The fourth entry in the retrospective series is a fun, if slightly overthought, stream-of-consciousness mix containing, as always, a bunch of tunes I know like the back of my hand and others I've grown to love over the past 30 years, built across six parts. Contains samples from 'From Dusk Til Dawn', 'Fargo', 'Scream' & 'The Rock'.
Structurally, it's similar to the 2025 mix — right down to giving Swans an awful amount of real estate (a track I have no idea what I would have thought about in '96) — sure, I could have put in something shorter, but have you heard it?! How could I not put it in?
Side A
Introductory Disclaimer — Pitchshifter
People Of The Sun — Rage Against The Machine
Intro [Excerpt] — Dr. Octagon
El Phantasmo And The Chicken Run Blast-O-Rama (Wine, Women And Song Mix) — White Zombie
The Beautiful People — Marilyn Manson
General Hospital — Dr. Octagon
Drag The Waters — Pantera
Pepper — Butthole Surfers
The Punk Suite
Everything Is… (Second Hand Sample) — Neutral Milk Hotel
Coffee Mug — Descendents
It’s Not O.K. — Refused
Just Flesh — Turbonegro
Do It Quick — Snuff
The State Lottery — Propagandhi
Jet Ski — Bikini Kill
Hermit — Bracket
The Punk Piano, Sing-a-long Suite
(Harmless) Interlude — Pitchshifter
Professional Againster — New Bomb Turks
Volcano — The Presidents of the United States of America
El Scorcho — Weezer
Side B
The MTV Suite
Criminal — Fiona Apple
Mother Mother — Tracy Bonham
Sucked Out — Superdrag
Swallowed — Bush
Popular — Nada Surf
The spoken word suite
The Distance — Cake
Fire Water Burn — Bloodhound Gang
The epic closer suite
Blow Up The Outside World — Soundgarden
The Sound — Swans
PB038 — The Machine is Disgusting and We Should Break It
Following last year's 'make a playlist a month' mission, I set out this year to do the same thing, whilst making a conscious effort to actually listen to everything properly; so this year, I made Thursday's 'album review nights' and started making notes for every album added to the monthly rotation playlist (this year I've gone a little further still - putting in proper reviews on my Record Club profile).
Additionally, I began re-listening to everything again, one album at a time, starting in September, making notes into a Medium doc with various ideas and what tracks could go with others etc.
The resulting mix is again a bit overthought, and there's a lot of stuff I couldn't get in (mainly due to the second part's inclusion of Very Long Songs), but it's a really solid mix. Whilst there's no real concept, there are elements of the mix that bind it together.
Every year, the mix is built differently - there's never been a tried and tested method. Sometimes it's done by making a 3-hour mix and cutting it down, sometimes I work backwards, other times it's just a bit of an improvised thing. This year, I had a pretty clear idea of the beginning and end but also a strong contender for something to go in at the 30-minute mark. I then built around these three markers, which went a little more smoothly than I thought.
Side A contains the most tracks I've used in a long while, using a holy trinity of Jenny Hval, Anna von Hausswolff, and Ethel Cain to bring the atmospherics (reprised later through the mix) before launching into Norway's finest. From there, it's a metal/grindcore extravaganza, slowing with Big|Brave (included because it sounds like Blood, Milk & Sky by White Zombie). I was toying with using just the sample from 'Unto Others,' but chose to use it in full, making it easier to get to 'Janky Teeth' - another non-negotiable for inclusion.
Side B is really one big closer - having seen Swans this year and the fact that Rope/Away sounds loads like Lift to Experience, I was always going to have to take the 18-minute or so hit. The transition from that into the actual closer, 'Winona' is one of the best things I've done and, really, was a bit of dumb luck. But whatever, I'll take it.
Tracklist below. Links to the Mixcloud & download at the bottom of the post. Also, put a Spotify link containing all the individual tracks that went into it. The Mixcloud link will probably be up for a couple of years and then will most likely get moved to drafts (I'm not paying for that shit).
Side A — The Old World Is Dying
I Want To Start At The Beginning - Jenny Hval
The Beast - Anna von Hausswolff
Willoughby’s Theme - Ethel Cain
I Couldn’t Find The Light - Claire Rousay
Wood Teeth (Second-Hand Sample) - Doseone / Height Keech
Alt Går Over, Noe Varer / Schäfer - Honningbarna
My Garden - Agriculture
A Eight Ball And Two Million Dollars - Genophobic Perversion
Gluttenous Eulogy Of Gastroenteritis - Lipoma
The Difference Between You And Me, Is I Never Got Caught - Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Maryland Mansion - Usurp Synapse
New York City (Feat. Yoshiko Ohara) - Imperial Triumphant
Prognosis Terrible - Endless Swarm
Scarcity Is Fake (Communist Propaganda) - Lambrini Girls
Zen And The Art Of Scene Maintenance - Give Over
Somehow - Claire Rousay
Innominate No. vii - Big|Brave
Falmouth Electrics - Half Man Half Biscuit
Unto Others - Doseone / Height Keech
John Something - Aesop Rock
The Airport Interlude / Ben Whalen Phonk [Puking Up Bullshit Smash Cut] - Heisenherg
Janky Teeth - Buck 65
Bouncing In Blue - Pile
Side B — The New World Struggles To Be Born
Willoughby’s Interlude - Ethel Cain
Spirit Mist - Jenny Hval
Struggle With The Beast - Anna von Hausswolff
You Can Have It All - Florence + The Machine
Environmental Catastrophe Film - La Dispute
I Want The End To Sound Like This - Jenny Hval
Rope/Away - Swans
The Beast [Reprise] - Anna Von Hausswolff
Willoughby’s Theme [Reprise] - Ethel Cain
Winona - Deafheaven
Snail Zero (Excerpt) - Aesop Rock
A Message From Ms. Matronic - Scissor Sisters
Back To A Website - Homestarrunnerdotcom
The booklet follows last year's structure with a different typographic layout. I've been pushing this style for a while now, and it's getting to feel like I've got that Sacred Bones type thing going on, so maybe i'll stick to this for a while (we'll see though).
It's made from a mix of GF Smith Colorplan, GF Smith Accent Recycled, GF Smith Colorplan Extracted, GF Smith Zen & Gmund Hemp. The typeface is purely Alte Haas Grotesk - manually condensed.
Images for the book - including the cover are from:
izzy806
titsay
dailybridgerton
discoholicmusic
andulkaphoto
origamiaround