Mixtapes Archives : Aquarium Drunkard: Recent Episodes
None
Once again, it's dubwise summer. This is the season for tight rhythms, faded melodies and infinite echo. But rather than serve up another collection of classic Jamaican riddims, we decided to sketch out some of the afterlives of dub. Dub's impact on experimental music at the turn of the twenty-first century is incalculable. And every sound that soothed the Y2K soul, from post-rock to trip-hop to illbient to dub techno, owes something to roots reggae's downtempo electric stepchild. Over the past three decades, It has become one of the fundamental idioms of out music. This is our attempt to make our way through the haze.
The post The Afterlives of Dub, 1995-2025 (A Mixtape) first appeared on Aquarium Drunkard.
A continuation rather than a sequel, Anatolian Psych Out: Volume Two ventures deeper into one of rock's richest parallel histories. Seventeen selections from Turkey's extraordinary late-'60s and '70s flowering, where centuries-old musical traditions meet fuzz guitars, electric bağlama, and hypnotic grooves—music that remains as mysterious, transportive, and untethered by time as ever.
The post Anatolian Psych Out: Volume Two first appeared on Aquarium Drunkard.
The holidays, West Indies style. With the expansion of record distribution from the UK, the US, and Canada during the 1960s, Christmas music experienced a notable surge, mirroring developments in Jamaica. The following twenty track all vinyl mixtape covers most of that time period, from the early 60s through the late 70s.
The post West Indies Christmas (A Mixtape) first appeared on Aquarium Drunkard.
Founded in 1971, Sonny Lester's Groove Merchant label was pretty far removed from what was going on in jazz at the beginning of that decade. Fusion, black power, spiritual jazz and ECM were all happening elsewhere. Maybe that's what makes it so much fun. Groove Merchant was content to serve up sweaty, funky party jazz, brimming with flute blowouts, wicked guitar and miles of Hammond B3 soul. Thrown in some softcore cover art, and you've got something cooking. Lester's short-lived label had grooves to spare. Call it a case of truth in advertising.
The post The Joys of Cookin’: Tracks from Groove Merchant, 1971-1974 (A Mixtape) first appeared on Aquarium Drunkard.
The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, Philip K. Dick’s underappreciated final novel, is framed by death. It begins with a singularly famous death—the assassination of John Lennon in 1980—and follows the reverberations of that event backward in time to the San Francisco Bay Area of the late 60s and 70s, where Episcopal Bishop Timothy Archer is in the midst of a crisis of faith. The book is a characteristically Dick-ian smoothie of thematic contradictions: sacred/popular, surreal/mundane, historical/fictional, faith/gnosis.
The post Radio Free Heaven: A Mix Inspired By Philip K. Dick and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer first appeared on Aquarium Drunkard.
An introduction to Japanese folk in 1970s Japan, the following mix was created as a companion to the article on Modern Bible and the story of Gekidan Buraiha. It brings together a selection of early Japanese folk, protest songs and Angura recordings from the same era, providing additional context and atmosphere for the world the little theatre movement troupe emerged from.
The post First & Last: Angura (A Mixtape) first appeared on Aquarium Drunkard.
Long live the old, weird internet. Out of all the genres, post-punk has always felt like the hardest to pin down. What the hell was / is it? I’m not sure I could tell you. But I can tell you that the Musicophilia blog’s massive 1981 box set of mixes is perhaps the best representation of the wild burst of creativity that was happening in the underground at the time. While the original mp3 downloads of the box set have since been replaced at Musicophilia with streaming options, we have uploaded the original files for posterity ...
The post 1981 :: A Post-Punk Compilation first appeared on Aquarium Drunkard.
Via 2006, back by subscriber request as Autumn approaches.
L.A. Burnout is made up of the sounds floating around Los Angeles in the late ’60s and ’70s. A faded aural imprint of the canyons, beaches, wildfires, neighborhoods, late-nights and early mornings of a bygone L.A. Play this mix around dusk while driving through Topanga with the windows rolled down – it’s the next best thing to time travel.
