Saturday 28 March 2009

CGS MIXTAPE: VOL 1

Welcome to the first of (hopefully) many mixtapes that we're going to compile for all you lovely people!

When deciding how to approach this I thought I'd just throw together some shit that I liked, but then I realised theres no much point to that because a load of it would be fairly easy to find and most people would have heard of it. So I decided to collect together some tracks that are a bit more obscure, from my musical library, with the idea to show some interesting bits and bobs to people. Ive included some covers, some rare guest appearances and some stuff that should be more obscure for the casual music fan. Hopefully there is something that all people (with half a fucking brain) will enjoy. Ive also done a little write up of each track, so you can see why I chose these tracks. In the zip file you'll find all the tracks correctly tagged, with embedded artwork, and the artwork jpg, all made by yours truly.




1. Dirty Money - Out of Luck
2. Ice-T - Police Story (Black Flag cover)
3. Karen O. featuring Peaches - Backass
4. Some Girls - The DNA Will Have It's Say
5. Locust Toybox - Melodies from Mars 10 (Aphex Twin Cover)
6. UM - The Man's Got Me Beat
7. Lead Into Gold - Faster Than Light
8. Patton / Kaada - Aubade
9. Bon Iver - Skinny Love
10. Pogo - Alice
11. CON - Track 03 (demo)
12. Lovage - Book of the Month
13. 12 Round - Pleasant Smell (Rethought By Trent Reznor, Keith Hillebrandt And Clint Mansell For The Nothing Collective)
14. Nine Inch Nails - Atmosphere (Joy Division cover)
15. Nine Inch Nails - A Warm Place (Stella Soleil vocal version)
16. Tom Waits - I'll Never Let Go of Your Hand

DOWNLOAD HERE

1. DM are one of the best PROPER hardcore bands from London, they sound like the city. It's fast, it's harsh and it's invigorating. This track is off their 2006 Demo, check out their myspace to try and catch them live, they fucking kill it.

2. I am a very big Black Flag song and really like the lyrics on this track, so to hear a rerecording with Ice-T on vocals is hilarious and cool. This is from the Rollins lead charity CD to help the West Memphis Three, who are three teens wrongly convicted of child murder. Watch the documentary Paradise Lost for more info, it's a fanscinating and heartbreaking story of prejudice in America.

3. Even though I didn't enjoy the new YYY's record, Karen O is still near the top of my awesome ladies list and this track feature another awesome Lady; Peaches. This track is from the soundtrack for Jackass 2.

4. Some Girls have been one of the most important bands for Hardcore, ever since they reinvented the genre with the release of their two EPs, combining punk, noise and hardcore into something distinctly theirs. Sadly, they have broken up now, but their records are still innovative today. This track also features Karen O on backup vocals, which makes her even cooler.

5. The Melodies from Mars record is an unreleased album from Aphex Twin which can be tricky to get hold of (I might do a feature on it here soon, so watch out), but it has some wonderfull little melodie driven tracks, of which the best was covered by David Firth from Fat-Pie, with his musical outlet Locust Toybox. Apparently this whole track was learnt by ear, by David, on his acoustic guitar.

6. Cambridge has a good history for music, being the birthing place of Pink Floyd, but not a huge amount more goes on there, musically or otherwise (apart from Iain Huntley, but thats not cool...). So when I saw Pete Um live at our yearly alternative life / music fest Strawberry Fair I was gobsmacked. He makes the most bizarre, off-kilter stuff ive ever heard. Its kind of like poetry tracks, with out of time rythms layered over and over. Believe it or not, this track is his most normal and digestable. He has about 15 myspace pages and his records are very hard to track down, Ive managed to find 4 CD-Rs.

7. I am a big fan of 80s and 90s industrial, of which Ministry were a major part of. Lead into Gold are a side project for the now ex - Bassist of Ministry; Paul Barker. It is all very hard to find, but there is some great stuff in here. This track was a single at the time and has a video featuring Trent Reznor. Its a cool little industrial pop song, who knows what it's about.

