Friday, January 16 2015
Welcome to Songs We Listened To A Lot In 2014. Another year, another soundtrack.
As you may know by now, this mix and series is different. It’s a snapshot of the year, but from a different perspective than your typical year end mix or list. It is not a definitive list of the biggest tunes that came out in 2014, yet our goal is similar – move the listener (whether it’s your heart or your ass), and tell a complete story.
It’s a story of how music that we all listen to becomes this intangible soundtrack to the experiences of the lives we lead. The same way certain smells trigger memories, songs serve the same purpose. And those songs are not bound by release schedules or media exposure. They hit us when they hit us, and become ours. This mix is about THAT.
Listening to music is catharsis. It’s something we need and that we take for granted. We love music, what it means to us, what it does for us, how it makes us feel. This mix is a true labor of love – we hope you enjoy it!
Skratch Bastid & Cosmo Baker Present Songs We Listened To A Lot In 2014
Download link: http://bit.ly/1ApK9tG
Artwork by Rhek.
Track list:
Willie Colon & Ruben Blades – Maria Lionza
Future Islands – Seasons (Waiting On You) (BADBADNOTGOOD Reinterpretation)
Childish Gambino – Sober
Pharrell f/ Daft Punk – Gust of Wind
Sade – Nothing Can Come Between Us (Pomo Edit)
D’Angelo – The Charade
Caribou – Can’t Do Without You
Gorgon City f/ MNEK – Ready For Your Love
Vic Mensa – Down On My Luck
Shiba San – Okay (Interlude)
Schoolboy Q – Man Of The Year
E-40 – Choices (Yup)
Popcaan – Everything Nice
American Royalty – Mariah (Kaytranada Remix)
Kelis – Runnin’ (Machinedrum Remix)
Run The Jewels – Blockbuster Night Pt. 1
Vince Staples – Blue Suede
Dej Loaf – Try Me
Chronixx – Here Comes Trouble
John Holt (RIP) – Police in Helicopter
Junior Murvin (RIP) – Cool Out Son
Boogaloo Assassins – No No No
Jose Feliciano – Golden Lady
Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band – Bacao Suave
Cormega – Industry
Slim Kid Tre & DJ Nu-Mark – Bom Bom Fiya
Dayne Jordan & DJ Jazzy Jeff – Play Dat!!!
Myron & E – Do It Do It Disco (Tom Noble Remix)
The Whispers – Keep On Lovin Me (80’s Child Edit)
Alex Metric f/ Oliver – Galaxy
Change – Paradise
Next Movement – All I Do
Kid Sister – Higher
Duke Dumont – I Got You
Nina Simone – It Be’s That Way Sometimes
Roberto Roeno – Shades Of Time
Big K.R.I.T. f/ A$AP Ferg – Lac Lac
DJ Quik f/ Rob “Fonksta” Bacon – Bacon’s Groove
Aaron Neville – The Greatest Love
Desi Young – I Don’t Know Why I Love you
Penny & The Quarters – You & Me
Thursday, February 13 2014
Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and I kind of take that pretty seriously. And by “pretty seriously” I mean I like to pull out all the stops. Why not? Life is short and you never know where you may be from one day to the next, and with whom. Love is a powerful thing. Armies are launched because of it. History is made because if it. Thrones are abdicated, works of art are created, worlds collide and become one entangled and intangible in these invisible lines that connect the atomic matter in the heavenly skies to that same matter that makes up the stuff that pumps through are veins. When you stand in the desert and you look up at the sky and see all the stars and you realize how very small you are, that’s what love kind of feels like to me. It’s a geyser that flows from a deeper place when you are standing next to that certain someone. I don’t know, but I like it – or as George Harrison once wrote, “I dig love.”
Here’s all three of my Love Break mix series that I did about a decade ago and caught some notoriety from. Nothing but some of my favorite classic soul love jams from the 60s, 70s and 80s. Also here’s Valentine’s Roll which was another mix of mine with some of my favorite jams. Nothing fancy, just raw and stripped to the bone. The way that love really is. It makes you feel naked and pure, guard down love up. And the songs lend us voices for when we can’t sing what we feel.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy them. Download links are in the comments on each individual page so feel free to put them on your box and play loud. Just play them with someone you love if you can. And if not, think about that person. With love.
