SCD Mixtape 2 (Feb 21)

[Trollheart]

Okay then, time to choose a theme and then get the tracks in for the next mixtape. Anyone who didn't take part in our inaugural one, and wants to now, feel free. Details in the original thread. Poll above, vote for your favourite theme.

[Trollheart]

Okay, the poll is closed and we're tied: 2 for murder/death/killings etc and 2 for animals. I guess I'll cast the tie break vote then, so we'll go for the former.

Therefore, songs please on a theme of murder/death/violence/serial killers/whatever you're having yourself. As usual, the remit is broad, and your song can refer to the above, or be by someone linked to the above, or from an album so titled eg Megadeth's Killing is My Business... and Business is Good! or Rust in Peace, Metallica's Kill 'em All , Nick Cave's Murder Ballads etc. Perhaps you want to select a track from The Killers, or Killing Joke, or Death? Maybe a song about Jack the Ripper or Countess Bathory? There's a massive wealth (if that's the right word) of material out there. You know the deal by now.

Tracks to be received by next Sunday, March 2 please.

[Trollheart]

I only have ONE submission so far (thanks @DJChameleon !) and we're supposed to have this ready for March 2, which is Sunday. Can everyone please get off their arses, fat or otherwise, and drop in a track to me? I don't think it's going to be too hard - I've already pointed out the wealth of murder/killing-related songs you can choose from - so could everyone please make an effort and just get me one track by, if possible, Sunday, so I can put the playlist together for our second mixtape?

[Trollheart]

So far I have tracks from
@DJChameleon 
@Lisnaholic 
@Trollheart 
@degrassi.knoll 
@Lexi Darling 
@Guybrush 
@Saulaac 

and anyone else who wants to join in. I really want to get this going for Monday so that leaves two days, lads, lassies and would prefer not to says. Can we extract the digit and forward the electronic musical computerised package to my receptacle for digital information packets please?

Otherwise...

[Guybrush]

Done!!

And may the corniest song win our favor 👌

[Trollheart]

Thanks guys! That was an unexpectedly rapid response! QRT* would be proud!
Just waiting for the Queen of SCD now...

* QRT, for those who don't know it or watch Homicide: Life on the Street = Quick Response Team, the elite armed unit that backs up the cops when an armed response is needed.

[Trollheart]

Thanks guys. Her Majesty has come back, so now we're all sorted. I'll put the mixtape together tonight. If anyone else wants to join, get your song in fast. Once the mixtape is posted, that's it. @Saulaac - I'm looking at YOU!

[Saulaac]

Thanks guys. Her Majesty has come back, so now we're all sorted. I'll put the mixtape together tonight. If anyone else wants to join, get your song in fast. Once the mixtape is posted, that's it. @Saulaac - I'm looking at YOU!

Ah yes, I promised to join this round, cheers for the reminder! Will send one this evening. (Don't worry, it won't be "Video Killed The Radio Star"..)

[Trollheart]

SCD Mixtape 2 (March 2 2025)

Theme: Death (killings/murder/killers etc)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rdmG0k8S8k&list=PLkFFNTflRaupsMP_DzPXcm1OpGwVlpdSk

1. "Getting Away with Murder" (Papa Roach) submitted by DJ Chameleon
2. "Killing Loneliness" (HIM) submitted by Lexi Darling
3. "Murder" (David Gilmour) submitted by Guybrush
4. "Deep Red Bells" (Neko Case) submitted by degrassi_knoll
5. "Good Guys Bad Guys" (Jean-Luc Ponty) submitted by Saulaac (welcome to the mixtape!)
6. "Killers" (Iron Maiden) submitted by some cunt
7. "Ballad of Brother Lew" (Mu) submitted by Lisnaholic

Let's try to get our listens done over the next week and thoughts down by the middle of the month, if possible. Anyone who hasn't contributed but wishes to listen/comment is welcome to.
You can rate the songs, but being the trailblazer I am, everyone followed me when I decided not to rate my choice; I think it makes sense but if you particularly want to rate yours, nobody's stopping you.

