Bon Voyage Von Submarine

There couldn’t have been a more appropriate winter to compliment this mix than the one taking place right now. Storm after storm, nature is currently bent on oppressing the nations with wind chill factors in the negatives, followed by boisterous surges of snow. When I first began collecting the songs that would become WNTR, what they had in common were sounds that sparked images of frost and icicles in my mind. These were created by the tones of chimes and stringed instruments like violins, cellos, and harps. But I also wanted to capture the heavy thickness that cold can sometimes bring with it. This was accomplished through the eerie synths and muffled bass that can be found on many of the songs here. Sometimes when you are trying to survive through a particularly harsh urban winter, you find yourself battling more than just the elements. There can be a juggling act with your mind set in combat mode and the occasional wave of seasonal affective disorder, feeling quite vulnerable but then recognizing your weaknesses and trying hard to push against them. Every time you go out, you are putting on layers of resistant fabrics for protection like leathers, furs, and other stiff, sometimes coarse materials. Maybe you are also putting on armor in other ways, though. Through this collection of songs, I wanted to explore the juxtapositions between dark and light, being stark naked and bundled up, being exposed and being closed, emotionally. I attempted to capture the struggles that the season forces on us. That’s why this mix has both its strikingly fragile and militant moments, to accompany you while gliding through the powdery white and then sloshing through the inevitable gray. It’s fine to suit up and put your big clunky boots on for the war outside your door, but don’t forget to leave the battlefield where it belongs—out there. Don’t be so hard that you can’t thaw out at the end of the night and bask in the kind of uncomfortable warmth of the human condition. Even when thawing yourself out might hurt. You’re might get frostbite. But don’t stay numb. It seems fitting, then, that I had to swallow my pride and ask for help in making this sound as good as I wanted it to. Most of the transitions were mixed by Year of the Ox, my comrade Dea Hidayasa, who journeyed  to my house at least four or five nights to sew these many patches together so seamlessly. This was truly a collaborative effort and he should probably take most of the credit. It was a lot of fun and he is ever in my favor. I am so grateful to have people in my life who are not bothered or bored by my musical quests but can embark on them with me, offering insight and encouragement alongside assistance. You are the ones who when I am obviously acting absurd make me feel like I’m not so crazy after all. Fellow synesthesiacs and sufferers of aesthetic overlap should take note that the color palette for this mix is white, gray, and black, with tinges of purple and blue. If at all possible, listen to WNTR while walking in the snow at nighttime through Gothamesque city streets.  Wear boots. Walk fast. Digitonal: Ana KataElite Gymnastics: Here, in Heaven 4 & 5 (CFCF Remix)Active Child: Hanging OnJhene Aiko: StrangerGinuwine: Differences (Blackbird Blackbird Bootleg)Light Asylum: Dark AlliesCrystal Castles: Not In Love (feat. Robert Smith of The Cure)Pictureplane: Goth StarActive Child: Subtle (feat. Mikky Ekko)Marina and the Diamonds: Radioactive (How to Dress Well Rework)Alicia Keys: Unthinkable (Physical Therapy Real Heavy Vibe Bootleg)See-Saw Kids (Xperiment x B. Lewis): Open SkiesAndy Petr: Tha King in YellowPsychic Rites: SheVisage: Fade to GreyM83: OK PalClams Casino: I'm God (Lil B Instrumental)Year of the Ox has an inspiring new mix up over @ his page, too. You can tune in here:  www.soundcloud.com/yearoftheox

Originally conceived as a compilation of songs that caused me to envision grainy desert scenes and the dry heat of a sun-shriveled day, the concept, as it slept in its cocoon for a year or so, began morphing into a more cohesive cowboy-themed affair, guided by a Spaghetti-Western-esque narrative. You can expect a whole lot of twang and jangles. If you don't care to read the plot synopsis, feel free to just scroll down to the tracklist. The scene opens with our antihero and his horse in an almost barren land under a scorchingly bright sky. He looks to the South and sees a hawk gliding overhead in the same direction, casting a confirmatory shadow. Galloping toward the train tracks, he