Attic Beats

Attic Beats 022 - Original concept: June 2002; podcast recorded February 26, 2006

This week, I revisit a favorite mix CD I made as part of my short-lived monthly-MP3-mix-CD series on my personal site.

This is the soundtrack for driving through New York City at 3am. This is a soundtrack for cabbies that work the graveyard shift. This is a soundtrack to make your adrenaline rush while making you meditate on the biological nature of urban existence.

Here’s original cover art, if you’re interested.

Click through for the playlist…

• (ab) Steve Roden: (Untitled) [portion]
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  It’s time to wake up… it’s 1am and your day is just starting. The subway rumbles nearby…
• ?: (Unknown) [from the Manhattan Calling mixtape by Paul C.]
  Speeding over potholes, as the skies thunder and shake the ground, time is short.
• 1.8.7: Hollywood
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  Every night starts out the same, but you never know how it’s going to finish.
• Necrofix: X-ina
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  After being hit over the head with a lead pipe, you realize you shouldn’t flash cash at this time of night this close to the Port Authority.
• DJ Krush: Underneath the System
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  Waking up under the subway, it’s hard to breathe looking up at the underground.
• Jeru the Damaja: Come Clean (instrumental)
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  The drops of sewer water hitting you from above feel like Chinese water torture, until you find your way back to the surface.
• Black Star: Respiration
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  Breathe in…
• Jimpster: Slow’n'low
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  Breathe out…
• Charles Mingus: Scenes in the City
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  Wait morning out in a jazz club. They can’t find you here.
• Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders: Blue Nile
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  The sun rises in the east, all is calm. It’s time to sleep.