Nocturnal pop is a personal favorite. In my head, it’s that soundtrack to the post-party, where you and your favorite friends are still in the kitchen at 2 a.m. You’re navigating a counter top full of bottles and pizza boxes, spinning old vinyl records, and discussing something as ridiculous as Maya codices while half-watching a muted Mario Bava classic. As the night ascends, sometimes you get too busy or too damn tired to pick the next clever album, and that’s when you cue The Afterparty. This mix is tailor made to take over the late-night responsibility of sounding cool.
These 22 songs dream up a whole new planetoid of celestial downtempo music, circling suns with names like Kruder & Dorfmeister, Fleetwood Mac, Air, and Bill Withers. The record flows as naturally and unobtrusively as musical lava — molten rock full of symphonious guitar work, melancholy synth, supine lyrical poetry, and vaporous background effects. You might hear something as diverse as a Japanese 13-string Koto or a Moog Voyager synthesizer, but don’t worry. It’s never obtuse. These songs are here to please — always dressed to impress, adorably sexy, and clouded in a haze of fun and inebriants that will continue to sound like ear candy with repeat listens. In fact, the Alessi Brother’s 1975 classic “Seabird” is the most underplayed song ever.
Of course, the rest of these songs were mostly released in 2014, and my inspiration came from an early 2000s favorite (who released his greatest hits this past year) — the English electronic engineer named AiM (track No. 5). Singles like “Corliss Avenue North” and “Walking through the Park” are always go-to, after party-type tracks. Just like the best producers of the post-trip hop brigade, this album sticks to a celebratory credo: Get the party laid-back, but never get it horizontal, making it ideal for raging till dawn. But judge for yourself: The download links are below — in both MP3 and FLAC formats — properly tagged and included with high resolution artwork (in case you’d like to print out the album art).
The Afterparty (FLAC Format)
What is FLAC?
Pro Tips for downloading: The links above take you to a public Google drive. To make it easy, just download the zip file (it contains the entire album and artwork), or download each individual track (but you have to do one at a time).
Track Listing
1. Gold — Chet Faker
2. The Epilogue — + + +
3. Good Mistake — Mr Little Jeans
4. Artifice — Sohn
5. Corliss Avenue North — AiM
6. The Horses Are Stuck — Jordan Klassen
7. Mahogany Dread — Hiss Golden Messenger
8. Seasons [Badbadnotgood Remix] — Future Islands
9. Eli Eli — Misun
10. Needle and a Knife — Tennis
11. Gold [Thomas Jack Remix] — Gabriel Rios
12. Black Lemon — Generationals
13. Nightbird — The Brian Jonestown Massacre
14. Hurricane Waters — Richie Havens
15. Emily — Cocos Lovers
16. Pools — Glass Animals
17. As I Am — Childhood
18. Too Many Mornings — Mojave 3
19. Seabird — Alessi Brothers
20. The End — Alejandro Escovedo
21. Elastic Heart — Sia
22. Mirror Maru — Cashmere Cat
Nemo 