Mixtape #121

It’s no secret we love Laurence Pike. A relentless drummer, phenomenal improviser and inventive composer, for the last two decades he has recorded and played with an array of bands, setting up his drumkit at the junction of electronic, jazz and post-rock. His 2018 debut solo album, Distant Early Warning, and its follow up, Holy Spring, both blew us away and made it to our Album Picks of the Year. Reacting to the catastrophic wild fires in his native Australia, Pike released his powerful third album, Prophecy, this summer. We asked him to put together this month’s mixtape and he wrapped up his “Pandemic Favourites” for us. An hour made up of the tracks he has found himself delving into as of late, this is the soundtrack we needed to end the year beautifully!

  1. Takashi Kokubo – 回廊の音楽 [Glossy Mistakes]
  2. Haji K – A White-Tinted Sky [Daisart]
  3. Paradise Cinema – It Will Be Summer Soon [Gondwana Records]
  4. Hiroshi Yoshimura – Surround [Misawa Home]
  5. Finis Africae – Hybla [EM Records]
  6. Phillip Wilkerson – The Way Of Heaven [Stereoscenic]
  7. Luke Abbott – Ames Window [Border Community]
  8. Lindsheaven Virtual Plaza – Polynomial Voices [Asura Revolver]
  9. Kit Downes – Circinus [ECM Records]
  10. H.Takahashi – Pollen [Where To Now?]

Mixtape #101

Our first mixtape of the year is here and it is amazing, put together by Toronto based composer and multi-instrumentalist Joseph Shabason. Known for his longtime collaboration with Destroyer and DIANA, he is also a busy recording artist and touring musician. Marrying jazz and ambient, Shabason first enticed us with his debut album Aytche, which he followed up last year with Anne, a beguiling and affecting album that made it to our Album Picks of 2018. So we're over the moon he found the time to pick this marvellous mix of tracks for us!

  1. John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman – Lush Life [Impulse!]
  2. Prefab Sprout – Nightingales [Kitchenware Records / CBS]
  3. Mid-Air Thief – Why? [Botanical House]
  4. Bernice – David [Arts & Crafts]
  5. Arve Henriksen – Patient Zero [Rune Grammofon]
  6. Beverly Glenn-Copeland – Ever New [Atlast Records]
  7. Hiroshi Yoshimura – Singing Stream (Spring Mix) [Eastworld]
  8. Pauline Anna Strom – Freedom at the 45th Floor [Rvng Intl.]
  9. Peter Gabriel – Donʼt Give Up [Geffen]
  10. Phil Manzanera – Big Day [Island Records]
  11. Nicholas Krgovich – Along the PCH on Oscar Night [Tin Angel Records]
  12. Joni Mitchell = The Three Great Stimulants [Geffen]
  13. Donald Fagen – The Goodbye Look [Warner Bros. Records]