Throw on a robe, clap off your lights and fire up an e-cig—relaxation is mandatory while soaking up ADR's lounge-tastic "Magico Mix". As one half of Gatekeeper, Aaron David Ross specializes in forbidding extraterrestrial environments, but Chunky Monkey, his new solo debut album for label Hippos in Tanks (out now), hits closer to home. Chunky Monkey vivisects the frictionless textures of modern consumer environments, exposing alien weirdness in the sounds of iPhone games and self-serve Fro-Yo joints. ADR's contribution to our mix series explores the album's distinctly 90s roots, infusing a copacetic cocktail of jazzy trip-hop and easy-listening breakbeats with a bitter squeeze of vintage dub-techno dread. Look out for choice cuts from the likes of Tricky and Burning Spear, and peep my Q&A with the man himself below.
OC Mixtape #35: ADR's Magico Mix by OpeningCeremony
Tracklist:
Chick Corea - No Zone
DJ Krush - Fucked Up Pendulum
Stephan Micus - Brother Eagle
Zero 7 - Destiny
Wagon Christ - The Groove (Souled Out)
Jan Garbarek - The Path
9 Lazy 9 - Bad Boy
Fluke - Squirt
Tomita - Engulfed Cathedral
Steps Ahead - Magnetic (Sumo)
Plaid - Little People
Red Snapper - Bogeyman
Kruder & Dorfmeister - Original Bedroom Rockers
Monkey Mafia - Lion in the Hall
Burning Spear - Great Men's Dub
The Back Dog - Frisbee Skip
DJ Krush - Nightmare of Ungah (Sandro In Effect)
DJ Vadim - Headz Still Ain' t Ready
Michael Brecker - In a Sentimental Mood
Seatbelts - Cat Blues
Elektric Band - Charged Particles
Freeform - Gammon Fonk
Tricky - Tricky Kid
Mr Oizo - Bobby Can't Dance
Black Dog Productions - Bolt4
Yoko Canno - Pulse (Macross Plus)
David Sanborn - Same Girl
Ezra Marcus: Your album's name Chunky Monkey and song titles like "Slush Fund" and "Casual Friday" seem to reference terms loaded with corporate banality. What draws you to this kind of language?
ADR: The music seems to fit the kinds of environments in which you'd expect to hear this language, so the titles are sort of literal... I imagine coupon shoppers, zany office workers, overzealous tourists and millennial foodies as characters embodying this banality, because they have no alternatives... I like this lack of alternatives, I think I can relate to it. Maybe not.
What's the ideal setting for listening to this mix?
Driving up the 101 sitting shotgun in Bobby McFerrin's Mini Cooper.
I've always been intrigued by the idea of lounge music, and what exactly a "lounge" is. Have you ever been to a real lounge? Can you describe your dream lounge?
Yeah! I had an idea for a e-hookah vapor lounge, where we lay around on pillows made of synthetic fabrics and puff on
OC Mixtape #35: ADR's Magico Mix by OpeningCeremony
Tracklist:
Chick Corea - No Zone
DJ Krush - Fucked Up Pendulum
Stephan Micus - Brother Eagle
Zero 7 - Destiny
Wagon Christ - The Groove (Souled Out)
Jan Garbarek - The Path
9 Lazy 9 - Bad Boy
Fluke - Squirt
Tomita - Engulfed Cathedral
Steps Ahead - Magnetic (Sumo)
Plaid - Little People
Red Snapper - Bogeyman
Kruder & Dorfmeister - Original Bedroom Rockers
Monkey Mafia - Lion in the Hall
Burning Spear - Great Men's Dub
The Back Dog - Frisbee Skip
DJ Krush - Nightmare of Ungah (Sandro In Effect)
DJ Vadim - Headz Still Ain' t Ready
Michael Brecker - In a Sentimental Mood
Seatbelts - Cat Blues
Elektric Band - Charged Particles
Freeform - Gammon Fonk
Tricky - Tricky Kid
Mr Oizo - Bobby Can't Dance
Black Dog Productions - Bolt4
Yoko Canno - Pulse (Macross Plus)
David Sanborn - Same Girl
Ezra Marcus: Your album's name Chunky Monkey and song titles like "Slush Fund" and "Casual Friday" seem to reference terms loaded with corporate banality. What draws you to this kind of language?
ADR: The music seems to fit the kinds of environments in which you'd expect to hear this language, so the titles are sort of literal... I imagine coupon shoppers, zany office workers, overzealous tourists and millennial foodies as characters embodying this banality, because they have no alternatives... I like this lack of alternatives, I think I can relate to it. Maybe not.
What's the ideal setting for listening to this mix?
Driving up the 101 sitting shotgun in Bobby McFerrin's Mini Cooper.
I've always been intrigued by the idea of lounge music, and what exactly a "lounge" is. Have you ever been to a real lounge? Can you describe your dream lounge?
Yeah! I had an idea for a e-hookah vapor lounge, where we lay around on pillows made of synthetic fabrics and puff on