Tag: Ashley Jordan Lane

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Mixtape Music

Et Musique Pour Tous Presents: Les Auteurs — Ashley Jordan Lane

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Whereever you go, there you’ll be.”

My ex-boyfriend’s mom told me that. After four years I was leaving, and this was the message I took with me. After you leave once, it is easier to spot exits in life. Constantly trying to hop to the next place, avoiding the feeling of quicksand in the present time. When you have the urge for change, to travel, to leave, the only thing harder than leaving is staying there. But we do what you are not supposed to do in quicksand, which I gather from Indiana Jones and Blazing Saddles, which is to hold very still. And breath.

This is a mix about travelling. Not “The Best Roadtrip Mix Ever”. This is the short story about the cliffs and valleys of the wanderers.  We are all familiar with the phrase “not all wanderers are lost” and this is the playlist for those wanderers.  They are using looking for someone, generally themselves.

Enjoy the ride.

Bob Dylan-Subterranean Homesick Blues: I digress. This is the perfect roadtrip song. This song should start all of your trips. The roots of the song coming from his Beats influence. The conflict of the straight and square. The contract between what is expected and where you are going.

Parov Stelar – The Sun (Featuring Graham Candy): This track is the moment you are on your first traveller’s high. Either mentally or otherwise. You got your footing in a new place. Confidence has come back to you after fumbling languages, upsidedown maps and seeing the same road twice. Swaying to the heavy base set down by Parov Stelar and the raspy vocals of Graham Candy, you glide.

Joăo Gilberto – Bim Bom: This is a song for landing on your feet. I found this song on an album in the kitchen of the Airbnb I stayed in in Rome. The homeowner left espresso and this CD in the player to listen to. It was warped and scratched as it had been listened to so much. I asked him about the CD when I was checking out which was titled Songs of Brasil. He had always wanted to go to Brazil and live there. He listened to this CD every day. I listented to it every morning and I felt like I was home in his little kitchen with his little espresso maker and this song playing through the little player. The song sounds like the OM sound for travelling. The perfect balance sound. Comfortable on your feet on new soil.

Tom Odell – Another Love (Zwette Edit) : This is a recent release. And the song is a release. Tom Odell has the vocals you want to hear from your lovers and friends. It’s hopeful, dreamy. “And I wanna kiss you, make you feel alright | I’m just so tired to share my nights | I wanna cry and I wanna love | But all my tears have been used up.”  The highlight, the nectars of travelling are the kisses and deep talks with strangers and those intense connections you make quickly and deeply with all of your being. Sharing secrets with people who you will never see again. It is amazing, the secrets you share with strangers you will never see again. This track is for the beer at the bar with your new lovers and friends. For the quick, deep cuts and connections you get on a trip. The ones that leave scars you look at lovingly in a year or five. Still able to taste the memory on your palette.

Frank Ocean – Super Rich Kids: Depending on where you go, you will come across the rich kids. We all are when we travel. You save up so you can be stupid. Be reckless. No one is there watching. The freedom to be the new person you want to be. Any status. From anywhere you want. Trying out accents and zip codes and seeing what fits. This is the creation of you for the moment. The confident, newfound you. And Frank Ocean should be on all travelling mixes.

Milky Chance – Stolen Dance (Radio Edit): The thing about wandering is you need to be comfortable with yourself. This is the time you get in to your head. Why did you leave in the first place for? This song from Milky Chance is the song that comes on at the first hard spot of a trip. Knees are scuffed. When you first fall, the contents of what you were caring around with you spills out and you have to pick it all up, one by one and pick yourself up. We need to look at all of this stuff you cary with out and choose to let some things go.

Caribou – I Can’t Do Without You: When wandering, there is a time you will get home sick. You will miss someone or something or familiarity. It is that sinking feeling in your stomach and usually has bad timing. This song. This song has  that feeling. The opening just has the repeating line “I can’t do without you”  which explodes into the  rest of the music and sound. The beginning acting more like that voice in your head. Not able to shake it, just have to let yourself acknowledge that. This track is from the new Caribou album Our Love.

We are not wondering lost forever. We have wander lust, forever.

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Music

Anna Naklab – Wicked Games (Parra for Cuva Edit)

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We were in a decent restaurant somewhere outside of Barcelona. It was the first time we had seen each other in 4 months. Aside from that we had only seen each other for one weekend. We met in a bar. I, an American dressed up on Halloween in London, in a bar of less interested suits and ties watching a football game. He approached me and we talked about plans and dreams after 20 minutes. The night ended without exchanging numbers or last names. But by the end of the next day, he found me again and we were set up to meet over the weekend. Two days later, I was on plane back to the States indefinitely.