The post L.A. Burnout: Volumes One & Two first appeared on Aquarium Drunkard.
Double Wide Denim: a weird amalgam of Mel McDaniel, Don Williams, Dickey Betts, David Allan Coe, Molly Hatchet, ZZ Top, Dwight Yoakam and beyond. A playlist that evokes Coors Lite, charcoal grills, ice chests, lakes and pontoon boats.
The post Double Wide Denim: A Medley first appeared on Aquarium Drunkard.
One hundred and twenty-seven minutes of strange and mercurial music – slow burning, sprawling, smoggy, and ephemeral. 60s Kenyan folk and Thai garage rock; late 70s drum machine gospel from Inkster, Michigan, and private press psych from the Pacific Northwest; mid 80s Congolese electronic soul and Senegalese art-funk; Zambian highlife circa 1991 and experimental computer music made in a juvenile detention center in modern day Albuquerque. The same Hawa Daisy Moore mp3 files that were used in the inaugural Blue August Moon eleven years ago – the crackling tropical oasis showing signs of increased deterioration. These are just some of the sounds that Up In My Mind—the latest edition of our August mixtape—is steeped in. An irregular late summer tradition, but ever an occasion to look up, zoom in, and zone out.
The post Up In My Mind: An August Mixtape first appeared on Aquarium Drunkard.
From the late 60s through the mid-70s, Eddie Harris indulged in a string of progressively freakier, beautifully executed records that smeared boundaries, blew minds and sold poorly. This mixtape collects two and a half hours of the most adventurous moments from those heady Atlantic days.
The post You’re Future’s In Space: Eddie Harris on Atlantic (A Mixtape) first appeared on Aquarium Drunkard.
Summer equals dub. It is the elemental music of the season. And not simply because it comes from a tropical island. Everything in dub feels suspended in the heat and humidity: a little slower, a little hazier—all the elements delayed in the muggy atmosphere. There is something about the laid back languor of dub that feels especially appropriate this time of year, when the sun is high and the stakes are low. In that spirit, we're serving up a couple hours of some of our favorite cuts from the golden age of dub.
The post Dubwise Summer: An Aquarium Drunkard Mixtape first appeared on Aquarium Drunkard.
Step inside Zandoli, a humid TDK embrace spanning 1971-2025. Analog Estonian groove opens the set before sliding into vintage Italian film funk, Grecian honey skronk, imitation Bengalese hypnagogia, and a rousing 1977 exaltation from Fort-de-France, Martinique. And that's just the first twenty minutes. Press play, let it soak.
The post Zandoli :: A Mixtape (Spring 2025) appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
We've had post-rock on the brain lately. New music from genre pioneers Tortoise and the prospect of a North American tour by Stereolab this fall, not to mention recent archival releases by the likes of Aerial M, Gastr del Sol and Seefeel have many of us revisiting the sound's 1990s salad days. For those wanting more, we've compiled a mixtape of some three hours of the genre's knottiest groove logistics. For the uninitiated, here's a crash course in what the end of the twentieth century sounded like.
The post Mood Stabilizers: The Post-Rock Era, 1993-2002 (A Mixtape) appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Sixteen tracks spread over two continents, it's springtime at the Pink Cloud Motel. Hyacinth and citrus with the windows rolled down half mast -- shades of palm fronds, fresh cut grass, 501 cutoffs, Modelo and watery domestics. Late check-outs encouraged ...
The post Pink Cloud Motel :: A Mixtape appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Drifting from spiraling psychedelia into frightening soundscapes and ecstatic funk, the Miles Davis septet built a universe unto itself across its 1975 tour of Japan. This tour-spanning mix gathers some of the choicest cuts and most experimental moments from the unissued tapes.
