprise given the nature of the compilation), The Pains of Being Pure at Heart's “Contender” sets the mood for the next few tracks. We're in pretty firm shoegaze territory here. Set guitars to fuzzy with feedback. It moves into the wonder of Chapterhouse and “Breather”, a perfect slice of pop shrouded in fuzz and lofi before shuffling towards My Bloody Valentine with “Come in Alone”.

Another band I've not heard of pops up called Panda Riot and their track “The Jesus Demeanor” reminds me of Low. Nice, slow and with an effortless female vocal drenched in fuzzy guitars and a lofi early 90's drum sound. Ace. We then have the wonderful Sebadoh followed by the marvelous Pavement and the demented pop of “Cut Your Hair”. One of my favourite Pavement songs, and you just have to marvel at the process of writing a song about cutting someones hair yet turning it into a catchy, fun piece of indie pop perfectness. Sebadoh's “Skull” is another great american lofi indie slice of perfection from their ace “Bakesale” album. I love Sebadoh. Every mixtape should have Sebadoh on it, it should be the law (I forgot to put them on mine, damn).

The Smiths are up next, but it's not a great one. “The Headmasters Ritual” is pretty understated for Moz, perhaps this is an early Smiths song before he went full on warbly and confident. It's not bad, just not up there with my favourites and the yodal bit is quite annoying. At least the Jesus and Mary Chain are next. “Dirty Water” is a pretty good track, again not the best from the Mary Chain but it's nice enough.

Sonic Youth get us back on track with “Dirty Boots”. It punches like a punch to the face. I'm crap at metaphors but I do love this song. Pow!

Not so sure about The Horrors “Whole New Way” though. It finishes strongly but starts pretty slowly and I don't like the squelchy keyboard thing at the start. The singer really sounds like a cross between Ian Curtis and the boy from the Cult. With some inflection from Bowie. The Jezabels are better, big anthemic and important sounding. Good urgent drums fading into an insistent thump and lots of ebow, breaking into a Kate Bush chorus. Nice.

Mojave 3's “Bluebird of Happiness” is a pretty timid way to finish in comparison. It feels like the car's running out of petrol and while the song's ok it's not on a par with some of the stars of this playlist. Overall, good work from Flights and I wouldn't try and change the cd in his car.

[Flights]

So Spotify Swapsie Sunday arrived and in my inbox arrived songs of the

sea by daveofficer. I had a quick look over it and was pleasantly

suprised to see a few familar names and songs. I had an hour or so to

fill in till supper time so I sat down and put it on. First up was The

Old Horizon- Master by Magnolia Electric Co. It's a haunting piece of

music that had my attention from start to finish. Mainly piano and

vocals with some noise in the background, the song perfectly

accompained lazing about on a sunday, plus it has some kinky cover art

Next up was one I was quite excited about after my wee look over the

track listing. the song was John Taylor's Month Away by King Creosote &

Jon Hopkins. I've heard good things about this and I was not

dissappointed. Quite simply it's an amazing tune with great lyrics and

beautiful instrumentation. The outro really enforced the sea theme.

Absolutely cracking choice!

After an intro that sounded a wee bit like a number from a musical,

Song for the sea by Hannah Peel went on to suprise me a wee bit. It's

not the kind of thing I'd go out of my way to listen to normally but

it's really catchy and a sweet little pop song.

So number 4 for me was where this playlist began to fully plunge into

the sea theme Patrick Spence by Kris Denver is awash with mentions

of boats, booze and wenches. (I'll stop with the cheesey metaphors I promise.)

The lad's got some voice and I really liked it.

Next up was Adieu, England by Trembling Bells. I quite liked the music

and the guitar sounded awesome but to be honest im not sure about the

singing.Sometimes it sounds like the guy is jamacian or something. I'm

planning on giving this one a few more listens to make my mind up for

sure.

Dirty Three get things moving again with pretty female vocals and some nice build ups and swells.

The Corries show up next with the Bonnie ship the Diamond. Classic folk from the Scottish legends! The Corries will always be welcome in my ears.

The Waterboys follow with Fisherman Blues. More folk goodness but this time with a slighty more rocky feel. At points in the song I felt like I've heard it before. Not my favourite on the list but still pretty good!

Sea by Low is a cracker. Good lyrics and nice music. Its only downfall is it's a bitty short.

Bobby Darin's Beyond the Sea reminds me of playing Bioshock for the first time. It's good old big band music and I love it.

Next up is Mono- Burial at sea. I'm a big Mono fan and this is one of my favourites. Epic build ups and a huge sound.It almost sounds like music from a western at the start. Things pick up at the 8 minute mark and it never fails to bring a smile to my face. Great Stuff.

Last, and by no means least, is The Beginning and the End by ISIS. I'm a massive ISIS fan so I'm a wee bit biased here. 2 Words. Fucking Awesome! Lots of riffs and epic builds and a cracking conclusion to a mighty fine mix tape. Starting off quietly and working towards a loud finale. The theme was well realised and all of the songs made me think of the sea and fishermen.

Great Work by daveofficer, if we do this again my next partners got big shoes to fill!

[Paranoid Android]

I got interrupted earlier so I haven't listened to all my mix yet.

Flight's mix for Dave would have pleased me. Losts of tracks I really like on there. I'll have to check out the ones I haven't heard.

