Quintessential Jazz

No pretense of ambience in this mix, just straight forward jazz. I came across an interesting list here... Quintessential Jazz Songs.

The Jazz 100 is a list compiled by listeners of jazz24.org & NPR Music. It's kinda fun to read some of the comments because the listeners get very passionate about the list. Much of the list is very recognizable & some of the tracks I'd never heard before, so it was great to dig in & discover music I probably should have known about for a long time.

So this mix is just a quick compilation of just a few tracks from the list, with the exception of the Paul Desmond tune(it just worked perfectly following Take 5 with Take Ten).

Even though this deviates from from the usual ambient I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.

[ d o w n l o a d ] | [ i t u n e s ]

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00 Miles Davis - So What
• 09:20 Ahmad Jamal - Poinciana(the song of the tree)
• 13:33 Duke Ellington & John Coltrane - In a Sentmental Mood
• 17:40 Lee Morgan - The Sidewinder
• 27:44 Dave Brubeck - Take 5
• 32:57 Paul Desmond - Take Ten
• 36:00 Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto - The Girl from Ipanema
• 41:05 Oliver Nelson - Stolen Moments
• 49:32 Wayne Shorter - Footprints
• 54:57 Bill Evans - Waltz for Debbie
• 01:53 end

television sky

"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."
> _ William Gibson, Neuromacer

I love that line from "Neuromancer" & it's the jumping off point for this mix.

Now if I was going to do a true Neuromancer mix I'd use stuff like Autechre & other noisy, abrasive electronica. But this isn't really a Neuro mix, I'm not a big fan of later Autechre & music that gets so noisy as to be annoying.

In addition to that line, some new music I discovered at the end of last year got me thinking about an electronica style mix. The excellent music blog, A Strangely Isolated Place, posted their A - Z of 2010 list on December 27th. I discovered some great electronica like Lights Out In Asia, Tropics, aKido, Com Truise, Horizon Fire and more. I listened to enough of the new stuff to know that I wanted to do a related mix.

The mix is fairly straight forward but takes a different turn when it hits the two soundtrack pieces, "Kanada's Death, pt. 2" & "Monsters Theme", from John Murphy & Jon Hopkins. I absolutely love those two tracks & figured this was the best chance to incorporate them into a mix. They actually fit pretty well.

Enjoy.


[ s t r e a m ] | [ d o w n l o a d ] | [ i t u n e s ]


T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00 Milieu - Ghosts In The Trees, Songs In The Breeze (Am-Boy Alternate Remix)
• 07:32 Horizon Fire - Passed out in a Datsun
• 11:40 aKido - Mrchf Thftr
• 13:10 Morgan Packard - Again
• 15:25 Jon Hopkins - Wire
• 19:50 Marconi Union - Stationary
• 26:20 Lights out in Asia - Attempt No Landings There
• 31:00 John Murphy - Kanada's Death, pt. 2 (adagio in d minor)
• 33:20 James Murray - Eleven(decades_mix)
• 40:10 Jon Hopkins - Monsters Theme
• 43:50 Parks - Perfect Silence
• 49:45 aKido - Carrousel
• 54:05 Tropics - Soft Vision
• 59:20 end

Television Sky by Lowlight on Mixcloud

slow & sleepy

Yah! A new mix finally! I've been ridiculously busy lately(10 days at the Super Bowl) so haven't been able to do much mixing. Hopefully that will change.

This is another mix where the title says it all...slow & sleepy.

Pretty straight forward ambient with long, stretched out chords, slow motion sounds to suspend consciousness.

Many of the tracks used here are new or fairly new. A lot of good music has been released in the last few months. I'll have to dive in & come up with some new mixes. I'm sort of planning a neo-classical mix, electronic beats, classic jazz, mellow prog rock, etc.

For now I hope you enjoy slow & sleepy.

[ s t r e a m ] | [ d o w n l o a d ] | [ i t u n e s ]

T R A C K L I S T :

• 00:00 Kyle Bobby Dunn - Remnants
• 05:20 Wouter Veldhuis - Satumaa
• 09:30 Celer - A Lifetime of Wasted Breaths
• 14:30 Grasslung - When We Were Young
• 20:45 Wixel - Melsbroek
• 22:15 Simon Scott - Silenne
• 28:00 Gareth Hardwick - London 220109
• 34:45 Alio Die & Zeit - punto di fusione
• 41:45 Danny Saul - kinison (part 2)
• 43:00 Listening Mirror - Cast Off
• 48:30 Hakobune - a yearlong thought
• 52:00 Stephan Mathieu - Minuet
• 1:00:00 end

Slow & Sleepy by Lowlight on Mixcloud