Getting Artsy With It: EastCoast's "Lost In Translation" Mix

What's good kids. There's actually a new post up, which means one of two things: either a member of Radiohead just sneezed, or I made a new mix.

...Yup it's a new mix. But hang out for a bit, Radiohead Sneeze Watchers, there'll be something for you too!*

Summer's been in full swing for a couple of weeks now, so it was definitely about time to drop a mix that had been clinically tested to induce ass-shakin that registers on Richter scale readings up to 8 states away. So it's with great pleasure that I officially drop my latest mix entitled "Lost In Translation" by copy/pasting the link below and then writing out the tracklist right below that.


http://drop.io/damienslostintranslationmix


Tracklist:

1. Hot Chip -- "Take It In"
2. N.A.S.A. -- "Gifted (The Alston Shuffle Remix)"
3. MSTRKRFT feat. John Legend -- "Heartbreaker"
4. Grizzly Bear -- "Two Weeks (Fred Falke Remix)"
5. School of Seven Bells -- "Half Asleep"
6. Friendly Fires -- "Jump In The Pool (The Thin White Duke Remix)"
7. Shinichi Osawa feat. Au Revoire Simone -- "Star Guitar (Chemical Brothers Cover)"
8. Beirut/Realpeople -- "My Night With The Prostitute From Marseille"

It's also worth noting that track #6 is my favorite remix of all time, ever.

Even though this wound up as a summer dance mix, my original intent behind it was something else entirely. Here's the part where I get pretty artsy-wanky, so skip the next couple paragraphs if you're just here to groove and don't care much about why I did this. I'll even put up markers so you know when to start up again.

::BEGIN ARTY EXPLANATION::

Cool, so now that the plebes are gone, I can discuss the meaning behind this mix. It's the first time I've done something centered around a particular visual or artwork as a theme, so this was even more fun than my previous "hey it's spring let's rock out" mixes.

For the past month and change, I've been really fascinated with tilt shift lens video and photography art, especially the Japan-based works seen on the UNIQLO Calendar and mockmoon's Vimeo page. Not only are they awesome artistic displays, they simultaneously tapped into my love of both Japan and cityscapes. This mix essentially began as my personal soundtrack to the UNIQLO calendar - not that the preloaded music wasn't cool or anything, I just wanted to throw on some cool songs to go with the visuals.

The arrangement of the mix itself, though, came about when I took a closer look at the distanced perspective of the calendar shots and the super-fast time lapse action going on. Seeing all the tiny people rush about reminded me of one of my favorite concepts, that of urban personal disconnection via sustained over-connection to a larger entity (there's probably an actual term for that, but I like this explanation better).

So up until the Grizzly Bear remix, the initial tracks are from the micro-perspective of one of these people rushing around on the street with the associated industrialized beats and minor key melodies representing that level of insularity and concern with one's own life. From then on, the beats and melodies in subsequent songs get lighter and more ethereal as you pan out to see how everyone in these clips melds into the macro pulse of the cities themselves, with all these personal concerns subsumed by the much bigger flow of the society in which these people live. This whole theme, interestingly enough, is also reflected in the official videos for two songs on the mix, School of Seven Bell's "Half Asleep" and The Chemical Brothers' "Star Guitar", with the latter video directed by Michel Gondry and the song covered by Shinichi Osawa and Au Revoir Simone.


::END ARTY EXPLANATION::


So yeah everyone else, blah blah art project blah blah. But I should mention again that that Thin White Duke remix of Friendly Fire's "Jump in the Pool" really is one of my favorite tracks ever.


And here's my show schedule for the next couple of months:

7/9: Matt & Kim / Flosstradamus @ Pier 54 (free!)

7/23: TED LEO + The Pharmacists / Radio 4 / Extra Golden @ Pier 54 (for free!)

7/23: Slick Rick @ East River Park (also for free! I WILL pull this off somehow)

7/31: Beastie Boys / Yeah Yeah Yeahs / Q-Tip / Flying Lotus @ APW

8/2: Dan Deacon / Dear Hunter / No Age @ East River State Park (free!)

8/8: BIG DADDY KANE @ Prospect Park (for free!)

8/9: Simian Mobile Disco / Fiery Furnaces (free!)

8/11: TV ON THE RADIO @ Prospect Park (sequel to a legendary show)

8/13: Yeasayer / Amazing Baby @ Pier 54

8/14: SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS @ South Street Seaport (free!)

8/16: Del tha Funkee Homosapien @ East River State Park (free!)

8/23: GIRL TALK!!!! @ East River State Park (free!)


Feel free to check out my earlier mixes too, they're in the last two posts respectively. Cheers.




*By the time you've read up to this point in the post, one of the members of Radiohead has more than likely sneezed. Told you I'd hook you up.