blackplastic

Toblerone,

Have you received anything yet? It came from the UK but I would have thought it should definitely be with you by now...

Blackplastic I'm really sorry I haven't sent a CD yet. We've had a procession of guests this month but I should be able to get it sorted out on Saturday. And I promise I'll be more timely when I'm running the show

No problem, I've been so busy this month I probably wouldn't have had time to feedback anyway... Managed to work 57 hours last week which is definately a personal record! Anyway, looking forward to it...!

Mine has gone out to a mystery recipient... I haven't recieved anything yet though :-(

Queremos paz - Gotan Project - Get La revancha del tango its an amazing album

Heh, I've often looked at Gotan Project stuff in the shops and thought that I might like it... Turns out I do

Feedback for Nimmel's CD...

Disc 1

1. Quite enjoyable, relatively old-school sounding progressive house. Quite enjoyed this... Not the sort of thing I listen to very much any more but still quite good.

2. More relatively old stuff. I feel like I should know who this is... I'm digging the 'wet', blissed out sound.

3. Not sure what I think of this... It's quite nice and I like the ambient 2 minutes at the end but it feels like it needs something else... Sounds quite like early BT.

4. Really enjoyed this... No idea what it is, nice snappy drums combined with a relaxed bassline and an accordian. Made me feel like I was cycling down Parisian back streets on the way for a coffee and a croissant. Nice!

5. Drum and bass feel... Sounds quite 'intelligent', LTJ Bukem style. Not listened to this sort of thing for a long time but it is perfect lazy summer listening. It also has the added bonus of sounding just like a bond theme when it starts...

6. Back to the old school progressive stuff. This is a bit more upbeat. It's not bad but doesn't really have much to make it stick out in my mind.

7. This is more melodic and a bit more enjoyable.

8. Kosheen! Hungry! Not really down with Kosheen but this has to be lyrically one of the funniest songs I've ever heard. I'm amazed a fast food chain or food brand haven't used it. This is a proggy mix... I think it would be better with out the vocals TBH.

9. House-y, strange vocals. Quite liked this, sounds a little more recent.

Disc 2 - Rap Classics

1. Nice sample.... Is this part of the song? Nice plodding old-school hip hop.

2. Run DMC - Tricky. Fantastic... Brought back my SSX days! At uni SSX Tricky was pretty much permanently on my PS2... My housemates loved it!

3. Public Enemy. Not sure which song it is... Used to love 'It Takes a Nation of Millions...' but haven't listened to it in ages. Will have to dig it out!

4. Dunno what this is... Nice and upbeat.

5. Brilliant! Will Smith & Jazzy Jeff - Summertime. You can be sure the windows on the car were all the way down for this.

6. I was praying for some Tribe. A Tribe Called Quest - Sucka Nigga. Taken from what's probably the best hip-hop album ever...

7. Some Gangsta complaining about stuff. This is okay, but nothing on ATCQ.

8. More Gangsta stuff. I've never really got that into NWA (except 'Express Yourself'... Classic), I find it difficult to take it seriously. This is okay, but I prefer the more laid backed rappers.

9. Eric B and Rakim - Paid in Full. This is great. Nice scratching.

10. Not sure who this is but I recognise the voice...

11. Beastie Boys - Body Moving. Must buy some Beastie Boys... This is great.

12. This is a little 'rock' for me... Is it Cyprus Hill?

13. This sounds pretty old. Quite like it.

14. Snoop Dogg. Again, find it difficult to take Snoop seriously... This is alright, reminds me of San Andreas...

15. This sounds fairly recent. Listening to the lyrics I'm presuming it's Noreaga and it's produced by The Neptunes? This is quite good, snappy, but (and I say this without knowing how old this is) it's clear that the Neptunes have lost their magic.

16. British MC. Don't know who this is but it's pretty good. A little over produced for british hip-hop. Is it Rodney P?

Overall I enjoyed pretty much everything you sent me... The rap classics was particularly good summer chilling music. Thanks a lot!

