OÍR / May 2024 Mixtape

Highlights the beautiful flaws and organic sounds of music recording

Download the the mixtape here →

Mixtapes like the one I’m sharing with you today are my absolute favorites. They form from a random starting point, then snake and meander in surprising ways, until after hours of listening, editing, fine-tuning, I end up with a mixtape I never expected.

This impetus mix was going to be “cool new upbeat songs I’m loving rn” but then I heard Claire Rousay’s new album ‘Sentiment’, and the track “it could be anything” became the impetus for an entirely different blend of tracks. Claire’s approach to music is often taking “found” or recorded bits of audio, a very fly on the wall approach, and then melding and incorporating those bites into the music she creates. This is something I’ve experimented with in mixtapes from years past, and so, I’ve made a mix that highlights the beautiful flaws and organic sounds of music recording.

Starting with Claire’s song, this led me to Paul McCartney and Animal Collective, as well as a field recording I took in Sitges. My brain connects things in funny ways. From there, I ended up building things in a backwards manner, adding songs after this trio to build out the end, and then figuring out the front after that. So in a sense, those pieces I first mentioned were a core for the mix, with other songs vining from outward from there.

I did end up including a lot of new music that I’ve been loving lately, like tracks from Cindy Lee and Vampire Weekend and Geotic, and selections from the latest Julie Byrne and Yo La Tengo records. And then it’s a lot of favorites that sprang to mind, or that felt like other tracks that I’d already picked. Even deep cuts like a live performance by Beirut of “Nantes” on Black Radio from 2007, or a random song from that last MBV album that I feel like everyone forgot about. I have to say, this is like a dream two-day concert line-up, like, could you imagine?! Don’t forget, you can always access all of the OÍR mixtapes by clicking here.

Hope you enjoy the mix, and happy Mayday 💙