it's not a cassette, it's actually a mix cd, but that sounds like something that's been properly beat-matched and/or is a collection of mixes. a mix tape is something with a whole bunch of songs that you made for that long drive down to LA and had in the glove compartment and forgot about until you were pulled over and had to look for the registration. so, this is a mix tape that's a cd.
many times mix tapes were just the latest songs that you wanted to listen to the most, in a convenient format. you might take it along and bug your friends by taking out their tapes while they were busy driving, giving you a ride, and insist they listen to this. sometimes they were made for a special occasion, say a party, when you didn't want to spend your socializing time switching between records. sometimes you made them to put together songs that just kinda fit a mood somehow. my triduum cd is one of these.
the idea first came to me in 94/95, so many of the songs date around then. i made a tape for someone else and had empty space at the end. i decided to try out a few of these songs together, and it worked well enough. not much else has been added: although i've kept an ear out for other songs that might work, not much else seems to fit.
anyway, here's the tracklisting, with an attempt to explain why this song for today. it's my good friday reflection.
1. SPK: Palms Crossed in Sorrow (from Gold and Poison, 1987). I'm not sure where Graeme Revell found the source audio, with people singing? chanting? The title colors the listening experience. He was greeted with palms, laid in his path as a red carpet would be today. The crowd sentiment would change quickly.
2. Sugar: Come Around (from Beaster, 1993). As a friend told me earlier today, Holy Thursday is when Jesus had his exit interview with his friends, where he didn't have the time nor desire to mince words. They didn't really get it then: Surely, not I. Wash my hands and head as well. Later on in Gesthemane, he asked them to stay awake with him for a while. I'm not sure what his dialogue with his Father was like: Is this what you want? No one seems to be getting it. I'm not sure if I'm getting it. Who was convincing whom of the truth?
3. The Wolfgang Press: Chains wobble mix (from "Going South" single, 1995). The Edge picked up quite a bit from Jah Wobble, one's tempted to say. This mostly instrumental version sets a mood like U2 tend to. What does bind us? How do we allow ourselves to be bound? Do we resent it? Are the limitations inherent to our nature, or have they just become second nature? What chains to we accept? Which chains should we accept?
4. Throwing Muses: Hazing (from University, 1995). Strange time to be hazing me / Breaking me shaking me awake now / Strange time to be hazing me / Breaking me shaking me awake / Now I'm up now / You're crazy / You're hazing me / Strange time to be needing me / Cheating me freezing me out / Now I'm up now / You're crazy / You don't faze me that's my cue / That's my cue / I'll spend another day dancing with you
5. Talk Talk: Life's What You Make It (from The Colour of Spring, 1986). I don't think this song works that well here - perhaps because it's eight years too old for the rest of the songs. The main thing that makes it stick is the frustration given by the couplet: life's what you make it / don't you hate it? It's opportunities that we just gave up. It's dealing with the fact that life can only be what we make it to be, or can it? It's living in a postlapsairan world with vague memories of Eden.
6. Curve: Arms Out (from "Fait Accompli" single, 1992). I've seen that chapter in your eyes / It will tear us apart / Something I don't understand / has taken hold of you and made you less than a man / Now here is open space / that was filled with you / that was filled with you / Solitude is the only answer / To disconnect will be my shelter / Time / is running out on you / Time / won't be abused / abused abused abused / If only it were true / I'd be in love with you / If only you cared / I would throw my arms out / I would throw my arms out / You called me a nutter on the phone / You have watched me die / with the secrets you have told / It's the end of us / it's the end of us / Pride / is getting in your way / It's only time / that can truly say / can say can say can say // Arms out // Time / is running out on you / violence??? / everything that I do / I do I do I do / If only you knew / when you're beaten black and blue / When you come to care / I will throw my arms out / I will throw my arms out
7. Sugar: Judas Cradle (from Beaster, 1993). You'd rock it if you were able / Can you hang with Judas Cradle? // My hands / mean nothing / to me. Back in the bleak winter of 94/95, I discovered that I much preferred to listen to Sugar's album Beaster reversed: start off with side 2/tracks 4-6, and then side 1/tracks 1-3. Thus, this song would be the final statement. I'm not sure about Bob Mould's christology, but he does have an excellent martyr complex. Unfortunately, most people who feel like martyrs aren't.
8. U2: Until the End of the World ultra hot razor cuts soundtrack mix (originally from Achtung Baby, 1991, most easily available on the Grapes bootleg circa 1995). Ultra Hot Razor Cuts was like a desperate attempt at being a Razormaid!. I don't think it actually existed for DJs, and only for people who had to have every single version of every song by a group, authorized or not. Volume 4 of their series had a good track (their version of Tears For Fears' "Shout"), some OK tracks (a Prefab Sprout one), and some tedious ones. This one is pushing it. A ten minute version of a song that's mostly made by putting it back to back with itself is a horrible version of an extended mix. I can only really listen to it in this context, when frankly the huge ending works better for illustrating the last thoughts of Judas.
9. Ultra Vivid Scene: Blood and Thunder (from Rev, 1992). From clouds of wine / with silver lining / drunken stars / fall to horizon // We see you clear / without a cover / without a friend / without a lover // Another man / we had discovered / a cross would bear him / a cross would crush him // Receive your power / if you are able / for we are gorgeous / and we are fatal // And drawing you near us / your blood and your body adore / We see you so clearly / we love you forever and more // We saw him fall / in blood and thunder / and even now / won’t be forgotten
10. David Sylvian: Brilliant Trees 2000 version (originally from Brilliant Trees, 1984, new vocal from the Everything and Nothing release, 2000). A reason to believe / divorces itself from me / Every hope I hold / lies in my arms // There you stand / making my life possible / Raise my hands up to heaven / but only You can know / My whole life / stretches in front of me / reaching up like a flower / leading my life back to the soil. One of the more recent songs, but only because of the improved vocal delivery. Another main reason why I wanted to make this compilation.
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