sees a brigade of bandits in the distance. Old friends. Heard ever so slightly in the distance, a rushing steam engine. Right on time. After robbing a couple of freight cars, they divy up their loot and each makes his own way from there. Our cowboy heads toward the nearest town, and, upon entering, is greeted by all the usual glances, stares, and obligatory spits. A slow trot or two more down the dusty road and he is in front of a saloon, where he comes to a stop and ties his horse up. Past the swinging doors with squeaky hinges, the stranger seats himself at the bar, but not before attracting the eyes of more than a few veteran troublemakers. Just as the interrogation starts heating up, his attention is diverted by the husky but honeyed tones of a voluptuous harlot songstress. This sullied dove takes a fancy to this mysterious newcomer and then takes him upstairs to the brothel behind the balcony. With a dozen drinks between the two of them, stories are strewn and confessions laid bare--among other things. Jolted awake by a brash banging on the door, the hungover cowboy rolls to the side and falls off the bed. The persistent knocking continues, now with the angry voice of one of yesterday's new acquaintances, and, before the door is kicked open, our guy is out the window, dropping from the roof down onto his horse. His successful getaway is also a torturous one, though, followed by the echoed cries of last night's lover in the hand of this morning's enemy. Initially confident in his strength to survive the wiles of the desert and the painful memory of the woman he left behind, the eye of the sun sets its gaze on him and wears him down until he is crawling across the sandy floor, sure of a swiftly-approaching death. It is just at this moment that he is met by a mirage of his belle accompanied by her haunting intonations, crooning in the slight, dry breeze. He rises from his dusty grave with a new vigor, determined to rescue the one he loves. Mounting his trusty steed once again, he rides triumphantly back to town. As he enters the city limits, all the citizens scurry indoors. He alights from his horse and walks slowly down the street, a jangling spur with each step. The villain shows himself. His cronies show themselves, too. There is a shootout. Then there is a duel. The villain is shot down. The cowboy staggers, stumbles, and falls. The strumpet runs out into the road and kneels down besides him in tears. After a long pause, he comes to, kisses his belle, and stands, basking in the glory of a fight well fought. After a glass of whiskey at the saloon, he gets back on his horse, and then lifts his lady up too. They ride off into the horizon, a trail of dust behind them. THE END. Ike and Tina Turner: I Am a Motherless Child Sheryl Crow: Maybe Angels David Vandervelde: Knowledge of Evil The Black Lips: I Saw a Ghost (Lean) Sons & Daughters: Blood The Black Angels: You On the Run Pavak: Cowboy Theme The Black Lips: Veni Vidi Vici Calexico: Fractured Air (Tornado Watch) Neko Case: Hold On Ah Holly Fam'ly: Deadliest Scorpion Garbage: You Look So Fine (Fun Lovin' Criminals Version) Andrew Bird: Way Out West The Blues Brothers: Rawhide (Theme) America: Horse With No Name Portishead: Cowboys The Stooges: Lost in the Future [Take 1] The Raveonettes: Bowels of the Beast Neko Case: John Saw That Number Frankie Laine: Rawhide Cult of Youth: New West Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: Ain't No Easy Way Beck: Soul of a Man Devotchka: The Enemy Guns Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros: Kisses Over Babylon Chairlift: Don't Give a Damn I would like to acknowledge Tyler Howat, the newest victim to suffer through my "talking out" a mixtape. I chose you because I trust you and I knew you would "get it." You were a patient listener the first, second, and third (and fourth?) time, with great advice and good suggestions. And, of course, I must also give a special shoutout to Year of the Ox for coming through, as always, in my last-minute crises, for mixing "Americahead" and "Beck Rebel Motorcycle Club." You are an artist, sir. ( www.mixcloud.com/yearoftheox/ )