Valentine’s Roll by Cosmo Baker on Mixcloud
01: The Friends Of Distinction “Going In Circles”
02: Aretha Franklin “Call Me”
03: Donny Hathaway “I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know”
04: Rick James & Teena Marie “Fire & Desire”
05: Curtis Mayfield “Sweet Exorcist”
06: James Brown “That’s My Desire”
07: Otis Redding “That’s How Strong My Love Is”
08: Sam Cooke “Bring It On Home To Me”
09: Irma Thomas “Ruler Of My Heart”
10: Al Green “Simply Beautiful”
11: The Isley Brothers “Voyage To Atlantis”
12: George Harrison “I’d Have You Anytime”
13: Stevie Wonder “I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)”
14: Patrice Rushen “Settle For My Love”
15: Prince “Adore”
16: Quincy Jones “The Secret Garden (Sweet Seduction Suite)”
17: René & Angela “Your Smile”
18: The Isley Brothers “Fire & Rain”
19: The Smith Connection “Rainy Days & Mondays”
20: Darondo “Listen To My Song”
21: The Beach Boys “Forever”
22: Rita Wright “I Can’t Give Back The Love I Feel For You”
23: Black Ivory “Got To Be There”
24: Brenda Russell “So Good, So Right”
25: Bonnie Pointer “More And More”
26: David Bowie “Can You Hear Me”
27: Earth, Wind & Fire “Can’t Hide Love”
28: The Rolling Stones “Let It Loose”
29: Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell “If This World Were Mine”
30: East Of Underground “I Love You”
31: The Delfonics “Walk Right Up To The Sun”
32: The New Birth “You Are What I’m All About”
33: Steely Dan “Any Major Dude”
34: Bill Withers “Can We Pretend”
Love Break by Cosmo Baker on Mixcloud
01: Love Break Introduction
02: Samuel Jonathan Johnston “My Music”
03: Tom Brock “There’s Nothing In This World That Can Stop Me From Loving You”
04: The Dramatics “In The Rain”
05: William Bell “I Forgot To Be Your Lover”
06: William Bell & Mavis Staples “Strung Out”
07: Nina Simone “Baltimore”
08: Gwen McCrae “Let’s Straighten It Out”
09: L.T.D. “Love Song”
10: The Isley Brothers “Hello It’s Me”
11: The Meters “Wichita Lineman”
12: Eddie Kendricks “If You Let Me”
13: Al Green “Light My Fire”
14: Heatwave “Stay Of A Story”
15: Curtis Mayfield “The Makings Of You”
16: Marvin Gaye “Come Live With Me Angel”
17: Gene Chandler “Tomorrow I may Not Feel The Same”
18: The Dells “Does Anybody Even Know I’m Here”
19: Ethel Beatty “It’s Your Love”
18: Aretha Franklin “With Everything I Feel In Me”
19: Joe Simon “Before The Night Is Over”
18: David Ruffin “Common Man”
19: Z.Z. Hill “That Ain’t The Way You Make Love”
20: The Jackson 5 “We Got A Good Thing Going”
21: The Isley Brothers “Here We Go Again”
22: Madeline Bell “Make That Move”
23: Milton Wright “Keep It Up”
24: Odyssey “Our Lives Are Shaped By What We Love”
Love Break 2 by Cosmo Baker on Mixcloud
01: Soul Mann & The Brothers “Bumpy’s Intro”
02: The Jackson 5 “All I Do Is Think Of You”
03: The Intruders “Memories Are Here To Stay”
04: Johnny “Guitar” Watson “Lovin’ You”
05: The Manhattans “Devil In The Dark”
06: The Ebonys “You’re The Reason Why”
07: Al Green ” I Wish You Were Here”
08: Luther Ingram “To The Other Man”
09: Eddie Kendricks “Intimate Friends”
10: Don Blackman “Loving You, Holding You”
11: Lamont Dozier “The Picture Will Never Change”
12: Dynasty “Adventures In The Land Of Music”
13: Dionne Warwick “You’re Gonna Need Me”
14: Bobby Glenn “Sounds Like A Love Song”
15: The Impressions “Man, Oh Man”
16: Billy Stewart “We’ll Always Be Together”
17: Lyn Collins “Take Me, Just As I Am”
18: The Ambassadors “Ain’t Got The Love”
19: The Fuzz “I Love You For All Seasons”
20: The Delfonics “La-La Means I Love You”
21: The Impressions “Gone Away”
22: Jean Plum “Here I Go Again”
23: The Dells “Free And Easy”
24: The Three Degrees “You’re The Fool”
25: The Temptations “I Wish It Would Rain”
26: Marvin Gaye “Hope I Don’t Get My Heart Broke”
27: The Jackson 5 “2-4-6-8″
28: Edna Wright “Oops! Here I Go Again”
Love Break Three – The Heart’s Final Chapter by Cosmo Baker on Mixcloud
