I’m very proud to present a new collection of mixes by Ken Brown called Summer Series. This is the first of seven posts (for a total of 14 mixes). If all goes well, I’m going to post them weekly. Once again, I’m truly honored that Ken chose Bird & Whale to host all this music. Many thanks to him and you all for listening.
Here’s an introduction by Ken for the series.

“So this project more or less started for me about a year ago, though kernels of it have been in place for longer than that.  I think I kind of got inspired when I put together the Discotricity mix, which as near as I can remember was the first in the series, though I worked on several of these mixes in parallel, so I can’t really recall.  I had been wanting to launch a music blog to kind of take the place of the Jams mailing list I ran for a while, built on the same sharing esthetic that is some of the driving force behind Bird & Whale (if it seems like this sounds like my narrative behind the last batch of mixes posted here, it’s not coincidental, I suppose. . .). There were other motivations behind making the mixes too, perhaps most importantly I needed something to kick my drives-a-minivan-and-lives-on-a-cul-de-sac ass into dealing with music again – it was a way for me to engage with music that forced me to seek out new (or new to me) music, and then deal with it in a more active mode, rather than some aural wallpaper for whatever I was doing a the moment.  I kind of had the idea that I might make some mixes, spray them out to friends, and then encourage folks to respond in kind, creating a kind of feedback loop where I’d do some digging, then put something out into the world, and maybe get something in return, which of course is very much in the spirit of making and sharing tapes with friends, and odd conversations at work or late at night with other music nerds, etc. which was a huge part of how I’ve learned about music over the years.  Back in the day, you know, there was no Wax Poetics magazine, no music blogs where other collectors published that ridiculously rare record for free download, no internet anything really, just hanging out in record stores or if you were lucky (or diligent) maybe becoming part of a network of heads trading tapes or what have you. With the cassette esthetic in mind I put together all the mixes in pairs – though they all greatly exceed 45 minutes, I wanted them to be like the two paired sides to a cassette tape, like so many of the mixes I made back in the day. I have to admit it’s a year on from my original idea and I haven’t managed to get most of this music out there, but I’d be pleased as punch if these mixes beget some feedback in the form of your mixes. Another angle for the genesis of this project is that I had also been wanting to launch a website or blog to rewrite the sidebar status my musical career had been relegated to in the history of what happened in the 90s, and the mixes would serve to provide some framework for who I have been as a musician, plus I thought I’d engage in some shameless self promotion and make some mixes of my own stuff.  I am more than willing to admit that the whole endeavor is a bid towards self promotion, but I’m unapologetic about that, having spent pretty much the entirety of my music career avoiding the spotlight and choosing to work on the interesting thing rather than the thing that brought notoriety. When I realized I would never make time for the blog, Brad and I discussed using B&W as the forum to get these mixes out.  They all have some back story, but most of the narrative I started to come up with to accompany the mixes individually was really too cumbersome and personal in a way that didn’t seem relevant. The mixes themselves might even seem cumbersome, or sprawling, as any DJ set that runs two hours or more can get, but I’m unabashed for the lack of focus or repetitiveness, even the obviousness of some of what I’ve put together here.” -KB

Another Bird

David Bowie – Look Back In Anger
Talking Heads – I Zimbra
African Head Charge – Conspiring
Bobby Hutcherson – Ntu
Soft Machine – Virtually, Pt. 1
Huntsville – Arrow And Rain
Tortoise – Gigantes
Cluster & Eno – Schöne Hände
The For Carnation – A Tribute to
Calexico – Muddy Meadow
Brian Eno – An Arc of Doves
Chicago Underground Duo – Vergence
Bill Frisell – Trosper
Talk Talk – New Grass
This Heat – A New Kind Of Water
Camberwell Now – Green Lantern
Mission Of Burma – Max Ernst’s Dream
My Bloody Valentine – Sometimes
Latin Playboys – Lagoon
Sonny Sharrock – Who Does She Hope To Be?

A Tribute to Baby Mac

Bastro – Krakow, Illinois
Wipers – This Time
Suicide – Rocket U.S.A.
Stokastikats -We Are Time
Devo – Timing X
Kraftwerk – Ruckzuck
23 Skidoo – Version (In The Palace)
Dub Syndicate – Over Board
Papete – Maracá
Sun City Girls – Esoterica Of Abyssynia
Tortoise – Madison Area
Tortoise – Elmerson, Lincoln, and Palmieri
Stereolab – Brakhage
The Sea And Cake - The Fawn
Coldcut – More Beats & Pieces (McEntire rmx)
Charles Hayward – Smell Of Metal
Led Zeppelin – Bonzo’s Montreux
Tortoise – Tjed
The Sea And Cake – The Argument
Autechre – Inhake 2
Autechre – Maphive 6.1
Tortoise – Onions Wrapped In Rubber
Bastro – The Sifter
The Hafler Trio – The Blind Table – A Hungry Stone
Pan Sonic – Kierto
The Normal – Warm Leatherette
Tortoise – Whitewater
Bastro – Floating Home