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The Winter Solistice mix tape thread

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    The Winter Solistice mix tape thread

    About twelve years ago I began sending a holiday CD to family and friends. I know I'm not the only one here to do this. So, as the upcoming holiday season may be a bit quieter and lonelier than usual I thought we might share our joyful noises.

    Personally I never include Christmas songs as no one would listen to the CD (yes, they still go out that way) after New Years Eve. I also send it to over 70 people of divergent ages and backgrounds, so the content is reasonably varied. My hope is that everyone will find at least one track they like. If they don't they can use it as a coaster.

    I'll post the tracks on here three or so at a time in the order they appear on the CD until mid-late December, so it doesn't just seem like an indigestible audio-dump. You can, of course, do it any way you want or not at all.

    First up:

    Patti and Fred Smith with a live acoustic version of People Have the Power from 1990




    The Ballad of the Space Babies by Jim Guthrie, from 'Sword and Sorcery' video game, 2011.




    I'm Into Something Good by The Cookies lead singer Earl-Jean, 1964.













    #2
    I would have to add this one every year since it's a top 5 Stones song for me and perfectly fitting for the theme:




    I can't say that I'm a big fan of Christmas songs other than during the week leading up to the holiday, but this power pop song from Material Issue works for me year-round.

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      #3
      Lovely AdC. Being as it’s winter, is there room for Urge For Going or is it a bit obvious?

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        #4
        Something I've also been doing for a while


        Apologies for the matching initials. What are the chances?!

        (26^3 I guess, not allowing for frequency of letters...)

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          #5
          That's very cool, and extremely well organised. I doff my cap! My CDs go out with a matching card. Many/most of the recipients wouldn't — or indeed couldn't, in some cases — download it.

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            #6
            OK three more:

            Harlem Shuffle by Bob & Earl from 1963. Much imitated but never surpassed.




            Kenn Sisson's Orchestra and Vaughn deLeath on vocal with Bamboola from 1927




            Heat Wave, by Marilyn Monroe, from the film: 'There's No Business Like Show Business,' 1954




            BTW: Am I right that there's absolutely no way to link an audio file any more? I've a couple of tracks that I don't have in any other form.


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              #7
              If anyone's offering technical advice... I also usually send out a mix CD for friends with the traditional card at C-mas. This year my PC bit the dust, so I had to bite the bullet and replace it. I should point out that my IT knowledge is limited. The new PC is fine, Windows 10 and so on, but doesn't have an optical drive so I can't burn a disc. I've tried a couple of portable disc drives but they haven't worked as burners, one didn't burn at all, one would only burn one and a half tracks (using WMP). I've never had a problem before with an integral drive, and I have no idea why it's suddenly a problem. Can anybody suggest either a reliable model or a reason why I've had issues (and ideally a remedy)?

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                #8
                1974ddr I'm a Mac user so can only suggest a few general ideas. Hopefully a Windows user has better ideas. First, make sure the drive is compatible with Windows and can burn. I have had good luck with Phillips in an external enclosure that connects to my computer via USB. Second, make sure the burning software is compatible with both the drive and the operating system. I think a lot of my friends use Nero for DVD burning. Does that have CD burning capabilities as well? If so, maybe try that. Macs can burn via iTunes but that has never worked well for me so I purchased Roxio Toast and that works great for DVDs and CDs. WMP might be akin to iTunes -- better for ripping than burning. If nobody else steps up with useful info., you might register for https://www.videohelp.com/ and post there. It's mostly video discussion but folks will definitely be helpful for a question like this one.

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                  #9
                  Thanks for the suggestions... I'll let you know how, or whether, I get on

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                    #10
                    Next batch:

                    Jose He Say (1958) by Linda Laurie, best known for her surreal monologue Ambrose Part 5. More conventional here but the voices are similar.




                    White Levis radio ads by Jefferson Airplane (1967) Never a group to sell out to the Man... man.




                    Moby Grape from their under-rated second album Wow with Rose Colored Eyes.

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                      #11
                      New song from Phoebe Bridgers, a Merle Haggard cover:



                      And then there's this Counting Crows song, which feels very much like they were listening to the Stones' "Winter" (pasted above), but I probably shared "Winter" and "December" during past discussions of winter/Christmas music:



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                        #12
                        I really like that version of If We Make it Through December.



