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MIX TAPE

The Qualia Makes MAGNET A Mix Tape

TheQualia

Recently, we featured the Qualia’s latest track “Out For Blood,” which comes from their August 12 album Cotillion Knives. Today, we’re keeping the Qualia hype train going with a new mix tape, a collaborative effort between all of the members of the band. They’ve all worked hard to put together an immersive, cohesive and enjoyable listening experience for you all. Check it out below, and listen on Apple Music or Spotify. Be sure to give “Out For Blood” another few spins once this playlist runs out.

“This mix tape was put together by the members of our band, and it’s a real mix tape,” says Qualia singer Lars. “We didn’t want this just to be a top-down view of ‘these are the artists we want you to compare our band to’ that the reader could browse through, form an opinion about, then forget. It was important to us that this be a strong representation of the music that we each individually love to listen to, but also something you could actually enjoy. So what that means is that we’ve got a bunch of tracks from all sorts of different music worlds that we’ve tried to find common ground between, and this mix tape should hopefully be something you could toss onto your stereo to have a fun and surprising 40 minutes while you’re walking to work or fixing dinner or whatever else it is that you do in your life when you decide … it’s music time.”

Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, “New Year’s Kiss”
Chvad: There’s a somber tone to all of the material from Casiotone For The Painfully Alone that really strikes a nerve with me. “New Year’s Kiss” sounds tired. Worn out. That’s how I feel. All that being said, I have no idea what the hell this song is talking about. Clearly written by a madman. Video

Beach House, “All Your Yeahs”
Lars: One of the things I love about a lot of Beach House’s songs is that they’ll establish such a thick sense of atmosphere and place with the beginning of the song, and then the last half or third will be a surprise evolution that takes that atmosphere to a different emotional place. A lot of my contributions to this mix tape are songs that I love that are also songs that can work as connective tissue. The way this track goes from melancholy and ethereal to redemptive and forceful is really moving for me as a listener, and for this mix tape, it accomplishes the preposterous task of connecting Chvad’s depressing Casiotone song into Rossen’s celebratory New Orleans track. Video

Jon Batiste & Stay Human, “Express Yourself (Say Yes)”
Rossen: This song has a great message and very addictive groove build over a jazzy saxophone phrase. It’s also a really good example of Jon Batiste’s idea of social music. The band seamlessly combines jazz, funk, blues, rhythm & blues and pop music while keeping their sound fresh and contemporary. If you have a chance, check them out live. The energy of the band is amazing. Video

The Adverts, “Gary Gilmore’s Eyes”
Chvad: I first heard this song being covered by German punk band Die Toten Hosen. I listened to their version for years prior to seeking out the original, which is a real shame because the original really kicks ass. Creepy, catchy, simple, rocks out. Love it. Video

Takeshi Terauchi & The Bunnys, “Kanjinchou”
Lars: I obsessively read guitar magazines, and I loved reading this interview in Premier Guitar with Shana Cleveland from the (totally killer) band La Luz, in which she mentioned that she has been digging deep into the music of Takeshi Terauchi & The Bunnys, a mid-’60s surf band from Japan. So, I checked them out, and she’s right. They’re so much fun. I put this record on sometimes when I’m running my weekly Dungeons And Dragons game to underscore tense battle scenes, and it always gets an enthusiastic, positive response. Plus, it pushes the energy of our mix tape sidewise in a way that helps set up Chvad’s next track. Video

Surgical Meth Machine, “I’m Invisible”
Chvad: I’m an Al Jourgenson fan. What that means is that I buy everything the man produces for better or for worse. Not everything he releases is golden, and anyone familiar with his career arc and lifestyle will know why. That being said, the last record to really resonate with me that Jourgenson produced was Ministry’s Filth Pig. At least that was the case until Jourgenson released the self-titled Surgical Meth Machine album earlier this year. Hilarious, noisy, loud, fast and then this track: “I’m Invisible.” Jourgenson pushing melodies out into the front and letting his voice ease back from the meter-beating high-decibel barking he’s become known for to give us some chiller melodic verses that just hit all the right spots. Groove, chill, hooks. An absolutely cool track. Video

Black Dub, “I Believe In You”
Rossen: Music to me is about feel and groove. This song has a lot of both. The simplicity of the beat combined with the melodic bass line and the singing in the lower register makes “I Believe in You” one of my favorite tunes. Also there is so much space in everybody’s performance. Pretty rare thing to hear in a recording these days. Video

John Coltrane, “A Love Supreme, Pt. 2: Resolution”
Rossen: “You see, one thing about that music is that it showed you that we had reached a level where you could move the music around. John had a very wonderful way of being flexible with the music, flexing it, stretching it. You know, we reflected that kind of thing. He gave us the freedom to do that. We thought of something, ‘Oh, then we’ll play it,’ you know? And he said, ‘Yeah, I have a feeling’—you know? And all that freedom just came together when we did that record.” —McCoy Tyner Video

St. Vincent, “Cruel”
Lars: I feel like a super-genius for thinking to put this track on the mix tape. This is off of St. Vincent’s Strange Mercy record, which I find myself returning to constantly—I just love it. Wait—why am I so proud of myself for putting this on the mix tape? Because the intro with its sort of gauzy, damaged, blue feel works really well to dovetail out of Rossen’s elongated jazz pick, and then it shifts gears into a high energy, hooky-as-hell, heartbreaking pop track. I love everything about this song. Video

Sparks, “Bon Voyage”
Lars: Speaking of loving things, Sparks’s Propaganda is something I only discovered maybe five years ago, and it’s become maybe my all-time favorite record. When I first heard it, the constant shifts in feel, tempo and melody were shocking and alienating, but then as I kept digging into the record in subsequent listens, it all started feeling comfortable, like home. This is the final track on that record, and it does everything I love about Sparks as a band. The song has a ridiculous premise for a rock song—it seems to be about an animal left behind by Noah in the Book of Genesis. But then, through the music, the band tracks the bittersweet process of coming to accept true failure, showcasing a universal, relatable sense of longing—somehow transforming that ridiculous premise into a song that, to me, is entirely beautiful, approachable and real. Video