Pholk Tape #3

I've travelled back home to the South-East this week in plenty of time for Christmas, and as a result my days have been busy. But there's been plenty of time for me to listen to music, I mean, I had a 7 hour train journey to get through with only the aid of sausage rolls, 7up, and whatever I could convince people to text me. On a side note I challenge anyone to make a pair of earphones/headphones that remain comfortable for that long. Seriously, if you do make some or know of any, I will buy them, or put them on a Christmas list for next year...

Anyway that is all by-the-by and this is not by-the-by, it is now - although it won't be 'now' when you read this, it'll be your 'now' - but again this is besides the point. There has still been plenty of music old and new filling my ears this week, some of the names on here you'll probably be starting to recognise if you heard my first two mixes (Ellie Goulding in particular). Some may be of course new to these mixes but not to your greedy ears which are constantly scanning the acoustosphere (yes I made that word up) for traces of anything which pleases you. And some will, I hope, be new to both these mixes and your hearing-buds (I should stop doing this), because currently there's no chance of me 'buying' you a gift for Christmas.

There are some deliberately Christmassy songs on this tape but I resisted the temptation to bang together some Slade, Band-Aid, Chris Rea etc... as you'll probably get this anyway at a work or school Christmas party. And, in all honesty the DJ would probably do a better job of putting them together than me as well, and that's really saying something.

So what I've opted for instead is a hour long mixture of songs that to me at least have a christmassy sound. As with the last tape, there's still a cold feel to the mix, but this one has a softer more pituresque post card feel (barring the first two and last two tracks). I've thrown in a few tracks with sleigh bells on in case you fail to get the full effect of my hour and a half's hard labour.

But regardless of however it is put together, whether there is a theme or not, and whether I have back ache or not from sitting at aan awkward position for ages, it is obivous that there has been, is and continues to be good music being made every day. That's what tiny tim really wanted for Christmas, so "God bless 'im" and "God bless us, Every One"

Pholk Tape #3 - Christmas

01: LCD Soundsystem - 45:33 (Prince Language Remix)
02: Paul Kalkbrenner - Aaron (Dominik von Werdt Remix)
03: Two Door Cinema Club - Do You Want It All?
04: Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps (acoustic/strings version)
05: The Low Anthem - Charlie Darwin
06: Scala & Kolcany Brothers - Heartbeats
07: The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale Of New York
08: The Low Anthem - To Ohio
09: Eddie Hinton - I Can't Be Me
10: Half Man Half Biscuit - It's Clichéd To Be Cynical At Christmas
11: Wilco - You & I (feat. Feist)
12: Jose Vanders - For Now
13: Ellie Goulding - The End
14: Prince Zimboo - Santa Flaws
15: Andrew - It's Christmas


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Please support the Artists featured, and all Artists, wherever possible by buying or downloading their music from a reputable resource such as iTunes


p.s. RATM for Xmas #1 - Get amongst it!

Pholk Tape #2

Winter is now fully upon us, I can tell as my right hand has been frozen to my mouse for the last hour or so and it's taking a while to get enough sensation in it to type this. The rain is tapping down on my window as it has been for near enough the entire day, making the thought of a hosepipe ban summer nothing more than a distant memory. But even if I had no window in my room, had not ventured outside into the murky (and damp) cold that is Plymouth City Centre and I had the circulation of an olympic gold winning long distance runner, I could still tell you the season. The key comes from the music, a mirror that reflects the changing of the seasons more effectively than even Michael Fish could dream of and every bit as well as the wind, rain and ever shortening days themselves.

Ok, so maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration and my 20 years of exposure to music and the collective work of thousands and thousands of seemingly tireless musicians, bloggers and music media types, shouting "winter" at me through their songs, blogs and articles would still lead me to believe the sun had risen on another beautiful Mid-Summers day. But with what I know in mind, I've certainly found the majority of new music I've come across to be... well.... for lack of a better word "Wintery". This in turn has led me to dig up some old winter classics to enjoy while drinking another cup of hot tea/coffee/squash late into the night, or whenever, I lose track of time after dark.

