In high school I loved making mix CDs. It gave me an opportunity to introduce my friends to some of my favourite artists, or to teach them about the deep cuts of the Michael Jackson catalogue. Unfortunately, as podcasts began to dominate my listening habits mix CDs kind of fell by the wayside. While I still put out an annual Christmas mix it's been a long while since I put out a really great mix.
See, people think it's easy to make a mix. It's not. Firstly you need to pick songs that work together, be it thematically, melodically, or just in style. Sequencing is important; after all you need to lead the listener through things and you don't want to jar them by having a death metal track next to a Bach minuet. And then there's the little details like the gap between songs. This is the thing that is hardest to get right. If you're jumping around an album things like this don't matter, but if you're intending to lead the listener to listen from start to finish it is key that you get this right. See what I mean? Not easy.
So I wanted to try something new this year; each month I'm going to put out a mix for the month. Each mix will contain (hopefully) 12 tracks. Get it? 12 months, 12 tracks.
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