Note: Sorry for the confusion - I had incorrectly attributed the Gilmour track to Lisnaholic, when it was submitted by Guybrush, and then had omitted Lisna's song, which has now been appended to the playlist. The running order has been amended appropriately. Not sure how I did that: oh right - I'm thick. 

[Lisnaholic]

^ Thanks for fixing that, Trollheart.

"I'm thick." I don't think you're the first person to click on the wrong link or whatever. One of my favourite blunders was by Chula Vista, the time he posted something like: [url]xxxxx[/YouTube]

[Saulaac]

"Getting Away with Murder" (Papa Roach)
What could I have come across in the past which reminds me of these guys. Smashing Pumpkins perhaps? What is it, Heavy Rock? Definitely has a political edge to it.
The bassline starts off with a heavy industrial-type riff, and the screaming guitar soon follows. Quite a lot of minor chords especially in the chorus, which adds to the sinister vibe of the lyrics.

It's pretty good and it grew on me after several listens over a few days. If it came on the radio tomorrow then I'd definitely leave it on and would probably end up singing along to the chorus.

3.75/5 stars


"Killing Loneliness" (HIM)
Don't think I heard of HIM. Starts off in the same key (C) as the Papa Roach song. These guys are on the same page here.

Probably my favourite bit was the bridge-type section on 2 and a half minutes where the bass and guitar step it up a gear and shred some even heavier riffs. That was an uplifting 30 seconds. It was like a ZZ Top moment.

Whilst I'm wouldn't really know how to move or dance to this song, there are loads of rockers in SW France who will playing this type of music at outdoor gigs in the summer, so I'm looking forward to bumping into more of this.

3.75/5 stars


"Murder" (David Gilmour)
Don't think I heard it before from start to finish. Nice bass solo after the first minute. Don't know who played it. I watched a live version with Mickey Feat and also listened the album version which is Pino Palladino according to discogs. Also DG sometimes played the bass parts?

A great sounding ballad, and in typical Dire Straits fashion it lets rip in the second half. I usually prefer when a song starts off quiet and builds up to a strong finale, instead of the heavy artillery coming in right at the beginning. So I give it an extra quarter point for the gradual crescendo.

4/5 stars


"Deep Red Bells" (Neko Case)
The beat was interesting, if a bit unsettling. Mostly it sounded like 8 beats in a bar, but then sometimes they played 6 beats per bar. Kept getting confused where the downbeat was. 
I wanted to like this song more than I did. Perhaps I was wishing for easier hooks or maybe a small solo, instead of just listening to what was actually happening. But I do respect this genre a lot even if it's not quite jazzy enough for me.
As of time of publishing, apparently degrassi is still absent, which is a pity. I hope all is well.

3.25/5 stars


"Good Guys Bad Guys" (Jean-Luc Ponty)
Submitted this instrumental track from his "Civilized Evil" album, as I like the second half where a change of key is followed by a deepening of the groove and the violin stretching out.
Bassist Randy Jackson (ex. American Idol judge) is pickin' and slappin' those octaves and generally helping to create a nice groove. I like the occasional pedal effect (delay?) on the violin which sounds like there are 2 or 3 of them.

It's got a strong 80s sound to it, a bit whiny. I always thought this track could have been a good alternative theme tune for the kids TV show "Grange Hill" instead of Alan Hawkshaw's "Chicken Man".


"Killers" (Iron Maiden)
I thought I might have at least heard one song in this list, but no, haven't heard Killers either. But of course the IM vocals and are defintely recognisable.
A fine galloping tempo (for a second I wondered if this could be the new Gallopbury everyone is going on about as opposed to the slower Canterbury. Ha!). After the intro, I thought they were going to head into Rossini's William Tell Overture. Some good riffing from the lead guitar and bass in perfect unison. It sounds melodic and technically brilliant.

