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Playlists

109 Spotisfaction Wednesday – 8th September 2010 – Dave Prowse

Hey guys. I trust you’re well this fine morning? So, The xx are Mercury winners, eh? I’d like to say I called that one after they featured on my very first playlist for Spotisfaction ;). In all honesty, though, I would have liked to have seen Foals win it, but that might just be because Foals ”“ Total Life Forever is one of my top 5 albums of 2010 so far. The xx are relentlessly hard workers and by all accounts pretty nice boys and girls, so fair play to them.

Today’s playlist is one of my own (I do like to get a bit self-indulgent every now and again, as you may have noticed!) and I hope you enjoy it.

Take it easy,
Dave

My blurb:

This playlist is simply some of my favourite tracks at the moment. Very few of them are cutting-edge new, and very few of them are particularly challenging or esoteric. This is, probably, the most accurate representation I could come up with of my current taste in music (which, of course, is in a constant state of flux as I discover more and more stuff). I’ll quickly mention one or two particular tracks, and then let you get on with your day.

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Playlists Reviews

Feature: Tomorrow’s Sounds Today

Hi everyone, and welcome to a new edition of Tomorrow’s Sounds Today – the place where Spotisfaction picks the best of what’s new to Spotify. The eagle-eyed among you will notice we’re a week out of sync at the moment due to the Bank Holiday, but we will continue to alternate weekly on a Monday with our Tomorrow’s Sounds Today / Classics Collected pieces.

This week is a bumper edition due to the extra week of new albums, so grab a coffee, a comfy seat and don’t be shy with that Danish while we burst forth with musical goodness! As ever, you can select each piece individually or listen to the full playlist with a few secret special extra tracks thrown in. We also like insightful debate at Spotisfaction Towers, so please use to the comments section to give kudos to the good choices and flame free constructive criticism to the bad ones.

Various Artists ”“ Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) – My first choice is rather a self indulgent one as it comes from the recently released must see “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World”. I was a huge fan of the graphic novels after our editoral master introduced me to the first one and the movie really didn’t disappoint, thrusting straight into my personal top 10. Edgar Wright has a particular visual talent as a director but he also understands that special symbiotic relationship between a movie and its soundtrack. With the likes of Beck (as in film band Sex Bob-Omb) and Broken Social Scene (as Crash and the Boys) adding their talents you can guarantee a special experience. Add it to the official music soundtrack (Various Artists ”“ Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) and you’ll have some time well spent while craving the DVD release date.

The Pretty Reckless ”“ Light Me Up – I must warn those of you without premium accounts, this one has overnight joined the “premium exclusive” pile, but give it a couple of weeks and it’ll be back for everyone. As debut albums go, this is a very solid effort with strong vocals from singer, actress and model Taylor Mommsen. For someone to achieve success in multiple fields you would expect one of the branches to be a little weaker but as the front woman for a rock band, she’s definitely got it working! The formula is nothing new or revolutionary but very well executed so expect to see more from this band!

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108 Spotisfaction Monday – 6th September 2010 – Rhys Howell

Morning folks. I trust everyone had a lovely weekend? Last night was pretty fun for me – at least 4 streets in my neighbourhood were plunged into darkness for the majority of the night due to a power outage, which was a bit surreal. There’s always some light around, whether that’s streetlights or otherwise, so being able to see stars was a treat… even if I did stub my toe trying to find a torch, and never did manage to heat up my treacle tart…

Today’s playlist is by Rhys, and as themes go it’s a great one. My normal exercise regime involves doing as little as possible as often as possible, but if I were to go running every now and again this’d be the playlist I’d use!

Hope you enjoy,
Dave

Rhys Says:

Good Evening one and all. I’ve crafted a playlist to listen to when you go running. Some of these tracks are on my own personal running mix but as that mix tends to be a couple of albums all muddled up it wouldn’t make the most interesting mix for Spotisfaction.

Hit the jump for a talk through of the workout and also some shameless plugging. (If you don’t see any shameless plugging then the editorial gods have come from on high and excised it.)

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Playlists

107 Spotisfaction Friday – 3rd September 2010 – James TAE

Good morning all. Not much to talk about today. A quick reminder to sign up for our newsletter (link above) if you fancy the odd email about what we’re up to, and another reminder that we’re always really keen to feature stuff that you’ve written -whether that’s a playlist like this one, an article or a review, anything you’re passionate about we’d love to publish.

Today’s playlist is by Spotisfaction editor James TAE.

Catch you all on Monday.
Dave

James says:

No words for this one.  A purely ambient, relaxed, chilled blisslist simply entitled “Ambient” to calm you this Friday morning.  Enjoy.

