As I said when I posted the extended cut of my Radio Paralelo3 set last week, I’ve been wanting to use the newsletter as a platform to post my own mixes every now and then. It’s not that I’m trying to promote myself as a DJ. But as a listener and a critic, I feel like I think differently about music when I’m mixing it, and I’d like to share that perspective, and that process.
A mix is very different from a playlist. A playlist is just a list; you don’t even really need to listen to the songs in order to make one, at least not all the way through. A DJ mix, on the other hand, is a form of engaged listening, practiced in real time—you’re locked into the music’s movements, thinking about how each track works and how the next selection might slot into it.
For that very reason, I’m trying to spend more time on my turntables and CDJs—get my hands on the music, as it were. For the last eight years, I’d gotten out of the habit. Parenting and work took up the majority of my time. I never set up my studio in the house we moved into when we arrived on the island, figuring it would be a temporary situation; it ended up lasting four years.
But if I’m honest, I have to admit that I’ve gotten complacent—lazy, even. I do most of my listening through my computer, via my local Apple Music library (some 8TB worth). That’s better than streaming, but I’m coming to feel that there’s still something passive about it that bothers me. Maybe it’s because it’s tied to the computer, an overwhelmingly visual device. Listening to music on the computer, my eyes look for things to do. If I’m feeling diligent, I chip away at my email; most of the time, I scroll mindlessly. In both cases, my mind often wanders, and I lose the track of what I’m listening to.
So this is the first (or second, if you count last week’s Radio Paralelo3 set) of what I hope will become a regular feature here on the newsletter, of more or less casual, off-the-cuff mixes, typically (but not always) based around recent and upcoming releases. I’m calling it Eavesdropping—in part because it’s recorded in my attic studio, literally under the eaves, but I also like the idea that the mixes will be a form of listening in on my own listening.
This one’s largely ambient in nature, though it wanders widely within that definition. There’s beatless radiance from Rosy Parlane and Hashman Deejay (under his alias Musicentrydelete); shifting synthscapes from Raica, Mor Elian, and Danz CM; murkier, woozier moods from Aylu, In Transit (aka Dave Huismans, aka A Made Up Sound, 2562, ex_libris), PVAS, Carlos Giffoni, and 1KW; and even a few actual beats—but never overpowering ones—from Carrier and Lifted’s Jeremy Hyman.
It all wraps up with a track off one of my most anticipated albums this fall: fingerstyle guitarist Shane Parish covering Autechre’s “Yulquen,” from Autechre Guitar, an entire album of his steel-string interpretations of the UK duo that’s forthcoming from Bill Orcutt’s Palilalia label. It’s a thing of beauty, perhaps all the more so because it seems like it shouldn’t have been possible to create in the first place. I’ll be running a full interview with him in another month or two.
Scroll on for the full (downloadable) mix, along with an annotated tracklisting.
This issue is for paying subscribers, as a thank you for your ongoing support. Paid subscriptions are $5 a month or $50 a year; perks include exclusive playlists for chilling and clubbing (now available on Deezer as well as Apple Music and Spotify); the ongoing Mixes Digest series; and full access to the archives, including interviews with Steve Hauschildt, Call Super, Avalon Emerson, Anthony Naples, Seefeel, Fennesz, and more.
