The Sweaty Mess: Neon Summer in Toronto
As the heat increases in Toronto, I am reminded that this place becomes a sweaty mess in the summer. I get memories of being a very young child in the 1980s and I always wonder what summer in this city would’ve been like back then.
I think about early hip-hop, the evolving sound of reggae, and Bay Street stock traders going out to a disco on the weekends (eh no they probably didn’t do that). The sailboats on Lake Ontario and the Toronto Blue Jays baseball games.
My dad had a brown Oldsmobile in the 80s with crushed velvet seats. Trips to Buffalo, New York for shopping a few times a year. Cindi Lauper songs, Maxi Priest, Michael Jackson.
There was a period in time when music was sold on these mini cartridges. I’m pretty sure they were called Pocket Rockers. Forget that, there was the iconic Sony Walkman in yellow.
Most of my memories of this era really do edge into the 1990s because I was not very conscious in the early 1980s.
For another time we can talk about neon colours and spandex. The spandex came back in the form of bicycle shorts.
Elliott's Music Mix Series: Furnishing the Cosmos
This series was originally billed as “monthly mixes” but I might be alternating between doing these and releasing original music when the end of the month arrives.
These are also created for my Patreon channel but I thought it would be nice to share it with the public. The patrons unlock a higher quality FLAC version.
This mix compiles music that was originally recorded on my podcast in roughly the month of May but a bit of April as well.
There is one track in there that is technically unreleased called How to Disappear into the Thin Air.
Other than this track all the music made here is done in some sort of improvisation for the podcast.
The name of this mix is a reference to Erik Satie who worked on "Furniture Music" which was akin to the muzak of his time. Those compositions were meant to be easy going and so accessible they could be played in the background of a furniture store while people went shopping.
I would like to think that this music can be put on in the background, and since I'm mostly playing guitar throughout all the pieces, that it's almost as if I am sitting in the corner playing for you.
If someone hired me to serenade their party, this is what I would ideally play. I wouldn't want people to focus on me with any sort of intensity like they do a traditional concert.
So in a way, this mix is almost like a prototype of a live show that I could one day play, even though it's stitched together over a few weeks of Elliott's Podcast.
Album photo of a Hong Kong apartment building by Aleksandar Pasaric on Pexels
Thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of your weekend ✨