The Cold Cut

Ashwin here.

So guys, this week I've been making a mixtape for a friend, and I figured a good way to introduce myself would be by posting it on here for you lovely people.

But first, let me extol the virtues of the cassette mixtape over a CD. I'm sure plenty of people think cassettes are obsolete these days, but in my opinion they serve a vital role.

Practically, in some ways they're more useful. You can only store 80 minutes of music on an audio CD, but 90 on a cassette. They're also more durable, it's hard to snap a tape in half by accident. Tapes are prettier too. Case in point: the first google image result for cassette, vs the first google image result for CD...





which would you rather stick in your stereo?

The most important thing though, and I cannot stress this enough, is this:

sequential access

i.e. to listen to a track you have to have listened to (or fast forwarded past) all of the tracks before it. This is the real magic of a mixtape. With a mixtape, you can tell a story, build up to crescendos, and make the listener expect and receive whatever you want. When you can instantly skip to any track you want, this power is lost. You've gone from a musical novel to simply a group of tracks. You've lost your power over the listener forever without sequential access.

Nevertheless, here is my mixtape in all of its digital, skippable glory. Hope you like electro.

Chromeo are a band with a sense of humour. In an age of Kele Okereke's (Bloc Party) and Tom Smith's (Editors) who try to win fans through the pure force of their moodiness, Chromeo are a breath of fresh, and fun, air. Describing themselves jokily as "the only successful Arab (Pee) Jewish (Dave) collaboration since the beginning of time", Pee Thugg and Dave 1 magically produce 80's funk music with all the characteristic electronica elements: When was the last time you heard a modern band playing the keytar? Well, on their sophomore album Fancy Footwork- just released- they've done just that, as well as using synths and a talk box to create music that can first and foremost be compared to Prince in his electrofunk heyday.

A review of Fancy Footwork in Q this month recieved a harsh 3 stars, although that's not really surprising: Q, being a music magazine, takes everything too seriously and can't take the album for what it is- heaps of fun. This is the kind of album where you can't help a smile spreading from cheek to cheek when you hear it: listen to Call Me Up and try and tell me you didn't enjoy yourself. When Q began to analyse it piece by piece they were ripping apart the spirit of the album: its a fun, funky, party album which should be listened to and cherished, without trying to look for some deeper meaning.

Chromeo aren't afraid to embrace comparisons: on Fancy Footwork I swear I can hear Michael Jackson screeching, and the Prince parallels go without saying, but that doesn't take anything away from it. I hope you will agree; check out the four tracks from the new album below. Oh, and given the comparison to Kele from Bloc Party above, I thought I would include a Chromeo Remix of a Bloc Party B-side. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em? I hope not...

All these tracks can be downloaded from this project, or by following the links individually
Chromeo- Outta Sight
Chromeo- Call Me Up
Chromeo- Tenderoni
Chromeo- Fancy Footwork
Chromeo- Needy Girl (Bloc Party Remix)

Fancy Footwork and Chromeo's first album, She's In Control can be purchase here