The post Pangaea Deluxe: Live Miles in Japan, 1975 (Mixtape) appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
In the nearly six decades since his untimely passing, musicians from all over the world have never stopped honoring John Coltrane. And not just artists in the jazz tradition, those in rock, funk, prog and soul as well. We put together a compilation of twenty-two of our favorite tributes to the visionary saxophonist. In the extraordinary variety of ways musicians have chosen to honor him, you can see an outline of the magnitude of his impact on modern music.
The post Lamentations: Twenty-Two Songs about John Coltrane appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
For the darkest time of year, a wintry mix of stark sonic landscapes — jazz, ambient, acoustic and unclassifiable. Instrumental treks through the snow, hopefully with a mug of hot chocolate (or something stronger) awaiting you at your final destination.
The post Grey On Gray II :: A December Mixtape appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Following in the footsteps of the "End Is At Hand" mixtapes, "Country In The Clouds" digs into music from the 60's & 70's Jesus People movement, but this time with a focus on the cosmic country side of the niche subculture. Like holy hippies baptized in the Bakersfield sound, earnest vocals, far out lyrics, and waves of pedal steel beckon listeners to tune in and take the Jesus trip...
The post Country In The Clouds: Cosmic American Music From The Jesus People Movement appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Step into spring with the latest edition of First & Last, a series of mixes providing a glimpse into the world of Japanese private press, or 自主盤, pronounced “jishuban”, which loosely translates to “independent board.”
Included are tracks from two of our favorite records: Book End, whose band leader was also the leader of Primary Mini-Band, and Naotune Saga. The mix also features Buraiha, a band steeped in the avant-garde Angura movement, along with a group called Sharons Forever which (with no liner notes to guide) offers a poignant tribute, leaving us to ponder the mystery behind this memorial record dedicated to 'Sharons for everybody.'
The post First & Last: Japanese Private Press, Vol. 14 appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Sun is shining. The latest installment in Michael Crow Taylor’s dank reggae mix series, Sufferer’s Time, winds a path through deep devotionals, primo dub and loping, cosmic love jams. Mixed at Dad’s Bar and Grill, Durham, NC. You can find Taylor onstage with Hiss Golden Messenger, and in the studio with Hiss, Revelators Sound System and many other friends ...
The post Sufferer’s Time :: Michael Crow At The Controls appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
As Aquarium Drunkard recently reported, ambient appears to be the shape of jazz to come. The newest new thing is cross-pollinating with electronics and minimalism, new age and drone. But even these currents have a history. We dove deep into our favorite space jazz of yesteryear, and put together a mixtape for your astral travelling pleasure.
The post Light Pollution: The Roots of Ambient Jazz appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Pulp Jazz draws on long-traduced, sometimes crassly commercial, musical forms—jazz-funk, exotica, new age, sci-fi schlock, lounge music and library—and channels it all into deeply funky, low-key psychedelic groove music. More than that, like the best pulp, it somehow comes out sexy as hell, slinky and dangerous. Aquarium Drunkard has been here for it. The world could stand to be a shade groovier. And when we were asked for a mixtape of the primo stuff, we were more than happy to oblige. It’s what we do.
Let’s hope this fresh wave of fusion doesn’t reignite the jazz wars of old. But we’re down to fight if it comes to that.
The post Pulp Jazz: Twenty-First Century Groove Music (A Mixtape) appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Embrace the dawn of a new year with the thirteenth installment of First & Last, a series of mixes providing a glimpse into the world of Japanese private press, or 自主盤, pronounced “jishuban”, which loosely translates to “independent board.”
The post First & Last: Japanese Private Press, Vol. 13 appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
New age was, in many ways, a confluence of developments across genres: prog and krautrock, electronic and space music, ambient and fourth world, modern classical, spacious ECM-style Euro-jazz. All of them were cultivating their own approaches to paradise music. What tips any of these experiments into new age may have been, more than anything else, a vibe—an earnestness about the spiritual potential of the music being made.
