Friday Night Music Club

Regular visitors to my Friday night slot (stop it….!) will probably have noticed a few things that I like to do with the mixes I put together and post here (I’m talking the self-contained, meant-to-be-listened-to-as-a-whole mixes, not one of the ones I’ve recently split down into hour-long mixes).

Firstly, I like the first tune to be a definite opener; not necessarily one which sets the tone and style for the rest of the mix, but one which can easily be recognised as a curtain-raiser. See Tonight You Belong To Me by Patience and Prudence from Vol 1; I Dig Rock’n’Roll Music by Peter, Paul & Mary from Vol 2; Rudy, A Message To You by The Specials from Vol 3; Serious Drugs by BMX Bandits from Vol 4; R.E.M.’s Daysleeper from Vol 5…you get the idea.

Secondly, I love placing songs next to each other which shouldn’t really be there, songs which you would never have thought to play alongside each other but which somehow work (I think/hope).

Thirdly, I do love to slip in a tune which makes the listener think: ‘Blimey, I’ve not heard this for ages’ or ‘Cor, I’d forgotten all about this!’ (Not that anyone really says ‘Cor’ or ‘Blimey’ outside of a Carry On film anymore.)

Fourthly, end on something magnificent, just like you would want any gig or DJ set you went to in real life to do. Go out on a high, always leave ’em wanting more etc etc.

You’ll find examples of all four of these character traits on tonight’s brand new shiny mix, so let’s get the admin out of the way and crack right on, shall we?

Admin Part 1: any skips or jumps are down to the mixing software (I counted two when I listened back to this one); any mis-timed mixes are down to me (there’s one that’s a bit clunky here, I’m afraid; all record selections are mine (you’d better believe it, baby).

Admin Part 2: two of the tunes featuring this week contain some effin’ and jeffin’. One of those two contains a lot. Therefore this warning is most definitely required this week:

Friday Night Music Club Vol 8

And here’s your track listing. Look away now if you like it to be a surprise:

• Death In Vegas – Dirge
• Marilyn – Calling Your Name
• Dexys Midnight Runners – Geno
• The Pogues – The Sick Bed Of Cuchulainn
• Pixies – Nimrod’s Son
• Super Furry Animals – Golden Retriever
• New Order – Regret
• Missy Elliott featuring Ludacris – Gossip Folks [Fatboy Slim remix]
• Miike Snow – Animal [Crookers Remix]
• Fatboy Slim – Everybody Needs a 303
• The Beloved – Your Love Takes Me Higher [7″ mix]
• Bentley Rhythm Ace – Bentleys Gonna Sort You Out
• The Police – Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
• Belle & Sebastian – Seeing Other People
• Beck – Deadweight
• The Primitives – Spacehead
• Ride – Twisterella

That’ll do.

More soon. I may even post something else before next Friday, you never know.

Friday Night Music Club

Well, we made it to the end of another week folks, so as your..erm..*coughs*..reward, here’s the fourth part of the six-hour plus mix I put together and then split down a while ago.

This is probably the most mixed-bag of the lot, ranging from classical to country, taking in many indie and dance and indie dance points in between. There’s a whiff of a theme developing about three quarters of the way through which, surprisingly I pull away from; more surprising than that is that there’s a couple of relatively recent tunes in here (by recent, I mean ‘released in the last 12 months’); and even more surprising than that is that when presented with the opportunity, I manage to resist going off one playing covers or songs which sample a particular act. You’ll know who I mean when you get there.

A quick admission and anecdote rolled into one: I stole the idea of mixing the opening two tracks from another DJ.

One night, back when I was living in Cardiff, I was out clubbing, when the resident DJ dropped the first two tunes in today’s mix. Same tunes, same order. The crowd fell into a stunned silence when he played the first – and give him his dues, it’s a proper show-stopper, alright – then exploded into euphoric raptures when he played the second.

Except me. I was furious. For as I watched the DJ lap up the adulation from the crowd, I felt like going up to him, tapping him on the shoulder and saying: “I hear you’ve bought Jacques Lu Cont’s Fabriclive 09 mix CD too then?”, for those same two tracks featured in the same order on that.

Anyway. Disclaimer time: any skips and jumps in the mix are down to the mixing software; any mis-timed mixes are down to me; all record choices are 100% mine (except the first two, obviously).

Here you go:

Friday Night Music Club Vol 6.4

And here’s the track-listing (look away if you prefer to be surprised):

• Richard Strauss – Also Sprach Zarathustra
• Eurythmics – Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)
• Stereo MC’s – Connected
• Primal Scream – Don’t Fight It, Feel It
• Electronic – Getting Away With It (Greg Wilson Edit)
• Death In Vegas – Scorpio Rising
• Camper Van Beethoven – Pictures of Matchstick Men
• The Mock Turtles – Can You Dig It?
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Zero
• She Drew The Gun – Behave Myself
• Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine – Let’s Get Tattoos
• Lloyd Cole & The Commotions – Jennifer She Said
• Belle & Sebastian – The Boy With The Arab Strap
• Sharon Van Etten & Angel Olsen – Like I Used To
• Kris Kristofferson – Best Of All Possible Worlds
• Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan – Honey Child What Can I Do?

More soon.