American Magic and Dread – A chronicle of the ongoing search for the perfect segue

August 23, 2023September 7, 2023 Bill Mixtapes of Tomorrow

Adorned Fathomless (Love Is a Black Hole), Side 2

Year: 2023
Original Format: mp3

Until I went to see Oppenheimer the other week, I was not aware that Oppie (as they repeatedly insist on calling him in the film) was involved in an argument with Einstein over the existence of black holes.

In 1939, Einstein would attempt to prove that black holes were impossible in his publication “On a Stationary System with Spherical Symmetry Consisting of Many Gravitating Masses,” using his theory of general relativity to defend his argument. Months later, Oppenheimer and his student Hartland Snyder would provide the Oppenheimer–Snyder model in their paper “On Continued Gravitational Contraction,” which predicted the existence of black holes. In the paper, which made no reference to Einstein’s recent publication, Oppenheimer and Snyder used Einstein’s own theory of general relativity to show the conditions on how a black hole could develop for the first time in contemporary physics. (Wikipedia)

Oppenheimer won. That had to feel good.

July 21, 2023July 21, 2023 Bill Mixtapes of Tomorrow

Adorned Fathomless (Love Is a Black Hole), Side 1

Year: 2023
Original Format: mp3

Back in 2019, when the above image of a black hole was released and we were told that it had been given the Hawaiian name “Powehi” (“the adorned fathomless dark creation”), I knew that it would be the name of a mix. I didn’t know that it would take four years, but that’s how things go sometimes. The process is slow and anyway we are all made of time, right?

January 29, 2023January 29, 2023 Bill Mixtapes of Yore

The Mastery of Consciousness, Side B

Year: 1999
Original Format: cassette

I like this one a lot; I just wish I had known about Lothar and the Hand People back then.

January 19, 2023 Bill Mixtapes of Yore

The Mastery of Consciousness, Side A

Year: 1999
Original Format: cassette

This pretentious title is a reference to The Mystery of Consciousness, my first “official” mixtape, which dates back to the Eighties. In the 21st century I would pivot (mostly) to CDs, which makes this sort of the end of an oeuvre. I put a lot of work into it and I still like it.

At the time I was fascinated by the idea of self-programming. I wondered, is it possible to use the power of suggestion to make yourself a happier, stronger, better person?

24 years later I think: Sort of? In very limited ways? You have to be careful how you do it, though; otherwise you end up with something like this:

December 11, 2022December 10, 2022 Bill Mixtapes of Yore

Satori in Babylon, Side B

Year: 1999
Original Format: cassette

By 1999 my mixtape days were coming to an end. There would be a few more, but early in the 21st century I finally got a CD burner. The tapes remain close to my heart, though… even the less inspired ones, like this.

November 13, 2022November 13, 2022 Bill Mixtapes of Yore

Satori in Babylon, Side A

Year: 1999
Original Format: cassette

1999 was a weird year. I never expected the world to end in Y2K, as we called it then, but I expected something to happen — some kind of sea change, which as it turns out did occur, but not in the way anyone expected and not right away. In the lead-up there was a fair amount of anxiety, which has become much more noticeable in retrospect.

This mix is heavy on the hip-hop, which I was belatedly discovering at the time. It also displays a preoccupation with righteousness, which — as anyone who listens to reggae will tell you — is one of the side effects of smoking too much weed. If my lifetime usage were charted it would spike, I think, in 1986 and 1999.

As for the cover art: That was an actual door I used to walk by in Oakland on my way to BART. It is long gone now, but fondly remembered.

October 7, 2022October 20, 2022 Bill One-Offs

Soul Stone Junkie

Year: 2022
Original Format: mp3

When I finished “Over the Line” there were a bunch of songs left over, and it was hard not to notice the common thread among them: they were all songs by African-Americans (except one by Rodriguez, who is Mexican-American). Only then did I realize that everything on “OtL” was made by people of the Caucasian persuasion. So I started assembling a companion piece, and here it is.

I am of course against segregation in all its forms, and it’s probably in bad taste to call these two mixes “separate but equal.” Maybe they reflect the different ways drug issues manifest themselves in the lives of people of different backgrounds, or something like that. In any case, this is food for thought, hopefully.

August 16, 2022August 16, 2022 Bill One-Offs

Over the Line

Year: 2022
Original Format: mp3

I should probably warn you in advance that parts of this are kind of a downer. It’s a collection of drug songs, most of them of the cautionary variety. Some parts are funny and others go to dark places. I’m not really sure what compelled me to make such a thing — maybe just to feel better about my own bad habits — but I did, so here it is.

July 30, 2022October 19, 2022 Bill Mixtapes of Yore

33 1/3 Revolutions per Minute, Side B

Year: 1999
Original Format: cassette

Everything here was originally recorded onto some kind of magnetic tape in the studio, then pressed onto vinyl. I recorded that vinyl onto a cassette in 1999; converted the cassette to mp3 a few weeks ago; then uploaded it to the miraculous Mixcloud. You’d think after all that it would sound tired, but it still sounds pretty great to me.

July 9, 2022October 19, 2022 Bill Mixtapes of Yore

33 1/3 Revolutions per Minute, Side A

Year: 1999
Original Format: cassette

This was my tribute to vinyl and also, I thought, a fond farewell. At the time CDs had been the dominant medium for a decade, and there was no way of knowing vinyl would make the comeback it has. I’m happy for it, though I find the whole phenomenon surprising and a little confusing.

As for the artwork: I honestly can’t remember. I was smoking a lot of weed at the time, that may have had something to do with it.