Monday, June 19, 2006

I've just made a new mix cd, which I'm quite happy with. It was partially inspired by seeing Annie the other week, and the rest came from my researching an essay on Freud and Lacan (yes, that essay, faithful readers. I'm making progress, don't you worry about me.) I've also been thinking about masochism, as my next essay is on Oedipalisation in Kafka's The Metamorphosis.

Annie has this throwaway track called "Wedding". I always thought of it as being a filler track on the end of an album. Anyway, when she performed it the other week, she introduced it as being about "love and marriage and commitment and everything that is evil like that". While singing, she made gunshot actions with her pointed fingers in time with the "I do I do I do"s in the song. It made an otherwise cutesy song most sinister. Particularly seeing as though Annie's music is bittersweet on her albums, whereas the live performance transformed it into something rather trippy and disconcerting.

So, with this and the death drive in mind - all those aggressive instincts bound up with love, and set loose when we have to give our libidinal objects up - I present to you:

Love and Aggression

a DJ Moley Mole production

1. Annie - Wedding

2. Portishead - All Mine

3. Siouxsie and the Banshees - Trust In Me


4. Burial - Distant Lights


5. Depeche Mode - It's No Good


6. Iggy Pop - China Girl


7. Siouxsie and the Banshees - Melt!

8. The Velvet Underground - Venus in Furs


9. Britney Spears - I'm A Slave 4 U


10. Garbage - #1 Crush


11. The Shangri-Las - I Can Never Go Home Anymore


12. Japan - Gentlemen Take Polaroids


13. Luomo - What Good


14. Morissey - The More You Ignore Me The Closer I Get


15. Siouxsie and the Banshees - Obsession


16. The Police - Every Breath You Take


17. Air - How Does It Make You Feel?

--

I am particularly pleased with how literally one has to take Britney's profession of her slavery when she is placed next to "Venus in Furs". Likewise, "Obsession" makes "Every Breath You Take" just that little bit more joyfully creepy. And I do enjoy the conversation that's going on between Iggy and Siouxsie - the China girl talks back! And tells him to melt.

And the Shangri-Las? Well, these libidinal structures aren't compatible with the family, you see. Even that profession of love for the mother is rather excessive, don't you think...?

Ah, my studies make me quite perverse.

6 Comments:

Blogger Tim said...

I would love this mix, I think.

Catherine have you heard The Shangri-Las' "Past, Present, Future"? SEARCH.

I'm making some mixes for you BTW - the exhumation mix, the slight return of trance, and one other.

1:16 am  
Blogger Dave said...

Is it possible to make "Every Breath You Take" more creepy?

10:10 am  
Blogger Catherine said...

I don't know if it is possible to make it anymore creepy, but this placement seems to emphasise the subject matter how much it jars with the upbeat-jauntiness of that guitar riff.

Tim - I hope that is the actual title of that mix: "The Slight Return of Trance". Or at least its subtitle. It's so... understated! But you *would* like this mix... at least a quarter of the tracks are from mix cds that you have given me. Will track down that Shangri-Las song. I am new to their world.

8:25 pm  
Blogger Catherine said...

That first paragraph made no sense. I cannot type anymore. Excuse me. I meant to say: seems to emphasise the implications of the subject-matter. It doesn't need much help though.

8:26 pm  
Blogger tryptych said...

is this going to be made available to download?

9:44 am  
Blogger Catherine said...

Hmm. Hadn't thought of that. I'll consider it.

2:43 pm  

Post a Comment

<< Home