Mixtape: Magnolia
BNDCMPR, my preferred way to share music for the past four years, appears to be dead. (Long live BNDCMPR.) The third party platform allowed Bandcamp fanatics like myself to make playlists from Bandcamp links, which encouraged listeners to buy tracks if they liked them. But it was always a hobby project for the developer, who looks to be developing their own music platform. Good luck to them! (Honestly! I'm going to try it out.)
So, that said, the Viking's Choice mixtape is moving to Tidal. Personally, I made the switch to this streamer a few years ago and have been very pleased with the audio quality and the catalog, not to mention a noticeable editorial hand. I'm very much a physical media obsessive, but know playlists is how a lot of y'all operate, especially when considering the sheer amount of music released literally every second. (And, no, I will not be making a Spotify version. My feelings on Spotify are well known by this point. Liz Pelly's new book, Mood Machine, is a must-read on this subject; Harper's has an excerpt.)
I'm also going to experiment with the newsletter format and look a lot this year. Moving to Tidal means that I can feature more archival and mainstream releases — not to mention more classical music — but also cuts out many of the small corners of independent music that I cherish. So I'm going to try separate posts under these headings:
Viking's Choice mixtape (weekly-ish)
Bandcamp, cassette and vinyl mini-reviews (bi-monthly)
Comics, tea and podcasts recommendations (monthly?)
But also… I may not do any of this! I mentioned at year's end that I want to slow my roll and take on projects in smaller spaces — that's still very much a goal for 2025. —Lars Gotrich
Stream the Viking's Choice mixtape via Tidal. Follow my Bandcamp collection. Tracklist below:
Kin'Gongolo Kiniata, "Kingongolo"
Lucrecia Dalt (feat. David Sylvian), "cosa rara"
Circuit Des Yeux, "Megaloner"
Deafheaven, "Magnolia"
Eiko Ishibashi, "Coma"
Deep Sea Diver, "Shovel"
Mekons, "Mudcrawlers"
Laura Agnusdei, "The Drowned World"
Patricia Kopatchinskaja, "Kugikly for Violin and Russian Panpipes"
Heimat, "Iti Eta No"
Scrounge, "Higher"
Initiate, "Too Much"
Scowl, "Not Hell, Not Heaven"
Jules Reidy, "Every Day There's a Sunset"
Colin Self, "Busy walks into The Memory Palace"
Japanese Breakfast, "Orlando in Love"
The Rishis, "Coloring"
Nyron Higor, "Me Vestir De Você"
Nels Cline, "The 23"
Gunn - Truscinski Duo, "Fin"
Judith Hamann, "seventeen fabrics of measure"
Sumac & Moor Mother, "Scene 1"
Kronos Quartet & Mary Kouyoumdjian, "Bombs of Beirut: II. The War"
Chivàla, "Cuore di pietra"
Brat, "Barracuda (Heart cover)"
Jeffrey Lewis, "Sometimes Life Hits You"
Los Pirañas, "El nuevo Prometeo"
F****** Up, "Disabuse"
Christian Mistress, "Mythmaker"
Lucy Liyou, "Arrested"
Wilder Adkins, "Said The Swallow To The Jay"
Clothing, "La muerte en realidad no existe (para mi)"
PAS DE DEUX, "Cardiocleptomanie"
JARADA, "Inertia"
Cult Of Fire, "Joy"