Mixtape: Sticky Brilliance (Eclusion)

A few weekends past, I found myself digging thru boxes of tapes. I probably have about 1000 cassettes in my collection, 100 or so of those are cassette bootlegs (mostly of a Rozz Williams nature) and probably an additional 100+ mixtapes of varying degrees. It's not because these collections are remarkable that I wish to share them, in fact, quite the contrary. I believe that if anything, what is illustrated with my mixtapes is a glimpse in to my music collection and how it developed and the tangents it takes. As I sat on the floor of my office I looked at the tapes, more precisely, the songs included on those tapes almost as seeds; where a sound, a genre, an artist took root, grew branches, bore fruit, and offered up new seeds. It's almost a surrogate family tree, because in all honesty, it's where I stole my culture, my tongue and my failures. This as much paints the decades of one person, as a museum in honour of one artist. So, the reason I want to share these tapes is either because I want my own museum; or I need to visualize the paths to today, and most importantly, not lose sight of the precious influence of my dearest friends and loved ones; or I need to pry open the doors to who I was and where I am today; or I simply want to hear these tapes again after so many years.

Sticky Brilliance (Eclusion)

Compiled in 1993. As previously stated, this collection sheds a painful light on how limited my music collection was at the time. I had a collection of vinyl, but no turntable at the time, so I was relegated to cassette and compact disc, and the issue I had with cassette was that I couldn't control the recording volume. Not wishing to have a mix of songs at various recording levels - I kept my selections to those that maintained that aesthetic. 

Having said that, here is the selection. Please note, the original playlist is in tact, but not as presented. I have remixed the track listing to be a little more cohesive. Inclusions I am most proud of are by Flowerhead and Walt Mink... early pieces in my collection that I was quite fond of and took me through the deeper catalogs of Caroline Records and correspondence with members of Flowerhead. Without saying, this is pre-internet forays into looking for new music, and more importantly, new visions and talent.

A01: Beastie Boys - The Biz vs. The Nuge

A02: Beastie Boys - Time For Livin'

A03: Ice Cube - Endangered Species (Tales From The Darkside)

A04: L7 - Wargasm

A05: Nirvana - Molly's Lips (BBC Session)

A06: Pixies - Is She Weird?

A07: Sonic Youth - Mildred Pierce

A08: Daisy Chainsaw - Dog With Sharper Teeth

A09: The Jesus And Mary Chain - Tumbledown

A10: My Bloody Valentine: Only Shallow

A11: Nine Inch Nails - Head Like A Hole (Opal)

A12: Nitzer Ebb - Godhead

A13: They Might Be Giants - Istanbul (Not Constantinople)

A14: Violent Femmes - Mother Of A Girl

A15: Bingo Hand Job (Billy Bragg w/ R.E.M.) - Tom's?

B01: Faith No More - Midlife Crisis

B02: Soundgarden - Birth Ritual

B03: The Infectious Grooves - Do The Sinister

B04: Living Colour - Type

B05: Soul Asylum - All The King's Friends

B06: Live - Waterboy

B07: Flowerhead - Everything Is Beautiful

B08: Walt Mink - Factory

B09: Pixies - Bone Machine

B10: The Smashing Pumpkins - Siva (BBC Session)