Inspired by a discussion with Petra yesterday - what bands/songs/features are common to seemingly each and every mixtape you make?Every mixtape I make seems to have about three German bands on it,Stereolab,and Eno,ambient or otherwise.I used to get hung up on repetition and it stopped me from making tapes,then I stopped giving a fuck about it,and now I feel I need to expand my CD collection again in order to make more interesting mixes.So what mixtape cliches do you subscribe to of late?

-- Damian (spacelab@angelfire.com), March 22, 2002

Answers

cliche songs : "Dead" by Carolyn Sullivan, "Harley-Davidson" by Brigitte Bardot.

cliche artistes : billy childish, billy chidish, billy childish

other telltale cliches : annoying tape cut-ups or excerpts from sound effects records to fill up the end of the side.

-- (doorag@eudoramail.com), March 24, 2002.

oops i meant billy childish BILLY CHILDISH & billy childish obv

-- (doorag@eudoramail.com), March 24, 2002.

i like to put the familiar amidst the unfamiliar. like if i'm making a tape for someone, i like to give them something great and definitive by a band they haven't heard or an album they haven't heard, and then pop in a dash of wham! or the monkees or the pointer sisters. appealing to a sense of nostalgia and familiarity to make the listener more comfortable with the unfamiliar? heh! i should get into marketing, i have the psychology wrapped round my little finger! ;-)

-- di (ladydie6@hotmail.com), March 24, 2002.

oh but you seem so NICE, and ETHICAL and HUMAN! nosir, marketing sure ain't the jig for you!

yeah, false senses of security are a mixtaper's best friend.

-- petra jane (petrajane@nightmode.net), March 25, 2002.

i've been reviewing some recent tape tracklistings and discovered i am sadly addicted to Broadcast's 'Message From Home'. it's been on 4 consecutive tapes now.

-- petra jane (petrajane@nightmode.net), March 25, 2002.

I always do something like, recent (last ten / fifteen years) - then sixites girl groups or weird 50's rockers, which I thought was interesting, but I tend to do it with every tape is mix ... and it also cuts into the flow of the tape ... I find the best way is to get really manic and then make the tape, so you start of high, and then ease down - I mean do stuff while making the tape, don't sit and listen to songs you have heard a million times ...? shaney

-- Shane Jesse Xmass (eatthisgarage@hotmail.com), March 25, 2002.

i'm a chronic spoken word nerd - fantastic for those awkward segues, and for adding that little bit of zing to what might otherwise get lost in between the showstopper tracks.

cooking up mixtapes is really a bit like being pregnant - it can get pretty messy, and finishing the darn thing off can be rather painful. i even get cravings for strange food - the last mix was done entirely on peas+cheese+coriander jaffles. latest trick is to do mixes naked - gives the mix a nice, clean, goose-bumpy white feel, but with a quirky, edgy tang, like the neighbours might come round any minute.

-- mistersquiggle~ (donde_estan_pollo@hotmail.com), March 27, 2002.

yo Jon-boy, you needa do more of those childrens-stories-over-spooky- instrumental-stylez numbers, that verily rocketh the party.

-- petra jane (petrajane@nightmode.net), March 27, 2002.

also a predictable feature of my tapes is you often get tracks by the angry samoans, half jap, & the BBC radiophonic workshop round the end of the side.

(they're short, y'see)

-- (international_dust@poetschoice.org), May 28, 2002.

I often have Alastair Galbraith 'cause so many of his songs are short (and good!)

-- haloist (spectral@liquidinformation.com), May 29, 2002.