STRAUSZ

ZOMBIES Are Making Love tells a beautiful story about a guy and a girl who are let's just say "making love" when they're pounced upon by a mob of zombies. But not all is as it would first appear, as the zombies don't want to eat the couple, but join in with the festivities. Storyteller Brazilian Diogo Strausz is an electro musician and resident DJ at Helvética SSS who lists his influences as Final Fantasy, Justice, Chemical Brothers, Queens of Stone Age and daft Daft Punk. He compiles mixes for a living, so no surprise that this is a goody that's going to get you dancing – even if only in your chair.Read More

Ben Jolliffe,
YOUNG GUNS

TIPPED as the next great British rock band with their debut album, All Our Kings Are Dead, Young Guns hope to further fortify the hype with follow-up album, Bones, and have 14 live UK shows lined up in support of the album's release. Having already clocked up an impressive amount of touring hours – they've supported the sell-out headline shows of Bon Jovi and Lostprophets – they know which songs are best to listen to through headphones after a raucous gig. Drummer Ben Jolliffe compiles this, aptly called 'The After Show Playlist'. Read More

Andy Burrows,
SMITH & BURROWS

DOES the sound of Editors' Tom Smith's vocals give you goosebumps? How about Christmas time just around the corner? Smith in collaboration with Andy Burrows (of I am Arrows and former Razorlight drummer) have recorded the kind of Christmas album they'd want to stick on after Christmas lunch, and the kind you, as a discerning music listener, would want to cozy up to after roast turkey and cranberry sauce, too. Called Funny Looking Angels, it also features a guest vocal from Agnes Obel in sweet, cuddle-up-to-the-fire duet with Tom on The Christmas Song. Here are Andy Burrows' favourite traditional Christmas tunes. Chestnuts, anyone? Read More

VAMPIRE9000

CHRISTIAN Henn is Vampire9000. His debut EP has just been released through So Many Animal Calls Music, and it might just be our fave local EP of the year. "Due to an unfortunate Banjo injury, I had to go under the knife earlier this year. I don't react well to narcotics, so I compiled enough music to last me for at least two days," says Henn about his mix tape experience. "After the surgery, I woke up long enough to ask a nurse to give me pain killers and to also put my headphones on. I was out for a full day. It was the best. Though I was unconscious, I was aware of the music the whole time and the songs made me so happy." Read More

NAKHANE TOURE

YOU can find unique unsigned talent in the most unlikely of places, wiling away the hours, working minimum-wage jobs, and mentally writing melodies between stocktaking. To find Nakhane Toure, lover of harmonies, '60s and '70s soul music, the vivid art of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and the literature of Toni Morrison and James Baldwin, we'd recommend looking in a little Christian book store in Jo'burg's West Rand. Here he compiles a mix called 'Napoleon is Weeping'. "It's a Tom Waits lyric, because most of these songs are weepers," he says. Read More

LADY LAZARUS

LADY Lazarus (a.k.a. Melissa Ann Sweat), from San Jose, California, USA, creates lo-fi repetitive piano tunes upon which carries a haunting vocal. She also does a great cover of Daniel Johnston's The Story of an Artist, which you can hear here. "The last time I made a mix tape was for a show, 'Women Who Don't Disappoint Me' on SCAD Radio in Savannah, Georgia," says Lady Lazarus. "I was asked to go on air and share some of my favourite songs by female artists. A few appear on this mix tape, too." Read More

GIL HOCKMAN

"THE last mix tape (CD, really) I made was for Valentine's Day. The coffee shop across the road (Wolves - www.wolves.co.za) was selling prepackaged blank CDs for Valentine's Day and a friend who had just arrived in town bought one and asked me to fill it up for her. So, in the spirit of the day, I tried to map out a love affair from first attraction to distant longing, getting it together, falling apart, leaving and picking up the pieces. You know?" asks Jo'burg-based solo musician (and also one fifth of band The Buckfever Underground). Gil has just released Too Early in the Journey which you can buy at the Wolves Online Shoppe.Read More

BIG BLACK DELTA

"THE last time I compiled a mix tape was a couple of months ago for a drive out to Joshua Tree [National Park]." Jonathan Bates of Big Black Delta told us. "The desert is one of the best places to listen to music. There's no cell reception, no social networking; just you and nothing." He opens the mix with Big Black Delta's Capsize, a song that's a combo of “The Triplets of Belleville, the soundtrack to Bloodsport, and Siouxsie Sioux," so he says. He's called this compilation the ‘So Tired Of Police Helicopters Outside Of My Place’ Mix. And we like it, a lot. Read More