Listened to a few of the other tracks on that album and I felt that the music, whilst heavy, is definitely not as scary as the album cover. Is their any truth to an old rumour that the band were haunted by a ghost who ordered them to include his face on every album cover or else... ?

3.5/5 stars


"Ballad of Brother Lew" (Mu)

OK, please at least let me have heard one tune on this mixtape. Oh brother, nope.
Quite psychedelic and bluesy. The lyrics and storyline were simple to follow after a few listens. Was not really a huge huge fan of this kind of blues (which is weird because my Dad would put on Muddy Waters very often). It didn't really get my juices bubbling or cause me to break out in air drums, but overall a pleasant track and could easily listen to this whilst doing other things.

3.5/5 stars


Well, I'm glad I joined Mixtape 2 because it forced me to listen to all tracks multiple times in order to give some sort of review. It was defo a worthwhile exercise.

Cheers TH!

[Lisnaholic]

A fine galloping tempo (for a second I wondered if this could be the new Gallopbury everyone is going on about as opposed to the slower Canterbury. Ha!).

[Trollheart]

First off, I'd like to dedicate this mixtape to degrassi-knoll: hope you come back to us, Steph. We miss you.

Second, thanks to Saulaac for kicking this off; usually I have to go round shouting at people to remind them, so it's good that I wasn't the first one out of the traps this time around.

I wouldn't though this time be justified in berating people for not getting their comments in, as I've been somewhat preoccupied myself, emulating Jesus and walking on water for the last few days, and with considerably less success. As related in the "Your Day" thread, my kitchen has been flooded thanks to my washing machine breaking down and leaking all over the floor, so the dominant sound in my house over the weekend (other than various curses and wails of "Why me?") has been the squelching sound of me walking on wet, spongy towels, pillowcases, duvet covers and anything else I could find to put down and absorb water enough for me to mop it up, only to find that it happened again the next day. But enough about my troubles.

Okay, well maybe more. Having realised to my horror (and confusion) that the machine was filling up with water of its own accord, leading to a rather comical (if observed from the outside and, more importantly, from a safe dry distance) attempt by me to catch what must have amounted to several gallons of water in a basin (it didn't work duh), which ended up being solved by my bringing in the wheelie bin and positioning it in front of the washing machine door, praying to a god I do not believe in, and opening it, thereby emptying most of the overflow, I found I couldn't sleep on Sunday night. I had visions of getting up and finding the place ankle-deep in water, or even floating unaided out of bed and helplessly trying to keep my head above water. So at 5 AM I got up, went down thinking nah, the water level won't have risen, to find it had, and I had to bail out again.

Long story slightly less long, the repair guy came on Monday and fixed it. To my surprise, and I'm sure to yours, it was just a blocked valve. My house had actually not become a portal to some hellish dimension, where the dark rivers of the underworld were bubbling up through the pipe leading into my house and depositing the waters of regret upon my kitchen floor. I know, I know: the most logical explanation, isn't it, and you were thinking it too, but no. Weird. I mean, how many times has that happened to you? Anyway, no need for that shaman I had been looking up in the Golden Pages after all, and those black candles I ordered are going back to Amazon, but at least I now have finally a dry floor.

What's the point of all that? Well, just to illustrate that one of the many things I was not thinking about was this tape. But since Saulaac did such a great job with his technical musical assessment, and I can't do that, I'll try to make more of an effort via research. Unlike him, I hadn't the time to listen to each track several times, so you're getting a first impression from me.

