David Pritchard's Personal Website

As you may know, I still occasionally put together little mix CDs. The purpose is usually just to squish a bunch of my favourite tunes into one album, to keep a sort of record of my tastes at a given moment, and to foist the music I like upon unsuspecting friends. After I listen to them dozens of times, the mixes tend to gather lots of sentimental associations. Whenever I hear the tracks on their original albums, they feel somehow wrong – I always anticipate the next track from the mix afterwards, and the real album feels surprising.

Anyways, a new mix. The themes this time? Well, a bit more cinematic than usual; the Amon Tobin and Joe Henry tracks belong in a movie, and Angelo Badalamenti scores all of David Lynch’s films. Plus, my appreciation of the Beastie Boys and Beck has grown since I started watching the fantastic Director’s Label DVDs from Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry.

My tastes do seem to be stuck in a rut that doesn’t extend far beyond 2002, but that may just be a result of spending too much time in library of older mp3s. Or it may just be a consequence of the precipitous decline in electronic music since around that date.

E-mail me if you want to listen to the mix. Assuming you’re someone I know, that is.

1. tracy chapman. fast car. folk, from tracy chapman, 1988.
2. sufjan stevens. the upper peninsula. folk, from greetings from michigan! the great lakes state, 2003.
3. buck 65. wicked and weird. hip hop, from talkin’ honky blues, 2003.
4. beastie boys. sure shot. hip hop, from ill communication, 1994.
5. amon tobin. four ton mantis [radio edit]. drum & bass / breaks, from supermodified, 2000.
6. blaze. lovelee dae [isolée mix]. electro / house, 1997, from miss kittin: radio caroline volume 1 (2002).
7. redagain p & smash j. propella man. electro, 1999, from miss kittin: radio caroline volume 1 (2002).
8. dj teebee. quiet moment [instrumental mix]. drum & bass, from the legacy, 2004.
9. angelo badalamenti. the bookhouse boys. soundtrack / jazz, from twin peaks, 1990.
10. joe henry. stop. pop / jazz, from scar, 2001.
11. mocean worker feat. mahalia jackson. summertime / sometimes i feel like a motherless child. acid jazz, from home movies from the brainforest, 1998.
12. the little rabbits. des hommes, des femmes, des enfants et le sexe. pop, from la grande musique, 2001.
13. mouse on mars. schnick schnack meltmade. ambient / experimental, from autoditacker, 1997.
14. plaid. porn coconut co. ambient / experimental, from double figure, 2000.
15. beck. tropicalia. rock, from mutations, 1998.
16. man or astro-man? tetsuwan atomu. rock / surf, from intravenous television continuum, 1995.
17. broken social scene. superconnected. rock, from broken social scene, 2005.
18. the most serene republic. epilogue. rock, from underwater cinematographer, 2006.

I just read a cool article on CBC about the Dubstep sound from South London. It’s apparently a new branch of dub/two-step music, borrowing a little from the darker flavours of drum & bass. As I write, I’m listening to Mary Anne Hobb’s Breezeblock show (January 2006) that threw dubstep onto the world stage. Here’s a link to (low-quality) MP3s of that show if you’re interested.

Despite the newfound hipness of CBC 3, it still feels lame to be taking my musical cues from the CBC website… but whatever.