Twelve of 11

A list of my favorite tracks of 2011.  No specific order and no claims of completeness, just the tracks I loved over the last year for reasons various and mostly subjective.  

1. Ghostpoet – Survive It (Quest’s Guidance mix)
2. Clams Casino – Brainwash by London
3. Holy Other – Touch
4. Drake – Dreams Money Can buy
5. Dj Rum – Mountains, Parts 2 & 3
6. Floating Points – Myrtle Avenue
7. Falty DL – Mean Streets, Part 1
8. The Weeknd – Wicked Games.
9. Schlomo – Just Us
10. Rick Wilhite – Blame it on the Boogie (feat. Theo Parrish & Osunlade)
11. Julio Bashmore – Battle for Middle You
12. Jamie xx – Far Nearer

Ghostpoet – Survive It (Quest’s Guidance mix)

“I know, Times are hard, You're against the wall, and your head is down…”  The weary, yet determined, optimism of Ghostpoet’s lyrics perfectly captures the dire resilience that colored 2011.  And, Quest’s remix, haunted by both the dread weight of ’06 dubstep and the bittersweet swing of classic UKG amplifies that sense of struggle at the songs heart.

Clams Casino – Brainwash by London

Everything Clams Casino touched this year was gold.  However, this smoked-out sub-base work out was a personal favorite for soundtracking late night subway rides.  The shouty bit at 1:30 is a great reichian sing-along moment.

Holy Other – Touch

A long cold draft of liquid longing and desperation.  The comparison to Burial is unavoidable but here all that late night hum is devoid of skittering beats or nostalgia.  This is the best in a long list of excellent releases of dark electronics from Tri-Angle over the course of the year.

Drake – Dreams Money Can buy

The love/hate relationship with Drake continues.  Yeah, his constant whinging over the melancholy of cars, money, women and fame should be grating, insulting or by this point tired but somehow you find yourself relating to the emotions even if the specifics are absurd.  The touches of self-deprecation and the off-kilter, self-destructing beats certainly help.

Dj Rum – Mountains, Parts 2 & 3

Widescreen, moody, sub-laced atmospherics.  This track should be too noodley, overly melodramatic, disjointed.  Instead, it reclaims and repurposes the emphasis on bass and space that dubstep discarded on its way to mainstream dancefloors.

Floating Points – Myrtle Avenue

Brilliant in every way.   This track is in a constant state of subtle flux, slowly writhing and contorting, the beats growing and tightening until they peek intensity and then, when you expect a huge synth flourish or massive drop, Floating Points simply places you down in new aural surroundings, not entirely unfamiliar but fresh and airy.  Then the process begins again.  The fact that that gorgeous vocal flourish (Fatima?) doesn’t appear until over 7 minutes in, is testament alone to the masterful amount of restraint at work here.

Falty DL – Mean Streets, Part 1

A number of Falty DL tunes from the past year could have made the cut (Hip Love. Lucky Luciano, Here We Go Again remix…).  But this is perhaps the most unique and, pressed in a limited vinyl only run, the hardest to track down.  Lagos by way of Brooklyn and Croydon,  I do not understand how this wasn’t a huge anthem. 

The Weeknd – Wicked Games

No one had a bigger year than The Weeknd.  Doubling down on Drake’s emo-bling and taking the beats edgier and sparser, the result is an addictive brew of filthy late-night R&B from the edge of the abyss.   This track came with an amazing, supposedly unsolicited video (NSFW).

Schlomo – Just Us

I’m on a dawn plane, unslept and hungover, reality lurching and pitching around me like I am out at sea instead stuck on the LGA tarmac.  This song rises through a folder full of random odds and ends on my MP3 player, with no artist or track info, only the unhelpful cover art.  Its frayed, skittering beats and haunted underwater carnival synths are the perfect complement to my state of mind.   It takes more than a week before I track down the info.  

Rick Wilhite – Blame it on the Boogie (feat. Theo Parrish & Osunlade)

"slick rick was in the house, turning it out, the girls were all singing lad di da di, I guess we were having a party…" The official Den of Iniquities party jam.  More fun than a serious Detroit house track should be allowed to be.

Julio Bashmore – Battle for Middle You

The hands down dancefloor anthem of the year.  Classic house and garage (Doomsnight Revisted?) are encoded in its DNA, yet it sounds like nothing else out there.  The call to “stomp your feet and get down” is superfluous.  Like you have any choice.

Jamie xx – Far Nearer

Oh, the steel drums!!  I played this more times this year than all the other tracks on this list combined.  If you stepped in my house or anywhere I was allowed control of the selection you heard it.  In the winter it made you dream of beaches and sunshine.  In the Spring and Summer it compelled you to sip cocktails in the sun and dance under open skies.

Bonus: Azealia Banks - 212 

The most grin-inducing, joyously filthy thing I've heard in ages.  

Halloween Playlist

Contains 66% more heavy dub and surf guitar than standard Halloween playlists.