The post Astral Loitering: Excursions In New Age, 1970-1989 appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Fourth world music belongs to an occult geography. This is by design. When the late trumpeter and composer Jon Hassell coined the term, he conceived of it as “an attempt to create a kind of musical scenery which is not entirely ‘primitive,’ not entirely ‘future’ but someplace impossible to locate either chronologically or geographically.”
There is no atlas to the fourth world. The best that we can offer is something like a star chart. You may have to draw the constellations yourselves, out of lines connecting ECM jazz to phase music, woolly hippie cult rock to a thousand forgotten new age cassettes. Navigate by those for now. You’ll get somewhere eventually. Here's a compass.
The post The Secret Hemisphere: New Age, Fusion and Fourth World, 1970-2002 appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Welcome to the twelfth installment of First & Last, a series of mixes providing a glimpse into the world of Japanese private press, or 自主盤, pronounced “jishuban”, which loosely translates to “independent board.”
As autumn fades into the quiet embrace of winter, immerse yourself in the hushed tones of acoustic introspection, where each note invokes the stillness of the changing seasons.
The post First & Last: Japanese Private Press, Vol. 12 appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
As Western rock music dominated the global airwaves of the 1960s, perhaps no region adapted this music into such a rich and swirling stew as did Turkey. Mixing the heavy riffs of Zeppelin and the Stones with traditional Anatolian folk melodies and instrumentation, the Turkish psych rock of the golden era (1960s-80s) surely represents some of the most gloriously untethered interpretations of the classic rock canon.
The post Anatolian Psych Out: Volume One appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Welcome to the eleventh installment of First & Last, a series of mixes providing a glimpse into the world of Japanese private press, or 自主盤, pronounced “jishuban”, which loosely translates to “independent board.”
The post First & Last: Japanese Private Press, Vol. 11 appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Back in the deep, bleak, pandemic dog days, Be With Records struck a deal with the legendary Parisian library music catalog, Tele Music to reissue the very best, most sought-after LPs in the catalog. With much of this music now commercially available for the first time, the series of albums recently reissued presents an expansive grip of heavy funk, drama-jazz, deep disco, synth-wave, psych-rock, cosmic soul and beyond.
The post Aquarium Drunkard Presents: Tele Music Mix Volume 1 appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Welcome to the tenth installment of First & Last, a series of mixes providing a glimpse into the world of Japanese private press, or 自主盤, pronounced “jishuban”, which loosely translates to “independent board.”
The post First & Last: Japanese Private Press, Vol. 10 appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Welcome to the ninth installment of First & Last, a series of mixes providing a glimpse into the world of Japanese private press, or 自主盤, pronounced “jishuban”, which loosely translates to “independent board.”
The post First & Last: Japanese Private Press, Vol. 9 appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Welcome to the eighth installment of First & Last, a series of mixes providing a glimpse into the world of Japanese private press, or 自主盤, pronounced “jishuban”, which loosely translates to “independent board.”
The post First & Last: Japanese Private Press, Vol. 8 appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Sparked by a recent re-obsession with Miles Davis' On The Corner sessions, Abstract Truths returns with a grip of records that have been hovering around the LA hq these past few months. Electric fusion, Turiyasangitananda jams, hard bop, jazz funk, spiritual. Myriad modalities abound…all rooted by an earthy funkiness. File under: soul music.
The post Abstract Truths: An Evolving Jazz Compendium – Volume 9 appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
All vinyl hour long slide to close out another weird year. Fireside GORP-jazz, new age, and beyond. 1969-2022.
The post Grey On Gray :: A December Mixtape appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Welcome to the seventh installment of First & Last, a series of mixes providing a glimpse into the world of Japanese private press, or 自主盤, pronounced “jishuban”, which loosely translates to “independent board.”