I have Audacity, but I didn't realise you could do so much with it (mixing, and setting track breaks and so on). I need to get to grips with it a bit, I think.

To be honest it's very basic. Mixing can be achieved through a combination of tempo changes and fades.

There's no easy way to insert track marks. I always make one long mix and then cut and paste each track into a new file and export. It's very long winded but it works!

I can open, see sig

Gates are open, just add me and pop over.

On my way... only got about 30 mins though..

I haven't had a chance to add you all, my local wireless has been really poor at the mo. I'll get a wireless router thingy from GAME or somewhere this weekend.

This Resetti guy is getting on my nerves - I even had to say "I'm a cheat" and "Hail Resetti!" to continue! All I wanted was a little play around, no saving involved. He's still on my case and getting worse than Nook and Mabel who are molesting me whenever I move in their shop. Give me space, you freaks!

Don't supposed anyone is going to be on over the next hour? I'm looking for my first AC wifi experience...

I'm 3221-9592-7208 (Adam from Wiggerly).

Hi blackplastic. Thanks very much for your CD. It was enjoyable. Actually, parts of it were really enjoyable. Here are some words on some of the tracks that stuck out for me:

1. I really really liked this, or at least the central section of it. It's completely fascinating. The best bit of music I've heard in a month, I reckon. It's really sparse, with just a guitar line and some bells in the background and a bit of random percussion, and this amazing voice singing in Japanese (I think). I don't understand a word of it, of course, but it just goes to show how much effect you can wring out of a sparse melody and a human voice. I suppose because I don't understand what the guy's saying, the voice is really like another instrument. Anyway, this was gorgeous and moving and beautiful and I'm keen to know what it is.

3. This I have already. It's M83. I like their album for it's swooshy dramaticness, and this is a good example of that. I like the monologue as well, although I've no idea where it's from. It does set the tone.

7. Is this from that film? The one with Jessica Alba dancing, and Bruce Willis being hard? I never saw that film. Nice film music kind of tune though.

13. This was awesome. I thought it was maybe the Rapture or LCD Soundsystem at first. Then I realised I didn't have a clue who it was. I loved it, anyway.

14. This has a voiceover from Pi, doesn't it?

15. This also made me move around in my seat a little...

16. And this has a voiceover from 21 Grams. I seem to know the films better than the music.

Overall it was a really good mix. Probably the best one I've had so far. Nice mix of stuff, and I liked the film quotes idea. I couldn't work out half the time whether the quotes were part of the songs, or you'd mixed them into the music yourself, or both.

I would love to have a tracklist, plus also some of your thoughts on what you put on there.

Also, I wonder if tonymg got my CD yet...

ANewman... Glad you liked it, here's the tracklist:

1. Asa-Chang and Jun Ray - Nigatsu
   
2. Peter Wyngarde - Come In
   
3. M83 - Car Chase Terror!
   
4. Interlude - We are in a Tight Spot!
   
5. DJ Shadow - You Can't Go Home Again
   
6. DJ Hell - Tragic Picture Show
   
7. Interlude - She Grew Up, She Filled Out
   
8. Death in Vegas - Aisha
   
9. Joy Division - She's Lost Control
   
10. Interlude - De-virginized
    
11. Prefuse 73 feat. Aesop Rock - Sabatical With Options
    
12. Interlude - Everything's Wrong
    
13. Blues Explosion - Mars Arizona (DFA Remix)
    
14. Interlude - Mathmatics is the Language of Nature
    
15. BT - The Fibonacci Sequence
    
16. Interlude - How Much is 21 Grams?
    
17. Warsawa Freedom - Breaking Free of the Atmosphere
    

If you like the Asa-Chang & Jun Ray track I suggest you check out their album Jun Ray Song Chang... It's absolutely fantastic, and absolutely unlike anything you'll have heard before. If you didn't recognise the album's intro that's actually taken from Killer7, as is the interlude after M83 and the bit between Death in Vegas and Joy Division.

