With the full realization that this is not unique to me, Autumn is my favorite time of year. Nostalgia is largely to blame; the smell and scratch of a plastic Ben Cooper mask, walking to school with Badfinger on the Walkman, piles of leaves on the side of the road that my mom insisted 100% has a child hidden inside so steer well clear of them, a giant orange moon on a crisply cold and damp evening... But now in adulthood in the here and now I feel a connection to nature in these months that I don't feel in other seasons (you guys can dimestore shrink whatever that means that I feel a deeper connection to the death cycle than the birth of Spring) and of course music and sounds take on a deeper resonance in the darkening days. These are the months I pull out my British folk records, and delta blues albums and ESP Disks.. Reaping and sewing.
On this batch of songs however, I didn't go thematic in any way. They aren't necessarily meant to be "Autumn' songs (though the argument could easily be made that this list works pretty damn good on these chilly nights). I just wanted to pull out a snapshot of where my head is at right now. This is what is playing in my kitchen in the morning, during the day in my office, in my car and on the home turntable after we put the kids to bed. About 95% of this music was released or reissued in the past couple of years and then there's a few outliers that have stuck around in my head for some time and I'd feel like a liar if I didn't include them.. Here you're going to find worldwide psychedelic guitar burners (melted AND fried), groove explorations, underground hip hop, liberated jazz, fukked dub, and a current of politics expressed lyrically and / or sonically.
This is my mood and headspace lately, so I hope there's something here y'all can get out of these songs too. I guess let me know what you think in the comments and I'll try and reply over the next few days.
As they say on the great internet mystery machine, Reddit.. Ask Me Anything.
love and respect always
Ben Swank
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN: lnkfi.re/swankpick
From one Autumn fan to another, thanks for sharing your headspace with us.
Wow! great playlist.. thanks Ben!
I really love the Rich Ruth track. Thank you for turning me on to his euphoric trance inducing music. I put it on in the mornings while having coffe as an alternative to my usual Oscar Peterson or some other calming/uplifting jazz. Everyone should certainly check out his new album and pick up a copy from Swank’s new label Plant Life Records. richruth.bandcamp.com/releases Keep kicking ass, have fun, and thank you for sharing.
just discovered this playlists. good times, thank you much.
Thanks for all you do Swank!
Thanks, Ben, I’ll be sure to pay attention to that one.
@kaliDurga you may also like that North Americans track if you dig the WT vibes
@kaliDurga.. William Tyler is a national treasure.
Love that you included that track from William Tyler’s Aquarium Drunkard session, he really does not get the attention he should. I need to explore the rest of this list to see what other gems worm their way into my ears, brain, soul, heart, whatever.
I love everything about this, Ben! Thank you so much. I’ll be playing this all day. (The joke in my family is that I had to delay my own birth to ensure I’d be born on the first day of autumn. I feel you.)