sunday sounds

this sunday i've got two mixes for you, one from myself and one from dave, the silent ssg.

mine is a mixtape, recorded last sunday when suffering from a nasty headache and generally feeling pretty bad. the motivation for putting some tracks together came from a visit to meiji jingu in tokyo, when i was also feeling bad. it is one of my favourite places in the world and always has a very calming effect on me. right next to the crazy shopping district of harajuku, there is meiji jingu - a beautiful temple nestled within a deep, lush garden full of tall trees. a slice of tranquility in the heart of tokyo. the other week when i was frustrated, i put on my HD25s, pressing played on the aguaplano sessions mix from dozzy and nuel, and headed for meiji jingu. it was raining pretty hard, but that just made it all the more beautiful and relaxing (the picture is from my visit). the combination of the music, the rain and the surroundings made for a really powerful experience. soon after that i felt the urge to do a new mixtape. the format is the same as the other ones i've done: all tracks are played out at their original speed and mixed with basic crossfading (a few transitions are a bit rough, sorry). it is not really trying to be a mix per se, but plenty of thought went into the records chosen and the order they are placed in. if there is coherence in the mix, it comes from the feelings these sounds evoke in me. i like playing tracks that have deep emotions to them, and that is what i think unites this mix. i'll post the tracklisting in the comments tomorrow, but for now i'll say that the starting point for it came out of shed's recent livepa at sonar. he finishes with a very powerful reworking of 'estrange' which really hit me hard. i took that track and built the mix around it. anyway, enough talking, here it is:

chris (mnml ssgs) - meiji jingu mix

the other mix is from dave, the silent ssg, who is my techno brother. he put this mix together recently and i think it is something plenty of ssgs might be interested in hearing. it is a mix made up exclusively of early gescom and autechre material, mainly from around 1993-98 (for those who don't know, gescom is basically autechre and 'guests'). the gescom stuff is pretty rare and hasn't got the love it deserves, which is partly what motivated this mix. dave explained that the mix is focused more on the stuff where autechre weren't as concerned with creating new sounds and were more into playing their instruments/gear. listening to this mix i was impressed with how well much of this has aged. impressive. for people who don't know gescom and the early autechre, this will be a nice introduction, and for the rest it might be a nice trip down memory lane. also, it is good giving some ssg love to gescom because chances are mnml ssgs would never exist without them. i first met cam at a skam night at the liquid room in 2002 where gescom were playing. cam and i became friends, later cam and pete became friends, later cam introduced me to pete and we came friends, later i introduced dave to cam and pete and they became friends, and there you have the ssgs!

the silent ssg - gescom/ae mix

wishing you a relaxing and peaceful sunday...

chris