01)   Screaming Lord Sutch & The Savages – Jack the Ripper

02)   The Pandoras – Haunted Beach Party

03)   Lee Perry & Devon Irons – Vampire

04)   Los Johnny Jets – Dracula A Go Go

05)   Skatalites – Lon Chaney

06)   Hillbilly Hellcats – Dead Man’s Party

07)   Jeff Richmond & Tracy Morgan – Werewolf Bar Mitzvah

08)   Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet – Zombie Compromise

09)   King Horror – Dracula Prince of Darkness

10)   Kid Koala – Trick N’ Treats

11)   Minus 9 – In the Spirit of Vampiros Lesbos (DJ Cam remix)

12)   Geto Boys – My Mind is Playing Tricks on Me

Babes of the Abyss Playlist

As with I did with Dog Days' Nights, I am celebrating the conclusion of  Babes of the Abyss by assembling an 8Tracks mix of music I either listened to while writing the story or that I associate in some other way with the series.  It is a strange and varied collection of sounds with the only common thread being a gauzy layer of decay and reverb.  Many of the songs share a raw and unmastered aesthetic that matches well with both the general vibe of the Swingshift worldview and the often chaotic creative process behind the stories.

There will be more Swingshift in 2011, and Cheer is still available for depraved holiday enjoyment.  As always, thanks for all of your support.

01 cv313 - Subtraktive (King Midas Sound Dub)
she might be right

02 Gonasufi - My Only Friend (Hezus mix)
“Please, stay even though you know my reality”

03 Rolling Stones - Dancing with Mr. D (alternate take)
L-Girls theme - “A drink of Belldonna on a Toussaint night”

04 LA Vampires vs. Zola Jesus - No no no
strung out soundtrack to late nights at the club El Cambion

05 s. maharba - Tell a Lie
“millions of hearts have been broken, just because these words have been spoken...”

06 Demdike Stare - Bardo Thodol
several stories deep below Canal St.

07 The Stone Roses - Shoot You Down (lost demo version)
our man has big plans and a full moon swagger

08 Skeletons & Sobansa Mimanisa - Kiwembo / Unstuck
“Things are in motion ...Get out and get lost.”

Dog Days' Nights Playlist

I have cobbled together a random playlist of tracks that I either listened to while writing Dog Days’ Nights or that have, in my mind, a connection to the story. I slapped the tunes into an 8Tracks mix for your enjoyment. It is interesting that these are very different sounds than my standard everyday soundtrack.

I will try to assemble another playlist at the end of Babes of the Abyss (Zola Jesus and The Rolling Stones will certainly make appearances).





00 RAW - Dog Days
intial inspiration for the title (among other grander things)

01 Thom Yorke - Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses
wake up on your feet vibes

02 The Whitefield Brothers (feat. Guilty Simpson) - American Nightmare
lock-up at the 6-0

03 Spoek Mathambo - Control
South African electro-house cover of Joy Division - perfect loft party joint

04 Gonjasufi - Duet
possible theme song for CSI: Bushwick 420

05 Cliff Edwards (aka Ukulele Ike) - I’ll See You In My Dreams
I’m still not sure why ukulele music is playing in the background

06 James Blake - CMYK
Dee's lament

07 The Kilimanjaro Dark Jazz Ensemble - Dark Night of the Soul
exactly what it says on the tin

08 Bei Bei & Shawn Lee - East
Rodriguez’s action theme

09 Oneohtrix Point Never (feat. Antony) - Returnal (christian fennesz remix)
“you've never left, you've been here the whole time”

SkatePunk: I Don't Wanna Live to be 34

SkatePunk was the first music growing up that I could truly call my own. Distributed through cheap Realistic Concertapes, via skateboard kick & push, peer to peer, hand to hand, it had fuck all to do with my hip parents record collections and even less in common with pop radio or a nascent Mtv. It was instead the product of a particular subculture of skateboarding in the late 80s. A time when the now multi-billion dollar international industry was not only a really fun hobby but a de facto statement of social defiance and in many small towns an act of civil disobedience. It was a strange experience as a young kid to have your favorite past time become a minor criminal act but it totally amped up your inherent youthful rebellion and the music kicked in hard and fast to soundtrack it all perfectly.

Unlike previous post-atomic decades, in the 80s we came to a peculiar acceptance with our own imminent nuclear annihilation. This rather mad respect for the world ending at any moment fed the aggression, urgency and uniquely perverse optimism of SkatePunk. If we didn't have long to live there was no time to learn more than a few chords, no time to wait for a record deal or spend a year in the studio honing your magnum opus. Hell there wasn't even time enough for me, as a listener, to sit through a drum or guitar solo. If you were going to fiddle about prog rock style on the guitar I was out of there. I had girls to snog, ramps to ride, curbs to grind, fights to start. And always there was the feeling that time was running out, that dark international forces were out there working hard against me seeing my 21st birthday. I sure as hell didn't have time for 12 minute songs or three hour concerts sets.