That said there still have been melodies from warmer climes swimming round my head as I try to add another couple of hundred words to an essay with an ever-shortening deadline. Case in point: Kelis' song Millionaire that she did with Andre 3000 back in 2004, a song that passed by almost unnoticed to me until it re-emerged on a blog 2 weeks back. With the aim of these mixes to serve as a memory for me (and others) to see what I was listening to each fortnight for what I hope to be years to come, I had to put some of these more 'summery' tracks in the mix. These tracks, however, come at the start of the mix before it descends into winter tones around 20 minutes in with Peter, Bjorn & John's aptly named "The Chills".

From there it moves through some icy electronica in the form of Phoenix's "Fences", A Burial remix of Bloc Party's "Where Is Home?" which true to from is formed of dark pulsing bass tones, shivering strings and an echoey vocal motif (easy to get lost in) and a complete reinvention of Erol Alkan & Boyz Noise's "Waves" in which the piano takes the lead and forms a piece reminiscent of the short animated film "The Snowman". After a short interval from soul classic "California Dreamin'" the music changes to a more folk(y) feel with tracks from two Lauras (Veirs & Marling) both offering fragile vocals and wistful guitar patterns to bring things to a close.

The final track, as in the first mix, is something a little different, an encore if you will. Ellie Goulding and Erik Hassle team up to cover Robyn's "Be Mine" and do a beautiful job of it. I hope this leaves you ready to continue with your day feeling a little more positive about this time of year.


Track Listing:

01: Alice Russell - Let Us Be Loving (KidKanevil Remix)
02: How You LIke Me Now? - The Heavy
03: Kelis - Millionaire ft. Andre 3000
04: Souls Of Mischief - Proper Aim
05: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - By The Skin Of My Yellow Country Teeth
06: Peter, Bjorn & John - The Chills
07: The Notwist - Boneless (Grizzly Bear Remix)
08: Taken By Trees - Watch The Waves (Memory Tapes Remix)
09: Phoenix - Fences (Def Starr Version)
10: Bloc Party - Where Is Home? (Burial Remix)
11: Erol Alkan & Boys Noize - Waves (Chilly Gonzales Piano Remix)
12: The Mamas & The Papas - California Dreamin'
13: Laura Veirs - Sleeper In The Valley
14: Laura Marling - Goodbye England
15: Erik Hassle & Ellie Goulding - Be Mine (Robyn Cover)

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(Please support Artists featured, and all Artists, by buying their music from a reputable source wherever possible.)

Pholk Tape #1

This is the first in what I hope will be an ever improving series of mixes. I will endevour to keep them to roughly an hour in length for the purposes of commutes, lunch hours or whenever you have a spare bit of time to indulge in one of life's greatest pleasures - Music.

This first mix is a starts quite vibrant but should settle down to a more leisurely pace around the 21 minute mark. So sit back and enjoy what should be an hour (and 53 seconds) of uninterupted music (No taking those earphones out when you see the ticket man coming).

Tracklisting:

01: The Whitest Boy Alive - 1517
02: Think About Life - Havin' My Baby
03: Fever Ray - Seven (The Twelves Mix)
04: Penguin Prison - A Funny Thing
05: Grum - Heartbeats (Weird Tapes Remix)
06: Tor / Sufjan Stevens - The Tallest Man / I Like It (f. Grand Puba)
07: Ellie Goulding - Wish I Stayed
08: The XX - Heart Skipped A Beat
09: Lady Of The Sunshine - Silver Revolver
10: Eels - Little Bird
11: Stornoway  - Zorbing
12: Untitled - "radio static"
13: The Last Word - Sleepy Hollow
14: O'Spada - Time (Montauk Remix)
15: Elliott Smith - A Fond Farewell
16: Hot Chip & Peter Gabriel - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa (Vampire Weekend Cover)
17: Business Class & Prince Zimboo - Goosfraba

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(Please Support the Artists by legally buying their music from a reputable source such as iTunes)