01: Love’s Intro
02: Ace Spectrum “I Don’t Want To Play Around”
03: Banks & Hampton “I’m Gonna Have To Tell Her”
04: Major Harris “I Got Over Love”
05: New BIrth “It’s Been A Long Time”
06: Eddie Holman “It’s Over”
07: Black Ivory “(It’s) Time To Say Goodbye”
08: Marvin Gaye “Is That Enough”
09: Top Shelf “Let Them Keep On Talking”
10: Lloyd Price “What Did You Do With My Love”
11: Jerry Butler “No Money Down”
12: The Moments “Love On A Two-Way Street”
13: Steve Parks “Still Thinking Of You”
14: Solomon Burke “Everlasting Love”
15: Clay Hunt “(I’m Claimin’) FInders Keepers”
16: Angela Winbush “Angel”
17: The Isley Brothers “Ain’t I Been Good To You”
18: Sweet Blindness “Ain’t No Use”
19: Billy Stewart “Cross My Heart”
20: The Delfonics “Trying To Make A Fool Out Of Me”
21: Freddie Hughes “Sarah Mae”
22: The Three Degrees “Collage”
23: Nancy Wilson “I’m In Love”
24: Patrice Rushen “Where There Is Love”
25: Joann Garett “It’s No Secret”
26: Bobby Womack “Woman’s Gotta Have It”
27: Smokey Robinson & The Miracles “A Legend In It’s Own Time”
28: Ben Vereen “I’ll Keep A Light In My Window”
29: Teddy Pendergrass “I’ll Never See Heaven Again”
30: Diana Ross “One Love In My Lifetime”
31: Brothers By Choice “Baby, You Really Got Me Going”
32: Mary Wells “Two Lovers History”
Monday, January 13 2014
I toyed with a few different ways that I could intro this project for its release, but after several different drafts over the course of however many hours, I finally realized the futility of it all – especially after the wonderful words that Skratch Bastid wrote on his Facebook page. Those words encapsulated it so fittingly. Not to try and make this project out to be anything bigger or more grand than what it is, merely a collection of songs that me and my friend really like and found ourselves returning to time and again. Then I had a realization. What I wanted to get across is that it has nothing to do with this mix, or me and Bastid, or even the songs themselves. It’s more to than just these individual songs, or the curation of the Songs2013 project as a whole. At the end of the day it’s about a very personal connection, and visceral reaction, that we all have to music. Some things just hit us in ways that only we can understand. Or we don’t understand. It’s an intangible, because how can you qualify or quantify that feeling? The inherent need that we as people have for communication, that gets refracted through the stories and sounds that we hear, through our speakers and into our ears, and set our imaginations on fire, giving us voices for when we don’t have them. To me that’s what it comes down to, that whatever song it is that’s that’s “your jam,” it’s really a road that allows you to sing a song you weren’t able to but always had within. That’s what makes a favorite song so dear. These songs, they sing for us, they warm us, and they become old friends – friends that we find ourselves returning to again and again.
Also, sometimes a groove is just a groove. So let the groove get in. Thanks to everyone that got up, got into it, and got involved with this. Extra special shout to all the people that submitted to the #Songs2013 and extra shout to our OkayPlayer friends for premiering the mix on their Mixtape Mondays. If you want it for your hard drive, download it here. If you like the concept, check out last years mix here.
Now enough with the words. Let’s get to the music…
Cosmo Baker – January, 2014
We’ve all got our own jams.
Good songs have a way of finding our ears and if we love them, we keep them near. We go back to them, sometimes every day, sometimes every few weeks, or months, or even every few years. Some songs are new, some are old — our personal soundtrack is unique and comes from a number of different influences. We play certain songs over and over, and those songs often go on to define that time in our lives.
