Winter 2008. Outside it’s freezing. Snow drifts flank icy roads and dark, leafless branches rustle in cold wind. The sun’s dipped below the horizon, but it catches some long clouds in a glowing red that cuts against the dark deep blue. Inside it’s warm and cozy, but the windows and wood are still cool to the touch. It’s a good time to wrap yourself in a blanket and put on some music.
During this time some friends and I played a little with doing tape recording experiments. We’d plug our computers into tape decks and record fragments of songs and things into collages of sound. After the novelty wore off for me, I recorded a playlist on top of one of these tapes. I labelled the mixtape “Chilled” and tossed it into a box, where it’s moved with me from home to home over the years.
At one point, it came in contact with some magnets, which decayed the sound. Some of those old fragments were already audible in the spaces between a few tracks, but some of them also seem to have bled into the tracks a little. I don’t fully understand what happened to this tape, but it has a benevolent haunted quality. It’s a snapshot of time shared with old friends and music I was listening to in the mid 00s. The worn quality to the sound conveys a sense of years past. A one-of-a-kind memento from my teenage self.
The mix was intended to capture that warm-cold feeling of being inside in the winter, protected from the outside by a warm wooden bubble, and buoyed by holiday levity. It’s a good napping mixtape. Although not all the picks are relaxing, I feel the tape is enhanced by inviting it with you into a hypnagogic haze. See where it takes you.
Please support the artists if you enjoy them. I share this for the love of music! I was listening to a lot of Aphex Twin, Of, Wisp, Porn Sword Tobacco, various netlabel artists, and more at the time. Timestamps with links:
0:00:00 - Wisp: Whisper
reiddunn.bandcamp.com/
0:04:48 - Aphex Twin: Beskhu3epnm
aphextwin.bandcamp.com/track/beskhu3epnm
0:06:52 - Beak: The Maker
futonic.bandcamp.com/track/the-maker
0:10:28 - Beak: He Descended Into His Memory
futonic.bandcamp.com/track/he-descended-into-his-memory
0:13:12 - Wisp: Gummiklischeeherstellung
reiddunn.bandcamp.com/
0:16:35 - Hrvatski: Gemini (Early)
keithfullertonwhitman.bandcamp.com/track/gemini-early
0:19:31 - Porn Sword Tobacco: Watts Towers
www.forcedexposure.com/Catalog/porn-sword-tobacco-explains-freedom-lp/CCO.027LP.html
0:22:51 - Of: Mud Vowels [Excerpt]
lorenchasse.bandcamp.com/music
0:26:56 - Of: The Guidepost
lorenchasse.bandcamp.com/music
0:28:43 - Porn Sword Tobacco: Carl Zeiss Driving To Work
www.forcedexposure.com/Catalog/porn-sword-tobacco-explains-freedom-lp/CCO.027LP.html
0:31:40 - Wisp: Pleeper
reiddunn.bandcamp.com/
0:37:45 - Wisp: The Secret Lake
reiddunn.bandcamp.com/
0:43:48 - Stars of the Lid: Fac 21
starsofthelid.bandcamp.com/track/fac-21
0:46:56 - Aphex Twin: Mookid [Excerpt]
aphextwin.bandcamp.com/track/mookid
0:47:40 - Hrvatski: Anaesthetize Thineself
keithfullertonwhitman.bandcamp.com/track/anaesthetise-thineself
0:51:29 - Aphex Twin: Petiatil Cx Htdui
aphextwin.bandcamp.com/track/petiatil-cx-htdui
0:53:38 - Stars of the Lid: Ballad of Distances [Parts 1 & 2]
starsofthelid.bandcamp.com/track/ballad-of-distances-part-1
1:00:11 - Porn Sword Tobacco: Naturens Kraft Och Klang
www.forcedexposure.com/Catalog/porn-sword-tobacco-explains-freedom-lp/CCO.027LP.html
1:02:09 - Wisp: Glowing Fungus
reiddunn.bandcamp.com/
1:07:00 - Aphex Twin: IZ-US
aphextwin.bandcamp.com/track/iz-us
1:09:56 - Beak : Amoral Mayor Earwig
futonic.bandcamp.com/track/amoral-mayor-earwig
1:12:39 - Cylob: Instant Shrink
cylob.bandcamp.com/track/instant-shrink
1:15:51 - Belong: I'm Too Sleepy...Shall We Swim?
spectrumspools.bandcamp.com/track/im-too-sleepy-shall-we-swim
1:20:55 - Of: The Cumulus Deceased [Excerpt]
lorenchasse.bandcamp.com/music
1:29:54 - Aphex Twin: Hy Scullyas Lyf a Dhagrow
aphextwin.bandcamp.com/track/hy-a-scullyas-lyf-adhagrow
1:32:01 - Wisp: Rolling Into The Station
reiddunn.bandcamp.com/
1:34:06 - Aphex Twin: Stone in Focus [Excerpt]
aphextwin.bandcamp.com/track/19-2