The post First & Last: Japanese Private Press, Vol. 7 appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Jazz's engagement with South Asian musical ideas and instruments in the 1960s and 70s didn't just make 'spiritual' or 'world' jazz. Out of the extraordinary variety of jazz experiments with Indian musical traditions came all kinds of funky, soulful, groovy, exploratory and just plain far out sounds. We collected some of our favorites.
The post Groove Orient: South Asian Elements in Psychedelic Jazz appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
The days are growing shorter and the holidays are upon us. In the interest of making everyone's lives slightly easier this season, we returned to the golden era of electric jazz and put together a long compilation of cocktail funk and rare groovers to spin for a house full of family and friends. Press play and let it spin. One less thing to worry about.
The post Saturnalia: Deep Jazz for Long Nights, 1969-1980 appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
... reverberating flutes, amplified saxophones, liquid Fender Rhodes keyboards The guitars are jazzy and lysergic in turn, sometimes in the very same track. At times, the drums sit right in the pocket; moments later, they are thundering out for the old gods. It was not so much a fusion of jazz and rock as a continuum where these forms could mutate one into another and back again. All of this music is compelling; some of it is sublime. This darker corner of the krautrock era of the 1970s deserves a good deal more light.
The post Every Angel’s Terrifying: Explorations in German Jazz-Rock, 1970-1980 appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
... reverberating flutes, amplified saxophones, liquid Fender Rhodes keyboards The guitars are jazzy and lysergic in turn, sometimes in the very same track. At times, the drums sit right in the pocket; moments later, they are thundering out for the old gods. It was not so much a fusion of jazz and rock as a continuum where these forms could mutate one into another and back again. All of this music is compelling; some of it is sublime. This darker corner of the krautrock era of the 1970s deserves a good deal more light.
The post Every Angel’s Terrifying: Explorations in German Jazz-Rock, 1970-1980 appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
The Bill Laswell Research Institute was coined by a group of like-minded record heads based in Philadelphia. Time and time again, someone in the crew would bring something mind blowing to a listening session and Bill Laswell’s name would pop up in the credits. It’s truly astonishing how Laswell collided with vastly divergent musicians and genres while somehow still representing complementary musical spheres.
While pulling together tracks to compile a mix that we felt would best represent Bill’s work, we realized it was going to take multiple volumes due to the sheer magnitude of his output. As such, we decided to compile the mixes based on two 15 year blocks.
The post Bill Laswell Research Institute: Vol I & II appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
The Bill Laswell Research Institute was coined by a group of like-minded record heads based in Philadelphia. Time and time again, someone in the crew would bring something mind blowing to a listening session and Bill Laswell’s name would pop up in the credits. It’s truly astonishing how Laswell collided with vastly divergent musicians and genres while somehow still representing complementary musical spheres.
While pulling together tracks to compile a mix that we felt would best represent Bill’s work, we realized it was going to take multiple volumes due to the sheer magnitude of his output. As such, we decided to compile the mixes based on two 15 year blocks.
The post Bill Laswell Research Institute: Vol I & II appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
In the smoking aftermath of Miles Davis's landmark Bitches Brew, musicians across the planet tried to come to grips with its dense, freaky, electric grooves. Aquarium Drunkard scoured the globe to bring you five hours of seismic seventies funk and fusion from far and near. The weather's changing. Nights are growing longer. And this is the way we all keep our heads right.
The post Absolute Sons of Bitches: Global Fusion Grooves, 1970-1977 appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
In the smoking aftermath of Miles Davis's landmark Bitches Brew, musicians across the planet tried to come to grips with its dense, freaky, electric grooves. Aquarium Drunkard scoured the globe to bring you five hours of seismic seventies funk and fusion from far and near. The weather's changing. Nights are growing longer. And this is the way we all keep our heads right.
The post Absolute Sons of Bitches: Global Fusion Grooves, 1970-1977 appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
A dozen dusky acid folk songs for the waning days of summer. Welcome to the sixth installment of First & Last, a series of mixes providing a glimpse into the world of Japanese private press, or 自主盤, pronounced “jishuban”, which loosely translates to “independent board.”
