Head {_} Music

A personal blog with some more directed posts about a love for sharing music, and relaxation. A unique song is posted each week relating to my own state of mind and headspace.

[headspacemixtape-blog]

L(OST) in Sound: “Night in the Woods” Soundtrack by Alex Holowka

So this is the new heading that I’ll be sharing some of my favourite original soundtracks under. In some cases it’ll be themed, include an entire soundtrack, or just one or two songs from a movie, game, T.V. show or otherwise. 

This first one reminds me of home... not much more I can say. 

Something about this just penetrates to my core. It could be that this whole game strikes several chords with me as a 20-something from a smallish town, but I just find it very mellowing nonetheless. 

This game also has dream sequences (reality bending sequences in games are a favoured trope of mine), and it has a suitably incredible layered musical number, actually a few of them, to accompany the dreamy parts of the game. The source for this one was crafty enough to include the buildup. 

This game seemed to have something of an unconventional approach to music, it has one of the largest (by length anyway) original soundtracks I’ve ever seen and I could easily include a ton more, but instead I’d suggest playing the game to support very talented folks behind it or picking up the soundtrack here.

[headspacemixtape-blog]

Week 10: “Blues Berry Jam” by The Sizlacks & B-SIDE: “Monster Peninsula” also by The Sizlacks (And some stuff about Liam Dee)

So… now ten weeks into the year, a lot of stuff has happened, and it’s upon this reflection that these two songs really seemed to find a nice little fold in my brain to chill out for a little bit.

The first, the one that more accurately fits my state of mind over the last seven days is the amazingly named “Blues berry Jam”, though arguably not really that bluesy. I found myself just humming some of the riffs to myself while doing everything from making coffee in the morning to walking around  the streets of Toronto where I live.

It’s a song that’s got some sort of action tied to it, some kind of event that I really can’t quite put my finger on. Late night game of pool with friends maybe? A montage of evening travel with flashes of orange streetlights through bus windows? Either way, this song is definitely a night-time Jam.

Now I felt like I really did need to include the next one as well, and I’ll probably make a habit of doing this in the future. It was a really tough choice for which song I was going to do this week, and it’s not that I throw out a list of runner ups from one week to the other, but by the next week the time has typically passed and I’m then I’m onto something else. Either way, here’s the incredible “Monster Peninsula”, a similarly “riffy” song that I atleast have had stuck in my brain for a while.

I hope it is now more apparent why these songs are companions in this post.

It’s also worth mentioning that all of the tracks that The Sizlacks have on Youtube feature artwork by the phenomenal Liam Dee, and it’s all pretty sweet, so anyone reading this should go look.

Well that wraps week 10.

Lastly, I’m looking for some suggestions on the name of a segment specifically about original soundtracks from movies, video games, plays, shows and really ambitious novels. Preferably something either vaguely pun-like or with some reference to antiquated music media or radio.

[headspacemixtape-blog]

Week 9: “Shout” by Tears for Fears

This is another one of those situations where really on the fence. Everyone’s probably heard this song at some point, so it’s not really a song that’s “new to me”. Nonetheless, it’s a pretty sweet tune, and it’s easy to understand how it’s lasted at least a little in the public consciousness. 

This one definitely stuck with me because I was rocking out to it with a friend while we were making some amazing steak fajitas on Friday night. But I mean that was the novel experience of the week, and I don’t think I’ll be able to break the association of this song, and making delicious mexican food with friends for a long time to come. 

[headspacemixtape-blog]

Facelift

I’ve finally made a proper avatar and I’ll probably be making a banner in a similar style at some point in the future. If anyone’s interested, this is a 3D render of a neon sign.

[headspacemixtape-blog]

Week 8: “Prelude to Shona” by Jake Chudnow

This is a weird one in the best possible way. The song feels gigantic in a sense, like everything is just slowly unfolding. 

If that sounded at all familiar, it’s by the artist that does all of the background music for Vsauce and it’s affiliated channels. I think this one may have stuck with me this week because the long drawn out synth was the only thing that could penetrate my congested skull, I’ve been pretty sick. But yeah, Jake Chudnow has some excellent stuff if you’re into electronic and synth stuff. 

[headspacemixtape-blog]

Week 7: “White Hidden Fire” by Weird Owl

It may become a bit more apparent over the coming months, but I’ve always had a soft spot for long form tantric rock. There’s just something about it, some kind of echo from some long time ago. 

I also recommend the bands “Mirage” and “The Sizlacks”, for more of that pulsating oil and water vibe, expect them to show up either a “B-side” or “Rewind” post. 

[headspacemixtape-blog]

Week 5: “Heliosphan” by Aphex Twin, Week 6: “Leftside Drive” by Boards of Canada [and] ◀◀Rewind: “Affection” by Cigarettes after Sex

Well... holy hell. The last couple of weeks have been kind of insane at school, so it seems appropriate to just sit down and enjoy some good music. At time of writing, this is technically week 7, and I should have something up around saturday, maybe sooner. 

