Enjoy the Messy Mixes of 2022 and 2023. This is an attempt to tell stories through sound and music. This is an onging mixtape project - from music lovers for music lovers, curated by @burnout-sumner along with friends and admired artists. ♥

Meant as an alternative to the fast-paced, algorithm-driven age of playlists this is an in-depth journey into hand-picked music and sound-driven storytelling. ♫

2023 Messy Mixes

Nothing wrong about a proper pool party, right? Following the last more mellow mixtapes here I decided to shake things a bit up with my latest Messy Mix and provide a proper mood-lifter that takes us right back to the heydays of late 90s hedonism. Let me invite you to a posh pool party with way too cool people that takes place somewhere in 1998. While I was clearly too young and too uncool to ever get invited to such a celebration I always envisioned it as a place where slick house music grooves would be playing so that’s why I compiled these tunes from around ‘95 to ‘98. So this set ended up including legendary producers like Dave Morales, Tony Humphries, Mousse T., Bob Sinclair and Danny Tenaglia. You’ll find a few legendary pop smashers in there as well, just in a different musical form.

Even without the pool party context this selection represents a sound I’ve been digging a lot lately. Maybe there’s a nostalgic notion in there as well, maybe it’s the summer. Well, I’ll leave the interpretation up to you. Until then: Grab a drink, enjoy the summer days and dream yourself away to a better place.

Love and good vibe to you all,
Burnout Sumner

Messy Mix 08 | Grooving At A High-Gloss Pool Party In 1998

Hello friends. Ready for something new? With this mix I’m rebranding the old NBHAP Soundcloud account and turn it into “The Messy Mix”, a project driven by the passion for thoughtful and slow-paced storytelling via the medium of music. In the fast-paced algorithm-driven streaming age moments of conscious and slowed down music experience have gotten rare. We barely listen to things without skipping tracks, we experience music without context, we aren’t patient with the unknown, we don’t listen to the stories the music wants to tell us.

The concept of extended sound files, DJ-sets and mixes instead of single tracks is an alternative to that trend. In the best case it can be an immersive experience for those who seek for more into music than just a quick experience. Like a good book the mix can transport the listener, it can tell a personal, emotional yet also entertaining story via the sound of others (but also through your own). This is “The Messy Mix”, curated by me - former NBHAP head Norman Fleischer aka Burnout Sumner - and you’ll get a new one on a monthly basis, crafted either by me or befriended artists. Come and join the right.

I decided to launch the whole thing with a party to reflect on the turbulent year that 2022 was. So I compiled all the floorfilling hits that moved me and others over the past 12 months. I know, changing listening habits lead to a decline in overall hits the world can agree on. So this is my attempt to collect my personal (and general) dance hits and create a set where Beyoncé follows directly after Yard Act and where Viagra Boys deserve the same space like HAAi and Megan Thee Stallion. From pop to hip hop, from indie rock to electronica - this is the one essential set you should play on your New Year’s Eve party … or before that. This year has been a wild and existential ride for me as well so this is a fitting tribute to it. Don’t worry - future “Messy Mixes” will sound a bit different. Until then: Grab a drink, enjoy the remaining days of the year and reflect on it in style.

Love and good vibes
Burnout Sumner

PS: In case you were wondering … Yes, NOTHING BUT HOPE AND PASSION is still very much alive, so make sure to follow them right here: https://nbhap.com/

PSS: I’m happy to launch this project with a second mix, provided by the wonderful Jennifer Touch, so make sure to check it out at: https://soundcloud.com/messymix/jennifer-touch-postpunk-poets-of-pop

Messy Mix 01 | "Dance The Despair Away" - The Big 2022 End-Of-The-Year-Mix

I’ve been following German artist https://soundcloud.com/jennifertouch since her early days and I’m as honored as I am happy that she’s the first person to join me on this new adventure called “The Messy Mix”. As a fellow lover of dark 80s wave sounds I was more than curious about the story she would be telling here. Jennifer went for the theme called “Purple Postpunk Poets of Pop “ and here’s what she got to say about it:

“Music speaks to me like words do. … The mix is inspired by my favorite poets Allen Ginsberg and Sylvia Plath. The unconventional offbeat and verbally eclectic poetry of the Beatniks and the modern feminist and dark vibe of Plath's writing fit well with my way of consuming and feeling music. All tracks of the mix are part of the same sonic and emotional universe, although they come from different genres. When I curate music for a DJ set, I feel like the recipient of a poem, written by different artists to create a special world in others. The longer I've been a musical artist myself, the more I'm into poetry and the written word, as I'm also a writer. And maybe part of a new beat generation.”

