I spent the first weeks of January cobbling together my favorite running songs because I needed some solid entertainment to keep me moving through the desert's scale and monotony.

My running life is messy: long stretches of moaning while I drag myself along, interrupted by occasional bursts of speediness. This mix reflects my style: speedy songs (Tuxedomoon, Demdike Stare), chugging songs (Thomas Brinkmann, Vainqueuer), and abrupt shifts in tempo. There are no biometric rhythms here, just peaks and valleys.

I need distraction when I run, so there's a lot of swirling reverb, mumbling AM radio voices, and trails of static. I extended a few favorite breaks, trimmed some songs in half, and added layers until the thing served my needs. It starts slow, gets going at the 7-minute mark, and if I gut it out to the end, there's a psychedelic classic to carry me home on wobbly legs.

This hour-long mix works well for a five-mile run or a couple of three-mile runs, and it includes plenty of time for shoe-tying, cursing, dithering, and even a bit of stretching if you do that sort of thing. But cheetahs don't stretch.

1. Thomas Brinkmann - VR 01 01 02 00
   Minus, 1998
2. Sandra Electronics - It Slipped Her Mind
   Minimal Wave, 2014
3. Public Image Ltd - Flowers of Romance
   Virgin, 1981
4. Adult. - Silver Screen Shower Scene (Remix)
   City Rockers, 2001
5. Tuxedomoon - No Tears (Continous Mode Mix)
   International Deejay Gigolo Records, 2001
6. Aural Indifference - Park
   Minimal Wave, 1981
7. Cranes - Beautiful Friend
   Dedicated, 1994
8. Demdike Stare - Hashshashin Chant
   Modern Love, 2010
9. Squarepusher - Love Wil Tear Us Apart
   Warp, 2002
10. The Crystals - Then He Kissed Me
    Philles, 1963
11. Vainqueur - Elevations II (Reprise)
    Chain Reaction, 1997
12. Martin Dupont - I Met the Beast
    Lice Records, 1985
13. Muslimgauze - Sandtrafikar
    Staalplaat, 1997
14. Suicide - Devastation
    Chapter 22, 1988
15. Shackleton – Blood On My Hands (Ricardo Villalobos Mix)
    Skull Disco, 2007
16. 13th Floor Elevators - Slip Inside This House
    International Artists, 1967
17. Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit (Atlas Minor Loop)
    RCA Victor, 1967

Desert Run I

2023 | 59:59 | Download

Desert Run

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77 minutes of pitched-down techno classics melded with reverberated vocals from Bobby Vinton, the Paris Sisters, and the Moody Blues.

1. Leonard Cohen - Avalanche
2. Autechre - PIOBmx19 (Slow edit)
3. Basic Channel - Q Loop (Slow edit)
4. Plastikman - Krakpot (Slow edit)
5. Bobby Vinton - Blue Velvet
6. Basic Channel - Inversion (Slow edit)
7. The Paris Sisters - I Love How You Love Me
8. Aphex Twin - Rhubarb (Slow edit)
9. Vatican Shadow - Encryption Nets (Slow edit)
10. Fluxion - Outerside (Slow edit)
11. Moody Blues - Nights in White Satin
12. Seefeel - Clique (Slow edit)
13. William Basinski - Disintegration Loop 1.1 (Slow edit)

Also includes vinyl crackle, field recordings, various echoes, and clips from the Teddybears, the Ronettes, the Righteous Brothers, and Tommy James & the Shondells.

Sacrilege

77 Minutes | Download

Sacrilege

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As part of Mysteries of the Deep’s weekend broadcast on 9128.live, Stephen Baker and I stitched together two hours of brand-new material along with a few ambient classics circa 1994, a touch of Connie Francis, and a recording of New York City’s nightly cheer for the essential workers who are carrying us through this heavy season. 

I’m grateful for the sense of community that Mysteries of the Deep and A Strangely Isolated Place created within a weekend: forty hours of mixtapes, live sets, and album premieres from artists around the world. There was even a disarmingly pleasant chatroom that felt like the halcyon days of the information superhighway. It’s been ages since I’ve joined so many people in listening to the same thing at the same time—and it’s a vital image right now: heads around the world bowed before their personal speakers, hearing the same song.

