Memory Tapes is an opportunity for one of you lovely lot to divulge in some memories and provide the soundtrack. It can be happy, it can be sad, it can be wistful, it can be a lesson for us all. Today's comes from Alex Doak and this mix was made for him by his girlfriend for his trip to Japan.
I was going to Japan for a whole week with Seiko watches for a tour of their many factories dotted all over the country (I'm a watch journalist - yes, there is such a thing). Like the sweetheart she is, the better half Laura wrote me three letters to open during the trip (it's the longest we'd ever been apart). Tumbling out of the first, onto the floor of my Airbus 340-600, was a memory stick with an immense playlist of "tracks to put a smile on my face, most definitely not featuring anything we love by Radiohead."
The key tracks that kept me company on the bullet train and in my Lost in Translation-esque Tokyo hotel room were Super Sharp Shooter (try not smiling to that), Silence (fond memories of Portishead's Glastonbury set this year, right at the front), Rez/Cowgirl (because that’s how I convinced Laura that dance music isn't just brainless bleeps and bloops), and Cuddly Toy (because of Alan Partridge, obviously).
Alex's Japan Mix
The Ganja Kru - Super Sharp Scooter
The XX - Islands
James Blake - Overgrown
Jagwa Ma - What Love
Jon Hopkins - Open Eye Signal
Atoms for Peace - Judge, Jury, Executioner
Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way
Haim - Let Me Go
Jack White - Love is Blindness
Bjork - Joga
Portishead - Silence
Benjamin Damage - Battleships (Sasha Involv3r remix)
Underworld - Cowgirl
Roachford - Cuddly Toy