Last September, my good friend Alex Thebez alerted me that 1.He and a friend were making a magazine, 2.It was going to involve mermaids, and 3.He wanted me to make a mix for it. While I started playing around with some early playlists, I realized that there are a lot of songs about mermaids, but that most of them only have lyrics about mermaids without having a real mer-sound or feel to them. Alex sent me the files for the digital version of the magazine, and I was inspired by the stories, photos, and, more than anything else, the color and texture palette of the artwork. All of the material he sent really resonated with me as it awakened memories of my childhood in the early '90s, when it seemed American culture was dead-set on familiarizing children with the concept of mythical sea nymphs. It was interesting to me that I associated all things mermaid with early '90s style and production value. Perhaps this is why the recent 'sea-punk' aesthetic of yesteryear had such a nostalgiac appeal to me? All I know is that a swirl of mermaid-themed commercials, TV-shows, Barbies, bedspreads, and apparel drowned my early consciousness. As a kid, I remember watching The Little Mermaid, Hook, and Splash for the first time, drawing countless pictures of mermaids, and, wanting more than anything else in the world, the ability to live and breathe underwater. The mix documents a slow descent from the shallow waters of the shore down to the bottom of the ocean floor. The first half should sound warm, sunny and playful, causing you to imagine more colorful tones akin to coral and the shiny spectrum of mother of pearl . The second half should sound progressively darker and colder, conjuring visions of seaweed green, purple and blue. Be sure to check out Tag Tag Tag's first issue @ www.TagTagTagMag.com PLEASE WEAR HEADPHONES FOR MAXIMUM SUBMERGING EXPERIENCE Grimes: Genesis Physical Therapy: Drone On feat. Jamie Krasner (Supreme Cuts Remix) Holy Other: Yr Touch (Blood Diamonds Remix) Glasser: Apply (Tanlines Remix) Lemonade: Lifted Sweet Valley: No Harm Hercules & Love Affair: Iris Tegan & Sara: Alligator (Toro y Moi Remix) Bondax: All Inside Bjork: Venus as a Boy (Anglo-American Extension) Clams Casino: Swervin' (XV Instrumental) Chad Valley: Ensoniq-Funk Shine 2009: So Free feat. Paula Abdul (Jensen Sportag Remix) Giraffage: Waste Yr Time Tatsuro Yamashita: Mermaid Jensen Sportag: The Wet Mix Track 2 (Everything Good vs ? ) Lemonade: Neptune Catcall: Swimming Pool (Remix Radio Edit) Clams Casino: Wassup (A$AP Rocky Instrumental) d'Eon: Transparency (How to Dress Well Rework) Blood Orange: Cyan (Kindness Cover) *Samples used are from "Warm Water" by Andy Petr, "Bubbles," a common license  sound effect, and various audio snippets from the feature film "Splash" (1984), starring Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah. Image by Alexandra Beguez. Special thanks to Year of the Ox (Dea Hidayasa) for hearing me out and listening to all of my ideas and annoying questions. Thanks also for helping with the the Grimes/Physical Therapy transition as well as the Glasser outro. Kate Matthews, thanks for your continual pestering and enthusiasm, not to mention your PR work which has gotten this thing 30 plays before I even put a picture up or promoted it.

Something I am occasionally bothered by while living in Indonesia is that, although it is generally hot here, it almost never actually feels like summer. This is mostly due to the fact that because the island of Java is so close to the equator, the sun rises at 6am and sets at 6pm every single day, all year round. Another reason is that the city of Bandung, laid low in a valley surrounded by mountains, is surprisingly cool in the mornings and evenings. Where I'm from, high temperatures are met with 9pm sunsets followed by long, hot nights. And fireflies. This past June, I went back to New York for the fist time in a year and a half. I had never been away from New York for that long in my entire life. You would think I would have wanted to wait for Christmas before I returned stateside but months prior to my 'homecoming,' I had begun to develop an insatiable lust for summer--American summer, with days that feel like they'll never end: Humid mornings, scorching afternoons, late sunsets, and sweaty, sultry witching hours. In my heightening anticipation, I started compiling songs I wanted to accompany me as I once again walked the streets of New York for a long-missed summer in the City. The list started with nostalgia tracks of summers past, but swiftly morphed into a sort of mood itinerary, a conscious commitment to fulfill this prophetic mix I was making for my upcoming travels. I was developing a soundtrack for a movie that hadn't been made yet, but once the soundtrack had been completed, it of its own accord determined what the movie would look like, where I would go, what the plot would contain, and what character I would