Mixtape from a former ghost
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Artist:
Has it been a month since that package appeared in our mailbox? I vaguely recall the bafflement as I first inspected it. A London address, but not one I knew. Too big to be a CD from a fellow MOGger. Most strange.....But it was a CD from a fellow MOGger, along with a book - nice fake-out, bud. And the sender was none other than our then-lost comrade, Bartleby. But how in God's name did he get my address? Even though Bartleby was kind enough to publicly praise the mixtape (see, Lizzie, I'm toeing the line....) I made for him a few months ago, the following is not a quid pro quo. It is, rather, an acknowledgement of a 77-minute-plus demonstration of total kick-assness. Trust me, friends, this guy knows from a mix.Herewith, for those keeping score, the track list:- The 5.6.7.8's: I Walk Like Jane Mansfield (it's Jayne, fellas, but that's OK - spelling mistakes are forgiven when you rawk out like this)- Antonio Carlos e Jocafi: Hipnose (Brazilian funk? How did you ever guess?)- Amadou & Mariam: Beaux Diamanches (swee Malian stuff)- Cabaret Voltaire: Yashar (for the Sprockets fan in us all)- Joy Division: Atrocity Exhibition (drove Mrs. Ivylander berserk, but I dig it) - Talking Heads: Psycho Killer (one of the all-time great tracks, which I've not heard in way too long)- Serge Gainsbourg: Requiem pour un con (if anyone can redeem hipsterism, it is he)- Connie Francis: Siboney (listen in awe)- Alice Coltrane: Journey in Satchidananda (a quick glimpse of satori)- Jeanne Moreau: J'ai la memoire qui flanche (I know that she and I could have made the age difference work...)- St. Vincent: We Put A Pearl in the Ground (an interlude glistening with charm)- Susuma Yokota: Flaming Love and Destiny (nearly impossible to describe - like Philip Glass and Bernard Herrmann collaborating on a score accompanying the greatest sex scene in the history of cinema, sort of)- The Velvet Underground: New Age (why did it take me so long to realize that this song is about Shelley Winters?)- Candi Staton: He Called Me Baby (sublime Southern soul)- Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell: California Soul (an oddity for Marvin & Tammi, as it's not in their usual back-and-forth style - this composition could just have easily have been sung by one person. But I'd forgotten what a good, low-key piece of songwriting this is, and it's one of Jamerson's very best basslines.)- Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band: Look-A Py Py (the Meters get a Caribbean makeover)- Camera Obscura: Let's Get Out Of This Country (is it just me, or does this sound more like Lloyd Cole than "Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken"?)- Belle & Sebastian: For The Price of a Cup of Tea (I think they've forgotten how to write a half-assed song)- David Bowie: Lady Grinning Soul (so easy to forget how on Bowie was at this stage)- Aswefall: A Game We Play (Gainsbourg for a new generation, an ending that slithers enigmatically off into the underbrush....)As welcome as the high standards shown in the individual tracks - and which is impossible to understand unless you listen to the CD all the way through - is the thoughtfulness of the segues, invariably unexpected, invariably satisfying. In short, the work of a mixtape maestro.Oh, and the book that came along with it: "My Bass (And Other Animals)" a droll memoir-cum-standup-routine by Guy Pratt, a session bassist who has played with Pink Floyd, Roxy Music and Robert Palmer (among many others) as well as a lavishly talented raconteur and (former?)drug sponge. It was a molto fun read, Bartleby. Thanks for your staggering generosity. It will not go unavenged.
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