Next to some fascinating tunes by The Bug, SF-X, Twin Tribes and Broken English Club Jennifer also included a tune of her own as well as overdub extracts of poets from Sylvia Plath. Very fascinating journey, I gotta say. Jennifer Touch also got a second album called “Midnight Proposals” out on February 17 via FatCat Records. You might know its first singles from my playlists, so make sure to have this gloomy record on your radar.

PS: This mixtape was launched simultaneously with my debut mix here, a big End-Of-2022-PartyTape at: https://soundcloud.com/messymix/big-2022-end-of-the-year-mix

Messy Mix  02 | ﻿"Purple Postpunk Poets of Pop" by Jennifer Touch

I have a long lasting fascination for the whole “Blade Runner” franchise ever since I first saw Ridley Scott’s iconic science-fiction movie as a kid. I also enjoyed playing the PC game that was released back in 1996 as well as the late follow-up movie from a few years ago. In many ways that movie might have initiated a subtle love for dystopian fiction and those desolate worlds which fascinate me ever since. The saddening fact that our society is slowly heading towards such a bleak scenario is quite an iconic twist here. Maybe I need that reminder that things can get even worse in order to fight for a better future. I honestly can’t tell.

I’ve been digging the whole aesthetic of the movie as well as the sound that late Greek composer Vangelis composed for it in 1982. So, the idea to explore this world musically is a very personal one and I came up with the question: How would a night out in that dystopian moloch of futuristic Los Angeles look like? What if Harrison Ford’s Rick Deckard went from club to club during one of those rainy nights? Do androids rave to electronic beats? That’s the story I wanted to tell with this tape.

This Messy Mix is constantly switching between quiet and loud moments with an overall feeling of darkness and doom clouding it. The more melancholic ambient moments (including music from the original 1982 score as well as from the 2017 sequel by Hans Zimmer and Ben Wallfisch) are interrupted by pumping and heavy electronic beats, underlining the intensity of the scenery. In it you’ll find the work of admired contemporary producers like Daniel Avery, Rival Consoles, Ellen Alien, HAAi, Burial, Moderat and a few more surprises (watch out for music from the 90s PC game). It’s indeed a journey right towards the end when Jehnny Beth fittingly states “I used to be a human being”; something that’s quite fitting to the themes of this series. Link is in the Bio and I surely hope you’ll enjoy it.

Messy Mix 04 | A Night Out In The Blade Runner Cosmos

I’ve been happy to call German band @krakowlovesadana friends for a few years now. Over the past 15 years the musical brainchild of songwriter Deniz Çiçek has delivered outstanding songs and records and it really bothers me that they haven’t reached global stardom yet. Well, they got a loyal constantly growing fanbase and Çiçek’s songwriting and storytelling only get better with age. Her seventh album “Oceanflower” is set for a release on February 14 and her Messy Mix is directly influenced by the work on this new record which does indeed come with a certain ‘back to basics’ approach from Kraków Loves Adana following the last more electronic releases. 

Here’s what Çiçek got so say about her reconnecting mixtape:

"I live my life in album cycles with each album representing a particular chapter of my life. Oceanflower is a testimony of reconnecting with my innermost being & overcoming depression. It also marks a return to my musical roots, turning more towards my first learned instrument - the guitar - and phasing out the electronic influences. This playlist is full of songs that accompanied and comforted me during this process and they are best listened to walking through nature or at home alone.“

Lovers of profound 80s and 90s indie will find a few few familiar faces (and voices) in here, including Slowdive, The Cure, Elliott Smith, Peter Gabriel as well as the critically underrated 00s indie group The Organ. This Messy Mix does indeed feel like a good old fashioned mixtape, something your younger self would burn on a CD for you to remind you about the things that used to be close to your heart. I’m thankful to Kraków Loves Adana and their contribution and I hope you'll enjoy it as well.

Messy Mix 03 | "Reconnecting With Myself" (by Kraków Loves Adana)

The louder and the more chaotic this world gets the more we all long for silence. But is true silence even possible in an accelerated world of noise? Norwegian artist Tuva Hellum Marschhäuser aka @tuvaband asked herself the same question when we started talking about her very own Messy Mix. “I've realised it's never really completely silent,” she says. “Silence always has a sound. Sometimes I want to control what silence sounds like.“ And this fifth edition of my ongoing mixtape project wants to do exactly that - it gives the silence a sound, handpicked by Tuva.

“I’ve created a mix of songs that either contains sounds that can trigger ASMR, or has other comfortable sounds, or can can be relaxing/calming. I’ve been listening more to this type of music the last month because I’m in a phase right now where I’m experimenting more with samples and nice, intricate sounds. Some of these songs are also from albums I listen to while I’m doing yoga. I also thought it was important to add some songs which can release some dopamine, while they’re still kind of, or almost, fitting in to this mix.”

