2021-2022 Mixes
Adobe Photoshop, Pixlr-O-Matic App
I just couldn't leave well enough alone, and kept creating soul and reggae mixes thru 2021 and beyond. I turned to uploading the mixes to Soundcloud to save space on my end, and hopefully encourage more folks to listen to the mixes without having to download a giant zip file of mp3's to their phone or computer. The Soundcloud mixes also allowed me an opportunity to practice crossfading and beat matching in my mixes (at least when stitching all the files together in Audacity).
Since Soundcloud had a bit more leeway to include titles and tracklists in the notes/comments section, that freed up some brain space to focus on color palettes and textures.
Going with the tried and true tradition of photos of Black life in mid-century America and Jamaica, I used the Pixlr-O-Matic app (terrible name, I know) to filter/recolor/apply exposure effects to the original photos, and Photoshop to add text when I felt like it.
For those interested, the 2021 mixes are available here: https://soundcloud.com/user-68863023/tracks
And the 2022 mixes (so far) are here: https://soundcloud.com/user-51449747/tracks
The first mix of 2022 saw the return of the title text, just to retain a bit of consistency. Or to introduce even more inconsistency. Whatever. None of this is for profit, none of this matters, I just like making mixes and album art.
The second half of 2022 saw a pivot from the usual ska/reggae and soul mixes to something a little sillier. I have a soft spot for synthwave, synthpop and electronic music made by contemporary artists that harken back to the 1980s. So i made an end-of‐year synthwave mix, also available on Soundcloud.
I began with a screenshot from the 1988 Hong Kong romantic thriller "My Heart Is That Eternal Rose," featuring some stunning neon-soaked cinematography from one of my visual heroes, Christopher Doyle. I then ran some color filters over it (the now-classic magenta/cyan palette that has become shorthand for "80's aesthetic"), duplicated the layer and nudged it around slightly so the image appeared just a tiny bit offset and glitchy, then threw some VHS-style scanlines over it.
The final image calls hopefully to mind the 1980's VHS action movie aesthetic, combined with the neon, day-glo aesthetic that many retrowave/synthwave artists use.
