Also, a word on my mixes: only brief samples of songs are used, always being tweaked or adjusted in some way by myself, and always presented in ONE long, continuous track. I am NOT giving away anyone’s music, if you enjoy the sample of an artist in one of my mixes, I urge you to go out and buy the album on vinyl and support the artist. That is the whole reason I am making these!
Thank you to everyone who has already downloaded my latest mix, and a big thank you to anyone who has liked or reblogged it to others! If you downloaded “Nothing Happens in April” right after it became available, there is an even newer version with a few tweaks and a higher mp3 quality in its place. You can preview it by clicking through the photo above to my SoundCloud. Again, this is a seamless 53 minute mixtape designed for soundtracking a bike ride but you can use it for any exercise. Enjoy and please leave feedback, I love hearing from you.
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Mix 11: Nothing Happens in April (Spring Biking Mix V7)
Continuing in the mold of my “Very Sunny” EP and “Coasta Paraiso” mixes from last year, my 11th mix is now here and ready for your enjoyment. Picking up on the breezy, sun-drenched disposition of those projects, “Nothing Happens in April” is another immersive listening experience, this time taking the audience through a complete bicycle ride from a bustling urban neighborhood to much more pastoral landscapes. I am continuing to work in my own field recordings in more organic ways, less as a transition tool from track to track and more so a living, breathing component of the project that transports the listener onto a speeding bicycle that’s winding through a forest path. Since this is aimed at being a “work out” mix of sorts, I tried to gradually increase the tempo as the ride progresses, building to the climax of Juan Maclean’s remix of The Tough Alliance and Robert Miles’ remix of Blondes (Blondes are the only artist to appear in mix 11 who have previously showed up on one of my projects, and the remix here is totally different than their original). One difference from last year’s Summer mix is that the music here is much more electronic, and I even rearranged some things so that it can also serve as a mini preview for 2012’s Detroit Movement Festival (with songs from Araabmuzik, Lindstrom, and Actress). This mix features recordings from many actual bike rides I have taken over the last two months, and you will even hear my very own bike as all of its noises were sampled and mixed into the music, as well as some more of my own piano and keyboard playing. I hope its appeal is broader than just for biking, and people will use it for all types of exercise, but mainly I just hope you enjoy it no matter how you listen! (High quality download link in title below).
Nothing Happens in April - Spring Biking Mix V7 [@256 Kbps / 53:23]
Feat.
(intro) Ulrich Schnauss “Nothing Happens in April” / Ital “Floridian Void” / Com Truise “Air Cal” / Battles “Dominican Fade” / Ford & Lopatin “I Surrender” / Terranova “Paris is for Lovers” / Lindstrom “There’s A Drink in My Room..” / Siriusmo “Goldene Kugel” / Zomby “Riding with Death” / Araabmuzik “Streetz Tonight” / Actress “Senorita” / The Tough Alliance “A New Chance” (Juan Maclean Remix) / Blondes “Pleasure” (Robert Miles Remix) / Bear in Heaven “World of Freakout” / Cut Copy “Lights and Music” (Boyz Noize Remix) / John Talabot “Estiu” / Scuba “July” (outro)
cognitivecues asked: hey. you have excellent taste in music. it's pretty much the same as mine. i'm wanting to get into field recording for sampling in my music. do you have any recommendations for a first field recording device?
Hello and thank you so much for your interest in my blog and my mixes. I love making my own field recordings and it is super easy. I bought a Tascam DR-o3 linear pcm /mp3 recorder from Guitar Center last summer for about $100 w. insurance and have never had any issues. I highly recommend it, makes high quality recs and it is super easy to rip them onto your computer too. Posting a new mix very soon, hope you like it!
-RJ
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Mix 10: Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun (A Soundtrack for Space Travel)
In the not so distant future: You are aboard a state-of-the-art space vessel hurtling off into the unknown realms of the universe. The only member of your crew still alive, you are haunted by voices which seem to echo from every dark corner of the craft. More troubling than those, the ship is under constant bombardment from fragments of sonic and audio data being beamed out into space from other ships and planets, remnants of old radio broadcasts perhaps, constantly unfolding into one another so that each small part melds into an ever changing orb of found sound. Suddenly you seem to have found a glimmer of hope in the far reaches of your telescope, the Sun. Its a race against time to try and reach the nearest civilization before the voices, real or imagined, drive you to insanity. So, light your last candles as you preserve vital power resources, dawn your best headphones, and let the speed-of-light voyage wash over you in a thick, psychedelic haze. (Hopefully the Sun’s image is not yet another one of the universe’s many mirages, looping you into a black hole which will bring you right back to where you began). [Download link in title below, enjoy!]
Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun (A Soundtrack for Space Travel) [1:07:51 @256 kpbs]
Feat.
(intro)Blondes “Moondance” (OPN Sundial Mix) / Boards of Canada “Smokes Quanity” / Pink Floyd “Set the Controls…” / The Present “Space Meadow” / Emeralds “Science Center” / Stars of the Lid “Music for Twin Peaks…” / Animal Collective “What Would I Want? Sky” / Boards of Canada “In a Beautiful Place…” / Mouse on Mars “Chromantic” / Biosphere “Hyperborea” / Gas “Pop #3” / White Rainbow “Major Spillage” / Studio “Life’s a Beach!” / Burial “Ghost Hardware” / Panda Bear “I’m Not” / Aphex Twin “Lichen” / The Orb “Earth (Gaia)” / Boredoms “Newsun #5” / Gang Gang Dance “Dust” / Casino Versus Japan “We Are You” / The Sight Below “Spelentique” / Biosphere “The Things I Tell You” / Telefon Tel Aviv “I Made a Tree on the Wold” / Gas “Zauberberg #7” / City Center “Cloud Center” / (fade return to intro)/
Hello Everyone! Been getting a lot of new followers, yet since I do not use Tumblr in the usual fashion (I post one new mix a month, not several posts per day to maintain a presence), I have not been getting very many downloads on my mixes. People seem to like the overall idea of the blog, yet wait for a new post to arrive instead of browsing through the collection of mixes that are already up for your enjoyment. To try and correct this trend, I have uploaded my last mix to soundcloud, so you can preview/listen without having to download a thing! So click on the album cover above to be directed to the SC page for “In Another Time”, plug in your best headphones, and enjoy! And please, if you do enjoy, reblog, like, or send it to friends who like indie music!
Cheers, RJ.
Hey everyone, here is mix 9: “In Another Time…” viewed in my music editing software. I think this really illustrates just how much time and effort I put into these things :) (and maybe what sets my projects apart from the millions of other mix tapes out there).
blueemeralds27 asked: Cheerio! Thank you for the follow:)
Hello! Thank you for the follow back, hope you enjoy my mixes :) Cheerio!
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favorite releases of 2011 / updates / welcome!
Hey everyone, just wanted to say thanks to those who have been following and supporting over the last year, and welcome to all the new followers. I really appreciate any feedback, reblogs, likes, or anything you can do to help get my mixes out there and listened to by more people. I hope you have had a chance to download and check out my 9th mix while I am hard at work on a darker project, returning to techno with a whole new batch of field recordings. I hope to have mix 10 completed before 2011 is over, but no promises with how hectic the holidays can be :)
-Thanks again, RJ.
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Now something just for fun, not meant as a “best of” list, just my favorite LPs, EPs, and songs from the past twelve months. Check out what you haven’t heard, post comments if you feel I’ve really missed something. Cheers!