Song: "Getting Away with Murder"
Artist: Papa Roach
Nationality: American (California)
Source: 4th album Getting Away with Murder
Year: 2004
Genre: Alt-rock/Hard rock/Alternative metal
Submitted by: DJ Chameleon
Familiarity: Heard of them but nothing by them
Comments: For some reason I always get these guys mixed up with Alien Ant Farm, probably because they both have insects in their name. Papa Roach are a rock band who have been around since 1993 and have eleven albums to date, three of those top ten but in recent times they seem to have become less successful, with their last one (2022) failing to even dent the top 100, and the UK doesn't seem to care about them at all. This track kicks off with a pretty busy, almost mesmerising bass line which puts me slightly in mind of industrial rock/metal, then punches into a driving guitar riff that speaks more to me of post-hardcore, if I even knew what that was. The vocal is full of energy and very insistent, and though we're not supposed to judge these on the video, given the title I feel it's very clever and a pointed comment that they base their video on the stock exchange floor. A song for the Trusk era, perhaps? Enjoyable, though it wouldn't necessarily make me a fan.
Rating:


Song: "Killing Loneliness"
Artist: HIM
Nationality: Finnish
Source: 5th album Dark Light
Year: 2005
Genre: Gothic rock/Pop rock
Submitted by: Lexi Darling
Familiarity: Again, heard of but never heard any of the music
Comments: I'll always think of Ki/Key when I hear HIM, as I think that was one of his other aliases? At any rate, for those who need to know, HIM stands (or stood) for His Infernal Majesty, which might make you think they were a black metal band, but apparently they're characterised as gothic rock. They're disbanded now; seems they took the rather sensible, REM-like decision to go out when they felt they had nothing more to give and, to quote their founder and band leader Ville Valo, "the spark wasn't there any more." I love the piano that opens this, and then the sharp guitar cutting across it, with the keyboards coming in. I like the vocal, and feel there's a certain sense of a harder style of AOR in the chorus here. Quite radio-friendly, which tempts me to check whether or not it was a single? Yes. Yes it was, and got into the UK charts too. I like this a lot.
Rating:


Song: "Murder"
Artist: David Gilmour
Nationality: English
Source: 2nd album About Face
Year: 1983
Genre: Progressive rock/hard rock/new wave/soft rock
Submitted by: Guybrush
Familiarity: Well duh. I have one of his solo albums though in fairness I really only know Gilmour through his work with Pink Floyd and some of his collaborations with other artists
Comments: I won't insult anyone here by explaining who Gilmour is. I bought his first self-titled solo album and was, on the whole, disappointed, perhaps because I had expected Pink Floyd-lite. Whatever, I never bought any more. I do find it interesting though that this, his second album, features him thumbing a lift, while fellow ex-band member Roger Waters also released his The Pros and Cons of Hitch-hiking  only a month later. Mind you, the cover of that album is far preferable to this!

The song has a very Animals-era Floyd sound to it, I feel, particularly reminding me of "Pigs on the Wing", a nice acoustic song with a perhaps deceptively upbeat (given the title) feel. The bass (is it fretless? You can tell me, Saulaac, but I think it is) is pretty cool but slightly distracts from the overall feel of the song, to me, and is a bit of a case of showing off. The more angry vocal halfway through reminds me very much of Waters, and yeah, it's - despite his attempt for it not to be - very much a Pink Floyd song. It's good though. Good solo, which of course you'd expect, but it definitely goes off on too much of a Floyd The Wall - era run, which sort of detracts from his attempt to separate his solo music from that of his music with the band.

Rating:


Song: "Deep Red Bells"
Artist: Neko Case
Nationality: Canadian
Source: 3rd album Blacklisted
Year: 2002
Genre: Americana/Alternative country
Submitted by: Degrassi_knoll
Familiarity: I'm pretty sure I heard Batty talk about her but I've never heard any of her music
Comments: Apparently a solo project by the singer from The New Pornographers, which means nothing to me, but makes me wonder if they too were country? Can't imagine the good ol' boys likin' that kinda name too much, no siree bob or something. Must admit, I had to do a double-take, as I thought the title was "Deep Red Balls"! She has a great voice, for sure, very dusty country roads stretching away into infinity, though perhaps there's a slight energy or, well, sassiness or toughness lacking for a country record? Puts me in mind slightly of Strawfoot perhaps. Good guitar work. Sometimes in the song she sounds a little too much like Cyndi Lauper for me. Good song alright. Oh now hold on, I like the way it picks up in the second half. Much better. Extra star for that. Well, extra half star anyway.
Rating:


