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Spotify Recommendations Thread


framheim

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Anyway, I got a playlist SPORTS! from Girl Anachronism. It was really awesome - I've listened to it a few times now. Anyway, here it is.

The first track is a real BELTER called "Hooplas Involving Circus Tricks" by "Say Hi to Your Mom." Opens with a really tasty organ sound. Very American Indie, with a bit of electro. If you like stuff like Grandaddy I reckon you'd dig this. The next song is a bit more of a bratty effort by "Fight Like Apes." The girl has a really good voice and sings it well while the guy who shouts bang! bang! not so much. He sounds like a bit of a bam you might meet down the pub. It's still a good tune though, with some nice synths. The next song by "Be Your Own PET" is another bratty kind of punky thing, and keeps the pace up. After that we're onto "Shotgun Dedication" by "Beulah." This is about the only song on this playlist I don't really get at all. The guitars are out of tune and it's got a recorder in it. It's a bit too kitsch for my liking.

The next song is appropriately titled "Back in The Saddle" by "Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin," and it's another American indie number. There's a few big hooks in here and the very subtle use of a banjo. Lovely. Bonus points for that alone. I really like this one. The next effort by "Future of The Left" has angular guitar riffs and a catchy, repetitive group vocal. It's another pretty good song, but not stellar. After that "Sky Larkin" give us a song called "Sommersault." The synth line is a nice catchy touch. There's not really a verse in this song which is fairly weird but it builds up as it goes along and gets better and better. "Trophy Room" by "Slow Club" is in the same boat. It builds and gets better as it goes. I get the feeling they have better songs than this?

"The Sporting Life" by "The Decemberists" is a great effort. It's sounds a bit like something you've heard before but maybe not quite like that before. It's a little bit English folk but apparently they're from American. More banjo! The next song by "The Van Pelt" has that spoken type of vocal which always reminds me of Nada Surf or Cake... but this is a little more shouty and screamy. It's the sort of song that would annoy a teenager's parents. A LOT. "The Swimmer" by "Sleater Kinney" on the other hand, is the sort of song you can imagine in an episode of Buffy being played onstage at The Bronze. I alternatively imagine it in a film with Julia Stiles acting sort of premenstrual and moody. The final track by "Eluvian" is a bonny wee piano number with some wrong notes in it.

I already mailed GA to say I really enjoyed this playlist but I do think a lot of the songs and the artists contained within would probably take listening to one of their albums a few times over before you really got them. Also, sticking to the theme of SPORTS sort of limited what tracks could be chosen so I'm making the effort to check out more by these bands - I'm guessing that's not always the best track on offer by them.

Anyway, that's my shit review of a good playlist but you can't have everything.

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Thanks for the review, Robert, I'm glad you enjoyed the mix for the most part. Having a theme for the playlist is really good fun but can be limiting! I tend to find myself initially picking out a few strong tracks that fit it well, then just resorting to trying to shoehorn in tracks by bands I really like, but not always being able to pick the best tracks because they don't fit the theme. Haha, I know what you mean about the Fight Like Apes track, I've listened to that record so much that I barely notice that guy any more, but it really annoyed me at first! That Be Your Own Pet record is definitely well worth a listen, as is "Yeah, So" by Slow Club, they do have better songs than Trophy Room, although I still really like that track. The Sleater-Kinney track on there probably wouldn't make it in to my top 10 S-K tracks, and that isn't their best record either (check out The Woods), but I needed something to smooth the transition between The Van Pelt (which is probably my favourite track on the playlist) and Eluvium, and it seemed to do the trick.

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I'll be entirely honest, I don't know if I can be bothered writing up a big review. Suffice to say, I greatly enjoyed Girls & Boys by surfer_rosa although initially I was a bit wary since the list was full of artists I don't normally listen to or would list as ones that I like. I was pretty surprised. In particular I really enjoyed the Aphex Twin track. I liked the juxtaposition of strings with the scattershot beats. I wasn't too keen on the Siriumoso track which was not bad, but just didn't do anything for me. The Beck track definitely didn't annoy me in the way that some Beck tracks definitely do. The Girl Unit track was ace as well. The rest of it was a winner. Closing with the Boyz Noize mix of Feist's 'My Moon My Man' was a good move. Love that track and really like the mix of it as well. Good stuff!

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Brooklyn

ca_gere's playlist was Brooklyn themed, so naturally it's mostly hip hop. I was pretty excited when I saw the tracklist as I hadn't heard of much of it, and my knowledge of hip hop is quite limited.

