Slice 001: Le Trésor A Mathurin.

The first 15 shuffled songs from last night's (almost) random playlist, aka a decent slice of what I'm currently listening to -- complete with hastily-assembled cover art and completely unrelated title*.

This playlist skews a bit toward downtempo/trip-hop/instrumental 'cause I was in an introverted mood and didn't feel like disturbing my violet-colored aura. As to why I've never done this before when the name of this freakin blog is PERPETUAL MIXTAPE, I have no idea. But as usual, I digress.

Slice 001: Le Trésor A Mathurin

1. sayCeT - "Cyrconplex" (One Day At Home)
2. Sia - "The Bully" (Colour The Small One)
3. Boards Of Canada - "Roygbiv" (Music Has The Right To Children)
4. Moby - "Ghost Return" (Wait For Me)
5. M83 - "On A White Lake, Near A Green Mountain" (Dead Seas, Red Cities & Lost Ghosts)
6. Natalie Walker - "Right Here" (Urban Angel)
7. Ironomi - "Yasou 3" (Ironomi)
8. Bosques De Mi Mente - "Soledad" (Ruido Blanco)
9. I Hate This Place - "Never Go" (Our Hearts Still Beating)
10. 8mm - "Save Yourself" (Opener)
11. Childs - "S.A.D." (Yui)
12. Lights Out Asia - "Radars Over The Ghosts Of Chernobyl" (Eyes Like Brontide)
13. Massive Attack - "Paradise Circus" (Heligoland)
14. Emancipator - "Vines" (Safe In The Steep Cliffs)
15. The Aloof - "Stuck On The Shelf" (Sinking)

Suggestions for future listening are always greatly appreciated!

*Some basic ground rules I set for myself, because I'm a huge nerd and also because I like to make things harder on myself than they actually need to be:

1. Two or more songs from the same artist may be listed as long as they're on different albums.
2. Two or more songs from the same album may be listed as long as they're by different artists.

Before you ask: No, I don't have a life. But you probably already knew that.

Heavy Rotation 006: Esthero | Breath From Another.

Yeah. I know this album came out in 1998. I copped it a year later -- and Breath From Another has the unique distinction as being one of the very few albums to truly remain in heavy rotation in my headphones for over a decade. (In fact, I'm listening to it as I write this entry.) I knew basically nothing about Esthero at the time I bought the CD, but:

1. I was in the mood for more trip-hop/"electronica," being on that Sneaker Pimps/Mono/Hooverphonic tip back then; and
   
   
2. I absolutely loved the album cover design, minimalist as it was. It's gorgeous:

Something about this jewel of an album just succeeds in holding up over time and refuses to sound dated. I really wouldn't classify Breath From Another as a "trip-hop" record; the overall mixture ends up being much more than that. Borrowing influences from a myriad of genres, Esthero never overindulges, but uses them more like vitamin supplements for her own style of music. The tracks flow together without blurring into each other, possessing different moods and emotions, and giving you an oddly satisfying sense of completeness after the last song. The result is that I can play Breath From Another from beginning to end each and every time I cue it up, with zero skips. That being said, I can't say that I have any favorite songs on the album; it's clichéd, but to me, having a favorite would mean neglecting the other tracks. With this LP, that's not going to happen.


Check back with me in 2020. I guarantee you this'll still be getting major spins out of my speakers.

Downshift.

Owing to a busy academic week, I'll be concentrating on the essays and books for a couple of days, so I'm taking a short hiatus.

In the meantime, relax and listen to the type of music that fills many an evening in my apartment. Yeah it runs 47 minutes long, but trust: it's superior background ambience for all your nocturnal needs.


"I shall return" © General Douglas MacArthur. Don't miss me too much :)

25 Things About Me (Music Edition).

Yeah so I'm almost a year behind on this meme, so I'll need a giant late pass.  I've decided to concentrate on giving you 25 near-useless facts about me having to do with music, though, for a little twist on the usual.

1. I haven't actively listened to mainstream radio in almost a decade.  Should've actually stopped sooner than that.
   
   
2. I don't think hip-hop is dead. But it is on life support.
   
   
3. J- and K-pop are getting more and more interesting to my ears.  Although I can't understand 97% of the lyrics, the melodies sound good and their accompanying videos are usually pretty striking.
   
   
4. But how come Japanese/Korean girl groups have so many freaking members in them?  It's not like y'all are busting out in church choir harmonies.  (And yes, I know it's about the visual appeal.)
   
   
5. Nearly all of the new music getting rotation in my speakers come from music blogs.
   
   
6. I get tired of rap music sometimes.
   
   
7. Back when I was 14-15, I always got super-nervous when I went up to the counter in Camelot/Musicland to buy a rap tape with the Parental Advisory sticker on it.
   
   
8. The absolute best show I've ever been to was at The Blue Note, opened by The Goodie Mob, followed by The Roots and headlined by The Fugees.  All for about $20.  I still have the ticket stub safely stored away in a box.
   
