♪ Rare Charm 012

🐌🪵🌿 Pastoral/Futurist ⚪ 💽 ❇ (💖🎀 A WHOLE YEAR OF RARE CHARM!🍧🍰)

It’s hard to believe I’ve got 12 shows under my belt. I hadn’t realized this show marked a whole year of Rare Charm until the day of broadcast. Even though I was stressin’ and prepping down to the wire—conceiving of a rough concept, pulling tracks together at the last minute, and illustrating the cover art mere hours before going live—I think this is one of my favorite mixes I’ve constructed over my year-long residency on Particle FM—the fact that it sits at an awkward runtime of 1h26m notwithstanding lol.

A whole year! So grateful for my little nook on the station roster, thankful to anyone who has tuned in, listened back to the archives, or joined me in the chat while eating dinner or cleaning your room; eager to continue helping the station grow in whatever ways I am able; and looking forward to what’s in store for 2023!

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November 30, 2022 - Pastoral/Futurist (Rare Charm One Year Anniversary!)

November’s show follows pastoral and futurist paths with a medley of dubby ambient, prog rock, and folk. Meditative and textured pieces with lots of little details.

Many beautiful tracks here. I used to laptop DJ a short-lived prog rock night in San Diego called Acquiring the Taste so I was happy to be able to slip in some favorite tracks from my collection, like Pell Mell’s fantastic “Moldau” which starts off with the sounds of distant bird chittering, a babbling brook, and a simple flute melody and develops into a more dramatic string and organ arrangement then commences with a gong, a steady drumbeat, and the solitary flute returns to send us off into the depths of a dark hollow. A perfect track to welcome you into a pastoral, Middle Ages-esque atmosphere which eventually angles into contemporary electronic and ambient with dreamy overtones.

Some of the tracks like Shiho Yabuki’s “Energy Flow” and JJ+JS’s “Lily Pad (with Izella)” have a subaquatic quality to them which brings to mind folktales of river nymphs or daydreaming while fishing in a rickety old boat.

Other textured electronic tracks like “Calf” by Stone and “Corners” by Jason Kolàr feel like sonic representations of spores, insects, and other microfauna whipping around in ponds, dissolving particles on forest floors, wiggling under rocks, making homes in damp tree trunks, or swimming in paw tracks filled with dew.

Ultimately, a mix that constructs a world with its mud-caked boots firmly rooted in nature, reality, and earthly obligations with a receptivity to the imaginary, folkloric, and spiritual. Give it a listen. I think it captures a warmth and dreamlike ambience that is perfectly suitable for these chillier months where we could use a little imagination and a whole lot of blankets and hot tea to get us through the rough of it.

Enjoy the music. ✾

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Next episode of Rare Charm airs Wednesday, December 28 at 8pm PST on particle.fm! Uncertain what direction I’m gonna take it (chill wintry mix or NYE party mix is where my head’s at rn), but I hope you’ll tune in and say hi in the chat. :-)

💌 I realize it’s a bit early, but I wanted to announce that voicemail submissions are open for Rare Charm’s 2023 Blue Valentine special. This year’s was so fun to mix and share with everyone. It remains my most popular episode so far and I really owe that all to each person who volunteered their stories of love, heartbreak, and longing.

Are you harboring a secret crush or feeling the regret of things left unsaid to your ex? ❤️‍🩹 Whether you're down bad over your work crush or mourning a friend breakup, Rare Charm invites you to share your confessions of love, limerence, and heartbreak for a second edition of its Blue Valentine broadcast.

📞 Dial the hotline 619-880-QUTE (7883) to leave an entirely anonymous voicemail to be incorporated into the February mix. 💌 No wrong way to do it, just please refrain from any identifiable details and nothing wildly hateful. If you’re too shy, share this post with a friend who likes oversharing. 🧸💋 Deadline to submit Weds, Feb 15, 2023!

Read about Rare Charm’s Blue Valentine conceit and listen back here to 2022’s mix for some inspiration. <3

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If you like what you hear, consider donating to the Particle FM fundraising campaign to help the station acquire a physical location from which to broadcast and access the tools and equipment necessary to support aspiring musicians and DJs. Learn more here.