Augustus Pablo Mixtape

Well, it's summer; and summer means lying out in the sun; and lying out in the sun means listening to some chill dub; and listening to some chill dub means listening to Augustus Pablo. (Wow, what an opening sentence.) I've been thinking about this playlist for a while, and I briefly thought I was going to do a less specific, anything-goes dub mix with numerous artists on it, but then I thought, how can I deny Augustus Pablo the attention? After all, to me, he *is* dub. Maybe later on, I'll do further dub mixes which incorporate more than one producer.

This mix borrows a lot from King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown, one of my absolute favourite records, although I've tried to spread the load over a lot of his selections. As with dub in general, there are some prominently recurring musical motifs, in this case the killer 'King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown' / 'Baby I Love You So' / 'Black Gunn' and 'Silent Satta' / 'Satta Dub' melodies. So all that's left is the listing. I hope you enjoy this one:

1. Satta Dub (King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown)
2. El Rockers (El Rocker's)
3. 555 Dub Street (King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown)
4. East Of The River Nile (East Of The River Nile)
5. Up Warika Hill (Original Rockers)
6. King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown (King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown)
7. Silent Satta (El Rocker's)
8. Hot & Cold (The Great Pablo)
9. Memories Of The Ghetto (East Of The River Nile)
10. Sahara Rock (The Essential Augustus Pablo)
11. Skanking Dub (King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown)
12. Far East (The Essential Augustus Pablo)
13. Unfinished Melody (East Of The River Nile)
14. Stop There Jah (King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown)
15. Black Gunn (El Rocker's)

Tom Waits Mixtape (Mellow)

Here's one I've been meaning to do for a while, but as you'll know if you're even partially familiar with Tom Waits, he's not the easiest of characters to define.

And as with anyone of that ilk, I find myself going through phases related to individual clusters of his previous albums. Sometimes I'll like his early, croonish, folkier output with just him and a piano, and other times I'll be more drawn towards the insane stuff where it sounds instead like he's shouting into a megaphone while banging on a nearby pipe with a wrench. Of course, those are just the two most notable extremes of his remarkably unique body of work.

Judging from the shortlist of songs I made for this mix, it looks like I'm currently in the former of the two aforementioned phases. So this mix has a comparatively gentle feel to it, with the earlier blues-styles from Closing Time, The Heart Of Saturday Night, and Blue Valentine, and even the eerie, dour fairytales of Alice, pulling focus. Maybe when I'm feeling so-inclined, I'll come up with a less reserved selection of alternate Tom Waits songs from the raucous megaphone/wrench camp.

Without further stalling, here's the mellow Tom Waits tracklist:

1. New Coat Of Paint (The Heart Of Saturday Night)
2. Please Call Me, Baby (The Early Years Vol. 2)
3. Alice (Alice)
4. Time (Rain Dogs)
5. All The World Is Green (Blood Money)
6. I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You (Closing Time)
7. Gun Street Girl (Rain Dogs)
8. Blue Valentines (Blue Valentine)
9. The Part You Throw Away (Blood Money)
10. No One Knows I'm Gone (Alice)
11. I Want You (The Early Years Vol. 2)
12. Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis (Blue Valentine)

XTC Mixtape

To be honest, the reason it's taken me so long to get around to uploading the tracklisting for this mixtape, for Swindon New Wavers XTC, is that I haven't been able to find a decent profile photo of the band to go along with it, who seem instead to have all but disappeared from the face of the internet (or, more likely, been drowned under a sea of other sites trying to sell me party pills).

That aside, they cracked out some of the best pop records of the 70s and 80s, combining impressive musical subtlety with comforting pop sensibilities. Needless to say, I immediately regretted not taking their career-retrospective singles collection, Fossil Fuel, away to New Zealand with me, and listening to it again was among my top priorities on my return.

All of the following songs are singles, and so can be found on the aforementioned compilation CD set, and so I haven't listed the original releases after each song like I usually do.

1. This Is Pop
2. The Mayor Of Simpleton
3. Senses Working Overtime
4. Statue Of Liberty
5. Wake Up
6. Are You Receiving Me?
7. The Meeting Place
8. Life Begins At The Hop
9. Grass
10. Science Friction
11. Making Plans For Nigel
12. Dear God
13. The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead