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.
Continue reading “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.
Continue reading “The Mastery of Consciousness, Side B”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:
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.
Continue reading “Satori in Babylon, Side B”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.
Continue reading “Satori in Babylon, Side A”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.
Continue reading “33 1/3 Revolutions per Minute, Side B”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.
Continue reading “33 1/3 Revolutions per Minute, Side A”Year: 1997
Original Format: cassette
Continue reading “Revolution #97, Side B: Freedom To”“Freedom is free of the need to be free.” —Funkadelic
Year: 1997
Original Format: cassette
Over the years I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about freedom. Everybody wants it but nobody really knows what to do with it. It’s perplexing and troubling and mysterious but, as someone once said, I like the trouble and I like the mystery.
Continue reading “Revolution #97, Side A: Freedom From”Year: 1996
Original Format: cassette
There’s a sort of narrative here: an extraterrestrial lands; is initially welcomed; meets a woman; is pursued by sinister forces; and in the end decides to return whence he came. It bears some resemblance to the plot of the John Carpenter/Jeff Bridges movie Starman, which I haven’t seen for many, many years. Apparently the Starman comes in response to the Voyager Golden Record, but at no point is he heard to say “Send more Chuck Berry.”
Continue reading “It’s Happening, Side B”Year: 1996
Original Format: cassette
What’s “happening” here is that the aliens are landing, or revealing themselves, or whatever. 26 years later, it hasn’t happened yet. I remain hopeful that I’ll live to see it, but I’m not holding my breath.
Continue reading “It’s Happening, Side A”