
Fanatics!
Tonight, it’s all about the mix. I enjoy our concept sets for sure but the construction of the mix, how one song leads one to think of another, the associations, etc. One can almost get artful with it. I am sure many of you Fanatics have spent hours making cool mix tapes or at this point, mix files. There was a certain dedication needed to do it with cassette and vinyl. One C-90 full of music could take an entire evening to fill and then the next night, erase and start over again as you had a better selection in mind. Over the years, I have digitized, or digitally re-created many of my old mix tapes. I still have most of them and they still sound good to me. I remember years ago, I was in Ian MacKaye’s car and we were driving around in DC and I started to recognize the order of the songs that were playing on his stereo. I asked him how I was able to know what the next song was going to be and he handed me the case and I saw my own handwriting. It was a mix tape I hade made in 1979 or 1980 and he ended up with it. He said he still took that one out the car now and then.
--Henry
Thomas Dolby drops original mixes just for KCRW. Every Friday in December.