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Playlists

106 Spotisfaction Wednesday – 1st September 2010 – Mike Sheldrick

Hi folks. Oh man, Wednesday came about quickly, eh? But, I’ll tell you what, I’m very glad we had the Bank Holiday this week. Who doesn’t love a 4-day work week? Not us, that’s for darn sure.

Today’s playlist has the potential to split opinions down the middle. We’ve always said we’re all for diversity, and we really, truly mean that. We don’t want a hundred playlists all identically sounding and made up of ‘in’ bands. So, I for one am very excited about today’s effort by Spotisfaction contributor Mike Sheldrick. I encourage you to listen to this one even if it’s not normally your cup of tea. If you still don’t approve, fair enough, but feel free to let us know why in the comments!

Anyway, I’ll hand over to Mike for his blurb below:
[Dave]

Mike says:

Greetings, fellow travellers of the sound waves. And in this episode, we”™re going to do things a little differently. In a break from the more traditional style of playlist we”™ve come to know and love, I wondered perhaps if you”™d like to join me on a little journey, back to the oh so simple days of childhood (well mine to be precise). Back to when I were a wee young lad. Times were simple back then, I”™d go to school, come home, do my homework (yeah right), rinse and repeat as necessary. But I digress. Back then, I also played the trumpet. I spent many of my former years attending local orchestras and brass bands, and because of that, I was exposed to a lot of classical music.

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105 Spotisfaction Monday – 30th August 2010 – Kev Atkinson

Hello everybody out there in the big wide world music-loving world. It’s a bank holiday over here, nobody’s at work, making it all the more important we give you a playlist to peruse, consume, and enjoy to your hearts content today. We’ve got a good one for you all, with Kev Atkinson’s 2010 So Far – it’s been one hell of a year so far hasn’t it, and there are still… 1.. 2.. 3.. 4 months to go!

Incidentally, we’ve got a particularly eclectic week planned over the next 5 days, so make sure you’re keeping up with us! If you’re just too busy to check, be sure to sign up to our Newsletter, and we’ll email you the occasional update of all our favourite recent content!

Now, here’s Kev’s rundown of this fantastic year so far.

2010 So Far – Blurby stuff

Ok so we are now halfway through 2010 and to be honest there has been a lot of great music released in the last eight months. Here I have put together a collection of tracks from some of the albums that I have been listening to in the first half of the year, but it”™s by no means a comprehensive collection.

Coming into the year there were two albums that I was really looking forward to, the first was Intriguer by my all time favourite band Crowded House, unfortunately this isn”™t currently on Spotify so I couldn’tt add a track, but I do highly recommend the album so check it out if you get a chance.

Second was the sophomore release from The Depreciation Guild. I think Spirit Youth is a more mature and accessible album than In Her Gentle Jaws and on first listen there were many great tracks but November was one of those that initially stood out for me.

I wont go over every single album in the playlist but I will give a run down on some of my personal highlights of the year so far.

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104 Spotisfaction Friday – 27th August 2010 – Paul ‘Fozz’ Foster

Morning folks. I’m not actually here today – I’m on a mini holiday in Stratford, and am posting this via the magic of scheduling. The weather is wonderful / atrocious (delete as appropriate), and I’m having a great / crap time.

Today’s playlist is by the wonderful Fozz, author and curator of our Gig Rig feature, and it’s a doozy. I hope you enjoy – this is one of my personal favourites.

Take it easy and see you all next week,
Dave

Fozz says:

These are a few tracks that I’ve been listening to lately, found either off the back of other people’s playlists or from trawling through the related artists section on Spotify. Here are a few of the stand-out tracks. Hope you enjoy.

Interpol ”“ Lights: this is the first track to be released from Interpol‘s forthcoming self-titled album and it’s made its way onto Spotify, so it would have been rude not to include it really. If the rest of the album is as awesome as this track then it’s gonna be absolutely phenomenal and I’m really looking forward to it.

Graffiti6 ”“ Stone In My Heart: I bloody love this track, it’s one of the best things I’ve heard in ages. Hopefully these guys will keep churning out stella tunes like this.

Crystal Castles ”“ Baptism: I could never really get into Crystal Castles‘ first album but I thought I’d give their second one a go, and boy am I glad I did. Baptism, for me, is definitely the most notable track on the album ”“ it’s shouty, beepy electro at its finest. I’m gonna give the first album another chance.