Track 13 is a DFA remix, so you were halfway there. It's Blues Explosion, and I took it from the DFA Remixes volume One album, and as you say, it's awesome.

The films were as follows:

Bit between DJ Shadow and DJ Hell is from Lost Highway

Track 7 is, as you thought, from Sin City.

Tracks 10 and 12 are from Kids.

The other two you are as you said, Pi and 21 Grams.

As an aside the final track is a Joy Division cover made by my little brother, it's a little raw but I thought I through it in.

The CD was mixed using Audacity (Google it if you're interested)... It's basic, but it's free) and all of the quotes were mixed in by me (obviously some of them had bits of music in them already which I worked around). As I said before I has no real them this month, it has a lot of dis-embodied monologues and is kind of supposed to be about the bad things that men do, but I was basically trying to make something quite dark.

Glad you enjoyed it anyhow!

Also: I received Nimmel's CD (plus a bonus of Hip -Hop classics!) when I got home from work yesterday... Thoughts come soon.

Just opened up my mix CD, from blackplastic.

Opinions so far: I fucking love the first song.

EDIT:

Is the theme something like 'talkies'?

No *real* theme... Kinda inspired by dark films... Glad you like at least one track!

I'm in please...

Been meaning to check out The Magnetic Fields for ages and yesterday happened to come across a copy of 69 Love Songs for £8.99 in HMV. 'Bargain' I thought.

This record seems virtaully perfect. A concept album with endless emoptional depth. This is the longest album I've ever heard of yet it manages to sustain interest and passion through to the end. My only complaint? It's so long that before you're anywhere near the end you're already desperate to hear some of the earlier songs again.

I need to go and carry on listening, but thought I would see what other people think of this album? Favourite tracks? Anything similar worth checking out?

Something to do with the PS2 version using two analog sticks perhaps? How does it control anyway?

I never played it on the PSP but have got this... The controls are weird. You can see that they have attempted to recreate the right stick on the face buttons but it miss-fires slightly, since to turn left you have to press left on the nub and triangle but to turn right you press forward on the nub and circle. I'm getting used to it and it is a lot of fun but I wish you could customise the control scheme which is frankly nuts.

So, I grabbed SH2 for the PC.

Yeah. It's raping the Mannequins, isn't it? It's raping them. Oh dear.

Ask yourself why... Then you will have the key to the game's greatness.

New PSP Silent Hill companion type-thingy...

http://www.play.com/Games/PSP/STCS4/3-/881...ce/Product.html

Anyone know if this is region locked? If so, anyone know where I can get a R1 copy?

#1 alright indie track

#2 nice mix of male and female vocals on this one

#3 Like this one, good riffs and punchy vocals

#4 Hang on, this is Ash, right? Haven't paid a whole lot of attention to Ash since Meltdown, but it's been long enough for me to get excited about new material. Yeah, this is a catchy little tune, can't quite place the sound with previous albums.

#5 Don't like this one, bit of a confusing mish mash of genres and the vocals do really do it for me either.

#6 A song about Atari love. Awwww. Yeah, this one has a good vibe.

#7 There's usually one song on the unmixed CDs that makes me think aaaargh, stop. This is it.

#8 okayish

#9 Don't really like ths one, sounds kind of old.

#10 Yay, Cut Copy. I put this track on my January Mix CD. Cut Copy are one of those bands that should be way more popular than they are - they have a catchy indie sound and they have some good dance tuneage also, I don't know any other bands like that. Their indie stuff sort of reminds me of the Strokes.

#11 Nice instrumental tune, ends kind of abruptly. Could do with some vocals maybe.

#12 This tune is a bit like like Mansun, except milder. Not bad.

#13 Go Team? Still haven't got their album, but I will. Yeah, this is proper feel good music.

#14 Another oldie, by the sounds of things, don't really like this.

#15 And we're in the eighties now. Fast forward time!

#16 Boring.

#17 Is this M83? I know I've heard this tune before and it kind of sounds like them. Yeah, it's pretty good this one.

#18 This track would go down well at a party, but not the sort of tune I'd have on my MP3 player.