1. New York City’s 7pm pandemic cheer
2. Fluxion – Aviation
3. Daniel Avery & Alessandro Cortini – At First Sight
4. Detroit Escalator Company – The Inverted Man Falling
5. Seefeel – Air-Eyes
6. Connie Francis – Siboney
7. Brinkmanship I Live Set
8. Autechre – VLetrmx21
9. Pole – Fahren (Pitched Down Edit) 2
10. Flying Saucer Attack – Instrumental Wish
11. Brinkmanship II Live Set
12. Kali Malone – The Sacrificial Code (Live in Hagakyrka)
13. Basic Channel – Q Loop (Pitched Down Edit)
14. Brinkmanship III Live Set
15. Richie Hawtin & Pete Namlook – A Million Miles to Earth

Brinkmanship I, II, and III features original music by Stephen Baker and occasional broken loops and unholy amounts of reverb by James A. Reeves

A soundtrack for the last days of this very strange decade. Starts off with Gordon Lightfoot and a song called “Front Row Gallows View,” and ends with a new track that I made with Candy Chang for our installation at the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles. Delighted to have this mixtape included in the excellent Mysteries of the Deep series.

1. Gordon Lightfoot – If You Could Read My Mind
   Reprise, 1970
2. Kristoffer Lo – Front Row Gallows View
   Propellor Recordings, 2016
3. Leyland Kirby – Back in the Game
   History Always Favours the Winners, 2017
4. T. Rex – Cosmic Dancer
   Fly, 1971
5. Pole – Modul
   Matador, 1998
6. Excerpt from ‘Dead Flag Blues’ by Godspeed You! Black Emperor
   Constellation Records, 1997
7. MMMD – Verita Morr
   Antifrost, 2019
8. DVA Damas – Wet Vision II
   Downwards, 2015
9. The McIntosh County Shouters – Sign of the Judgment
   Smithsonian Folkways
10. Alessandro Cortini – Scappa
    Important Records, 2015
11. Popol Vuh – Aguirre Lacrimae De Rei I
    Ohr, 1975
12. Midwife – Forever
    Antiquated Future Records, 2018
13. Kim Sun – The Man Who Must Leave
    Universal South Korea, 1969
14. Shadrack Chameleon – Don’t Let It Get You Down
    Gear Fab Records, 1973
15. Bohren & Der Club of Gore – Constant Fear
    Wonder Records, 2002
16. Love Inc – Life’s a Gas
    Force Inc, 1995
17. The Shirelles – Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?
    Scepter Records, 1960
18. James A. Reeves & Candy Chang – Light the Barricades
    Ritual Fields, 2019

Truly the Last Days

80 minutes | Download | Spotify

Truly the Last Days

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In a fluorescent motel lobby, a small radio behind the bulletproof glass plays the American hit parade. That night I dreamt of Natalie Wood yelling “hit your lights” from the edge of a cliff, her arms swinging through the headlights again and again. The next morning I began assembling this collection of reverberated songs built from AM radio chatter and looping bits of tape. Recorded between 2009 and 2014, these are soundtracks for long drives, cheap motels, and romance among the ruins.

Fifty minutes of crackle and drift inspired by a recurring dream of sliver drones floating through empty streets searching for perps. A dusty Roy Orbison ballad plays from an old radio in an alley, but the machines can’t find it. The title of this mixtape comes from something I saw spray-painted among the American ruins of Two Guns, a ghost town along old Route 66. These songs are dedicated to places like that.

• Roy Orbison – Crying (Atlas Minor Mix)
• J. Frank Wilson & The Cavaliers – Last Kiss
• Cowboy Junkies – Sweet Jane
• Jurgen Paape – Pray
• Suicide – Cheree
• Oliver Blank – We Were Walking in the Rain
• The Ronettes – When I Saw You
• Brian Eno – Here Come the Warm Jets
• Sonic Youth – Superstar
• Ricky Nelson – Lonesome Town
• Autechre – Bronchusevenmx24
• The Righteous Brothers – I Love You (For Sentimental Reasons)
• Aphex Twin – Rhubarb
• Tim Hecker – The Piano Drop
• Elvis Presley – Tomorrow Night

Chaos Is Your New Lady

Vintage ambient | 48 Minutes | Download

Whenever I get into the car around sunset, I want to keep pushing west into the Mojave desert. All that blank spiritualized space dotted with motels that advertise color television and diners with fritzy neon signs that you can hear.