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103 Spotisfaction Wednesday – 25th August 2010 – Simon Mogg

Afternoon all. Weird to think that this time last week we relaunched the site. Lots of things still going on behind the scenes but as always if there’s anything you’d like to see (whether that’s an improvement to the site layout, a specific album review, or an idea for a feature) we’d love to hear from you.

I’m going to see Scott Pilgrim vs. The World tonight, which has me incredibly excited. It’s rare that a soundtrack to a movie gets as much hype as the movie itself, but in this case I think it’s probably justified – just check out the OST! Fun times!

Today’s playlist is by Spotisfaction contributor Simon “Moggy” Mogg, and is quite lovely in my opinion.

Peace,
Dave

Moggy says:

Here is my latest submission. I was listening to Flogging Molly and I realised that the only Irish style music I listened to is played by Americans, so I decided to look into actual Irish musicians. While doing this I discovered a lot more music that originates from various places throughout the world, hence this playlist with no real theme. Not a good explanation but there it is… Anyway, onto the actual tracks.

Starting with a nod to my love of Rugby and a New Zealander I recently encountered, first up is The Haka. Then Bellowhead, who are a lot better live (the vocalist doesn’t half put some welly in). Neck were also amazing live (except the bleeding nose but thats a hazard of a pit I suppose).

Also on this list is more Johnny Cash and Cat Empire. Both featured on previous playlists, but both deserve lots more playing so here they are again. Skindred are generally known for their Reggae Metal but this is an acoustic bonus track off their Babylon album and is definitely worth a listen. The whole album, that is. And finally, Ladysmith Black Mambazo. I first heard this group on Paul Simon‘s Graceland album. I like the style. Right thats it I’m done. Enjoy.

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102 Spotisfaction Monday – 23rd August 2010 – Dan Herlin

Good afternoon, folks. You may have noticed that our new logo has gone live today. We like it (obviously), but let us know what you think!

This last couple of weeks have been crazy busy, but it’s all been made worthwhile knowing that we’ve got a whole bunch of new ears for our musical evangelism. We’ve even had a number of playlist submissions from all over the Europe, including today’s by Dan Herlin.  This is a fantastic mix, and it’s incredible to be given a glimpse of people’s lives through a playlist – more of this please, interwebs!  Thank you Dan.

Before I hand over to him for his explanatory blurb, I just want to mention that if you have a playlist idea of your own we’d love to publish it. Please do check out our submission guide for info on how you can do that.

Have a lovely one,
Dave

NB. One or two of the tracks don’t work in the UK. I’ve left them in the playlist for our European listeners, and also to help maintain the flow of the playlist if you happen to have a local version of those tracks.

Dan Says:

I believe in niched playlists, where there is a flow between each song and you remember it just like you remember an album. I composed this one during a train-ride between Stockholm and Copenhagen and its named after the Swedish governmental railroad company, Statens Järnvägar.

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Playlists Reviews

Review: Leefest 2010

Article by Ben Mercer

LEEFEST 2010

I think Lee Denny actually is a modern day Ferris Bueller and Leefest is simply the result of 80”™s inspired shenanigans. In these deeply cynical times it took one man (or young adult) to defy his parents”™ request and carefully avoid litigation which prevented him from having a house party while they were on holiday. Seeing his rents”™ wishes more as a challenge than a command, he hypothesised that holding a festival in the garden would, ”˜technically speaking”™, not break the rules.  Boom. Leefest was born.  Decamping from the Denny estate a few years back (due to popularity) we find ourselves in a wet field somewhere in Bromley, staring at a volley ball court, complete with sand.  In the rain. Despite the elements, the court was in session.

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101 Spotisfaction Friday – 20th August 2010 – Woody Whyte

Today’s playlist is courtesy of Woody Whyte, and is entitled “2010 So Far…”. If you like what you hear and are inspired to create your own playlist, check out our submission guide above. Let us know in the comments if you’d have included any other tracks in your 2010 list. Don’t forget to subscribe to our Newsletter either, to keep up to date with us!

Love, hugs and mealy bugs.
Dave

Woody Says:

With over half the year gone, it felt like the right time to have a little re-cap on what the best of 2010 has had to offer us so far. This is, of course, a subjective list, I don’t claim to have the holy grail of music taste but I hope there is something for most people in there.

What conclusions can we draw from my list? Well, British music is at a low ebb. With a yawn-worthy Mercury list (except The xx), folk-for-all-the-family bands and artists plaguing the airwaves and nothing in the way of a stand out breakthrough British artist, I have mainly had to look elsewhere for something to my taste.

Of the American bands; Perfume Genius, Best Coast, Beach House and Aerial Pink have all released fantastic albums this year. In Europe and the UK, Delorean, Charlotte Gainsbourg and M.I.A have also released some of my favourite albums.

