Mixtape Memories (The Ride Home - 2000)
So I am going to start writing a book. It has been something that I have been wanting to do fore a while and since we are all have extra time due to COVID-19, I might as well use this time to get going on it. To start to get me into the the flow of writing again (and to help jog my memory) I decided to blog about some of my old mixtapes that currently available online on various platforms. For my first trip down memory lane I decided to go with “The Ride Home”.
“The Ride Home” was part of a 2 tape series (not a double pack) that was my vision of what one should listen going to (the other tape is “The Ride There”) and coming home from a night of raving. I specifically was doing a lot of desert and outdoor parties at the time and especially a lot of closing sets. I remember doing so many closing sets at The Masterdome in San Bernardino and always needing some good tunes for the hour long drive back home. I know a lot of people would listen to more techno, house or trance on those drives back, but I will be honest, I don’t tend to listen to a lot of that when I am driving. I like a lot different types of music and I am typically pretty amped after I spin so I liked listening to chill out and indie rock when driving home. So my vision for this mix specifically was driving home from the desert during those hours where the sun has just rose and the night is fading into a new day. I love ambient music but I couldn’t just listen to beatless ambient music on a drive home as I would probably fall asleep at the wheel so I treated this mix to have a bit of various different chill out music. Well at least my interpretation of what chill out means. To engage but to remind somewhat background.
It starts off with some ambient but then you get into a Hip Hop beat by the unlikely producer BT, which mixes into some Andrea Parker. There are ambient and vocal interludes throughout including Bjork and some Radiohead (OK Computer was a constant listen when coming back home for raves in 1997 and 1998). My favorite moment on Side A is easily the song “My Sound” by Squarepusher which closes out the first side. It is still one of my favorite songs of his. It is so unlike what he is known for but it also shows off both his sense of melody and also how versatile he is with his bass playing.
Side B to me is even a bit more varied stylistically. Still very relaxed but there is an intensity there. Especially when Plastikman’s “Plasticity” mixes into the Snooze and Morpheus remix “Super Sex” by Morphine. I chose to close the mix off with one of my favorite Bjork tracks. I was listening to Homegenic quite a bit around 97-98. “All Neon Like” was such an instant classic for me. I loved the distorted 909 by Mark Bell over the beautiful lush synths all topped off by Bjork’s otherworldly vocals.
It’s funny listening to these tapes 20 years later. It’s like a time capsule of what I was into at the time and really, what I am still into now. Some music is purely timeless but also reminds you of a specific and pointed period of time in your life. This tape does that for me. I hope you enjoy.