Music
May 12, 2007
Hear some mixes here
This online tool, projectplaylist, lets you piece together a streaming playlist from mp3s that are out there on the web already. I don't know how legal it is. On the one hand, it's playing copyrighted material. On the other hand, it's using files that others have already put out there for public playing. I'm not sure, but until I get myself a real internet radio station again, here are a few mixes. But, a big caveat: I have to confine myself to stuff I can find on other people's sites. So none of these are the mixes I would have done if I had my own collection available. That will come soon enough... dj prose #198 eclectic mix typical of my style - based in downtempo electronic, trip hop, ambient, but with diversions into post-rock, exotica, acid jazz, and whatever...Full entry: Hear some mixes here
September 30, 2004
Playlist: Phil's mix 2000-5 (for the second end of the millenium)
Apple has made me an iTunes affiliate. In the past, I've posted a few of my playlists, but I was always frustrated by the fact that people couldn't easily recreate my list. I offered Amazon links, but didn't expect people to buy a dozen separate albums just to be able to listen to my mix. But now, with iTunes' 99¢ songs, that's all changed. Over time, I'll be posting a bunch of these. Why should you care? Well maybe you won't. But for whatever it's worth, I've been mixing music for other people for a very long time -- parties as a teen (and ever since), a few club gigs in the 80s, programming a downtempo electronic radio station in the 90s. Hopefully, you'll discover something cool from this and the mixes to come (and the few that I...Full entry: Playlist: Phil's mix 2000-5 (for the second end of the millenium)
August 31, 2003
The Ultimate Trip Hop Mix
Trip hop is one of my favorite forms of music. At its best, a beautiful, maybe even ethereal, female voice floats over gritty electronic music, making one of the most perfect tensions in music. While trip hop has pretty much faded away, in its heyday I was doing the music programming for the downtempo electronic station at digital radio company Clickradio, a station I had created. The mix was probably 50 percent trip hop, along with some ambient, acid jazz, exotica and doses of alt-folk, singer/songwriter and alternative hip hop. But this playlist is pure trip hop (well, by my standards.) It's a mix of 40 tracks that represent a cross-section of the best the trip hop genre had to offer -- drawing from the dub, DJ and soul styles. Several of the tracks admittedly lack the feature that is...Full entry: The Ultimate Trip Hop Mix
August 19, 2003
Essential songs #1 (v4) – singer/songwriters
This is obviously my opinion, but it’s from a whole lot of experience. I have a bias towards female singers and female sentiments, but there are a few men mixed in here. Take a look. I’m also not strict about the definition of singer/songwriter. I remember when I was in radio the music nerds would debate over whether Elton John was a singer/songwriter since he wrote the music but not the lyrics. I don’t care. Here, Alison Krauss, who does write songs, is singing a cover, two singers who don’t write are covering Sting, who is a singer/songwriter but I like these versions better. There was also a debate over whether a performer who used a group name rather than an individual name for their work could be called a singer/songwriter, since the name is a singer’s name. Again,...Full entry: Essential songs #1 (v4) – singer/songwriters
August 07, 2003
My Fifteen Favorite Albums Ever
I’ve always refused to play this game because, after all, I typically have a few dozen different artists in rotation in my playlist at any one time and love stuff in virtually every genre. Top 100 maybe, but Top 10? Impossible. But I’ve recently come to the conclusion that much of my resistance is a form of phony elitism, as in “My tastes are too complex to reduce them to such a list.” I also know that I listen to some stuff because it’s “interesting” without actually enjoying it that much. So to defy those tendencies in myself, I set about constructing my Favorite Albums Ever list,1 based on what I love and what I think is awesome, issues of intellectual merit and genre balance be damned. (Notice I didn’t say “best” albums; I said “favorite”. I will acknowledge at...Full entry: My Fifteen Favorite Albums Ever
My Fifteen Favorite Albums Ever
I’ve always refused to play this game because, after all, I typically have a few dozen different artists in rotation in my playlist at any one time and love stuff in virtually every genre. Top 100 maybe, but Top 10? Impossible. But I’ve recently come to the conclusion that much of my resistance is a form of phony elitism, as in “My tastes are too complex to reduce them to such a list.” I also know that I listen to some stuff because it’s “interesting” without actually enjoying it that much. So to defy those tendencies in myself, I set about constructing my Favorite Albums Ever list,1 based on what I love and what I think is awesome, issues of intellectual merit and genre balance be damned. (Notice I didn’t say “best” albums; I said “favorite”. I will acknowledge at...Full entry: My Fifteen Favorite Albums Ever