The Signal Music Weblog

The Signal: EP061 - A not-so-dangerous game of cat and mouse! Thank you all for coming, especially those of you who are new to The Signal. (And we know there's at least one of you.) We're very glad that these mixes aren't only enjoyed by just us... though don't get me wrong, they get a lot of use in my personal mp3 player as well. It's always a pleasant surprise when I put the thing on random, then hit a Signal mix without realizing it and find myself thinking "Man, I'm lucking out! I love all these songs!"

I guess that happens less often since I've started layering sounds into the mixes. They can't pass for random songs as easily anymore. Things change. Seasons change. This big blue marble keeps on turning. ID3 tags continue to have the track listing. Mixes are available for a limited time. This is just a hobby thing, shared with friends. Let's leave the search engines out of it. Notes are after the jump, if you're viewing this on The Signal weblog, or in subsequent paragraphs if you went straight here.

Follow up:

1. I found a website of field recordings from around the world. It really makes me want to make some of my own, but every time they list the equipment they're using and I look up how much it all costs, I convince myself that it's much more economical to just make use of what they recorded.

2. This guy put an album together composed of music and field recordings that he made while traveling in nine different countries. You can look it up, it's a free download.

3. I haven't enjoyed an oddball percussion composition like this one since the track of the postal workers in Ghana stamping away and whistling in unison.

4. Just an average, good pop song... and then the completely unexpected happens and the song rockets up into greatness! Oh man, I love the surprise hidden in this song!

5. I'm a big fan of pop music in languages I don't speak, so the lyrics don't distract me if they're stupid.

6. Winter weather just seems perfect for a track like this. You just want to huddle under a blanket and relax and all your senses seem... slowed... down.

7. Almost forgot about this track! Had to rearrange the mix when I remembered I bought it and wanted others to hear it.

8. Got albums of these from the library. Need to go back and get some more. They're handy.

9. From a radio show/mix thing. Charming. Is "the sound barrier" a euphemism? It has to be, right?

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12. A video game reminded me that this track exists. I'm glad it did.

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Not much to say about this mix, it turns out. Sometimes, there's interesting connections between the songs, and sometimes the mix turns out like this: I just think the tracks sound good in this order. No bigger pattern than that.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it and one day, pass it down to your children and show them the "Date Modified" metadata and say "I was into Signal mixes well before they were recognized by the Smithsonian for their contribution to American culture" and your child will briefly depower their goggles and say "Duh, I got the whole Smithsonian archive wetloaded when I was EIGHT!" and then go right back to gold-farming for Chinese gamer clans.

The future's gonna be great.

Can you feel it?