As you may recall from our album review of Jason Amm aka Solvent‘s latest album Subject to Shift, we rather like the blips and bleeps of this album and it’s been getting some good play in our rotation as of late. And the lead single “Loss For Words”, a tale of the trials and tribulations of computer love, is one of the highlights. Fortunately for us, Solvent himself has given the track a more upbeat remix, so now there are even more ways to enjoy this tune. That’s never a bad thing. Check out the video with the original version of the track and then hit up the remix below.
As you hopefully recall, last month, we put together our first ever mixtape entitled A Blogwave Summer which was curated by 20 of our favorite music blogs, each contributing a track of their own and mixed together by none other than myself. Well, I had so much fun putting that together that I decided to do it again with a bunch of tracks of my choosing. There wasn’t really a theme at the onset, it was just a lot of mostly high energy (and, for the most part, extremely bright) tracks that I love, most of which I hadn’t heard until I started this site last May. When I gave it a listen this past weekend on a 4-hour solo drive up to Traverse City, I decided it made pretty great driving music, especially on a sunny day, and thus, Summer Drive was born.
I could have also very well called this mix dailybeatz 101, because for someone who doesn’t visit the site regularly, it’s a fantastic representation of exactly the type of music that we love here. In fact, most of these songs have been posted on this site at one point or another, so you may have heard many of them here already, but I must say there’s something to be said for the way that juxtaposition can really change the feel of a song.
Special thanks to CrystalSister whose picture I used for the mixtape artwork.
Just like last time, you can right click/save as the zip file below which includes the mix split into individual tracks as well as front and back covers. Or, you can download the full mix from the soundcloud player below (this is what I recommend as you are sure not to encounter any split second gaps between tracks which really hurt the flow) and you can save the front and back artwork from this post. Either way, I really hope you enjoy it as much as I do, and please please PLEASE let me know what you think. I apologize for naming every mixtape “summer” something, but it’s what I love, and what the music sounds like for me. Check out the track list below.
Or listen and download one continuous file from the Soundcloud player below (what I recommend) by clicking on the down arrow on the right side of the player.
Here’s a sample track from the mix that’s become one of my favorites the last few days. It’s the beautiful, flowing “We Ah Wi” by Javelin, which sounds like a breezy summer afternoon.
Jason Amm, better known as Solvent, has just left me with a rather large grin upon my face. His newest album Subject to Shift, released May 25, is his first in almost six years and a great argument for why it surely must not be his last. I did have a bit of a bias only because Ghostly International has such a great track record for top notch unique (mostly electronic) releases, but I hadn’t really heard anything from Solvent before, so I didn’t have much of a frame of reference. But what I got was a deep dive into the complexity, darkness(at times) and beauty of what can be created with analogue synthesizers, along with a great exercise in contrasts. I love musical contrasts.
On the one hand, you have the sinister “Take Me Home”, arguably the darkest track on the album, which almost sounds like Satan himself imploring you to take him home tonight, and then there’s the frenetic and anxious “Unknown Caller”. Yet directly alongside these tracks, there are a bevy of beautiful, major tunes. Like the opening “Elevator Up (Intro)” which starts out with the blips and bleeps I associate with Ghostly artists, but builds into a surprisingly beautiful, if not far too short, melody. And my personal star of the show, “A Product of the Process”, the song that literally put a smile on my face. It begins with a sort of house beat and sounds like it could be a darker tune, but then it builds into some of the most beautiful arpeggios I can remember, flowing and morphing throughout the first half of the track, becoming so jubilant and glorious that you can’t help but smile (and the key change in the second half of the song definitely doesn’t hurt the cause either) before withering away to nothing. And then there are the songs that you can’t quite put into either category like “Don’t Forget to Phone” which has the shuffle rhythm of Sam Sparro’s “Black and Gold” and an electronic riff reminiscent of Deastro’s “Light Powered”, but lands in the purgatory of this album of brightness and darkness. And if that’s not enough, the first single, “Loss for Words”, is even a contrast within itself, with its rich music being played atop sentimental lyrics of emptiness and doubt.
I think it’s these very contrasts that make this album feel so special and well-thought out to me. For some reason, this album felt very electronic, but the melodies were so clear and apparent that it seems like it might be a good step for someone who’s afraid of electronic music to show them that it’s not as scary as they think it is (although in this case, I probably wouldn’t play them “Take Me Home” first). Electronic music can be a lot more progressive than most people give it credit for (even though it is inherently progressive). I can only say that I’m looking forward to hearing many of these tracks live and in the flesh later this week. Another solid Ghostly release.
Dailybeatz is here to expose you to music that you may not hear otherwise. We do this by posting (at least) one song every day so there is always something new. We'll also be bringing you album reviews, interviews, and coverage of as many local shows as humanly possible.
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If you're interested in guest writing or have questions, comments, or awesome suggestions, you can contact us at chris [at] dailybeatz [dot] com. All songs are posted for sampling purposes only and links to purchase songs are provided when possible. If you are an artist or label and would like your songs or images to be removed, please email us at the address above and we will remove immediately.
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