Overall, it's an alright CD, I'm still in my "indie music is boring " phase so my favourite tracks were all the ones from bands I'm familiar with. You should send out more Cut Copy stuff, they need some more exposure on here. Thanks.

1. Pavement - Elevate Me Later

2. Serena Maneesh - Drive Me Home The Lonely Nights

3. Love Is All - Make Out Fall Out Make Up

4. Arthur Baker feat. Tim Wheeler (of Ash fame) - Glow (Radio Edit)

5. Lo Fi Fnk - Change Channels

6. The Spinto Band - Untitled Track

7. The Flaming Lips - Free Radicals

8. Architecture In Helsinki - It'5!

9. The Chemical Brothers - Golden Path

10. Cut Copy - Going Nowhere

11. Johann Johannson - 10 Rokkstig

12. Broken Social Scene - 7/4 (Shoreline)

13. The Go! Team - Huddle Flash (Kevin Shields -v- The Go! Team)

14. Johnny Boy - Fifteen Minutes (not old, just brilliant... Oh well...)

15. Prince - I Would Die 4 U

16. Secret Machines - Alone, Jealous and Stoned

17. M83 - Teen Angst

18. The Jesus and Mary Chain - I Hate Rock N Roll

Lol, some of your comments made me laugh. Not much of a theme this month, I just tried to put together some really feel good stuff and was attempting to make sure I have no filler - virtually every song on here is a 5 star in my iTunes... Shame you didn't like a bit more! The fact that you wrote Secret Machines off with one word ('boring') almost makes me want to cry, but there you go, everyone's tastes are different. And you're damn right about Cut Copy (I has a related rant on my blog here.

Reception. I normally have to collect packages from there, but didn't get a delivery notice as per usual.

Had a quick listen yesterday, recognized Cut Copy and the Go Team (I think). They're probably my favourite tracks out of the lot. I'll give better impressions, when I have some time to listen to it properly at the weekend.

Cool... I look forward to it... Tracklisting on standby...

Have it now, it probably did arrive last week, just didn't turn up with the usual post, had to go looking for this one. Will post impressions later.

I'm confused! Where did it turn up?

No, hasn't turned up yet, I'll let you know when I get it.

Hmmm... Maybe I should send it again, I posted first class it on Tuesday last week... Let me know if you still haven't got it and I'll burn another copy and pop it in the post again.

Feedback for Napole0n:

First things first... This is by far the most polished CD I've received and the only yet that is properly mixed. What applications have you used for this? I've seen you have listed Acid Pro, Sound Forge and Maya Unlimited but I don' know what any of those do (my hunch is that Maya is a 3d graphics studio?)...

Generally this is a pretty progressive mix, a bit more so than I tend to listen to these days (although this would have been right up my street a few years ago). It reminds me a lot of someone like Danny Howells.

1. Sun Control Species - Push Through

Nice big tech-y beat and sparse production. A good opening track.

2. Phonique - For The Time Being

I am a fan of a couple of other Phonique tracks ('Where the Party's At' and 'The Red Dress') and really ike this two. It's quite a bit more progressive but has a nice warm sound. It also sounds like it's got the strings from 'Strings of Life' buried in the mix.

3. Quivver - Brothers & Sisters

More prog, still nice. I've heard a fair amount of Quiver before although nothing I can remember the name of. This has a nice melodic edge to it, though it could doing with being pitched down a fraction in my opinion.

4. Perfect Stranger - Bliss

Quite cool distorted acid lines in this although I felt it's perhaps not as strong as the previous tracks.

5. Volition - The Spell

This is pretty much full on trance and very Gatecrasher. Enjoyable, but really not my bag since I went off this kind of thing a few years back.

6. Dean Coleman - Hypnotic

Bit housier now and little bit funkier, this is a bit more my thing.

7. James Monro, Dick Trevor - Wash Out (Extended Mix)

Progressive house, this is not bad but I find it a bit less memorable than some of the best tracks here.

