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Thanks & An Introduction
Musicophilia seems to have had an electronic guardian angel: in a little over 24 hours, the blog has had over 3,000 visits, with over 500 mixes downloaded! This one day now accounts for nearly one quarter of all the traffic Musicophilia has recieved in its just-over-two-months existence. This means a whole lot of people have potentially heard music they hadn’t before, which is the mission of the blog, and that’s exciting. So I can only say, thank you! And welcome to all the new visitors (look here for what I set out to do with Musicophilia). You were directed here for the ‘1981‘ mixes (of which there are at leats four more to be posted), and I am very proud of that project and happy to see it have a second life years after its original release. But I would also encourage you to check out some of the other mixes and series going here, which I’ll introduce below the “more…” link—please take a look.
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Current Mixes and Series
The ‘Miniatures : Post-Punk‘ series is the most obvious next choice, expanding beyond ’81 to cover a wide range of post-punk sound, but all via tracks that are less than 2 minutes in length, and mixes averaging around 30 minutes. You would probably also enjoy the ‘Post Post-Punk‘ mix, which explores the ethos and aesthetics post-punk as they were undertaken after 1982. But my most recent mixing has focused on the predecessor to post-punk in terms of fecundity, breadth and just-plain-cool: the post-funk, post-psych developments of the late 60s and espcially the early 70s, the origins of breakbeats, great basslines, great string arrangements, no cheeze, proto-punk, soundtrack funk, library sounds, sophisticated pop, Krautrock, early prog, top-shelf singer-songwriter and folk, early electropop; all effortlessly artful. These sounds are found in the ‘Le Tour du Monde‘ series, which are crafted as “lost gem” LP sets; and the related ‘Les Miniatures‘ series, which again focuses on very brief tracks and short mixes, perfect for the morning train ride or a lunch break. My pet projects of the last few years, made for people whose addiction to music is overleaping traditional forms, those who love sound itself, are the ‘Sensory Replacement Series‘ mixes, which attempt to create truly immersive landscapes of sound, drawing from any and all musical sources, and involving extensive remixing, pairing, segueing, effects, and editing to create the hopefully cohesive whole. I’ve also posted a few of my own albums.
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Upcoming Mixes
There are several projects in varying states of completion right now, including several finished ‘Les Miniatures’ mixes; two full ‘Le Tour du Monde’ mixes moving into the mid-70s; two new ‘Miniatures : Lullaby‘ mixes featuring an eclectic mix of simple beauty; an exploration of early electropop; another focusing on musique concrete and early electro-acoustic experimentation and tape manipulation; and an introduction to some of my favorite music from the vast Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project (which I heartily recommend you check out) and other early 20th Century music. Just last night I put together a mix I’m really excited about, called ‘Evil Gris-Gris,’ which will hopefully be part of a cross-post with my friend Ettiem at his burgeoning Gris-Gris On Your Doorstep blog. I’m also really excited to announce a new Musique du Monde label series: ‘Les Rythmes du Monde,’ which will take the globe-spanning approach of Musique into the late 70s and early 80s, covering top disco, electro-disco, early House, synth-pop, with a little DNW, New Wave, and post-punk in the mix.
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Communication
So if any of that sounds interesting, you might want to subscribe to Musicophilia to make it easy to know when new mixes are released (I plan on at least one a week for the forseeable future). And if you have a moment, you could help me out by participating in the recent Musicophilia Poll to help me better know my listeners. Of course, comments are always very much appreciated—it’s apparent my mixes are now being heard, but it’s always great to know that they’re also being enjoyed. You also might find a lot of great first-source, non-mixed music at the blogs and friends I’ve linked to the right (I know I have); and as always, I hope you will take free mp3 blogs as motivation to buy good music, so I’ve linked to some of my favorite shops, and they all need our support. Finally, if you’re a serious mix-maker or have a blog of your own, I’d be thrilled to have you guest- or co-blog here at Musicophilia, or to do a mix-swap at your blog, so please get in touch. I hope you’ll look around, and stick around—it’s a fun time to be addicted to sound. Thank you!
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