Back to the Future

Mix by David

Download: Back to the Future

This mix started as a list of electronic music I like to work to. Although beats are heavy and quite danceable, they are repetitious and have limited vocals, ambient enough to concentrate on work.

I started thinking about all the older electronic music I listened to in high school and early college days that nobody else was down with. This is when popular electronic music was house and trance. I was listening to what they ridiculously termed IDM (intelligent dance music), Aphex Twin, Square Pusher, and Boards of Canada. Autechre and Amon Tobin are also from this era although I hadn’t heard about them yet. Nowadays electronic methods are incorporated into most genres. A recent top list of music from last year was 90% labeled as “indietronica.” (Thanks Chan!)

01 Prestinium Acid - Ceephax Acid Crew
    -Here’s some straight up acid, but it’s clean and easy to listen to, I think. Straight up fuckin sorted.

02 Eutow - Autechre
    -Autechre provides what people wanted from Aphex Twin, who’s too much of a lunatic to give it to them. Here’s a song with a sweet synth ambient backdrop with a nice beat development. They give you the hooks you want to hear. Instead of teasing you and then bailing, like bunk lsd.

03 Shipwreck (feat. Thom Yorke) - Modeselektor
    -These guys can seriously throw down. I saw them at Coachella this year and was pretty damn sweaty after. I love how the beats can seem like simple 4/4 house beats, but there’s an asymmetrical gallop to them that really works. Yorke came out at the end of the set to do this song. :D

04 Dog Days Are Over - remix by Yeasayer
    -The original was great, but I think we all heard it a few too many times, super catchy though. It just needed some sweet echoing and warpy tones via techno chop up to eclipse itself. Too bold?

05 Ageispolis - Aphex Twin
    -Ok, so AFX wasn’t always a jerk. This album, along with the Richard D. James album, are super accessible. This tune shares a lot of qualities with Eutow. I have argued many times that Aphex Twin influenced much of the hip-hop to follow. Consider that this was composed sometime between ‘85 and ‘92.

06 Port Rhombus - Squarepusher
    -I really like how clean most of the song is. Notice I said “most.”

07 Sun Lips - Black Moth Super Rainbow
    -These guys are great. I think everybody can enjoy them regardless of general taste in music. Perhaps the most out place on this album

08 Thunder Bay - Hudson Mohawke
    -This really pumps me up. These UK peeps really know how to make their techno.

09 Lotus Flower (SBTRKT Remix) - Radiohead
    -I came across this song on the best of list that David Chan sent me, cited above.

10 Telephasic Workshop - Boards of Canada
    -Scottish duo, this album won a coveted, pitchfork perfect 10.

11 W32.Deadcode.A - AFX
    -Another fun, d+b style jaunt. I really enjoy the synthy ambience that comes in here and there to balance the groovy beat.

12 Hello - Flying Lotus
    -I really wanted to put some Flying Lotus in here, and this song is pretty representative of his work. Too bad it’s a bit on the short side. To make up for that, here’s a little treat.

13 Atoms for Peace - Thom Yorke
    -Ok, so here’s the third song on the mix with Thom Yorke. I promise, it’s the last one.

14 Sunblocks - Ratatat
    -Good lord Ratatat is awesome. Listen to that guitar! I almost put a different song of theirs in here called, “drugs,” but I think this adds a bit more the unity of the sele