Mondo Salvo Mix CD 8
After making six of these in about the space of a month, taking four weeks off since the last one seems like an eternity. Summer classes are a demanding mistress. Needless to say, I haven’t had as much time (or energy) to dig deep for buried mp3 gems around the internet, but a few things came my way lately.
While it’s unlikely Michelle Williams will ever be the ex-Destiny’s Child member everyone talks about, “We Break the Dawn” is great summertime single material. Wild Beasts finally released a whole LP, and “The Devil’s Crayon” is the best thing they’re written since “Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants” a couple years ago. How good the new CSS record is remains to be seen, but “Left Behind” packs a mean right hook. Hands in this motherf*cker, so get your hands up.
Download. Enjoy. Comment.
01. The 84.85 - Forty and a Fistfight (3:48)
02. Pharrell Williams - My Drive Thru (Featuring Santogold & Julian Casablancas) (4:06)
03. Lemond - Current Affairs (Run Hide Survive Remix) (3:32)
04. Kid Sister - Damn Girl (2:17)
05. Wild Beasts - The Devil’s Crayon (3:38)
06. Those Dancing Days - Run Run (3:19)
07. Tricky - Council Estate (2:37)
08. Foxface - Last Waltz (2:22)
09. Michelle Williams - We Break the Dawn (3:53)
10. Club 8 - Jesus Walk With Me (The Sound of Arrows Remix) (3:07)
11. Melee Beats - Distraction (3:30)
12. The Features - Foundation’s Cracked (3:01)
13. CSS - Left Behind (3:30)
14. Catcall - August (4:12)
15. The Walkmen - I Lost You (3:28)
16. Le Fiasko - Canapes on Cocktail St. (4:46)
Mondo Salvo Mix CD 7
Sometimes they come quicker than others, y’all. In all honesty, since I limit these mixes to sixteen tracks each, I’ve always got leftovers that I carry over to the next volume.
Well, last time I had many good songs I had no room for. This one’s already finished because I integrated three older songs from Guillemots, Adam Tensta and Javiera Mena (all of which appeared earlier on a mix I made in February 2008) along with the aforementioned slew of other stuff I’d been reserving.
Things to listen closely for: “Oh My God” by Ida Maria is a song I’ve probably listened to in my car about 500 times since I first heard it several months ago. Now her album is out (in Norway and Sweden, anyway). Leon Jean-Marie’s “Bring it On” reminds me of something great, but I can’t put my finger on it. Heavy earworm potential, for real. Portishead’s “The Rip” is currently my favorite track on their album Third, but I’ll probably get around to including every song on that album on future mixes. So damned good. Everybody Was in the French Resistance…Now: that’s a long name for a band, but what else would you expect from the side project of Art Brut’s Eddie Argos? Also, the Yuksek remix track is as long as Argos’s band’s name, but stick with it. It’s a rewarding journey.
Download. Enjoy. Comment.
01. Ida Maria - Oh My God (3:18)
02. Van She - Strangers (3:37)
03. Choir of Young Believers - Burn the Flag (4:34)
04. Ne-Yo - Closer (3:55)
05. Guillemots - Get Over It (3:48)
06. Stricken City - Tak o Tak (2:51)
07. Leon Jean-Marie - Bring it On (3:13)
08. Everybody Was in the French Resistance…Now - G.I.R.L.F.R.E.N. (You Know I’ve Got A) (3:23)
09. Adam Tensta - My Cool (3:26)
10. Portishead - The Rip (4:30)
11. Jehro - Sweet (4:29)
12. Lloyd - Girls Around the World (Featuring Lil’ Wayne) (3:50)
13. Javiera Mena - Al Siguiente Nivel (4:05)
14. Free Blood - The Royal Family (3:31)
15. Yuksek - Little Dirty Trip (Vicarious Bliss Remix) (7:01)
16. LaFille - Dans Mon Appartement (3:25)
Mondo Salvo Mix CD 6
Firstly, you’ll notice a little bit of change to the brand, with the colorbar across the top of the cover art and the big italic numeral in the righthand corner designating the mix’s number. I’ll probably stick with this for a while, because it looks especially good with black & white photography (and there is plenty of that floating around out there).
But then there’s the music on Mondo Salvo 6. Three big things you may see are new songs by Lily Allen, Annie and Sophie Ellis-Bextor. Go, internet! But I think one of my favorite things here is “Bellyaches” by Wet Paint. It’s a total ’90s flashback to when guitars were out of tune and records were made for about $400. And then there’s the new Wire track, “One of Us.” I’ve never been fully on board with Wire MKIII until now. This song is as good as anything they’ve ever done—going all the way back to Pink Flag. Damn.
