interlude

Amidst the oil and the crackles of a spoon
I saw the ruin of our master.
Over the north board lies the will of fatigation
And you’re still trying to capitize the evidences.
Every morning I think of your children’s desperation
And what if our clocks don’t tick anything.
Whether good or not the mud swallows us all
Are you trying to figure out why your boots are wet?
I’d know if I was next to you.

> DOWNLOAD ORIGINAL SETLIST
> LISTEN THE TRACKLIST AT MIXWIT

00:00 - We Are Scientists - Chick Lit
03:49 - Daft Punk - Robot Rock
07:03 - The Faint - Mirror Error
10:14 - Chemical Brothers - All Rights Reversed (feat. The Klaxons)
13:22 - Hot Chip - Shake a Fist
16:37 - Does it Offend you Yeah? - With a Heavy Heart (I Regret to Inform You)
20:27 - We Are Terrorists - Ground Zero
22:07 - Midnight Juggernauts - Road to Recovery
27:30 - Punks Jump Up - Dance to Our Disco [Headman Vocal Remix]
32:48 - Gary Numan - Cars

We Are Scientists certainly have put out one of the finest rock albums of 2008. Their affinity for catchy melodies in addition to an electro and 80’s feel make of Brain Thrust Mastery an essential 2008 release.

If you pay enough attention to the guitar riffs of Chick Lit you’ll know they sound very much like Robot Rock, by Daft Punk.

When released in Human After All, Robot Rock proved that Daft Punk is the definitive electro name in rock parties. Which was already in 2005 feeding a huge coming french electro scene.

From the retro-future of Daft Punk you’ll be pushed to the eighties-like hit Mirror Error by The Faint.

A pulsing distorted bass will guide you to the apocalyptical meeting of Chemical Brothers and Klaxons, which is called All Rights Reversed.

At its the climax the incoming Hot Chip makes a pause to show us their game “sounds of the studio” in Shake a Fist.

It showcases a nice mess of synths until Does it Offend you Yeah? kicks in with With a Heavy Heart (I Regret to Inform You).

DIOYY is one of the most exciting electro rock things hailing from England now.

From the guitar noises the french group We Are Terrorists comes up with a solid distorted groove, named Ground Zero.

The french guys crossfade the australian Midnight Juggernauts. Heavily inspired by french electro and Electric Light Orchestra, Road to Discovery is a dancefloor rock epic.

Then you’ve got a trippy remix of Dance to Our Disco by Punks Jump Up, cautiously crafted by Headman.

The closing theme is the classic hit Cars by Gary Numan. One of the first electronic rock crossovers by one of the greatest innovator of this mixture.

Unpretentiously he went to bed a few hours before the dawn, he’s got himself cautiously accomodated in the blanket. It was june and the first cold nights of the year already made themselves notable.
He remembered the last strange happenings that occured weeks and months ago, at that same moment: the waiting for sleep.

Skeptic, he had in mind a dozen scientific explanations for noises, impressions and even spontaneous object movements. But he knew that all those theories have shattered when he experienced the images and sounds in his bedroom for the first time, three months ago.

His wide eyes in the dark doing fast moves among short pauses, like waiting for someone to pass.

He strained to review in his mind the scientific and mystic procedures, in case that night he receives what he calls  “Unexpected Visitors”.

The two past times were very different.

In the first one everything happened like a semi-dream. Rhythmed beats on the walls, spinning around the room. Spectres of people playing musical instruments, spinning high around the bed.
The second visit was marked by the clear sensation of reality. With noises on the wall and sound of footsteps inside the room.

During the retrospective of the visits and the questioning on each point of them, his thoughts took him to memories of religious talkings to christians.

Despite the steadiness of his spiritual convictions, he doesn’t discuss religion with anybody who is not open to consider different arguments to their structures.
In other words, he played the fool most of the times. Agreeing with them between smiles of simplicity, as if he doesn’t care about the subject.

He remembered, only a few minutes of that effort and he feels back to the time when he spent all time in the suffocating status-quo, playing the fool, amidst the social obligations of his christian family. Ten years ago.

The obvious words breaking when losing the importance - since they’re so vulgarized by the very emitter.
His thinking, back to the familiar double-status, was analyzing the illusory beauty of so simple promises, for a so simple intellect.
It would be so much easier if he hasn’t been born with the natural questioning - which evolved the human kind.
It would be so much easier to abdicate his potential, reducing the reason of the universe to a lowermost, short code.

He envied for a while the interlocutor - a radiant young man, by the side of his seven months pregnant wife.

Concluding the knowledge of his silly envy, he figured out that the status-quo sensation has completely disappeared. He rationally came back to the point where he considers intellectually superior.

He made a secret smile.
Repeated to himself the truth learned so many years ago: each human being is an universe apart, and it’s the duty of each one to discover itself, the way he/she likes.
He observed again that the intellectual and psichological diversity is as wide or bigger than the physical individuality of each being.

He felt comfortable to think that the time made him respect each kind of thought, and everything he is now is made of his past experiences.

The beautiful reflexion was interrupted by a cold breeze on his back, making he stiffen the whole body.
He found strange the idea of a breeze, since he was warmly wrapped in a blanket on his bed. Windows and doors were closed.