be. This was the theme music for my summer shenanigans not because these songs happened to fit them perfectly, but because I chose what adventures I would have when I chose this music as my base. Small Black: Intro Friends: Friend Crush Foster the People: Pumped Up Kicks* Sublime: Summertime Black Moth Super Rainbow: Twin of Myself Lushlife: The Romance of the Telescope (featuring Andrew Cedermark) LEN: Steal My Sunshine TV Girl: I Wonder Who She's Kissing Now Quetzal: On a Sunny Day Mayer Hawthorne: I Need You Sean Broadway: Sean Broadway's Theme Simian Mobile Disco: I Got This Down Lil B: Real Life (Pictureplane's True Reality Re-edit) Santogold: I'm a Lady (Diplo Mix featuring Amanda Blank) "Secretsss" Toro y Moi: Talamak Thieves Like Us: Never Known Love Friends: Feelin' Dank B. Lewis: Good Riddance *I battled for a long time whether or not I should put "Pumped Up Kicks" on here, so as not to lose any cred with the cool kids, but in the end, I felt I had special circumstances for putting the summer of 2011's most apparently over-played jam on a summer of 2012 playlist: I was in Indonesia last year and didn't get to enjoy it as a part of a wet, hot American summer like you did. So there. Once again, I would like to thank DJ Simon Patardo and DJ Vondu for mixing the transitions between LEN & TV Girl, and Lil B & Santogold, respectively. You guys really captured exactly what I was trying to communicate. Thanks for all of your help and support.

Apparently, the most commonly reoccurring theme in my more recent mixes is 'backlog.' That being understood, it is my pleasure to introduce to you, 'Processional Development,' a concept conceived in January 2011 that has finally come to fruition in April 2012. Each time a year passes, there is a certain hopefulness that wells up inside of us, a belief that something you hate about yourself is going to magically change in the unblemished new year that has finally arrived. And so, you make a promise, a commitment, in most cases, just to yourself, and set out to achieve something that ordinarily involves you being less 'you.' A few months go by and you either talk yourself into giving in or realize that you have already broken your resolution, and you see plainly that no matter your intention, you are still you, and although people can change, it's not going to happen just by saying it to yourself. This fact often leads to feelings of failure and an even deeper-seated discontent, the post-new year blues, and this mix was originally imagined as a coping mechanism for people suffering from just that. You see, to be resolved is a good thing, but making a resolution is a potentially dangerous endeavor. The truth of the matter is that every day, we are making decisions and acting on them. The dream of a blank page is just a myth. We always have to start where we are-the here and now, which must always take our history into account. We can't erase the past, and we can't secure our future. We can only live our lives in the present tense (maybe present-progressive, for the grammatically-inclined),and work with what we have on a day-to-day basis. The narrative in this mix attempts to go through the ups and downs of a recovering resolution-maker who, by the end, has learned to give up the guilt in exchange for a real change, an ongoing commitment to continue developing as part of a process-one choice at a time. Derrick Morgan: Forward MarchHollagramz: 4.44 / The Cardigans: Starter (Von Simonine Alemanda Mashup)Shea Seger: Last TimeThe Verve: This TimeSoul Hooligan: Time Goes ByAir: Once Upon a Timejj: New WorkHard Mix: Memoriesof Montreal: The Past is a Grotesque Animal (with The Lost Trees)Everything But the Girl: FlipsideThom Yorke: The Eraser / Peter, Bjorn and John: All Those Expectations (Weak Remix)Bjork: UndoLuscious Jackson: Don't Look BackAmel Larrieux: Get UpFlorence + the Machine: Shake It OutThe Helio Sequence: Lately*Sun Airway: Put the Days AwayLaura Viers: Make Something Good *I am aware that this song's lyrics are probably supposed to be taken tongue-in-cheek, but I used them in their literal sense for my narrative to end on a happy note, in order to get my point across. Lastly, a huge THANK YOU goes out to DJ Simon Patardo for his patience in mixing and manipulating the Hollagramz/Cardigans section to my absurdly anal specifications, Dea Hidayasa (DJ Vondu) for the Laura Viers piano loop fade-in, Jenus Tarigan for the tedious text-warping and Kate Matthews for her willing ears, honest feedback, and avante-garde outline style.