[The Future] – ‘Old Souls Part VI: Sui Generis’ (2014-2019)

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Stream the mix while you read; download at the bottom of this post.

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In part, the ‘Old Souls‘ series has been throughout a celebration of the unusual, the “weird,” the experimental, the atypical, the less-common, the avant garde strands of contemporary recorded music.  ‘Old Souls Part VI’ dives straight into the deeper waters of these sounds and feelings.  Which isn’t to say the consistent ‘Old Souls‘ breadth of sounds and subjects is absent: this music still runs the gamut from hip-hop, singer-songwriter, electronic music, pop, jazz, and especially the sui generis fusions of all of the above (and more) that, for my ears, makes the present-day the most exciting time in music since the 1970s-1980s.  It’s just that in this mix especially, the music draws more consistently on the sounds and production and vibes of, say, Massive Attack, Rammellzee and Basquiat’s “Beat Bop,” ‘Homogenic‘, Stevie Wonder’s ‘Secret Life of Plants,’ Eno’s ‘On Land,’, ‘Sextant‘-era Hancock, Einsturzende Neubauten, Javanese gamelan, Steve Reich’s early music, or This Heat’s ‘Deceit‘ (the last three literally sampled) as from more traditional popular sounds.  While there is fantastic music being made explicitly under the banner of “post-punk” this decade, I’d argue the fullest expression of the spirit of the heady late-70s/early-80s era is found here.  I recognize not all of this music will be for everyone–but I hope that those it hits will be hit hard.

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Some of the artists here self-identify as Afrofuturist, others probably have no use for such labels.  But this music is definitely what I would take with me back to the 70s or 80s, if I had a time machine, to show people what “The Future” will sound like at its best and most “futuristic”.  Certainly, this music sounds like the future I hoped for: exciting, adventurous, unpredictable, emotionally intense, sonically expansive.  Living in the future we have–more anxious, more violent, less equitable, less honest than we need–it’s not as if this music is “futurist” in any sort of naive Utopian sense.  But for me at least, I find hope in the sheer beauty and creativity of this art and the artists who make it, because it stands as evidence of what humanity is capable of, even in (or maybe especially in) difficult days.

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A note on the “epic” length and the unorthodox (alphabetical) sequencing of this mix.  Typically, I try to shape mixes to craft an almost narrative flow, under the (probably optimistic) hope they’ll be heard as a piece, beginning to end.  With this mix, I ultimately found I wanted more to create a coherent feeling of a space and time than “tell a story” per se.  So while the mix breaks itself naturally into three sequences, “narrative” is less important than vibe.  The thought is that listeners may jump in and out, or return to listen in parts, and so rather than exclude tracks I love that have the feeling and sound I’m going for in the interest of pithiness, I want to celebrate the bountiful art that’s exploring these sounds and feelings today.  And where the alphabetical sequencing could appear lazy or indifferent–and I’d normally see it that way–I was amazed to find that it resulted in a remarkably engaging flow; and that the opportunities for seamless segues and surprising shifts were excellent, so I embraced it and leaned in.  In any case, as you dive in, I think you’ll agree this adds up to something really engaging as a whole, and in this case, less would not have been more.

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Download/stream the mix below the tracklist. As with ‘Old Souls,’ Parts I through V, this music is made by working artists who all deserve your financial support. So please, please, buy the music and merch, go to shows, and propagate the art to everyone who needs to hear it. I’ve included links to pages where you can buy the music in the tracklist below. Thank you for listening, and please pass it on.

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Various – ‘Old Souls – Part VI – Sui Generis‘
2014-2019
Act I

 

01 [0:00:00] AJMW – “Serene” (‘Unity’ 2016)
02 [0:01:20] Angel-Ho – “Drama” (‘Death Becomes Her’ 2019)
03 [0:04:45] Armand Hammer – “Sweet Micky” (‘Paraffin’ 2018)
04 [0:07:15] Kase Avila – “First Flight” (‘Soul Calibre’ 2019)
05 [0:10:20] Blood Orange – “Baby Florence (Figure)” (‘Angel’s Pulse’ 2019)
06 [0:13:15] Chae Buttuh – “Baby It’s Okay” (‘HoFi – A Collection…’ 2017)
07 [0:15:35] Clipping – “Wake Up” (‘Splendor & Misery’ 2016)
08 [0:17:45] McKinley Dixon – “Black Boy Flies” (‘The Importance of Self Belief’ 2018)
09 [0:21:05] Duendita – “September” (‘direct line to My Creator’ 2018)
10 [0:24:15] Earl Sweatshirt – “Loosie” (‘Some Rap Songs’ 2018)
11 [0:25:15] Ed Balloon – “Rainbows” (‘The Dubs’ 2019)
12 [0:28:10] Elucid – “Visible Plus Invisible” (‘Every Egg I Cracked Today…’ 2019)
13 [0:30:30] ePP – “Bleu City (Go There)” (‘There’s A Place for People…’ 2019)
14 [0:33:05] Flanch – “Pretty Girl” (‘Flanch’ 2016)
15 [0:35:50] Freddie – “Black Magic” (‘All Black Trill Shit’ 2017)
16 [0:39:30] Hprizm – “Waking Them Up” (‘Magnetic Memory’ 2018)
17 [0:42:20] Ibeyi – “Ash” (‘Ash’ 2017)
18 [0:45:55] Jpegmafia – “Williamsburg” (‘Veteran’ 2018)
19 [0:49:15] JusSol – “Pseudobular Affect” (‘Solmate’ 2018)
20 [0:52:45] Lando Chill – “O Sicario e o Padre” (‘The Boy Who Spoke…’ 2017)
Act II

