Niklas' blog

Yes, in the wake of Muxtape I’m constantly lying to you about what sites I’ll publish my tape through, but as Favtape has just rocked my world I’ll just relay a little about it to you and say what Muxtape #20 is about.

Favtape is described by TechCrunch as Muxtape on steroids, and I can only concur. The availability of the songs aren’t based on your uploading them, but rather searching for them through Favtape, which will use your last.fm or Pandora account for creating a playlist. Nice! But where are the files from? From TechCrunch:

One of Favtape’s biggest advantages over Muxtape (but also its main weakness) is its heavy reliance on Seeqpod, a music site that indexes music files across the web but never hosts them.

Of course, this means one can easily and quickly create a mixtape, but it also provides three setbacks, as I see it¹:

1. The songs may not exist. Even if you add them to your tape, they may simply be skipped if the system can’t find them.

2. The version of the song may not be the one you had in mind when adding it. When I created this playlist, I thought of Manic Street Preachers’ “This Is Yesterday” from their album. The version on my Favtape is not from the album and only features James Dean Bradfield playing an acoustic guitar and singing.

3. The technical quality of the songs differ. Some may be 64Kbps, others higher. This means that while one rock track may feature crisp hi-hat sounds, another may sound like christmas bells.

Here’s my playlist, and you’ll get a ton more of functionalities if you go to its Favtape page here.

1. Babyshambles – “Loyalty Song”

Even though Pete Doherty somehow hangs on to his image as lullaby dreaming poet, I think it’s increasingly evident that his career is on the skids due to drugs and alcohol. Still, during his more salient days, he churned out tracks like this one, which I love much due to former Babyshambles guitarist Patrick Walden, who now has a new band, called Big Dave.

2. Manic Street Preachers – “This Is Yesterday”

From the last album in their canon that I discovered, springs one of the most beautiful tracks on it; as written, this is not the album version, but an acoustic with James Dean Bradfield singing his heart out, as written by Richie Edwards.

3. Immortal Technique – “Mistakes”

Even though my favourite new-school political rapper has finally released his third album, “The Middle Passage”, most of the tracks off that Green Lantern-produced album aren’t as good as his two first ones. Regardless, a track like this, that both shakes the hips and hates all major record labels is very nice indeed.

4. Shinichi Osawa – “Star Guitar”

Yes, it’s a cover of the old track by The Chemical Brothers, which is quite telling because electronica-people rarely cover other electroniae, but this is a most welcome addition to the pack. Osawa’s album “The One” has been among my most played for the past two weeks that I’ve known it, so go give it a try; also, check out the tracks and pics at his MySpace-page.

5. Placebo – “Pure Morning”

I’ve had a hard time getting into this group, but they finally hit home due to their singles-collection, “Once More with Feeling: Singles 1996-2004″. Way back when it was released, I hated Brian Molko’s voice and firmly disliked the lyrics, but now I love the drone and care for the video. Must be the age. Soon you’ll find me filling up this blog with jazz, pictures of mimes and me writing aeons on how much I love crumpets.

6. Morrissey – “You Know I Couldn’t Last”

The ending track of his radiant “You Are The Quarry”, it’s bitter in the right perspective, hurt, airy and descriptive. Blue, gelignite-filled eyes, fiends waiting to creep up and mug you as the cash-register breaks your back, oh, oh; the squalor of the mind. Brilliant fade-out chords.

7. Justice – “Stress (Autoremix)”

What you’ll hear when listening to this is probably – but not certainly – the album version of this track, but what I really want you to hear is the version tagged autoremix. You’ll find it here. Oh, lacklustre Favtape!

8. Wilson Pickett – “Land Of 1000 Dances”

Aw, a real soul-funk grinda! Geddoan-upp-ah!

9. Metallica – “Suicide And Redemption”

I’ve rarely liked Metallica, and the documentary on them – “Some Kind Of Monster” – didn’t exactly make me like them more, especially Lars Ulrich. Now, they’ve released a new album and for some inexplicable reason I like it. I do! But wait, the album is audially fucked-up. One of the biggest bands in the world apparently doesn’t hire people who can mix their album properly. Sad story. Even sadder, that the good-sounding version is only available through buying the Guitar Hero-version of the album! Weird and sick, but true. Anyway, this song is good! Why, I cannot say.

1. Still, hotter than shoes modelled after Stephin Merritt.[back]