Rare Charm 013 & 014

🎇🪩 NYE Party Mix & Brenda Chenowith Special 🌳🪷

Life has been a little nuts lately which hasn’t left me with much time to dedicate toward tracklist upkeep (not that anyone has gotten on my case about it!), but I’ve been chipping away at it when I do find the time. In this dispatch you can listen back to the last Rare Charm of 2022 and the first Rare Charm of 2023, which are on opposite sides of the energy spectrum: a fun party mix and a chilled-out blend ripe for personal introspection.

*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*

December 28, 2022 - NYE Party Mix

For this show I pulled together electropop, Eurohouse, indie dance, and some new-ish tracks that draw from such styles for a two-hour blend of euphoric late 90s & new millennium sounds. 💠 A little sultry 🥂, a little sleazy 🦪, a little silly 🍧; a fun lil mix to groove to made just in time for NYE, but also perfect for a house party or getting ready to go out on the weekend ! 🪩🎊

I have to say, listening back to this mix three months later and I have some conflicting feelings about it. 🥴 I can definitely stand to practice blends, for one. Sometimes I get lucky with tracks that have intros and outros that are easy to layer. But if I’m able to land a smooth transition, 7 times out of 10 it was probably out of my control. It’s my biggest djing insecurity. On a more positive note, I’m confident about my selections; I appreciate the pacing here and had a blast hearing all the tracks again, some of which I had forgotten I’d thrown in (Italian duo Jollymusic’s “Disco Disco”, for example). I think it’s nice when you can surprise even yourself. Or maybe I should be concerned about short-term memory loss…

I am happy to report that I now own a 12” of Milky’s “In My Mind” which I am definitely going to try to work in a set whenever I play out again.

That Shinichi Osawa track is such a banger. The perfect climax to end on and leave you and your friends basking in the afterglow of a celebration.

Bonus: check out this video of Osawa turning up at an Apple store in Shinsaibashi, Osaka in…~2007?

January 25, 2023 - Brenda Chenowith Special

January’s Rare Charm was dedicated to the complicated and seductive Brenda Chenowith portrayed by Rachel Griffiths in HBO’s Six Feet Under—one of the first prestige American television shows, along with The Sopranos. However, it doesn’t seem to carry the same level of cache the latter does, presumably because of the heavy subject matter. It’s definitely worth a watch as a cultural document in television history, for music-hunting purposes (lots of good downtempo stuff!), and an insight into the ways Americans handle death and grief. Plus, it’s funny in its own right.

~2 hours of new age 🕉, Latin 💃🏻, chillout 🧘🏻, and alt rock 🎸tracks used throughout the series that are reflective of Brenda and her inner & outer worlds, whether she’s alone, with friends, with her family, or in intimate moments with Nate—or other lovers. 🫢

The only track that was not featured on the show is the excerpt of “Porno 3003” by Pizzicato Five. This was a cheeky inclusion after Aaron had pointed out to me that the strings bore a striking resemblance to the series’ main title theme composed by Thomas Newman. It’s sexy and slinky and I thought it fit into Brenda’s world so I didn’t feel too bad about not adhering so strictly to my own mix prompt.

I love how music in film and television adds another layer to the characterization of on-screen roles. Not only does it help the viewer understand a character’s mental and emotional states but since much of the music you hear in Brenda’s scenes is diegetic, this calls attention to her character’s nuanced taste 😙🤌 (which I feel is something you rarely see executed with sophistication in media these days) and, as a result, strengthens the realism of the character by developing her as a convincing person.

I’ve been working my way through a rewatch of the series for the first time since I was in high school, which was 16 years ago! The complete DVD box set with the tiny headstone on a thin layer of AstroTurf on the hefty cube-shaped package was my reward for good grades my junior year. Aaron had never watched it, so it’s been nice to revisit characters and plotlines through his eyes in addition to viewing it through a more matured lens. 🧐

Aaron helped with the cover art graphics for this show btw. <3

Enjoy the music. ✽

⊱ ──────────────── {⋅. ♪ .⋅} ──────────────── ⊰

Rare Charm airs every last Wednesday of the month at 8pm PT on particle.fm ♪

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.