Hi team Spotisfaction! You know, the best thing about living in Singapore is… well, I’m not going to lie, it’s the food. But, another pretty good thing is the fact that our music scene is super interesting. A mish-mash of different cultures coming together means that we get the best in K-pop, J-pop, contemporary hip-hop and jazz, and everything in between. Even our boring old commercial radio has a decent amount of Asian influence (and also a hell of a lot of Blue, JLS and 5ive, to be fair).
So, for today’s playlist I’ve started with a little bit of Korean hip-hop, and then we move into some of the tracks I’ve been enjoying chilling out to while we’re in lockdown; some old, some new.
Hey gang. I hope that, wherever you are, you and your loved ones are safe and well. Give everyone a big virtual (non-contact) squeeze for me, would you?
Today’s playlist comes from our friend and Spotisfaction regular, Ben Hawling. In this current climate, I think that music is a powerful thing; we can all use a bit of positivity and fantasy, so thank you for this, Ben. Here he is:
Hi! Welcome back Spotisfaction!
So, a year ago, I was stuck in a soul-destroying job where I was constantly unhappy. I would often visualise a scene in my mind, wherein I would be on a terrace/ patio, complete with bright beaming sunshine and shimmering music surrounding me, drinking beer, relaxing, with all of the bullshit of work far away from me. Ok, so I appreciate that this all sounds a little pedestrian and cliché. But, naturally, the fantasy became more and more important to me, as it was slowly etched onto my mind and took the form of a sanctuary, where I hoped to finally find resolve. As a result, the terraces/ patios that I actually experienced were, of course, immediately sullied by the impossibly high expectations that I had applied, therefore, making the fantasy seem increasingly more unrealistic and unobtainable, which made the torment even worse.
Anyways, this collection acts as one part of a 2 playlist set that I’ve put together, which both include tracks that would often soundtrack my fantasy, in both the day and night hours, and would, in turn, carry me through the pain and inertia. Also, I’ve included a few new-ish tracks that I feel continue to illustrate this fantasy appropriately. So, I hope that you enjoy this particular collection and that it fills your soul with the taste of sugary sweet positivity and, most importantly, hope, as we draw closer to summer. For me, these collections evoke the feeling of freedom and serenity, as well as the feeling of departure and release from all the hate and worry. I sincerely hope that they do the same for you.
Here’s to the hope for happiness, the hope for renewed good health and well-being, and the hope of a better life. Chin up, we’re almost there…
Gotta tell you, folks, putting these playlists together has completely reinvigorated my love for finding stuff I’ve not heard before. How often do you get stuck in a rut listening to the same old artists over and over again? I know for the last 10 years that was definitely the default action for me.
My standouts this week are the Nai Palm & Amadou Suso three-part cover, Blackstar / Pyramid Song / Breathing Underwater – what an amazing track. I also love chilled-out Beastie Boys, and a bit of Ben Folds Five never goes amiss.
Hope you enjoy this one as much as I enjoyed putting it together.
Stuff I’ve been listening to over the last 6 months or so
Morning, gang. Took the kids to Legoland this weekend and my feet are absolutely bloody killing me. Question: is there anything better in this world after a solid two days of walking than getting your shoes off, feet up, pint in hand in front of the telly? Not a lot, as it happens.
This week I’ve put together a playlist made up of some of my most-playeds over the last 6 months or so. I commute to work on the train these days, so I’ve usually got an hour or so of quality music time before I get home in the evening. This is the playlist I’ve been putting on to completely zone out and start to unwind. Hope it does the same for you.
Reminder: we’d love your playlist submissions, I know you’ve got ’em in you. Hit the link here and show us what you got.
So, I went out to get some milk 9 years ago and, well, one thing led to another and anyway, we’re (sort of, unofficially, casually) back. But the milk has gone off, sorry.
Morning kids. What an awesome week we’re having, no? Some daft bugger has closed all the blinds in the office today, so I’m taking far more coffee breaks than is strictly necessary to try and wrest back some sunshine.
I went airsofting last night with some friends (think paintball, but indoors and with BBs instead of paint) and tripped whilst heroicly pegging it away from the other team… consequently I’ve completely knackered my shoulder. I’m sat here, high on ibuprofen, trying not to move. My poor wife (who is 8-months pregnant and can barely move, too) had to help dress me this morning. Oh how the mighty have fallen, eh! So, if you see me around this weekend, be gentle otherwise I might cry at you.
Anyway!
Today’s playlist is courtesy of Mighty Mike Sheldrick and is entitled Barefaced Optimism. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect here, but this whole playlist works really well. Nothing like a sunny day and some undeniably classic tunes to cheer you up! Make sure to hit the read more link to see what Mike has to say about this mix – worth reading.
Morning kids. I trust everyone had a fantabulous weekend? Mine was pretty good – I did very little except for shopping, watching rugby and chilling out. Awesome.
Today’s playlist is by one of my two joint-favourite Hawlings, Jo, and is quite the eclectic mix of strong tracks. This playlist has completely evaporated my Monday morning blues – very impressive stuff indeed.
Remember remember that your playlists are the life-blood of this place. If today’s playlist has inspired you to create your own (as well it bloody well should!), chuck it our way. Laters!
Also, if you like what Spotisfaction is all about, please get in touch and we’ll have a chat about how you can help. HAVE A GREAT MONDAY AND STUFF, YEAH?