“Songs We Listened To A Lot in 2013″ is sort of a “Best Of” year-end mix, but the catch is it isn’t only comprised of music that was released that year. Many of the songs ARE from 2013, but we want to make sure the ‘older’ songs that made noise on our speakers & headphones get the shine they deserve, too. 39 tracks, and just under 3 hours of music. It’s safe to say that there is something on here for everyone, and we guarantee you’re going to hear something new.
Outside of listening, we want you to get involved. We want to know what songs got the most spins on your Discman last year and what songs you would have put on a mix like this one. We’ve already got some great selections & stories from some of our good friends and we’ve been posting them over at songs2013.tumblr.com. On Facebook & Twitter, people have been posting titles & links, using the hashtag #Songs2013 – and they’ve been putting us up on great music. Let your favorites be known.
And let that mix bump. Peace!
– Bastid & Cosmo, 2014
Skratch Bastid & Cosmo Baker “Songs We Listened To A Lot In 2013”
(Artwork by Rhek)
Wee – Aeroplane (Reprise)
Charles Bradley – Strictly Reserved For You
Omar – The Man
Pusha T – Numbers On The Boards
Jai Paul – 100 000
Mayer Hawthorne – Her Favorite Song (Oliver Remix)
Janet Jackson – If (Kaytranada Remix)
Rihanna (f/ Mikki Ekko) – Stay (Deejay Theory Dub)
Disclosure (f/ London Grammar) – Help Me Lose My Mind
Alice Smith – Another Love
Rich Homie Quan – Type Of Way
Gunplay – Bible On The Dash
King Krule – Easy Easy
Thundercat – Heartbreaks + Setbacks
Rhye – Open
Erasmo Carlos – Sorriso Dela
Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell – If This World Were Mine
Shy FX (f/ Liam Bailey) – Soon Come
Beres Hammond – Can’t Stop a Man
Derrick Harriott – The Loser
Toots & The Maytals – Pressure Drop
Idris Muhammad – Could Heaven Ever Be Like This
Donald Byrd – Love Has Come Around
Alicia Myers – I Want To Thank You
Busta Rhymes & Q-Tip – Thank You
N.O.R.E. & Large Professor – Built Pyramids
Wale (f/ Sam Dew) – Lovehate Thing
Mariah Carey & Miguel – Beautiful
Diana Ross & The Supremes – Reflections
Todd Terje – Strandbar (Samba Version)
Ninetoes – Finder
Little Boots – Satelite (Lindstrøm Remix)
Goldroom – Embrace (Cyclist Remix)
Classixx – Hanging Gardens
Ned Doheny – Get It Up For Love
Alessi – Do You Feel It?
The Futures – Ain’t No Time Fa Nuthin’
Janelle Monae & Miguel – Prime Time
Bobby Hutcherson – Now
Thanks for the support!
OkayPlayer
Discobelle
Hustlegrl
Wednesday, January 8 2014
Last year me and Skratch Bastid wanted to make a ‘year end’ mix/list, but ‘year end’ mixes/lists tend to suck. So we decided to approach things differently. Although using the calendar year is a great tool for cataloging and referencing releases, music moves at it’s own pace, and we have found that songs have a way of finding you when they are supposed to find you. Songs you grow to love are discovered in many ways: through hearing them at a club night, on a DJ mix, in a movie, in a friend’s car, at a restaurant – and those songs aren’t always new songs, or songs that came out the year that you hear them first. But they are songs that are relevant to YOU that year. And in each of our individual music experiences, they play a role in shaping your musical taste. Out of this came our very popular first mix, Songs We Listened To A Lot In 2012.
But we also understand that although Bastid and I are considered “pros” in this music realm, that the intrinsic connection to music that people have is subjective and that taste is taste. It’s all worthy and relevant. When we set out to do the Songs We Listened To A Lot project last year it was really coming from a place of passion and love, not to prove how hip and ahead of the curve we are. We just all love music and everyone has different ways of being connected to it. So perhaps that’s why Songs2012 resonated so much with people.
Since people were so into the project last year, this year we decided to ask a bunch of our friends to let us know what songs really did it for them. So world, please meet our friends! Please check out our Songs We Listened To A Lot In 2013 Tumblr and check out what we, and some of our friends from across the globe and all walks of life, listened to in the year 2013. You might just be surprised, and you may even want to get involved! And look out for the actual mix Songs We Listened To A Lot In 2013 coming next week!
Friday February 21 – Disco Verite – Brooklyn, NY