WARMER MIXTAPES #1021 | by Jesse Barnes [Barnez] and Yvonne Ambrée of Take Berlin

SIDE A | by Yvonne Ambrée

1. Feist | Intuition
I basically Love almost every song by Leslie Feist, but this one has been with me through a lot and it always leaves me with a very Clear yet Melancholic Mind.

2. Jeff Buckley | Dream Brother 
I never had any kind of posters of bands or Favorite Artists hanging on my walls, but if there ever was one Artist I was close to being obsessed with – it was definitely Jeff Buckley. Until today I hardly know any other Male Singers who move me as much as he did/does. This song he wrote for a close friend who was about to do the same thing that Jeff's father - Tim Buckley - did to him. Leave his wife and a new born behind.

3. Erykah Badu | Otherside Of The Game
No Words for this Lady.

4. Gustav Mahler | Das Lied Von Der Erde: 2. Der Einsame Im Herbst (Performed by Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Conductor: Leonard Bernstein)
If you don't speak German try to find a good English Translation. It's worth it. One of the Most Beautiful Compositions I've Ever Heard.

5. Camp Lo | Luchini AKA (This Is It)
Ha... This just represents my Childhood growing up with my older Brother who is the reason why I never listened to anything else but Hip Hop and R & B until I was 17!!



6. Gillian Welch | Revelator
When starting to Write Music with Jesse one day we watched a Live-DVD of Welch and Rawlings and hearing the two ot them Making Music Together was one of the Best Things I've Heard In Such A Long Time.

7. Dirty Projectors | Just From Chevron
One of the few Brooklyn Hipster Bands who actually are not just Hip, but even more talented. Great Songwriting – great Arrangements – and the Voices –Ah. I'm in Love.

8. Caetano Veloso | O Leãozinho
This song shows all my Love for Brazilian Music which I just discovered in the last 2 years. Caetano is one of the Best Storytellers I've Heard In My Life (and I don't even speak Portuguese... But it all makes sense once you listen to the song).

9. Reinhard Lakomy & Monika Ehrhardt | Liebkoselied
Growing up in Berlin in the 80s? This is what it Sounds to me.

10. Janelle Monáe | Violet Stars Happy Hunting!
In Another Life I would have become Janelle Monáe.


SIDE B | by Jesse Barnes

1. Milton Nascimento & Lô Borges | Tudo Que Você Podia Ser
Towards the end of my years in Cleveland I began hanging out with a local Record Dealer/Collector that taught me more about Music than my years studying in College. I still remember the moment he put the needle on this record… I was already a Brazilophile, but this track sent me over the edge. This whole record is Magic to me.

2. OutKast | Player's Ball
I must have been 12 when I first heard this song on the WZAK Friday Night Mix Party that I listened to every week growing up. So GroovingThese dudes were so polished and their Lyrical Personalities so evident at such a young age its Scary. The first three albums are Classics.

3. Sade | No Ordinary Love
Plaintive, Grooving and Simply Stated. There are two types of Musicians… Those that adore Sade and those that don’t… I’m in the first group.

4. Marvin Gaye | Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)
My Brother and I would listen to this record Start to Finish in High School. It’s hard to pick a certain song because it's a record you listen to in its entirety. A lot of Hard-Core Soul fans I know and play with don’t really dig Marvin, but I think he’s something else and this album encapsulates so much Culturally and Musically.

5. Digable Planets | Rebirth Of Slick (Cool Like Dat)
This may have been the closest I came to listening to Jazz while a youngster. I was a fan from the Intro Bass Line. Their two records are so strong that it’s hard to be mad at them for not sticking together and making more. When I moved to Brooklyn it was crazy kicking it at all the places they talked about in their LyricsNew York Street Vibe with this Crazy Outer-Space Concept So Dope.

6. João Gilberto | A Felicidade (Live In Montreux)
He’s the One. There is so much that I can say about this guy. I picked this song because, even though he was a bit older when this record was made, he is swinging so hard and obviously has the entire crowd in the palm of his handsTaught me really how powerful One Man and a Guitar can be. And the way the Audience starts singing with him is crazy and the Lyrics are so heavy… Lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes and Music by Jobim, the two guys responsible for much of the Bossa Nova Lexicon. This is a good one to start with, but the whole record is banging (in the Softest way possible)… See also Estate on the same record.

7. A Tribe Called Quest | Award Tour
I saw the Video on for this song MTV and immediately asked for the CD for Christmas. Tip and Phife were so Complementary with their Verses and Flow, and the Samples were some of the Best Ever Laid Down. I remember the exact moment I unwrapped it and put it into my CD Walkman and listened to the Intro to the record… The woman speaking over the Sample as the record slows down… So Inspiring to me as a kid. I think I went straight to my room and listened to the whole album while my family shared gifts by the Christmas TreeClassic move by me, I was crazy about Music as a kid. Those years were the Golden Years of Hip-Hop in my eyes. Midnight Marauders is Disc #2 in my car and Milton Nasciemento is #1.

8. Muddy Waters | Turn Your Lamp Down Low (Baby Please Don't Go) (Big Joe Williams Cover)
I had just started playing the Guitar, probably 13 or 14. My parents had just gotten a Divorce and my Father moved to Cleveland’s near West Side. He had a neighbor that was an avid Blues fan. He had these shoeboxes full of Blues Mixtapes that were recorded off the local College Radio Channel. He gave me a bunch to listen to and this song floored me, sent me down a different path altogether. I spent the next five years playing the local Blues clubs while the other kids my age were playing Video Games and hanging out at the Mall.

9. Bruce Springsteen | Born In The U.S.A.
Not sure where I heard it first, but I acquired the Cassette when was five years old. I would put the tape on and Dance on the stoop with a Toy Guitar. This and later Michael Jackson’s Bad were the first songs I was truly obsessed with as a kid… I must have annoyed the hell out of my parents… Can’t imagine how many times I played it.

10. The Jimi Hendrix Experience | Castles Made Of Sand 
I was probably 16 and in the throes of Guitar God Ascension… Not really, but maybe I thought so at the time. It’s a shame that Hendrix’s Legacy became one of a Guitar-Burning, Drug-Induced Rock HeroHis Music is Much Deeper than History Gives Him Credit For. You can hear a lot of Curtis Mayfield’s influence in this record both in the Playing and Singing and the Stories are great, especially this one. The Production still holds up really well today also… His Music was the Synthesis of a Lot of Things; Soul, Psychedelia, Folk, Blues and Rock.