dj snobo / Gosh from Yaputhma

So, this is my official end-of-the-year roundup mix. More or less a "best of" selection, although of course a lot of stuff didn't make it, especially from the isolationist/ambient or folk/singer-songwriter realms - it just didn't fit the mood of the mix and, more importantly, I actually prefer that kind of stuff unmixed. Also, I can confess and admit that this year I stopped following certain scenes or radically decreased attention paid to new artists, releases and labels. Yes, an oversaturation/information overdose thing, exactly. In fact, I've been listening to less music than before - instead I started reading again after long break... call me old fashioned ;) Anyway... Still, when compiling this mixtape, I reminisced back and I can just say - what a great year it was! Wasn't it? :)

I've been silent for quite a long time. My last Rasols mix has been made 10 month ago, as this year I actually took a break from co-hosting the radio show. The reasons for the silence I explained here . And finally, the material has accumulated - as I like to say, the tracks themselves just started to cry out, begging to be mixed and presented to the audience. As this year I very sparsely followed "the scene", I felt free from obligations to use the freshest and hypest material possible; on the contrary, I wanted to include some compositions that either stand aside of any scenes, or just some songs from authors very dear to me, no matter how out of place they might sound. And - surprise surprise - they actually didn't :) At the same time, I still like the "sound of today" - liquid beats, deconstructed instrumental hip-hop, aquacrunk, call it watchalike. So here it is - an odd but integral mixture of new and old material, songs and tracks, melodies a...

After a long silence, finally: a new mix. A recording of an austere, minimalist ambient set I played at Organic Sounds event (the successor of the great series of chillout Wednesdays in 2010, Om Tree ). I've taken the liberty to slightly adjust its tail end though, adding one extra track and replacing the coda. Otherwise no edits, straight as it was - an uneasy journey from despair to acceptance. In the intro, what you hear is  Kim Ki Duk  singing "Arirang", a  traditional Korean song  from his  own film of the same name . If you have seen the movie, you may understand why I started the set with it. If you don't, I cautiously advise you to do so - cautiously, because 1) it's not an easy watch 2) it's not for everyone 3) knowing and loving Kim Ki Duk's previous films - at least  "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring"  is virtually a pre-requisite. I experienced a shock and a very strong catharsis when I saw it - amplified by the state...

Year 2012 brought radical change of my listening habits. I listen to less new music than ever (instead I read more than ever, at least in a decade or even two). I rarely download anything - too often checking online is enough to understand that I don't actually need to extend my huge collection even more. Granted, I still buy CDs (and even a couple of vinyls) - mostly ambientish, although sometimes I pay my debts to contemporary beatmakers I respect and who opened new doors for me. I still love fresh beat-related music - post-dubstep, instrumental hip-hop, juke - but I can no longer work through its endless crates as a selector: the scene is so wide and there is so much music made which is ok, but too... momentary, transient, which fades away too fast. In other words, " scenius " music - that belongs to the scene and is better consumed in the mix, as part of the whole. These days, this is how I prefer enjoying this kind of music - by appreciating the work of other selec...