Favorite albums and EPs of 2011:
1Eye Contact - Gang Gang Dance
2Tomboy - Panda Bear
3Looping State of Mind - The Field
4Dedication - Zomby
5Zonoscope - Cut Copy
6Wander/Wonder - Balam Acab
7James Blake - James Blake
8Blanck Mass - Blanck Mass
9House of Balloons / Thursday - The Weeknd
10Era Extrana - Neon Indian
11Underneath the Pine - Toro y Moi
12Plus - Luomo
13Dive - Tycho
14Sbtrkt - Sbtrkt
15Bible Eyes - Egyptrixx
16With U EP - Holy Other / 17Channel Pressure - Ford & Lopatin / 18Mind Bokeh - Bibio / 19Bon Iver - Bon Iver / 20Street Halo - Burial / 21.936 - Peaking Lights / 22Gloss Drop - Battles / 23The Rip Tide - Beirut / 24Within and Without - Washed Out / 25The King of Limbs & TKOLRMX - Radiohead / 26Duality 12” series - Blondes (vinyl only) / 27We’re New Here - Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie xx / 28You Are All I See - Active Child / 29Year of Hibernation - Youth Lagoon / 30III - Gui Boratto / 31Ècholocations EP - Lone / 32Mosaik - Siriusmo / 33Salon de Amateurs - Hauschka / 34Bad Vibes - Shlohmo / 35Ritual Union - Little Dragon / 36 Sepalcure - Sepalcure / 37Electronic Dream - Araabmuzik / 38Nine Types of Light - TV on the Radio / 39Moonlight Butterfly - The Sea and Cake / 40Space Is Only Noise & Don’t Break My Love EP - Nicolas Jaar / 41.93 Million Miles - Africa Hitech / 42Burst Apart - The Antlers / 43No Color - The Dodos / 44Instrumental Mixtape - Clams Casino / 45Its All True - Junior Boys / 46N-Plants - Biosphere / 47Take Care, Take Care, Take Care - Explosions in the Sky / 48Ancient Romans - Sun Araw / 49Wounded Rhymes - Lykee Li / 50Ravedeath 1972 - Tim Hecker //
Favorite Songs of 2011, in no order(click on song to listen):
“New Beat” & “Still Sound” - Toro y Moi
“Streetz Tonight” - Araabmuzik
Most Listened to Artists / Albums / Songs of 2011 (based on lastFM information)
Artists:
Flying Lotus (786 plays)
Boards of Canada (623)
Animal Collective (544)
Gas (443)
[none of these had a 2011 release lol]
Albums:
Flying Lotus - Los Angeles (2008, 283 plays)
Panda Bear - Tomboy (2011, 238 plays)
Gas - Pop (2000, 166 plays)
Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma (2010, 160 plays)
Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact (2011, 157 plays)
Songs:
Rhythm & Sound “No Partial” (39 plays)
Gas “Untitled 5” from Pop (36 plays)
AM Architect ”The Bull of Heaven” (35 plays)
Gas “Untitled 3” from Pop (33 plays)
Panda Bear “Slow Motion” (32 plays)
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Happy Holidays and cheers from The Sound of Glaciers Melting!
lyricalexperiment asked: Thanks for the follow good sir. Your blog has quite an interesting premise, I'm gonna follow you and see where it takes me :)
Thank you for the follow back! Look forward to hearing your thoughts on some of my work :) cheers, RJ.
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Mix 9: In Another Time, In Another Place (Folk Mix)
After a three month period that saw me move to a new city, pick up even more hours at work, and battle a series of health problems, my newest and most labor intensive project yet is here for you to download. Part of my struggle came from approaching the entire mixing process differently: instead of using brief field recordings to accent transitions between songs, the bulk of the sound here is the field recordings. Most were taped over the course of two visits to my parent’s house in Romeo, MI, yet other recordings came from my old house in Ferndale, and my new apartment in Hamtramck. As time progressed and the tapes piled up, the project grew from a modest idea about representing a small town like Romeo and into a broader representation of my life over the past 1/4 year. Heavily influenced by other immersive ambient experiences like Animal Collective’s “Campfire Songs” and Jurgen Muller’s “Science of the Sea”, the layers here lend themselves to loud volume on good headphones. Also, for the first time in nine mixes I have broken with my affection for electronic music and selected mostly acoustic folk with little more than strummed guitar and voices, allowing the other sounds to fill in the mix and create a unique and transporting 43 minutes (artwork above by me, download link in title below. Enjoy!)
In Another Time, In Another Place (Folk Mix V.3) @224 kbps [43:24]
Feat.
Intro / Sufjan Stevens - Futile Devices / Benoit Pioulard - Flouresce / Grizzly Bear - A Good Place / Bon Iver - Beach Baby / Bibio - Wet Flakey Bark / Nick Drake - Place to Be / Pink Floyd - Grandchester Meadows / B. Pioulard - Patter / Girls - Just a Song / Real Estate - Suburban Dogs / B. Pioulard - Weird Door / Bibio - Bewley in White / Ray Lamontagne - Truly Madly Deeply / Bon Iver - Minnesota, WI / Sufjan Stevens - Impossible Soul / Nick Drake - Free Ride / Fleet Foxes - The Cascades / Van Morrison - Astral Weeks / Outro
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stay tuned.