Song: "Good Guys Bad Guys"
Artist: Jean-Luc Ponty
Nationality: French
Source: 21st album Civilised Evil
Year: 1980
Genre: Jazz/Jazz fusion
Submitted by: Saulaac
Familiarity: Zero
Comments: Look, if it's not Jean-Luc Picard, I don't wanna know! Seriously, how surprising is it that Better Call Saulaac chooses a jazz song? (See mine below) Apparently JLP is a pioneer of jazz fusion and introduced the electric violin to the world, or something. It's certainly a very funky track, with some nice jazzy (duh) guitar, though I have to say I don't hear the old electric fiddle yet. Oh wait, here it is now. Yeah, pretty cool. Have to say, it sounds like the theme to some programme about houses under the hammer or something. What can I tell you? If it's a jazz song and I don't hate it, that's progress. I don't hate it. Actually it's pretty damn good. Charlie Daniels would be proud. Don't know about the Devil, but he's gone off to Washington now.
Rating:


Song: "Killers"
Artist: Iron Maiden
Nationality: English
Source: 2nd album Killers
Year: 1981
Genre: Heavy Metal
Submitted by: Forgot the fucker's name
Familiarity: Big big fan: Maiden are my favourite metal band and about my third-favourite band overall
Comments: Perhaps unadventurous of me to go with a metal track, and a Maiden one at that, but I just couldn't resist it, so sue me. The average settlement is ten thousand dollars.  I could wax lyrical about Iron Maiden, but I won't. I have threads and journals dedicated to them, so head there if you want to hear me witter on endlessly about how great they are. Which is all true. This is from their second album, last with Paul Di'Anno, and is about, surprisingly, a mad killer stalking the streets, which is kind of reflected later in Thin Lizzy's "Killer on the Loose". Love the way the opening guitar riff sounds like a train screaming along a track. Well, it does to me. Di'Anno's more raw, harsh vocal is totally suited to this song. Love it.
Rating: N/A

Song: "Ballad of Brother Lew"
Artist: Mu
Nationality: American (California)
Source: Debut self-titled album
Year: 1972
Genre: Psyche rock/Blues/Folk
Submitted by: Lisnaholic
Familiarity: None; never even heard of them.
Comments: Well if you're going to use just two letters in your band name, it's your own fault if I can't find anything on you on Wiki. Which is a pity, as I really like this song. Has a nice sort of country/folk beat to it, with some blues and psych thrown in too. The singer's voice is cool and the guitar riff is hypnotic, solo is good too. Oh there they are: RYM to the rescue!
Rating:

[Saulaac]

^Well I wonder if there was a bit of Rage Against The Machine when you came downstairs the other day..

I didn't know of Charlie Daniels and I've been having a squizz at his wiki page: "His music fused rock, country, blues and jazz, and was a pioneering contribution to Southern rock and progressive country." (i.e., he further fusioned fusion for the freater good of fumanity). And that loops quite nicely with a Southern Rock track which Lisna posted a few weeks ago which had a frazzy fruity spice to it.

Glad to hear that Ponty's 80's era jazz was pleasing. He has lived in the US for ages. Did you know that Ponty and Jon Anderson are mates and released the album "Better Late Than Never" some years ago? Gave it a listen and I was a bit 'meh', but maybe it's time I give it another go.

[Trollheart]

You're just full of word play today aren't you?  Ah sure I suppose it will all come out in the wash. I enjoyed your "gallopbury" quip, very clever. Here's CD's best known song, also explains the mention of the Devil. Give it a spin.