mix: lithium (and other mood stabilizers)

this more personal mix presents a lot of my favorite bands from the mid-00s, when i was in a big indie rock phase, as well as classics and more modern entries in that category.

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I recently had the strange experience of encountering lithium as a mood stabilizer in my personal life. I almost couldn't believe it--that's the stuff Nirvana wrote a song about! I was already in a bit of mood to listen to this kinda music so I took the opportunity to make a mix of these kinds of dark, moody rock songs that are a great comfort to me when I feel down. I included some of my all time favorite bands from the 90s, like Radiohead and The Smashing Pumpkins.

A lot of the Japanese indie acts featured on this mix I found during the mid-2000s, when I was part of a chatroom focused on J-indie music. With a free sharing culture came a discovery of many fantastic bands I never would've known otherwise, such as The Back Horn (possibly my favorite Japanese band ever!), Nico Touches the Walls, HIGH VOLTAGE, Paper Bag Lunchbox, and more. A lot of these acts went on to do big things, but I often already knew about them thanks to this chatroom--shoutout JIR!

I've also included many tracks from acts that I found more recently in the same vein, often on Youtube: acts like UNISON SQUARE GARDEN, NOMELON NOLEMON, Eve, and Brian the Sun. Eve in particular really stands out to me as someone who has grown from the early days of Vocaloid tracks, into one of the best singer-songwriters active today. And his special brand of animated music videos, which always uses similar themes and motifs, although they are usually not directly connected, has gotten massive amounts of attention!

Finally, I have to give a special mention to the opening track of this mix, from a one-man band in Korea--this release, "After the Magic" really blew me away with its more dynamic and ambitious approach to shoegaze. "Arrival" is my favorite track right now, but the whole release is a must-listen in my opinion. (h/t Hunter van Brocklin!)

Hope you enjoy this mix, which is quite different from what I usually do! Back to digifu next time :)

mix: pure sugar

spring is approaching in california, i can feel it! this playlist features some of my favorite sparkly k/j-pop & game music producers, as well as some recent bright releases in the digital fusion scene. cheers!

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After spending several days in a row discussing the incredible work of ESTi and TAK, I felt I had no choice but to make a mix that prominently feature their work as producers. ESTi even makes a double appearance, opening the set with his amazing DJMAX menu UI theme, as well as composition on the collab with seibin, Fantastic Plastic Pathos. TAK's incredible piece with Corbin, "Tic! Tac! Toe!" is the kind of pop song that just blows me away each time I hear it, and TAK's ultra-clean production shines so much here. Another DJMAX track!

Luckily for me, tenby has just released his second entry in his "Vivid-Soundz" romplerrific series, which has a decidedly Korean MMO vibe to my ears. All his tracks are extremely good, but "Adventure Playground" fit into this mix especially well. Other digital fusion tracks include "MEMODEMO - Stuff It!" and "Hunter Van Brocklin - A Day in the Life of a Moon Jelly (with blue.nocturne)".

I've also included a few classic game tracks, like "Yume Miru Robot" from ToHeart, "Aquarium" from La Tale, and "starlight" from Pangya Portable. Finally I also wanted to include at least some work by one of my favorite pop composers, Tsunku--I decided to go with the very catchy and charming "Rainy ~Struck by the Rain~", used in Rhythm Heaven Gold. Of particular note is a track from Gunbound--the composer recently uploaded his work on Soundcloud, so we finally have high quality and titled versions of these tracks that were so influential to me! I also included a few top tier j-pop ("Perfume - Spinning World") and k-pop ("NewJeans - Ditto") tracks to round things out.

I hope you enjoy this cotton candy rollercoaster ride! It was a bit harder to find buy links for a lot of these, but I've provided them where available.

mix: black and red

i don't want to think, or feel. i just want to be blasted into oblivion.

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I was working on a mix of my favorite tracks of 2022, inspired by HVB's mix (which can be found here, and is excellent). However, this January has really been a time for me thus far--with family stuff and personal health, mass layoffs, and now with multiple mass shootings in California in quick succession--and even besides all that, just an overall feeling of darkness coming over me. Sometimes when I feel that way, what I want more than anything is something that's loud and violent, to sandblast away any other impulses or feelings I might have, and completely overwhelm my synapses. That kinda music, in my mind, often evokes the colors black and red (I don't really have synaesthesia generally, but this connection is strongly there for me), and so this mix represents a selection of those kind of tracks, some new and some older.

WaxTerK, a fantastic composer from Japan that I've featured many times, put out a new collection of his darker works, and sets the tone for this mix with a dark driven breakbeat track. The way it flowed into Leaf Let's "the part where he frags you", from their soundtrack for frantic and fun arena shooter Splatter, was just too good to pass up!

katagiri's "Palace of Melancholia" was actually the driving factor behind this particular mix, because when I heard that track, I knew that was what I really needed in this moment, rather than a painstaking selection of best tracks from the previous year. An absolute blast of a track with so many beautiful details flying at a mile a minute. Incredible stuff by a very exciting and wild artist that I'm sure will be doing more great work in the future. Frums' "of Ambrosia" and Camellia's "Abyss of Frobenioid" scratch a similar itch.

A special mention goes to the track by People Need Goals, composed for the actual play podcast Oddity Roadshow (for which I also did one track). Thanks to that, I discovered their work and I've been really impressed by it--this track in particular is really special I thought! Oddity Roadshow itself is absolutely hilarious AND very creepy, and features my friends Shannon Strucci and Joel Ruiz, so I highly recommend checking it out if you're interested in that kinda thing. The first arc just finished and it was great. This track is for an upcoming villain in the second arc, so that's something to look forward to.

I've also included one of the classic tracks I go to when I'm in this kinda mood, the absolutely cathedral track "Slowly" by Infected Mushroom. The way this 9 minute track doesn't waste a second is really something to behold, an inspiration for sure.

I hope in these dark times, this playlist can give you relief of some kind, like it does for me. Thanks for tuning in. As usual you can find links to the releases in the tracklist, so support the artists if you find anything you like in here!