In a second he already knew, that wasn’t something common.
He felt the tension going slowly through his body when suddenly the bed started trembling, clearly.
While he had not time to decide if he believed in what was happening, he noticed that the tension was replaced by a feeling of curiosity, about what could be really happening there.

After some seconds the trembling stopped.

He found himself unquiet and willing to break through whatever that could be.
But his mind and body didn’t let him, making he sleep in peace, until the next visit.

> DOWNLOAD ORIGINAL SETLIST
> LISTEN THE TRACKLIST AT MIXWIT

Tracklist:

00:00 - Daft Punk - Make Love
03:03 - Husky Rescue - Diamonds in the Sky
07:19 - Cut Copy - Strangers in the Wind
11:11 - Fleetwood Mac - Dreams
15:18 - of Montreal - Cato as a Pun
18:16 - T - Dancing Together
21:22 - Lali Puna - Together in Electric Dreams
25:19 - Audrey - Carving and Searching
28:32 - Goldfrapp - Eat Yourself
32:26 - Tape - Altamira

A mellow mixtape couldn’t start without a long fade in. That’s Make Love, by Daft Punk. It sounds so intimate that it almost feels solitary. Still you can taste the bliss of the moment the song suggests.

Abruptly Diamonds in the Sky by Husky Rescue kicks in, taking you to a more psychedelic state of mind, still sensual. The Fleetwood Mac name is evident, but it’s not a bad thing since they’ve only made one song like Dreams. The world needs more.

It gently crossfades Strangers in the Air by Cut Copy. The Fleetwood Mac mood is still on, more latent, behind a soft electro rock disguise.

Suddenly and not surprisingly you are in purely authentic lands, with the so evoked Dreams by Fleetwood Mac. The science can’t explain why it’s one of the best soft rock songs of all time.

The mixtape is still at its half. How better could it get?

Cato as a Pun by of Montreal has a melted beginning, which merges perfectly with Dreams. Letting Cato confuse your every decision is sweetly disturbing.

Now that the air is getting a little toxic you need a cleaner tune. So the Guillemots do, with Kriss Kross. A cynical, melancholic, yet very conscious song. The beat invites you, while the dentist drill-like sound repels you.

Like switching sides of a cassette tape, Together in Electric Dreams by Lali Puna (yes, it’s a Human League cover) is a lullaby that keeps up both the Kriss Kross‘ beats, and the dream-like feel of the mixtape.

Carving and Searching by Audrey awakes you with a gentle jazzy rock.

Now you’re ready to fully experience Eat Yourself’s melancholy by Goldfrapp.

But I couldn’t let you down with melancholic daydreams. That’s how Altamira by Tape extends the folk passage, taking you to a happy, fantastic and mystical place. Lost by the civilization, isolated in nature.

It was afternoon of a cloudy tuesday.
The light that hits the matter reflects its colour, however that tuesday was monochromatic and clear.
Monochromatic, clear and without details. As through muddy vision.

The downtown was happening as if nothing would ever change.
In an colorless apartment, without details or furniture, there was a bathroom that would call the downtown’s attention, if it wasn’t morbidly expecting for everything.
In fact its impassible quality was praised, and proved again whenever a surprise didn’t exist before a non-expected fact.
Thus, that would (but didn’t) call attention.

Back to the apartment’s bathroom.
It was uncommonly big, if compared to the other rooms. Because the building was old.
The apartments were small, designed for singles. At that time the architect imagined that the bathroom would be the sanctuary of the house, where the resident would clean body and mind, as he/she like.
The bathroom measurements were 2×5m. Both wall and floor tiles were white.
The door was nearby a corner.
Strangely who entered the bathroom had the sensation it was downwards to the other corner.
In front of the door there was a white sink, with no mirror above it.
A long and tight bathtub was along the bathroom, reinforcing the stretched forms of the space.
Finally, at the end of the bathroom was a peculiarity of the current resident: an old-fashioned looking chair, fixed on the floor, like a white quilted hairdresser chair. Lying under a large window.

The harmony of the simple well-placed objects wasn’t broken when a nude figure entered the bathroom.
Of indistinguishable genre, skinny, pale, with a vast black hair that barely reached the shoulders, but covered the eyes.
His/her moves were fast yet gentle, in such a way that would not be noticed in that scenario under careless eyes.

The spectre had a scissor in the hands. He/she headed to the sink and washed the instrument with a questionable affection.
Finishing the task, with the scissor in the left hand, he/she turned on the bathtub faucet. A strong hot stream started to make vapour.
The person went slowly to the chair, and sitted relaxed. It seemed he/she was enjoying the sound of the running water downwards through the drain, and the abundant steam that was already filling the room.
He/she laid down the head on the back of the chair, and let the body completely loose.

The thick vapour was making it hard to breath when the spectre got up slowly, and placed the scissor’s peak above his/her abdomen, at the left side, and traced a deep cut, following the void between two ribs until the back.
Half a dozen of blood lines quickly flowed down, colorizing the white body.

The spectre swore to him/herself to make no part of the downtown anymore.