AMX To The Max - Still Ill

The other day, I told you of a plan I had: make a mixtape inspired by some of Quentin Tarantino's movies.

Download ZIP file: 'Still Ill' mixtape

I got this idea because my Dad recently got a really rare muscle car (an AMX), which is talked about in Quentin's "DEATHPROOF". That was the impetus- just random inspiration; it's not like I am some QT fanboy, or that I am so very dearly devoted to his soundtracks. I don't even own one anymore...
There is a pretty distinctive sound to each of his films' musical accompaniment, though, so I figured this idea had the necessary specificity to generate a mix. (Mixes that are just 'songs that I like/that I thought you might like' are not worth my time to produce; I could just put my ITunes on shuffle for that, right?).
All taste requires discrimination; discrimination by definition is specific:
("I like all kinds of music" is general, and shows its speaker to lack taste entirely; or at least to be a "mollycoddle with shaky legs")
there you have it.


My directorial debut is "AMX : Still Ill." ( <--- clicky makey downloady)
Obviously, based off of the RZA-fashioned "Kill Bill" soundtracks.



TRACKLISTING:
#1 Il Ritorno Di Ringo /// Ennio Morricone
4th Chamber /// GZA
#3 Champion Sound /// Jaylib
Poison Dart /// The Bug ft. Warrior Queen
#5 Backyard Betty /// Spank Rock
Bullet /// Ellen Allien
#7 Don't Smile, It's Post-Modern /// Ghislain Poirier
Hide Ya Face (ft El-P and Ghostface Killah) /// Prefuse 73
#9 Wanderlove /// Claudine
Nagasaki Nights /// ...unknown artist...
#11 Slow Grind Italian (interlude) /// The RZA (as Bobby Digital)
Mantis (ft Masta Killa & Tekitha) /// The RZA (Bobby Digital)
#13 Bila El Mambo /// Hell's Gate Band
Heart It Races /// Architecture In Helsinki
#15 Still Got It 4 Cheap /// Clinton Sparks f/Clipse & Pharrell
Bells /// Vitalic
#17 I Lost My Shit in Tel Aviv (live) /// Apparat
1980 /// Pierre Rapsat

(" /// "?: 'oh, that? those are SWORD SLICES !')
"AMX : Still Ill"

Here's a track from the mix; listen to it while you download said mix...

Ennio Morricone is a must for this. This guy composed all those Western movie themes that you know: A Few Dollars More, GoodBadUgly, etc.

"Choose the ball, or the sword": GZA's Wu-Tang Kung-Fu thang. Starts out with a kungfu flick sample: precisely why QT picked a Wu to head the soundtrack project.

You know Wu will be all over this mix; but there's room for other rappers too:
We get J Dilla rapping on a Madlib production. Later, we get the Clipse, SpankRock, El-P -aka El Producto- (with Ghostface), and from the Caribbean, Warrior Queen.


"AMX : Still Ill"
Most of the rap beats employed here lean to the tech-y side ("Glitch-Hop"?). That was the sound of Kill Bill, so that's our sound here.
What that means is that the hip-hop turns naturally and smoothly over into the smart techno of Berliner Ellen Allien and her label-mate Apparat. This isn't daffy club beat or euro(trash)pop -- closer to the Knife, okay? -- so nuh be afeared, even if you are 'not that kind of girl'.
Vitalic & Apparat supply us with sounds that absolutely must play when The Bride is riding on her all-yellow motorcycle through Tokyo, sword slung over one shoulder; faceless in her helmet. She's on her grind: her only love is the game of revenge (she'll win).
"AMX : Still Ill"

Also, we need some of the more strictly computerized beats, not only to keep this from being purely " mixtape-hustlin' ", but to ensure that it sounds like a movie soundtrack. To work with the arc of drama, we have to use some songs which build and intensity and then destroy it. Hiphop can have tension, but it doesn't often 'climax' : it doesn't resolve that tension.



"AMX : Still Ill"
There are mellow moments in Kill Bill, especially in the second volume. So, there is a passage around the middle of the mix when we move to some tropical climes and pop open a ginger beer. Steel drums, and an international feel. Kill Bill involved some serious jetsetting, and after REVENGE gets had, calm settles over the film.
After the international/downtime slice, though, The Clipse set us back on our feet, and the blades start swinging again:



(...it's still not too late to download "AMX : Still Ill", you know...)