[Old Gold]

I'm gonna throw my review in reasonably early to prove that my rock and roll career ain't getting in the way of the shit that matters: almighty Spotify. Soda Jerk has created me quite the mix. A quick overview suggests that he is indeed upping the punx, and on closer inspection he has included 8 tracks that I previously considered totally awesome. Gladly, everything unfamiliar is totally sweet.

Ladies and germs, I present: Places

It opens with The Deep South - The Promise Ring. Awesome mixtape fodder. Pop punk, emotional vocals, poifect.

Up second, T-ode, some sweet trumpety scratchy hip hop by Abdominal feat. Notes to Self. Canadian rhymes. Well I never. Never heard before, but very awesome. Smooth, kinda MF Doom-lite-ish.

NEXT: Potemkin City Limits - Propagandhi. I fucking love this band. It's more of an 'escaping a place' song, which I'm all for, being a serious travelling surf-punk musician who seduces lots of unavailable girls. This song was written for me.

4th, Aurora- Foo Fighters. This band used to be pretty good. I needed to cool off after track 3 got me all air-punched out.

Followed by: Never Going Back to New Jersey - Less Than Jake. I maintain that Losing Streak is a smashing record, even if liking a tootly-too ska-punk makes me look marginally less hardcore. If they don't like it, they can get the hell out of my teenage duvet-fort.

HALF TIME - I thought I was the only person that liked The Weakerthans. One Great City! Is a nice bitter-sweet acoustic song with a guitar part that Bob Dylan would probably quite enjoy.

7! Dead Kennedys with California Uber Alles. If you didn't have a little smile and slightly nod your head when you read that, punch yourself in the chuff/dick.

Number eight: Istanbul - They Might Be Giants. This was good to see, as I also gave Soda Jerk a TMBG song on his mix. And who wouldn't? What a great band.

9th: NY State of Mind - Nas. To quote the opening line: "Yeah, straight out the fucking dungeons of rap". Approve.

X: (I Don't Want to Go To) Chelsea - Elvis Costello & the Attractions. This is my favourite Costello album, and possibly my favourite track off it. Holy fuck, the spooky organ is so good. Chelsea may not be a place (I caught wise to your game SJ), but her lady parts are. And Elv has too much self-respect for that nonsense. Standout track, a thousand points.

Eleven: Japan - Presidents of the USA. My only problem with this mixtape is that the subject was not 'Presidents of the USA songs'. 10 points off.

FINAL TRACK: Atlantic City - Bruce Springsteen. See above, but substitute PotUSA with The Boss.

Good job man. Fucking excellent.

[ca_gere]

I sent my playlist but not sure if i did it right. Is 'conversations' the new PMs?

Maybe I just started a new thread and tagged davewarden, who knows... I guess I'll find out. Not quite used to this new site yet.

[Paranoid Android]

as far as I can tell conversations are pms.

[girl anachronism]

I've had a few listens to the playlist I've received now, so here's the review:

Food and Drink by Surfer_Rosa

I had a wee glance at the tracklist and knew that I was going to enjoy this one, and I wasn't disappointed. First up is "Sweat Loaf" by Butthole Surfers, off of Locust Abortion Technician, which kicked things off in fine fashion, nobody does the juxtaposition of hypnotic guitar passages and completely unhinged chaos quite like this band.

This was followed up by MF Doom's "One Beer", fitting that a song from Mm..Food featured on this compilation. Sick tongue-in-cheek rhymes.

This flowed almost seemlessly into "Fruit Touch" by Hudson Mohawke where childlike-keyboard tones subside into driving trippy beats and chiming electronica, this was the first track on the mix that I didn't recognise, but I'll definitely be checking out more.

Back into familiar territory next with The Flaming Lips' "She Don't Use Jelly", one of my favourite songs off a truly outstanding record. Gloriously ridiculous.

Next up was a fine slice of danceable electro pop, "Donkey Rhubarb" by Aphex Twin.

Halway through and I was excited to see this next track was included in the playlist: "Mushroom" by Can. I was fortunate enough to catch Damo live a few years back (2004/2005?) and it's always a pleasure to hear music he's been involved with. Can are just ace. I'm going to listen the shit out of Tago Mago later. Also, as an aside, I absolutely fucking love mushrooms, and I'm not even talking about hallucinogens, so the fact that this track was chosen was a winner.

This was followed up nicely by the stoppy/starty riffy goodness of "Oranges" by "Shield Your Eyes", a band I was aware of but hadn't heard too much material. It was good, but suffered a bit from being after Can!

The catchy melody lines and glitchy drums of "Mr. Milk" by Errors followed and had my head bobbing away nicely.

Next, was another "Can moment" for me as the opening drum fill of "Sugarcube" by Yo La Tengo gave way to the fuzzy opening riff. Glorious.

The final three tracks; "Tea Leaf Dancers" by Flying Lotus (chilled out house-y beats with some great vocal work), "Hyph Mngo" by Joy Orbison and "Aspic" by Simian Mobile Disco brought the mix to a very interesting electronic-y conclusion.

Ace mix.

[framheim]

now that it's been reviewed can i post my mix up for others to enjoy/hate?

here it is anyway... Songs of the Sea

maybe we should put the link up to the mixes we've received when we review them? that would make more sense right? i realise i set the precedent by not doing it, my bad.