                        Procol Harum with The Devil Came From Kansas (1969)




                        Bogart and Bacall with the final minute of 'The Big Sleep' (1946)




                        This has been linked to several times on here but Zu Asche, Zu Staube by Severija, (2019) from 'Babylon Berlin' is still worth a listen.

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                          #13
                          A poem titled Black Tomintoul next, by Ian Hamilton Finlay but sadly I can't upload the audio file : (

                          Traffic by Tamara's New Generation (1966). I've no idea who Tamara was, but she seems to be a bit more late Beat than early Psychedelic.




                          Early demo of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper, accompanied by guitar and synth.



                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by 1974ddr View Post
                            If anyone's offering technical advice... I also usually send out a mix CD for friends with the traditional card at C-mas. This year my PC bit the dust, so I had to bite the bullet and replace it. I should point out that my IT knowledge is limited. The new PC is fine, Windows 10 and so on, but doesn't have an optical drive so I can't burn a disc. I've tried a couple of portable disc drives but they haven't worked as burners, one didn't burn at all, one would only burn one and a half tracks (using WMP). I've never had a problem before with an integral drive, and I have no idea why it's suddenly a problem. Can anybody suggest either a reliable model or a reason why I've had issues (and ideally a remedy)?
                            Try what I'm doing this year - going full on old-fart retro and making compilation cassettes. Just need to find some people who still own cassette decks to send them to.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Moving on...

                              The Ikettes
                              with I'm Blue (The Gong Gong Song) 1962.




                              And — because they can do it too, The Monks and We Do, Wie Du. (1966)




                              Meanwhile a few years earlier, skiffle promised so much and delivered... Cumberland Gap by The Vipers (1957)

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                                #16
                                I had not heard that Cyndi Lauper demo before. That's great. If I didn't see her name listed, I would think the song was a cover by a contemporary post-punk/goth/synthwave band.

                                But it also has a similar vibe as The Replacements' "Within Your Reach"



                                Last edited by danielmak; 06-12-2020, 04:16.

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  Originally posted by danielmak View Post
                                  I had not heard that Cyndi Lauper demo before. That's great. If I didn't see her name listed, I would think the song was a cover by a contemporary post-punk/goth/synthwave band.
                                  Yeah, I agree it's kinda sharp, it also reaches back a little bit to Robert Hazard's original version stripped down some.

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                                    #18
                                    Reaching the last tracks almost;

                                    Always loved Wanda Jackson's rockabilly stuff, but didn't realise until recently she recorded the original version of Silver Threads and Golden Needles (1956).




                                    The recent movie One Night in Miami, has Malcolm X buttonholing Sam Cooke: "I just heard this young white kid from Northern Minnesota singing a song about 'how many roads must a man walk down, before they call him a man.' How come you never sing anything so relevant to our struggle Sam?" (I'm paraphrasing a little.) I like to think this was Sam's response. A Change is Gonna Come (1964.)




                                    And speaking of Bob Dylan, his riff on Walt Whitman this year stands up real good. I Contain Multitudes (2020)


                                    Last edited by Amor de Cosmos; 16-12-2020, 21:08.

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                                      #19
                                      Right, this is the end.

                                      The Five Satins, In the Still of the Night (1956). A stone-cold classic if ever there was one. Fred Parris, the group's founder in 1954, continues to perform under the Five Satins moniker today.




                                      Finally, and appropriately, Blondie's rendition of The Streets of New York, at the conclusion of 'The Deuce.' Discussed on here at the time, it still brings a sizeable lump to my throat.

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                                        #20


                                        And here's your Christmas Card!

                                        Best Wishes to the OTF Collective, and lets hope for a better year coming up, than the one that's just going out the door.
                                        Last edited by Amor de Cosmos; 17-12-2020, 21:53.

                                        Comment


                                          #21
                                          Cross your fingers, bolt the door, draw a circle on the floor
                                          Scatter salt across the path, burn a briar upon the hearth


                                          The winter solstice. The year's longest, darkest night. Folk tales say it's when witches take to the air, hurtling above the asperous hinterlands, weaving between shafts of moonlight as they revel in the sky's icy chill.