After a brief hiatus I am returning to creating my mixes. For the last month I have been moving (painting in the new apt. is almost finished…) to a new city and working more than ever. Before all of that even started, I spent two nights in my hometown taking care of the family dog while my parents and brother went out of state. During my short stay in the small town of Romeo, MI, I recorded over 1 gig of field recordings covering almost every possible thing I could think to record for use in a future project (lots of crickets, the hourly church bells, lawn sprinklers, air raid sirens, deep swamps, the frontroom piano, etc..). I began to sketch out the idea of mixing these tapes with a totally un-electronic set of songs. That is all the work that was completed in early August, but now that I am settled into my new apartment I am getting back at it with a totally fresh perspective. Expect mix number nine in the upcoming week.
Cheers,
RJ.
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mix 8: Anchor States (another sleep mix)
If there is one theme I am likely to return to more than others, it will probably be in the sleep/ambient genre. I listen to music every night as I fall asleep and am constantly tweaking playlists on my ipod in search of the perfect way to doze off. Compared with “Mini Anthology of Ambient”, here you will have to strain a bit more to catch the field recordings: the crickets, waves, ambient mall chatter, cars passing in the rain and more are all there, but hidden in the background as textures so as to never compete with the music for your overall attention. The music here is still largely electronic, but has a much more orchestral feel, heard right from the beginning with Loscil’s “Endless Falls” and continued to the end with multiple selections from Stars of the Lid. Where the first sleep mix was designed specifically for an infant and by necessity had to be beatless, one slowly fades into this mix towards the end of Andrew Thomas’ “I Am Here…” and continues through The Sight Below’s “At First Touch.” Although the “beat” here is more like that of a heartbeat than anything you would hear in a club, elements like this and a few weird drone-y moments may mean this mix will serve some as a chill-out soundtrack better than for sleep. That being said I honestly have had a very difficult time making it through the full 53 minutes without being lulled asleep. A number of pieces were also taken from various Pop Ambient compilations released by Kompakt (artwork above by myself, download link in title below).
Enjoy!
Anchor States (another sleep mix) [53:33]
feat.
Loscil - Endless Falls & Enthalpy / H.I.A. & Biosphere - Cannon Hill / Tal - Tal’90 / Biosphere - Spindrift / Andrew Thomas - I Am Here Where Are You & A Thousand Pinholes in a Black Paper Sky / Gas - Untitled 3 (Konigsforst) / The Sight Below - At First Touch & Shimmer & Further Away / Ulf Lohmann - Java / Stars of the Lid - Requiem for Dying Mothers, pt.1 & Anchor States, pt.1 & Even (Out)+ / All - Alles Fliesst Nichts Bliebt / also w. Sufjan Stevens, Animal Collective, Manual, and various field recordings /
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mix 7: Costa Paraiso - Summer 2011 mix
This mix takes the sun-soaked themes of previous “It’s Very Sunny” EP and spreads them out across a much larger canvas, resulting in my longest, most psychedelic (and, coincidentally least electronic) project yet. Few sounds bring to mind a tropical climate more than a steel drum, so I open with four very different artists taking turns at incorporating the instrument into everything from dubstep (Jamie xx) to instrumental, new-age-folk soundscapes (Animal Collective, making their first appearance on one of my mixes). From there things only get more diverse, glued together by the prevailing coastal themes and aquatic imagery, not to mention multiple selections from The Ruby Suns and El Guincho. Of course what will most connect this sixty-four minutes of music for the listener is my most liberal use yet of natural field recordings, as a large collection of ocean tides, lapping waves, and other water-themed audio snippets were invaluable towards setting the chilled-out vibe right from the opening moments. This project is ideal for pretty much any activity on a gorgeous day like today (supposed to hit 100 here in Detroit this week), but I highly recommend it biking down the boardwalk at Metro Beach Metro Park, or anything involving Belle Isle. Enjoy! (Link in title below, cover art cloud photos from torri lynn ashford, edited by me).
Costa Paraiso - Summer 2011 Mix [1:04:40]
feat.