Download. Enjoy. Comment.
01. Lily Allen - I Could Say (4:19)
02. Hemme Fatale - Animal Lover (3:52)
03. Wet Paint - Bellyaches (3:35)
04. The Boy Least Likely To - A Balloon on a Broken String (3:54)
05. Annie - I Know UR Girlfriend Hates Me (3:08)
06. Dijf Sanders - The Great Downfall (3:35)
07. Chris Brown - Forever (4:39)
08. Icy Demons - Miami Ice (4:13)
09. The Broken Hearts - Black Cat (4:30)
10. The Olive Shoots - The Lazy Rest (4:28)
11. Seelenluft - Finally (Featuring Florian Horwath) (4:20)
12. Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Heartbreak Make Me a Dancer (4:05)
13. Wire - One of Us (3:47)
14. Ram Di Dam - Smallest Town on Planet Earth (3:38)
15. Woolfy - Looking Glass (3:39)
16. Phoenix - Twenty-One One Zero (5:36)
Mondo Salvo Mix CD 5
I actually hadn’t planned to bring out another one of these so soon. I’d been holding onto a few key songs just waiting to find other ones, but then last night a whole bounty fell into my lap with just a little looking.
Mondo Salvo 5 is a little more mainstreamed than the last couple, with new songs by names most people know like Bonnie Prince Billy, Sigur Rós, Coldplay and Estelle along with her friend Kanye. But it’s the deeper cuts here that are worth noting, especially “Spooked” by Karoline Hausted. If you remember the early days of this blog, when I was spotlighting new finds, Karoline Hausted was my very first post. Beautiful voice, beautiful piano-playing…all should lead to a very beautiful record later this year.
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01. The E.L.F. - Cockroaches (4:02)
02. Dash & Will - Pick You Up (3:18)
03. Kleerup - With Every Heartbeat (Featuring Robyn) (4:11)
04. Cocoon - Hummingbird (3:26)
05. Estelle - American Boy (Featuring Kanye West) (4:45)
06. Kid Cudi - Dat New New (4:14)
07. Sigur Rós - Gobbledigook (3:07)
08. Terminus - Song for Laika (4:16)
09. Coldplay - Viva La Vida (4:03)
10. Taio Cruz - Come on Girl (Featuring Luciana) (3:33)
11. Karoline Hausted - Spooked (4:31)
12. X-Wife - On the Radio (3:21)
13. Bonnie Prince Billy - Easy Does it (3:53)
14. Cheap Time - People Talk (2:12)
15. Holy Hail - Cool Town Rock (3:59)
16. Bliss n Eso - Field of Dreams (Featuring Paris Wells) (3:24)
Mondo Salvo Mix CD 4
I like freeing this series up from the constraint of being monthly. Now, whenever I have a batch of 16 songs that seem to work well together, I can just put them out there without having to wait. Oh boy.
A lot of this stuff is so new to me that, when listening to the completed mix myself, I was surprised. This one definitely leans heavy on the dance/synth/beat side of the spectrum, although there are a few more traditionally rock and folkish inclusions. Jennifer O’Connor’s “Valley Road ‘86”, for instance, is a stunningly beautiful piece of childhood nostalgia about loss that has me anticipating her late-summer album release more than I would’ve expected.
Download. Enjoy. Comment.
01. Honey Claws - Beat of the Wet Eve (2:55)
02. Poppy & The Jezebels - UFO (3:30)
03. Naive New Beaters - Can’t Choose (4:02)
04. Rostam - Campus (2:22) ← You heard it here first!
05. Tommy Gee - Bring Da Funk Alive (3:44)
06. School of Seven Bells - Chain (4:24)
07. The Kills - Cheap and Cheerful (The Bloody Beetroots Remix) (4:40)
08. Friendly Fires - Paris (3:58)
09. Marching Band - Feel Good About it (2:51)
10. Freeform Five - No More Conversations (Mylo Radio Re-Edit) (3:12)
11. Bertine Zetlitz - Ashamed (3:58)
12. Speedmarket Avenue - Way Better Now (2:36)
13. Footloose - Zombie (3:58)
14. Karin Ström - Silent Night (Pacific! Remake) (3:47)
15. Metronomy - My Heart Rate Rapid (4:09)
16. Jennifer O’Connor - Valley Road ‘86 (3:07)
