Discontent is regenerating – and the key shift is a significant one. Discontent will no longer be a home solely for my own curations, I’m opening it up to other minds, other voices, other sounds. I’m opening the door ajar to friends and colleagues thus far, but may well open further as the experiment progresses. First up, an artist who appeared on the recent ‘All That Glitters Is Gold‘ mixtape, Pink Priest. He emailed to thank me for including his track on the mixtape, I suggested he might want to put his own together.  ’We Sleep In This Cave‘ is the result – a singular treat awash with hypnotic tones and drones, punctuated by rough bursts of primal punk and lo-fidelty abstract pop.  It’s a genuinely beautiful curation, and one which I hope sets a benchmark for further guest-tapes to come.  Stuart Buchanan

“Recent days, months, weeks, year(s) have been a good time for music… at least, they have been to me. Over the past year to year and a half, I’ve discovered so much incredibly epic, gorgeous, utterly mind-blowing music, that it’s been hard to keep up with. I don’t want to go too far into detail concerning each and every track on this mix, but these are some musicians, peers, projects, and tracks that have really stuck out to me this year. There’s an aesthetic that flows through this music; it’s grainy, it’s reactionary, it’s radiant, it’s intelligent, it’s haunting, and it packs this intense vibe that you can’t help but take notice to. I won’t keep throwing cliché adjectives around, I’ll simply let this wonderful music speak for itself… Here’s some of my favorite music of recent days, months, weeks, year(s)…” Pink Priest, November 2009.

DOWNLOAD: We Sleep In This Cave | A Mixtape by Pink Priest (94.4MB)

01. Jen Paul – Late Film
02. Peaking Lights – Silver Tongues, Soft Whispers (from Imaginary Falcons – Night-People)
03. Among The Bones – Hark From The Tombs (from Chosen Sons Of Snakes Demo – self-released)
04. Cough Cool - Girl Tell Me (from Buy Some Dust – BATHETIC)
05. Flight – My Business (from Flight 10″ – Kill Shaman)
06. Taped Hiss – Underwater Casino (from Underwater Casinos – self-released)
07. With Moths – Swimming (from 5 Old Songs EP – self-released)
08. Dem Hunger – Nah Fiat Shit Mama (shelleyduvall.blogspot.com)
09. Twins – Less Weight (from Doubles – Peace Age/self-released)
10. Dirty Beaches – Coast To Coast (from Dirty Beaches c22 – Night-People)
11. Wild Nothing – Cloudbusting (Kate Bush Cover)
12. Ducktails – Deck Observatory (from Landscapes – Olde English Spelling Bee)
13. Terrors – Soft Proliferating Light (from Ceaseless Fall c20 – BATHETIC)
14. Ye Olde Maids – Hawk Over The Highway From My Way To You (from God Blesses Us, Mother Dresses Us - Art Fag Recordings)
15. A Gal – And All I Could Think Of Was You (from Jeans Wilder / A Gal Split -BATHETIC)
16. Sparkling Wide Pressure – The Long (from Touching Pasture – Students of Decay)
17. Jen Paul – Muerte O Casamiento Durmiente

Pink Preist: godofblues.blogspot.com | myspace.com/pinkpriest

img: Plamen Stoev

Looking back at the collection of mixtapes that adorn the elongated top shelf of my CD stack, it’s fascinating to watch genres, trends and styles come and ago. As much as the mixtapes pin down flashpoints in time and space, they also reflect a linear narrative of sorts. Buried in between the idiosyncratic choices that I’ve made, are signals that indicate a broader passage. Some genres bleed in slowly over months or over a sequence of multiple tapes, others crash in without much warning, overtaking everything in their path. However, it’s often hard to distinguish whether I’m being pulled, or I’m doing the pulling. Am I responding to signposts in the ether, or am I fashioning my own?

Certainly on ‘All That Glitters Is Gold’ artists such as Gary War, Cold Cave, Oneohtrix Point Never and Best Coast (a post-Pocahaunted project for Bethany Cosentino) are garnering an increasing recognition factor from blogs worldwide, however Australian artists such as Cabaret Callado, Pompey, Hi God People or the newly reissued Pelican Daughters (Itch-E & Scratch-E’s Andy Rantzen in experimental / post-punk mode) remain almost entirely obscured from view, even in their home country. So, is this my story, or someone else’s? Truly, like all good mixtapes, it’s an eccentric combination of both.

What surprised me when pulling together this selection was the complete absence of remixes or covers. Instead, this is (with one slight exception) the original instance of all the tracks represented, not a reversion in sight. Perhaps the seemingly unstoppable glut of remixes and bootleg versions over the years has finally taken their toll on me – I need to return to the source. This theory is bourne out by events in my life – twelve months ago I was running down a clu-de-sac flogging ‘global ghettotech’ on Fat Planet, today I’ve reconnected with what drove my love of music in the first place: free experimentation, unbridled by a sense of scene, or notions of taste. Whether this is symptomatic of a wider condition is unclear, but I defy anyone to send me a bootleg electro remix via email and expect to see it cropping up on a mixtape anytime in the next era.

The title reflects this – these tracks shimmer and glow in their own right, with no need for spit or polish from any third party. It’s also a phrase culled from the closing track (the caveat mentioned above) – Buttress O’Kneel and Lucas Darklord’s destruction of the Led Zeppelin classic. In Lucas’ own words, this is not so much as a remix, as a “ruin”. And it befits a mixtape whose underlying purpose (initially unbeknown to me) was to draw a line, to ruin the past, and to plant a signpost for a different kind of future.

Discontent – All That Glitters Is Gold | download [Rapidshare, 105MB]

1. Pink Priest – Field Of Orgasms [U.S.] 2:02
2. Teeth Mountain – Black Jerusalem [U.S.] 5:42
3. Lucky Dragons – Power Melody [U.S.] 3:46
4. Gyratory System – Cargo Cult [England] 4:34
5. Blank Dogs – Set Living [U.S.] 3:18
6. Peace In – Candy Rug Lizards [U.S.] 2:52
7. Oneohtrix Point Never – Zones Without People [U.S.] 4:00
8. Cabaret Callado – Ware [Brazil / Australia] 2:56
9. Gary War – Good Clues [U.S.] 2:51
10. Cold Cave – Life Magazine [U.S.] 2:56
11. Flight – Flowers [U.S.] 2:51
12. Hi God People – Thunder On The Way To Funan [Australia] 8:24
13. Pelican Daughters – The Haywain [Australia] 3:38
14. Zaza – Sooner or Later [U.S.] 5:06
15. Pompey – Hands Miniature [Australia] 2:56
16. Best Coast – Something In The Way [U.S.] 2:11
17. Polyfox & The Union Of The Most Ghosts – Cross Boa Tangles Gently Around Polyfox [Australia] 3:02
18. Fol Chen – Cocktails at Shadeland [U.S.] 0:59
19. BOK Darklord – Stairway to Heaven [Australia] 2:12

img | anniewong