Chris Carter, HOLIDAY MURRAY

HOLIDAY Murray released their self-titled debut album this year, the lead single of which is called Jirey. The single's music video was filmed over the course of a sunny March day by cinematographer Adriaan Louw and assistant director Luca Vincenzo, and features the four-piece cycling around Cape Town in white safari suits and colourful neck ties - which they thankfully lose as the day progresses. Ellis Silverman had the tough job of riding an old delivery bike for 23 hours of filming, Chris Carter got the one with the basket, while James Tuft and Justin Davenport got the cruisers. Chris takes a break from it all for a moment to compile this great mix. Read More

Nik Kaloper, THE JEZABELS

THE Jezabels is a Sydney, Australia-based band consisting of Hayley Mary, Heather Shannon, Nik Kaloper and Samuel Lockwood. Kaloper compiles this mix, which he’s named ‘ROFL Vol. 1’. “The last time I compiled a mix tape was for a girl,” he tells us. “How High Fidelity of me! It was before I had any reasonable grasp on the type of music she was interested in, which turned out to be hip hop and electro. I found out, months later, that she thought it was a terrible mix, and didn’t like any of the songs on it.” Read More

MAKE-OVERS

COUPLE Andreas Schönfeldt and Martinique Pelser comprises Make-Overs, the band that’s as integral to Braamfontein’s jungle-punk scene as the basements, rooftops and reception rooms they perform in. Forming out of the ashes of Pretoria noise rockers Sticky Antlers, they’re a band so exciting that Chicago-based record label HoZac Records is releasing their 7" single – further details are still to be announced. All uninhibited passion and raw talent, the duo who’ve been making music together for seven years compile this mix – there’s sure to be something on here that's new to you. Read More

Dutch Uncles

"WE would name this mixtape after our long-suffering tour manager and his van, as this was the place (one day during our recent tour) where we had fun creating it," says Manchester math-pop band Dutch Uncles. "'Musco's Bus Co. Mixtape Vol. 1' it is." FYI: The term 'Dutch Uncle' refers to a person who "issues frank, harsh, and severe comments and criticism to educate, encourage, or admonish someone". Now you know. The song you can hear here is the Egyptian Hip Hop remix of their single The Ink. Read More

Imogen Heap

USING manipulated electronics and found sound, Imogen Heap’s solo albums iMegaphone (1998), Speak for Yourself (2005) and Ellipse (2009) are works of musical genius. While singles Oh Me, Oh My; Hide and Seek; Goodnight and Go and First Train Home impress with endearing lyrics and ingenious hooks. You might recognise the voice from duo Frou Frou whose single Let Go featured on the Garden State motion picture soundtrack. Imogen dropped us a line listing her mix tape, “Not in any particular order,” she wrote, “here are 10 tracks I like.” We hope you like them, too  Read More

LET’S BUY HAPPINESS

SPOILER alert: Already on the tips of the most discerning tongues, Let's Buy Happiness, fronted by the ethereal voice of Sarah Hall,is set to be a biggie this year. Formed when little brother James asked Sarah to join his band, the Newcastle-based five piece struck the right chord with debut EP No Hot Ashes (2009), followed by latest single Fast Fast. “We'd call this 'the mams and girlfriends mix tape',” they told us, “Although mams or girlfriends aren't directly linked to our associations of the songs, they're the only people we've made mix tapes for.”  And now for you, too. Read More

THE LOVELY EGGS

FORMED in 2006 in England, The Lovely Eggs is an indie-punk duo consisting of married couple Holly Ross and David Blackwell. Accented with obscure lyrics, playful instrumentation and Holly's Lancaster inflection, the music is perky and cheeky. Holly and David are quite evidently fanatical about listening to music, too: “This compilation is called C60/C90. It includes some of our favourite bands from around the 60s and the 90s. Get it? Some of the releases were made either side of the decade but it's close enough for jazz!” Read More

Laudo Liebenberg,
aKING

WHEN it comes to writing and producing music that pulls at our proudly-South African heartstrings, aKING are tugging hard. Responsible for the beautiful Safe as Houses, The Dance, Against All Odds, You and I, and others, the boys from Belville are churning out great songs and, in the space of three years, three full-length albums. On their latest, The Red Blooded Years, they switch starting-member Hunter Kennedy for Thieve front man Andrew Davenport, who contributes added vocals, along with Hennie van Halen, the result of which “brings an intrinsic dynamic” to the album.. Read More