   
9. Bossa nova is one of my secret guilty pleasures.
   
   
10. So is progressive trance.
    
    
11. When my brother and I were little kids, we got into my dad's collection of classical music cassettes and proceeded to have a race as to who could pull out the most tape the fastest.  I've since forgotten who "won," but then my mom came into the room and caught us, and I'm pretty sure we got our asses kicked.
    
    
12. In junior high/high school, I used to make "pause tapes" to rap over, using snippets of instrumental breaks on certain songs.  My crowning achievement was a funky blend I made of Naughty By Nature's "Wickedest Man Alive" and Fu-Schnickens' "La Schmoove."  I can still remember how it sounded -- and it sounded damn good.
    
    
13. I also used to finish kids' math homework on the bus on the way to school in exchange for borrowing cassettes.  Then, at home, I'd high-speed dub the tape, then disassemble the plastic casings, switch the reels, and give them back the copy inside the original casing. Everyday I'm hustlin' ...
    
    
14. Tchaikovsky's "Serenade For Strings" is my favorite classical composition.
    
    
15. Although I've never actually had a Top 5 Dead Or Alive list, I do not believe The Notorious B.I.G. is the GOAT.  I just like who I like.
    
    
16. Downtempo, house or cool jazz is usually my soundtrack at home after the clock strikes midnight.
    
    
17. I love OPM, but I wish there was a good way to listen to a bigger variety of it online.
    
    
18. American songs that remind me of the Philippines include "You Got It All" by The Jets, "Always" by Atlantic Starr, "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" by Michael Jackson and "Lost In Emotion" by Lisa Lisa.
    
    
19. Losing touch with most popular music (via the Billboard Top 40 and mainstream TV music channels) doesn't bother me.  I know superior music is found and supported elsewhere.
    
    
20. The first music mix CD I ever burned was on a friend's computer, took more than 20 minutes, and it was for a girl I had a crush on.
    
    
21. The first CD I ever bought was the Above The Rim soundtrack.
    
    
22. In college, I applied to be a DJ at the most popular club in Columbia, but I didn't have any experience whatsoever and had no idea how to match beats, so unsurprisingly I didn't get the callback.
    
    
23. I did however spit some 16s on KCOU's Beats & Pieces radio show one night during freshman year.  I remember being crazy anxious right before I went on.
    
    
24. I wish I'd stuck with piano lessons.  Dammit Mom you were right!!
    
    
25. Lastly, I know that rap is "a young man's game," but I don't think I'll ever stop writing lyrics.  After all, we got cats over 40 doing it right now!

Gotham In Fast-Forward.

Another beautiful semi-professional time-lapse video that captures the vitality and scale of The City That Never Sleeps over the course of a couple of days.  The Moby joint gives the visuals even more of a slick cosmopolitan feel.  Nice.



I love watching these kinds of things.

New York City, I miss you.  It's been way too long.

1.5 Sapphire & Tonics.

50% orange juice + 50% ginger ale = effervescent goodness

I don't know why I never thought of drinking this combo before.  It's basically a non-alcoholic mimosa, and it's tasty as hell.  No more shall I drink OJ at home without the bubbles to go with it.

During a lull at the hospital yesterday, a classmate and I got to talking about our weekend plans.  This is my weekend to work CT transport at the hospital so I'd stay in for the night¹, but she had plans to go out with a mutual friend who's coming to town.  Talk inevitably turned to bar/club-hopping and drinking, and to the fact that my alcohol tolerance has gone waaaaay down. Since I moved back to the Midwest, I don't really drink with any kind of regularity anymore.  In fact, the last time I went out, I felt tipsy after only 1.5 Sapphire and tonics.  And I barely finished the second glass.  Weak sauce!

Actually, I would have said that of myself ten years ago, when I was going out several times a week and in my drinking prime.  Obviously I've slowed down since then, especially since the allure of the club scene has dulled over the years, and recently I reached the conclusion that -- real talk -- it's not as much fun to drink as it used to be.

I never liked hangovers anyway (who does?), and it's hard to forget the feeling of dread each time I hovered over a toilet waiting to taste my drinks again on the way back up.  Granted, I've only thrown up from alcohol a handful of times ever, but I wouldn't want to do it again.  If I'm gonna do the Technicolor yawn, it better be for something worth it, like from a crazy bad reaction to shrooms or salvia or something².

Anyway, I'm just lucky the people I've had the pleasure of drinking with back in the day weren't into shaming, or else I would've sworn off alcohol long ago after inevitably waking up to find myself duct-taped to the hood of a minivan with male genitalia and racial slurs scribbled artfully on my face.  But the drinking experiences were fun while it lasted.  Besides I don't think my body can handle it anymore³. At this point, my hangovers would probably last the whole day at the rate that I'm (not) drinking.

Anyway, all you binge drinkers keep doing you.  I'll toast up a glass or two, but after that I'll be content to be an amused bystander as you go about your hilarious drunken shenanigans.  I'll be aight. Besides, I got my fantastic non-alcoholic mimosa.  Bottoms up.

On a completely unrelated note, St. Germain's Tourist is auditory silk.  Listen to the album.  Your ears will thank you.

¹But then again, what else is new?
²Not that I've experienced this, though ...
³My old-man excuse.  Now get off my lawn!