Mixtape #163


A restless and forward-thinking artist, with the technical ability and versatility to back it up, Ben Lumsdaine is a force to be reckoned with. The LA-based composer, percussionist, multi-instrumentalist and producer has a long list of credits as a live performer and studio musician on numerous recordings. As a producer/engineer/mixer he has shaped records for a cavalcade of artists including International Anthem labelmates Daniel Villarreal, Jeremiah Chiu, Anna Butters and Bex Burch, and many others. Last year he released his debut solo record, Murmuration Without End, a mesmerizing and magnificent collection of rhythmic compositions that saw him step out of his comfort zone and swap his primary instrument for modular synthesizers to create a record unlike anything he's ever done before. Worthy of repeated listens, we still haven’t been able put it down. So we’re ecstatic to share the superb mix he put together for us, featuring, as he puts it, “a pretty wide ranging selection of tunes that have impacted me in some lasting way over the last decade or so”. Press play!

  1. Joe Meek – Valley of the Saroos [Triumph]
  2. Colorlist – Montreal [Serein]
  3. Chris Cohen – Heart Beat [Captured Tracks]
  4. Jeff Parker Trio – Mainz [Delmark Records]
  5. Bitchin Bajas – Circles On Circles [Drag City]
  6. Lennie Tristano Sextet – Wow [Proper Records]
  7. Paul Motian, Bill Frisell, Joe Lovano – Wednesday [ECM Records]
  8. Loren Connors – The Departing Of A Dream Pt. 2 [Family Vineyard]
  9. Bitchin Bajas and Natural Information Society – Anemometer [Drag City]
  10. Sonny Sharrock – Who Does She Hope To Be? [Axiom]
  11. Madlib – Freeze [Stones Throw Records]
  12. Idris Muhammad – Could Heaven Ever Be Like This [Kudu]
  13. The Manhattans – There’s No Me Without You [Columbia / CBS]
  14. Waylon Jennings – Waymore’s Blues [RCA Victor]
  15. Ultimate Painting – Kodiak [Trouble In Mind]
  16. Motherlode – When I Die [Buddah Records]

Ben Lumsdaine’s new album, Murmuration Without End, out in December

LA-based producer, composer, percussionist and multi-instrumentalist Ben Lumsdaine is gearing up to release a new album later this year. Entitled Murmuration Without End, it arrives on December 8th through International Anthem and features guest contributions from saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi (Bon Iver, Bill Callahan), trumpeter John Raymond (S. Carey, Sara Bareilles), and guitarist Drake Ritter (Durand Jones, Diane Coffee). The album is “a collection of rhythmic studies that began as meditative synth drones recorded by Lumsdaine”, as the press release describes, which “grew into multi-textural, poly-rhythmic sound worlds as he disrupted the meters and pulses implied by the synths’ inherent modulations with each instrumental layer added.”

Along with the album announcement, Lumsdaine has let loose the beautiful and absorbing lead single ‘Dallas’ and you can listen to it below.