Kicking things off is Masta Ace Inc's B-Side which is one of the few acts on here I'd heard of, also thanks to ca_gere himself. Love this track. Great production and alot of humour in the lyrics, as they rap about how good they are at rapping. My favourite kind of rap.

Bekay w/ ODB next with Where Brooklyn At? enjoyed this track alot apart from the widdly guitar sample throughout. Bekay has great delivery, and ODB does his usually shouted slur on the chorus. Standard. Excellent jam.

Duo Live - Fresh Prince of Bed-Stuy rolls in next, opening with the lyrics "Fuck Will Smith". Bit harsh on the big lad there, but the track is boss. Great bassline and quite a laid back delivery, despite all the cussin and ragging on rappers. Smooth.

Nas, Halftime from the essential Illmatic. You've heard Nas. You know the drill. One of the good guys.

Back to the unknown for me with Koors' Seasons. Not a bad track, but probably my least favourite on the mix. I quite like the sparse production, but I can't quite get into his lazy rapping style.

Smif-n-Wessun's Bucktown up now. Really loved this track. Love that ropey drum loop and the jazzy sax sample hovering over the top. Has a really lazy swagger to it. Cool as fuck. Again, I only know this lot because of ca-gere mentioning them in the hip hop thread. Dah Shinin' is a great record.

Off the lazy mid tempo stuff and onto something a bit more aggressive with Homeboy Sandman's Not Pop. Quite an unorthadox track, as the drum loop is a bit off kilter. Really like the verse, as it sounds like it's building up to a big, however the big chorus doesn't happen. Like his voice and delivery though.

Loved this next track. Breez Evahflowin - The Best, featuring a ton of other emcees. Loved the eerie piano sample, and everyone on the track has great chops. Checked out other stuff by Breez, and it's mega. This was my favourite track on the mix.

Eprhyme's Life Sentence next which might actually contradict what I said about the last track and may be favourite on the mix. Much more modern sounding production, and he has quite an original delivery, reminded me a little bit of Busdriver, in that sort of fitting-in-way-too-many-syllables sort of rapping. Love the synth and instrumentation. Checked out more of his stuff, and again, it's bang tidy.

More rapping about how good he is at rapping with Grand Daddy I.U's East Coast Overdose. From what I gather from the lyrics, he reckons he's not half bad. I'm inclined to agree.

Finished off with the only non-hip hop track of the mix, Reggaeton Club's Papi Chulo. I didn't think I'd heard this song, but it sounds strikingly familiar. Banging.

Grand mix of Brooklyn hip hop, which has given me plenty of new stuff to listen to as well. Get your lugs around it.

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Good review. Glad you liked it. I love that 90s mid tempo stuff and I could've chosen from hundreds of Brooklyn themed tracks but most of the ones I could think of that mention brooklyn or parts of Brooklyn weren't that great so I expanded it a bit to include rappers from there and a bit of music that just reminds me of the place. I knew you wouldn't mind it being all hip hop.

I know what you mean about homeboy sandman. I'm not 100% sold but I do like that track. That breez evahflowin track is relentless, great bit of hip hop. That was a shazam discovery actually.

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Spotify has been gumming up on my work comp so only had the chance to listen to Flight's playlist once and a half. Some great picks on there though. Actually, it'd be better named 'Hey, remember how good this tune is... you know the one by that band you quite like but don't listen to as much as you should'

I'd kinda forgotten how great Brian Eno is and Boards of Canada are a welcome addition to every playlist. I've yet to meet someone who doesn't like BOC. When I can get spotify back up and running I'll chime in again about the playlist.

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I would berate flights right now for not reviewing yet if I wasn't also at fault for not writing a review.

I was away for the weekend. I'll try to do it asap.

I had a long weekend from work so i've been far too drunk to write anything. I WILL get it done as soon as I have a spare minute. I will give you a micro review just now to keep you happy :p Your playlist was really good. Although not the kind of stuff I usually listen to it had some intresting tracks on it. It was like the soundtrack in a trendy bar. Highlights for me was A Tribe Called Quest, Death from Above 1979 and Nadia Oh. My ears are pleased!

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Highlights for me was A Tribe Called Quest, Death from Above 1979 and Nadia Oh.

You are now my favourite person on this board without a doubt.

DFA1979 was my final addition to the mix. I added it and took out some old Richie Hawtin banging techno and moved the racks around a bit. I think it worked a lot better than what existed before.

Edit - I should say all 3 of your highlights are choices to really charming me but mentioning Nadia really is wonderful.

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