The post First & Last: Japanese Private Press, Vol. 6 appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
A dozen dusky acid folk songs for the waning days of summer. Welcome to the sixth installment of First & Last, a series of mixes providing a glimpse into the world of Japanese private press, or 自主盤, pronounced “jishuban”, which loosely translates to “independent board.”
The post First & Last: Japanese Private Press, Vol. 6 appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Aquarium Drunkard turned 17 a few months ago, and Zach Cowie (aka Turquoise Wisdom) has been a part of it for 12 of those years, beginning with the third entry in our (then new) guest selector series. A music supervisor by trade, Cowie's mixes span myriad decades, genres, and moods, always aesthetically maintaining an empathetic through line. Now totaling a baker's dozen, we have re-upped each individual mix beginning with the first volume from 2010.
The post Who Knows Where The Time Goes: Twelve Years of Turquoise Wisdom appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Unlike Bitches Brew’s monolithic density that, at times, obscured the band, it was Mwandishi’s individual players who got the machine up and running. If one part of the equation were to be removed, the entire unit would collapse. It was one of music’s most successful experiments in Group Dynamics and set the tone in jazz for a decade. Here, we have assembled these players at the height of their creative powers in the early seventies. All are accompanied by at least one of their Mwandishi compatriots, and most feature much of the ensemble. The breadth of this universe is expansive but listen closely and the sonic tether keeping them connected is revealed.
The post Mwandishi: Wandering Spirit Songs appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Fourteen humble, cosmic and fragile tracks scanning folk and rock. Welcome to the fifth installment of First & Last, a series of mixes providing a glimpse into the world of Japanese private press, or 自主盤, pronounced “jishuban”, which loosely translates to “independent board.” A proper companion for these lingering, dusky summer days.
The post First & Last: Japanese Private Press, Vol. 5 appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Radio Is A Foreign Country is a not-for-profit radio platform and mixtape series that exposes listeners to obscure (and mostly vintage) regional folk and pop music from the global hinterlands, featuring cut-ups of international radio broadcasts (AM, FM, shortwave), field recordings, ethnographic film, vintage records and cassettes, and digital ephemera from the far reaches of the internet. For this special mixtape, the Radio Is A Foreign Country crew brings us a cross-section of North Sumatran electro folk.
The post Radio Is A Foreign Country :: Electro-Folk Sounds of North Sumatra (Mixtape) appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
By chance I met Ras Tayo at Deadly Dragon Sound a decade ago. He invited me to bring some tunes out to The Den in Brooklyn, and soon I began spinning with a serious group of selectors every Sunday night. All the DJs had their big tunes and favorites that I'd look forward to hearing. These songs are ones they played often.
The post Dealer’s Choice :: Ras Tayo Is The Selector (Roots Reggae & Beyond) appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
A one hour compilation of assorted Mothersbaugh muzak, from Insomniaks cuts to highlights from 2017's 45 RPM box set Mutant Flora. Sprinkled in are other rarities, musical pieces composed for some of the musician's visual art exhibitions. The weirder the better.
The post Mark Mothersbaugh’s Insomniak Flora (A Mixtape) appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
This fourth volume of First And Last features a menagerie of tunes for the early days of summer (with seven of the twelve songs culled from EPs), from psych-pop to breezy bossa nova, wrapping up with a grip of introspective folk.
The post First & Last: Japanese Private Press, Vol. 4 appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Founded in 2013 by Lorenzo Fabrizi and Andrea Galtieri, the Rome based Sonor Music Editions focuses strictly on the world of vintage Italian Library music and original soundtracks, largely from the 1970s and early '80s. Prolific, we asked Fabrizi and Galtieri to curate a medley of sounds via their catalog, and the following mix is most definitely a vibe.
