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2018 – Electromagnetic Thermal Orgasmic

You are probably aware by now that I’ve changed things up a bit by delivering this year’s mix on a USB drive as opposed to the traditional CD format. The idea for this first occurred to me while working on last year’s mix and struggling to get a printer working that could print the CD’s. I started thinking about how many people may still have a CD player as a convenient option with the prevalence of downloadable digital files. I know the first thing that I do with a new CD is rip the songs into a digital format and then rarely use the CD again. And to do that requires pulling out a separate CD drive since they’re rarely built into computers these days. Ultimately, I started to think about what would be the most convenient media format and concluded that perhaps that would be a USB drive.

This does not come without certain drawbacks, mainly keeping the songs in the proper listening order. In theory, as long as you sort the songs by album in your chosen media player it should be fine, but if not you would need to sort the songs manually based on the song listing. Another issue is that there is no restriction to how long this mix could be as I didn’t have the space restriction that comes with a CD. After working through several iterations of the mix I found that cutting songs improved the overall experience. So regardless of how many songs I want to share, it seems that limiting these mixes to around 20 songs is going to be the right length. Anything more than that would be fatiguing for all of us.

There’s a great variety of music on this mix and I think you’ll find a lot to like.

Go to this page if for some reason the artwork isn’t showing up in your playback software.

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Faithless
Flyte
The Loved Ones

I wasn’t sure about using this song to open this mix, but after trying a couple of other songs as openers this one seemed to fit better than the rest. This year’s collection of songs seems to have more religious overtones than normal (not by design) so that lends more credence to this song as the opener.

Check out the video.

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Money
Caroline Rose
Loner

I like the groove on this song. I hope we hear more from this artist as she’s a multiple instrumentalist playing guitar and drums on most of her self produced album.

Here’s the video.

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We’ve Got Love
Calan Mai
We’ve Got Love

This is a cheerful sounding song about a not so happy family, but it’s brimming with optimism.

This is the first of several tracks on this mix that I was unable to get on CD. That seems to be the nature of some of the new music coming out now. No need to spend money producing CD’s when your songs can be downloaded. To my knowledge this song doesn’t appear on any album yet released.

The video helps explain some of the song.

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In Times Like This
Black Prophet
Ifreeka Riddim

Time for a little reggae. Stay calm everyone, it will get better.

Another song that I could not get on CD. It doesn’t seem to appear on any of Black Prophet’s albums, though you can find him performing it live in some videos.

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Funeral For My Future Children
Anna Von Hausswolff
Ceremony

This is a really cool song. It’s not often we hear the pipe organ in pop music. I had a hard time tracking this CD down, but it was worth it for this song.

Here’s a good video she did for NPR.

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Testify
DAVIE
Black Gospel Vol. 1

Great groove on this song. The bass line is fantastic. You can see the fun he’s having in this video.

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One Big White Nightmare
Churchwood
Hex City

Something about this song with its slightly Cajun hard rock sound.

The only video I can find of these guys performing this was at some public library event. It’s about a raw as a public performance gets.

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Black Man In America
Andre Cymone
1969

Another song with a catchy groove. This one will get stuck in your head. You don’t need the video to show what this song’s about.

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Exhale
Jenny Reynolds
Next To You

I find this song soothing.

Here’s a nice live version.

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Best Friend
Fastball
Step Into Light

A catchy, light pop song. This sounds like ti could be a Steve Miller song. The whole album is a great listen. These guys have been around for 20 years, so I’m surprised they’re not more widely known.

Fun low-budget video.

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Careful You
TV On The Radio
Seeds