1,521 messages later, we bought tickets to meet in Barcelona. Back in the restaurant, we drank and asked each other all of the little questions you do on a third date. Then we got to the big one “What is your favourite love song?” This is an important question. It reveals how the person feels about love. The one song that says ‘this means love’ in their minds and could be tied to another lover or their broken heart.

He seemed to be taken back when my answer was (and always will be) Wicked Games by Chris Isaak. “That is a sad song.”

That is difference between him and I. A love song doesn’t mean happy. It doesn’t mean poppy. It should capture love and that is exactly what this song does. If you ever find yourself on a third date and asking this question, you will find the answer of your potential suitor to vary. Love is hard. And tragic. And beautiful. And when you find yourself reminiscing about a former flame or in the beginning of a new, I hope loves feels like this song.

I suppose in the context of this relationship, this song was most fitting.

–

This was a production from Parra for Cuva which uses a version sung by Anna Naklab. The end result is a mix of airy vocals and a tune to fall in and out of love to.

The world was on fire and no one could save me but you.
It’s strange what desire will make foolish people do.
I never dreamed that I’d meet somebody like you.
And I never dreamed that I’d lose somebody like you”

Anna Naklab (Parra for Cuva Edit) – Wicked Games (Original Mix)

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Music

Ella Eyre – If I Go (Billon Remix)

She was clearly upset. I asked her what was wrong and she just kept saying she was suffocating. That’s all. The love was there, I could tell. I could feel it still. But she wasn’t. She was losing herself in the relationship. She was calling from that place where you realise you don’t remember the last time you slept alone. Her nights filled up with plans and dinners, committing nights once spent on personal time and space to sitting around each other because you don’t know what else to do.

But I try, but I try
And I need time, and I need space
I need to live without your face”

There are always the pangs of guilt felt the first night you say “I actually think I am going to just stay at mine tonight”. The guilt you feel when the other person doesn’t seem to be on the same page for that much needed night in your head.  Alone time.  Taking a step back to give yourself a break and process where you are is as necessary as sleep or working out your body. This is something you come to realise with heavy shoulders, comes a heavy mind.

She was still sad. She didn’t have an escape. She was more accommodating than most. But really that isn’t fair either. You’re tired, you take a break. Should there be such a taboo on taking a moment to build yourself back up? After all, that is the person who your lover fell for.

I could be what you want me to
Can you hold out and let me do what I want?
What I want?
Tell me how long could you wait till you move on
And tell me it’s too late! It’s too late. “

This song by Ella Eyre is an anthem for this realisation. For this moment. That voice in your head saying to” take a break” is just as loud as the one who is telling you if you” take a step back, then you will lose what you created”. Ella is a rising star from the UK with her vocals that sounds like she was out all night and a bravado which says she doesn’t care.

Will you want me like that?
And if I leave, will it end?
If I go, will you love me?
Will you love me when I come back?”

Ella Eyre – If I Go (Billon Remix)

Categories
Music

Monkey Safari – Coming Down (Hi-Life Radio Edit)

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We all need a good come down.

That is the moment when you have to hit the bottom. Sometimes for no other reason than to feel it. Like when you watch a sad movie just to make you sad. The come down is what makes the high points so sweet. The laughs so deep.

In a recent situation, we were in a perfect bubble we created. No fighting. The emotions were so strong but in the best way. You sweat when you think the other one is hurting. You get comfortable when you lay in bed. Plans are made in the future, thinking about calendars in 2016. What would we do next?

We don’t know the people in 2016. Who we will be then. And as perfect as all can seem, don’t we all get itchy feet? That settling feeling is the come down. The come down is when the world hits you and you slide down the wall to the floor. Arms too heavy to move. Arms tired from holding on. There is the intoxication, the high about the good times, but we find out more about ourselves in the come down. In the highs, your brain is foggy with joy and thoughts and nothing heavy. The come down is when the gravity hits. The world suddenly spins on its back and lets you flipand the heavy fog sets back in.

It’s just a come down. Calm down. The remix from Hi-Life does just that. The raspy vocals of Monkey Safari, the ability to sway to it. Not the feeling of a come down, but some place where you feel content. Not the high and not the come down. The limbo of life.

Monkey Safari – Coming Down (Hi-Life Radio Edit)