Brand new – and all yours: Our latest round of Mixed Tape tunes by ten international talents is ready for download! To claim your free compilation just follow this direct download link.
Mixed Tape Music has moved to its new home base at mb! Magazine – come along with us! And while you are there make sure to sign up for the newnewsletter to stay up-to-date on all things Mixed Tape!
This will be the last post from here – from now on you’ll find us at our new place to be. We’re celebrating this exciting occasion with our brand new Mixed Tape ‘Precious Selection’. We’ve made every possible effort to enthuse you with this especially eclectic selection of precious picks which cover a huge range of genres and nationalities, from nu soul to modern folk and Bahrain to Estonia.
In addition, the compilation comes with a magnificent cover design by Dutch illustrator Raymond Lemstra. Watch out for our accompanying feature for a more in-depth look at the artist’s life and work, which will be online from tomorrow.
Last but not least we would like to thank all featured musicians and our gifted cover artist for their terrific contributions!
We hope you enjoy their precious works and look forward to receiving your feedback!
Did you ever wonder how solo artists like Reggie Watts, Dub Fx or Jarle Bernhoft manage to sound like a full band? It’s with the help of a loop pedal (also known as looper pedal, loop station etc.). This useful tool started its triumph with one-man-bands during the last decade. We’ve interviewed the Australian-born now Bristolian Mr. Woodnote – a gifted saxophonist, beatboxer and looper – about his work with that exciting box of tricks. If you’d like to dig deeper, you should also read our loop pedal special at our new home including lots of info on the functional principle, popular devices, direct quotes from looping artists such as Jamie Woon, Clara Lindsjö and Mixed Tape artist Kassandra Papak etc.
Mr. Woodnote and his pal Lil Rhys are the most infamous buskers out of Bristol – known for getting down on the street all over Europe. While Mr. Woodnote is responsible for the whole instrumental part including bouncy beats, funky horns and fat basslines, which he creates live on the spot with the aid of a loop station, his saxophone and as a human beatboxer, Lil Rhys blesses the audience with his rhyming skills. After countless street sessions the dynamic duo took their career to the next level playing concerts all over the world and recording their album ‘Modus Operandi’ in 2011. Nowadays they often work in company with female MC and songstress Eva Lazarus (of Dub Mafia). Mr. Woodnote exclusively gave an insight into his mind …
Check out the live video below as an example of his work with the magic little device, before you dive into his thoughts. After the jump you’ll also find an amazing music video off his current album.
Why do you work with a loop pedal? What is so special about working with it?
It’s the best toy I have ever owned and it’s fun to work with it. As the best jam tool ever it enables all sorts of instrumentalists, drummers, singers etc. to become creative with it – people even use them in ways they weren’t originally designed for. For example a loop pedal lets me be the whole band and make all the decisions over all the parts on the fly. read more
Berlin-Based duo Me And My Drummer just released their debut single ‘You’re A Runner’ via Sinnbus Records, home to artists like Bodi Bill and Hundreds. While Charlotte Brandi (keys and vocals) and Matze Pröllochs (drums) describe their sound as dream pop, it’s hard for us to pinpoint their affiliation with any particular genre as their sound oscillates between different poles. To our ears their music sounds rather Scandinavian than German, due to creating a harmonious collage of synth pop, imaginairy folklore with melancholic sentiments, indie pop and song-oriented electronica.
The two songs off the single more or less represent these poles: The title track represents the indie/electronica side. It begins rather quiet, builds slowly and successively establishes an energetic stream that pushes towards a climax, that will carry you away. For the b-side ‘Runner (Reprise)’ the duo strip off their electronic garment and offer calmly intimate nordic folk pop reductionism at its best. Charlotte’s voice forms a tender, immediate alliance with the sparse instrumental backing. You can almost sense that this is not just a band, but a loving couple circling around each other in the boxing ring of their music.
Have a look at the ‘Runner (Reprise)’ video below and grab your free download of ‘Down My Couch’ here.
We’ve noticed Charlotte singing that ‘there is a transformation going on’ … which reminds us of the transformations that are going on at our editorial team as we are about to incorporate Mixed Tape into the mb! Magazine within the next days. So watch this place and check our Facebook page regularly in order to stay tuned.
Javeon McCarthy is a highly talented Bristol-born vocalist. His hometown has always been one of the main epicentre’s of bass tremors of any kind, from early drum & bass to dubstep and beyond. Thus it’s hardly surprising that Javeon has a knack for voicing gut-slamming bass jams.
The 23-year old soul man has been a staple in his city’s fertile underground music scene for almost a decade now. At the tender age of 13 he formed the Kold Hearted Krew with a few friends including now successful dubstep/r&b producer Joker. This was the time when garage was morphing into grime, thus McCarthy found his skills as ‘two-faced’ party hosting MC with the ability to spit verses and boost the party as well as flexing his vocal muscle harmonically.
All in all Javeon has been collaborating with many kindred spirits who would turn out to be genre-defining artists of the next generation of electronic music. Among others his vocals blessed productions of Nightslugs impresario L-Vis 1990 (‘Forever You’), lauded dubstep producer Guido and the highly acclaimed bass-not-bass/house-not-house sensation Julio Bashmore (‘Father Father’). Obviously the two have enjoyed working with each other, because Javeon’s banging debut single ‘Love Without A Heart’ features Bashmore’s fingerprint too – a futuristic house gem fusing a bumping 808 electro bass riddim, driving hi hats, hypnotive synth stabs and Javeon’s sensitive vocals. This is 21st century r&b!
Listen to the boomin’ super soul of Javeon McCarthy via the www.soundcloud.com player below:
This seems to be the Mixed Tape week of lucious strings and beautiful harmonies. While we started with Miguel Atwood-Ferguson’s bewitching chamber music reinterpretation of Sonnymoon’s ‘Just Before Dawn’, we continue with another light-hearted as well as venerable piece of ‘chamber pop’: ‘Open’ taken off the debut EP of the Californian duo Rhye.
It was released ten days ago via the Los Angeles-based Innovative Leisure label, which has established a good reputation with valuable releases across-the-board. The label as well as the artist’s website don’t offer too much information about Rhye, thus journalists and bloggers have already started to mystify this promising act, conjecturing about the number of members, their supposed European background and the assumption that they live in LA.
We have a different approach: as disciples of Danish super producer Robin Hannibal, we presume to presume that he’s responsible for the production as it’s comparable to his brilliant output with Quadron, Boom Cap Bachelors or even Owusu & Hannibal. Rhye’s tune ‘Open’ quintessentially bears his sonic signature between an almost asepetic sound engineering and highly reserved synth pop aesthetics on the one hand, and a penchant for heartbreaking melodies, warm synths and likewise strings on the other. The song sounds like a close relative of Robin’s beautiful Boom Clap Bachelors production ‘Løb Stop Stå’, albeit songstress Coco Malaika has been replaced by an equally heart-warming, mysterious voice. Is it his girlfriend or even Robin himself? Listen to the song via the www.soundcloud.com player below to judge for yourself:
Brand new – and all yours: Our latest round of Mixed Tape tunes by ten international talents is ready for download! To claim your free compilation just follow this direct download link.