The post AD Presents: Sonor Music Editions | Italian Library Music (A Mixtape) appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
For much of Japan’s youth, the five nationally televised Beatles concerts of 1966 were transformational. Japanese academic Toshinobu Fukuya stated that the Beatles embodied a new identity for the country’s youth. Their presence had signaled that “one did not always have to obediently follow arrangements prescribed by adults; it was possible to follow one’s own path and still be socially and financially successful in life”
In this vein, we open this third installment of First & Last with a track from 1974 by 田中寛 (Hiroshi Tanaka) & 不破洋一 (Yoichi Fuwa), who in their liner notes written by a friend, dub the band as the “Late-Arriving Heirs of the Beatles.”
The post First & Last: Japanese Private Press, Vol. 3 appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
To commemorate a pair of remastered reissues of Tinariwen's first albums—2001's The Radio Tisdas Sessions and its 2004 followup, Amassakoul, the desert blues masters drop by with a special mixtape showcasing their influences.
The post Tinariwen :: Radio Tisdas/Amassakoul Influences (Mixtape) appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Hang your coat, unknot your scarf, kick your boots to the corner and open those windows–spring is almost here. Aquarium Drunkard presents: A Spectrum of Blue- an hour long medley of spring cleaning, dust knockin’ bluegrass ...
The post Aquarium Drunkard Presents: A Spectrum of Blue (A Mixtape) appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Welcome to the second installment of First & Last, a series of mixes providing a glimpse into the world of Japanese private press, or 自主盤, pronounced “jishuban”, which loosely translates to “independent board.” This second entry picks up where volume one left off, including a live recording from a concert compilation (track one), and music from the incredibly rare First Album, by Elf, of which only fifteen copies were manufactured.
The post First & Last: Japanese Private Press, Vol. 2 appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Welcome to the opening installment of First & Last, a series of mixes providing a glimpse into the world of Japanese private press, or 自主盤, pronounced "jishuban”, which loosely translates to “independent board.”
This first mix, a menagerie of songs from across the spectrum of Japanese private press, serves as an introduction to subsequent mixes. Tanoshī.
The post First & Last: Japanese Private Press, Vol. 1 appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
From the confines of a snowed in cabin, Aquarium Drunkard presents Off-Piste, a 90 minute TDK mixtape. Expect a taut embrace of ice cold synths, nascent drum machines, reverb, echo, ornithology infused Danish funk, and two tracks referencing penguins. Duck the rope.
The post AD Presents: Off-Piste | A Mixtape appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Castle Dogs is a sixty minute slow boil of post-punk and new/no-wave, mixed live from Uncle Tio's collection and dubbed to tape exclusively for Aquarium Drunkard. Each tape features exclusive artwork and an instant photo of the tracklist. Play at full volume.
We are giving away six copies of the cassette via the AD instagram...head over there to land one. Actual dogs not included.
The post Aquarium Drunkard Presents: Castle Dogs | A Mixtape appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
In 2017 Aquarium Drunkard brought you Christmas Jambree: A Vintage Jamaican Yuletide Mixtape. At 28 tracks it's an extensive collection of Jamaican reggae and ska Christmas tunes. If you've never heard it, do slide over there right now, but if you're already converted, and looking for a bit more in that vein, the following companion has you covered. Dig in, dig deep, and happy holidays.
The post Christmas Jambree :: A Vintage Jamaican Yuletide Mixtape, Vol. 2 appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Autumn Hymnal: 23 tracks of jazz, folk and ambient suited to navigate these changes--from the celebratory catharsis of Tim Buckley, to the mournful acceptance of Anne Briggs, to the haunting beauty of Jessica Pratt. Put on your favorite sweater, pour something warm and enjoy the ride.
The post Autumn Hymnal :: A Mixtape appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Matthew Specktor's Always Crashing in the Same Car: On Art, Crisis, & Los Angeles, California blends "autobiographical vignettes and incisive cultural deep dives." Today, the author joins us with a companion mixtape of songs that helped inspire the book.
