Oct '11 - Mar '12
Ai yai yai, 'nectors, haven't posted any new mixtape music in quite a while, but today is definitely a good day because The Shins have - after a five year break - released a new album this very Tuesday: Port of Morrow.
Need to give the album a few more listens before I'll fully get into it again, but here's already the first single release, Simple Song.
View full entryThe Shins - Simple Song
2011 was all about the (commercial) rise and musical evolution of dubstep. The sound ultimately went global, noticeably matured, and subgenres wildly sprouted in all directions. One name mentioned over and over for taking the spectrum far beyond the reaches of just post-dubstep, towards the... View full entry
James Blake - Limit To Your Love
2012 is almost two weeks old, and the new year smell is quickly wearing off. Time to highlight some of the biggest tunes of '11. Starting us off are bass fetishists Africa Hitech who are slowly starting to creep me out - they seem to have a secret access to the part of my brain where I store the... View full entry
Africa Hitech - Caveman Style
Happy New Year everyone! I admit, I've been absent for a while, ugh. But since nobody likes listening to poor excuses, let's rather start the musical year off on a rather...quirky note. The song is つけまつける (Tsukema Tsukeru) by teenage Japanese shooting... View full entry
Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - Tsukema Tsukeru
Dear Archinecteurs, the end is nigh, of 2011 that is, so let's all grab a glass of chilled bubbly and softly sway into this new year with the most beautiful sad Happy New Year song ever written. Happy 2012 everyone! View full entry
Abba - Happy New Year
've been listening to a lot of Amy Winehouse recently since her posthumous compilation album Lioness: Hidden Treasures came out Dec 2. The track Valerie, a cover of the 2006 song by The Zutons, was produced in 2007 for fellow English musician Mark Ronson. London remains officially swinging. View full entry
Amy Vinehouse - Valerie
It's Wednesday night, I'm in a swell mood, time for Jamie xx's 2011 summer smash hit, Far Nearer. Yes, also because that pink cover is so pretty. If you're craving more of those snare-heavy chopped beats, make sure to check the Jamie xx Shuffle of Adele's Rolling In The Deep. View full entry
Jamie xx - Far Nearer
It's Thursday, and this week is tumbling along sluggishly. Need to take in something more upbeat. The hypnotic Reflex by dubstep darlings Dark Sky to the rescue. View full entry
Dark Sky - Reflex
We've experienced a few very stormy days here in SoCal before the weekend, strong enough to knock out power supply for thousands of homes and businesses...including our Archinect HQ here in Pasadena, one of the areas hit the hardest by the infamous annual Santa Anas. What better song to play than... View full entry
Cold War Kids - Santa Ana Winds
It's Tuesday, time to pick up the pace already. Surprise Hotel by the extra sunny LA collective Fool's Gold should do the trick. View full entry
Fool's Gold - Surprise Hotel
Monday, a new week is upon us. Luring with crisp opportunities while stealing the tranquillité of a freshly faded weekend. So let's take this slow for now. The song is the absolutely beautiful New Wonder from Island Brothers, the 2011 release by Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and the Cairo Gang... View full entry
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and the Cairo Gang - New Wonder
TGIM everybody! Monday is the new Friday, and the weekend is almost upon us. Time to celebrate - Cut Chemist, play us some of that funky shiat! View full entry
Cut Chemist - Spat
Sunday afternoon, rain keeps pouring from the dark SoCal skies, sounds like Icefall from Nobukazu Takemura's 1999 album Scope. View full entry
Nobukazu Takemura - Icefall
FunkinEven's latest jam pleasantly keeps what the title promises: tasty 909 drum treats with a twisted 303 acid frosting. Old skool beats with all the works. Also check out FunkinEven's other master jams, Heartpound, She's Acid, Another Space, and the great collabo with Fatima, On The Go. View full entry
FunkinEven - Rolands Jam
For your weekend midnight musings, the 1947 Charlie Parker bebop classic, Scrapple From The Apple, here interpreted by jazz tenor saxophone legend Dexter Gordon & band in 1963. A one, two, a one, two, three, four... View full entry
Dexter Gordon - Scrapple From The Apple
There are certain tunes you just can't get out of your system anymore. Shotcrete-like, they're stuck somewhere between mid-ear canal and your mushy brain biscuit, haunting the poor soul at every waking and sleeping hour. Toronto-based act Azari & III are specialized on this field and have... View full entry
Azari & III - Hungry For The Power
It's a cold, rainy Sunday afternoon here in Los Angeles (puts the stress on the second line in Albert Hammond's "It Never Rains in Southern California": "It pours, man, it pours"), so to compliment the cup of hot earl grey tea that's pleasantly hugging me from inside, I want some Surfer Blood on... View full entry
