With winter on the horizon and the temperature dropping steadily I quickly found myself gobbling up tracks with a more summery feel. Originally, this gave me the urge to simply create a playlist compiling those types of tracks that I most yearned for. This, in itself, was quite the task and I ended up with upwards of 200 tracks, totalling nearly 15 hours of music; a hugely daunting playlist now sat in my library begging to be cut down to an appropriate and manageable size. I then set out to find a more clear sound and theme for this playlist that was quickly becoming more and more important to my daily music consumption, and therefore my happiness quota. I found myself unable to cut the playlist further than to 120 tracks and nearly 9 hours of music; still more than one could possibly jam into a two hour mixtape.
Luckily, I had been inspired by the rapid-fire DJing skills shown off this year's Red Bull Thre3Style DJ World Championships held right here in Toronto. The amazing talent and mixing made me believe that anything was possible in terms of what genres and styles of music could be jam packed into a small span of time (check out my favourite act of the finals Trentino among others). Following the inspiration taken from the RB3Style DJ World Championships and armed with the warm feeling from some of my favourite instruments (the steel drum, chimes, bells and so forth), I slowly began creating what is now called the "Summæry Steel Drum Special" invoking both the summer I most desired and the idea of a summary (year in review) mix.
As is the case with a free Soundcloud account, 2 hours is always my target length for a mixtape. As was also the case with RB3Style there were often audio clips strewn together so as to fashion an introduction as well as conclusion, and with all the great clips available from the infamous Rob Ford, mayor of this great city, I would have been remiss were I not to include and take advantage of our most beloved crack-smoker.
Once again I set out to create this mix in the same vein as BBC Radio One's inimitable Essential Mix, striving to yet again let the music speak for itself, often letting the lyrical content incite and push into the oncoming track. There are a few cases, as the mix came together, that feature serious time and mood changes, where you might find Kendrick Lamar back to back with Billy Joel, Warren G & Nate Dogg back to back with Wojciech Kilar's soundtrack Dracula, even DJ Kool and Sade come back to back; caution is entirely thrown to the wind, no hold barred.
As mentioned previously I withered my playlist down from over 200 tracks to 120, and completed the mixtape with a grand total of 75 tracks. This meant that quite a number of tracks I found essential to the creation of the original playlist left out of the final mixtape; perhaps I will use these in another (far stranger) mix but I did want to give them a quick mention. The most important track I wasn't able to find a spot for was Pete Townshend's "Let My Love Open The Door," but I would have also really liked to have gotten in the likes of the 80s classics The Stranglers, OMD, Blancmange and The Psychedelic Furs, as well as the classic interracial foursome Booker T. & The M.G.'s, this is all leaving aside groups of tracks from this era of music.
"Summæry Steel Drum Special" was inspired in part by RB3Style, Alex Metric's brilliant remix of Foal's "Bad Habit," with much similarity to another ecstasy inducing track Boy 8-Bit's remix of La Roux's "Quicksand." The need to tie these elements together, as well as review the year that was Oggie James' journey through music, created this brilliant and unrivalled mixtape.
