Moon by Andrew Weatherall – Brilliant downtempo mix
Allow me to add my voice to the chorus of praise that has been ringing out across many blogs for the mix that Andrew Weatherall created for Oki-Ni. It is a trip through Weatherall’s most spaced out ambient and downtempo records, carefully mixed in a way that could be used to help you fall asleep. But Weatherall also keeps things interesting enough that at times it’s more about getting lost in the hypnotic drone than dozing off. And when that amazing Arthur Russell cover hits, the whole project seems to come together as an extremely well-thought out piece from start to finish. I would not be at all surprised to see this mix in my top 10 list for 2011.
This mix also made me realize just how lucky the internet generation is when it comes to music. When I worked at a college radio station, just at the very early days of Napster, most online music communities had not organized. Sure you could find any tune on Napster that you knew of, but it wasn’t so easy to discover new things, even by artists you were familiar with. There certainly weren’t blogs breaking new artists, drawing together fans with collective tastes, and serving as a viable host of material that in the past never would have seen the light of day. I’m not saying that the material wouldn’t have made it because of a quality problem. Far from it.
I remember those days at the radio station getting sent albums and mix CDs from a variety of electronic music labels. Sometimes, I’d have stuff sent to the station that had little or no hope of being put in any American music stores even though it was truly amazing music. Downtempo releases were always the rarest, and almost always they were from tiny labels and the albums really only had a few choice cuts and a lot of filler. I honestly can’t remember receiving many downtempo mixes, and certainly none that were as experimental as this mix. It would have been too great a risk for any label to release in physical format a mix like Weatherall’s, because it’s quite possible it’d never sell enough to recover pressing costs, let alone distribution costs.
In the music blog world of 2011, Weatherall may never see any money for this mix. However, talk to most record collecting DJs, and they’ll tell you that just getting a larger audience to share certain pieces of wax is all the reward they need. That attitude feels tangibly present throughout this entire mix.
So while you’re enjoying Weatherall’s mix, also give the Internet a little pat on the back. It may not be perfect, but it has been really good to us music nerds that really like to push the boundaries of what we listen to on a daily basis. This mix is a perfect example.