Kevin Johnson, WEEKEND

SPORTS, so named because of the battle of the sides between noise and melody, is the debut album from Weekend. “Shaun [Durkan] and I, as well as doing Weekend, organise all-ages shows in San Francisco called Strange Dogs,” says guitarist Kevin Johnson. “We try to get the really good, and weirder, bands that wouldn’t usually get a gig at a bar, and through a cheap show in an underground space. I found about 100 tapes at work that someone was throwing out so I am working on a mix to put on them and give out at the next Strange Dogs show.” Weekend also includes drummer Abe Pedroza. Read More

BOO!

WHEN BOO! disbanded in 2003, after the release of TNTLC, the old adage “you don‘t know what you’ve got till it’s gone” hit, and the South African music-listening audience dreamt of better days when the sound of monki punk would waft out of Melville’s Roxy's and a bedazzled Chris Chameleon shape shifted in angular movements, his eyes telling a tall tale, his voice hitting a falsetto note. Seven years later Chameleon and Ampie Omo regroup, minus Princess Leonie, plus Riaan van Rensburg, to record The Three of Us (2010).
(Photo courtesy of Renee Frouws.) Read More

THE SICK-LEAVES

THE Sick-Leaves is the solo project of Pretoria-based , musician Eksteen Jackobz. A SAMA (South African Music Awards) nominated artist, Jackobz‘s Coz You Like It is as hair-rock as you‘ll find this side of the 90s; taken from his third full-length album Last Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy (2010). “Angus Young (AC/DC) is a huge influence,” he says, “The first time I heard Hell’s Bells it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. It personifies power, swagger and attitude.” Here he compiles a mix that carries each of those qualities. Read More
(Photo courtesy of Sean Brand.)

Jaco van der Merwe,
BITTEREINDER

BITTEREINDER is Jaco van der Merwe, Louis Minaar and Peach van Pletzen. A teacher at a Tswana high school, van der Merwe distributes mixes of dangerous, underground rap, electro and alternative artists among his students: “I like to think that with some fresh music I’m broadening their horizons,” he says. And what do they think of Bittereinder‘s observational rap on debut album 'n Ware Verhaal? “None of them get more than 40% for Afrikaans as a second language, so the lyrics are like a foreign language. I want to distribute copies of Buckfever Underground's Teaching Afrikaans as a Foreign Language to rectify this disturbing problem. Read More

Warren Cohen, AMPERSAND

AMPERSAND is Johannesburg-based, lo-fi, singer-songwriter Warren Cohen. Music isn’t his day job, but it should be. All fuzzy acoustics, home taping and unpolished audio, latest EP Demonomania (2010) was recorded in London and released through Jaunted Haunts Press (brain child of Righard Kapp) while debut EP This is not a Drill (2007) has been lovingly reissued through Jaunted Haunts, too. Cohen talks about being a loner at school, does a bit of name-dropping and delivers a carefully thought out mix tape. Read More

George Pettit, ALEXISONFIRE

CANADIAN five-piece Alexisonfire say they sound like a guy with a pretty voice getting into an argument with a guy who is "kinda upset about things." This is a pretty accurate description of a post-hardcore group with two vocalists- one 'the singer' and one 'the screamer'. Dog’s Blood (2010) is their latest work, a four track EP, that opens with screamer vocalist George Pettit sounding like he's, well, "kinda upset about things". Here Pettit lists an energetic summer mix to ride your bike around to. Read More

Dexter Tortoriello
HOUSES

DEXTER Tortoriello and Megan Messina created their debut album All Night in a cabin in Papaikou, Hawaii with no plumbing or electricity - using solar power to keep their computer running and working by candlelight."The music comes from a place of love and ease," says Dexter, and one listen through the album will confirm this. Not a first time mix compiler, Dexter says: "I made Megan a CD of a bunch of songs that I put on before we would go to sleep, so it was technically a mix of songs she'd slept through. She likes it a lot." Read More