8. Yotopia - New Born

A little trance-y and a little fast for me.

9. Pixel - Happy Lepsia

Still pretty fast, but I acually enjoyed the harsher sound. The vocal sample is quite good too. This sounds pissed off, and I like that.

10. Starecase - Bitter Little Pill (Little Bit of Pill Mix)

I'm sure I've got a couple of Starecase tracks lying around somewhere... I liked their mix of Beber and Tamra's 'You Wonder' from a few years back too. This is good, but I felt that maybe the synth-y noise could have done with been higher in the production mix. Still, a good closer.

Overall I thought this was really cool, even if not all of it is completely to my taste. The mixing was superb and on the whole the mix felt coherent, warm and polished. It's good to hear some tracks in this vein that I like since I rarely buy anything like this anymore. Thanks!

This is the best thing I've played in ages! I love the bit with the cog things! No game has made me laugh out loud like this in ages... It's a bit like Yoshi's Island in a weird way. Aces.

I have to buy it!

Murdock - You received my CD yet?

Napole0n - More thoughts coming today hopefully!

Received my CD from Napoleon last night. Initial impressions:

Progressive

Polished

More soon.

1. Dillinja – Warrior Jazz (acid edit)

2. Madvillain – Raid (acidbearboy’s supercombo)

3. Nicola Conte – A Time For Sping

4. Common – Be (Instrumental) acid edit

5. BT – Content

6. Chris & James – Fox Force Five (Big C’s Breaks of Dawn Mix)

7. Julien Neto feat. Keith Kenniff – VI

8. Kow Otani – Prayer

9. Goldmund – Door Of Our Home

10. Daft Punk – Too Long (Gonzales Version)

11. Mr.V – In Loving Memory

12. Nuyorican Soul – It’s Alright, I Feel It (Full Length Version)

13. Afterbirth – That Track (acidbearboy’s re-edit)

14. Negroncan – Aqua Esquina (Grant Nelson’s Spanish Vox Mix) acid edit

15. Sylvester – I Need You (Dim’s Maxi Disco Blend)

That looks nice mate!

EDIT: And my CD is going out tomorrow... Sorry for the delay (as usual)...

Feedback for Paulando's CD (sorry it's a bit late, been in Barcelona and stuff):

1. Breakbeat / big beat style track that acts as an intro, nice enough but unfortunately skips a bit.

2. Another breakbeat-y type track, thought this sounded a little Dust Brothers at first, but it seemed to end up a bit more like someone like Backini. Quite like the riff but feel I *my* have heard it before.

3. The Rolling Stones - Paint It Black

Love the Stones, have to say I think they've done stuff quite a bit better than this but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

4. Kind of plodding track in a similar vein to track 2... Sounds a bit more like DJ Shadow but without as much polish. I quite liked this but tend to feel a lot of this style of instrumental hip-hop doesn't really go anywhere I'm afraid!

5. Again, instrumental hip-hop... Again this is okay, but not really my thing... I found the 'chorus' type bit a little to cartoon-like for me, and don't much see the point in all the vocal samples that these types of somes have in the background.

6. This is a bit more like it... Recognise this but don't know what it is... A sort of laid back funk song. Pretty enjoyable anyhow.

7. The Chemical Brothers - Asleep From Day

Now this is my type of thing. Love this track when it kicks into the more electronic bit about 2 minutes in. Fantastic track.

8. This is kind of like track 2 and 4, big beat type stuff. It's a bit more polished and I guess is by someone I've heard of but I don't know who. Quite like it.

9. A really slow, ethereal sounding broken-beat soul track with lovely vocals. Liked this quite a lot, although it does skip a little.

Overall I enjoyed it probably more than my comments make it sound, it's just I never quite see the point in some of the slow, instrumental, 'humourous' hip hop, the likes of which people like Backini make... I don't dislike it, I just find some of it a bit forgettable. I do love the Chems track and track 9 though and bits of the album reminded me of some of my favourite games for some reason, which was nice. Cheers!

Count me in... Just finished the order for my CD already!