(Photo: Scott Cudmore)
To inaugurate our StandardTapes series we didn’t have think too hard. There was the Scott Cudmore who DJ’d our launch party, and the Scott Cudmore who directed our Friday Night at the Standard film featuring eventual Polaris Prize nominee Austra. Fortunately, they’re both the same person. So we sent Scott away on holiday to the Burmese side of the Golden Triangle and he sent us back this tape.
I used to DJ a lot. Now, when I say “DJ” I actually mean I picked a bunch of records and played songs one after another to rooms full of people. Some people prefer that the term DJ be reserved for those who mash tracks up and beat match and that’s fine but I didn’t do that.
Still, the goal of the “DJ” is to set an atmosphere for an event and that atmosphere is usually an upbeat one to inspire the crowd to dance and drink and stand on the bar and throw things and break stuff. It’s fun doing that but then sometimes I would yearn to create a different sort of atmosphere…one that would go all over the map musically, from sombre to upbeat, from folk music to rock music to dance music from Sumatra. It’s kind of hard to DJ like that because the other job of the DJ is to feel out the audience and get on their wavelength. What I love about mixtapes is that, at least with the better ones, there is a kind of abstract narrative to the way that the songs are sequenced. The creator of the mix is taking the listener on a sort of journey, musically speaking, and though it is similar it’s kind of the opposite of DJing because rather than playing to the audience, you’re asking the audience to follow you. So I started a mixtape blog on Tumblr with Alex Edkins (of METZ) and Josh Voynovich. It’s called The Supreme Court of Canada. This mix that I’ve created for the Toronto Standard is a lot like what we do over on that blog. I hope that you like it and will check out our blog too.
01. Sherif & The Ravels, “Shombalor”
02. S.E. Rogers, “Toomus Meremereh Nor Good”
03. Lighty Signers of Estill, SC, “In The Morning When The Trumpet Sounds”
04. Professor J. Earle Hines, “Daniel”
05. Los Saicos, “Come On”
06. Thee Oh Sees, “I Was Denied”
07. Plearn Promdan, “Kosok Tee Det”
08. Amadou Ballake et Les 5 Consuls, “Renouveau”
09. Les Troubadours du Roi Baudouin, “Sanctus”
10. Will Oldham, “Always Bathing in the Evening”
StandardTapes #01: Scott Cudmore by Toronto Standard
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Scott Cudmore is a Toronto-based filmmaker who has made videos for Fucked Up, The National, Hidden Cameras and Timber Timbre.
