Some time ago, back in the days of Basic FM (RIP), I hit on the idea of creating a mix that started with a one second track and went up in increments of one second until the mix was 24 hours long. I did the maths (I’d need 418 songs, the last of which would be 6 minutes long and would need to be faded a bit early) and started to pick the tracks. Then, as with most things, it got forgotten.
Lockdown led me to consider the idea again and I inevitably realised that past a certain point the whole thing stopped being interesting and instead just became a mix of slowly lengthening tracks. Indeed, it seemed to hit this point around the the one-minute mark where doodles and interludes stopped and songs started. So I decided to limit the project to 60 tracks, from 1 to 60 seconds in length.
I deliberately did no research so I’m sure this has been done before, probably better.
For the third year, Gary Lang (St James Infirmary etc) has organised The Great August The First Exhibition, inviting submissions from the ‘public’ (ie the shadowy cabal of disgruntled artists and malcontent musicians that make up his social circle) to be made on or before August 1st. As the man says, it’s an opportunity for us all to say “‘I made this today’. it can be anything you like,a poem, a song, a drawing, a hinge, an omelette, a painted toenail, owt that takes yer fancy. Just a way to be able to say at the end of the day,, no matter how good or shitty, I made this today.”
This seemed like the ideal forum for my 60 Seconds Of Madness* mix so here it is.
(* apologies to Coldcut)
There were a surprising number of decisions needing to be made to put this together, so here are the ‘rules’ I made myself:
- Track lengths would be based on what was displayed as the ‘length’ in a Windows explorer folder (see below)
- Any track that had too much dead air at either end was discounted.
- Tracks were mixed very slightly if at all.
- Other than that, first thought best thought – I just grabbed the most interesting looking track (the only editing being the avoidance of more than one track by one artist).
Here’s the tracklisting:
01 Rewind Vox (Reggae Sound FX Collection)
02 Unknown – Mr Custard
03 The Descendents – No, ALL!
04 The Million Dollar Quartet – Too Much Monkey Business
05 Plone – Bibi Plone Loop
06 The Bob’s Burgers Cast – Buckle It Up
07 Joni Mitchell – I’s A Muggin’ (Rap)
08 King Britt Presents Sister Gertrude – Religion From Her (Scene 2)
09 Cornershop – King Kongs
10 Matmos – Extending The Plastisphere To GJ237b
11 Gravediggaz – Just When You Thought It Was Over (Intro)
12 Modest Mouse – Dig Your Grave
13 Tomita – Infernal Dance Of King Kastechi
14 Gil Scott Heron – I Was Guided Interlude
15 Coil – Tunnel of Goats XVI
16 The Fatima Mansions – Concrete Block
17 The Country Teasers – Success
18 Robyn – Bionic Woman
19 Roots Manuva Vs Wrongtom – Dub Decay
20 Bauhaus – Wasp
21 Faust – Exercise
22 David Holmes – Voices, Siren, Rain
23 Unknown – We Walk Around The Streets
24 Brakes – Pick Up The Phone
25 Saint Etienne – Here Come Clown Feet
26 Can – Pnoom
27 Einstürzende Neubauten – Bertolt Brecht Und Der Weltempfänger
28 Link 3 – Welcome To The Night
29 The Books – It’s Musiiiiic!
30 MDC – Church & State
31 Graeme Miller & Steve Shill – The Moomins Theme Outro
32 Broadcast – A Goblin
33 Sophie Cooper – Oh Dana
34 Frank Sidebottom – Puff’N’Blow
35 Boards Of Canada – Energy Warning
36 Broken Family Band – Roman Johnson One
37 Teeth of the Sea – Leder
38 Minutemen – Three Car Jam
39 Butthole Surfers – Lonesome Bulldog II
40 The McCrary Sisters – Let’s Go
41 Wire – Brazil
42 Monkees – Seeger’s Theme (Version 2 – Mono Mix)
43 The Mekons & Kathy Acker – I Want To Tell You About Myself
44 Carl Orff – Instrumental Dance
45 Minor Threat – Straight Edge
46 zoviet: france – Waiting At The Gate
47 Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet – Shadowy Countdown
48 Peaches – Fuck Or Kill
49 Tony Allen – Atuwaba
50 Clinic – DJ Shangri-La
51 Kate Bush – Night Scented Stock
52 Brainiac – Indian Poker Pt 3
53 Krzysztof Komeda – Sarah In Bath
54 Chumbawamba – When An Old Man Dies
55 Thelonious Monk With John Coltrane – Abide With Me
56 DJ Yoda – 9 To 5
57 John Cage – Radio Music (edit)
58 Raymond Scott – Bufferin’ Memories
59 Sonic Youth – Nic Fit
60 Keith LeBlanc – Ending
hickeysonic 