The result is a fascinating and very calming listening experience, packed with a few familiar names like Nicolas Jaar, Sylvan Esso as well as a brief musical moment from Tuvaband but mostly it are tracks and sounds that are unknown to me. Almost 90 minutes of meditative pleasure for your personal retreat from whatever the heck is going on right now in the world. It’s an invitation to deepdive into these calming sounds and maybe even yourself and I’m thanking Tuvaband very much for this beautiful trip.

Messy Mix 05 | Variations Of Silence (by Tuvaband)

The arrival of spring always comes with a feeling of renewal to me personally. It’s a fresh start after a harsh winter and it always fills my heart with joy and energy to experience the “return” of nature as everything gets more colourful again. You know these spontaneous strolls you do during that time when you suddenly realize that winter is gone? That’s the feeling I wanted to capture with the sixth episode of the Messy Mix.

Going for longer walks around Berlin’s surprisingly green neighbourhood (at least where I live in the Wedding district) really helps me to put things in perspective. And yeah, I guess during the Covid-pandemic we all learned the importance of that to a certain degree. So, this is my tribute to these meditative moments, to the fields, to nature’s regenerative power and the overall beauty of spring, even in such desperate times like now. 

The mix is mostly a slow and relaxing affair but you can expect a little celebratory twist towards the end. Next to a few personal long-time favourites when it comes to that sort of sound like Tycho, Teen Daze and Homeshake you’ll find a few more surprising guests in here. There’s gentle indie-folk from Adrianne Lenker, warm melancholia from Icelandic artist Sóley as well as track by promising German producer Nand. Oh, and watch out for an almost forgotten Stereolab rework of a classic from The Avalanches. Well, if you want to know more IDs, just drop me a comment.

There’s also a download button for the file. I know, Soundcloud and MP3s are not as “sexy” as our favourite Swedish streaming service but they still provide a good listening experience. Plus: Downloading is more environmentally sustainable than streaming. Consider this for your next spring walk and let me know what you think. Hugs and kisses, Norman.

Messy Mix 06 | A Walk On The First Warm Day Of Spring

Ah, sweet sweet summer sun. We better enjoy it all before it gets too unbearably hot, right? A good sunrise is even better when it happens across the sea and when the impending new day isn’t packed with work or other commitments - and this new Messy Mix is dedicated to that special feeling. To capture it I asked Leipzig-based DJ and music lover @giliii who I first met during a party of our mutual friends @stolenmoneyposse and whose sets I’ve been enjoying a lot since then.

However, I quickly noticed that Gili is not just about nice house bangers but has an eclectic musical taste. And the timing for my message to her couldn’t have been better as it collided with her trip to beautiful Sardinia and that elated feeling that you just get when you have just arrived in a beautiful place and know that you will stay there for the next few days. The result is a mixtape that is closely connected to her vacation experience and Gilis thinking and feeling there as she explains:

“With the mix, I wanted to capture the feeling of being in a place where really none of what matters at home should matter there. It's about letting go and yet taking it with you, about arriving and leaving, about being and engaging. The mix musically describes the journey from the slow awakening and getting up, from going out, from the first coffee, the first conversations, the first rays of sunshine, the first laughter, from then getting quite tired again - all in all from the wonderful first hour of a day on vacation in Sardinia.”

The smooth selection includes a few personal favourites like Kelela, Kadhja Bonet, Fatima Al Qadiri but also lots of artists I didn’t know so far like Yaya Bey  or Twit One. I always love to discover new stuff through these mixes and I hope you’ll do. But most of it I hope you’ll have a great time with this sensual soundtrack for the upcoming summer days. I surely will!

Messy Mix 07 | Awakening To The Sardinian Sun (by Gili)

Following a brief summer break the Messy Mix returns and I’m happy to have a true personal favourite on board for its ninth edition. The music of Alice Costelloe has been an important part of my life for more than a decade now, mainly through the three albums of her previous band Big Deal. That voice still does something with my heart so I’m happy that she recently returned with her first pretty lovely solo EP called “So Neurotic”. And I’m even happier that she took part in my little mixtape project.

The story Costelloe tells is one of friendship and the musical family that surrounds her. Her mix consists of tracks and artists that were recommended to her by these kind people and who ended up playing a crucial part in her life. Well, but I’ll let her explain it in her own words:

“Ever since I was a child, wonderful people in my life have introduced me to the music that has shaped my tastes and my memories of those time. There are some special songs from my childhood on this mix. ‘From a Jack to a King’ was what my dad used to sing me to sleep with and Fats Waller’s ‘Your feet’s too big’ my grandad would joshingly sing at me as a child with very large feet. 