SkatePunk was political in that all powers of authority, institutional or otherwise, were to be rejected and should go fuck off! It was dystopian in that the total collapse of society was taken as a given and therefore we should live for today and for each other and the rest of the mess could go get lost. It was about love and loss in so far as those things consumed with such force that the only remedy was to found in a primal shout, a shower of guitar feedback and a good violent dance. But most of all SkatePunk, unlike Punk's first wave, was constantly in motion. There was no vamping it up on the high street in Vivian Westwood, or wasting time eating White Castle and scoping girls draped in heavy leather. We had something to do, skate, and we did it with the same urgency and abandoned with which we danced, loved, shouted at the night and ran from the cops. You can hear it in the music but the songs are only 2 minutes long so listen sharp.






















SkatePunk Vol. 1: I Don't Wann Live to be 34

1. Dead Kennedys - Police Truck(1980)
"Dispatch calls are you doin something wicked?, No siree, jack, were just givin tickets"
2. Circle Jerks - Live Fast Die Young(1980)
"I don't wanna live to be 34, I don't wanna die in a nuclear war"
3. Dickies - Gigantor (1980)
"Quicker than quick, Stronger than strong, Ready to fight for right, against wrong"
4. Agent Orange - Bloood Stains (1981)
"Someday i'm gonna change my mind, Sometimes I'd rather kill"
5. Minor Threat - In My Eyes (1981)
"You tell me you want to be different, You just change for the same"
6. T.S.O.L. - Abolish Government/Silent Majority (1981)
"Wake up to the same old shit, Live your life to suit their fit"
7. Bad Brains - Big Takeover (1982)
"So understand when I say, there's no hope for this U.S.A"
8. The Faction - Skate and Destroy (1983)
"The cops are coming after me, their sons are BMXers, They always try to stop me but urethane is faster than boots"
9. Social Distortion - Mommy's Little Monster (1983)
"Her eyes are a deeper blue, she likes her hair that color too"
10. Suicidal Tendencies - Institutionalized (1983)
"All I wanted was a Pepsi, just one Pepsi, and she wouldn't give it to me."
11. Black Flag - Slip It In (1984)
"You're getting around, I'm not putting it down, It's just what it is, Getting it while it's around"
12. Butthole Surfers - Wichita Cathedral (1984)
"Wiped out wasted Wichita, Cathedrals on my mind, Last time I got wasted there, My poor dog just went blind"
13. JFA - Pipetruck (1984)
"dumdum dada dumdum"
14. Drunk Injuns - She's Gots A Gun (1985)
"Thoughts of tomorrow, Tear me apart, I think of the past, You’re the pain of my heart"
15. D.I. - Johnny Has A Problem (1985)
"Chippin' every day chipin' for the gipper, Chippin' on chippin' on down the line"
16. Toy Dolls - My Girlfriend's Dad's A Vicar (1985)
"He's a Vicar ya know, works in a church"
17. 7 Seconds - Walk Together Rock Together (live) (1987)
"Why don't I buy you a beer? Because I'm not old enough"
18. Dag Nasty - Excersise (1987)
"I'm irresponsible, I'm irrational, it's irreversible, what are you gonna do?"
19. Descendants - All-O-Gistics (live) (1987)
"Though shalt not partake of the dreaded decaf"
20. G.B.H. - Makin' Whips (1987)
"But you're going nowhere ya missing the whole damn point, lighten up, lighten up and we'll rip the joint."
21. McRad - Weakness (1987)
"My weakness is I can't say no, My weakness is I can't let go, So stay with me I'll let you know that love is something I can show"
22. McRad - McShred (1987)
"McSHRED!!"

I'm sure I've forgotten a bunch of great bands and tunes so drop your faves in the comments box. Vol. 2 will be up in a couple of weeks. I just need to track a few things down.

NJ crew - check out Randy Now's excellent collection of old school City Gardens photos & flyers here.

Rainy Daze Playlist

It has been raining in the North East for what seems like solid month which has really preempted the kick off of summer in the city. The one bright side is that I have managed to perfect my rainy day play list so I thought why not share it with the rest of the class. Its split evenly between new stuff and storm tested classics with a nice mix of melancholy instrumentals, deep dubbed out rollers, and bitter sweet vocals. If you have a rainy day tune or album of your own please drop it in the comments.

I hope you dig this:



Rainy Daze Playlist

1) Mount Kimbie – William

2) Clouds – Protecting Hands pt. 2

3) Falty DL – Meta-Cognist

4) Bloc Party – Where is Home (Burial remix)

5) King Midas Sound – Ting Dub

6) Modelselktor – Let Your Love Grow (feat. Tikiman)

7) Bill Withers – No Sunshine (Grievous Angel mix)

8) Miles Davis – So What

9) Kilimanjaro Dark Jazz Ensemble – Parallel Corners

10) Breakage – Rain

11) Jamie Woon – Wayfairing Stranger (Burial remix)

12) Thom Yorke – And It Rained All Night

13) UNKLE - Heaven