Sinead Dennis
FIRE THROUGH THE WINDOW

FIRE Through The Window began as a pet project between two love-birds, Marc De La Querra and Sinead Dennis. Recording their debut album in a couple of weeks, and never expecting it to be released, lead single Just Like You Are was a catchy and sugary sweet message between the two that not only gave a taster of things to come but was also selected as the official song for the Apple iPod Nano television campaign. This year sees the release of the band’s third album, All These People Are Golden. Here, Sinead lists seven of the most beautiful songs she could find and, while she's at it, tells you about that time she saw the Easter Bunny. Read More

Andy Spence
NEW YOUNG PONY CLUB

DEBUT album, Fantastic Playroom (2007) earned New Young Pony Club a Mercury nomination and much praise for their nu rave, new wave and dance punk sound. Combining Tahita Bulmer's deadpan vocals with a fashion forward club sound, NYPC established itself on the UK dance scene. With the release of their second full length album The Optimist (2010) and a tour to South Africa, guitarist Andy Spence makes a mix tape to celebrate and ends it off with a salvaged NYPC track.. Read More

Zac Pennington
PARENTHETICAL GIRLS

PARENTHETICAL Girls are selling their latest EP Privilege Pt.II: The Past, Imperfect as a limited edition vinyl. Each of the 500 vinyls will be hand-numbered in the blood of Parenthetical Girl Rachael Jensen (left). "Less than a month ago I purchased a second-hand, dual head cassette recorder from a charity shop, with the expressed purpose of crafting a pair of tapes for a lover's car stereo,” Zac Pennington (right) tells The Weekly Mix Tape, “The contents of said cassettes were uncannily similar to the mix presented here, which should give some indication of the context. For the record: the tape recorder has since been binned. Among other things." Read More

Luca, Paul, Jonathan, Stefano, Federico, Giulia
A CLASSIC EDUCATION

GONE to Sea is the opening track from Bologna-based six-piece, A Classic Education’s latest EP Hey There Stranger. Full of endearing, floaty notes, and vocals that hint at The Shins, there’s a sincerity to the music that results in a happy restfulness. In order to better acquaint themselves, with you, dear reader, each member has contributed a song to this mix – their first. “We’ve never made a compilation together, we've been a flying band so far,” they told The Weekly Mix Tape, “we can't wait to get in the van to jam to some compilation tapes.” Read More

Gerdus Oosthuizen,
NEW HOLLAND

"I made about ten mixed CDs for a road trip the band and I went on," says New Holland's Gerdus Oosthuizen, "like any road trip we had one treffer, it was Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. We sang it at the top of our lungs all the way to the Transkei!" You can now apply your lungs to New Holland's latest single Transkei - off of their anticpated third album, still due for release and currently in concept formation phase at Teejay's Coffeestainedvinyl Studios in Table View. They're on the road again, and here's a new mix. Read More

Colin von Berg,
US KIDS KNOW

Home-knitted jerseys, Magnum P.I ‘taches and creepy press photos aside, Us Kids Know should be taken seriously. Already a household name in Joburg circles, Colin von Berg and Chad Polley’s awkward style and inspired instrumental songs are hand-reared moments of unabashed fun that doesn’t hint at yesteryear but screams it from the building tops. Cleverly releasing their latest offering only on cassette tape, in conjunction with a Hruki designed band t-shirt, takes us back to a time where music was a keep sake. Read More

GEMMA RAY

SOLO, Gemma Ray creates layers of pop, inspired by the music of a bygone era, by maximising her pedals and by taking a large kitchen knife to the strings of her guitar resulting in tweaks and cello-like drones. "The last time I made a mixtape was on a cassette," she tells The Weekly Mix Tape, "it was for my friend who moved away to Newquay. We wrote to each other twice a week and sent tape-compilations - it was all a bit emotional." This mix isn't, though.  Read More

Mark, ISLET

ISLET hail from Cardiff. That's in Wales. Their mini album, recorded by the band in a Welsh barn and a Cardiff bedroom, is a maelstrom of wails, manic drumming, clanging guitar strums and primal energy. In other words, it's wonderful. Want to know which song Mark makes his morning cuppa to? Or which song the band listened to just last night? For your info, Mark's called the mix 'Juan' but we couldn't possibly tell you why. Read More

James Brown,
PULLED APART BY HORSES

LAUDED as one of the most thrilling live acts in Britain, Pulled Apart By Horses are loud and reckless - this shouty foursome create blood-spattering shows that sometimes result in hospital visits for band members. If you aren't UK bound, however, their eponymous debut album manages to capture that same energy. Here, guitarist James Brown lists some good'uns to get you going. Read More