One of my cardinal rules of making season mixes is that I never use the same artist more than once in the same mix. (Not counting guest appearances, the same guy in multiple bands, etc.) This season I had a comical amount of trouble deciding between two songs from so many bands that a perverse thought began to creep through me: What if I not only threw out the rule of no repeats, but made that violation the primary rule for this season? It would all be about twos: two songs from each artist, paired up, across two discs. I even found an appropriate title describing my split energies this summer, between the work I had to do and the work I wanted to do. And when I realized it also worked as a reference to the Twin Labyrinths of a video game I spent way too long playing and thinking about lately, another purposeful aberration from an otherwise painstaking clockwork structure, well, that was enough to cement the deal.
So here it is. It’s sprawling, probably way too long and not incredibly well sequenced, and it might have run scorched earth on song possibilities for next season, but what the hell, it was a blast to put together.
“Two Masters” – Summer 2013
Disc One
1. The National – This is the Last Time
2. The National – Graceless
3. Fuck Buttons – Brainfreeze
4. Fuck Buttons – The Red Wing
5. Queens of the Stone Age – I Sat by the Ocean
6. Queens of the Stone Age – My God is the Sun
7. Sigur Ros – Isjaki
8. Sigur Ros – Hrafntinna
9. The Smiths – The Queen is Dead
10. The Smiths – Still Ill
11. Vampire Weekend – Diane Young
12. Vampire Weekend – Hannah Hunt
13. Phoenix – The Real Thing
14. Phoenix – Bourgeois
15. !!! – Californiyeah
16. !!! – Station (Meet Me at the)
Disc Two
1. Hot Chip – Dark & Stormy
2. Hot Chip – Jelly Babies
3. Kanye West – I Am a God
4. Kanye West – New Slaves
5. Atoms for Peace – Dropped
6. Atoms for Peace – Ingenue
7. Local Natives – Breakers
8. Local Natives – Heavy Feet
9. Primal Scream – River of Pain
10. Primal Scream – Turn Each Other Inside Out
11. Savages – City’s Full
12. Savages – Husbands
13. Daft Punk – Doin’ It Right
14. Daft Punk – Motherboard
15. Jon Hopkins – Open Eye Signal
16. Jon Hopkins feat. Purity Ring – Breathe This Air
Annotations:
The Daily Friction 