The scrappy Jonathan Richman song on this mix was sent to me by an older friend when I was a teenager and it completely blew my mind. I loved how imperfect it was with his pitchy nasal voice and the scrappy guitars and that totally changed the way I thought about and approached music.


Touring with my old band Big Deal I discovered so many beautiful songs that our drummers and bassists introduced me too. Arthur Russel ‘a little lost’ is one of those songs that holds a special place in my heart. As is ’The Babies’ record from 2012 ‘Our house on the hill’. We played a show with them in Paris and exchanged albums at the end of the night, and we blasted this record out the stereo all around Europe, so it feels like a time capsule of that time.

Playing in Superfood was also a real musical awakening and introduced me to bands I’d never engaged with, like Gorillaz ‘On Melancholy hill’ which totally passed me by when it was originally released.

My partner is always showing me songs he knows I’ll love, most recently this has been Youth Lagoon’s new album ‘Heaven is a junkyard’ that I’m obsessed with. I put ‘Rabbit’ in the mix but every track is so brilliant I could have chosen any one of them.
Right now we’re on tour in Europe and have all been loving  ‘a little bit of shmilsen in the night’ by Harry Nilsen in the van so one of his tracks closes the mixtape.”

So, this time you’re getting a mixtape in a pure oldschool sense and it truly is a fun ride. I Hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I do. And make sure to check out the sweet songs of @alcostelloe as well.

Messy Mix 09 | Recommended By Friends (by Al Costelloe)

Happy one-year-anniversary to my Messy Mix project! And since I started it in late 2022 with a big dance party (https://soundcloud.com/messymix/big-2022-end-of-the-year-mix) I thought it might be natural to also end this first round of mixtapes with another one. Because honestly: What else is there left to do in these troubled times then to dance the pain away, right?

Like with last year’s End-of-the-year-set I still find it challenging to gather overall hits for this one because they simply don’t exist anymore in our fragmented media landscape. But these are MY personal favourite go-to-tunes of 2023 - from the life-embracing pop of Romy and Caroline Polachek to the disco vibes of Jessie Ware. From the comebacks of old heroes like Everything But The Girl and Bloc Party to banging rave tunes by Overmono and ANNA. There’s also not one but two Mall Grab tunes in there because his tunes were all over the place for me. 90 minutes of genre-hopping euphoria awaits you in the 11th edition of the Messy Mix.

Despite that uplifting vibe the past year has been extremely difficult for me on a personal and mental level and you might even hear a bit of that mellowness in the mix but overall it also made me crave for positivity and life-affirming hedonistic euphoria even more, ironically. And you will also hear that in that mix, I guess. Thanks for listening to it and the other Messy Mixes throughout 2023. Thanks to all the artists that contributed so far... it means the world to me. 

The Messy Mix will return in 2024. Until then: Take care of each other.

Download

Messy Mix 11 | Party At The Abyss - The Big 2023 End-Of-The-Year-Mix

Things are getty gloomy and existential in the latest edition of the MESSY MIX. And I’m very excited to have one of my favourite German groups of the past years on board for this dark adventure - @this-is-hope from Berlin just released their long awaited and pretty brilliant second album “Navel”, a true testament of musical strength and meditative intensity. And when I asked them to contribute something to this project I was sure to get something in a similar sense. And I’m not disappointed at all.

The band introduced their mix with the words “Growing, nurturing, dwelling. In a place of your own. In contact with the world, yet detached from it.” Yes, that sums it up pretty well. “Music For A Womb / Before We Were Born” is also a pretty epic title, I have to say. Here’s how HOPE describe their selection:

“For this mixtape we collected songs and music that we might have heard when we were in the womb ourselves, songs we wished we had heard there, and sounds we would play to a womb. Focussing on solo works from the 80s - the time we were born into - we collect artists that nourish our soul, consciously or subconsciously, and that changed our perception of being in this world - Laurie Anderson, John Cage, Nick Drake, Pauline Oliveiros. Deep listening, from a group mind, dedicated to a group mind. You can hear the actual heartbeat of an yet unborn child at minute 31’’. By the time you hear this mixtape, she or he will have arrived in this world.”

That’s pretty intense, right? But a pretty fascinating 60-minute journey. Listen best with headphones and any big distraction. And then give “Navel” a spin afterwards… it’s a pretty fitting combination. 🖤

Messy Mix 10 | Music For A Womb / Before We Were Born (by HOPE)

Telling stories through sound and music. This is an onging mixtape project - from music lovers for music lovers, curated by https://soundcloud.com/burnout-sumner along with friends and admired artists. ♥

Meant as an alternative to the fast-paced, algorithm-driven age of playlists this is an in-depth journey into hand-picked music and sound-driven storytelling. ♫