Monthly Archives: December 2016

The 12 MixTapes of Christmas

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The Twelve Mixtapes of Christmas have got nothing to do with Christmas (beyond being a gift to you) and they’re not actually mix tapes, or CDs for that matter – just mixes, each 49-minutes long, one posted to Randophonic’s Mixcloud for each day of Twelvetide (aka the Twelve Days of Christmas).

The mixes are in fact remnants of an unfinished project from a few years back that had something to do with compiling a playlist for an alternative to Alternative Rock (or whatever) radio station. To be honest, we’re not one hundred percent clear about any of it because somebody spilled (what we hope is) red wine on the official transcript, thus rendering key parts illegible.

Bottom line: it’s five hundred eighty-eight minutes of music covering all manner of ground, from David Bowie to Bow Wow Wow to Tuxedomoon to Claudine Longet, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Captain Beefheart, Aphrodite’s Child, Tom Jones, Marilyn Manson, Ike + Tina Turner, anything and everything, as long as it’s good.

 

 

869. another man’s woman

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“It’s true. I only started thinking of Supertramp as Stupidtramp after about their fifth album. Because they were actually pretty darned good for a while through the mid 1970s with 1975’s Crisis What Crisis? a standout because it really didn’t get overplayed, and the cover was a gem, and songs like Another Man’s Woman showing a genuinely strong band that could really work the dynamics, even show a little soul.” (Philip Random)

870. kinder des alls galactic

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“The story of the Cosmic Jokers goes something like this. Germany 1973, a guy named Dieter Dierks is throwing cool parties in his studio, all musicians welcome. Just show up, gobble some acid, lay down some tracks. And he gets some top players throwing in. Members of Ash Ra Tempel and Wallenstein among others. Later on, Dierks would do more drugs and muck around with the tapes, maybe get his girlfriend to speak over things, then release it without telling anybody, or cutting them in on any royalties. Which got lawyers involved, and Cosmic Jokers relegated to the extremely rare Krautrock category. But Galactic Supermarket seems to have found me anyway.” (Philip Random)

871. pots on fiyo [who I got to fall on]

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“Dr. John (aka Mac Rebennack) serves up some genuinely weird gumbo with one of those songs that sound exactly like what they’re about, not that I’m remotely clear what this is about. Except how could it not be about great primordial swamps, and heat, and weird stews laced with certain medicinal ingredients, which thus take one well beyond normal notions of space, time, meaning, unmeaning. From 1971’s The Sun Moon + Herbs, one of those albums that’s always existed way outside of time, both backward looking and still lightyears beyond any now that’s ever been. I’d call it beautiful but that would just confuse things.” (Philip Random)

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872. bird town

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With Pere Ubu on hiatus for a while in the 1980s, main man David Thomas had plenty of room to move. And move he did through all manner of possibilities with 1983’s Variations on a Theme featuring a genuinely strong backing band, including the likes of trad-folkie Richard Thompson whose superb guitar stylings were exactly what was required for this strange and easy little ditty about a town where folks wander around with ducks on their heads.

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873. dead or alive

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John Cale, original underground Velvet, reminds us that when it comes to intelligent chunks of aural sculpture that also rock a pop groove, few can touch him. So why did he give the world so few of them? You may as well ask, why did Lou Reed have to be such an asshole, or Pablo Picasso for that matter?

(photo: Larry Williams)