- Fania All Stars, “Viva Tirado” (World Music Network; originally released 1974).
- Basement Jaxx, “Oh My Gosh” (XL, U.K.).
- Lady Sovereign, “Random” (Universal Island, U.K.).
- Ciara ft. M.I.A., “Goodies (Richard X Remix)” (BMG).
- Snoop Dogg ft. Jay-Z and Pharrell, “Drop It Like It’s Hot Remix” (Star Trak/Geffen).
- Ying Yang Twins, “Wait (The Whisper Song)” (TVT).
- Tori Alamaze, “Don’t Cha'” (Universal).
- Purple City ft. Un Kasa & Komika, “A Star” (Babygrande).
- Chamillionaire, “You Gotta Love Me” (mixtape).
- Kano, “Brown Eyes” (679).
- Lowdeep, “Straight Flush” (Colourful State, U.K.).
- Prefuse 73 ft. Claudia & Alejandra Deheza, “Pastel Assassins” (Warp).
- TBA, “Beslan” (Max Ernst).
- Gabriel Ananda, “Tropophonie” (Platzhirsch).
- Magda, “The Black Room” (M_nus).
- FYM, “Twilt” (Karloff).
- Jeremy P. Caulfield, “Swaggersaw” (Dumb Unit).
It only looks like there are 17 songs on this mix. Obviously, I enjoy them all, and I’m especially happy with how the mix moves; after a dip into the past (via the excellent new Rough Guide to Boogaloo), it’s all now-or-recent, and though I like a good extreme-contrast segue as much as anybody, there’s something to be said for getting 79 minutes to feel like one thing, even if it moves through roughly six over its course (salsa, Brit-electro, hip-hop, crunk, grime, and minimal techno). But like everyone else who’s heard it, it’s track six that caught me completely off-guard. Douglas Wolk wrote about Ying Yang Twins’ “Wait (The Whisper Song)” in the Smallmouth column three weeks ago, and he nailed it as both totally annoying and completely indelible. It’s the first song in a long time that I literally couldn’t believe I was hearing, and even now I still have trouble with it—I fought against including it up to the last minute, until I realized I was kidding myself if I didn’t. I play music all the time as a rule, but lately I suspect I’m doing it less out of habit than to drive the fucking Ying Yang Twins out of my head. It is not my idea of a good time to go around uncontrollably humming the lines, “Beat the pussy up, beat the pussy up” . . . until it becomes fun to do, at which point I really get worried.
“Beat the pussy up,” you may recall, is one of several much-repeated lines from “Wait,” though you wouldn’t necessarily know that if you only hear the song on the radio, for which Kaine and D-Roc have changed it to “Never get enough, never get enough.” Not that it’s stopped them from just dubbing out a couple words for the version in the video (viewable at www.tvtrecords.com/video/2520/v2520_1_01_320x240.mov). The best clip I’ve seen since Jay-Z’s “99 Problems,” it actually enhances the song by bringing out its humor (these guys can’t be serious, can they?) and giving it a veneer of class. Dig those suits, those spotless backdrops, the elegant eveningwear the models display—even the partial nudity is handled tastefully. If you can wrap your head around a song with a refrain like that and the word “tasteful” coexisting in one objet d’art, that is.
