Miles Raymer, Reader staff writer, is obsessed with . . .

Trouble, 431 Days mixtape On my right shoulder there’s an angel who tries to make me feel bad for enjoying music that promotes a broad spectrum of interpersonal violence, performed by a guy who wears his gang affiliations and prison stint for aggravated assault with sneering pride and couldn’t give less of a shit about my liberal guilt. But it’s hard to hear that angel over the devil on my left, who’s screaming about how fun it would be to turn this up to 11 and reenact the hammer-fight scene from Oldboy.

Various artists, Country Funk: 1969-1975 Though it’s often considered the ne plus ultra of whiteness, country music has a long, cozy history with black music, and during the funk era the two collided surprisingly harmoniously. This compilation—the brainchild of Zach Cowie, a former Drag City employee living in LA who DJs as Turquoise Wisdom—collects some of the best products of that collision, from private-­press obscurities to numbers by bigger names like Bobby Darin, who recorded a couple albums of funky country while living in a trailer in Big Sur and having a particularly fruitful emotional breakdown.

Whosampled.com Ever hear a song that uses a sample you swear you know but can’t quite place? Congratulations, you are a music dork—and part of the target audience of whosampled.com, which lists the sources from which specific songs (and artists) have drawn, as well as all of the known songs that sample a particular song (or artist). Given the amount of sample-based music released under the radar, the database is far from complete, but there’s more than enough to lose yourself in—start out with, say, all the places Black Sabbath has turned up, and you’ll be down the rabbit hole in no time.

He asks . . .


Morgan Thoryk, commercial music producer, what she’s obsessed with. Her answers are . . .

Angel Haze, Reservation mixtape This is a good rap album! “New York” and “Jungle Fever” are the obvious jammers here, but “Realest,” “Gypsy Letters,” and “Werkin’ Girls” all hold up—and make you feel things. I want to be young again. Haze also gives advice on “giving no fucks” from someone’s rec room on her YouTube channel.

Lockah, When U Stop Feeling Like a Weirdo & Become a Threat Electronic music—I like this. I’ve been listening to “Now U Wanna” a lot. A kind of pulsing slow jam with farty bass. And “The Sour Drink From the Ocean” is sweet ‘n’ sexi.

A Tribe Called Red, Electric Powwow Listen, white folks are all of us always already implicated in the imperial homogenizing project. It sucks, but the least we can do is listen to this album from First Nations DJs A Tribe Called Red. In an interview with RPM.fm, they say their music bridges “traditional knowledge” and “urban experience“—and that “it makes girls dance.” Sounds good to me. Now let’s talk about ways to enjoy the record without co-opting it. JK, there are none!

She asks . . .


Zach Goheen, audio engineer, what he’s obsessed with. His answers are . . .

Tame Impala, Lonerism Did I see Tame Impala at Lollapalooza on Friday? No. Did I own their previous record? No. Am I freaking out that this band has eluded me up to this point? Yes. Dave Fridmann (Mercury Rev, Flaming Lips) mixed the forthcoming Lonerism, and it’s obvious; the midrange is lethal. Woolly basses, fuzzy guitars, gratuitous Farfisa, chunky drums, and global flange—it’s like a checklist of my favorite sounds. Reminds me of how Dungen blew everyone’s minds in the summer of ’04.

Alessandro Cortini at Trash Audio’s Synth Event 12, July 29 at the Empty Bottle My friend Surachai organized this daylong synth market, performance, and general nerd-out event. The whole lineup was stellar, but Cortini’s set in particular floored me—huge arpeggios over dark drones. The Bottle’s sound system drove it in deep until the ending bit snuck up out of nowhere and filled every cubic inch of the room.

Sean Nicholas Savage, “You Changed Me” video I’ve watched this video tens of times over the last week. I don’t know anything about this guy except that he’s really good at staring. The song grew on me. Now I love it. Which is probably a good lesson about music videos.