Yet another summer project that I didn't get around to sharing sooner--my Summer Noir mixtape.
I can't tell you how many versions, revisions, and remixes I made to get this "right"--assuming that now it is indeed right. It is at least done!
This is another case of my going with a certain range of beats per minute-specifically 82 to 95 BPM. You'll hear some of my usual suspects: Some bossa nova, some dance, some pop, some R & B, some world music, and some disco, new and old school, with songs by Poolside, Pet Shop Boys, and Grace Jones, Jessie J, Kelis, Toni Braxton, Zuco 103, Glass Animals, Lisa Stansfield, Marvin Gaye, Skip&Die, Etienne Daho and Astrud Gilberto, the Style Council, the Minogue Sisters, Donna Summer, and more.
Is the mix a success? Well, I like it. I don't know that it has a point of view like my previous Cruel Summer Mix--77 Gaza Strip I posted two years ago. Other than being slow, simmering, danceable, and slightly sinister, which was my aim. But I had fun making it and tried out some tricks, such as overlaying tracks and even making a mashup, that seem to have worked pretty well. I think the world's DJs can rest easy, I'm not likely to steal their jobs anytime soon, but the point of all of this is to make mixes I would enjoy listening and dancing to. And hopefully at some point I'll make some mixes that others enjoy listening to as well.
My stats on MixCloud do not provide much hope in achieving this goal, however. With earlier mixes and podcasts, there have been listens, likes, and even a share or two. But of late, not much reaction. (Although I was all aflutter when someone recently liked my first mashup, "No More Sweet Lujon," which I think is one of my best.)
Admittedly, my topics for mixes can be obscure (The Songs of Shortwave Radio, parts 1, 2, and 3, anyone?), so a limited audience is to be expected. Nonetheless, it is frustrating: My blog gets views but few comments; my mixes may or may not get listens let alone likes; my Twitter posts are regularly unremarked upon; my Wikipedia contributions go mostly unnoticed and unrewarded.
So am I doing all this for me or for others? That's an age-old question for artists, I would imagine. I don't think I've done anything worthy of the artist label yet, but I would hope to. In fact, I'd like to think that when I'm done with doing what I have to do to earn a living, I might have a second career (non-lucrative but perhaps more satisfying) in writing, editing, public "thinking," and other ways to share my interests. This is work I would enjoy doing and work that I hope would find a supportive audience
Coz don't we all want to hear what an almost-55-year-old American expat thinks about history, culture, and current affairs . . . .
I have ten years until retirement, ten years to figure it out and find an audience. I suspect I'll always have a limited audience--my sense of humor and (self-) righteousness seems to go over better among my closer Facebook friends, anyway. But there's no time like the present and the immediate future to get going and make some noise. Consider this mix one more attempt to make something happen.
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The Summer Noir playlist
- Poolside - "Slow Down"
- Pet Shop Boys - "Vampires"
- Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin - "Je t'aime (moi non plus)" (Dzihan and Kamien Remix)
- Ahmad Soultan - "Ya Salaam"
- Robyn - "Big City"
- Odyssey - "Don't Tell Me, Tell Her" (perhaps my favorite track in the mix)
- Etienne Daho and Astrud Gilberto - "Les bords de seine"
- Kelis - "Hooch"
- The Style Council - "Long Hot Summer" (extended version)
- Jessie J. - "Price Tag"
- Donna Summer - "La vie en rose" (remixed version)
- Grace Jones - "La vie en rose" (album version)
- Toni Braxton - "He Wasn't Man Enough for Me" (extended version)
- Lisa Stansfield - "Time to Make You Mine"
- Carlos Lyra - "Influencia do jazz"
- Skip&Die - "La cumbia dictadura"
- Zuco 103 - "Um coco" (possibly my favorite mashup, Skip&Die and Zuco 103)
- Glass Animals - "Walla Walla"
- Tom Tom Club - "Time to Bounce"
- Olive - "This Time"
- Kylie Minogue - "Automatic Love"
- Marvin Gaye - "Sexual Healing"
- Dannii Minogue - "More, More, More" (Winter Chill Mix
