I decided these little bits accompanying the releases of the mixtapes will constitute the introductions to the booklets I’m working on, so I’m being mindful now that I’m writing the front matter for a publication and not just an entry in a blog. It’s difficult to have much in the way of introductory material to write about the mixtape since the chapters in the book are all about the songs in the mix. Further, as I’ve noted before, the methodology for these mixes is pretty straightforward and maybe a little mechanical. Certainly formulaic.
I tried to recall whether any of the blends in this mix use novel effects, but nothing came to mind. Upon review I found a few. Some of the best ones I didn’t have to work for, like “Yaya” into “Funky Penguin” around 37:40. The mix into “Yaya” from “Disco-Fied” isn’t as good, even though it relies on the same technique. It’s always better to emerge from a swirling mess of sound and echo with something solid than it is to go from something straightforward into a big mess, even if the mess resolves into a beat pretty quickly.
“Check Your Bucket” into “Keep on Moving” around 18:30 is pretty fun. I used the reverb to make Eddie Bo sound like he’s shouting from the bottom of a well.
At 48:00 or so “Garden of Four Trees” ends with one of my favorite tricks from turntablism. I used the same “double ’em up instead of echo” technique on the first Dollar Grillz mixtape and at the very beginning of Warm Glow Record Show 3: It’s a Dance, Dance, Dance. Here I was unsure about leaving the dead cutoff, but I did it anyway the first time. Contrast that with the little reverb tail I added to the next stop and I think you’ll agree it’s fun to have both. “Garden of Four Trees” wasn’t mixing well with the next song, is why I ended it so abruptly, in case you were wondering.
“Superstition” wasn’t mixing well either, but I thought the results might be rewarding if I forced it, so I quantized the Clavinet and detuned it. Getting the tuning right was tough. It needed a semitone or two and a handful of cents before it sat comfortably in the mix. Then the mixtape almost goes out on a discordant snippet of “Superstition,” hinting that there will indeed be something to work out at the start of the next mixtape.
For now though, if it ain’t funky, don’t you know we can’t use it. Now.
Warm Glow Record Show 4: Dance It Out
What is this streaming crap? Give me my own copy.