Hello, it’s been too long. I fell off track, as one does, but here we are! September and October’s mixes are ready for you to listen back. Thanks, as always, to those who have reached out to say you’re enjoying the tunes. I am grateful to have this little show as a means to stitch together sonic worlds for you to explore and inhabit. It’s such a delight hearing that a particular song stood out to you. A couple days ago, Alex Miranda of No Sun Recordings told me his kid said of the Vanessa Daou track in episode 011, “‘Cherries in the Snow’ is driving me nuts!” I don’t know if they meant that in a bad way or not, but it’s an amazing response regardless. In any case, sometimes it’s fun to be baffled by a song. 🍒🍧❄️
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September 28, 2022 - CDMX Trip Special
I had the privilege of celebrating my birthday in Mexico City this September with my partner Aaron and his family. To commemorate the experience, Rare Charm 010 is a special tapestry of voice memo app "field recordings" from my trip woven between songs I heard in ubers, taquerías, cafebrerías, restaurants, at karaoke & carne asadas, in addition to funky turn of the millennium electrónica bops (naturally!) & rock y otra música en español. Not so much a survey of the city or the country's talent, but more of a collaged sonic keepsake.
This trip marked my first time visiting Mexico City. Aaron has gone many times and has shared many stories with me, describing everything from how fast people drive to the gorgeous giant trees lining the streets in the city.
Leading up to our trip, Aaron and I watched a couple of Mexican and Spanish-language films to amp up our anticipation. One such film was the coming of age story, Perfume de violetas (Maryse Sistach, 2001), which is where I heard Felix and the Katz's anthemic "En la rueda de la fortuna" and we rewatched Y tu mamá también (Alfonso Cuaron, 2001) which features Brian Eno's "By This River" that we also happened to hear playing in a Cafebrería El Péndulo. Synchronicity.
Overall, it was a beautiful experience going to museums, celebrating El Grito in Coyoacán, meeting Aaron's extended family and enjoying their grand hospitality which included but was not limited to an evening drifting along the canals of Xochimilco and seeing axolotls at island attractions and eating some of the best meals I've ever had. Also, the concept of the third place is alive! Do you know how disappointed we were to come back to San Diego and be reminded of the fact that there are hardly any places to relax in that aren't bars, designated recreational parks, large chains, or places of commerce? Reader, we were very disappointed.
I know several Mexican cities have been facing gentrification for some years now with an influx of WFH techies and expats contributing to rising housing prices. During my visit, of course I entertained “I wish I could live here” thoughts. Two months out from my visit and I am longing to go back for another extended stay.
I caught a glimpse of a few young Americans frying the range of hearing with their crackly voices as they lounged in their trendy streetwear draped on them like uniforms intended to signify their youth and upward mobility, and although I do not identify with them, I hesitate to say I wouldn’t be a part of the problem because it’s not really something I get to decide, right? Besides, I’m broke, so it’s only a dream.
Without plunging too deep into matters of identity, I, like many others with a bicultural background, have always flopped and floundered while navigating within the mode of being ni de aquí, ni de allá (neither from here nor from there) as a Mexican-American. That flustered in-between occupation of "not being enough" of one or the other, whatever that means, it always changes depending on the situation, but a personal shame and an untethered feeling remain consistent. I understand most things, I'll know if someone is talking shit about me, but I'm not fluent in the language, I can’t seem to string the right nouns and pronouns to their proper verb conjugations, I am unable to seamlessly code-switch linguistically, I start and stop and default to English, I struggle to negotiate my status as an insider or an outsider. I'm pocha, I'm chueca, I haven’t heard it yet but some may say I'm borderline gringa. The onus is on me to make a stronger effort to bolster my command of the language, which will help soften the divide I feel when I shrink behind the counter and ask Aaron to order my tres de al pastor at Tacos El Gordo, among several other, more significant instances of course.
It is this awkward liminality that was once again made apparent when someone left me a comment on Instagram asking me not to support Aleks Syntek on account of inappropriate sexual messages he was sending to a British 17-year-old. If I had been more connected to, more entrenched in Mexican current events and pop culture, I'd have known this and I’d have known that Syntek has had a nasty track record of making brainless, ignorant remarks out of bigotry and some twisted sense of moral superiority.
