Friday, February 19, 2021

Curate This - Love In The Big City



If there weren't already enough curated mixes strewn about the Internet, Dozens Of Donuts is here to add more. Rather than analyze a burgeoning genre, herald the best of a past one, or merely formulate background music for study sessions, road trips, or midday snoozes, Curate This aims to immerse listeners in a niche aesthetic that enraptures and vitalizes. With written accompaniment to provide the expository backdrop, these songs flow - errantly or harmoniously - around particular moods, sensory emotions, and pertinent tones. A monthly series with plans in place to become a years-long endeavor, Curate This is here to not only help listeners discover new music, but also provide accents to specific, idiomatic experiences one wouldn't soon forget. February's valentine escapades, hand held and heart full, brings us our second iteration: Love In The Big City.

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Fidgety fingers drum on a coffee cup, arousing steam which condenses on the café window. A bungled scrubbing using a used handkerchief reveals a dazzling debutante, peering in with an overly-enthusiastic wave. It's love at first sight. Her summer dress fluttering in the breeze of speeding vehicles, as burnished walnut hair obscures matching opals and an affable smile. Upon this wondrous sight, apprehension - of one's own outward insignificance - rises from behind the oriel. A meek wave but a trifling response to her giddy hop, skip, and jump, rupturing the café's flimsy door with an extended hand keen on being held. On the sidewalk her other hails passing taxi cabs, oblivious to modernization prioritizing Uber. Her spontaneous improviso recalls every melodrama her teenage self dreamt of experiencing.

Doves (or were they pigeons?) glide in v-shaped formations over ebullient patches of green. Trees hang over unwinding couples and lonely bookworms, as blankets dot the otherwise verdant landscape. Sounds, indistinct and muffled, materialize from cell phones, boom boxes, and vociferous sound systems, providing vitality that compliments the vista. Lovers trot aimlessly across these plains, simultaneously warmed by intimate touch and communal togetherness. Here, differences subside when faced with the prospects of joie de vivre. In the park, all living, breathing organisms find solace in their small patch of paradise.

On the outskirts, industrialized discord presents newfound charm. Knock-off vendors, street musicians, panhandlers all vie for attention from those too awestruck by the skyline's imposing stature. It's here, surrounded by commotion and sensory overload, that our lovers hug with beating, harmonized hearts. Not even an unstable cacophony can separate the twosome from sharing an equilibrium. Blowing past DO NOT WALK signs, ricocheting off hordes of determined pedestrians, fantasizing over window-dressing beyond their budget. Nothing shall forfend our chimerical valentines from glissading across the concrete jungle.

For when the night arrives, a new form of slide takes shape. It's on the dance floor where those bodies once used as bumpers for alley lane jouncing now contact inextricably. Rhythms seen shape-shifting along hourglass hips and inflatable arms gyrate with the gravitational pull of crushing bass tremors. Sweat is exchanged as an offering to the groove, as saliva crosses the threshold in the heat of the moment. These fated lovers, but one such pair in a flock of wooers, disrobe all tethers to etiquette as humanity's frenzied, boorish, salacious mating ritual carries long into the starry night. This is Love In The Big City.
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ACT  I  -  LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT


Lupe Fiasco - Spring | 1:36
Tetsuo & Youth | 2015 | Field Recordings

Talking Heads - Thank You For Sending Me An Angel | 2:12
More Songs About Buildings & Food | 1978 | Art Punk

The Raincoats - In Love | 3:05
The Raincoats | 1979 | Art Punk

Kae Tempest - I Trap You | 3:33
Book Of Traps & Lessons | 2019 | Spoken Word

Vampire Weekend - Walcott | 3:42
Vampire Weekend | 2008 | Indie Pop
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ACT  II  -  TEEMING VIVACITY


The Clientele - My Own Face Inside The Trees | 3:09
Strange Geometry | 2005 | Chamber Pop

Disco Inferno - Love Stepping Out | 6:23
Summer's Last Sound | 1992 | Ambient Pop

The Avalanches - Park Music | 1:00
Wildflower | 2016 | Plunderphonics

The Go! Team - Ladyflash | 4:10
Thunder, Lightning, Strike | 2004 | Indietronica

Handsomeboy Technique - Your Blessings | 4:58
Adelie Land | 2005 | Plunderphonics
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ACT  III  -  COMMOTION SURROUNDS


Cut Chemist - 2266 Cambridge | 2:34
Audience's Listening | 2006 | Turntablism

Terrace Martin - Valdez Off Crenshaw | 4:31
Velvet Portraits | 2016 | Jazz-Funk

Sault - Something's In The Air | 3:10
5 | 2019 | Neo-Soul

J Dilla - Light My Fire | 0:36
Donuts | 2006 | Instrumental Hip-Hop

dj poolboi - like we were the last two people on earth | 4:35
it's good to hear your voice | 2020 | Outsider House

Spacemen 3 - Big City | 10:51
Recurring | 1991 | Neo-Psychedelia
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ACT  IV  -  LOVE, SWEAT, & SALVIA


Hatchie - Obsessed | 5:14
Keepsake | 2019 | Dream Pop

Nite-Funk - U Can Make Me | 4:57
Nite-Funk | 2016 | Synth Funk

Mint Royale - Dancehall Places | 3:54
Dancehall Places | 2002 | Big Beat

DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ - What'll I Do Without You, Melody | 7:58
Makin' Magick | 2017 | Outsider House

Lupe Fiasco - Summer | 1:27
Tetsuo & Youth | 2015 | Field Recordings

Destroyer - Dream Lover | 3:50
Poison Season | 2015 | Chamber Pop
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