This week’s selects are heavily influenced by my move to London in 2014 and all the new music I discovered from chatting with friends and being exposed to a new city and culture.
It’s amazing how much you can tie life experiences with the music you’re listening to at the time. My “return to 2014” came about as a result of Jamie xx popping up on a playlist I was listening to. I then started reminiscing and listening to more music from that time.
The good news is that this list is not just a nostalgia trip for me. There are some fresh new tracks and some classics thrown into the mix as well.
So, why don’t you go ahead and check it out?
If you still want to listen to last week’s tracks, you can see what was included here.
If you like what you hear, then please hit that ‘Follow’ button on the playlist on Spotify and follow along!
Remember – I’ll also happily include your music, so please send links my way!
Now, without further ado, here’s the breakdown of Stephen’s Selects #10: December 2nd – 8th…
- Aphex Twin – ‘Avril 14th’
Well, this is just a lovely piece of music. As an artist, Aphex Twin’s music crosses a lot of genres and is mostly electronic. This is a very nice, simple, ambient piano piece. It was recorded using a Disklavier, which is a piano that is able to read MIDI data programmed on a computer. That means you can “play” the acoustic piano without actually being able to play it. That could be a game changer for you if you don’t have mad keyboard skills! This track was also sampled in Kanye West’s ‘Blame Game’ from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. - Jamie xx – ‘Sleep Sound’
I liked The xx before I moved to London but within my first few months of living here, I was given a real introduction to Jamie xx. ‘Sleep Sound’ was released in 2014 and I already loved ‘Take Care’. I just hadn’t realised they both came from the same producer. ‘Sleep Sound’ creates a dreamy, lush soundscape with lots of creative vocal effects. If you want to learn how to chop up vocal samples and use them as synths, pads and beats, then this track is a wonderful example. - Jon Hopkins – ‘Open Eye Signal’
My first encounter with Jon Hopkins was back in 2008. I was living in Boston and Coldplay’s Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends had just been released. I especially loved the intro and outro of that album and what I had yet to discover was that both ‘Life in Technicolor’ and ‘Death and All His Friends’ contain strong samples of Jon Hopkins’ ‘Light Through The Veins’. He worked with Coldplay and Brian Eno quite a bit on that album. His long, evolving pieces of music draw you in and take your full attention for as long as they last. I didn’t really go in heavy on Jon Hopkins’ music until 2014 once again, when I started to listen to ‘Open Eye Signal’ and Immunity a lot. I was also lucky to witness this track performed live in a packed club in Brixton… an experience I highly recommend! - The Weeknd – ‘Heartless’
A new track by The Weeknd. It’s a simple theme… a man returning to his playboy lifestyle after a number of relationships. No need to make things complicated! The kick drum on this track really stands out to me. If you make beats, then you’ll know the challenge involved with trying to make your kick drum sound like it’s coming out of the speakers without interfering with the vocals or the rest of the music. The producers and mixing engineer managed to complete that task with style. - Nao, A.K. Paul – ‘So Good’
Another 2014 London track! This one was introduced to me by my friend Gavin (along with a lot of other music) and put the Paul brothers on my radar. It was around this time that I stopped thinking about having all of my music sounding pristine and “on the grid”. The loose feel and the general vibe of ‘So Good’ really resonated with me and always stuck with me as a reference for how everything doesn’t have to be “perfect”… whatever that is! - U2, A.R. Rahman – ‘Ahimsa’
The composer from Slumdog Millionaire and U2 collaborating? Sure, why not. U2 will play their first ever show in India on December 15th 2019. This is a song about non-violence and love. It resonated with me, so I want to share it with you. - Caribou – ‘Can’t Do Without You’
More music from 2014! This is another one of my favourite “London tracks”. I saw Caribou perform live at Citadel festival in Victoria Park on the same day I saw Sigur Rós. Now that was an experience! Dan Snaith is the man behind Caribou and I really love the drums and percussion on ‘Can’t Do Without You’. Another very interesting trick is the filter on the song from the very beginning all the way up to a minute and a half into the song. There is very little low/high-end and it’s mostly midrange until that point. It just goes to show you how important the midrange is in music mixing. - Rihanna – ‘Diamonds’
I was listening to my reference set today and fell in love with the production on this song once again. I especially love the use of delay in the mix. Phil Tan’s mix of ‘Diamonds’ is one of my favourites for vocal delay. Listen to the words “shooting star” and what happens at that moment… a superb reflection of the song lyrics in the mix and a mixing engineer staying true to the intention of the song.. - David Bowie – ‘Heroes’
King Crimson were included in last week’s playlist. This week’s list features the iconic guitar playing of Robert Fripp (King Crimson’s guitarist) on ‘Heroes’. Would it have been the same track without his spacey playing combined with Brian Eno’s synths? This song is a timeless classic and I love it. I’m sure you’ve heard the story already but Tony Visconti also used a great mic technique when recording the vocals. They were recorded on 3 mics. One up close, one 15-20 feet away and one almost 50 feet away. There was a gate on both the middle and distant microphones that opened based on how loud David Bowie sang. Throughout the first verse, you only hear the close mic. As things progress and you hear verse 4, you can hear the middle and distant microphones. Natural reverb genius! - Queen – ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’
As I have been growing a moustache throughout November for charity, many people have compared my look to Freddie Mercury. If only I had an ounce of his talent! This one has been included for the pure fun of it. But in terms of music mixing and production, have a listen to how the piano is panned and the snare drum treatment. The snare drum keeps the whole piece moving and it’s very prominent in the mix.Click here to listen to the full playlist on Spotify!
(Please note that the link will send you to the playlist of the current week and might not feature the tracks listed above!)
So, that’s week nine of Stephen’s Selects.
Remember that if you like what you hear, then please hit that ‘Follow’ button on Spotify and follow along!
If you’d like to have your song featured or have any recommendations, drop me a comment below or email. Let’s talk more about the music we’re listening to and share our ideas!
Now, I’d love to know…
What are you listening to this week? What are you working on? Have anything you’d like to share?
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