Jamie xx - Far Nearer / El Guincho - Bombay / Gang Gang Dance - Glass Jar / Animal Collective - Baleen Sample / The Ruby Suns - Blue Penguin and Palmitos Park (El Guincho cover) / Delorean - Infinite Desert / Boards of Canada - Sunshine Recorder / Black Moth Super Rainbow - Forever Heavy / Washed Out - Feel it all Around / Africa Hitech - Don’t Fight It / Teengirl Fantasy - Portofino / ceo - White Magic / The Ruby Suns - Cranberry / Panda Bear - Take Pills / Toro y Moi - Intro (Chi Chi) / Neon Indian - Mind Drips (Bibio remix) / Flying Lotus - Camel / The Avalanches - Avalanche Rock and Since I Left You / Lone - Ultramarine / Flying Lotus - Melt / El Guincho - Costa Paraiso / Peaking Lights - Summertime
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mix 6: Traffic Jam Art Show Mix
This mix was meant to appeal to a group of my friends and coworkers attending an employee art show within the Traffic Jam bar in Detroit. The material ranges from Sade in the early 90s to one of my favorite songs of 2011, Lykee Li’s “I Follow Rivers”. Overall the mood is pretty light throughout, I tried to keep things from getting too weird or ambient, with a focus on poppy indie electronic. There are also a few field recordings included, perhaps most noticeable during the dub-spiked transition of Rhythm and Sound into Luomo, and as the mix concludes with crickets taped outside the Trumbullplex, and cars passing outside of Traffic Jam on a rainy day. Enjoy! (link in title below, photo above by Steve Brown).
traffic jam art show mix (final copy) @192 kbps [59:01]
feat.
The Dodos - “It’s That Time Again” / Mouse on Mars - “Download Softist” & “Yippie” / TV on the Radio - “Dancing Choose” / Lykke Li - “I Follow Rivers” / Sia - “Breathe Me” (Four Tet Remix) / Sade - “The Sweetest Taboo” / Rhythm & Sound - “No Partial” / Luomo - “The Right Wing” / The Avalanches - “Tonight May Have to Last…” / Bibio - “Jealous of Roses” / Flying Lotus - “Arkestry” & “Satelllliiiiiteee” / Daft Punk - “Make Love” / Radiohead - “Backdrifts” / The Notwist - “Pilot” / A.M. Architect - “The Bull of Heaven” / Thom Yorke - “Atoms for Peace” (Four Tet Remix) / Hot Chip - “The Warning” / The Knife - “Heartbeats” / Blondes - “Spanish Fly” //
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mix 5: Nachtsturm - an unreleased & fan created Pantha du Prince album
My fifth mix project is the first to be devoted to a single artist, with my idea being to create an “unreleased” album for German minimal electronic artist Pantha du Prince (Hendrik Weber). To help achieve the effect that this could possibly be a secret album, I mainly selected non-album tracks, as well as two of Weber’s remixes (which sound like completely original Pantha tracks in his hands), and two versions of other artists taking on Weber’s “Black Noise” material. The German title (“Nightstorm”) reflects both the hazy 4 a.m. vibe on most of these tracks and the abundance of field recordings (thunder, rain, etc.) that continually ebb and flow during and between songs, holding the mix together over the 35 minute duration. Most of these recordings were taken from a series of nature sounds I found online, however I recently began making my own field recordings, and some made this final version of “Nachtsturm”: (download link in title below)
-”rain and thunder” (recorded at home in Ferndale) appears during “Stick to My Side” and “Sach Mal Baum”.
-”water on rocks” (recorded at Belle Isle) appears during “Water Falls”.
-”rush hour overpass” (recorded in Detroit over I-94) appears during “Im Bann”
-”night train miles davis version” (recorded in Ferndale) appears during “Sach mal Baum”/”Welt Am Draht”
nachtsturm: an unreleased / fan created PdP album (35:11)
feat:
Stick to My Side (Carsten Jost Version) / Ursonate 3 / Water Falls
Bloc Party - “Signs” (Pantha Du Prince Remix) / Sonnensturm
- thunder break - / Animal Collective - “Peacebone” (Pantha Du Prince Remix)
Im Bann / Fountain Drive / Sach Mal Baum / Welt Am Draht (Animal Collective version)
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