First off, a seemingly nostalgic electronic song that’s reminiscent of racing and action video games from the late 90′s or early 2000′s. 

I like this one because it feels almost “sneaky” in nature, like I should be watching a heist unfold in front of me. It speaks well to thoroughly contemplated and executed action I feel. 

The Next one is a bit more mellow, though of a similar era. I’ve had some Boards of Canada stuff up here before, and though this may not be my favourite of theirs it’s got the kernel of something cool about it. 

Pretty chill really. I find that it’s got this weird similarity with the song “cherry blossom Girl” by AIR. Almost like the lyrics from that could be put to this. I would definitely classify this as a 5am type of song, a soundtrack to the sunrise. 

Finally, a song I’m bringing back from around april of last year. For some reason I found myself humming it on the bus this past week. It’s very echoey and almost sobering. 

I think a comment on this one on youtube really hits the nail on the head; this is a song that you would dance with your partner to at 2 in the morning after many years of being together. A wordless way of saying I love you. It’s worth mentioning that I don’t necessarily agree with some of the subtext in this song, but I do love it’s tone. 

[oocphysicsquotes]

We don’t want the results of our experiment in CERN to depend on what Ming the Merciless may or may not be having for breakfast over on the far side of the Galaxy.

out-of-context physics quotes (via oocphysicsquotes)

*has waffles* *gravitational constant for earth doubles*

[headspacemixtape-blog]

Project Hangover

Project Hangover (noun); The feeling that manifests after a major project has reached completion, especially in the event of... this really doesn’t need explanation. God I’m tired. 

In the event that someone actually sees this, I’ve just spent the last couple of days working on a particularly large and dense project. There were tears, laughter, scarf conversations and mortal despair with my 5 other colleagues working on it. I hope that this doesn’t become too much of a repeat experience. 

Besides that, the past week was another roller coaster, but one that actually went pretty smoothly near the end, despite project debacle. We will return to the regularly scheduled programming shortly. 

Have a good one, and I hope you have a nice week!

[headspacemixtape-blog]

◀◀Rewind: “Dayvan Cowboy” by Boards of Canada

I found this band in the beginning of last December, they’ve got all sorts of instrumental tracks ranging from very “music like” to ambient. 

For whatever reason, this one always imparts an intense feeling of focus and workmanlike inspiration. It worked particularly well when I was studying for finals and was having a difficult time mustering the motivation to work. Beyond that, It’s got that great “coming into focus vibe” which was a theme of a few songs from 2016, and a really neat found-footage music video of someone skydiving from the Karman Line or “the edge of space”. 

[headspacemixtape-blog]

Almost

This was one of those weird weeks where I couldn’t really make up my mind as to what I wanted to listen to, and didn’t really have the time or motivation to do the usual ritual by which I pick something. I almost made this about 6 different songs, there was a beetles song, Phil Collins, some covers of 80′s music, a Black Keys song but it just felt like trying to pick something for the sake of having something rather than because it actually fit. 

Minuscule and inconsequential as a personal/music blog is in the grand scheme of things, I think it’s important to always remember why you’re doing something or making a decision and not let the climate around that decision dictate too much about it. 

In this case, this is all supposed to be about both celebrating a humanized love of something while also earmarking certain moments of time. Any time I listen to the songs in the future, it lends some perspective, and remind me what’s changed. 

I hope whoever’s reading this has a nice week!

[headspacemixtape-blog]

Week 4: “My Trigger” by Miike Snow

It’s weird that I didn’t really want to post this one, I guess because it seems to much like “pop” music, but frankly that’s not a good enough reason not to. It’s been a stressful couple of days for me and I think something fun is what I needed. I apologize if this becomes your next ear-worm. 

[headspacemixtape-blog]

Week 3: “Home at last” by Homeshake

And now, we’re all caught up. This is a bit more chill, and just about how I felt dragging myself home the last couple days.

[headspacemixtape-blog]

Week 2: “Where is My Mind” by The Pixies

More than anything else, this proves that I’m guilty of never seeing Fight Club. It’s on my must see list before the end of the year. Promise. This seemed fitting for the first week in my new apartment... which was last week. I’ll be caught up by Friday for sure.  

[headspacemixtape-blog]

Week 1: “Into Dust” by Mazzy Star

The year 2016 was full of many ups and downs in my personal life, so in a way I’m glad to see it go. Something about the somber tone of this one without going full blown melancholy just seemed to fit the mood, the perfect end credits song for the year. Here’s hoping for a more uplifting 2017.

[headspacemixtape-blog]

WHERE IS MY MIND? [Intro]

Seriously though, have you seen it? I can’t find it dude, this is problematic. This is the freshly minted head-space music mix tape blog thing. Around once a week, I’ll be posting a song that (at-least personally) embodies my state of mind at the time of posting. I can’t guarantee that it’s all going to be the best music ever, but the point is that it’ll be a unique song that I (prior to that week) had not heard, listened to often, or heard recently. 

I have been using this as something of a weird form of journal keeping for the last 9 and a bit months, and thought that the practice could be well suited to a blog.