Pop music and ‘surf-rock’ bands seem to be my main fascination and, unintentionally, there is more than a whiff of Pitchfork endorsed music in there. Embarrassing (though I bet you all read it too!).

The promising thing is that there is still some brilliant albums to come. Zola Jesus and Washed Out are on my wishlist, as well as S. Carey (who isn’t on this list) but worth a mention. Classically trained drummer for Bon Iver is releasing a solo album this month. No doubt I shall write a review if it makes it’s way over to Spotify.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy and feel free to comment your favourite albums of the year so far.

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100 Spotisfaction Wednesday – 18th August 2010 – Best of Spotisfaction Vol. 1

Afternoon, folks. We hope you’re enjoying the new website. We certainly are, that’s for sure. I loved Tumblr, but this new site is a breeze to use from an editing point of view, and hopefully it’s a lot easier to navigate, too. We’ve still got a list as long as our arms of things we’d like to implement, so you’ll see the site improve over time. Exciting stuffs!

Anyway, you’re probably a bit bored of me going on about the new website by now so let’s talk about today’s playlist.

Thom and I crafted this “Best Of” playlist a couple of months ago, and it contains our picks of our favourite tracks from the first few months of Spotisfaction’s life. We think it’s a fairly accurate representation of the diversity of playlists in those early days (and even to this day). Those of you who have been with us since the beginning, let us know if you’d have changed any of these selections!

We’re trying out a new method of displaying the tracklists for our playlists so that they’re more visible on the homepage, and you’re seeing the result of this on the right. Hit the “Tracklist” link to open the playlist.

Thanks again for everyone who has stuck with us since the early days of the site, and hi to anyone that’s new to the party. Thanks for your ongoing support.

Here’s to another 100 playlists!
[David]

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99 Spotisfaction Monday – 16th August 2010 – Thom Lavelle

Savage Henry has cashed his cheque.

And you know what that means. Yes, after 99 Spotisfactions and numerous features over the last 6 months, I am leaving the Spotisfaction team.

Since it’s birth back in February, Spotisfaction has grown from two frustrated 20-somethings swapping playlists into, well, what you’re reading right now – A fully featured music blog with news, reviews and a handful of dedicated and enthusiastic contributors. I wish Dave and the rest of the team all the best in the coming months and look forward to seeing the further growth of our little baby.

Right, so without further delay, here is Thom Lavelle, posting a Spotisfaction playlist for the last time.

Thom.

[Dave’s Note: Goodbye Thom, it’s been a massive pleasure my young sir. Stay safe, and keep us updated with your goings on. PEACE and TRUCKING]

99 Spotisfaction Monday (16 Aug) – TLavelle – Departure

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98 Spotisfaction Friday – 13th August 2010 – Mike Sheldrick

Hi guys. Thom and I had the world’s most important debate today. A debate that has the potential to split our nation right down the middle. A debate so fearce and volatile that we’ve both had to have a bit of a sit down and a cup of tea to recover… That’s right, folks, a debate about which Limp Bizkit cover on Spotify was the best one (not including Richard Cheese or Vitamin String Quartet)…

I think it’s Faith, by some dude called George Michael. He’s taken the song and made it his own. Respect.

Anyway, today’s playlist is by Mighty Mike Sheldrick. Friday 13th? Overrated.

[David]

98 Spotisfaction Friday (13 Aug) – MSheldrick
Hit the link for Mike’s blurb.

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97 Spotisfaction Wednesday – 11th August 2010 – Kev Atkinson

Afternoon, all. Things are really kicking into overdrive with the website redesign. I feel like I’ve done nothing but code for the last couple of weeks, but there’s finally light at the end of the tunnel. We think that the new site will be a lot easier to use for you guys, and we can’t wait to unveil it finally! There’ll be an announcement closer to the time so keep your eyes peeled…

Last week I succumbed to the growing trend in our office which is the Graze box. If you’ve not seen these before, they’re a brown box filled with nuts, berries, olives and other such things. I’m not going to lie – it’s tasty and a lot healthier than my normal Tesco-fueled lunch binge, but I feel like a freaking squirrel. I’m campaigning for them to make bacon sandwich flavoured brazil nuts.

Anyway, today’s playlist is by Kev Atkinson and is an eclectic mix of old and new tracks, appropriately entitled “Spotisclectic”. I hope you enjoy.

[David]

97 Spotisfaction Wednesday (11 Aug) – KAtkinson
Hit the link for Kev’s blurb.

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