But enough of that, by now you must be aching for the download link and tracklist of this hugely wacky and exciting mixtape. Directly below is the tracklist with notations down to the second of when each track comes in, and directly following that is the download link. Perhaps you might be interested in my "Early Influences Mix" still downloadable yet moved off of Soundcloud to clear the space, find it here
0:00 The Ballad Of James Cameron - South Park
0:09 Breaking Bad: Main Title Theme [Extended] - Dave Porter
0:09 Regulate (acapella) - Warren G & Nate Dogg
0:28 Rob Ford In Denial
1:15 Black Skinhead - Kanye West
1:37 Lose My Breathe - Lazerpiff
3:53 Attracting Flies (Shift K3Y Remix) - AlunaGeorge
5:05 Smack My Bitch Up/Orinoco Flow - The Prodigy vs Enya
8:09 Turn Back Time - Sub Focus
9:09 Lose You - Kove
11:35 Quicksand (Boy 8-Bit Remix) - La Roux
13:48 Odyssey - Gorgon City
15:43 Blackout (f Shakka) - Wretch 32
17:48 Safe With You (Henry Krinkle Remix) - Alex Metric & Jacques Lu Cont
20:59 Mad Again (Boy 8-Bit Remix) - South Rakkas Crew
22:58 Hold On (f Sampha) - SBTRKT
25:33 Opening Titles - Rescuers Down Under
26:57 Dead Already - Thomas Newman
28:14 Halo - The Cure
30:03 HiiiPoWeR - Kendrick Lamar
32:12 Rosalinda's Eyes - Billy Joel
32:17 Get Free (Blood Diamonds Remix) - Major Lazer
34:17 Sweet Nothing (Diplo & Grandtheft Remix) - Calvin Harris & Florence Welch
37:29 Mercy Now (Emoh Instead Blend) - Parachute Youth vs Kanye West
39:19 It's You (DJ Snake Remix) - Duck Sauce
40:11 Daydreamer (Jack Beats Remix) - Flux Pavilion
42:56 Radio Ladio (Radioclit Swedish Remix) - Metronomy
43:41 Tropical Heat - Boy 8-Bit
45:35 Mantenido - Daniel Portman
47:04 Yee (Krunk's Epic Club Edit) - Deorro
49:54 Skweekee - Nom De Strip
50:16 Alive (Nomero Remix) - Krewella
52:46 Raindrops (Louis La Roche Rework) - Basement Jaxx
55:01 Bananonymous - Savant
56:01 England Go Deep (Henry Fong Mashup) - Andrew Bayer vs Wax Motif, Neoteric, Torro Torro
58:46 Idea Of Happiness (What So Not Remix) - Van She
1:01:09 Imaginary Paradise (Egbert Remix) - Sebastien Leger
1:01:09 Room 44 (Louis La Roche In 1984 Remix) - Team Waterpolo
1:03:09 Treat Me Right (Grandtheft Remix) - Keys N Krates
1:03:50 Asphyxiation - Autoerotique
1:06:02 Phone Sex (f Grimes) - Blood Diamonds
1:06:56 Everlong (Louis La Roche Rework) - Foo Fighters
1:09:44 Love Theme - What So Not
1:11:28 I Need Your Love (Louis La Roche Remix) - Calvin Harris & Ellie Goulding
1:14: 25 I Love To Move In Here (Proxy Remix) - Moby
1:16:43 Jewel Self Dribbling Basketball (Rynecologist Remix) - Croudpleaser
1:19:49 Elephant And Castle (Duke Dumont Remix) - Yes Wizard
1:20:50 Anticipation (f Jayelldee) - Sub Focus
1:22:23 Take A Look Around - The 2 Bears
1:23:46 My Girl (Dub) - The Other Tribe
1:25:47 Say My Name (Cyril Hahn Remix) - Destiny's Child
1:28:12 Splitting Colors (Louis La Roche Remix) - Lemaitre
1:32:11 White Noise (f AlunaGeorge) - Disclosure
1:33:31 Messages (f Simon Lord) - Dillon Francis
1:33:45 Without You (f T.E.E.D.) - Dillon Francis
1:36:46 Hush - LIZ
1:36:55 Settle Down (Baauer Remix) - No Doubt
1:37:39 Epic (Gent & Jawns Edit) - Sandro Silva & Quintino
1:40:07 Hang On To Your Love - Sade
1:40:31 Let Me Clear My Throat - DJ Kool
1:40:32 Slow Down - DJ Snake x Yellow Claw x Spanker
1:41:39 At The Knees - Murlo
1:42:26 Give Me More - Grandtheft
1:44:03 Gurrr Swag - Ezekiel
1:44:51 Always (Wave Racer Remix) - Panama
1:46:27 Hyperparadise (Flume Remix) - Hermitude
1:48:12 Yaow! - Baauer
1:48:47 Jah No Partial (CRNKN Remix) - Major Lazer & Flux Pavilion
1:49:58 Keep Forgetting To Regulate - Warren G, Nate Dogg vs Michael McDonald
1:50:01 Dracula: The Beginning - Wojciech Kilar
1:51:48 Original Don (DGRC Remix) - Major Lazer
1:55:10 Rob Ford Admits Mistakes
1:55:37 Bad Habit (Alex Metric Remix) - Foals
1:58:32 Jacking It (Oggie James Toronto Edit) - South Park
1:59:29 James Cameron Is James Cameron - South Park
DOWNLOAD HERE