                                          Make a sprig of herbage now, garlanding a rowan bough
                                          Trefoil, vervain, John's wort, dill, hinder witches in their will


                                          At midnight they gather in dissolute convocations to celebrate the moment the sun is at its most distant and their dark power holds sway. It's said they cavort with frenetic abandon, chanting unholy catches until they reach a state of consummate delirium.

                                          Cover up the window's cracks with a mix of blood and wax
                                          Hang a length of knotted gut, freshly from a vixen cut


                                          Of course, these rituals are concealed by arcane means and therefore all but impossible for the uninvited to experience. In a bid to emulate their delicious exhilaration, then, this year's Wintersolstice mix features twenty aural sorceresses, each bringing a darkly beguiling electronic incantation to add to their cauldron of simmering aetheric cacophony.

                                          Scour a pond and gently pluck two black leeches from their suck
                                          Lest the witches' charms you hear, let one crawl inside each ear


                                          Twenty tracks, all released during the second half of 2020, by artists including Lucretia Dalt, Dis Fig, Camila Fuchs, Sylvan Esso, Circe, Gl?me, Noveller and more. Eighty three minutes of incongruous euphony conjured by women gifted with die Zauberkunst (helped occasionally by their male familiars).

                                          Or if you're not keen, I've included some helpful hints for keeping witches at bay. Good luck - and careful with those leeches!

                                          The dark advent of Wintersolstice 2020. Because at this time of year, who doesn't like a good coven version?





                                          Thanks to geometrydaily [.tumblr.com] for the sigil

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                                            #22
                                            Summersolstice 2021


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                                              #23
                                              Wintersolstice 2022





                                              It started with a mix
                                              Never thought it would come to this (19 more mixes)


                                              Celebrating ten years of Solstice Mixes with Wintersolstice 2022

                                              What began in 2013 as a determined attempt to prove I wasn’t hopelessly out of touch with new music, by corralling a few of the songs I’d noticed on review sites and fusing them into a mellifluous sequence with the white hot technology of Audacity, has now become a firmly (one might even say slavishly) adhered-to twice-yearly practice with now a total of over twenty six hours of music featuring, oh, nearly 400 tracks, I’d guess (information is a bit sketchy on the early ones - in fact, pretty much everything about the early ones is a bit sketchy) and a bewildering number of listeners (well it bewilders me, anyway)

                                              Ten years, eh. And they said it wouldn’t last (they didn’t, in fact no-one’s really said much at all)

                                              It has been amazing, though - each January or July, just after I’ve published a mix I always worry that the next six months won’t throw up enough decent tracks, and I’ll end up bailing; and always, by the start of June or December I find I’ve got far too many to include and need to begin the impossible task of paring them down to a reasonable number. Don’t believe anyone who complains that today’s music isn’t worth listening to - the brilliant stuff is out there, if you look

                                              (I’ve jinxed it now haven’t I)

                                              Anyway, today you don’t need to look for brilliant new music because I’ve done the looking for you. All *you* need to do is stop and listen. And do make sure you listen all the way through, because this time in particular there are some phenomenal tracks by artists including Luci, Lash, Working Men's Club, The Glass Beads, Stainwasher and SRSQ. Volatile post-punk inflected EBM here, seductively languid Weimar-era gloom there; strung-out vocals, itchy guitar and filthy synth-ridden melodies hanging over the balcony barking their contempt at heartrending intimate confessionals and bright young radio-friendly things

                                              [Now the bad news: on the first of this month, Mixcloud introduced a new rule limiting the amount of uploads for a free account to ten - which was a huge shame, because I was just three weeks away from the satisfying sight of all twenty mixes together on my page. With the new rule in place though, the moment I uploaded WS22 the earliest ten were automatically banished to my draft folder. Thanks, Mixcloud]

                                              Stop press: literally as I’m writing this, an email has landed informing me this mix is a scarcely credible 11th in Mixcloud’s global Dark Electro charts. I know! Only 10 other Dark Electro mixes are currently better than this. In the whole world! Sorry, I’ve no idea why I’m shilling this so hard. I definitely don’t make any money out of it. Just for the love, yeah

                                              Okay I’m done. Click to unleash the boreal power

                                              Wintersolstice 2022. Dark, innit

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