Description: A selection of songs from my favorite releases of 2008. Inspired by a mixtape by Johnny Luddite.

The constraints of the mixtape forced me to leave a number of artists that I really wanted on here, but couldn't fit: Bardo Pond, Beats Antique, The Black Keys, Calexico, Detektivbyrån, Diplo & Santogold, Portishead, The Presets etc etc...but I still feel this selection is overall the best I've listened to this past year.

Description: Pretty much every time my friends hold a party, I'm asked to get the music - implied "make a mixtape, extra long". But nobody actually, explicitly says "don't bring a live show". So why not, if I could?

This is the "let's pretend I was able to pull all kinds of strings and bring the most awesomest live entertainment for the 2008/2009 New Year's party instead of just another shitty mixtape". A couple weeks belated, but hey. Think of my hangover.

Oh, and I set myself one limitation - no dead people. I'm just not a very good necromancer. Otherwise the ghosts of Elliott Smith and Jeff Buckley might have made their way into the lineup.

Description: This may or may not resemble one birthday party right before I moved back from Denver to Sweden.

Description: Not quite how to best label this...it's mostly indie I suppose, so that should work.

It's a sample of Swedish music, mostly indie, mostly recent (though not all), for a mix trade partner. Vol 2 means just that - I've done exactly the same concept once before.

Description: I'm afraid I ended up with what must be considered a train-wreck, at least as far as this contest is concerned. I like my mix, but for a party? This is a mix for a wake, or a mass suicide.

The theme: A wake for all the stock brokers jumping off buildings. Dress as a mourner or a dead stock broker. Alternative methods of suicide acceptable.

Description: Another mix for the Monthly Mixtape Group, this time the theme: Short Songs. Here, 23 songs in 40 minutes, all under 2 minutes long. It's so awesome the pope is sweating bullets.

Description: This mixtape contest made me think of an episode when I was around 17 years old - I think it was the last year of high school. I was sick, really sick, and the fever I was running was really bad.
I've always had recurring dreams, the first memories of them are from as early as when I was five years old, and the same dream (and others) recurred time and time again, and many of these dreams took place in, appropriately enough for this contest, Hell.
This time these recurring dreams decided to line up into one big messed up fever dream.

Description: Mixes for driving is such a common concept, and even more so for me since driving is such a large part of my job. I spend hours driving from point A to point B, from point B to some dreary motel, then from said motel to work my way down the alphabet of traffic survey points, until I'm ready to return home.

Thus, this isn't for that rite of adulthood road trip, it's not for cruising downtown to pick up chicks, and not for street racing. It's for staving off the boredom of the long haul.

Description: I've found that the most amusing part of the potpourri style of mix is how dynamic it becomes by its very nature. You can't help but do these funny transitions if you're gonna follow the rules. My favorite is no doubt The Hives -> Sam Cooke -> Peaches. I'm still giggling.

Description: Welcome to Calaveth's Zoo. You're just in time for the guided tour...

Description: I think I'll wrap up the color themed mixes here. I'm sure I could put together a few pretty wicked mixes based on Black, Green, Pink etc, but sometimes, you have to draw the line somewhere. Not to speak of sticking to the thin tricolore theme.

If you like this, check out the Red Tape and the Blue Tape as well. They be wicked.

Description: So Krzysztof Kieslowski made three films named after the tricolore, I figure I should at least match that, in mixtapes. Then we'll see, I have lots of crayons in funny colors I could make mixtapes about...

Description: First in a series of mixtapes. Guess the theme.

Description: There was a mixtape contest long before I joined the site which required each mix to connect the songs with each other one way or another. Unfortunately I couldn't participate then, but I can still make a mix on the same theme. Actually, the reason is that the monthly mixtape group on last.fm ( http://www.last. fm/group/The+Monthly+Mixtape ) had just this concept as this month's theme.

My plan was pretty simple. There are two "all star" on and off projects in two different parts of the world in different genres of music - The Desert Sessions out of Palm Beach, and Die Haut in Berlin. I wanted to see if I could tie them together (actually, I was quite convinced I could...).

Description: Part of my job includes a bunch of business trips. Sometimes it's fun, an opportunity to see new places, meet new people, all that. But most of the time it's just rather dreary, trying to make time pass in hotel rooms that all look much the same.

This mix is put together only using the music that is on either my iPod or my laptop. I have to be able to listen to it *now*, after all.

Description: I had my pretentious twat hat on when I decided the topic for my contest entry. That's my only defense for choosing to re-tool Jesus Christ Superstar with music more to my liking. That the lyrics don't always match 100% what's going on in the story, well, that's just to be expected.

Oh, and I've taken liberties with the track list - the musical has something like 30 songs going, and there's no way I'm making a mix like that. I wanted to include Mogwai - Like Herod instead of King Herod's Song, but at 11:39, I simply couldn't indulge myself like that.

Description: I saw a mix based on the topic of "my favorite female vocalists", and knew I had to do something similar, as if I had contracted some kind of disease. Internet memes, I think they're called...

This isn't a list of "my favorite singers", just a number of female vocalists that do something to me every time I listen to them.

The mix has a side A and a side B, each fitting on one side of a C-60 - highly unusual for me, since I don't even own a cassette deck, but it just naturally worked out that way.

Description: Believe it or not, but when the polar bears migrate north over the summer, there is a short window of opportunity even here in Sweden for a true to life beach party. That is, if the summer doesn't rain away. Given the rarity of the event, this mix hasn't actually been field tested, but I'll share it with you anyway. You might have a better chance to use it than I. Enjoy.

Description: I have a young couple as neighbours to one side of my apartment, which *love* raggaton, dancehall and all that, ahem, crap. I don't judge, we just don't like the same music, *at all*. And we don't share the same day cycle either, which leads to music being played at...interesting hours. I'm a polite guy, and I'm not shy of cranking up the volume at times either, so it all leads to an...interesting social dynamic.

This mix is my arsenal of weapons when it is time for mutually assured ear destruction.

(To my neighbours: I love you all. Really.)

Description: I imagined a walk through a bustling city at night, so very different from the same place in daylight.

Description: A simple mix based on song titles consisting solely of names...

Description: Just a mix for when being behind the wheel - it's mostly upbeat, but the pace changes from the frantic to the mellow.