A short one today, due to middle-aged hangover1. So instead of a long ramble, I’d like to dive into the art of the mix tape. But first…
LOOSE TOPICS! THE TOPICS ARE LOOSE!
Saw two great bands this week: Terzij de Horde and Conjurer. I was already quite familiar with TZD and they, as expected, put on an amazing display of post-black metal. One thing I always enjoy is the slight undertone of early ’00’s screamo I feel lives underneath the harsh musical violence. With Conjurer I was a little less familiar, but the live show immediately won me over and made me a fan. A beautiful, overwhelming tidal wave of post-metal, sludgy, interspersed at times with grindcore-esque interludes? Genres are useless, of course, but it was impressive regardless of labels. Listen to Terzij de Horde here and Conjurer here.
Photos were made as well! By me! Check them out here for Terzij De Horde and here for Conjurer.
For the foreseeable future, my personality will be formed by my playing of Forza Horizon 6. IYKYK and all that, but for those that don’t: open-world racing in Japan, it feels great to just roam around and do the million little races and events the game offers, collecting all kinds of cool Japanese cars… Yeah, this is just a warm bath of a game.
Speaking of games: if you played any of the Cartoon Network Flash games from way back in the day, then rejoice because they’ve now been properly archived and are playable again! Powerpuff Girls? There! Samurai Jack? Present! Dexter’s Lab? You bet your sweet bippy!
Quick series rec: Widow’s Bay on Apple TV is a sick horror-comedy combo that mixes the two genres excellently. By which I mean: it’s funny and also actually scary at times. Usually I find the 'horror' part of horror-comedy to just mean "lots of blood and gore" but Widow’s Bay picks the other path.
You know how all internet platforms will eventually crack down on anything that whiffs of sexual pleasure as they get big enough to draw the ire of the payment companies? Kickstarter’s there, baby! The crowdfunding site no longer allows a whole host of sexual pleasure-oriented projects, but of course the language in the rules is so vague that it can kill basically any project that it doesn’t like – or gets complaints from Mastercard about. There’s a whole history of why these payment companies don’t like sex, but that’s a whole separate topic.
Werner Herzog loves prime numbers. That’s it, that’s the topic. Go watch the video.
As someone for whom reading is a rather active hobby – as in, I genuinely enjoy reading, but whenever I’m not reading, I have to actively make myself want to read for some reason – I’m always on the lookout for book tips. The Atlantic has a seemingly pretty good list!
Fun watch news! So Swatch launched a collaboration with Audemars Piguet. Before we dive into that, I’m sure you’re all familiar with Swatch as a company, but AP is a bit more high scale – think several-tens-of-thousands-of-euros-per-watch-type of high scale. Regardless, the two launch a line of $400 pocket watches, which is kind of fun but a bit ridiculously priced, but whatever, watch prices seem kind of random even at the best of times! Turns out a lot of people think this is fun and affordable (?) and the launch on Saturday (May 16) completely got out of control and Swatch stores ACROSS THE GLOBE stayed shut because there were just too many damn people waiting in line for these dang pocket watches. Great job. Well done.
So then! MIX TAPES! Or "playlists" as the kids like to call them nowadays. In a world where most lists-of-songs-intended-to-be-played-one-after-the-other are algorithmically generated, there is a chance the art of mixtapeology will be lost. Not to be all Nick Hornby/John Cusack over here, but there are some actual rules to this sort of thing dontcha know?
Now, a few caveats before I spew my thoughts all over the page here. For one, this is not about making a mixtape to express your emotions to someone with. I don’t subscribe to that kind of bullshit because it’s the coward’s way to express yourself. Or the teenager’s way. Because teenagers are cowards. Have something to say to someone? Say it. Other people’s words and melodies are poor substitutes for genuine, vulnerable conversations.
Rather, this is about exposing someone to great music. What makes you tick, but translated to songs that still get you going in the morning right after that feeling of wanting to just chuck yourself off of a bridge?
Second caveat: mixtapes are only for the receptive. Don’t push your taste on people, it’s unbecoming and works exactly to the detriment of the artists you feel are so great, generating a dislike amongst otherwise perhaps perfectly reasonable lovers of art. Send your songs to those with an open mind2.
With all that said, on with this dog-and-pony show.
Have a theme. Be it genre, year, a vibe – anything can be a theme as long as it allows you to tie a bunch of great songs together in a way that makes some kind of sense. I’m partial to making yearly playlists of the best songs of each year and if I’m being very modest, they are all fucking bangers.
Start with a showstopper. What’s the best song you have? Put that first, because if the folks listening to your tape turn it off after act 1, at least you gave it your best shot.
Build on the vibe of that first song, but expect a rise and fall throughout. What I mean by that is: if you are combining lots of genres and tempos, make sure it doesn’t give the listener whiplash. My yearly playlists combine all kinds of metal, punk, hardcore, pop, folk, rap and such. Whatever grabs my attention that year, truly. But it never dives from a black metal banger into a hip hop hit. Instead, from an extreme metal track I might go into something more sludgy, going into an indie banger, to a folk song to something blues-y to a rap track. That’s just one example, but it can apply to any factor, as long as it makes sense as the tracks flow into one another.
Now you have a start and a general flow, but instead of just making the tape track-by-track, take your best tracks and spread them out and fill in the blanks from there. This ensures some consistency of quality and makes the entire playlist more even to listen to, rather than fizzling out halfway through.
That’s it. That’s all that’s in my mind on the creation of mixtapes or CD-R’s or playlists or whatever your format of choice is. It’s simple. But effective. And has served me well for years as I create banger yearly playlist after playlist.
Fuck. It seems I never made one for 2025. Getting on that right now.
1Contrary to popular opinion, this has nothing to do with drinking, but all the more with being a man in his 40’s going to bed after 1am after being at a show. The ravages of time are not kind.
2Like me. Genuinely, I’m always on the lookout for great music and will give anything a chance if recommended in good faith. I might not like it, but I will give it a chance.