mediator mixtape #5 - donna summmmer?

it's weird how, in summer, these tracks just fall into your hands. it's not even that they're being advertisied to you at this point - earlier, i just happened to get a few mp3s off insound's back catalogue, and they all stank of summer, of hot swamps and dragonflies on red brick.

it's a bit more understandable when summery tracks appear on a mixtape made while staring out the window, at light across a roof, while i'm supposed to be writing an essay. i would probably describe telepathy constants as a winter tape, but then again i would never hesitate to describe belong as summer music. so, summer isn't necessarily short songs, or twinkling songs, or songs with words in; i don't know how much of a coincidence it is that the new do make say think is incredibly sunny and open compared to anything they've done before...how do you create that atmosphere on record when you're writing in winter? maybe it's different in a barn, or a cabin, in canada.

so, here's an admittedly summery tape. it seems that most music can adapt to a season, but it must all be played loud.

mediator mixtape #5 - donna summmmer?
tracklist:
1. akron/family - blessing force
2. desert sessions - in my head...or something
3. black moth super rainbow - jump into my mouth and breathe the stardust
4. ted leo and the pharmacists - the sons of cain
5. the national - about today (live)
6. beirut - scenic world
7. dirty three - i really should've gone out last night
8. frog eyes - bushels
9. pavement - range life
10. caetano veloso - clarice
11. the thermals - i hold the sound

i was walking into uni the other day, and i merged in with everyone who just got off the bus. the end of about today kicked in, and i've left all the clapping at the end on. it feels really good to listen to in headphones - your own private audience, telling you that you're fucking great. i thought, i bet you could make a whole cd of this, and feel really awesome every single morning, if you set it as an alarm - to wake up to applause. then i thought...i bet some of the people around me can hear the clapping, and think that i just listen to clapping to motivate myself. do they think i just need it to have a good reason to walk to uni - so i can play the clapping track, over and over? or do they think i need it, constantly, to keep smiling? will i be in front of their bus home, when the cd player cuts out? none of them hand me sweaty batteries from a cold palm, so i presume the former and smile. what else can i do? i'm listening to thirty seconds of solid handclaps.


i also uploaded all the previous tapes again, because i found an easier way to keep them up. which is also known as procrastination.

mediator mixtape #4 - crooked polar night
tracklist:
1. mugison - salt
2. sufjan stevens - alanson, crooked river
3. growing - primitive associations/great mass above
4. black moth super rainbow - hazy field people
5. colleen - i'll read you a story
6. joanna newsom - only skin
7. belong - i never lose. never really
8. labradford - midrange
9. tindersticks - miles davis' funeral
10. august born - more dead bird blues

mediator mixtape #3 - telepathy constants
tracklist:
1. godspeed you black emperor! - divorce&fever... (edit)
2. belong - all equal now
3. hood - intro
4. bjork - an echo, a stain
5. múm - please sing my spring reverb (isan catena remix)
6. thom yorke - skip divided
7. slowdive - cello
8. six organs of admittance - regeneration
9. wilco - i am trying to break your heart
10. final - sorry
11. thee more shallows - perfect map (bbc session)
12. devendra banhart - dragonflys

mediator mixtape #2 - oceans never listen
tracklist:
1. manitoba - bijoux
2. weird weeds - sweet thing
3. akron/family - before and again
4. the books - all our base are belong to them
5. jana hunter - k
6. adem - everything you need
7. psapp - tricycle
8. broken social scene - ibi dreams of pavement (KCRW acoustic session)
9. cat power - satisfaction (planet claire session)
10. mice parade - the boat room
11. sunset rubdown - shut up i am dreaming of places where lovers have wings
12. secret stars - wait
13. múm - the ghosts you draw on my back

mediator mixtape #1 - drive north
tracklist:
1. set fire to flames - wild dogs of the thunderbolt/'they cannot lock me up...i am eternally free...' (from the lips of lying dying wonder body #2)
2. amina - skakka
3. low - lordie (peel session)
4. espers - widow's weed
5. efterklang - bright
6. six organs of admittance - black needle rhymes (live on KVRX)
7. saul williams & blackalicious - release
8. jeff tweedy - crack a smile
9. peter and the wolf - red sun
10. the album leaf - spinning makes me dizzy
11. beirut - mount wroclai (idle days)
12. four tet - my angel rocks back and forth (live in copenhagen)