Good morning folks. I’m going to be an honest bunny and put my hands up – I’ve been slacking horrendously with Spotisfaction. I won’t bore you with the excuses, but I will tell you that I’m going to try and find time to update a little more often. I got a little burnt out with running the site over Christmas, but I’m re-energised and ready to share some more Spotify playlists with you all. On that note, of course, if you have one you’re working on, send it our way ;)
I’ve spent this evening going through our backlog (wow, you guys have been busy! I’ll work through them over the next couple of weeks, I promise <3), so here’s one out of my “I’ve been listening to this playlist quite a lot, I should probably give it the post it deserves!” list! It comes from my favourite Dave, Dave Christensen, and is entitled “Fleeting Love”.
Got a great playlist for you today. Phil Cooper has put together all the best folk/acoustic/americana, including The Haiku, Gomez, Band of Horses, Elbow, and a few surprising choices along the way.
Ignore the image. It’s apparently ‘folk art’. It just amused me. Now it’s made me hungry.
Apparently today is the most depressing Monday of the year. Or, depending on who you listen to, last Monday was. Listen, it’s January, the weather is shit, you’ve had Christmas, what do you want? It’ll be Spring soon. Yay, daffodils and lambs. You know what lambs mean? Better Sunday roasts, that’s what.
Anyway, we’ve got a great little life-snippet of a playlist today. Ben Hawling is picking out years of his life and retrospectively soundtracking it. I think that’s really cool. Everyone can get taken back to a time in their lives when they revisit music, and so a playlist like this is a way to share that reminiscence. As I listen to the playlist myself, I remember when and where I was when it was part of *my* life, and it becomes interesting how music permeates through our lives like a giant audio Bayeux Tapestry. Anyway, enjoy.
Morning all. Just a quick one to let you know that we’d love your playlists like they were our first born children. They deserve a good home, yo, so send them to us. We have candy.
Also, as you may have noticed, we’ve relaxed our update schedule a wee bit – we decided that a formally scheduled, magazine style format wasn’t really for us (tbh, it was a bit too much like real work). This means that there should be an awful lot less pressure for contributors to come up with stuff, so if the reason you didn’t want to get involved in the site previously was that you didn’t have enough time to commit, then fret ye not! If you want to write a paragraph about a new album that’s exciting you then great! Want to run a poll on the public’s favourite Descendents album (everyone knows it’s Milo Goes to College. Fact)? Perfect! Less structure, less rigidity, fewer (no) deadlines, more fun. That’s the aim, anyway. Get in touch if this sounds good to you.
Got a new playlist for you today, courtesy of the mighty Dave Christensen. I love playlists like this, to be honest – something about a good instrumental tune that truly helps you get through the day.
Anyway, catch you on the other side (of the weekend)! Dave
We’re always on the lookout for great mixes, and to that end Soundcloud is a veritable treasure-trove of awesomeness. Here’s the latest electro mix from our friend Rygo. I must say, some of his mixes have heavily influenced some of my own Spotify playlists featured on Spotisfaction (to the extent of actually stealing a couple of song combinations because he’s shown me how well they flow together), so I’m looking forward to giving this one a whirl. Check it out below and let us know what you think!
If you have your own Soundcloud or Mixcloud account, why not send us your own mixes?
1. Paul White – A Quiet Place
2. Oneohtrix Point Never – Stress Waves
3. Trentemøller – Häxen
4. SBTRKT – Evening Glow
5. Mount Kimbie – At Least (Instra:mental Remix)
6. R̦yksopp РThe Fear
7. Untold – Kingdom
8. Scuba – Three Sided Shape
9. James Blake – Tell Her Safe
10. Airhead – Paper Street
Happy 2011 one and all! We’re back, feeling refreshed for the new year, and we hope you are too. We’re changing things up slightly for this year, moving our content pacing more towards a blog – we felt your playlists were going by too quickly and that editing the site was taking more time than just fricking loving the music thats out there. We want our content to seem less segmented and more relevent. To help us along with this, please welcome onboard Kev Atkinson, the loving creator of so many playlists and reviews in the past, as a new editor.
Now, for the new year, we’d like to introduce you to a great site that keeps you up-to-date with everything that’s been newly released on Spotify in the UK that week. I personally don’t think Spotify’s ‘What’s New Page’ is much help at all – http://www.spotimy.co.uk fixes this, listing everything added week-by-week. Spotimy also sorts reviews found online from many of the country’s blogs, magazines and newspapers and so is a great tool to enhance your Spotify experience. We like.
Their ‘Best of 2010’ playlist is fantastic and gets us off to a flyer!
James
[Note to Joe and co at Spotimy – used a bit of editorial licence here guys ;D, I know you submitted your November review playlist, but we wanted to feature your site and your Best of 2010 Playlist!]
Another busy week polished off. Dreadzone on Wednesday and New Pornographers on Thursday were both awesome. Dreadzone review should be up next week, look out for that. It’s been a good year for me, Dave and everyone involved with Spotisfaction, thanks for enjoy it with us.
Christmas is rapidly approaching and we are considering wrapping up the site for a while (see what I did there? Cracker of a pun.. OOP, GUILTY AS CHARGED) – we’ve got to go to our families, cook the turkeys, wrap the presents, so don’t be surprised it the site slows down for a while. We’re still alive though, and Spotify will still be here for us in the new year. Hopefully you’re all gearing up for Christmas and looking forward to a long overdue break. We are!
Moggy brings us todays awesome brass-instrument themed playlist. This really is a great playlist, enjoy.
Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday. We skipped a Monday because Mondays generally suck ass, and also because we’re real human beings with Christmas shopping and spare days holiday left.
But we’re back today and straight on it, and I present you with a, if I say so myself, a banger of a playlist. I’ve done a third installment of my Dubisfiction series, and this time I’ve gone for upbeat, high tempo dub, electro and a touch of breakbeat. Hopefully this will get your bloodpumping on this cold, chilly December morning.