The post Always Crashing In The Same Car (A Mixtape) appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
The following mix is a tribute to the brilliant--sometimes misunderstood--artist, featuring a selection of albums under Brooks' own name, as well as crucial collaborations. It ends with a blistering version of Woody Shaw’s composition, “Zoltan,” taken from the exceptional new collection, Understanding.
The post Improvisational Sphere :: A Roy Brooks Mixtape appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Imminent summer approaches as we check in with with Monster Rally, whose "Imaginary Palms" drops later this week -- a balmy dreamscape framed by harps, water, live drums, air and maracas.
This, our third mix collaboration [following Volume I (2012), and Volume II (2013)], finds Monster Rally's Ted Feighan pulling from an appropriately humid crate. Press play, get lifted.
The post Monster Rally :: Volume III (A Mixtape) appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Snapping at the heels of last year’s Eastern Flowers and Wabi Sabi lps, prolific polymath Sven Wunder returns this June with his third full-lengh, Natura Morta. In anticipation, Wunder recorded the following vinyl mix for AD, via his home studio in Sweden, leaning into aesthetic influences and inspiration.
The post Natura Morta (A Sven Wunder Mixtape) appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Because it's only getting hotter... our hermano in sound Mathieu Schreyer's all-vinyl set from last May. All fire, via the Radio Free archives, previously solely available via our Patreon. Only the good shit.
The post Latin Grippe (A Mixtape) appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
For this Unearthed bootleg mix we're digging into our decades-spanning stash of unreleased demo tapes. Some of them are exceedingly rough, still searching for the song. Others are fully formed, the finish line in view. Some are recorded straight to a boom box at home, others in a tricked out Hollywood studio....
The post Unearthed, Vol. 15 :: Demolition Derby appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Presenting Heaven on Earth, a four-hour (!) Kevin Ayers megamix by David Mittleman of Observations of Deviance, a weekly "all-vinyl, freeform program that harkens back to the early days of underground FM radio."
The post Kevin Ayers :: Heaven On Earth (A Mixtape) appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Roots reggae is the music of the Rastafarian tradition. It speaks to the spiritual, political, and socially conscious message of God, called Jah by Rastafarians.
Press play for a celebration of roots stylings including the traditional, digital, and dub.
The post Threat To Creation :: A Mixtape appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Consider this one a sequel to the Unearthed series’ two other Bay Area bootleg deep dives — Sausalito Haze and Pacific High. The Boarding House, located at 960 Bush Street in San Francisco, had a good run in the 1970s as one of the city’s premiere nightclubs, presenting a killer mix of music and comedy (such stars as Robin Williams and Steve Martin had early successes here) seven nights a week, in a very intimate setting. For this mix, we’ve gathered together a typically eclectic blend of folk, reggae, jazz, country, punk and rock, all recorded live at the Boarding House.
The post Unearthed, Vol. 14 :: The Boarding House appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
Sonhos Secretos, or Secret Dreams in English, alludes to the quiet aspirations of those that made these independent and privately released recordings as well as to the fact that many of these tracks have long remained essentially a secret. It's also, to some extent, a reference to a certain dream-like quality that permeates this collection.
The post Sonhos Secretos: Brazilian Private Press & Independent MPB On 7″ (1980-1985) appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.
With live music still iffy this year, let's travel back to some long-ago summers in New York City's Central Park. For the 12th edition of the Unearthed bootleg mix series, we're training our ears on Wollman Skating Rink, which hosted some truly stellar al fresco concerts back in the day. These performances span from the late 1960s to the early 1980s and encompass a wide range of freaky fresh air jams: dark funk jazz, ecstatic post-punk, prog epics, Texas boogie — it's all here
The post Unearthed, Vol. 12 :: Skating In Central Park appeared first on Aquarium Drunkard.