Wednesday 18 August 2010

Mixtape #11

Pop! A Swedish Selection is the latest in our collection of bespoke mixtapes. It can be downloaded for free here, on the one condition that you tell the world about us. Anyone familiar with the way all of this works will suspect the fondness we have for fumbling around in the dark, discovering hidden treasures more by luck than judgement. But this mixtape is a little different as we had some assistance in our Swedish explorations from the writer Andres Lokko, and he is a person who knows his pop! Andres provided a list of tracks to consider including as part of the Swedish sequences. As there’s still a lot of world left to explore, it seemed that a great way to feature a number of these songs would be to put them in a mix, together with an assortment of Swedish gems picked up along the way in our own fumblings. This fantastic Swedish selection is very much about pop! While you’re downloading, we’ll leave you with another of Andres’ recommendations – an excellent cartoon with an even more excellent soundtrack by Jojje Wadenius ...

Thanks again to Per-Christian Hille for another beautiful cover.

Wednesday 4 August 2010

Mixtape #10

A special mixtape, What A Life! - The Story of the Light Blues, is available here as a celebration of Uruguayan pop sounds. The mixtape, and the free accompanying booklet (a special edition of Your Heart Out available here), tracks the progress from the early beat sounds to the development of a uniquely Uruguayan sound where new pop/rock influences were mixed with local, more traditional rhythms such as candombe. As the '70s unfurled the optimism and idealism of an era was crushed by a military coup, and rock music was outlawed. Still, new ways were found for musical expression despite the repression and censorship. And many of the results were beautifully delivered like a Forlan free kick. This mixtape and booklet is a tribute to the people who made some remarkable music. And as a bonus here is a song not featured on the mixtape but referred to in the text ...

With thanks to Per-Christian Hille for another beautiful cover.