8. Mike Patton is the midas of music, but instead of turning things to cash cows he just makes everything incredibly good. This track is off a record that he made with john Kaada, which is very influenced by Italian pop music, but with a distinctly Patton twist. It's probably the best track on here.

9. I think by now everyone has heard this track, but I am completely in love with it. The production is heart wrenchingly organic, with the duel vocal tracks grabbing you straight away. The track feels heartbreakingly cold posses a chilling conviction that seems to lack from a lot of acoustic guitar music.

10. Pogo is becoming more known now, after a few other people have stumbled across his video for this track; Alice. Not a huge amount of info is available on him, apart from he's Australian, not signed, young and has released almost all his music for free here. This track is mesmerising, with the vocal snippets becoming more and more engrossing with subsequent listens and the bass helping you slip into a trance-like state if one allows it. I urge you to download all his stuff if you can, most of it is very good, and free.

11. Confucius MC is a very good friend of mine, who possess some fantastic talent for lyricism and flow, which I find hard to find from the majority of hip-hop from both the US and UK. This is a demo from his last trip to the recording studio, of which CON busted out 14 tracks in one day. His producing is bringing out some fantastic work, so CON will only be on the up and up, so keep your eyes pealed. Check his Myspace here.

12. Some more Patton loving here with Lovage. The record this is off is produced by Dan the Automator and has Patton and Jennifer Charles, where are the songs are about traditional romantic encouters. All the tracks are very charming, and make for a fantastic record to enjoy in the summer and/or while getting high. This track represents the rest of the albums vibe and sound very well. I highly recommend this album to all people, of all music tastes, as I am sure most will enjoy it.

13. 12 Rounds are almost unknown completely, outside of fans of Nine Inch Nails and Nothing Records, but have created some very interesting and strange music, with a distinct alternative rock sound. The vocals are so uniquely mesmerizing and strange that it's hard not to find this track memorable. It is all written and produced by Atticus Ross, who has contributed, musically, to all the Nine Inch Nails releases from With Teeth onwards, this combined with this remix being done by Trent Reznor results in this particular track sounding like a Nine Inch Nails styled take on Massive Attack.

14. I am not a particularly big fan of Bauhaus, or Peter Murphy's voice, but I am a big NIN and Joy Division fan, so hearing members of NIN covering JD is a joy, and Peter Murphy's voice isn't that intrusive in this track, as it can be on some of the other covers taken from these Radio Sessions. It is pretty much a straight cover, but the fact it is almost a super group cover of it (with the afformentioned celebs playing instruments, Jordie White from Marilyn Manson and Atticus Ross), I figure that it'll be of great interest to some people out there, and it is a killer song.

15. The original of these tracks is one of my favourites off of The Downward Spiral, as it seems to bathe the listener in gorgeous and warm sound textures that pulsate and morph as one listens. When I found this "vocalisation" done of the track, I was uncertain at first, but the way the vocal track is used as an additional complimenting intrument works very well, adding another layer to the already dense sound scape. The vocal track was originally recorded for the sound track for the movie Stigmata, but apparently was left off due to an arguement between Trent Reznor and Billy Corgan, who was producing the sound track. It was not official available up until recently, when it was uploaded to remix.nin.com by Reznor himself. It is a rare little treat in the 100s of "never officially released" NIN tracks.

16. Tom Waits is my favourite singer and song writer of all time. His songs are touching, funny and display diversity of themes and styles throughout his back catalogue. One set of bootlegs which are hard to get are called the "Tales From The Underground" series, which are 5 compilations of rare and unreleased Waits tracks, of which this is one. Originally from the sound track to American Heart, but beyond that unavailable. The song is a touching love song about dedication and commitment, which doesn't sound soppy or mushy at all, with conviction being portrayed through Waits' always fantastic vocal delivery. The man is a saint, and should have his own Holiday.


I hope you enjoy this mix tape, and please leave us some comments on your opinions of the tracks and the mixtape concept. If you have enjoyed it then please feel free to distribute as you feel suitable. Me and Joe have been discussing the idea of doing a video podcast, so watch out!

MAX

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