Tag: thebluenile

Exfiltration Radio: Summer Sun

An hour of sunny, dreamy happy music for late spring/summerish afternoons.

It’s spring here in New England which means that the days are finally warm enough for flowers to open and we can finally turn the heat off. Just in time for summer to come along in two weeks!

This set of Exfiltration Radio started when I found a song I had been looking for ever since I was living in Seattle that first summer of 2001 and listening to KEXP. There was a happy, sunny track that I kept hearing, perfect for the warm-but-not-hot, breezy summer days, but it literally took me over twenty years to track it down to a 2001 album by Swedish producers Koop, with guest vocals by Yukimi Nagano. There was also a burgeoning playlist of songs from that summer that I never committed to the blog or to Art of the Mix; unfortunately it was wiped out when I had to rebuild my iTunes library file one year, but a few of the tracks came from there.

And a few are definitely out of left field. I find OMD’s “Genetic Engineering” to be a happy, bouncy song; not all will agree. And The Blue Nile’s “Tomorrow Morning” appeared in the playlist yesterday, after listening to Peace at Last for the first time in many years.

  1. Youth – Langston Hughes (The Voice of Langston Hughes)
  2. I Feel – The Sundays (Blind)
  3. The Lifting – R.E.M. (Reveal)
  4. Dreams – The Cranberries (Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? (The Complete Sessions 1991-1993))
  5. Kiss Me – Sixpence None the Richer (Sixpence None the Richer (Deluxe Anniversary Edition))
  6. Summer Sun – Koop (Waltz for Koop)
  7. Genetic Engineering (312MM Version) – Orchestral Manoeuvres In the Dark (Dazzle Ships)
  8. Sweetness And Light – Lush (Ciao! 1989-1996)
  9. Alison – Slowdive (Souvlaki)
  10. Temptation [7″ Version] – New Order (Movement [Collector’s Edition])
  11. Lost Outside The Tunnel – Aztec Camera (1981 – Cassette)
  12. Today is the Day – Yo La Tengo (Summer Sun)
  13. The Big Sky – Kate Bush (Hounds of Love)
  14. Tomorrow Morning – The Blue Nile (Peace at Last (Deluxe Version))
  15. Um Canto De Afoxé Para O Bloco Do Ilê (Ilê Ayê) – Caetano Veloso (Brazil Classics 1: Beleza Tropical)

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Exfiltration Radio: All the Downtown Lights

It feels like everyone is talking about the Blue Nile and their 1989 song “The Downtown Lights,” possibly thanks to that Taylor Swift shout-out. As it turns out, I’ve been collecting cover versions of this song for several years, and so it felt like the right time to do one big mega-mix of “Downtown Lights” covers.

The original song starts us off, and then we roll into a series of covers of greater or lesser fidelity. I tried to use cover versions that stayed in the same key, and mostly succeeded, with just one exception, the very last version that fades out the mix. I hope you’ll find something in the mix you like, even if it’s just tranquility… or catharsis.

Versions of “The Downtown Lights” in this mix are by:

  • The Blue Nile (the original)
  • Annie Lennox
  • Pure Bathing Culture with Ben Gibbard
  • Louise Burns
  • Collapsing Scenery
  • Rob Noakes
  • Kathy Kosins
  • Full Dark
  • Kevin Mackenzie & Steve Hamilton
  • Scala & Kolacny Brothers

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