27.7.11

Night Tracks - What Am I Chatting?

Ok, I'm gonna try and explain as best I can what I mean when I say "Night Tracks". Hit play and read on...

Burial - Homeless (Hyperdub)

Night Tracks, at the base level, are tracks that are made for night time. Not just any night though, it needs to be a dark night, maybe the weather is pretty shit. Night Tracks are sounds that enhance this, or fit the vibe.

The last couple of winters in the UK have been major ball-aches for anyone over the age of 12, there has been some SERIOUS snow. When you're walking in the snow, or driving at 10mph trying to get somewhere, and you're playing some tunes, surely you want something that will fit the vibe? Sure, you CAN listen to B-15 Project - Girls Like Us, it's a sick track, but is it gonna fit the vibe as much as the next track?

Brian Eno - An Ending (Ascent) (Polydor)

Hope we're someway to understanding what I'm going on about. Maybe you agree, maybe you don't, but everyone's got tracks that take them to a specific time and place. For me, much of the music I'm gonna be posting up here reflects exactly that. These are the sounds of the streets. In fact, my girlfriend once said when we were listening to Burial - South London Boroughs, that "It sounds like he's just put a microphone outside when it's raining". I'd take that as huge compliment.

It's undeniable that certain tracks are made for certain places, some are made for the dancefloor, some just for home listening, but some of these producers have to have considered the streets when producing.

Jamie Woon - Street (Candent Sounds)

Cities can be pretty sick, especially at night. I know people rep the countryside and all the mountains and shit, but cities get overlooked. Ok, in the day, they look pretty shit, will give you that one, but at night, you have to admit they look pretty sick. This isn't no American Beauty, plastic bag blowing in the wind, "most beautiful thing I've ever seen" shit, I'm just saying, that when I look down on Birmingham Airport from the park behind my house, it looks badman, and I know what sort of music I'd want to be listening to when I'm looking at it.

Ghostek - Ghost Interlude (Dub)

Ok, don't wanna ramble on, but to sum this up, Night Tracks are the soundtracks to running in the streets at night, driving around in the car, walking through the park, waiting in the fucking freezing horrible train station, getting in a taxi after a night of listening to shitty chart dance in grot-hole nightclub. You get what I'm talking about now. It's like someone just put a microphone out of their window and recorded the streets.

The xx - Fantasy (Young Turks)