Astrid McQuaide is a 23 year old writer and graphic designer interested in fashion research, music journalism, and digital media archiving. She hosts the sometimes weekly, sometimes monthly radio show “mindpalaceFM” and has contributed journalistic work to Pure Sky Radio. She is currently based in Brooklyn, NY. Her favorite food right now is rye toast and honey.
Hi there :p
I hope everyone has been having a lovely new year. Listening to new music enjoying the looming delight of spring. Exciting, very excited. The theme for episode 2, or I don’t know if we are calling it episodes. Entry? Edition? Anyways, today’s mix is for confetti. I have a long list of objects I’m looking to do but this one called out to me because I don’t know it has been a very celebratory month/month and a half. I’ve been listening to music in a way like never before. I turned 23. I got a new job. I’ve been working on a bunch of fun projects (such as this). It has felt newly exciting, thank god. If you are curious to hear some of this new stuff, check out my personal radio show (link). But for now, here is a mix I’ve made special for confetti. Enjoy :)
Again by OPN
A: [I’m only now just getting into OPN, like obviously I’ve tuned in before and respected from afar but I’m trying to like fully immerse currently. The obvious elements of this song evoke the confetti process. The rolling out of the confetti canon, then loading it, then the suspense of the countdown. You know like how loud will it be? How much volume and distance? Will it elate? Disappoint? All of this uncertainty! But then… just in the final 3…2…1 there is a stillness filled with the unity of the countdown. And then the confetti goes off!! Right around 2 mins 25 seconds into the song. And then it falls all around for a while and people look up and reach out to grab at the fragments. And then they all slowly float down. They cover the ground, continuing the celebration in a quiet way. Anyways, that’s the fairytale behind that one.]
Not A Word to Anyone by Tin Foil Star
A: [A lot of the songs I’m going to play are evocative of this sort of slowmo confetti falling thing scene i've rendered in my mind. This is that for sure.]
Moto perpetuo by Julia holter
A: [Fucking love this compilation so much. This song is just fabulous. This is like the embodiment of confetti. Both sonically and lyrically. It’s happy sweet silly colorful charming. Confetti I feel like always plants a memory. It’s not often you get to see it. I guess if you look at the lyrics as like for a human they are depressing but for a piece of confetti it’s nice. Context is so important.]
L’anachorette by Aelters
A: [I quite like this song. Confetti is chaotic as much as it is peaceful. It’s like a lot of colors all at once all over the place that are introduced generally by a loud noise and followed sometimes by more loudness. This is like the chaos of it all.]
First Backwards as Blink Blink by Fingernail
A: [This song kind of latches to the last one in a sense. The more I guess physical chaos of confetti, the motion of falling. I was watching videos of confetti explosions while I was trying to find one to use for the ASCII graphic for this post and it’s like yeah confetti is beautiful and awesome but it’s also lowkey very overwhelming and scary. Sometimes it’s way too much and it looks like a swarm of bees. Or like god do you remember that thing they post it online all the time with that really fucking scary song. The one that’s like “I know you belong to somebody yada yada but tonight you belong to me” whatever. They use it over that video when they released the balloons that one time and it like killed people and was so bad. Non sequitur.]
Leapday Night, Scene 1 by David Behrman
A: [This is the calmness of it. The slow falling and the feeling of togetherness. Self and group celebration. Joyful I suppose new beginnings etcetera etcetera.]
Ce matin-la by Air
A: [This is an instant classic. It also reminds me of falling flower pedals. Im worried though im saying that because of their other Cherry blossom girl… idk. This feels like, again, the shared momentous joyful show. Maybe also what if feels like to be the person setting off the confetti. Watching people like dance around beneath you and be happy and what not. This song to me feels like watching joy be experienced, and in turn feeling joyful yourself. The joy experienced from observing joy, being the one to bring joy even I suppose.]
Caladan by Grimes
A: [This is the magical but maybe sad part of the confetti phenomena . Like when it’s been a few weeks and maybe you are having a shitty day and you are walking down the street and you see a rogue piece of confetti and it reminds you of a good time. Like a sad tug/ping in your heart. I have a memory from maybe middle school or high school of going to some event with a boy, I think it was the St Francis Fair. There was confetti and I remember putting a piece in my pocket because I’m terribly sentimental. Things obviously ended with this person and I think when I was packing up to go to college I found the confetti shred, with a heavy heart. It took me out of what I was doing and felt like a ghost. I threw it away. Womp womp.]