Surfer Blood - Swim
Fourteen years ago, it was my first year of architecture school, I happened to be introduced to an architecture I had never heard of before but had always been looking for: deconstructivism. I instantly gave my heart away and arranged countless yearning rendezvous with my secret crushes Woods... View full entry
Autechre - Gantz Graf
Friday, 6:32 pm, and the office air is full of TGIF. I'm in a goofy mood, so I'll leave you with the ultimate weekend song: "Friday" by the impertinently talented Rebecca Black, here performed by some guy called Bob Dylan. 6:35 pm, party and party and yeah. View full entry
Rebecca Black - Friday, as performed by Bob Dylan
What's with the long face, eh? Too many harp posts? Too much acoustic and not enough electricity in those strings? Too much estrogen and not enough schwetty balls? Too much shoulder padding and not enough getting-kicked-in-the-face? Okay. I get it. You want some dark bread. I give you Georgia's... View full entry
The Chariot - Daggers
After yesterday's Active Child post, I got TOTALLY FLOODED with flaming requests for more harp music. (Actually, that's not true, but I always wanted to say that.) I do however have a soft spot for rock 'n roll's badassest string instrument, so as a well suiting follow-up, I gleefully present you... View full entry
Joanna Newsom - Bridges and Balloons
Whoa, apologies for slacking on the blog posts. Ugh. Guess I owe you a real good one today, eh? Alright, here's the extra dreamy "You Are All I See" by LA's Active Child. I'm currently obsessed with this act: Pat Grossi's angelesque choir boy voice over thick layers of pop synthies, borderline... View full entry
Active Child - You Are All I See
I'm a little busy this week, so I'll leave you with a very nice mini documentary on Yasiin Bey, formerly known as Mos Def. The good folks from Current TV followed him around on his The Ecstatic tour through Japan, talking about da real hip hop, fashion, burgers, and, sure, the fascination with... View full entry
Mos Def Japon
Black Star (Yasiin Bey & Talib Kweli) - Fix Up on The Colbert Report
In the creative world, ingenuity and insanity often come in pairs. In the case of Aaron Funk, the Winnipeg, Canada-based electronic music producer known as Venetian Snares, they're indistinguishable. With many of his releases, like Winnipeg Is a Frozen Shithole, The Chocolate Wheelchair Album... View full entry
Venetian Snares - Szerencsétlen
Happy weekend, everyone! Today's track lets you transition extra smoothly from the work week hustle into a (hopefully) chill Sat+Sun package: Desert Raven by Jonathan Wilson. I don't know much about him yet, other than he's an LA-based psychedelic folk singer-songwriter, and his latest album... View full entry
Jonathan Wilson - Desert Raven
When it comes to spot-on style, Metronomy is surely earning plenty of brownie points these days. The Look, the band's second single from the 2011 album, The English Riviera, features a hypnotically looped organ hook, a bitter-sweet bass riff that sticks, one of those sentimental British guitars... View full entry
Metronomy - The Look (2011)
In the face of nationwide protests and widespread occupation of corporate architectural symbols (and as of lately, also CEO residential neighborhoods), now would actually be an excellent time for Public Enemy to come back. After all, it's been 22 years since Fight The Power. If only the... View full entry
Public Enemy - Fight The Power (1989)
These days, it doesn't happen very often that a musical act can catch me completely off guard, put a lasting smile on my stern face and have me crow, now THAT's the stuff! One of these happy occasions was caused earlier this year by Baltimore-based artsy rockers Ponytail. Celebrate The Body... View full entry
Ponytail - Celebrate The Body Electric (It Came From an Angel) (2008)
Time for Mixtape's sophomore post: I decided to stay very close to the realm of architecture and chose "Modell Statt Berlin" as the first featured track in this series. A short film collaboration from 2004 between Berlin-based minimal techno and glitch house wunderkind Jan Jelinek (a.k.a. Farben... View full entry
Jan Jelinek & Visomat Inc. - Modell Statt Berlin (2004)
Legend has it that we architects are selling frozen music, so to gladsomely diversify the origin of our creative process, let's talk about music, shall we? Mixtape wants to be a source of inspiration, as well as the soundtrack of your life in design, be it while avidly pulling another allnighter... View full entry
Legend has it that we architects are selling frozen music, so to gladsomely diversify the origin of our creative process, let's talk about music, shall we? Mixtape wants to be a source of inspiration, as well as the soundtrack of your life in design.