Although it feels a bit like a stain on the mix, I still think the track is an interesting artifact, an example of a mainstream pop artist hopping on musical trends in effort to stay relevant, which is definitely a part of the trip hop and chill-out trajectory; styles have a tendency of getting diluted when they’re introduced into wider commercial reaches. So how did this turkey end up in the mix anyway? After we watched Perfume de violetas, Aaron and I explored its soundtrack and went down a rabbit hole of Mexican pop music. He had shown me "Duele el amor", a popular duet between Syntek and Ana Torroja of Spanish pop trio Mecano, that he remembered hearing when he was a kid. Without doing any research into Syntek as a person, I skimmed around his discography, and as you might have noticed I also tried to tie in my ongoing exploration of 90s and 2000s electronica in this mix, so of course when I came across a bonus remix of his single with "Version Trip Hop" suffixed in parentheticals, I thought, "Perfect!" And that's that.
Spending more time with Plastilina Mosh’s music was a highlight of putting together this mix. Pakistani pop song "Disco Deewane" was my favorite discovery on the trip. I watched as our Uber driver scrolled through his mp3 player connected to his car’s stereo, selected the track, and hummed along with it under his voice, and I also chanced upon a 12" single of the track at a secondhand shop in Coyoacán, which I regrettably did not pick up. Hearing Beck’s “Tropicalia” while browsing books in an El Péndulo felt like a secret wink from the city to me, a longtime fan of the figure whose melting-pot fusion of musical styles and lyrical embrace of Latino culture as its taken shape in Southern California has had a hand in empowering an understanding of aspects of my own cultural identity, as cringe and muddled as it may sound that a white musician in funky outfits singing “Soy un perdedor” and “Qué onda güero” was able to do for a third-gen kid growing up in a blender of Mexican traditions and assimilated American social and cultural dynamics. 😳
Synchronicity, magical thinking. La la la.~
October 26, 2022 - Fall in the City
Two hours of sounds evocative of skylines at night; dimly-lit, cavernous parking garages; motion blur traffic lights reflected on rain-slicked roads. Wistful tunes for solitary moods. A love letter to fall in the city.
Looking over the track list, I’m realizing I managed to stuff a number of great tracks in this mix that it almost feels like I’m staring down a decadent dessert. Trust that it plays through smooth, airy. It’s perfect for riding down city streets flanked by tall buildings, rolling down the windows and taunting the night breeze to give you gooseflesh; a simple, effective reminder of your body’s connection to the elemental forces in the world.
The mix traverses sleepy, introspective jazz moods, zigs in and out of the existential and lovelorn territory of sophisto-pop, turns a corner down the alleys of downtempo and always remains consistently sensual and full of longing.
Lots of tracks here that have a determined propulsion to them, like Hyplar’s “Sensualite”, the AR Kane remix of Saint Etienne’s “Avenue”, and Everything but the Girl’s “Flipside” (who else is looking forward to their forthcoming album next spring, btw?!) which I think is an appropriate rhythm to occupy while moving through brisk air in the city.
I had originally planned on putting together a spooky mix but decided against it as the holiday and show airdate approached; Halloween felt limp and spiritless this year, which I am chalking up to my aging peer group and overall economic instability. Gathering dark, eerie tracks would have felt forced. Maybe next year!
In technical news, this episode was actually my first broadcast using my controlly live, so there definitely are a couple flubs in the mix. I finally started decorating it with stickers. Aaron says, “now it’s really yours.” I am getting better at looping and performing decent transitions. I still like playing with vinyl more, it feels like a more fluid process to me, but it is exciting and fun familiarizing myself with digital hardware. >:-)
Plus, the portability is nothing to snuff at! 🐽💿
♩Love is like two dreamers dreamin' the exact same dream ♫✧˖*°࿐
Enjoy the music. ✽
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Rare Charm airs every last Wednesday of the month at 8pm PT on particle.fm ♪ Next episode transmits on November 30, 2022. Tune in, say hi in the chat.~
🚨Also!! 🚨 If you’re in or around San Diego next Sunday, December 4, don’t miss Particle FM’s second official event at Department in City Heights with headliner Semblance, San Diego-based DJ, producer, and host of Diode on Particle FM, from 4-10pm. Major party bonus to have Particle FM hosts Hammy Dj, Suppa, and Atrevido on support for this day into night exploration of 90s jungle, techno, breakbeat + more! Tickets and more event info can be found on Resident Advisor.
I am so happy I had the opportunity to design and illustrate the event flyer. Snap a pic and send it to me if you see one around town. See u on the dance floor! 🪩✧