Tokyo by Tujiko Noriko
A: [This is just pretty and structurally brilliant. I love Tujiko Noriko, a lot of her songs make me cry a lot. Like tons. Her song White Film. It came on as I was driving to my college graduation with my former roommate and then boyfriend and my eyes immediately welled up with tears. I’m not like that attached to my college experience but I guess I was just thinking about how much I changed and grew. Like I was about to get out of the car and I looked in the rear view mirror to check my hair and suddenly it was like this grown up real person looking at me and it felt like such a special moment. I don’t know if the moment would have been so special were I to have not been listening to that song. I can’t remember if there was confetti at graduation or not. I had a really bad cold.]
Siren pinpon by Electronicat
A: [This is the celebration part of confetti. Most of the songs next on the mix are like that. The happy fun part of it. This song just feels like the first warm day in the spring. I’m wondering about what time of year confetti happens the most. For some reason my brain is going to winter. Which pisses me off because it’s like confetti spring happy blah blah blah. I need to get over my winter thing. Oh maybe it’s like snow is like confetti. Anyways. Looking to incorporate more confetti into my spring.]
We Love Dancing by Arling & Cameron
A: [This is the dumb, drool, happy smiling joy part of the confetti thing. Like tongue out eyes twinkling dancing laughing not thinking about anything kind of thing. This song is weird though it’s like yo gabba gabba core.]
Cune Cune March by Milky-Chu
A: [This is the slowmo falling of confetti certainly. Basking in the moment I think is how I’m thinking of it. It’s just like a wonderful song.]
triple flat by Rei Harakami
A: [Rei harakami is so so awesome. It’s like very important music to listen to if you care about electronic music. My roommates ex boyfriend/current friend was looking over this playlist and he gave this one the thumbs up. It’s fairly low tempo and not the shocking kind of electronic music. It’s beautiful.]
City by Capitol K
A: [This is again revisiting the more sentimental part of confetti. It’s a very multicolored song. Most of Capitol K’s stuff is this way. There is a fun mischievous element to this that I appreciate.]
Run the Heart by Sleigh Bells
A: [Okay so basically this is one of the best songs ever right now for me. It’s insane. I played it recently on my own radio show (mindpalaceFM). It has 3 seperate beat drops. Like it gets good and then it just gets better, and then it gets perfect. The whole song is that way. Sleigh Bells literally rule. They make music in a way that makes me want to make music. It’s so corny but hearing this song for the first time, and hearing Rill Rill. It’s like actual full body chills. Rill Rill is the song I have played on the first day of spring since I was 18. This song is the metallic kind of confetti. It’s a song that reminds me of myself.]
Blue Sky And Yellow Sunflower by Susumu Yokota
A: [This feels like a gimmie. It’s just a splendidly beautiful composition. Me and my friends right now are obsessed with that meme that’s like “I spun!” “I had cream!” This sort of evokes that for me.]
You+Me+Ever by Cruiser (Port-Royal Remix)
A: [I quite like cruiser. I picked up one of their CDs from my favorite record store Captured Records. If you haven’t been there you should certainly go. This song is just happy smiler. The album cover for this is awesome and design inspo for me.]
Girls Just Want to Have Fun by Bladee and Ecco2k
A: [So about to do some serious confessing. I have never gotten into Bladee or Ecco2k that kind of thing until about this year. I don’t know why I think I skipped over listening to it when people first started and I just never got around to it. I’ve since been converted but that is something that is odd. It’s good music for sure. I always feel absolutely terrified to share that fact because those guys have fucking shooters. This song reminds me of my friends, who are the people that make me feel like confetti and a million bucks.]
Hardcore Girls by Rye Rye
A: [I have been loooving rye rye recently. She has this great song with Blaqstarr that I love and also the one with MIA. Shes just awesome. This song feels awesome.]
Das Koeln by Harald Sack Ziegler
A: [Finishing off on a chiller note. Pretty song for relaxed happy time. It’s insanely windy right now and im sitting by the water and I guess I feel pretty chill so I’m rocking with this.]
Happy Spring everybody. I hope you enjoyed this mix, I made it special for you (and any confetti you might have laying around). I think next time something fun happens, something worth making a really loud memory of, I’ll go buy a confetti canon and set it off. Love you! Bye!