• AM Radio Scan #12
• The Counts – Enchanted Sea
• Dale Hawkins – Everglades
• Wanda Jackson – Funnel of Love
• The Saxons – Camel Walk
• AM Radio Scan #18
• The Centurions – Bullwinkle Part II
• The Doors – Riders on the Storm
• Balmorhea – Night Squall
• P.G. Six – Letter
• America – Ventura Highway
• Van Morrison – It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
• Eleventh Hours
• Tom Waits – Jockey Full of Bourbon
• Lee Hazlewood – The Night Before
• Mojave 3 – My Life in Art
• Godspeed You! Black Emperor – East Hastings
• Radio Scan #13

Mojave Super Eight

Desert Music | 59 minutes | Download

Mojave Super Eight

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I remember racing against the sun to reach the Badlands before nightfall, but I didn’t make it because I kept pulling over to photograph lonely gas stations and motels in towns with names like Alliance and Interior. When I finally arrived at the edge of South Dakota, the bluffs and spires lay out there unseen, crouching in the dark. Here are two pitched-down dub 45s that meander through a field of mid-century blues and ballads, paired with big sheets of reverb, vinyl crackle, moments of silence, and five variations on the idea of a blue moon. Best served in headphones after dark.

• A Rocket in Dub – Rocket #8 on 33⅓
• Betty Lavette – Let Me Down Easy
• Don Percival – One More Kiss
• Roy Orbison – Crying
• Dave “Diddle” Day – Blue Moon Baby
• Pole – Fahren on 33⅓
• The Cascades – Rhythm of the Rain
• Françoise Hardy – Voilà
• Dirty Beaches – Lord Knows Best
• The Ronettes – Keep On Dancin’
• Dirty Beaches – True Blue
• Oscar Peterson – Blue Moon
• Elvis Presley – Blue Moon in Kentucky
• Santo & Johnny – Blue Moon
• Dean Martin – Blue Moon
• Big American Loop #3

Blue Motor Lodge

Dub Ballads | 57 minutes | Download

Blue Motor Lodge

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Back in high school, I became a night owl thanks to the Electrifying Mojo, a Detroit DJ whose eclectic sets featuring Parliament, Kraftwerk, and Cybotron helped kickstart techno music. Mojo was one of the first DJs to put Prince on the air, he interrupted songs with social commentary from “the mental machine,” and he always rocked the fifteen-minute version of “Flashlight.” I discovered Mojo near the tail of his career late one August night in ’92 and my musical landscape exploded as he turned me on to Al Green, A Tribe Called Quest, Devo, Joy Division, Stetsasonic, and Funkadelic. I’d stay up through the night, hunched over my tape player, rocking the pause/record switch and making mixtapes culled from Mojo’s show. The 120-minute Maxell cassettes were the best for this.

Twenty years later, I’m staying up late down here in New Orleans, sitting on the porch ’round midnight while I catch up on my reading and try to write another book. Lately I’ve been thinking about those deep summer nights with my little Panasonic radio back in Michigan, and so I’ve put together this sprawling tracklist of favorites.

• Little Red, 22, Tangle Eye & Hard Hair – “Early in the Morning” (Angola prison ca. 1947)
• Stars of the Lid – “Austin, TX Mental Hospital”
• The Cranes – “Beautiful Friend”
• Black Sabbath – “Planet Caravan”
• Serge Gainsbourg – “Melody”
• Bob Vaught & The Renegaids – “Surfin’ Tragedy”
• The Blue Hawaiians – “Martini Five Oh”
• Al Green – “Simply Beautiful”
• Irma Thomas – “Ruler of My Heart”
• Füxa – “Dreamlanding”
• Jeanette – “Oi Tu Voz”
• Parva – “Mosem-e Gol”
• Prince – “Purple Rain”
• Bohren & Der Club of Gore – “Street Tattoo”
• Vangelis – “Blade Runner Blues”
• Godspeed You! Black Emperor – “The Dead Flag Blues” Part I
• Mojave 3 – “My Life in Art”
• Godspeed You! Black Emperor – “The Dead Flag Blues” Part II
• Datacide – “Flashback Signal”
• Mississippi Fred McDowell – “Roll and Tumble”

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100 Minutes

Midnight on Dauphine

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