 

21 [0:56:15] Little Simz – “Boss” (‘Grey Area’ 2019)
22 [0:59:20] Lotic – “Distribution of Care” (‘Power’ 2018)
23 [1:03:05] Madison Washington – “Children of Sarah Connor” (‘Facts’ 2018)
24 [1:06:20] Maassai – “2 For Ur Mistakes” (‘Con$truction’ EP 2019)
25 [1:09:25] Malci – “Trout Mask Replica” (‘Papaya!’ 2019)
26 [1:11:20] Mike – “Grabba” (‘War In My Pen’ 2018)
27 [1:13:50] Mister Wallace – “Heavy Heat” (‘Cool Mom’ 2018)
28 [1:16:30] Mohawk Johnson – “GTICQ” (‘QTICQ’ single 2019)
29 [1:18:40] Mourning [A] BLKstar – “Untitled” (‘Reckoning’ 2019)
30 [1:21:25] Georgia Anne Muldrow – “Mary Lou’s Motherboard” (‘Vweto II’ 2019)
31 [1:24:15] Myka 9 – “Got It Get It” (‘Famous Future Time Travel’ 2015)
32 [1:26:25] Nelson Bandela – “311 Howard Ave” (‘Bandela Beattape 001’ 2019)
33 [1:28:05] Obuxum – “Does Your Blood Not Move?” (‘Re-Birth’ 2019)
34 [1:29:10] Okzharp & Manthe Ribane – “Blue Tigers” (‘Closer Apart’ 2018)
35 [1:32:20] Oshun – “Burn” (‘Bittersweet, Vol. 1’ 2018)
36 [1:35:35] Pink Siifu – “Step Out” (‘Ensley’ 2018)
37 [1:37:45] Quelle Chris – “Obamacare” (‘Guns’ 2019)
38 [1:42:05] Rapsody – “Nina” (‘Eve’ 2019)
Act III

 

39 [1:46:25] Sampha – “Kora Sings” (‘Process’ 2017)
40 [1:50:25] Pete Sayke – “The Rules” (‘Gold & Rue’ 2019)
41 [1:55:10] SB The Moor – “Ul 2 Spirit Realm” (‘Spirit Realm’ 2019)
42 [1:58:35] Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah – “Prophesy” (‘Ancestral Recall’ 2019)
43 [2:02:40] Serpentwithfeet – “Penance” (‘Blisters’ EP 2016)
44 [2:05:15] Shadi – “Would You Mind” (‘You Can’t Hear Me’ 2019)
45 [2:09:55] Shamir – “Tears Fall in Euphoria” (‘Be the Yee…’ 2019)
46 [2:13:25] Sol Patches – “The Purple One” (‘Blue Transitions’ 2018)
47 [2:15:45] Solange – “Sound of Rain” (‘When I Get Home’ 2019)
48 [2:18:55] Spellling – “Falling Asleep” (‘Mazzy Fly’ 2019)
49 [2:21:30] Moses Sumney – “Worth It” (‘Lamentations’ EP 2016)
50 [2:24:30] Taylor Alxndr – “Signal” (‘Hologram’ 2018)
51 [2:27:50] Tyler, The Creator – “I Think” (‘Igor’ 2019)
52 [2:31:20] Chester Watson – “Lost Inside” (‘Project 0’ 2018)
53 [2:33:45] Wilma Vritra – “Over Girls” (‘Burd’ 2019)
54 [2:37:00] Jamilia Woods – “Octavia” (‘Legacy! Legacy!’ 2019)
55 [2:40:05] Young Fathers – “Get Up” (‘Dead’ 2014)
56 [2:43:45] Yves Tumor – “Hope In Suffering” (‘Safe In the Hands of Love’ 2018)
57 [2:48:20] Zeroh – “Signal Hill” (‘0 Emissions’ 2019)
[Total Time: 2:51:45]

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Download ‘Old Souls Part VI’ Here (400 MB)

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Stream here:

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